September 7th, 2008
There is a true analogy between politicians and managers. Much like politicians, it seems employees think more of managers they like, regardless of the manager’s effectiveness. Just as the general public listens to the rhetoric of politicians– knowing the politician will accomplish few if any of the promises made, employees listen to the official stance of company policies as expounded by managers. In both cases, the employees and the general public recognize “smoke” when they see it.
Here is the problem. If you are this type of manager, your management style is not effective in today’s environment. In an at-will employment society, in a society where knowledge is the new currency and information is accessible, transparency in communication, behavior, and practices is required. Managers, leaders, and politicians who are transparent are the ones who will endure and able to create sustained change efforts. That is straight talk.
Tags: Leadership, Management, transparency
Posted in Leadership | No Comments »
August 20th, 2008
The question of interest is whether there is a difference between employee bonuses and employee incentives. Employees will call either a “bonus” but rest assured there is a difference to both the employee and employer.
When an organization is doing well, well-intentioned owners want employees to share in the success. Employees will receive bonus. Here is the problem. The employee does not know exactly what she or he did to contribute to the success. If the employee doesn’t know what she or he did right, how will the behavior be repeated? The second problem is that bonuses tend to be equal regardless of how much individual employee did or did not contribute to the company’s success. The bottom line? The bonus is nice momentarily but is not a good investment for the employer.
Better for the employer and employees are incentives. When an employee receives an incentive “bonus”, they have earned it. They understand what they did and how it helped the company. The company benefits because the employee efforts are aligned with the organization’s goal. A bonus is a give-away and an incentive is an investment.
Tags: employee bonus or incentive, employee compensation
Posted in Employee compensation strategies | 1 Comment »
July 18th, 2008
Performance improvement relies upon good communication throughout the analysis, intervention, implementation, and evaluation process. It is increasingly difficult to obtain meaningful feedback through surveys and focus groups rely upon a small sample. Often as a consultant, internal or external, you have no control over the sample participants. Blogs are a way to obtain information.
What we know is that corporations are beginning to mine blogs for valuable customer feedback and information. The role of blogs between employer and employee has potential for meaningful communication as well. The question posed is what roles can blogs fill in the human performance technology process? How can practitioners in the field of human performance improvement, human resources, and training proactively use blogging as a tool, resource, and intervention?
Tags: blogs, HPT, performance improvement
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »