What is the most effective way to recognize and reward employees?

Yesterday, Greg Ryan posted a great question on the HRM Today Social Network Forum asking: “How do you recognize and reward your employees?”

Because employee recognition is a popular topic here at Training Time, I thought it would be interesting to share what some of today’s HR professionals had to say.

A few of the responses support the idea that rewards don’t necessarily have to be grand, lavish gifts. If employees are self-motivated, small and inexpensive forms of recognition like simply telling someone "thank you" can work just as well.

The conversation leads to another question: Can verbal recognition motivate employees just as effectively as expensive, monetary rewards?


From the HRM Today Forum:

Ron explained how no one can motivate others and that motivation must come from within themselves.

“If you hired the right employees into the right jobs and kept a positive motivational environment, they will remain motivated. I always thought that the intrinsic rewards were way more powerful than the extrinsic. Simple thank-you's and immediate verbal recognition works great.”

Dan expands on that idea, saying that a sound compensation strategy is the most important form of employee recognition next to verbal feedback.

“If everyone thinks they are getting a fair shake at the outset leaders only need to maintain this by remembering to give POSITIVE feedback on a consistent basis. I am always amazed how much of a difference this makes.”

Aimee takes a balanced approach:

“A well-deserved "good job" especially in some kind of public setting is great, but when it comes down to it, there should be a system in place to give monetary rewards for going above and beyond. A previous employer of mine had a program where someone could be receive a cash award as recognition for outstanding work on special projects, etc - which was a big motivator for those of us who were not eligible for the company's regular bonus plan.”

And Laurie will take the money whether she’s motivated or not:

“I am definitely rewarded by more money. When I'm no longer motivated, I either ask for more money or find another job that pays more money.”

What do you think? Does employee recognition have to be loud and full of extravagant gifts? Or, can effective recognition be as simple and quiet as saying thank you?

Relieve workplace stress at the Smash Shack

A few years ago, Sarah Lavely left her veterinarian career to open up the perfect business during tough times: selling fragile, “smashable” items to break against walls.

Lavely founded Sarah’s Smash Shack in San Diego as a safe haven for people who enjoy reliving stress by breaking things. Instead of using china on your own kitchen walls, for a small price you can break all the porcelain you want down at the Smash Shack.

"We had no business model to follow, no precedent, no place where you come only to smash things," she says. "We had to figure out what we needed - a room big enough to contain broken glass - how far is a safe distance from the smash wall, and what kind of safety equipment we would need."

Customers pick tableware like wine glasses and dinner plates only to smash it in special soundproofed “break rooms.” Of course all the necessary safety precautions are taken, customers wear protective eyewear, overalls, boots and a helmet before hurling breakables against steel walls.

Ceramic white dinner plates are a best seller at the Smash Shack, “because they require a strong toss and break violently against the wall,” according to a CNN Money article. Since her grand opening on August 1, business has been steadily increasing.

Regarding our list of ideas to de-stress at work and fuel innovation, I would like to add “breaking stuff.” But unless you live in the San Diego area or until Lavely decides to franchise, you’re on your own when it comes to where and how you do it.

Friday office humor: Stop sneaky sandwich thieves with disgusting bags

If you’ve ever had your lunch stolen out of the office refrigerator, than you can understand why designer Sherwood Forlee invented this new “Anti-Theft Lunch Bag.”



Using regular plastic sandwich bags with green splotches printed on both sides, Forlee designed the bags in hopes of deterring office sandwich thieves by making a perfectly good meal look like a rotting mess.

From CNET:

Created by New York-based engineer and designer Sherwood Forlee, these bags are sure to gross out any lunch thief. Just place your delectable sandwich inside its clean yet deceptively filthy-looking plastic, and voila: the unstealable sandwich. Even the most stealthy lunch thief won't be desperate enough to eat a moldy sandwich (we hope).

Just be careful when you saunter to the kitchen, pull that blessed sandwich out of the mold-filled bag, and knowingly take a bite right there in front of your boss. If not properly informed, she might get the impression you're so starving you'll eat a month-old sandwich. That, or she'll think you're just plain gross.

Stolen lunch crimes are a sad fact in the American workplace. According to a USA Today poll, 12% of respondents admit to taking someone else’s food from the office refrigerator and another 8% “plead the Fifth.”


Have a happy Friday and keep an eye on your lunch.

Training for training sake? Improve training ROI

By sending people to seminars and training courses you expect them to come out as better leaders, better employees and better supervisors. The trainee may seem changed for the first few days they return to the office, but their excitement dwindles and things soon go back to the way they were before.

Without hard evidence that training is making a difference, why do businesses keep spending millions on training and development each year? Are we just training for training sake?

Ron Ulrici from R and S Associates brought up this big HR mistake in a recent post, suggesting that training will only be a success if we include it in the overall system within our organizations.

Building on Ulrici’s advice, here are some ways to improve your training ROI and ensure you’re not just training for training’s sake:

Get managers to buy-in. Before sending anyone out to participate in outside training, make sure their boss knows what the training involves and what they can do to foster newly-learned behavior the employee may returned with.

Outline desired goals. HR, trainees and managers should meet prior to a training course to outline clear expectations for employees after completing a training program. Defining training goals before sending employees through the program will create a benchmark to help measure employee progress.

Measure effectiveness in performance appraisals. When appraisal time comes around, address how well or not an employee was able to implement training in their work. Measure the progress a trainee has made and how well they attained their goals.

Follow-up. After completing a training program, HR should meet with each trainee and their supervisors to measure how effective the training was, if the employee is putting their knowledge to use and to asses any difficulties the employee may be having applying the training to their job.

Encourage practice. Work with managers to be sure trainees have a chance to practice what they learned when they get back to the office. Find practical ways for employees to put their knowledge to action with small projects or presentations.

Preview seminars and workshops. Don’t encourage outside training programs before you know exactly what they’re all about. If the messages delivered in the program or seminar don’t match your business culture, the message will be lost. Even worse, employees may be punished for exhibiting behavior learned during training.


Forgetting the follow-up is a sure way to lose any new habits an employee may have learned during training. Get everyone on board and prepared for follow-up training to ensure you’re not just training for training sake.

De-stress at work and encourage innovation

The economy is in bad shape. So bad even Warren Buffett is worried.

Whether its the falling dollar, gas prices or debt, our country’s financial problems have all of us pretty stressed out these days. Aside from some of the more violent effects of a bad economy on the workplace, stress has a direct impact on employee productivity and your bottom line.

According to the 2007 “Stress in America Report” by the American Psychological Association, more than half of Americans said they are less productive at work as a result of stress.

From Entrepreneur.com:

“All that stress adds up to an estimated $300 billion a year in costs for U.S. businesses due to absenteeism, decreased productivity, employee turnover, and medical, legal and insurance fees.”

On top of the economy, the bleak medical benefits situation in the US is stifling innovation. As medical premiums and medical deductibles rise, more money is taken out of paychecks and people have less money to spend. Innovation is difficult to find when employees are overwhelmed with medical bills.

While we can’t change our country’s health care system or improve the economy overnight, we can do something to help lessen employee stress at work. Get their minds off their finances and focused on innovation, and you’ll start seeing happier, more productive employees with better ideas coming out of your company.

A few ideas to de-stress employees and spark innovation:

Start a Fantasy Football league. It’s helped some big companies like NuVox motivate their staff and build teamwork. Some friendly office competition that doesn’t take employees away from their work for too long can help alleviate stress.

Start a skunkworks program or innovation league. It’s hard to get businesses to take risks in a bad economy. Sideline any fear of risk and start a company within your company (called Skunkworks) where innovation is encouraged. Once all of the “real” work is done, get together with the skunkworks team to innovate and empower employees. It can be as little as four hours a week, or more depending on how much time is available.

Start an employee wellness program. Regular exercise improves health and reduces stress. Start a weekly walking program or make a deal with a local gym for discounted employees memberships, and get employees moving. Healthier employees make less trips to the doctor, reducing medical costs and insurance rates.

Start telecommuting. Allow employees to telecommute for part of the week. Just reducing an employee’s weekly commute by one day can make a big dent in how much they spend each month in gas. By spending less money commuting to the office, employees will have one less thing to worry about financially.


Unless you have $800 million in your back pocket, no one is going to solve the nation’s financial crisis anytime soon. Until the economy begins to turn around, all we can do is work to mold company cultures to help de-stress employees and encourage innovation.

Dealing with domestic violence in the workplace

With bad news about our faltering economy flooding our computer and TV screens everyday, it’s almost impossible to avoid thinking about our nation’s financial worries. What’s even harder is checking our personal financial stress at the door when we show up to work.

