Taking training and rewards out of the black box -Part 1

In my previous post, I talked about making training into a reward. One of the biggest obstacles to doing that is getting the word out about:

1) Training needed/wanted
2) Training available

Without opening up these two things, your training program -- along with all the good it could do your company -- will remain in a black box. And we all know that the only time someone actually looks into the black box is after a disaster.

Here are some tips to open that box, and get training out where it belongs:

1) Find out what kind of training your employees want.

Oh, this sounds sooooo simple. Starting with the employees. Asking questions. But in reality, it is almost never done!

Training is fed to people, top down. With a "We who sit off in our offices and never do the daily work..." directive behind the training choices, is it any wonder that most training has little or no impact on learning, and is in fact dreaded by employees? Where did we forget that employees are grown-ups, and are perfectly capable of knowing what interests them, what would make their jobs easier and what questions they need answered!

2) When in doubt, ask why.

OK, let's say you asked what kind of training people want and you got the following list:

• Chinese language (from a salesperson)
• How to be a good manager (from a machine operator on the factory floor)
• Microsoft Office skills (from the Art Director)

Wondering why a machine operator wants a management class? Or the Art Director wants training in office? And the Chinese language training? You have no idea!

Traditional black box thinking would be to say no to all of them.

But if you ask, you may discover that the machine operator is taking night classes, and hopes to become a manager or supervisor some day, the Art Director needs help setting up spreadsheets to track projects, and that salesperson just noticed a growing demand for products like yours from Chinese buyers, and wants to be able to open that market.

3) Take away the stigma of asking for training

In tooooo many companies, asking for training in anything directly related to your job is seen as an admission of incompetence. So even employees who really need the information, and who would benefit from the training are afraid to ask for it.

Letting employees know it's a strength to ASK for training in your field will open the door to a better trained, better performing, and (incidentally), more committed workforce. And what employer wouldn't want that!

Tomorrow, I'll talk about getting the word out about training.

Lacking training, workers feel unqualified for jobs

Top managers across the globe agree that training and development is an integral part of their organization’s strategy, but many of their employees feel unqualified to get the job done.

Whether you’re talking about Vice Presidential candidates or a new manager in the office, it turns out that a lack of experience and training is common in the workforce.

Nearly seven out of 10 workers have been asked to complete tasks without receiving appropriate training beforehand, according to a recent SkillSoft global survey.

“The survey also found that regardless of location and job title, the majority of workers think ongoing training and development, and the flexibility to take the training when necessary, are essential, no matter what the employee's position.”

Of North American workers, 68% said that training would have helped them before beginning certain tasks in their jobs.

The top 5 tasks managers are asked to do without adequate training:

1. Project management
2. Technical tasks
3. Managing people
4. Leadership
5. Compliance related tasks

The top functions within an organization where ongoing training and development is most important:

1. Supervisors (70%)
2. Customer Service Team (54%)
3. IT Team (52%)
4. Operations Team (52%)
5. Senior Managers (52%)

It is time that companies give employees the training and development they need to do their jobs correctly. Especially during tough times, where people are taking on more tasks as a result of layoffs and downsizing, employee training is essential to the success of your business.

Have you ever been put in a position where you felt unqualified? Do you feel people in your company lack the experience to excel in their jobs?

How you can offset rising health care costs in 2009

The bad news: There will be a double digit rise in health care costs in 2009.

The good news: It’s the smallest increase over the past six years and you can do something to minimize the pain.

Heath care costs are predicted to rise more than 10 percent next year, according to an Aon Consulting Worldwide survey of insurers. It’s the smallest increase over the past six years, leading experts to believe that employers’ actions to improve employee health are paying off.

In order to save more money on heath care in the future, companies must spend more money on health care now, according to health care industry experts.

“CFOs have always viewed health care as an expense, but rarely as an investment” said Jerry Ripperger, director of consumer health at the Principal Financial Group. “But improving the health of your employee base, rather than simply providing reimbursements, is an exercise in risk management with a true ROI.”

Unless your company has the resources and staff size to warrant an on-site clinic, your best bet is to develop an employee wellness program. Relatively simple and cost-effective to set up, wellness programs have proven to be a healthy investment.

Overall, employers have seen a $2.45 reduction in medical claims for every dollar spent implementing an employee wellness program, according to Ripperger in Workforce Management.

Not only do wellness programs reduce the amount of employee doctor visits by improving overall health, they create more loyal and engaged employees.

According to the Maritz study, employees who participate in their company wellness program:

• have significantly higher job satisfaction levels,
• are more likely to remain at with the company long term,
• and are more likely to recommend the company as an employer to friends and family.
  

