Why is Turnover a Serious Problem?

February 4, 2013 By Comments

  • What does it take to retain people in an organization?
  • What do you do to try to retain the best people?
  • What are your processes for getting the best and the brightest?
  • Who in the organization is primarily responsible for retaining employees?
  • What are the important elements of retention?
  • What are your concerns about retention in your organization?

Organizations are constantly struggling with attracting and maintaining the best employees, while trying to keep costs at a minimum. Not putting enough effort into retaining employees is a mistake that is made over and over again because the impact of turnover is not always directly evident. Organizations have seen that a poor economy does not mean quality people automatically come flooding their direction. Although most managers and leaders are aware that there are consequences of high turnover, many have not taken the time to view them all at once.

These include:

  • High financial cost
  • Survival mentality
  • Loss of productive time and quality of work
  • Poor customer service and organizational image
  • Heightened administrative time
  • Infected culture

The impact of turnover on an individual is also important to note, particularly if it is a problem that could have been avoided. Through turnover, individuals experience:

  • Loss of status and benefits
  • Disrupted finances
  • Wasted efforts
  • Burned bridges
  • Career gaps

At some point, myths in an organization will surface. Many people will believe theses myths are true. These myths can have detrimental effects. Ask these questions to help your organization tackle the serious problem of employee retention:

  • Are your employees recognized for their accomplishments?
  • Are they encouraged to set career goals?
  • Are they placed in projects or assignments that match their goals and help them grow in their career?
  • Are they challenged?
  • Is the training they want available to them?
  • Does their manager give them regular, honest performance reviews?
  • Do they feel supported and well balanced?
  • What do they struggle with?
  • What would make their work easier?

Summary

 

 

Managing people can be one of the hardest jobs in the world. Trying to meet the needs of and make a group of people feel comfortable and at ease, all while maintaining a productive environment, may seem impossible. But it’s not! Taking retention seriously can, in the end, be the best management strategy that you have ever tackled.

 

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Audio/Video Presentations, Career Development, Employee Performance, Resources & Tools Tagged With: ,

What Is Human Resource Development?

July 31, 2012 By Comments

Human Resource Development (HRD) is a practice that combines training, organization development, and career development efforts to encourage improvement of individual, group, and organizational performance. Its purpose is to enhance employee performance/productivity, which leads to employee and customer satisfaction and an increase in the profitability of the organization.

The Four Basic Sections of HRD

HRD is comprised of four basic sections: personal development, professional development, performance administration or management, and organization development. Each section will differ in significance from one organization to the next. The significance of each section within an organization may depend upon the extent of the organization’s focus to improve human resources. Personal and professional development concentrate on the growth and development of the individual, while performance administration or management and organization development place their focus on a whole system approach to the effectiveness of the organization.

Personal Development

Personal development can be defined as the development of new knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that enhance one’s current job performance. The attainment of these new KSAs may be the result of formal and informal learning events, but most often informal, on-the-job, embedded learning is responsible. Personal development is a short-term path to enhancing performance, which results in a lower level of organizational enhancement.

Professional Development

Professional development places its focus on the identification of individual interests, values, and abilities needed to develop KSAs for future employment. Professional development can include both personal and organizational endeavors. Professional Development is more long-term than personal development. It can have more of an impact on organizational efficiency because employees can take advantage of ongoing development opportunities. Professional development is more long-term than personal development. It can have a greater influence on organizational efficiency because employees are presented with ongoing developmental opportunities that increase levels of competency.

Performance Administration or Management

Performance administration or performance management is an approach used to improve organizational performance. Its goal is to assure that the right individuals have the KSAs that support their jobs both effectively and efficiently. Performance administration or management is used to analyze gaps in performance within the organization as a whole and identify interventions effective in bringing about the desired performance. Performance administration or management is often used to bring about short-term return on investment (ROI) needed by organizational leaders to demonstrate their personal leadership success.

