Doing Business In A Recession

Doing Business In A Recession
By Stan Tan, MBA (email: ess@ltc-cpa.com)


It is official. The National Bureau of Economic Research (of USA) said on 1st December 2008, that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007. What does this mean for us, in this part of the world, Asia?

Undoubtedly, most people get worried about how long the recession is going to last, the security of their jobs, reduction to their salaries and their abilities to service their financial burdens.

Getting worried is not going to benefit you. Rather, one should keep a clear mind (I know that is tough!), be objective and figure out the best ways to not only survive but to do well in this recession.

What are the typical behaviors during a recession? Let us list out some:

- Businesses are understandingly more worried.
- Businesses cut down on their spending.
- Businesses think about survival instead of expansion.
- Businesses scrutinize their operations more closely.
- Businesses look at cost cutting seriously.
- All the bad news in the newspapers daily: retrenchment, bankruptcy, downsizing and even suicides.

So what should you do? Worry away your life? You can take comfort from the fact that, historically, recessions come and go. Conditions undoubtedly change for the better. Businesses and people who exploit the current opportunities and position themselves for the better times ahead, will do well and be market leaders in the future.

- Businesses are understandingly more worried.
Your customers are more worried. Talk to them and explore ways to help them. What are they actually worried about: revenues, profits, overheads, costs, survival? You will be surprised that as you talk to different clients, their worries can be different even though, in general, they are all more worried.

Offer them advice and try to sway their thoughts from the pessimistic to the optimistic. Such discussions help generally as they help to eradicate the gloom, to a certain extend. Such discussions with customers will go a long way to strengthen the rapport with them as well.

- Businesses cut down on their spending.
Remember. The key message is that businesses cut down spending. They do not stop spending altogether. Businesses reduce their spending and give their business to vendors that they trust; vendors that they view as offering them value for money.

During a recession, it is critical that your company brings itself in tune with the customers. They are fighting to cut cost (not foregoing value and quality!). Can you help them manage by offering them a recession rebate until conditions improve? Do not do the wrong thing by lowering your prices! That can send a very wrong signal to your customers, especially the very good customers. They may think that you have been over-charging them all the time, plus it will be difficult to raise the prices back to the higher levels.

- Cost management
I prefer the term cost management to cost cutting. We manage our cost more carefully in difficult times. Differentiate between the needs and the wants. Better still; re-classify the needs and the wants. Some ‘needs’ in the good times may actually become ‘wants’ now. Once this is done, forget about all the ‘wants’. For example, in good times, your staff will consider a PC with more functionalities as a need because of the increased work-load. During the current difficult time, can that PC be ‘downgraded’ to a ‘want’ instead?

Many companies use such difficult times to downsize by retrenching. It may be prudent to use retrenchment as a last resort. Why? Because it can be conservatively estimated that it costs a company more than S$100,000 to replace a manager in term of recruitment, training, lost production and opportunity cost. Unless your company is 100% sure that the staff is definitely no longer required for the long foreseeable future, it would be prudent to utilize other cost management methods such shorter work-hours or going on mandatory vacation. Retrenchment can lead to low morale (which can be already low in such situation) and diminish the company’s reputation as a good employer!

- Scrutinise your offerings.
Customers’ needs and focus may shift during difficult times. Like you, they are going to focus on only their needs. Fad items are out. Think of ways to help your customers whenever possible, be flexible and tailor your services to suit their needs for the current time. New offerings and corporate image are out; superior value and price performance are in.

-Manage your marketing.
It is not advisable to stop all your marketing activities altogether! On the contrary, companies should market harder to position themselves as the customers’ best help to get the best value for their money, reduce cost and to do well in the recession.

In fact, companies should use such time to negotiate for a better price with your marketing agent and lock in the favourable prices. Adjust your marketing message to focus on value for money, superior value and price performance for your customers.

-Manage your customers.
Do not lose your customers. It enhances your company reputation greatly when you can keep your customers for a long period. Studies have shown that it costs more than 5 times to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one. Be as flexible as far as you can go and keep your customers happy. That does not mean that you should agree to a loss-making deal. Your customers who are with you long enough will be reasonable, as long as you demonstrate to them that you are giving way to meet their demand. You must always remember that you are in business to make a profit.

-Maintain your core values.
Your company is successful because of your special core values, culture and your unique selling propositions. Do not lose track of these or your foundation of your success will be undermined.

-Innovate during this difficult time.
Your customers may have special requirements during this difficult time. You can work closely with your customers to understand these requirements and adapt your services to suit them. Such working relationship with customers is crucial and can go a long way to cement you as their key vendor/consultant.

-Build for the future.
Do you realize that you can actually get more for less during difficult times? When times are bad, your customers are not going to pay your premium price. They go elsewhere instead.

The same goes for recruitment of employees. Potential employees do not demand higher salaries in view of the softer labour demand. Progressive companies use such time to cherry-pick good talent that may be let off by their employers. Such talent can be a real gem when market conditions recover and can help your company stay way ahead of the pack.

Who knows? Such employees may just be the ones to help your company do well and overcome this difficult situation.

Conclusion
In conclusion, recessions come and go. Like the Chinese phrase, “wei ji”, you should focus on the “ji” (opportunity) instead of worrying about the “wei” (crisis). Understand your strengths and focus on your customers’ modified requirements for this difficult time. Work closely with your customers and adapt yourself to satisfy your customers. Exploit this difficult time to position yourself for the turn-around.

You will not only survive this recession. You should be coming out of it much stronger!


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Article by Stanley Tan, Director of ELTICI HR Consultancy Pte Ltd, a leading regional executive search firm. ELTICI HR has an established network of offices in the Asia Pacific and Europe, specializing in the search for middle-management and senior management executives and senior executive placement service.

Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.
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Recession-Proof Your Job

Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.
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Recession-Proof Your Job
by Stan Tan, MBA (email: ess@ltc-cpa.com)

In the current economy downturn, we may want to refer to the famous quote from John Kennedy, 35th President of the United States:
“Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”

It may be appropriate here to modify this famous saying as follows:
“Ask not what your company can do for you - ask what you can do for your company.”

Why? Because if your company does not make it, neither will you. You lose your job and if you are lucky, you find your next job quickly. But ask yourself: how likely will that be during the current market situation.

Another timely quote from Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:
“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

Companies are struggling! In the United States, former leading brand names like GM, Ford and Chrysler are fighting for survival. Companies in Singapore are foreseeing a difficult time ahead. So, what should you do? Whine and wait for the worst or stand up for your company and live to fight another day? Below are some suggestions how you can stand up and make a difference to recession-proof yourself.

Attitude counts a lot.
It is all about attitude. In the current difficult time, the importance of attitude cannot be over-emphasized. Positive attitude will help boost morale and enhance harmony and unity. This is made more important during difficult times where morale is typically low.

Take a macro view/look at the whole picture.
Look at the company as a whole and see yourself as part of the whole company. Do not wait to be told to do something. Now is the crucial time when you should look hard around and help the company to be stronger to be able to secure the diminished available business.
Be aware of and anticipate the needs of your co-workers and other departments. If you come across an article that might be useful to your co-workers, send it to them with a note.

