| Welcome
to the September 15, 2004 issue of The Total View
Published by Success Performance
Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe
In the News!
Workplace
Stress Linked to Rising Health Care Costs
What's Inside
1. 70 Percent of American
Workers Don't Believe Performance Management is Working
2. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #246 to #250
3. Tips You Can Use
4. Recommended Reading
5. Learn To Hire High
Motivation Employees On A Limited Budget
6 . Employee Motivation: It Takes Two to Tango...or Tangle.
7. Over 250 Supervisors Have Attended Managing to Excel Workshops
8 . Fall Workshop and Speaking Schedule
9 . You don't need a huge budget and staff to hire the best employees
10 . Thousands of Small Business Owner Now Build High Motivation
Teams Who Never Thought They Could
1.
Seventy percent of American Workers Don't Believe Performance Management
is Working
The quarterback takes
the snap and steps back into the pocket. Looking right, then left,
he sends the football down field, with a perfectly thrown pass,
to the receiver who carries the pigskin into the end zone.
The crowd screams with excitement. Then, cheers turn to jeers. The
referee turns away without signaling a touchdown. Confusion reigns.
After a few minutes, the referee announces he needs a few weeks
to make his call. He heads to the locker room, closes the door,
and doesn't respond to questions from the players.
Although this might be a bit far-fetched for football, this scene
is played out too often in nearly every business in America.
Employees need feedback on their performance and recognition for
jobs well done. The number-one reason people leave their jobs: They
don't feel appreciated. Even so, according to recent to Gallup
surveys with over 4 million employees, 65% of American workers
received no recognition in the workplace last year.
Like the receiver who thought he scored a touchdown, another 40
percent of employees did not understand measures used to evaluate
their performance and believed they received an inaccurate appraisal
of their work. (Source: WorkUSA®2004: An Ongoing Study of Employee
Attitudes and Opinions). That is equivalent to a referee ignoring
4 out of 10 touchdowns.
Another seven of 10 U.S. workers, according to the Watson Wyatt
survey, don’t believe a performance management program actually
improves performance. Even worse, only 20 percent believe the company
helps poorly performing workers improve.
Part of the problem might be that a mere 39 percent of employees
see a connection between day-to-day work and company goals. Let’s
go back to football. Players and fans know that scoring touchdowns
moves a team closer to winning. Yet in business, more than half
of the workers don’t see a connection between what they do
and what the organization is trying to achieve.
Management blunders cost a bundle. An SHL study reports that the
US companies lose $105 billion to poor people performance. Managers
generally find it easy to talk about performance management. Then,
these same managers avoid conducting performance appraisals. Why?
First, too many performance management programs lack meaningful
performance criteria that are related to company productivity and
profitability. The absence of specific and meaningful performance
criteria raises the potential for confrontation. The employee, who
comes into the evaluation with no clue as to whether expectations
have been missed, met or exceeded, becomes defensive. As the discussion
becomes tense, maybe ugly, the manager fears this upset employee
might quit or file a harassment complaint. There is a cascading
effect. When a disgruntled employee leaves, a vacancy must be filled
and current employees work harder to pick up the slack.
Lacking specific criteria and targeted behaviors that can be observed,
the performance review reflects the manager’s values and preferred
behavior. Consider this situation: One manager always gives a lower
rating because he believes there should be room for improvement
while another manager always gives high ratings to boost employee
self-esteem. The upshot is the first manager dampens the enthusiasm
and drive of high-performers. The second manger inadvertently rewards
poor performance and raises legal exposure for the company.
Successful performance management pays off. Fllow these steps so
you can conduct effective performance programs.
1. Directly link individual employee goals to team
and department production and profitability goals.
2. List
the three to 10 core competencies required by each job. Evaluate
employees on these skills.
3. Develop
three to six target behaviors that describe effective performance
for each competency. These behaviors should be observable.
4. Use these behavior statements to create the
employee evaluation form.
5. This
competency-based performance management process should be conducted
at once a year.