Whether you see it or not, it’s likely people in your workplace are experiencing some financial stress. Studies show that 71% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, according to the American Payroll Association.

One of the most unfortunate effects of our lagging economy is an increase in domestic violence incidents across the country. Various states have reported spikes in the number of reported cases of domestic violence, and “they are merely the tip of the iceberg,” according to Julie Ferguson at HR Web Cafe.

Employers should be concerned because domestic violence directly impacts employee health, productivity, absenteeism and frequently enters the workplace, Ferguson says. Abusers may harass an employee on the job over the phone, at the worksite or cause injuries that affect an employee’s work.

From Human Resource Executive Online:

Many people think that domestic violence is what its name implies -- domestic -- and that it only happens at home. But, we can't expect someone who is experiencing domestic violence to leave the worry, uncertainty and fear of what may happen to them or to their children at home when they come to work.

And, we can't expect those employees to perform at their best when dealing silently with domestic violence, or for their co-workers to understand how to behave.

And that’s where training comes in.

As a corporate leader in raising awareness of domestic violence, Verizon Wireless recently shared their commitment to the issue and how they’ve created a judgement-free culture to support abused employees with Human Resource Executive Online.

After deciding to develop and offer specific training on the impact of domestic violence in the workplace, Verizon partnered with a top victim assistance organization to educate managers and increase awareness within the company.


How Verizon successfully implemented a domestic violence training program:

• Outlined the company’s needs for a training program: accessible to all levels of employees, easily replicated in different locations and cost-effective.
• Identified and trained human resource leaders to become certified trainers.
• Incorporated informative, “powerful” videos in the program to illustrate how domestic violence carries over into the workplace.
• Certified trainers led discussion sparked by issues brought up in the videos

Since implementing the new training program called SafeWork, more than 3,000 Verizon employees have participated.

“We emphasize that our team does not have to be the "expert" when it comes to domestic violence. Our job, and the goal of the training, is to give our employees the tools they need to recognize when someone may be experiencing domestic violence, to understand both the impact on the employee and the business, and to respond appropriately to the situation,” said Martha Delehanty, vice president of human resources for Verizon Wireless.

Backed by company policy and a code of conduct, domestic abuse employee training programs can be successful in recognizing and addressing such a serious issue in the workplace.

Training employees how to identify and handle domestic abuse in the workplace along with the comfort to approach managers with problems will help any business achieve a safe and healthy workplace.

Visit the Workplace section at the Family Violence Prevention Fund for more facts on domestic violence and examples of how other employers have created strategic responses to domestic violence in the workplace.

Monday training links and questions to consider

A few training-related questions to think about this afternoon:

Is there a missing link in your management training program? Does outsourcing employee training help us focus on the bottom line? How do you handle obstacles in business? Can “key employee” incentives be dangerous? Did corporations forget what fuels economies?

Below are a few great posts from across the blogosphere to spur discussion and decide for yourself:

Jim Giuliano at HR Morning shares the missing link to proper managerial training - customer service.

More large, multi-national firms are outsourcing employee training in order to stay focused on strategy and the bottom line, according to a new study outlined by Human Resource Executive Online.

Don’t let small obstacles sidetrack big hopes, says Erika Anderson. She reminds us to test your flexibility and focus on strategy when unforeseen obstacles crop up.

Are you a good trainer or do you simply have good platform skills? The HR Bartender explains the difference.

Be careful with "key employee" incentive plans, warns Ann Bares at Compensation Force. Business success is “based on the efforts of many, not just the appointed few.”

Are corporations running on empty because they forgot what really fuels the economy? Dan Stafford asks how our workforce was driven to the point of physical and financial exhaustion in a thought-provoking post at Bella Ciao.

Friday office humor: Reinforce training with clear signs

Posting signs around the office is an easy way to reinforce training. Especially when it comes to safety topics, an illustrated sign could prevent simple mistakes from turning into serious injuries in the workplace.

While the danger may seem obvious to some, other people need frequent reminders. Take these signs for example:

Employee engagement drives loyalty, retention

Employers that focus on employee engagement and encourage creativity will attract high-performing job candidates and retain loyal employees, giving their company the competitive advantage, according to a new survey by IMR Research Group.

“Business leaders are now recognizing the role employee engagement and loyalty plays in the financial health of a company,” Stacey Randall, IMR’s workplace futurist, said in an IMR story.