Organization Development

Organization Development can be defined as recognizing, creating and implementing a solution to an organization’s weaknesses in performance through team effort. The desired result is a shared enthusiastic attitude toward accomplishing new and existing circumstances or events. The organization’s weakness in performance may be contributed to a procedure that is ineffective. The recognition of this weakness may become apparent through constructive criticism received from clientele or through the inability to maintain competitiveness. The weakness, once identified, should be subjected to a company meeting to solicit ideas for its elimination/improvement. Organization development provides the highest level of organizational efficiency. It requires a more comprehensive performance analysis to identify difficulties and other factors affecting results.

Summary

HRD is the integrated use of training, organization development and career development efforts to improve individual, groups and organization effectiveness. HRD helps to develop key competitiveness that enables individuals in organizations to perform current and future jobs through planned learning activities.  HRD also helps to manage various work groups within organization, motivation issues and manage changes in the organization. HRD ensures an alignment between an individual and the organization’s needs.

 By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Develoment

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Audio/Video Presentations, Career Development, Employee Performance, Resources & Tools Tagged With: , , , ,

Five Steps to Reaching Consensus

July 6, 2012 By Comments

Consensus allows each team member to have an equal influence in the decision-making process.  It represents the best thinking of the team, and all team members support the outcome.  Some team members may not agree with the particular decision, but every team member fully and freely supports the decision once it is made.

The five steps to reaching consensus are:

  1.  Gather information and ideas.
  2. Protect individual viewpoints/promote positive intent and mutual respect.
  3. Base decision on objective information as much as possible.
  4. Blend and integrate ideas to arrive at a decision that everyone can support.
  5. Measure the final outcome by how well it meets the team’s (not individuals’) interests.

Guidelines for Arriving at Consensus

  • Avoid using the majority rule, averages, or coin flips.  These quick decisions are not representative of consensus.
  • Avoid rushing to agreement before everyone has had a chance to express opinions.
  • Encourage honest expression of opinions, even if they conflict with the prevailing discussion.
  • Move from “either/or” choices to “and/but” options.
  • Guard against groupthink.

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Career Development, Employee Performance Tagged With: ,

Teams and Conflict

June 8, 2012 By Comments

Conflict Defined

Conflict is defined as the belief that if you get what you want, I can’t get what I want.  Conflict occurs primarily for one of two reasons:  1) different interests or 2) the same interests, which are in conflict.

Conflict in Teams is Inevitable

Work issues and personality differences guarantee that almost any team will experience at least occasional friction.  However, a team can make a choice between conflict that is destructive or conflict that is healthy and leads to growth and innovation.  The goal is a win-win situation based on common team goals.

Teams that both manage and resolve conflict will benefit and see increases in productivity.  Conflict is constructive when it:

  • Leads to unity of purpose and collaboration
  • Leads to better decision making
  • Produces necessary change

 Healthy Conflict

An apparent absence of conflict may be a sign that a team is functioning ineffectively.  It is essential that the team and the team leader be comfortable with conflict.

  • Constructive conflict indicates that the team is engaged
  • Challenging positions and ideas prevents the team from having dominant members push through their ideas
  • Many team leaders fear conflict and squelch it before needed ideas surface

 Five Styles of Handling Conflict

  1. Competing – Win-at-all-costs attitude
  2. Accommodating – Yielding completely to others
  3. Avoiding – Withdrawing from confrontational situations
  4. Compromising – Striving to meet a mutually acceptable solution
  5. Consensus – The highest cause common to both parties wins

Regardless of what style(s) are used to address conflict there are some basic preconditions to successful resolution.  They are: 

  • Concern for mutual gains and understanding that helping others meet their interests can help you meet yours
  • Creativity and always having a Plan B in mind;
  • Being flexible on solutions and firm on interests
  • Separating people from the problem

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

 

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Audio/Video Presentations, Career Development, Employee Performance Tagged With: , ,

Using Brainstorming as an Approach to Creative Problem Solving

May 23, 2012 By Comments

 

Brainstorming was created by Alex Osborn of the advertising firm Batten, Barton, Durstine, and Osborn to increase the quantity and quality of advertising ideas.  The process became known as brainstorming because the participants’ brains were used to “storm” a problem.  Some people want to discount brainstorming because it is a simple process.  Brainstorming is not to be discounted!

