Retention Factors

Motivational Fit
Challenge; meaning; autonomy; organizational fit; manager relationship; job clarity

External Rewards
Recognition; advancement; compensation; pay vs contributions; company responsiveness

Cooperation and Trust
Cooperation with co-workers; trust in workplace

Company Direction
Clear vision and strategy; appropriate selection practices

Home Life
Geographic location; work-life balance

Workplace Discord
Internal politics, stress, workplace volatility
?

An overview of strategies that might help

Motivational Fit
Job enrichment; teamwork; autonomy and discretion; consultation programs; company information; clear JDs; management training and development.

External Rewards
Recognition programs; fair pay; career paths; training and development; effective services for employees.

Cooperation and Trust
Teamwork; communication; management and supervisor training and development.

Company Direction
Vision and mission; employee involvement in strategy; communication; effective selection processes -transparent, merit-based, culture-fit sensitive; realistic job previews

Home Life
Work-life balance policies; working time flexibility; telework and homework; travel allowances

Workplace Discord
Effective diversity policies; grievance procedures; opportunities for employee voice; management and supervisor training and development

Other retention tactics
• Internal surveys of reasons for quitting/ staying
• Improved selection practices
• Exit interviews
• Improved communication between management and employees
• Improved training and development opportunities

• Targeted strategies work better than blanket strategies
• Motivational Fit is critical
• Don’t underestimate value of good recruitment and selection… worth the investment
• Support for new hires is critical

How many did you tick?

Under 5: You are regularly in the job market and finding it increasingly difficult to attract staff. It is time to research the individual satisfaction and personalised retention?

Between 5 and 10: The retention practices of your company could be centred on financial reward and Friday drinks. This mass motivation which used to obtain better productivity may well have reached its limits. Time to rethink the strategies.

Between 10 and 15: You know what is at stake with retention and you are committed to answer your employees’ demands in a culture of engagement. Excellence is on its way!

Between 15 and 20: You are an employer of choice and everybody should know it!

What are 3 actions you need to take right now in refining your employee retention strategy?

I have a range of tools and processes aimed directly at improving attraction, retention and productivity in your organisation. Give me a call and receive free advice regarding your people issues and opportunities. Ross - 0409 459736

STEP 4--DEVELOP SKILLS AND POTENTIAL

For most people, career opportunities are just as important as the money they make.  In a recent study more than 40 percent of the respondents said they would consider leaving their present employer for another job with the same benefits if that job provided better career development and greater challenges.

Skilled people will not remain in a job if they see no future in their position. To eliminate the feeling of being in a dead-end job, every position should have an individual development plan. (Partnercorp actually has a people development intranet product available to clients and their employees – contact us for details)

STEP 5--EVALUATE AND MEASURE

Continuous evaluation and never-ending improvement is the final step of the PRIDE system. The primary purpose of evaluation is to measure progress and determine what satisfies and de-satisfies your workforce.
The evaluation process includes the measurement of attitudes, morale, turnover, and the engagement level of the workforce. Here is a checklist of items that should be included in your evaluation and measurement process.

• Conduct an employee satisfaction survey at least once a year.
• Initiate interviews and surveys concerning the real reasons people come to and leave your organization.
• Improve your hiring process to create a better match between the individual's talents and job requirements.
• Provide flexible work arrangements for working parents and older workers.
• Hold managers responsible for retention in their departments.
• Start measuring the cost of turnover.
• Focus on the key jobs that have the greatest impact on profitability and productivity.
• Examine those departments that have the highest turnover rates.
• Design an effective employee orientation program

Our Business Consultants can show you how easy it is to drive productivity in your business. Call us on 1300 933 074 to discuss your options.  

• There is no such thing as a casual conversation in the sense that everything you say will be further considered, interpreted and shared.
  
  Think about the impact of what you say on others, even those who hear it second hand. Think when you comment on any member of the team to another member, and only make positive comments or none at all.
• Meet the reasonable expectations of team members on how you should behave toward them.  Use less talk about yourself and more focus on their needs in achieving better outcomes.
• Make sure that your expectations around quality and timeliness are routinely reiterated with the group.
• Generally the positive expectations about your behaviour will include fairness, honesty, consistency and respect for the team members.
•  Other expectations should be openness and clear communication highlighted by good listening techniques.
• Don't ignore things that you know everyone is whispering about in the corridors.
• Inform team members of any decision or event that will affect them as a team or individually as urgently and openly as possible.
• Be prepared to say sorry
• Do not have favourites.
• Deal with problems, misunderstandings and issues as quickly as possible

How much do your people trust you?

We can assist you in improving productivity in your organisation. Contact Us.

Several of my clients recently have struggled with a modern dilemma I call ‘21^st Century Existentialism’ or ‘I can’t be bothered syndrome’.  What is it, where does it come from, how do we fix it?

The “I can’t be bothered syndrome” is found in many people in many jobs.  It tends to have symptoms similar in appearance to a mild depression.  You will notice it in people who:-

• Seem bored by the job (or parts of it)
• Tend to cruise through the day
• Think ‘Near enough is good enough’
• Under-achievers.  They have talent, they are good people but they just seem to not step up create the real success and leadership they are capable of.