Think of ways to generate revenues or cut costs.
During an economy downturn, the opportunity to generate revenues is diminished. Even then, we should always pro-actively think of ways to generate revenues. It is only when we ‘give up’ and stop thinking that we get into trouble.
We should keep the cost factor firmly in mind and cut costs wherever possible. Whatever costs that can be postponed should be postponed. Differentiate between needs and wants. All the wants should be firmly put on hold.
Cutting costs means that you can offer a more competitive price to your customers. Cutting costs is different from cutting corners. It means doing things in a more efficient way and doing away with non-essential stuff, without any adverse effect to quality.

Make positive contributions.
Make positive contributions whenever possible. Think of all possible ways to make positive contributions, even if it is not in your area of responsibility. Share your ideas willingly and be helpful to everyone.

Talk up your contributions.
There is no need to boast about your contributions. But keeping silent about contributions is not going help either. Subtly mention how your contributions have helped and offer more help whenever possible.

Doing your job well will not help.
In good times, doing your job well may suffice. In the current difficult situation, doing well just is not enough. Why? Because of the diminished available business opportunity, we must do our job exceptionally well to be able win the projects.

Build a strong rapport with other departments.
Unity is strength. Unity enhances morale. This is more crucial during the current downturn when morale can be low.

Make yourself stand out. Strive to be leader in your industry.
In such difficult times, it becomes more essential be best as we are competing for a limited number of available projects in the market. You can write articles, do a presentation at a seminar or even make use of the current trend and use a blog.

Get your skills up to date.
Ask yourself. If your skill is outdated, how can you contribute to the company? During the downturn, normal people start to worry. Progressive people think of how to contribute to the company by upgrading their skills, in line with the company’s requirements. Doing so will demonstrate to your company your positive attitude.

Continue networking.
It is more about who you know than what you know. What you know is important of course, but who you know can go a long way to help you succeed in difficult times. With your strong network and through the network of your network, you will be surprised how much can be achieved. This is particularly true in the current difficult time.

Be visible.
Be visible. In such difficult times, the company needs all contributions it can get. Now is not the best time to go on long vacation. The risk is that you may return to find out your job has become redundant. Make yourself useful and visible. Offer whatever help you can to whichever department that needs help.

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Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.

Helpful Tips to Recession-Proof Your Job

Helpful Tips to Recession-Proof Your Job


Quote from Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:

“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

These tips can help you to recession-proof your job.

1. Make positive contributions: - Make positive contributions whenever possible. Share your ideas.

2. Make your superiors aware of your valuable contributions to the organization.

3. Be aware of and anticipate the needs of your co-workers and other departments. If you come across an article that might be useful to your co-workers, send it to them with a note.

4. Build a strong rapport with other departments.

5. Offer sincere and genuine compliments.

6. Build upon your skills or develop new ones.

7. Strive to be the thought leader in your industry. You can start a blog, write for journals or speak at seminars or conferences.

8. Build a strong network within and without the organization.

Self Management for the New Manager

1. Monitor your work hours.

Set a limit and stick to it. It’s very easy to get sucked into working longer and longer hours just because you are new to the role and have so much to learn.

2. Recognise and manage your signs of stress.

Each of us has different reactions to stress. Unfortunately, when we are stressed, we often don’t realize it until it becomes too late and we get ill or it severely affects our performance.

3. Learn to delegate.

Failure to delegate is the most common failing of new managers.

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate!

This means regular meetings with:

· your team members

· your boss.


5. Give praise and recognition regularly.

Even “Thank You’s” are important.


6. Focus on what is important, not what is urgent.

In particular, talk with your manager about the three most important priorities he/she has for you in your role. Make sure you focus on these at all times.


7. Ensure you have a balance between intellectual, physical and emotional activities.

Whilst people differ markedly in their biorhythms (the way we manage our mental, physical and emotional makeup), each of us needs to manage these three.

8. Find yourself a mentor.

This should be someone who has been or is a successful people manager.

Tips for improving coaching

Tips for improving coaching

· Develop a skills matrix for all the roles within the team.

· Ensure each staff member has an individual analysis of where his/her skills match the matrix and whether they need to develop further skills.

· Identify team members who are good at coaching / training others and formalize this process by setting specific training tasks for these people.

· Arrange rotation and temporary placements (within the team when someone is on leave and in other units / teams for further development).

· Encourage people to suggest new ways of doing things and look for ways to improve work flows.

· Allow people to make mistakes without feeling threatened (remember, most of us learn by trying things out!)

Effective Training and Leadership Development

Effective Training and Leadership Development

Here are tips about how to provide effective training and leadership development for adult learners.

Enormous research has been done on how to train with impact. Here are some specific tips that will increase the impact of your investment in building leadership brand, as opposed to developing leaders:

- Offer an integrated model for the experience.
We continue to see many training events as parades of stars, with each day or module taught by a thoughtful presenter (either outside faculty, line manager, or customer), then another module from another face, and then another. With little integration, each training module is an isolated event. Branded training requires an integrated message (what our leaders need to know and do to demonstrate a leadership brand consistent with a firm brand) that has distinct modules woven around the brand theme.

- Use a host of training pedagogies.
Since adults learn differently from another, different methodologies can and should be used. A mix of lecture, small group discussion, written case studies, live case studies, action learning projects, team presentation, video snippets, technology-based learning, simulations, assessment tools, and so forth can be woven into the training experience to ensure that regardless of each participant's learning style, all will find some methods that work well.

- Bear in mind that with adult learners, the faculty should be talking about 60 or 70 percent of the time.
If faculty allows their participation to fall below 50 percent of the talking time, participants are in a problem-solving session and wonder what the faculty adds; if faculty does 85 percent or more of the talking, participants are more likely to be listening than internalizing what is taught.

- Design modules to follow the concept-illustration-action (C-I-A) rational.
During a training experience, a host of modules may be woven around the integrated C-I-A theme. Each module should have a clear set of concepts.

Tips For Managers - Assessing performance .........

Tips For Managers

Assessing performance and providing feedback

· Ensure performance standards are discussed and agreed at the start of the review period.

· Correct poor performance as it happens and do not include it in the annual review.

· Conduct informal performance reviews regularly – at least monthly.

· Ask staff members how the performance review sessions can be improved.

· Be sure to include discussion on career /professional development in the review sessions.

Manager Team Building Tips

Team-Building Tips for Managers

Positive office dynamics add great strength to a business, while strained ones create strife. As a manager, you simply can't afford to leave such an important aspect of the company to chance.

There are many ways for managers to bring a team together and foster its ability to work together as a whole. These 10 tips can help unite even the most disparate group of people.

Communicate goals clearly.

Employees look to management for basic company goals. When those goals are not clear, disagreements will erupt as employees try to define goals themselves. By clearly laying out goals, everyone begins in the same place and understands where the business is going.

Define responsibilities.
Offices run best when everyone clearly understands their responsibilities. Provide each employee with a distinct definition of his or her own responsibilities, both individually and as it relates to group projects. This eliminates confusion over who is accountable for what, and allows employees to relate without struggling over responsibilities.

Provide equal training.
Make sure that each member of your staff is trained and equipped to complete the tasks at hand; divisions surface when one member is unable to perform necessary duties. Provide ongoing training — if additional time is needed, pair two employees to learn from each other. Make sure, though, that it's an equal teaching relationship, where both employees are gaining new skills.

Encourage relationships.
Most offices are busy places with many demanding deadlines. But allowing employees an occasional extended lunch to go out together and relax outside of the work environment can build understanding that will transfer back into the office and improve working relationships.