Remember, performance feedback is continuous and ongoing. Don’t
wait for an annual performance appraisal to praise good performance
or correct performance lapses.
You can learn more about setting performance criteria and conducting
meaningful, productive appraisals by attending my CriteriaOne
Train-the-Trainer Workshops. In addition to competency identification,
participants learn to use and interpret three valid and predictive
personality assessments and how to create a performance-based behavioral
interview.
2. Perfect
Labor Storm Alerts #246 to #250
Fact #246: 62 percent of workers don't
think their employer tries to minimize unnecessary stress. (Source:
LLuminari® Landmark Study)
Fact #247: One in 5 workers stated that their work
regularly interfered with their responsibilities at home and kept
them from spending time with their family.
(Source: LLuminari® Landmark
Study)
Fact #248: Workplace stress costs the nation more
than $300 billion each year in health care, missed work and stress
reduction efforts. (Source: American Institute of Stress)
Fact #249: Workers who report they are stressed
incur health care costs that are 46 percent higher, or $600 more per
person, than other employees. (Source: NIOSH)
Fact #250:
The risk of a heart attack doubled among permanent after a major round
of downsizing, with the risk growing to five times normal after four
years.
(British Medical Journal,
2/2004)
Listen
to The Perfect Labor Storm - live at the 2003 PA Chamber HR Conference
Don't be caught in storm
without all the facts. "The
Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away"
is a must-read leading edge forecast that predicts workforce trends
for decades to come. Order your copy today - $7.95 includes no shipping
costs for limited time only.
Get the forecast LIVE at your next meeting or conference. Now scheduling
2004-2005 keynotes - Ira Wolfe, What's Ahead In Hiring Trends or Generations
in the Workplace - You can't work with them, You can't work without
them.
3. Tips
You Can Use
CriteriaOne®
Train-the-Trainer: Competency Identification
and Performance Management
Special Fee for The Total View readers - register before October 1,
2004 and save an additional $200 off the early registration fee of
$1095. After October 1, registration fee is $1595.
Become a certified CriteriaOne consultant. Learn to identify competencies,
complete a job analysis and interpret behavioral, values and personality
assessments. The next Train-the-Trainer will be held from November
3 -5, 2004 in Lancaster PA. Register early and save $500 and
bring a 2nd person at no additional cost. Register
online or call 717.656.4632.
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your computer's exposure to online security threats and learn
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4. "Required"
Readings
"How
Full is Your Bucket": Positve Strategies for Work and
Life
by Tom Rath and Donald O.
Clifton and published by Gallup Press. According to Gallup research,
65% of people polled said they got no recognition for good work last
year. And the No. 1 reason most Americans leave their jobs is because
they don't feel appreciated. Rath and Clifton say each person
carries an invisible bucket. Fill the bucket and an employee is motivated.
Dip into an employee's bucket and stress and dissatisfactions sets
in.
"Understanding Business Values and Motivators" takes
the bucket analogy one step better. Employees have a choice
of buckets, six of them as a matter of fact. Over a life time,
people value two of them more than the others. To recognize
and praise employees in areas they value, managers must know which
buckets the employee is carrying. In this book, Ira Wolfe describes
the six personal motivators with easy to read stories and analogies
that any manager or business owner can understand and apply immediately.
The
Manager’s Pocket Guide to Workplace Coaching -
This guide is designed to help people become better managers. When
a person is elevated to a management position, it is usually because
he or she has done well at mastering the prerequisite technical skills.
Coaching
employees to develop their skills helps not only the employee, but
also the manager, the team, and the organization.
5. Learn To
Hire High Motivation Employees On A Limited Budget
It is finally here. After three years and hundreds of hours,
The How to Hire The High Motivation Employee audio series is complete.
Six 30-minute CDs - more than three hours of interviews - guide a
manager through each section of the TotalView(tm) Assessment System,
complete with examples and stories you can use to hire the right employee
and build the best teams. Why TotalView? It is simply the best job
matching and employee evaluation system on the market today.