The old timers would say it is because “they have had it too easy”.  That everything is just presented to them, they are too comfortable.  Well perhaps for some, but in my experience it goes a little deeper than that.

I wouldn’t call it depression, which is a serious and under diagnosed illness, but it is something akin to the existentialist dilemma which in one sense asks; why should I strive to achieve anything when nothing really matters anyway?  I am never going to achieve greatness so why should I strive for a slightly higher level of mediocrity?

I know this feeling well, for I have been striving to overcome it for the past 15 years or so.

So what can you do to create motivation and enthusiasm in these circumstances?

1.    Think and act local

If they don’t by into the big picture, create a series of smaller ones with rewards along the way.  People love the feeling of achievement.  Achievement is contagious and addictive.  Create incremental, line of sight, goals that tend toward the larger objective.

2.    Make it a sport/challenge

We will spend hours trying to improve our golf game or a score in solitaire: genuinely pointless activities.  I remember working at Sizzler Restaurants during Uni – one of the measures was a simple daily productivity measure (‘customers per labour hour’ for those who are interested).  We would get enormous personal satisfaction and motivation from incremental improvements in our productivity.   So keep it simple, make the rules clear and keep the score. 

3.    Train in personal leadership

This, for me, is the big one.  Get some help from a good quality leadership development process.

At Partnercorp our leadership programs, for example, focus on helping people identify what drives them? What gets them motivated?  How to implement simple strategies to help them break out of the cycle they are in.

Leadership is about more than the ability to manage others.  Really it is about the ability to manage the self.  By training people in leadership you can drastically improve their performance and, as importantly, their general happiness and wellbeing.

Furthermore, depending on your circumstances, there are government incentives that are easily available that can make the whole process cost neutral.   Win: Win: Win.

Help your people build your business with enthusiasm.

• Need better results but reward those who look the busiest and work longer hours?
• Require quality work, but set unreasonable deadlines encouraging people to cut corners?
• Expect loyalty but offer no or little job security and pay the highest salaries to the most recently hired or those that threaten to leave?
• Need creative workers and thinkers, but chastise those who dare to be different?
• Ask for teamwork, but reward one team member at the expense of another?
• Need innovation, but penalise unsuccessful risks, frown on mistakes and encourage people to do it “ by the book”?

1. Solid solutions instead of quick fixes
2. Risk taking instead of risk avoiding
3. Applied creativity instead of mindless conformity
4. Decisive action instead of paralysis by analysis
5. Smart work instead of busywork
6. Simplification instead of needless complication and red tape
7. Quietly effective behaviour instead of the squeaky wheel
8. Quality work instead of fast work
9. Loyalty instead of turnover
10. Working together instead of working against

1. Reward solid solutions instead of quick fixes

We all know the story of the farmer who killed the goose that laid the golden egg. In this case the goose represents the “production capacity” in your business and the golden egg represents “production”.

The farmer had been delighted in watching his wealth grow as each day the goose produced another golden egg. However, the farmer got greedy and decided to go for the quick fix and get all the eggs.

He killed the goose, reached inside to gather all the eggs. Of course, he found none and now he can’t get any more.

The same applies to the newly appointed production manager who wants to impress his boss by driving up production and cutting back on down time for regular maintenance.

Short term, profits increase dramatically, however long term production capacity in diminished and profits inevitably decline.

Examples of behaviour to reward and to avoid:-

 

2.Reward Risk Taking Instead Of Risk Avoiding

Trying to get some team members to take responsibility for what they do can sometimes seem impossible and frustrating sometimes. People will come up with all sorts of excuses about why things aren’t done …. “ I was too busy” …” That’s not my job” …. “I didn’t receive the paperwork” ….You didn’t give me the go ahead” .. etc

Many organisations operate under the “Go ahead and do it, but don’t do anything wrong” rule. Successful businesses encourage people to take smart risks, give them boundaries to work within and realise that making intelligent mistakes are part of the price you pay for personal and company growth.

We all have a tendency to avoid making mistakes. It’s a natural part of being human. We all want recognition and acceptance and one sure way of achieving this is to “look good” and don’t do anything “wrong” that will attract attention or criticism.

Every time you try something new you run the risk of failure. But worse than this, is the consequence of not taking risks … boredom, frustration, stagnation and ultimate decline in company performance.

The way to convert risk avoiders into risk takers is to create a climate that promotes, rewards and supports risk taking and gives people the opportunity to learn from their mistakes with out fearing repercussions. Here are some guidelines to consider when establishing a healthy risk taking environment:

a. Educate and remind people that intelligent errors are part and parcel of making progress in the company and as an individual.

b. Walk the talk .. make sure you are leading by example . be open about your own mistakes and how you have learnt from them.

c. Don’t waste time on small risks … if you want to achieve great things, take on great projects!

d. Celebrate both successes and setbacks … we all like to give recognition when we win, but the time for greatest support is when we have taken a chance, tried our best and have fallen flat on our face. If Edison had given up after his 900th “failure”, the light bulb would not be with us today. Every time an experiment failed, he said he was one step closer to success.

e. Don’t take risk for others or come to their rescue if things don’t turn out as they would have liked…. coming in over the top deprives them from learning and growing from the experience.

f. Encourage smart risks, not foolish chances …. Be sure to read our next month’s newsletter to see the appropriate way to delegate and encourage risk taking without fear of a calamity occurring.