Even employees who occasionally participate in a wellness program feel more engaged with their employer than those who never participate. Active and sporadic participants also have lower absenteeism, taking significantly less sick-time than employees who chose not to participate at all.

What you can do: Start an employee wellness program with a high number of participating employees and you’ll have higher productivity and engagement, better employee health, lower absenteeism, and lower health-care premiums.

Dancing improves employee productivity

Do you wish your company buzzed like a hive of bees? Everyone productive, industrious, organized?

The beehive is “the very model of business,” according to Benjamin Ellis at Redcatco. Before achieving any business success, you must first give your bees some free time and room to dance. Dancing is the key to improve employee productivity.

Ellis explains how even though it may look like bees never take a break from work, they actually spend a significant portion of their time wandering around the hive and dancing with their coworkers (fellow bees).

For parts of the day, bees travel aimlessly in hopes to stumble upon nectar, the sugar source for honey. When a bee comes across a fruitful patch, it returns to the hive and does a “waggle dance” for its coworkers demonstrating where the nectar is. The coworkers quickly get moving to collect the rest of the discovery.

“It is a process of innovation and discovery. A single bee, with the time to wonder, makes a discovery. It then shares the discovery with the hive. The process maximizes the return on the new discovery, while minimizing unfruitful searching by other bees.”

So, Ellis asks: “Do your employees dance?”

Like we said last week, give yourself and your employees time to be creative, time to wander in search of nectar. Energize your hive with just a little bit of free time and you may find some sweet success.

5 tips for employee training on a tight budget

The economy is down and the squeeze on your budget gets tighter everyday. Human resources and employee training budgets are the first places companies go to cut down spending, but don’t let go of hope just yet.

With some creative thinking and determination, you can still provide quality employee training even when your budget is taking a hit. Here are five simple tips on how to cut training costs without losing quality:

1. Instead of sending your team to an outside training course, where you have to buy a ticket for each person and pay for travel expenses, find a comparable video training program to bring in house. You can train an entire room full of people for the cost of one video.



2. Enroll your group in online training seminars. Similar to purchasing a video, you can train many for the cost of one and avoid those pesky travel expenses.



3. Find trainers within your organization. In any organization there are those who already play the trainer role. Develop your in-house resources with “Train the Trainer” training programs.



4. Use the company as the classroom. Look at different jobs in the company as training opportunities. If you’re training employees on leadership or teamwork, place employees in new roles around the office for a hands-on learning experience.



5. Become a smart shopper. Use tools like TrainingTime.com to find and compare employee training programs that will work within your budget.

Just because your budget is shrinking, it doesn’t mean the quality of your training and development programs have to shrivel up with it. If you take the time to do some research and get a little creative, your training budget may not look so small after all.

Seven ways to reduce stress at work

Many employers today are focused on fostering a healthy workplace, even with all the campaigning for employees to eat right and exercise, there’s still one factor that might be working against you – job stress.

Stress on-the-job poses a health risk to individual employees as well as the company as a whole. A recent daily tip from BusinessWeek, focused on ways we can all reduce stress in the workplace.

When stress lingers through an extended period of time, “the body is kept in a constant state of activation, creating increased wear and tear to biological systems.”

Common causes of job stress: corporate culture, interpersonal relationships, roles and responsibilities on the job, how work tasks are designed, career concerns and environmental conditions.

Seven ways to combat employee stress at work:

1. Ensure that an employee’s workload fits their capabilities and they have the resources to complete their tasks.
2. Design jobs and tasks that give meaning, stimulation and opportunities for employees to demonstrate their skills.
3. Make sure employees’ job responsibilities are clearly defined.
4. Allow workers to participate in decisions and actions that affect their jobs.
5. Provide opportunities for social interaction.
6. Be sensitive to employees’ demands and responsibilities outside of work and mold work schedules to fit those demands.
7. Pay attention to your employees’ state of mind from day to day. Recognize symptoms of stress and encourage employees to take a break from time to time.

Five effective safety training tips for teen employees

The new Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) passed on May 21, 2008, included provisions that increase penalties for child labor violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The increased fines apply to death or serious injury to children and went into effect the same day GINA was signed. Employers now face a maximum penalty of $50,000 for each violation with the possibility of up to $100,000 in penalties for cases involving repeated or willful employer violations.

Properly training employees is the number one defense to warding off workplace injuries. Especially during the summer months when more teenagers are employed, it is crucial to have all employees fully trained in safety procedures.