Empower.
Give decision-making power to the people working on the project. Give them the authority necessary to get their jobs done, but observe the process to make sure they're rising to the challenge. Trusted employees can make decisions without fearing consequences, and good employees will value that trust and seek to make the best decisions.

Provide feedback.
Don’t make a group second-guess your opinion of its work. Be clear not only in your initial expectations and assignments, but also in your opinion of the work. Open and frequent communication, where employees are clear on where they stand, will help them feel more secure and willing to work together.

Reward.
Provide rewards to the office as a group. Whether it's an award, a luncheon, or some other treat, providing the whole office with an encouraging reward for hard work will build team spirit and bring your employees back in with renewed enthusiasm for their jobs.

Set reasonable deadlines.
Reasonable deadlines are often subjective, and timelines vary based on need. But you can build a spirit of teamwork by dividing assignments equally, providing compensation to employees who are working additional hours, and reworking less important deadlines to allow for a little more time.

Meet regularly.
The best way to understand your employees and to let them know they're not alone is to meet regularly with them. Whether it’s a monthly lunch meeting or an organized meeting with specific agenda items, it's critical to keep the lines of communication open. This allows you to gauge not only their needs and productivity, but will also help you assess any team-building concerns that need to be addressed.

Discourage “backdoor” reports.
Inevitably, there will be at least one employee who will attempt to report to you after every meeting — giving a play-by-play slanted in his or her favor. Don't encourage this behavior, and resist the temptation to use this employee as a fly on the wall. Backdoor tactics can severely undermine an otherwise positive office environment.

Building a team means creating a noncompetitive and encouraging work environment — the kind of environment that fosters positive working relationships. When employees feel valued and know that they don't have to vie against one another for recognition, they will be comfortable and confident in working together to achieve their common goal.

Seven Tips for Becoming A Successful Manager

Seven Tips for Becoming A Successful Manager By Susan M. Heathfield,

An effective manager pays attention to many facets of management, leadership and learning within organizations. It is difficult to take the topic of "management success" and say that the following ten items are the most important. However, there following are seven management success skills without which yon may not be a successful manager.

The most important issue in management success is being a person that others want to follow. Every action you take during your career in an organization helps determine whether people will one day want to follow you.

A successful manager:

- Builds effective and responsive interpersonal relationships. Reporting staff members, colleagues and executives respect his or her ability to demonstrate caring, collaboration, respect, trust and attentiveness.

- Communicates effectively in person, print and email. Listening and two-way feedback characterize his or her interaction with others.

- Builds the team and enables other staff to collaborate more effectively with each other. People feel they have become more - more effective, more creative, and more productive - in the presence of a team builder.
- Understands the financial aspects of the business and sets goals and measures and documents staff progress and success.
- Knows how to create an environment in which people experience positive morale and recognition and employees are motivated to work hard for the success of the business.
- Leads by example and provides recognition when others do the same.
- Helps people grow and develop their skills and capabilities through education and on-the-job learning.

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Selecting The Right Candidate For A Job

The mistakes employers make when selecting candidates for a job

By Ben Fletcher
(Ben is Professor of Personal & Organisational Development at the University of Hertfordshire.)

Appearances can be deceptive. Organisations spend considerable amounts of money recruiting staff. They then continue to spend money on training and paying for people they should not have taken on. In about one-third of new jobs, the selected incumbents can be considered as wrong decisions by the company.

This state of affairs is not the fault of the recruitment firm. On the contrary, companies that use recruitment services are much LESS likely to make these kinds of mistakes because the client is required to clarify what they really want when giving the brief, and the successful candidate will be more suitable.

Employers make all sorts of mistakes when selecting candidates for a job. These mistakes fall into different areas:

Inadequate specification of needs

The company has a vacancy because someone has left, or alternatively a new job has been created. In both cases, it is not uncommon for the client to be unsure about what needs they really have. This is not just because people do not work to job descriptions in the real world, but also because the operational managers (as opposed to the HR professionals) cannot communicate their real needs. They know what they want done, but not what might do the job. Alternatively, they might have a constrained view of who could fill the job or what skills they need. It almost always pays to spend time on getting a clear job/person specification and to do it properly. It is definitely cheaper than years of employing the wrong people.

Believing that you do not need the professionals

Professional recruitment companies do more than you might think. The best ones attract the best candidates, they can talk their language (and make sure you do), they know the markets and the options; they can assist throughout the entire process. Do not forget their job is recruitment even if you only hire new staff occasionally. You could do it but doubtlessly, at more long term cost.

Internal company politics

Unfortunately, people interfere in the recruitment process in ways they should not. It might be that a boss has a particular axe to grind or a way of doing things. It might be that the last job incumbent messed up and that some incidental and irrelevant characteristic has been blamed for it. Unfortunately, humans are prone to believing in the causal significance of completely irrelevant coincidences. This can be true of bosses too!

Wanting the impossible or the very unlikely

Another common problem is the employer who does not know the candidate pool well, so they want a person with a particular experience mix, or qualifications that are unusual. Perhaps the last person they had in the job was the one in a million whose skills profile they had taken for granted. It is a fundamental law that the rarer it is the more expensive it is, or the more difficult to get. It is better to be flexible as an employer, too. People can soon grow into roles and niches they did not fit exactly before. You might even find they bring something innovative that you had not thought of.

Not staying focused on need

It goes without saying, but people get sidetracked easily in the selection process. There are a number of ways this can happen. It might be the problem of 'seduction'. Perhaps one candidate has skills that - although not important for the particular job - would be useful in a different role. Or perhaps they come from a competitor and might have useful information. Keep to the agenda unless there are compelling reasons to deviate. Even then, remember that a different job spec would have attracted a different set of candidates.

Poor selection from amongst the possible

There are many reasons companies fail to choose the best candidate put before them. These range from poor methods such as unstructured or unprofessional interviewing, taking too much notice of the irrelevant or allowing prejudices to cloud judgement. Some companies cannot even be persuaded to see the best candidates.

Hiring what you know, not the best

Another fundamental law is that people like the predictability and certainty of choosing people that are 'like them'. This is a group identity need. Often people like the job to be done with a style and in a certain way for no other reason than that is the way they do it or are used to seeing it done. This is not efficient. Indeed, this Comfort Zone is a dangerous place indeed for performance and responsiveness and innovation in business. Take professional advice. Look at what you don't know - it might prove better.

There is no panacea for these problems, but awareness of them is a starting point. As a single piece of advice I would say try to survey the territory from another tree.

Talent Retention Tips

Talent Retention Tips by Craig Donaldson

A recent US white paper found that by 2010, there could be as many as 10 million more jobs available in the country than there are employees.

Further, there is growing evidence of worker dissatisfaction, primarily as a result of layoffs, lack of career growth, and minimal pay has increased over the past several years.

In addition, some employers have become ruthless in order to survive over the past decade, creating aggressive cultures that may not be comfortable for many workers.

The ‘Responding To The Mega-Billion-Dollar Retention Crisis’ white paper, produced by The Ken Blanchard Companies, detailed 10 steps for building retention within organizations:

Show genuine interest and appreciation. Continue to be or become genuinely interested in each person whom you support and depend on.

Make work meaningful. Help people see the connection between what they do and what difference it makes, to the company, the internal or external customers, and society.