3. Reward applied Creativity Instead of Mindless Conformity

It’s true that no organisation can be effective without a certain amount of conformity and good systems. However, the important capital asset is not money, buildings or equipment, but ideas!

Back in 1976, a young engineer got bored with the repetitive routine of installing computer chips and asked his bosses if he could design a personal computer .His bosses said no. So, not to be deterred, he built his computer from home and named it Apple. Today that engineer is worth over a billion dollars.

Anybody can come up with new ideas. All you need to do is gather people around and brainstorm solutions to a problem. You will be surprised at just how creative your people really are!

In a lot of cases, management asks for new ideas and quickly reject them. Or the people who come up with new ideas are not rewarded, instead those with the “proper” credentials are given the accolades.

The key is to create an environment that encourages new ideas and make innovation and continuous improvement part of every one’s job. To make it happen, you need to set up rules to play the game.

a. Tolerate failure – many of the ideas that will be put into action may not get the results we are looking for. But this is all part of the process of continuous improvement.

Understand that most innovations are not successful. The key to success is to be persistent and learn to develop an ability to cope with disappointment, failure and rejection. Above all keep trying.

Anyone who has become successful, knows this, because they have lost more often than they have won. Getting it wrong is Ok so long as we learn from our mistakes and move closer towards our goal.

b. Pay royalties for successful innovations – to keep innovators motivated to keep on innovating, give them a piece of the profits generated from the innovation.

c. Encourage competition – Internal competition between groups is a great way of encouraging innovation. The challenge of competition keeps people excited and encourages new ideas.

d. Ask everyone to contribute at least one new idea and a deadline for achieving it – innovation is everyone’s business and the people closest to the job are usually the best at coming up with new ideas to make the job better.

The purpose of any organisation is to gets results. That means decide what your going to do and do it now! In any organisation you will find people willing to analyse, verbalise and give their opinions, but few who will be decisive.

Most people simply don’t have the assertiveness and self-confidence to put their career or reputation on the line when its time to make a decision.

Good managers promote innovation and growth by giving their staff the freedom to decide and act. They tell their people to “ make up your mind and do it. If it isn’t working out, fix it or try something else.” The key here is not to penalise for making a bad decision.

Guidelines for encouraging good decision making

a. Make decision making a habit

b. Don’t tolerate reverse decision making

c. Obtain the best information you can within the time limits

d. Brainstorm as many different alternatives using problem solving tools such as Mind mapping and Force Field Analysis

e. Take action or reward those who do.

5. Reward smart work instead of busywork

Unfortunately, most of us are not rewarded for achieving specific goals that contribute to output. Instead the rewards go for punching in and out at a certain time.

Worse still, managers assume that those who work long hours and look the busiest, must be the best workers and reward them for their behaviour rather than their results.

The solution is to reward people for achieving results and goals and rather than just looking busy and appearing to be totally dedicated and over worked.

Here are some guidelines for turning “actors” into producers:

a. Make sure you have the right person for the job

b. Give people the right tools to do the job

c. Make sure everyone knows what their boundaries are and the job’s limits

d. Get each person to understand how their job contributes to the overall work effort – this shows people that their contribution is meaningful and they are less likely to go off on tangents and waste time.

e. Support those who results are falling short of their efforts – show them how they can improve, particularly in their time management skills.

f. Don’t insist on things being a particular way – so long as you are getting the results, be careful not to insist on procedures to be followed to the letter. Instead let people improve the system for the better.

g. If people have finished their work for the day, send them home.

h. Simplify the way things are done so time is not wasted on unnecessary activity.

6. Reward simplification

As a business grows and success usually leads to complexity. They hire more people and create new systems and procedures to handle the complexity – which leads to things becoming more complicated. The paradox which faces management is to keep everything as simple as possible so people can get on and do their jobs.

The advantages of a trim organisation, is that it is more responsive, flexible and better equipped to cope with change and seize opportunities.

The key is to eliminate the unnecessary!

Use the following strategies to simplify what you do and cut the unnecessary:

a. Simplify jobs – ask everyone who works for you to write down the answers to the following questions:
- What results do I produce in my job?
- Why am I producing them?
- What Am I doing that is unnecessary?

Get everyone to go back to basics to determine what they do. If it doesn’t contribute to adding value then it can be eliminated.

b. Simplify the structure – question every job and level of management:
- Do we really need it?
- Can two levels be combined?
- Is every job worth more that it costs?
- Is it regularly contributing to output, or is it creating needless work

c. Simplify procedures and controls – it is easy to simplify the way we do things by breaking every procedure into as many detailed steps as you can chart them and question every step:
- Can we eliminate it?
- Can we combine two or more steps?
- Can we change the sequence of the steps to make it more efficient?

d. Simplify communication – the current business environment thrives on knowledge and producing volumes of information. The challenge is dealing with information overload and is a key factor in confusing and immobilising people. We all need to work hard at keeping our communication as simple and brief as possible. Keep all written communication to an absolute minimum.