The increased FLSA fines come just as the Department of Labor (DOL) kicks off National Safety Month, an annual campaign to save lives through awareness of injury prevention and the leading causes of unintentional injury and death.

Even though June has already started, it’s not too late to kick off your own safety month to make sure all of your employees have the proper safety training, including those young summer hires. Here are five tips for effective safety training for teen employees:

1. Use a computer-based/online training program. Teens today do everything on the Internet from talking to their friends to buying a new T-shirt.
2. Define your expectations. Young employees want to know exactly what you want from them and how safety training will benefit their lives.
3. Report on employee progress. Let young employees know how they’re progressing through the training program. They want to be sure they’re on the right track to meeting your expectations.
4. Reward their achievements. However small or large the achievement may be, teen and Gen Y employees need constant feedback on their progress. Be honest, direct and fair in your communication.
5. Ask for feedback. Gen Y, sometimes called Gen “Why?” always think there is a better way to do something and want you to hear what they have to say. Be open to new ideas, they may benefit your training program in ways you never thought before.
   

Read the full article “Targeting Employees Under 30 – Effective Safety Training Methods for a New Generation of Worker” from our TrainingTime Learning Library.

Connect new employees with Web 2.0

New employees can feel out of place and lonely during their first few weeks of work and are on the outside of an intricate social network that will take time to become a part of.

Studies have shown that in about 85% of companies, new hire passion and morale dramatically declines after the first six months.

Some organizations are keeping the passion alive by connecting new employees with others in the organization through social networking tools. It involves a lot of trust in your employees to use the tools for strictly work purposes, but the benefits may heavily outweigh the risk.

Thanks to the HR Capitalist for finding this insightful mini-presentation by Sacha Chua, complete with superbly drawn stick figures, on how Web 2.0 can help connect new hires faster than before.

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Gen Y is changing new hire orientation

The typical new employee orientation process - HR gives you a new name badge, hands you a copy of the benefits package, helps you fill out some tax forms, gives you a PowerPoint overview of the company and makes sure you’re settled in your new cube just in time for lunch.

New hires, especially those from Generation Y, are demanding much more than that if you’re planning on keeping them around for more than a few months.

Millenials and Gen Y employees have a desire to feel welcomed and want to know more about their jobs even before they show up for work, according to a recent article in Minnesota’s StarTribune.

The article, noting that “your grandfather’s orientation program won’t cut it anymore,” outlines a new process companies are using with new hires called ‘onboarding.’

Onboarding: the process companies use to introduce, train, integrate and coach new hires on the company’s culture and method.

Gen Y and Millenial employees entering the workforce have sparked the onboarding trend, because of their special needs in the workplace. This new process involves a more complete welcoming process than companies have practiced before.

With younger employees, companies need to reinforce that the new employee has made the best decision by sharing how valuable their skills are to the company, the assignments they will be working on, and what developmental steps they should expect within the year.

Gen Y expects that everything should be ready when they arrive to work on their first day. This means having a computer ready to go at their desk, completely set up with an email account and all of the programs they will be using.

They also expect constant feedback from their managers. Managers should set up a system with the new hire for regular check-in times on work progress. New Gen Y employees should also be given an office mentor to help ease the transition into the new company culture.

Remember that any new hire orientation won’t fit into the four hours from the time they arrive until lunchtime. Make employee onboarding an ongoing process.

Acclimating a new employee isn’t always an easy process. Some employees, especially members of younger generations, need a little more help than older employees. With a little time and effort, new employee orientation can be a rewarding experience for both employee and company.

How to deliver, and keep delivering constant employee feedback

Like we said yesterday, employee feedback is crucial to a healthy work environment. Employees not only welcome constant feedback on their progress, but thrive on it. Especially with the younger generations now entering the workforce, knowing how and when to give employee feedback is essential to your business.

Here are some tips on how to make employee feedback a part of everyday life in the office.

Make employee feedback a top priority among supervisors.
Supervisors in your organization should come to work everyday thinking about how they can recognize their employees’ work. Encourage supervisors to constantly find new ways to encourage employees and communicate to their team regarding their progress on a regular basis. Stress that employee feedback is an ongoing process that needs constant work.

Give both positive and constructive feedback.
Not all feedback needs to be positive. There should always be room for employees to improve at their job. Along with telling an employee how they are doing a great job, also let them know how they could be doing better. Be specific in your criticism. Give employees specific action items to work on and improve in.

Catch employees in the act.
Try to give feedback in the moment when you see that an employee is excelling. Over due feedback may be seen as an after thought by employees. If an employee is doing something incorrectly, let them know about it right then and there. It will save the employee time and you some frustration.