“Employee engagement directly impacts profitability and you are wasting resources – human and financial – unless you are focusing on the policies and practices that are going to give you the most bang for your buck.”

Survey results revealed that the workplace attributes with the greatest impact on employee loyalty and retention are:

• Trust between managers and employees
• Influence on goals and strategy as they relate to the job
• Opportunities for professional development
• Employee empowerment for decisions
• Encouragement of creativity
• Passionate and motivated employees
  

Keeping employees engaged and management focused on the key factors affecting loyalty, will increase job satisfaction and decrease the number of employees searching for opportunities elsewhere.

“The future of the American company rests on our ability to innovate, and workers understand how brainstorming and other creative thinking sessions can contribute to the company’s bottom line as well as make employees feel their input is valued,” Randall said.

“This study indicates that these attributes are not standouts in employees’ minds, but efforts to improve in these areas can lead to great results.”

Training employees to go green in the office

Going green in the office is more than just a trend. By improving the energy efficiency of office buildings, businesses can save money on pricey electric bills and protect the earth’s precious resources.

“Energy use in commercial buildings and manufacturing plants accounts for nearly half of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 50 percent of energy consumption nationwide,” according to the EPA.

Because it’s where workers spend a large portion of their day, the American workplace is where people can make the largest impact by going green. Training employees to reduce waste office waste can take time, but with a little help you can get everyone on board and involved.

With most people already doing their part at home to save energy, the EPA encourages people to “Bring their Green to Work” with their latest online tool called Energy Star @ Work.

Revealed earlier this month, Energy Star @ Work provides people with valuable tips and information on how workers can save energy and do their part to protect the environment in the workplace.


Start a green movement in your office

Get employees to go green at the office and get involved by setting up green teams dedicated to the cause. With management’s approval, encourage coworkers from different levels and areas of your organization to get involved in the green movement. Forming a diversified team from all levels in the company will ensure greater support and success.

Hold green team meetings to discuss what areas of the business are the least energy efficient and what can be done to make improvements. Raise awareness throughout the office with emails, fliers and posters with information on how the business is going green and what they can do to help.

October is Energy Awareness Month and a perfect time to hold a green event in the office to get everyone excited and aware of the green team’s efforts. Get employees involved and informed by holding a brown bag luncheon with a featured in-house or outside expert to speak about ways to save energy in the office.

Another way to get employees involved in the company’s green efforts is to set up competitions. Divide employees by department or by Green Teams and start a competition to see who can be the most green in the office.

Hand out environmentally friendly prizes like reusable water bottles or coffee mugs to the teams that show the biggest improvements. Remember to publicly recognize teams for their energy efficient changes in company newsletters or at quarterly meetings.


Going green in the office doesn’t have to be difficult. With the support of upper management, involved employees and a little office camaraderie, your company can start doing its part to conserve energy and cut down on greenhouse gasses. It could be as simple as finding energy efficient office supplies or changing the posters on your walls, that could get your office started today.

Top qualities of great team building exercises

Great team building exercises can strengthen group ties and encourage teamwork, at the same time employees learn something new. We all know a great training activity or team building activity when we see one, but what are the essential qualities of effective team building exercises?

According to Michael VanDervort at HumanRaceHorses:

Trainers are often looking for new team building exercises that they can offer to their business clients. Typically, such exercises should provide the following qualities so as to enhance the team-building experience:

• A challenging task, to focus the participants on creativity or problem-solving
• An element of competition to encourage both rivalry and cooperativeness
• An activity that is both difficult and achievable, to generate interest and the desire to bond with your teammates
• An element of rivalry, to create the desired “us vs. them” mentality needed for team-building activities when working with different groups.

Adding one more to the list, activities should also be fun. Creating fun team building activities gives people a break from their day-to-day work and facilitates learning in an informal atmosphere.

It’s always enjoyable to watch people learn something new about themselves and coworkers while they think they’re just having fun at work. It’s like getting a workout by playing with your kids and not realizing the calories you burned until your biceps hurt the next day. Everybody wins!

What other qualities do you think great team building exercises should possess? Please share any examples of training activities you’ve created or been a part of that you think encompass VanDervor’s qualities of a great team building activity.

Yammer: Winning employee communication tool

Less formal than a corporate intranet, but more business-focused and private than Twitter, Yammer is making online employee communication more effective than ever.