Ask courageous questions. Do not shy away from asking why people stay and what it will take to retain them.

Grow competencies, situationally. Look for opportunities to put people into challenging situations where their skills and competencies will grow.

Meet one-on-one, routinely. Conduct regular, but brief one-on-one meetings between manager/leaders and direct reports. Begin by asking, “What’s on your mind?”– then listen and act.

Make retention everyone’s responsibility. Encourage all members of the work group to feel responsible for the retention of their peers and to be alert to problems that can be fixed.

Be a career builder. Talk to people about their long-term career aspirations and help them use or build the skills and competencies they need for the future.

Help people get an “A”. Give the gift of being clear about what an “A” level performance looks like.

Manage the meaning of change. Move toward people in uncertain times, including personal and organizational change. Be there and be open. Check in with people often.

Walk your talk. Be aware that people are always watching and assessing you and your actions as a leader.

Retaining Talent

Retaining Talent

With the economy growing at a steady pace, companies are facing newer challenges. In particular, the Human Resources Department has to change its approach to managing Human Capital.

Gone are the days when the employer called the shots. Today with more people-centric business models it has become ever more crucial to be able to retain talent. The loss of talent in a firm can adversely affect the firm’s ability to succeed.

Many companies have yet to be more innovative in talent retention. Improving talent retention should be the primary aim of every manager.

We list some tips to improve talent retention below:

• Select the right people in the first place through behavior-based testing and competency screening.

• Offer an attractive, competitive, benefits package with components such as life insurance, disability insurance and flexible hours.

• Provide opportunities for people to share their knowledge via training sessions, presentations, mentoring others and team assignments.

• Demonstrate respect for all employees at all times. Listen to them; use their ideas; never ridicule or shame them.

• Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results.

• People want to enjoy their work. Make work fun. Engage and employ the special talents of each individual.

• Enable employees to balance work and life. Allow flexible starting times, core business hours and flexible ending times.

• Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible.

• Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance.

• Base the upside of bonus potential on the success of both the employee and the company and make it limitless within company parameters.

• Recognize and celebrate success.
• Staff adequately so overtime is minimized for those who don't want it and people don't wear themselves out.

• Nurture and celebrate organization traditions. Run a food collection drive every Christmas. Pick a monthly charity to help. Have an annual company dinner at a fancy hotel.

• Provide opportunities within the company for cross-training and career progression. People like to know that they have room for career movement.

• Provide the opportunity for career and personal growth through training and education, challenging assignments and more.

• Communicate goals, roles and responsibilities so people know what is expected and feel like part of the in-crowd.

•Encourage employees to have good, even best, friends, at work.

These tips will go a long way to make your organizations that truly appreciate and treasure employees. The returns are immeasurable. If you treat your employees really well, you will not lose them and will not lose your competitiveness.

Blurring the Distinction Between Work and Play

Culture Shift: Blurring the Distinction Between Work and Play By Paul Levesque

High-performance businesses understand the four elements that can turn any kind of work into an energizing play-like activity for all employees.

The moment you set foot in a high-energy workplace you can feel the difference. Employees move faster and smile more. They all seem to be deeply engrossed in something enjoyable—and it is no illusion. In the name of research, I directly asked scores of workers in a variety of high-performance businesses: "Do you find the work you do here enjoyable?"

The work they do may be different, but their answers all sound alike—all use words like "fun" and "satisfying" to describe their jobs. A theme that pops up again and again in their answers has to do with their perception of time. They are constantly kept busy—but amazingly, they cite this as a big plus as time on the job then passes quickly.

This of course represents the very opposite of the traditional clock-watcher image of an employee bored stiff. References to "fun" and "time flying by" are usually associated with pleasant games or pastimes—forms of play, rather than work. To help us understand how some businesses make work feel more like play, we need to review the four elements that make play itself enjoyable.

1. The Element of Challenge

Disgruntled employees often describe their jobs as "boring," "repetitious," and "pointless." But now visit any bowling alley. Each time a bowler manages to knock all the pins down, a mechanical contraption promptly sets them right back up again. Wouldn’t this qualify as one of the most boring, repetitious and pointless human activities ever devised? Yet many bowlers cannot wait to get away from their boring jobs and pay money to take part.
Would bowling be even more fun if the pins were closer, and therefore easier to knock down?

Everyone understands that it's precisely the challenge of attempting something difficult that gives structured play activities—such as bowling, golf, billiards, etc.—their basic appeal. And a particularly stimulating challenge theme in many children's games—like paddle-ball, hot potato and others—are often based on a "keep the kettle boiling" theme.

In businesses, the challenge is to keep the lines moving through the store, keep the cars flowing through the drive-through, keep the shelves stocked with fresh product. The whole operation is one big keep-the-kettle-boiling game from opening to closing, and the workers love the challenge.
Culture Shift Opportunity: Do the workers in your businesses feel they're engaged in a challengingly difficult shared objective?

2. A Clear Set of Rules

In play activities, the rules by which the game can and cannot be played are clearly understood by all the players. In most workplaces, the rules are vague and keep changing. But in high-energy businesses, employees are all aligned toward a single challenging objective: delighting every customer every time. Everyone understands the rules—for example, you must do nothing to harm the organization in any way while you strive to deliver a delightful customer experience.
Culture Shift Opportunity: Do your employees have clear rules, core values, or other guidelines that spell out what is and isn't allowed during the pursuit of their shared objective?

3. A Scoring Mechanism for Immediate Feedback

All play activities allow participants to track how well they and the other players are doing at all times. Would these activities be as enjoyable if this form of immediate feedback were removed? How much fun would golf be, for example, if the players could not see the cup, and had the results mailed to them at home weeks afterward?
In many business settings, if workers receive positive feedback about their work at all, it's only during formal "performance review" meetings—too late to have much impact. Contrast this with workplaces focused on customer delight, where employees receive immediate feedback every day in the form of appreciative comments from happy customers, generous tips, and the cheerful return of "regulars." Their work earns these employees a succession of "high scores" that keep them motivated.
Culture Shift Opportunity: Does your staff get to receive positive feedback on a regular and timely basis—whether from managers or customers?

4. The Satisfaction of Winning

In football, the lively reaction each time a player scores a touchdown makes it clear the accomplishment is extremely satisfying.

When energized businesses "score" (i.e., when the feedback makes it clear they're delivering a delightful experience and attracting business away from competitors), their satisfaction can be as great as that experienced by players in any structured game.Culture Shift Opportunity: Instead of looking for ways to change workers so they'll be more motivated on the job, look for ways to change the job to make it more motivational for workers.

Diversity a Top Trend for 2008 in Executive Recruiting

Diversity a Top Trend for 2008 in Executive Recruiting
By Kel & Partners

Polachi, the leading provider of Access Executive Search services to technology, life sciences, clean tech, venture capital and private equity clients, released its top trend predictions for executive recruiting in 2008.

1. Alternative Energy/Clean Tech to Tap Pharma Execs: "Clean tech will continue to grow and will take executives from other industries to lead them," says Dr. Christopher Palatucci, Life Sciences Practice Leader. "Pharma, and increasingly biotech, are attractive targets for alternative energy industries as these executives have relevant product development experience, and as the executives seek exits due to pharma's continuing pipeline and other woes."

2. Finance Experience at the Board Level: "Boards will continue to need outsiders, particularly qualified financial types," says Charley Polachi, Partner and co-Founder.