- Question every line of every form, report or memorandum and ask :
” Does this cause any one to take a useful action?” If not get rid of it!
- Communicate to others in language they understand
- Question whether standing meeting are necessary and whether they serve a useful purpose and ask can they be eliminated, reduced or combined.
- Reduce your time on the telephone by having your incoming calls screened

In summary, focus on selecting, sending and receiving information that you and others need to get your work done and ignore the rest.

e. Reward people who simplify what they do.

7. Reward quietly effective behaviour instead of the squeaky wheel

Every organisation needs reliable people who know their jobs and do them without calling a lot of attention to themselves. But too often the deeds of the quiet heroes are drowned out by the “squeaky joints “ who spend their time creating problems instead of results.

Managers, being problems solvers, get sucked in into the trap of reinforcing the squeaky joint behavior by spending loads of time solving their problems for them. This leaves little time to devote to the quiet achiever who may end up feeling neglected.

Most people don’t mind working hard, so long as they receive due recognition for their efforts, rather than feeling like they are being taken for granted, used or exploited.

To encourage more quietly effective behavior, try the following:

a. Consciously work at identifying and acknowledging good behavior
b. Seek out the “quiet heroes”, and resolve to spend time encouraging and rewarding them – it’s so easy to overlook dependable people. Remind yourself just who is important to the organisation by asking the following questions:

- Who is rarely if ever, absent?
- Who works well under pressure?
- Who consistently turns out quality work and on time?
- Who is willing to go the extra mile when the team really needs it?
- Who can you count on to take up the slack in someone else’s absence?
- Who doesn’t constantly pester others for advice and guidance?
- Who produces many more answers than questions?
- Who helps others to do they jobs better?
- Who regularly strives to do their work better?
- Who smooths out conflicts, fosters cooperation and builds morale?

c. Keep alert for squeaky joints and don’t oil them – reward the high producers with your time and attention so people start to get the message.

- Don’t spend your time helping people solve problems that they intentionally create. Instead, tell them it is their responsibility and add it to their workload. Be sure they are trained well in how to solve problems effectively.

- Don’t refuse to give work to those that intentionally screw it up. Expect them to do it and hold them accountable.

- When you give criticism remember this golden rule:

Praise the worker, criticise the work

None of us enjoy having holes poked in our work, especially when we have invested a lot of time, effort and emotion into it. Nevertheless, it is an important part of the manager’s job to point out errors and provide guidance when things need correcting.

When you have to be critical, be careful! Like walking through a minefield, one wrong step can cause irreparable harm to the person you are counselling. Consider the following:

- Never begin your criticism by pointing out what is wrong. That puts people on the defensive and defensive people don’t listen. Instead, begin by praising the good things about the person’s work and how you appreciate their effort and ability.

Then shift your focus to what needs to be done to make things right or to keep them from going wrong in the future. Ask the person for their ideas on how to fix the problem. This shifts the emphasis away from you telling them what to do to asking them for their contribution. Finally, end the discussion by again praising the person for their efforts, offering your support and expressing confidence in them

- If someone is blatantly lazy and not performing to expectations, be more direct. Tell them how disappointed their work makes you feel, because you know they are capable of doing a much better job. Then get to the specifics of what you expect from them and give a deadline for getting it done. Again, end the discussion by offering your support and telling them “ You’re much better than this”.

A constructive critique leaves others with an understanding of the errors, the means to correct them, a feeling of appreciation and an eagerness to improve.

8. Reward quality work instead of fast work

In our busy, ”instant” society we put a premium on getting things done quickly. Everybody wants things done yesterday. Not that there is everything wrong with working quickly. But all too often the results are second-rate work that led to poor quality goods and services.

In our attempts for continuous improvement, we have focused on two things:

- How can we do it faster?
- How can we do it cheaper?

Unfortunately, we have overlooked a third and most important question:

- How can we do it right the first time?

Working faster and cheaper only allows you to produce the same old defects more efficiently. On the other hand, improving quality has a number of long term payoffs:

a. Lower costs – Doing things right the first time, lowers the cost of inputs, materials, amount of supervision required, maintenance and warranties. It is estimated that as much 20-30% of the cost of manufacture is due to waste in the form of rework, waiting, defects etc.

b. Higher Output – doing things right the first time makes previously wasted resources productive. Managers spend less time to monitoring and inspecting and more time to productive activities.

c. Worker pride – doing things right the first time creates the positive feelings of confidence and success that come from mastering a job and doing it well. In turn, this motivates people to work harder. Work is not a chore, but becomes enjoyable.

d. Customer loyalty – The average business spends about six times more in resources to attract new customers than it does to retain existing customers. Doing things right the first time ensures that you get repeat business and referrals to new customers. Research suggests that customers will demand increasingly higher levels of quality and are willing to pay extra for it.

The reason why organistions suffer from excessive waste and poor quality is due to the reward system in place that encourages quantity instead of quality.