Yammer is an internal communication tool, “essentially Twitter for business,” that keeps employees in-touch and informed. It has the potential to improve employee productivity by sending short messages over a public forum, rather than searching through cluttered inboxes.

All it takes is a company email address to register and create a network. Once registered, employees can share status updates, news, links, ask coworkers’ questions and answer Yammer’s most important question: “What are you working on?”

The program is free for employees, but affordable for companies to claim their network and gain full administrative control. For $1 per employee per month (after a three-month trial period) admins can gain network control over messages, users and security requirements.

Practical uses for Yammer at work:

• Top executives can to keep everyone up-to-date on company news and quickly see what different employees are currently working on.
• HR departments can remind employees of an upcoming training opportunity or corporate event.
• Employees can update coworkers on the status of certain jobs within the private corporate network.
• Sales teams can quickly share information about new accounts or impressive sales numbers with the rest of the company.
• Telecommuting employees can stay connected and current on the day-to-day activities back at the office.

Yammer’s privacy and administrative tools make it more attractive to those companies afraid to let employees use social media at work. Since messages are posted on a public forum and administrators can remove comments, spreading gossip or talking about inappropriate topics is difficult.

Just how employee handbooks guide behavior in the office, companies worried that Yammer could cause problems should create a short guide complete with rules, policies and consequences for violations.

After taking top prize at TechCrunch50, you can expect to see even more great things out of Yammer. The event awarded the young start-up with $50,000 to help grow its business model.

We would like to know ... Does your company currently use online communication tools like Yammer, or would your company ever consider it? Are your managers still too worried that using social media in the office would impact productivity?

Friday office humor: Top 3 motivational phrases

After you have a clear understanding of what motivates different generations in the workplace, fire up your team with encouraging communication.

Excellence in Management Lesson Number 9: Make impossible work sound exciting with these handy motivational phrases ...

Stretch goals!
Opportunities for growth!
Challenges!

Special thanks to Savage Chickens Excellence in Management.

How key motivators differ across generations

From established Silent Generation employees to the Generation Y newcomers, workplace values and communication methods can vary greatly. Understanding the key differences among generations and what keeps them motivated at work can help you keep employees engaged and job satisfaction high.

The following are some findings from Engaging a Changing Workforce: A Study of Four Generations, by The Learning Café.

The study focused on four main groups: Millennials or Generation Y (born between 1977 and 1998), Generation X (born between 1965 and 1976), Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), and the Silent Generation (born between 1933 and 1945).


Everyone looks for a challenge

Across all generations, the top motivator was the same - “challenging, stimulating, varied work,” but different generations define the statement differently.

Millennials want to work on a variety of substantial, important projects that allow them to learn and use new skills. Baby Boomer and Silent Generation want their work to make a meaningful impact on the success of the organization.


Motivational differences across generations

Millennials and Gen Xers want career growth, learning and development. Gen Xers identify with older employees in the importance of their work making a difference.

Millennials list pay as their second most important motivator.

Gen Xers were the only group to include “healthy work/life balance/flexibility” high on their list of workplace motivators.

Baby Boomers value appreciation and recognition for the extra hours and hard work they put in.

The Silent Generation wants autonomy and the ability to innovate.


Demotivators by age group

All generations, place “boredom, no challenge” as a top four demotivator. Three out of four of the generations find frustration when unabe to learn, grow and develop.

Gen X noted “no work/life balance” and lack of development as top demotivators. Learning and development are the key factors to retaining Gen X employees, being that 77% would leave a job for more intellectual stimulation.

The top demotivator for Baby Boomers is a lack of appreciation, respect or recognition. The Silent Generation is similar to the Boomers, citing “feeling undervalued” as their top demotivator.


Bad bosses disliked across all generations

All generations placed having a “bad boss” as one of their top four demotivators, but each generation uses different qualities to define a “bad boss.”

Gen Xers don’t like to be micro-managed or have a boss who is insensitive to their need for work flexibility and family values.

Millennials want a boss who is like a coach or mentor and dislike bosses who play a more formal or hierarchical role.


Generational workplace conflict

Boomers who wear the number of hours worked each week as a badge of honor may look at Gen Xers as slackers because of their need for work/life balance.

Boomers and Millennials may bump heads in their different views of workplace interaction. Hard-working Baby Boomers dislike fun-loving Millennials who like to socialize in the office instead of being isolated in a cubicle.


Because of their different views regarding the workplace, generational conflict may be inevitable. However, understanding the differences across generations in the workplace can help you build teamwork, motivate and train employees despite their conflicting views.