Keep track of employee feedback.
Depending on how many employees you supervise, it may be difficult to keep track of whether you are spreading the feedback around equally or not. Devise a way to keep track of when you give each employee feedback, possibly in a spreadsheet on your desktop. Mark down when you gave feedback to each employee, what the situation was and refer to the sheet often to make sure you’re on track.

Give scheduled performance reviews on time.
Whether you provide employee performance reviews annually or semi-annually, stick to a schedule. If salary increases are tied to performance reviews, a late review means a late pay increase and you could have some disgruntled employees on your hands. With constant feedback, employee reviews should be easily conducted since there has been an ongoing conversation all year. The performance review is simply a summary of that conversation and how the employee can improve going forward.


As a boss, think of the last time you gave one of your employees feedback. If you can’t remember, or it was weeks ago, step out of your office and talk with your employees. Tell someone today that they are doing a good job and that you appreciate their work. And, keep it up. Make it a daily task to recognize one of your employees. After a while it won’t seem like a task and you’ll be doing it without even thinking about it.

If you’re an employee who feels like your boss isn’t giving enough feedback, simply ask for it. Though it may be tough, ask for feedback on your performance. It’s tough to see when you’re working in the dark.

Employee recognition ideas that don’t work

“Never give a plaque to an employee who has no wall!”

This quote from Anne Bares at Compensation Force sheds light on something important to remember when coming up with new employee recognition ideas - it doesn’t matter what you think is a great gift, give employees what they would most appreciate.

In one of our past posts, we mentioned that younger Gen Y employees would much rather have a gift card to their favorite store or a pair of movie tickets over a shiny silver “You’re #1” award pin.

An unfitting employee recognition award can actually have a negative outcome. A boss may think they’re giving a wonderful gift to an employee, but that same employee thinks the gift is old fashioned and that their boss doesn’t care.

Recognition needs to be tailored to the employee who is receiving it. Don’t assume someone will like a gift based on what you think is nice. The solution is simple - just ask your employees what they would most like to get.

Bares shares a great lesson:

Recognition can be a powerful and effective tool, particularly given its ability to accomplish a lot on a relatively small budget. But recognition plans can have extraordinarily limited shelf lives. You have to keep 'em fresh and keep 'em real, and you have to watch carefully for signs that they are fraying around the edges.

So keep it fresh, keep it real and keep on showing employees they're appreciated.

Ford employees take home $1000 bonus

Ford Motor Co. is rewarding every U.S. and Canadian employees with a $1,000 bonus, even after the company’s $2.7 billion losses last year.

Though the company failed to meet sales goals for 2007, Ford “met or exceeded” its objectives in every other category, CEO Alan Mullaly explained in a company email.

The bonus is based on improvements in cost performance, quality, automotive cash flow and financial results.

“The board of directors believe it is important to reward employees for delivering significant results and keeping the company on track to become profitable again by 2009,” Mulally’s e-mail said.

With the economic crunch Americans have been feeling lately, the bonus must come as a much welcomed surprise.

The company took it’s eyes off of sales goals, and focused more on employee performance. For many companies, following Ford’s lead may be much easier said than done.

You can read the full story at Automotive News.

The customer is always first, right? ... Think again.

Today I came across a great video clip from a training panel discussion at Fortune’s Global Forum that attacks this question with a fantastic new idea – put the employee first.

The moderator began the discussion with a question employers constantly struggle with – “Why invest in training people when you know that a lot of them are going to leave you pretty soon?”

One panelist, Anand Pillai, answered the question that turns “the customer always comes first” belief flat on its head – the employee is number one. Pillai, Vice President & Global Head of Talent Transformation & Intrapreneurship, acknowledged the fear that you may train an employee who will leave, but he believes the more important question is – “What will you do if you don’t train them and they stay back?” The best way to retain a person is to keep on training them, he said.

Training employees keeps them constantly engaged. “An engaged employee is a happy employee. A happy employee will lead to happy customers,” Pillai said. Worry less about trying to attain a customer satisfaction goal and more about an employee satisfaction goal. With happy employees come happy customers.

Pillai shared a very “zen” concept seen from the eyes of a happy employee – “Having happy customers is not an activity that I do, it is just being what I am.” Meeting customer satisfaction will come when you have happy employees who are willing to go beyond the call of duty.

In what ways does your company struggle with the fear that once an employee is well trained, he or she will then find a new job?

And, what does your company do to try and put the employee first?