The first CD begins with an overview of the TotalView(tm) Assessment
System and explanations of each of the Abilities scales. The second
CD focuses on Motivations and Interests. And CDs three through six
discuss the four major personality traits and eight sub-scales in
detail.
As a thank you for reading The Total View newsletter, we're
offering the complete audio series for only $159 through September
30, 2004.
Order How
to Hire The High Motivation Employee today.
6. Employee
Motivation: It Takes Two to Tango...or Tangle.
Sustained productivity and profitiablity doesn't just happen. Employees
have varied needs. Managers have preferred leadership styles. These
needs and styles don't always match.
But managers and leaders can now get the results they want with a
revolutionary new approach to leadership. It's called Strategic Leadership.
Strategic leadership gives leaders the knowledge and insights to adjust
their approach to match the varied capabilities and commitment of
employees.
To schedule Strategic Leadership training in your company for the
Fall 04/Winter 05, contact us today.
New! Strategic Leadership Type Indicator.(SLTi)
Help leaders understand their own leadership habits and learn how
they can respond more effectively in the future. The first part of
the SLTi is a self-assessment that gives leaders feedback about their
use of multiple leadership strategies. The second part guides them
in selecting the best strategic leadership style to use, and the third
part illustrates how leaders can develop their direct reports using
these strategies.
View Brochure here.
Email for more details
or pricing.
7. Over 250
Supervisors Have Attended Managing to Excel Workshops
Ever since Success Performance
Solutions introduced Managing to Excel in 2002, Central PA supervisors
and managers have been learning and developing proficiency in the
twelve competencies that highly effective managers and supervisors
have that average performers don't.
To read more about Managing
to Excel, visit Managing to Excel - Management
Competency Workshops.
Managing to Excel is also
available for purchase by in-house trainers and human resource professionals.
The per participant cost per program is as low as $20!
8. Fall
2004 Workshop and Speaking Schedule
Just announced! Ira will be a presenter at the 2005 International
Builders Show in Orlando, FL at the end of January. Watch for more
details.
September 23, 2004 - Lancaster
Chamber Job Fair - Human Resources Panel Discussion at 10:15 AM, prior
to job fair.
September 27, 2004 –
Best Practices in Performance Consulting, Atlanta, GA. Sponsored
by International Quality and Productivity Center. Speaker: Ira S.
Wolfe. Ira will join leaders from Dell, Microsoft, HomeBanc, Harley-Davidson,Hewlett-Packard,
Putnam Investments, EDS, Synovus and Internal Revenue Service.
October 4, 2004 - Columbia/Donegal/Elizabethtown
Consortium - The Perfect Labor Storm
October 5, 2004 - How
To Hire The Right People – Even On A Limited Budget:
Hiring Solutions
For Non-Profits and Service Agencies; The Hampton Inn - Greenfield
Corporate Center, 8 AM to Noon, Only $97.
November 3 - 5, 2004 - The
Most Reliable Hiring System Ever Used - CriteriaOne
Train-the-Trainer. Competency ID, 3 Personality Assessments, Behavioral
Interviewing and more.
9. You don't
need a huge budget and staff to hire the best employees
Eliminate The Hassles and Headaches Associated With Screening Candidate
with Total APS.
The Total Applicant Processing System enables the small and medium
sized employer to do online recruiting and screen applicants with
customizable and scorable filtering questions with a click of the
mouse.
Use Total APS to recruit
and screen applicants for your next job opening.
10. Wondering
if you have the right people on your team?
Everyone wants to build the High
Motivation Employee Team. Do it with team building activities
packaged exclusively for small businesses and home businesses.
Contact Information:
Success Performance Solutions 2481 New Holland Pike, Suite 2, Lancaster,
PA 17601
email: tv@super-solutions.com
voice: 717.656.4632
web: http://www.super-solutions.com
To learn more about Success Performance Solutions or read back issues
of The Total View, stop by our website at www.super-solutions.com.
Order your personal copy of Understanding
Business Values and Motivators.
Order your personal copy of The
Perfect Labor Storm
Ira S. Wolfe. 2004 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution
by permission only.
Syndication available
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