Using ice breakers to engage new groups

One of the hardest things to do is transform a group of strangers into a receptive learning team at the start of a training session. In a recent discussion on in the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) group on LinkedIn, people weighed in on their thoughts about ice breakers as a tool.

Discussion began in response to: “How do you start a training session when you are not dealing with an intact work group? Do you use ice-breakers, games, or some other technique to engage the group?”


Breaking down walls

Kevin, a project administrator, recommends using an ice breaker that encourages learners to share personal information in order to break down emotional walls. Prompt group members with unfinished statements like “The most embarassing thing that happened to me was..." or "The TV show that I watch that most people don't know is...”

Some group members warned against playing ice breaker games that get too personal and make people uncomfortable. To avoid the vulnerability people feel sharing personal information, Suzann recommends using a less intrusive “bingo” type ice breaker. Have people group themselves into categories like favorite color, born in a certain state, or traveled internationally.

Suzann, a staff and curriculum supervisor, has also used icebreaker activities based on group member work experience. As people introduce themselves they share how long they’ve been with the company and in what positions. Knowing the group’s experience levels helps create unity and puts the trainer in a position to shift the “focus from the front of the room to the learners.”


Engaged listeners

Maria combines Suzann’s “experience in the room” technique with voting activities using handheld polling devices. The electronic handheld devices engage group members by having to press a button to respond to questions and provide instant gratification in a graphic model from responses in the room. The method offers anonymity when someone is unsure of their answer, instead of having to raise a hand, and “distracts those who customarily sit in the back of the room and read the USA Today or use their crackberries.”

Responding to another commenter’s “name tent” ice breaker idea, a learning and development specialist named Lisa puts a twist on the introduction activity. As people show up for class they write their name on one side of their name tent and a picture representing their lives on the other. Lisa tells her class that whoever stumps her with their picture gets a special prize, such as an extended lunch break.

“By the end of the class they are all working together to try and stump me. Most of them do not even care about the prize - its all about winning,” Lisa said. The game works best when you have ample time to go through the names, because it could take a while depending on students’ Pictionary skills.

Disaster planning: Would your company sink or swim?

While it looks like the southern US coast evaded Hurricane Ike for now, it reminds us how serious the threat of disaster is and the importance of being prepared. Does your business have what it takes to come back from a catastrophic event?

No matter where your business is located, disaster preparedness and continuity plans are critical to survival after a disaster. A lack of planning can have dire consequences.

According to the Association of Small Business Development Centers:

• More than one quarter of businesses will experience a “significant crisis” every year.
• After a major disaster, 43% of businesses without an emergency plan will never reopen.
• Of those that do reopen, only 29% are still operating after two years.

Whether your business is threatened by hurricanes, tornadoes, flood or man-made disasters like identity theft or crippling computer viruses, no business is immune to disaster. Blocked roads and flood waters may limit access even if your building suffers little damage.

"How quickly a company gets back to business after a fire or flood, terrorist attack, tornado, or man-made crisis often depends on emergency planning done now," said Dr. Robert Leviton, president and chairman of the board of the Corporate Emergency Access System (CEAS).

What can you do to limit lost productivity and profits after a disaster? The first step is to put together a disaster recovery plan. A basic plan should include:

• Emergency contact numbers. Keep a current database of employee and emergency service phone numbers.


• Detailed communication plans. How will top management deliver information to employees after a catastrophic event?


• A list of critical tasks. Identify and distribute critical business operations to supervisors and employees.


• An off-site meeting place. Designate an off-site location for top management to meet in case your building is unaccessible.


• Customer communication plans. How will you communicate with customers on the status of their orders and deliver information to business clients?


• Data recovery plans. Natural and man-made disaster can easily wipe out hard drives and destroy databases. Keep critical back-up data at an outside location and have a plan on how to retrieve that information if disaster strikes.

Once your disaster plan is in place, practice it and then practice it again. Train employees and supervisors on emergency procedures and what to do if they have limited or no access to the building.

Test your plan with emergency dry-runs and document performance. Look for ways to improve and update your plan wherever necessary.

The amount of lost time and productivity after a major disaster will ultimately come down to the effectiveness of your communication. With effective communication and employee cooperation, your business can keep recovery time to a minimum and your business standing after disaster.