Getting a commitment to quality starts with rewarding it. Management must have a vested interest in producing quality outcomes and empowering those responsible for achieving it.

The key is to structure the organisation to ensure quality and continuous improvement becomes a way of doings things and not just another fad. Several factors need to be present:

3. Spread the enthusiasm with communication, goals and rewards. For example, post a quality scoreboard or bulletin board to display results. Run contests become departments to challenge them for the best quality improvement and output.

4. Ask the person who does the job how to improve it. Odds are the person who does the job knows more about it than anyone else. Seek out their ideas and reward them for it.

9. Reward loyalty instead of turnover

We hear a lot of business owners lament in saying that they can’t understand why young people aren’t more committed to work. Managers are more often than not talking about the apparent lack of commitment and loyalty from employees.

Every organisation needs loyalty, but few actually reward it. Instead they hire, fire and manipulate people according to current economic needs. Worse yet, many organisations encourage people to be disloyal. Often the most recent hired, gets paid the most.

Advancements and career paths promised at the initial interview go to outsiders rather than promoting from within. Sometimes the only way to get a pay rise is under threat of leaving for a better offer elsewhere.

The key to getting loyalty is by following a very simple principle:

You Get Loyalty And Commitment From People By Giving It To Them

If you ask employees who say they are loyal to their employer, they will say they belong to an oraganisation that cares about them, challenges them, believes in them and wants the best for them, not just as employees but as human beings.

In the final analysis, loyalty begets loyalty, trust people and they will give trust in return, offer friendship and you will receive friendship, show commitment to your employees and they will committed to you. It’s that simple.

Employee loyalty and dedication doesn’t just happen. Management must make it happen. Here are the basics that you need to get right:

a. Provide job security
b. Build trust by keeping channels of communication open and clear
c. Promote from within
d. Invest in the long term growth and development of your people
e. Pay and benefits must be perceived as fair
f. In short, treat people as you would like to be treated

10. Reward working together instead of working against

How united are your people where they work? Do they:

- Try to build up the importance of their own work and downplay the importance of others?
- Refuse to fully extend a helping hand to each other when it is needed to get the job done?
- Spend lots of time sniping, backbiting, criticising each other and playing political games?
- Form personal rivalries and “us verses them” group factions that disagree over just about everything?

If some of these descriptions apply to your work place, chances are that the reward system is structured to pay off one person or group at the expense of others. A reward system that produces few winners at the cost of many losers is asking for trouble.

When it comes down to it, every organisation is a team working together to achieve common goals. Teamwork rarely happens by accident. It occurs when management decides to make it a priority. and structures the work and the organisation in ways that encourages cooperation.

He are some practical tips for team building:

a. Create self-managed work teams – Studies have shown that the creation of autonomous work groups can result in higher morale, productivity and teamwork.

b. Encourage competition that achieves common goals – If you find individuals or groups working against each other when they should be working together, here’s what to do:

- Create a common goal with rewards that can only be achieved by working together.
- Identify the rewards for working against each other and remove them
- Call the game. If two or more people are sniping and playing political games with each other, put an immediate stop to it. Meet with all parties at once, face to face, and get the issues out in the open.

c. Prevent future competition – set up your reward system to head off unforeseen problems. Here are some to prevent problems of misplaced competition before they start:

- Reward people and groups on the basis of how they contribute to the group or organisation as a whole
- Reward people and groups for the help they give each other
- Stimulate frequent interaction between members of groups
- where possible, rotate members amongst groups
- Avoid setting up win-lose competitions between individuals and groups where cooperation is essential

d. Build teamwork with pride and recognition

e. Use the “most important words” in communicating with your team – As you build cooperation and trust, keep these points in mind

Six important words in our language are ..'I admit I made a mistake'

Five important words are ………………..“You did a good job'

Four important words are ………………..' What is your opinion'

Three important words are ……………….' Let’s work together'

Two important words are ………………..' Thank you'

A Single important word is……………….“We”

Rate your performance in the ten types of behaviour: -

Instructions:
Step 1: Score where you think your performance is now.
Step 2: Score on the same table above where you would like your performance to be.
Step 3: Identify the area which has the largest gap between the now and where score
Step 4: Develop 2 or 3 actions from the recommendations in this paper to improve your performance
Step 5: Review your scores in six months time.

Our Business Consultant would love to have a chat about how you can motivate your staff. To contact our Business consultant please click here. Or fill out our online enquiry form and our Business Consultant will get back to you.

Like most business requirements a good process saves the day.  With recruiting it is first about getting you clear on the type of team member you want and the expectations you have of them going forward. Most managers are rarely clear on these two points at the beginning of the recruiting process.

Recruiting well poses two challenges:-

• Developing the selection criteria
• Working out ways to test them at an interview.

The table below is a simple example of how to record your criteria and how to measure a candidates performance against each factor.

The weighting is critical. In the example below you see that ability to handle pressure is twice as important as supervisory experience.  Once you have recorded the rest of your criteria you can weight each in accordance with its importance relative to each of the other factors. The weighting should add up to 100.