Brainstorming is Effective

Brainstorming is one of the most effective and most widely used group processes for generating ideas.  While the process of brainstorming is simple, it is also highly effective.  It works particularly well for identifying ideas for marketing, product issues, strategies, planning, policy, organization, leadership, staffing, motivation, and communications.  However, Brainstorming does not work particularly well with complex questions.

Basic Structure for Effective Brainstorming Sessions

The following steps provide a basic structure for effective brainstorming sessions:
1. Select a group of six to twelve people.
2. Choose a leader.
3. Choose a recorder (or two).
4. Spend no more than 30 minutes on idea generation.
5. Take a break.
6. Return and critique ideas.

Brainstorming Rules

The four rules for interactive brainstorming to be effective are as follows:
1. No judgments are placed on ideas.
2. All ideas are welcomed.
3. The goal is quantity of ideas.
4. Record all suggestions.

Other Suggestions

Brainstorming works well if each idea is recorded on a sticky note so that the ideas can later be moved, combined, refined, and/or connected. 

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Audio/Video Presentations, Career Development, Instructional Strategies, Needs and Task Analysis Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Laying the Groundwork for a Team Foundation

April 30, 2012 By Comments

 

Characteristics of effective teams include:

  • well-defined goals and priorities
  • Team goals override individual goals
  • Cooperation, not competition
  • Deal with conflict effectively
  • Listen to varying points of view
  • High level of morale
  • Practice open and frequent communication

Characteristics of ineffective teams include:

  • Cliques or subgroups
  • Unequal distribution of resources
  • Uneven participation levels
  • Dysfunctional process
  • Lack of creative problem solving
  • Miscommunication
  • Avoid conflict
  • Domineering personality

Team Values

Before you can build a cohesive team, individual team members must understand their own team values.  When values are not in alignment, individuals feel uncomfortable and conflicted.  The more your values and behavior are in alignment, the less internal conflict you’ll feel.

Honesty, Trust, and Respect

Honesty, trust and respect are foundational values for most teams.  Emotional safety, credibility, dependability, and predictability are all characteristics of honesty, trust and respect.  Emotional safety means addressing problems as they happen, acknowledging your feelings, and taking others’ interests and concerns to heart and conveying that message to them.  Credibility means admitting you don’t know something, or not saying anything rather than stating half-truths.  Dependability means commitments are backed by actions, you make good on your promises, and you can put aside self-interest for the good of the team.  Predictability means clearly establishing and publicizing a system for responding to other team members.

Celebrating Diversity

We all have unique qualities that makes us who we are.  Diversity is defined as the state or instance of being different, having variety, or being dissimilar.  Celebrating diversity means:

  • Valuing each team member for his or her uniqueness
  • Appreciating different backgrounds, styles, values, and attitudes
  • Fostering an environment in which every team member feels valued

Summary

Laying the groundwork for a team foundation means identifying the characteristics of effective and ineffective teams, understanding your own team values, incorporating honesty, trust, and respect, and celebrating diversity.

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Audio/Video Presentations, Career Development, featured Tagged With: , ,

Employee Training and Development

January 4, 2012 By Comments

Training and development is one of the most important investments an organization can make for its growth. The quality of the employees is determined by their experiences and exposure within the organization. When these experiences are restricted in terms of time or opportunity for development, then employees cannot be expected to excel.

Employees rely on training and development to improve their expertise in their current positions and help them prepare for advanced positions. An organization must provide its employees with opportunities for learning and growth. Jobs must be able to enhance skills, incorporate a variety of tasks and responsibilities, and include autonomy and feedback. Jobs that are unrewarding lead to job dissatisfaction.