Laughs and leadership advice at the carnival

Vice-president hopeful Sarah Palin has her work cut out for her in the next few months. With the media and opponents criticizing her lack of leadership experience, she’s lucky to have a friend out there like Dan McCarthy.

McCarthy went out of his way and put together a slew of leadership development advice for the vice-president hopeful in the latest edition of the Leadership Development Carnival.

Though the carnival may be dedicated to Sarah Palin, the featured attractions, side shows and expert leadership advice are worth the trip. With regards to leadership training, we made it easy and picked out these featured posts for you:

Like we’ve discussed before, employee recognition in small packages can have better results than other big-ticket items. “It’s more likely to be the small and personal moments that really shape our lives,” according to the Happy Manager’s leadership philosophy.

While employees understand they are accountable for “taking initiative and bringing about change,” only 40% of employees believe they have the power to make a difference. Art Petty examines the root causes and cures for disconnected organizations in “Do Your Employees Truly Believe That They Can Make a Difference.”

Understanding that “what gets measured gets done,” Chris Young at the Rainmaker Group, advises using coaching score cards to improve employee performance. Score cards can outline exactly what is expected of employees and help determine if an employee’s position is a bad fit.

Though our brains may be aging, they continue to develop and learn well into old age through a process called Neurogenesis. Laurie Bartels at The Brain Fitness Authority examines Neurogenesis and Brain Plasticity in Adult Brains and how we can use it to better understand how aging brains learn.

Why do some people seem to have all the motivation in the world and others have none? Dawn Abraham Life Coach examines new motivation ideas and shares a few secrets on how to motivate others and yourself.

Those at Invent Creativity examine the top 10 mistakes while brainstorming, including mistake number five - allowing an untrained facilitator to lead a session.

Teens find early career training at business summer camp

Business summer camp ... sounds like every teen’s dream of an awesome summer vacation, right?

At least one group of kids in Silicon Valley seem to think so. Whether it’s the nature of the area they live in or an inherited drive to succeed, teens from the high-tech hub are opting-out of a lazy summer at the beach for one spent learning how to run a business.

At Camp BizSmart, parents pay $750 to send their kids to a two-week summer camp that focuses on market analysis, branding and discussions on ROI. The day camp covers all the businesses basics any success-driven, miniature Bill Gates would love to spend their summer learning.

With national teen employment at the lowest level in the past 60 years, maybe starting kids out early with business summer camp isn’t such a bad idea. Research shows that teens who work more in high school have an easier transition into the labor market after graduation.

Similar state-funded teen work programs across the country may not be as structured as camp, but work to develop teen job skills. Programs like Pennsylvania’s Technology Work Experience Internship Program and Boston’s Hope Line give teens the training and resources to help them get hired.

Our country’s next batch of successful CEOs have started training today, and they’ve started early. Many of today’s teens work hard in school and study for the SATs until the point of burnout, don’t they have the right to slack off during the summer? Do you think business summer camp is giving kids a head start in the corporate world, or should we just let kids be kids?

Race discrimination: Time to update your training?

When is the right time to retrain employees or update policies regarding discrimination in the workplace?

Well, hopefully before something like this happens ...

NIAGARA FALLS — It didn’t take long for the city worker accused of putting a “whites only” sign on a public works drinking fountain to realize it was a really bad idea.

“There’s going to be trouble,” a co-worker predicted shortly after James Curtis put up the sign Aug. 13 in the public works yard, according to court papers filed in the case.

Curtis, 52, of 80th Street, a 26- year employee in the Public Works Department, told police before his arrest last Friday that he took down the sign after he realized he might get in trouble.

By that time, an African-American co-worker had photographed it with his cell phone.

Curtis said he confessed last week to posting the sign because his conscience got the better of him, although not before he lied about his involvement when first confronted by Detective Frank Coney.

Curtis is now facing a “Class E felony” after the charge of second-degree aggravated harassment was bumped up to a racially-motivated hate crime. Read more from The Buffalo News.

Of course Curtis intended the sign to be a joke and not offensive. Joke or not, how could a 26- year employee think that a stunt like this could be laughed off as a silly joke? How does this kind of discrimination still exist in workplace settings across the country?

In response to a pending 2003 discrimination suit, the city said it has “stepped up” diversity training, but several city officials want the administration to do more.

Niagara Falls mayor (aka. Curtis’ boss) said his administration has a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination in the workplace and has started disciplinary proceedings against Curtis.