Now you can score the candidate using each weighting as the maximum score achievable for that criteria.

Don’t forget to record comments to assist your memory when comparing notes with the rest of the interview panel.

Keep in mind that if one applicant scores say 80 points and another 78 it doesn't mean one is better than the other. The scoring is a guide to selection not a definitive answer.

Decision Making: What have been some of the biggest business decisions you have made in the last few years? 

Problem Solving: Tell us about a time when you had to solve a difficult problem.

Leadership: What has been the most obstructive group you have had to get cooperation from? 

Tolerating Ambiguity: When has ambiguity been an obstacle in your work? What was ambiguous and how long did it stay so?

Motivation: Describe a situation when you had a positive influence on the attitudes and behaviours of others. 

Interpersonal Skills: Have you ever been challenged to get others to understand and accept your ideas? How did you do this?

Planning And Organising: Have you been in a situation where you knew there were more tasks than you had time to perform and every day was a challenge just in coping with workloads? 

Decision Making: Give me an example of a time when you had to be quick in coming to decisions.

Team Work: When have you worked on a busy team and you were somehow expected to perform tasks that might have been considered below you? 

Presentation Skills: Describe the most creative presentation you have ever given. What did you do?

Goal Setting: What have been the biggest goals you have set and achieved in recent years? How did you do this? 

Difficult People: Tell me about a time when you were able to adapt to, and deal with, an arrogant and dogmatic person. What happened?

Creativity: Give me an example of a time when you were inventive and offered fresh insights about a situation. What was the situation? 

Sample Interview Questions

1. Why did you decide to apply for this position
2. What aspects of the job appeal to you?
3. What strengths will you bring to the position
4. What has been the most difficult situation you have ever had to deal with
5. Which of your previous jobs have you enjoyed the most? Why?
6. What area of experience or skill will you need to develop if you get the job?
7. Where do you want to be in five years time?
8. What type of person do you find the most challenging to work with?
9. How do you go about organising your day?
10. What are your hobbies and interests?
11. What are some of your techniques for handling personal stress?
12. What self development activities have you undertaken?
13. What support would you require from the Directors?
14. Who has been your best boss ever? Why?
15. Which company do you consider is the most progressive? Why?
16. Have you any questions?

Conducting the interview

You are going to learn far more about me by asking about my actual experience. If I relax enough to chat honestly about situations similar to your work environment, you will be able to use the past behaviours I tell you about to predict my behaviours in your working environment.

In short, my previous behaviour is your best indicator of my future behaviour.

To elicit my narration of these previous situations, you will first need to describe the situation for me so I can remember something similar in my experience. 

For example, if you want to predict how I will behave with your difficult clients, ask me about my previous experience with clients by including some descriptions to match your current situation.

I might not realize you are talking about your clients, but I will be remembering my actual experience rather than imagining what I might do in some hypothetical situation. 

Your question might have several sections and sound something like, ‘Tell me about a situation when you previously dealt with clients who were hard to satisfy?’

When I describe a situation that closely matches your current client, you may add the second part to your question as, ‘What actions did you take to deal with that situation?’ 

After I have described my previous actions, you may be interested in the outcomes. You can ask another very simple question, ‘What did that achieve?’

Your questions have had three parts relating to the:

1. Situation
2. Actions
3. Outcomes 

This three-part (S-A-O) formula may also be extended to discover what I learned from my previous experience and if I have been improving the outcomes I achieve.

You might ask me, ‘If you were in the same situation again, what would you do differently to improve your outcomes?’ 

My answer to your fourth question will tell you if I'm learning and improving or just habitually repeating behaviours.

I might also blame my outcomes on others and claim there is no scope for improvement. This sort of answer will help you predict if I will take initiatives or not on the job.

 As you can see the recruiting process has a rigour that needs to have your full attention if you are to recruit successfully.  Where skill and time prohibits such attention you might need to consider using a professional recruiting agency. The investment is well justified when compared to the potential cost of getting it wrong. (Check with us regarding a trusted alliance in this area)

If you require more information to do with people management and people development  click here to contact the Partnercorp Business Consulting Team. Or fill out our online enquiry form and our Business Consultant will get back to you.

A study by Proudfoot Consulting, carried out in seven countries, found that the average Australian worker wasted about forty percent of the workday. This figure was higher than in Germany and the US and lower than in the UK and France. The study, which, if anything, probably underestimated the amount of time wasted in an average day, highlighted the problems faced by every organisation.

There is no doubt time is wasted, but the question is what can be done about it? On the one hand it could be unproductive or even counterproductive to force workers to reduce their wasted time, particularly as management seems to be one of the major reasons given for wasted time.

On the other hand, to disregard it not only creates lower quality outcomes in the workplace but increases tensions and conflict in the workplace. Wasting time in the workplace is jointly caused by management and staff but in the end management has to accept much of the responsibility by allowing any poor work practices and behaviour to continue. It often reflects a failure to fix problems or barriers that cause time-wasting and, indeed, not identifying them in the first place.