3. Diversity at Larger Companies: "Larger companies are especially putting on a big push for diversity," says Paul Moran, Partner. "They recognize that having a more multicultural representation leads to improved products and services for the ever-expanding minority and international markets."

4. Rise of the "Outside" Chief Technology Officer: "The demand for VP's of Engineering and CTO's continues to be strong in our markets and looks likely to continue," says Brigid Oliveri Siegel, Partner. "In particular, companies in the $100 million to $300 million range with aspirations of growing to $500 million and beyond will be looking to bring in fresh ideas with CTOs from outside their company."

5. Sales & Marketing of Enterprise Software: "With more enterprise software companies targeting businesses as well as consumers, there is a growing need for sales and marketing executives who have experience selling into both B2B and B2C markets," says Rebecca Foreman, Vice President.

6. Global Interest from VC/PE Industry: "An increasing number of venture capital and private equity firms will progressively seek international exposure," said Karen Burke D'Agostino, Partner. "There is a particularly high level of interest in China and India."

7. Favoring of Strategic Leadership Skills "Strategic leadership skills will increasingly be favored over specific domain expertise amongst CEOs and other senior functional executives," said Jim Poe, Partner. "We are seeing a swing back toward the recruiting environment of the late 90's and away from the excessively stringent selection criteria imposed by investors and boards that was common in the early years of this decade."

More International Search Assignments

Last week saw an increase in oversea assignments: for Japan and China. Clients were looking for legal counsels and senior general accounting manager in Japan and China.

The client was sighing as he was having difficulty searching for good legal counsel for his Japan operation. We got our colleagues in Japan into action and got a handful of really solid legal counsels for him, just in a week’s time. The client was so impressed and wanted us to search for a legal counsel for his China operation. About 4 hours after we spoke, our colleagues in Shanghai got 2 great candidates for him to consider. The client will be in Shanghai to do the interviews this week.

It is good that the regional executive search assignments are coming along and we are grateful that our regional team is able to do a good job to keep our client happy.

In case you are looking for Search Consultants to help you in the Asia Pacific region, do feel free to contact us. You will be glad you did.

Increase In Demand For Legal Counsel

It appears that there is an increase in demand for legal counsels recently. This has resulted in an increase in the salary of legal counsels.

Just recently, we received several requests for legal counsels, including one for Japan and one for China. We were able to produce good candidates within a week and it was really gratifying to hear the clients graciously complimenting our team for producing quality candidates in a short span of time.


For Singapore, we got several requests and through our strict and thorough screening process, we were able to find a few quality candidates. Candidates were asking for approximately a 20% premium. The companies did not mind that. I guess that the priority is to fill up the position, and salary is a secondary concern.

Just in case you are looking for legal counsels for your Asia Pac operations, do feel free to contact us at 65-62260080. You will be glad you did.

A CASE OF PROMPT QUALITY SERVICE

How about this for PROMPT QUALTIY service?

We got an email from a reputable client. One of their staff had just resigned and they needed a replacement quickly. We called the client to get more information and quickly contacted a few potential qualified candidates immediately. After discussion with the candidate, we submitted her candidate profile to the client.
Guess what? The client liked her profile and an interview was arranged for the next day.

The rest is history. The client likes the candidate and the candidate loves the client.

This is really a case of PROMPT QUALITY service.

For employers: remember to give us a call to enjoy prompt quality service. (Tel: 65 6226 0080)

For job seekers: remember to send us your CV if you do not want to miss out valuable career opportunities. (ess@ltc-cpa.com)

How To Find Top Performers

How To Find Top Performers

There has been a lot of talk about businesses struggling in this weak economy. We have heard of slumping sales, budget cutting, lay-offs and even business closures. But that is not the case for everybody. A minority of businesses are thriving in this economy, reaching goals and doing better than ever.

Managers of these successful businesses always seem to praise the individuals who are working for them and the productivity they provide. On the same note, many struggling business managers blame their people.

Whereas successful businesses always seem to praise their people, they should praise their "people systems." It is actually the strict hiring process and competent coaching/managing/motivating system that promotes their success.

Once a company realizes there is no guesswork or gamble involved in hiring, developing or retaining employees, and it creates consistent people systems, a company is well on its way to success.

There are three things successful businesses always do better than their counterparts.

First, they put the right person in the right position the first time through job matching.

Second, they "individually" train, manage and coach their employees.

And third, they know when it is time to replace a struggling non-producer.

With proven, consistent hiring and managing systems, companies improve retention, sales, teamwork and leadership effectiveness. Besides these vast improvements in productivity and revenues, another positive is they do not have to replace as many employees as they had to in the past, thus greatly saving recruitment, hiring and training costs.

Peter Drucker, the famous management guru, writes, "Chances are good that 66 percent of your company's hiring decisions will prove to be mistakes in the first 12 months." Whether these struggling, non-producers are replaced or not, this means that two of three employees should never have been hired for the job they hold.

Through job matching, successful companies know how well a candidate fits the position before making a hiring decision. By building "Job Success Patterns" based on the behavior traits, interests and skills of the top performers in every position, and comparing candidates to these benchmarking standards, a company will know how well a person will perform the job if hired, thus eliminating the guesswork and risk of hiring.

As companies continue to struggle with the 80/20 dilemma (80 percent of their productivity comes from 20 percent of their workforce), and managers spend more than 60 percent of their time on personnel issues stemming from miscast employees, they must realize the hiring issue will not take care of itself. If ignored, the problem will only get worse.

A hiring system should never take "gut feel" into consideration. In his book, "Hire With Your Head," Lou Adler wrote, "First impressions based on emotions, biases, chemistry, personality and stereotyping cause more hiring mistakes than any other single factor."

Without creating thorough job descriptions and benchmarks built on top performers for every position in your company and then comparing candidates to this organized data to measure job fit, gut feel is still playing a major role in the hiring process. Sure, the resume and interview can help you measure the skill, experience and company match, but that is just a minute portion of what you need to know before hiring. Experts estimate information gathered from exaggerated resumes and rehearsed interview answers is only 10 percent of the information required to make a sound hiring decision.

The essence of the total person, or the remaining 90 percent, is gathered by considering the candidate's skills and abilities, occupational interests and behavioral traits. This is the documented data you have on your current employees and your top performers.

Whereas every employee is a unique individual with diverse experience, ability, interests and behaviors, most companies continue to train, coach and motivate every individual exactly the same. In addition, they expect the same productivity from these individuals.

In 1999, the Harvard Business Review wrote, "In these days of talent wars, the best way to keep your stars is to know them better than they know themselves - and then use that information to customize the careers of their dreams." Without truly knowing the interests, significant behavioral tendencies, preferred style of performing a job and motivators, it is virtually impossible to receive the maximum productivity from an employee.

How to Retain High Performers

How to Retain High Performers

By Ron Elsdon

Despite the economic slowdown, voluntary employee turnover — coupled with retention of valued workers — remain critical issues. This is a marked contrast to previous downturns. Layoffs can cause significant upheaval within an organization, prompting even the most valued employees to be uncertain about their futures.

There are two types of employee turnover: unavoidable and avoidable. Unavoidable turnover results from life decisions that extend beyond an employer's control, such as a decision to move to a new area or a job transfer for a spouse. Avoidable turnover is something organizations can take certain steps to prevent by hiring, evaluating and motivating their employees more effectively.