Other than making diversity training mandatory for all employees and having a zero-tolerance policy, what more can city officials do to wipe out this kind of inappropriate behavior in workplace areas? Is this just one example of one bad employee making a huge mistake or a bigger, more widespread problem?

For one reason or another, many employees hold some kind of resentment for diversity training, so what have we been doing wrong? Is it even possible to solve the issue of workplace discrimination with training and policies?

Extreme temperatures prompt heat illness prevention inspections

Due to the current and predicted extreme temperatures in California, officials are warning employers with outdoor workers to be on high alert. Working outside in high temperatures under the hot sun can create life-threatening situations for unprepared or untrained workers.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) announced last week that it will be stepping up heat illness prevention inspections of outdoor workplaces. So far this year the agency has issued 347 citations for violations with more expected.

Cal/OSHA investigators are currently targeting Fresno, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Napa, Sonoma, Yolo and Santa Clara counties for inspections of heat-related dangers in outdoor workplaces. Investigators will continue inspections in Kings, Tulare and Kern counties along with other areas of the state.

“We have a zero tolerance when it comes to failure to protect your workers from workplace hazards, which includes the summer heat for outdoor workers,” said Len Welsh, Cal/OSHA chief. “Our actions taken since the heat illness protection law became effective reveal this and our efforts are only intensifying.”

It is every business’ obligation under OSHA to provide employees with a safe working environment. Ensure every employee is equipped with the information they need to keep themselves and their coworkers safe in high temperatures.

What you can do to protect employees from heat illness:

• Inform employees and promote awareness of the dangers of extreme heat with workplace safety posters and safety hand-outs.


• Train employees and supervisors in heat illness prevention. Establish mandatory employee safety training so all workers know how to prevent heat illness, recognize the symptoms of heat-related illness and what do to if they or a coworker exhibits symptoms.
  


• Provide workers with ample amounts of water. On hot days, there should be enough water on hand for each worker to drink one quart per hour. Encourage outdoor workers to stay hydrated.


• Set up shaded areas and allow frequent breaks. Outdoor workers should be allowed at least 5 minutes of rest when they feel preventative measures need to be taken. Workers should not wait until they feel sick to do so.


• Allow new employees time to acclimate to high temperatures. For workers unaccustomed to high outdoor temperatures, it can take up to two weeks for them to get used to the heat.


• Supervisors must be prepared for an emergency. Every worksite supervisor should be instructed to call 911 and know the location of the closest hospital in case of emergency.

Employers can find more information at the Cal/OSHA or main OSHA website. For extreme temperature posters and more workplace safety training tips visit TrainingTime.com.

Beating the back-to-work blues

It’s the official end of the summer, kids are going back to school, summer vacations are over, and it’s time to get back to the daily grind. As employees drag their feet through the office halls, tired after a long weekend, take a minute to think of how you can harness the same back-to-school excitement in your employees.

While going back to work after a 3-day weekend isn’t quite like the first day of school, “wouldn’t it be great if your place had the energy of the first day of high school? You could bottle that stuff and sell it,” says Frank Roche at Know HR Blog.

The first two ideas are Frank’s, but his post got me thinking of more ways we can re-energize the workplace and show some employee appreciation.

• Send a “welcome back” letter. Remember that letter the principal used to send out welcoming everyone back to school after the break? Use that same idea on any given Monday to welcome employees back after the weekend and thank them.


• Give them new supplies. Channel the joy felt when a child gets a new backpack filled with brand new school supplies and reward your employees. Place small gift bags full of new office supplies on employees’ desks for a job well done.


• Refresh the break room. Other than at their desks, the break room is the next place employees spend most of their time at work eating lunch or grabbing a cup of coffee. Why not freshen it up with a new coat of paint? Or, fill the counters with healthy snacks, specialty teas and coffee.


• Hold an event. Something small that says “don’t be sad about the end of the summer.” Make it something easy, something they don’t have to leave the office for like a company bake sale or white elephant auction. Something that takes them away from their desks for a minute to recharge will help them to be more productive when they return.


• Offer company-sponsored training. Employees still have the desire to develop their skills even if they have no plans to leave their current employer. Sponsor in-house training or check out local community colleges for affordable courses and cover the fees or the entire cost of the class.

However small it may be, recognizing your employees’ hard work will pay off in the end. Find simple ways to beat the back to work blues after long weekends and you’ll have more energized employees invested in the success of your business.