Wasted time is as much a function of confusion as workload. For example how many of your team can immediately relate their top 4 roles within the company? These are the duties which are highly strategic or important in helping the company realise its goals. If we are not absolutely clear on this it is almost impossible to prioritse activity effectively. This usually will manifest in us spending large amounts of time on ‘now’ issues. You will know if this is happening because your level of job satisfaction decreases markedly. You finish the day tired yet feel you haven’t achieved much.

Activity can be broken up into 4 quadrants:

If important means activities which drive us toward our goals what kind of personal and business activities would you like to focus on?

It’s interesting to note that some of the most important things in our life are often not urgent. This means we must consciously act on them in order to make them happen.

What do you suppose happens if you fail to spend time working on Quadrant 1 activities? Often they migrate over to quadrant 2. Now they are important and Urgent – A crises. How much time do you spend putting out bushfires?
Why does this happen? Because urgent acts on us. What urgent activities take a lot of your focus?

People who are under stress will often spend time in quadrants 3 & 4. For example, how often have you heard people say they are extremely busy and then proceed to open the mail or get a cup of coffee? These activities are not wrong, in many cases they are a great circuit breaker however they can be a sign of stress and overload.

Time management is really self-management.

By consciously focusing on quadrant 1 activities you can make a large and sustainable difference to your quality of life.

Like most processes, the theory and practice of time management has developed through a number of stages. At the basic level we keep notes and checklists while a more advanced method relies on calendars and appointment books. More recently people have come to realize that the time management system they use needs to allow for prioritsation as determined by a clear set of values and goals. The problem seems to still remain though, efficiency and time management just don’t seem work well together.

We often lament the lost opportunities for spontanatiety and fun that efficiency often denies us. As a result, many people have become disillusioned with time mangement systems and programs.

Howevever there is another level. To truly succeed we need to constantly work on developing our self management. This moves our focus from things and time to relationships and results. We need to get results, not in one or two areas of our life but in all the roles we hold.

Our first thoughts should focus on identifying our roles, values and purpose.

• Make sure it is Coherent, ie. it can record your mission statement and your goals.
• Make sure it has balance so all your roles are catered for.
• Make sure it has the correct focus - needs to keep you in Quad 2. May need to work on a weekly basis rather than daily, as daily promotes reactive activity.
• Flexibility -it needs to be able to cater for changing circumstances.
• Portability - it needs to accompany you easily

The following diagram is one example of a weekly activity sheet

If you would like advice on finding a time management tool that suits you please contact  our business consultant. Also if you would like to review our personal coaching program or contact our business consulting team please Click Here.

Even though trust is perceived to be an important component of team building, many team leaders report that while they believe they are trustworthy their staff still seems reluctant to trust them.

Trust in the work situation would seem to be a very clear and easily defined commodity.

If we trust somebody at work it means we have faith in them, and that we believe they will do what they say they will. Trust, indeed a working trust, means that a team member can be left to complete tasks without excessive monitoring, and that the behaviour of that person will be within the expected range and comply with accepted theories and written and unwritten codes of behaviour that govern the workplace.

Trust makes everyone's job easier and creates the environment for effective and satisfying working relationships.

However, if trust is clearly so important why is it that most team leaders report they may trust individuals in the workplace but rarely the workplace as a whole?

Team leaders claim that the trust they have in their team is often conditional and that often trust breaks down and results in difficult situations and outcomes. Achieving and maintaining trust between a team leader and the team, and between individuals and the organisation as a whole, is central to motivating and managing a team but trust is rarely targeted as an outcome in itself.

Yet without an evaluation of the level of trust in individuals and a plan to increase team trust, it may well not happen.

Developing and nurturing trust should be the central team management objective.

If your team members trust you then they will be much more likely to talk to you in an open way and more likely to follow, listen and respond to you. Indeed, team members will be more likely to tell you what you should hear, not what they think you want to hear.

These are the top 12 questions employees ask about a workplace and gives an indication of the "core elements" that attract and retain good employees. (Produced by The Gallop Organisation.)

1. Do I know what is expected of me?(Up to 70 % of employees are not clear about what their bosses expect)
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the past seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?
5. Does my superior, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission of my company make me feel like my work is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the past six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?
12. At work, have I had the opportunity to learn and grow?

The answers to these questions seem particularly important to the most productive and talented employees.
They reveal aspects of the workplace that will retain key staff, however they seem less important to under-performing staff. Therefore they have the potential to encourage the best to stay without encouraging those that an employer is less interested in retaining.

Great Work Places

A good organisation will measure the effectiveness of their people development and retention strategies. Some of the best measures include:-

• employee retention rates 
• customer satisfaction levels 
• productivity
• profitability

Remuneration

Money is important, but not as important as managers think. Pay did not make the above list. Once an employee is remunerated on or above industry standards it becomes a less motivating factor.

Most of the 12 aspects listed above involve workplace relationships - with colleagues, bosses and workplace friends. It is the nature of these relationships that makes the difference.

If you would like to know how to create the environment that will make your team happy, loyal and productive give our business consultant a call 1300 982 182.