Employers today should focus on preserving their top talent and reducing turnover rates by taking proactive measures before it is too late. Here are ten strategies to select, motivate, and keep high-performance individuals:

1. Hire the Right Person — Most voluntary turnover is due to issues of "chemistry" or "fit" within an organization. Employers are quickly adopting the strategy of "hire for fit, train for skill." By doing a thorough analysis of the success factors required for a position, you'll be better prepared to conduct a behavioral-based interview process.

2. Integrate for Success — The first few weeks of employment are the most critical time to lay the groundwork for long-term employee commitment. Turnover can be cut dramatically by implementing a thorough, well-executed orientation program. Demonstrating employer commitment to a new hire's success early on fosters trust and commitment from the employee in the organization.

3. Phase in Training — Rather than throw a new employee into several weeks of job-specific training right away, provide them with basic training at the outset. As they build experience and time with the company, you can then offer further training in recognition of their growth.

4. Provide Growth Opportunities — The irony of retaining good people is that the more they feel they are able to grow and become more marketable, the more likely they are to stay. Employees are taking ownership of their careers and recognize the need to continuously refine and upgrade their skills. The more easily accessible and relevant training you can offer, the greater the likelihood that turnover rates will decline.

5. Align Aspirations with Contributions — Try to match the skills and interests of your employees with their work assignments. Do employees seem interested or best suited to what they're doing? Provide an environment where employees can make the necessary adjustments to ensure that they are effectively aligned with what the company needs them to do and what they are best at and enjoy doing.

6. Motivate the Troops — Assess the underlying motivators for work beyond the paycheck. High-tech employees are often motivated when recognized for their unique skill-sets, whereas a service organization is more likely to have employees excited about helping others. Check your assumptions, and then design strategies to reinforce what matters most.

A key factor in motivating employees is creating a sense affiliation within the organization, which means having a two-way relationship based on meeting mutual needs. A recent study DBM conducted with over 400 companies across the US, revealed that creating an inspiring vision — motivating employees to feel a strong sense of purpose in their organization — is critical to building a sense of affiliation for employees with their organizations. The stronger the affiliation, the higher the level of productivity (and incidentally the retention rate).

7. Make Rewards Count — Rewards should be immediate, appropriate, and personal. Receiving a bonus check at the end of the year may mean less than smaller, more frequent payouts. A personal note means more than a generic company award. You may want to survey employees for their input on desired forms of recognition, then use the findings when it comes time to reward employees.

8. Enlist Problem Solvers — When possible, invite employees to help solve company problems. Rather than stating the problem from a corporate perspective and implementing a solution, discuss the consequences of the problem with employees and enlist their aid in helping to solve it. This shared approach creates deep ownership for employees in the company's success.

9. Practice What You Preach — People do not necessarily commit to "an organization;" they commit to the employees and culture that drive the organization. Employees are most content when they are able to become an integral part of their work community. Establish your corporate values, and then make sure you walk the talk.

10. Sweat the Exit Interview — Knowing why employees leave an organization is instrumental in understanding turnover rates. Exit interviews should be conducted either in person or on the telephone by an independent third-party interviewer, who is skilled in exploring sensitive issues. Tracking reasons for departures may uncover patterns that, when addressed, help stem further turnover.

The costs associated with losing an employee are well-documented, ranging anywhere from one to five times salary depending on exempt versus non-exempt status. Beyond the obvious costs of recruiting and training new employees are the many hidden consequences of employee turnover, which include lost productivity, reduced morale, lost intellectual capital and, perhaps worst of all, lost business. Don't make the mistake of ignoring the reasons for turnover in your organization.

"Show me the money" is not the only mantra of today's worker, and organizations must recognize that and adapt their retention strategies accordingly.

The Importance of Networking and Relationship Building

The Importance of Networking and Relationship Building

By Craig D. Sandok, Esq. - Search Consultant

Why do we network? It is the most powerful way to build professional relationships, actively foster contacts and disseminate information.

In 1994, it was estimated that the average person would change jobs 10.3 times during their life. In the year 2000, the average person would have three to five different career changes. These figures indicate that you better understand that people skills, personality, the ability to communicate, and the ability to build a network are key to keeping a job. Most major law firms and corporations now have marketing departments, an indication that people have to get along with people.

Statistics from the Federal Bureau of Labor indicate that 70 percent of all jobs are found through networking (personal contacts). A mere 15 percent are through a search firm, 10-12 percent through want ads, 4 percent have been found by people creating their own jobs, and 2 percent by blindly sending out resumes. More people are hired by being in the right place at the right time than for any other single reason. But you can't take advantage of that unless you stay in contact with your network. This is the main reason to have a network.

How do you build and maintain a network? Most people personally know at least 250 other people, and have even more acquaintances. Harvey McKay, a well-known author and speaker, suggests keeping a rolodex of everyone you know and putting a little something about that person on each card. McKay also suggests that you update your rolodex on who you meet daily. Get to know other paralegals -- get involved in MPA and NFPA; go to Sectionals; get on a MPA committee currently meeting. This could include the annual meeting, nominations and elections, winter gala, etc. Go out of your way to meet every single person that you have the opportunity to meet. Meeting new people will be easier for some than for others, but it will be worth your while. If networking is hard for you, start on a smaller scale - but start! The other thing I must say is be genuine, because people know if you are a phony. For some, it may take reading books to learn to genuinely like and meet new people.

Volunteering can help people who are shy or who find it hard to meet new people break out of their shells. Volunteering will afford you a smaller group to start and then you can build on that. Plus volunteering will build self-esteem and confidence faster than anything else because you are helping others. Always deliver more than you are asked to deliver.

Beware of networking errors.

(1) Be sincere;
(2) Do not ask for (or expect) payback;
(3) Respect other people's time;
(4) Follow through on promises;
(5) Use special care with referred 'friends';
(6) Do not make disparaging jokes;
(7) Err on the side of politeness and formality;
(8) Do not wait to be properly introduced - practice a self-introduction; and
(9) Say thank-you.

Even if you aren't looking for a job, it is always important to keep adding to your network -- both inside and outside your industry. Networking allows you to be in a position to win and be in with the decision makers who are making things happen. You can't take advantage of that unless you position yourself to win by staying in contact with your network.

One of the more important sayings I've heard is, "It is not what you know, it is not who you know, it is what you know about who you know." Another saying that we have all heard, "They do not care what you know until they know that you care"!

I want to end with this - did you see the movie Erin Brockovich? Without giving anything away, do you know why Erin was so successful? It wasn't because of the way she dressed (and I do not recommend dressing like that), or the way she spoke -- because she definitely could have used better language. It wasn't her education either, although she was very smart. It was the fact that she really cared for others, could relate to them, and others trusted her with everything they had. So above all else, you need to honestly care about what you are doing and learn to relate and work with people.

STAYING AHEAD WITH PROGRESSIVE HUMAN CAPITAL STRATEGIES

STAYING AHEAD WITH PROGRESSIVE HUMAN CAPITAL STRATEGIES
Adapted from a research paper by Forrester Research


The professional workforce is dramatically changing as a new generation of younger, college-educated workers launches their careers at the same time that a large number of senior employees reach retirement age. To effectively manage this changing workforce at both ends of the age spectrum, companies need Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCOs), who have a different focus from traditional human resources executives. CHCOs should have business backgrounds and focus on aligning the workforce with the corporate strategy, whereas HR executives focus primarily on recruiting, benefits, promotion paths, evaluations, compensation, workplace diversity, equal employment, etc. Organizations need both types of human resource executives to address the needs of a workforce that is seeing a technically savvy generation begin to replace the retiring labor force.

