What skills does your organization need to improve on?

Employers rank the importance of skills needed in their employees;

1)       Communication

2)       Strong work ethic

3)       Teamwork…..

10)  Technical

Are you spending only on technical and product training?

What are the top issues/challenges in your organization?

I’m not saying that technical training is not important, you need that base knowledge or you’re not in the game.  But in today’s demanding business environment companies require even more from their employees.   We need people that can work effectively with others, build relationships with customers, communicate effectively and work with a sense of pride for their company.

What surprises me is the emphasis that so many managers and owners put on technical and product training and how they believe how unique their businesses are.  In no way am I saying that all businesses are the same.   It would likely surprise most people that the issues that plague your organization are much the same issues all business owners face.  In our business we have the opportunity to talk to many people in many different businesses and we hear similar kinds of challenges.  And generally most of these issues are on the people side of the skill set.

As your budgeting for training for your staff don’t forget the soft skills.  If you’re not sure what your employees require, there are some great assessment tools available to help assess individual, team and organizational needs. 

Have a great week!

Employee Engagement

A recent article suggested that ½ of all employees are not engaged.  I guess the actual number is irrelevant, whether it’s 30% or 60%, the issue here is what this means to our business and what can we do about this problem.

Here are some statistics that clearly show what engaged employees bring to our business.

·         Mercer Delta data suggests that engaged employees deliver 4 times more value to the company.

·         Gallup research says that engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave an organization.

·         Watson Wyatt’s research suggests that engaged employees are 47% - 202% more productive.

If this problem exists in your organization do you think that changing this, if we can, should be a priority?  I would hope so, if half of my employees are not engaged in what we are doing, where we want to go and don’t care about our customers the business would be finished.

The research doesn’t stop there; they also asked employees what they want.  55% of managers said they wanted inspiration from their leaders and that only 11% were getting it. (Source DTI 2008)  My friends and colleagues have often heard me say that you can’t motivate people, as motivation comes from within, as leaders all we can do is inspire others so that they can motivate themselves.

What is inspiration?

I worked for a President of a company that had this kind of influence on me and others in the company.  One of his ideas was that people may forget what you did or what you said, but they will never forget the way you make them feel. 

What qualities, skills and abilities do business leaders need to engage employees?  The first thing we need to consider is our attitude; we need to believe that we can change, we need to change and that we will do it.  If we have made this commitment to change then here are some principles that will help us engage our employees.

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain
2. Give honest, sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want
4. Become genuinely interested in them
5. Smile
6. Remember and use their names
7. Be a good listener
8. Talk in terms of the their interests
9. Make people feel valued and important, and do it sincerely .

These principles are the first of 30 that Dale Carnegie outlined in the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”  They work if you use them, Warren Buffet measured the difference between using these principles and not using them and in his book “The Snowball Effect” and he said quite simply that they have made a large difference in his business and they work.

I recently watched an episode of Undercover Boss, where an employee said to the undercover CEO that working for the old company was better.  When asked why, she simply said, “If felt more appreciated.”

Lets engage our employees, ask for their input and ideas, give them sincere appreciation and you’ll see a better and more productive work place.