It may be easy enough to get them to hear you, but listening involves actually relating to what is being said and responding appropriately. Every day minor and sometimes-significant communication breakdowns occur and each time the job is made just that little bit more difficult. This article makes some very relevant suggestions about how to get your team members, or other people for that matter, to really listen.

It is not surprising that staff do not always seem to listen. Australians have to listen to literally hundreds of media advertisements, TV words, family conversations, and friends, and then you.

While most conversations are conducted in good faith and reasonable efforts are made to listen, some are not.  The team member you are talking to may not really be interested, may have a number of unresolved issues with the organisation, or even you personally, or maybe is just not interested enough to focus.

In between these two extremes many conversations at work have a range of often quite mild barriers between you and the other person or team. These may include noise, a poor environment, even that the conversation is taking place a few minutes before going home on a Friday. In addition, the concentration and even work competencies of the person you are talking to can vary.

Given all the possible stumbling blocks to a really effective work conversation it is not surprising that miscommunication occurs.

These three steps are, of course, fraught with opportunities for misunderstanding and mistakes. Even when both sides of the communication are highly motivated and competent it is possible to get some confusion. When one side of the communication exchange is not really interested or has workplace attitude or other problems, then communication becomes really difficult.

The framework for effective communication

It is essential to ensure that important instructions or discussions are held at a reasonable time and given appropriate attention. A few quick words given on the run about an important issue, in a noisy environment, when the other person maybe in the middle of an important task, is obviously going to create a barrier. Critically good communication means listening to the other person as intently as you would like them to listen to you.

People are more likely to understand what you say if you say it effectively and, of course, you have something to say. A necessary step in every significant conversation is the WOO factor.

Creating the WOO factor

When you first speak to a person, impressions are really important. The term given to this period when attitudes and impression of the other person are created is called the "Window of Opportunity" or WOO factor.

The window of opportunity can create a positive communication experience or make the other person feel uptight, or even hostile. This means being respectful, listening to the other person, focusing on them, and making sure that non-verbal communication shows you are interested. The problem can be that we do not use the WOO factor after the first few minutes. But we should. We suffer from communication fatigue.

Avoiding communication fatigue

It is very easy to get into bad habits when talking to someone whom you talk to every day. Familiarity can breed poor communication. Indeed it could be argued that often communication at work is actually better that at home as we make something of an effort with the more structured environment of work. Signs of communication fatigue include:

• Too many shorthand conversations when issues are not talked through.
• Making assumptions that the other person understands and is thinking along the same lines.
•   Using too many technical or "in" words.
• Assuming the other person will remember the last conversation and can pick up your meaning.
• Not making an effort to focus on the person.
• Not taking enough time to fully communicate your message.
• Trying to have a conversation while also doing something else.
• Not starting the conversation from the other point of view

In addition to the WOO factor, people are more likely to listen to someone who has the LOT factor

The LOT (Level of Trust) factor

Then LOT factor refers to the long-term credibility of the person talking and indeed the long-term effectiveness of the relationship. While the immediate impact of your communication style in a conversation is critical, if after a while all there is to the relationship is an effective communication style, it will not be enough. There has to be a reasonable level of credibility.

People are more likely to listen on a specific occasion if it is related to a belief you are credible and upfront. Your credibility will be based on the level of honesty and integrity that you are perceived as having, your competence and continuing interest in the person you are talking to, and the subject matter.

Essentially the LOT factor is about trust. The trust people have in your honesty, your ability to do the job, your interest in the clients and staff, and how you signal your belief that the organisation and individuals within it have a positive future.

Communication techniques for getting the other person to listen

In addition to your communication style and the long-term relationship you have with the person you are talking to, your specific approach in each conversation is a third critical element.

People will, in the end; listen to themselves before they listen to you.  Thus you will get better results if your communication focuses on asking questions, getting the other person's opinions and explaining things from their view before moving to the idea you want to convey.

It is also useful to determine what sought of person you are talking to. Is he or she a person who likes detail or is more interested in the overview or idea? You need to pick the type of person and adjust your conversation accordingly.

It can be counter-productive to communicate your needs, idea or the issue and then find there is a misunderstanding or a significant difference in what action should take place as a result of the initial shared understanding.

Effective communication means gaining a common understanding of the outcome of the communication. All conversations should end with a review of what has been agreed must take place, when it will take place and how it will be known that the action has taken place and has been formalised. Obviously the intensity of this part of the conversation will depend on the topic.

Hopefully your communication approach, the WOO and LOT factors, and your credibility and clarity about actions will already have motivated the people you are talking to, but to ensure that there is continuing enthusiasm to complete the task associated with the conversation there will need to be -depending on the topic of course -a follow-up meeting and feedback. Commitment from a team member usually means a demonstration of your commitment through your time, involvement or at least interest.

Conclusion

Getting someone to really listen to you in the sense of understanding, agreeing on what to do and then being committed to it, is obviously not easy. While your team will listen because of your authority, and perhaps power, this will only provide a minimum of listening. Effective listening requires the speaker to build up credibility with the "audience" and then really focus on each conversation.

Our Business Consultant would be happy to talk to you about how you can get your staff to really listen and improve communication in your business. To contact our Business Consultant please click here.