Between 1946 and 1964, 76 million workers were born in the US. This massive population bulge is now are getting ready to retire, leaving a significant hole in their wake and creating serious concerns for many organizations with highly skilled workers who have built their expertise through years of on-the-job training. Industries now facing this problem include government, oil and gas, utilities, transportation, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, education and healthcare. Most enterprises don’t realize the magnitude of this problem or the force with which it will hit businesses during the next five years. Those that do are grappling with the complexity of issues surrounding the knowledge drain. Some initiatives being considered and implemented are mentoring programs, contracting retired employees to work part-time, deploying new systems that reduce the reliance on knowledge-intensive work (for instance, through implementing self-diagnosing equipment to replace inspections by highly trained engineers) and by considering knowledge management initiatives.

The new generation of workers – the ‘Millennials’ (those born between 1980 and 2000) – have an innate ability to use technology, are comfortable multi-tasking while using a diverse range of digital media, and literally demand interactivity as they construct knowledge. Millennials lack the workaholic drive of their burned-out predecessors, but they compensate by using many technologies – often simultaneously – to get the job done quickly (and have a personal life as well). They don’t have the skills and experience of the many retirees they are replacing, but they look to technology to help fill this gap. Managers must understand the work style differences among the multi-generational workforce and develop collaborative work environments that give Millennials the information they need – just-in-time and integrated with the job.

Geographically, trends are consistent. Like their North American counterparts, European businesses and government agencies are beginning to grapple with the retiring workforce. Many European countries have an even bigger problem than the US and Canada, as declining birth rates and low immigration levels combine with early retirements to create acute skilled labor shortages in fields requiring extensive technical training and experience. European industries feeling the impact include government, banking, oil and gas, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and airlines.

Human capital management is a critical initiative to help develop plans for mentoring, succession planning, recruiting and establishing a new mindset to come up with ways to address the challenges.

Several key best practices for human capital management initiatives include:

• Find out what you are up against. Don’t just guess about the timing and numbers of workers planning to retire – find out when employees plan to retire. Build a detailed knowledge base about who, when, the job role, the worker’s skills and experience, and the impact of their departure on the organization.

• Build a knowledge base of available skills. Identify the skills and competencies of all employees, and develop plans for building skills and experience in employees that are currently lacking.

• Designate a chief human capital officer. This new role complements traditional human resources management by addressing strategic business considerations while HR managers take care of the tactical nature of hiring such as recruitment and benefits.

• Implement succession planning. Develop a plan for identifying successors – even if the timeframes are long term – and for building the necessary skills of future candidates for promotion.

• Implement mentoring programs. Many agencies have found mentoring to be highly effective, and recommend it in conjunction with succession planning and hiring younger workers. However, be warned that finding effective mentors who are motivated to convey their knowledge to younger employees and are skilled at mentoring is difficult and often requires appropriate rewards.

• Consider a flexible workforce. Enterprises should not only draw on full-time, permanent workers but also incorporate part-time, seasonal and on-call workers. The key benefit from a nonstandard workforce is flexibility when fluctuations in work demand require to quickly scale up or reduce staff.

• Provide career planning. In addition to managers and leaders reviewing employees’ competencies on a quarterly basis, workers should indicate their career interests five years out and then work on development programs to achieve those goals.

• Focus on competencies instead of credentials. Given the outlook for tighter talent pools, the key to future success is to understand what competencies will be critical to future operations and focus recruiting and retention activities on ensuring these mission-critical skills are available to support operations.

• Overcome the bias against younger workers in some industries by implementing intern programs. This allows younger workers to see if they like the work environment and supervisors and managers can assess the interns' ability to perform the job within the company’s culture.

• Use human capital management software tools. Human capital management software tools assist in tracking all aspects of worker employment, from administrative transactions to strategic talent management and employee development.

How To Get Yourself Promoted

How To Get Yourself Promoted
By Long Yun Siang

1. Where Are You and Why Are You There?
How do you get yourself promoted? First you will need to have a reference point. Ask yourself, where are you now? And why are you there? Is there any key strength that has brought you where you are now that you can continue to leverage for the next promotion? Are there any weaknesses that you really need to correct before the next promotion is possible? These questions, while simple, are strategic. It allows you to check your strengths and weaknesses. It forces you to access what has worked and what will work to get you promoted.

2. Where Do You Want To Be and How Do You Get There?
You would need to have an objective and a plan. Just saying that you want to get promoted is not enough. You need to be clear on your next position. Is it a promotion to a different department or a different branch? Be specific and write this down.

Now that you have written this down, how do you plan to get that promotion? Develop a plan to achieve that objective. If you are lucky, you can even work this out with your immediate boss. Most bosses do not promise that promotion at such discussions but at the very least you get an idea of what are the expectations.

3. Put Pride, Passion and Belief In Everything You Do
People who get promoted are those that have a sense of pride in their work. And they take pride in their work. They are driven by genuine enthusiasm and desire to do their best no matter how small the job. They believe in themselves and they believe in the bigger goals of their unit or department and company. How do you get promoted? Ask yourself; do you conduct yourself with pride, passion and belief?

4. Back it Up with Skills/Knowledge, Direction and Action
Having pride, passion and belief is only part of how to get promoted. It must be backed up skills and knowledge. That means having the necessary skills and knowledge to do a superb job. Having a direction is important to guide that energy generated by your passion. Otherwise, effort is wasted. Without action which is the actual completion of the task, all else is academic. You will be judged by what you do.

5. See Challenges As Opportunities
Another obvious tip on how to get promoted is to see challenges as opportunities. Very often I see young executives being thrown challenging assignments, which they choose to see as an additional chore. If you want to be promoted, look at challenges as opportunities to shine. Do not complain about hard work, how hard you worked or if your assignment is tougher than your colleagues’. Trust me, no one wants to know how hard you work. In everyone’s mind, their own work is the hardest.

6. What Is Your Part?
Know your part and play your part. What is your role? Are you an implementer? Or are you a leader? Know exactly what you need to do in order for your unit to achieve its goals. Knowing your part means being a team player. No one can succeed without help from others. We all need the support of colleagues. When the team succeeds, you succeed too.

7. Do Your Best NOW
I consider this as one of the most important tip on how to get promoted. Do your best NOW. Today. This week’s tasks and projects. Do not bask in the glory of your previous work. That is gone. In all likelihood, no one else cares about it, especially your bosses. Do not think too much about future projects that are not implemented yet. That is in the future. It is not here yet. Focus on DOING your best NOW. It determines how you are being judged. When you reflect too much on the past and think too much about the future, you forget to focus on the NOW.

8. Do More Than Necessary
If you want to know how to get promoted, do more than the necessary. That means volunteering for work and taking the initiative to make a job better. It also means not sitting around waiting for work to come to you. Bosses like people who can help them solve problems. Even if the problem is not yours, but if you feel you can be of help and have the expertise to solve it, volunteer to help. You become the team’s competitive advantage when you do that. And bosses like people who give their unit an advantage over the others. Helping your team stay ahead is then helping you stay ahead too.

9. Do Work from The Next Level Up
If you continue doing work for your current position then you truly deserve your current position. People who know how to get promoted know that if you want the position next level up, you start doing some of those works from that level now. If you are a senior executive now, do some work that is only expected of an assistant manager (assuming that is the next level up). This allows you to demonstrate that you are capable of that position already.

How You Can Make a Career Shift Confidently

How You Can Make a Career Shift Confidently

by Susan Eckert

More and more people are following this previously unpopular career path. In fact, it’s becoming much more common for men and women, especially those in their 30s and 40s to do just that.
Tragic world events have also contributed to this new phenomenon—people are reconsidering work/life balance issues, their legacy, and how they want to be contributing to this world in the here and now. Doctors, interested in work/life balance and greater safety, are nurturing their artistic interests. Corporate employees, desiring greater independence, are swapping suits for bathrobes and starting up home-based businesses.

You can change your line of work and yet be successful.

If you do your research and plan well, you’ll be able to make a confident, well-informed decision about making a career change. Knowing the answers to the following 10 questions will provide you with the information, motivation and confidence to move forward and choose the right new line of work for you.

1. What are your skills and competencies?

Make a list of your general (e.g. management, organization) and technical skills (e.g. specific software skills, other industry-specific skills). Don’t stop until you’ve exhausted your list. Refer to online career development sites for help.

2. Which of your skills are transferable?

Note where you are strong, average, and/or weak. Also note your preferred skill set—which responsibilities do you enjoy.

3. What key competencies are required to be successful in your new field of interest?
Talk to others in the line of work you wish to pursue—ask them to list the key competencies that enable them to be successful. Check with the headhunters you know. They should be able to give you some good advice. Match these against your list.

4. How many of these key competencies do you currently have?
Are they your strongest skills? Where are the gaps?

5. If there are skills you don’t have, ask how you might build them.
Talk to people you know, in your targeted line of work, and check with them on how to build the skills that you are lacking. If you know any headhunters, do check with them for ideas.

6. Would school or a certificate program support you in making the transition?
If so, can you/do you want to pursue this option?

7. What would making the change entail?
Would there be a temporary setback in pay? If so, can you live with the temporary adjustments? What are your financial obligations? Are you able to cope in the short term?

8. What are the costs/benefits of staying right where you are now?
Have you carefully considered and weighed the positives/negatives of your current situation? Determine whether or not the negatives can be improved by a change in environment. Or, do the negatives revolve around the work and a conflict with your interests?

9. What are the cost/benefits of making a change?
Consciously make a list of cost and benefits. Be as detailed as possible.

10. Which is more appealing to you?
Once you’ve weighed the positives and negatives to both options, what have you found?

Once you know the answers to these questions, a clear choice should emerge, and you should be armed with key information to help you find work in your new field. Having a list of your strengths and transferable skills, and a clear understanding of how this new field better fits with your lifestyle, interests, etc. can also help you present yourself in a compelling way to a prospective employer or business partner.

Moving ahead
If the benefits clearly outweigh the costs, or, if you’re completely adamant about making the change, then carry a list of the benefits/reasons why you want to make the change in your back pocket. Anytime a “doubting Thomas” thought pops up, squash it by reading the list aloud.

If it still sounds good, then keep going—you will achieve your goal!

Boost Employee Morale - Part 2

Boost Employee Morale - Part 2

(Low morale - low profits. High morale - high profits.)


By: Terri Levine

1) Research and analyze, with employee and management participation, to determine just what factors are at play that affect morale within their organization. You will find this includes things that involve individual satisfaction with work roles right through to ineffective company policies and practices or lack of clear direction, poor management, etc. Brainstorm ways in which grievances and complaints that affect morale can be turned around - put in place improved methods and let it be seen by employees and management alike that procedures are in progress that address these issues. Openly invite and encourage honest employee feedback.

2) Motivate employees and management - ask for their ideas on motivational practices, rewards, etc. that they consider valuable and implement those that can be implemented. Recent research has indicated that company paid-for training is more highly regarded by employees than the provision of a company car. Training and the continuous upgrading of skills and education more readily assures an employees future employability and promotional prospects, whereas a company car does neither.

3) Always show appreciation to every employee, no matter where they are on the ladder. Let staff know you take pride in them and their efforts. Make a fuss over success - acknowledge successes openly.

4) Self-empower. Encourage individuals to take responsibility for their work roles and to feel free to suggest and implement ways in which procedures might be improved. Let them have a hand in setting job goals.

5) Prepare a new company mission statement - but this time include the active participation of every employee - this allows them to feel involved in the future direction of the company.

6) Promote a "family" atmosphere, encourage workers to care about each other, to support each other and trust each other. Suggest such things as car pooling, or develop a Social Club. Offer barbecues.

7) Promote pride in the company. Employees today are concerned with the values and ethics of their employers. Ensure the company is one in which the employees can take pride.
8) Show interest in individuals - permit them to be human during work hours. It is not possible to leave personal issues at home - it doesn't work that way. People appreciate care being shown to them and assistance to deal with personal issues. Today's manager must also be an adviser, counselor, coach, trainer and a good listener!

9) Find other ways in which life can be made more pleasant and easier for employees. This can be organizing affordable daycare facilities for children, flexible work timetables, gym memberships, weight loss program assistance, counseling, etc.

10) Show loyalty. Before laying off employees, discuss with their department ways in which layoffs might be avoided. Let it be seen that the company really is trying to avoid laying off anybody. Some people may even suggest a cut in pay for the short term until business picks up, in order that everyone may still keep their job. You'd be surprised how inventive employees can be, given the opportunity. Let employees know that promotional opportunities are available and help them achieve their goals.

11) Finally, how is the working environment? The workplace should be safe and pleasant. Don't expect employees to use outdated, faulty equipment or furniture. Ensure airconditioning and heating systems function correctly, and noise levels are acceptable. Are there adequate carparking facilities? Is the area well-lit? And with anxieties at an all time high regarding increased terrorist activity, make sure you have emergency procedures in place to protect the workforce in the event of an attack, and ensure every employee is aware of these procedures.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and an improved morale will not happen overnight. A key factor in boosting morale and productivity is employee participation in making and/or changing rules and procedures/policies. Having a say makes them feel "part" of the company and gives them a vested interest in outcomes. Having a loyal and motivated staff will produce innumerable benefits, including increased productivity and the resultant increase in profitability.

Pay rises and bonuses are soon forgotten, but ongoing praise, self-worth, a sense of importance and achievement last forever. When you acknowledge and reward good behaviors, you get more of the same. It may be something as simple as the way an employee answers the phone, or neat work, or timely completion of tasks, or working overtime one day, or providing good customer service. Every positive behavior should be acknowledged publicly and verbally. Sometimes, on special occasions, a hand-written thank you from the CEO or President is appreciated. Some kind of employee recognition program could be designed by which individuals are given wide recognition for their efforts.

To get out of the slump, businesses can not afford to wait around until they're certain the war is over and they're safe from another terrorist attack, and with or without these fears, there are definite steps that can be taken now and which will make a huge difference to a company's performance. It may sound trite to repeat that people really are a company's best asset, but time and research has found that this is the truth, so whether a business intends to make a profit in the next 6 months, or scrape by in mediocrity, really will depend on how they treat their best asset.