Employee resignations and turnover is also increased when people are denied opportunities for learning and development. Employees begin to feel that the demands made on them cannot be fully delivered without proper training.

Training and development initiatives raise existing skills and competences among employees to expected standards, while increasing their morale and confidence.

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Career Development, Employee Performance, featured Tagged With: ,

Enhancing Employee Satisfaction

December 28, 2011 By Comments

Human Resource Development (HRD) is a practice that combines training, organizational development, and career development efforts to encourage improvement of individual, group, and organizational performance.  Its purpose is to enhance employee performance and productivity, which leads to employee and customer satisfaction and an increase in the profitability of the organization.

Performance Within an Organizational Setting

An individual’s performance within an organizational setting has been linked to that particular individual’s satisfaction with his or her job.  Enhancing
employee satisfaction is a topic of considerable interest among organizations
and HRD practitioners. Both organizations and HRD practitioners should be
concerned about the job satisfaction of their employees. If employees are satisfied, they want to excel in their positions and meet the needs of the organization and its customers.  Satisfied employees cultivate satisfied customers, which in turn promotes profitability for the organization.

Satisfying the Needs of Employees

Satisfying the needs of its employees represents an enormous challenge for
organizations.  If organizations want to excel, they must first focus on satisfying the needs of their employees so that their employees want to do their jobs. For today’s employees, job satisfaction no longer takes on a materialistic connotation. Organizations can no longer buy employees’ commitment.  Since commitment comes from within the individual employee, the organizational climate in which that employee must function is very important. Work or people or organizations that deplete energy are likely to result, over the long run, in departure.

Organizational Climate

To the extent that the climate of an organization fosters employee enjoyment,
growth, and development, and to the extent that it invigorates its employees
into actions that serve both individual and organizational needs, it also fosters
a high level of employee commitment.

Employees have different views on job satisfaction. Some value task variety and partaking in decisions while others need to be confident about the organization’s future directions.  Still others value benefits and work/life balance.

Summary

Successful organizations need to consider the varying needs of their employees in developing effective human resource development and employee retention
strategy. It is expected that employees’ views on job satisfaction will
vary greatly from individual to individual and strategies that usually work for
one group of employees in a particular environment may not be effective for
other individuals. However, there are many characteristics related to job satisfaction that are common for the majority of employees. Successful organizations position their employees for success by providing the knowledge, education, training, resources, and opportunities necessary to foster a climate contributing to to employee satisfaction.

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Career Development, Employee Performance Tagged With: , ,

Organizational Change and Human Resource Development

October 5, 2011 By Comments

Organizations function in a setting that is subject to change.  Change is attributed to internal or external factors.  Internal changes include changes in organizational strategy, workforce changes, new equipment, and employee attitudes.  External changes include marketplace, governmental laws and regulations, technology, labor markets, and economic changes.

Organizational Change

Changes in the internal and external environment present opportunities that influence the activities of the company either negatively or positively. Therefore, organizations need to identify these opportunities or threats and direct the operations of the company in the right direction.

Internal and external changes affect the organization as a whole.  It is the organization’s responsibility to provide its workforce the necessary knowledge and skills that will take advantage of the opportunities and steer clear of the threats. A well-informed, well-trained  workforce leads to the efficiency in the operations of the organization and is able to focus the activities of the organization towards achieving its objectives.

Human Resource Development

The human resource development (HRD) department is charged with the responsibility of ensuring the organization has the right skills and knowledge in its workforce. HRD is a practice that combines training, organizational development, and career development efforts to encourage improvement of individual, group, and organizational performance.  Its purpose is to enhance employee performance and productivity, which leads to employee and customer satisfaction and an increase in the profitability of the organization.

Summary

The capabilities of the workforce directly impact the organization as they give the organization competitive edge. Due to internal and external changes, the organization must adapt to these changes to avoid revenue loss. To adapt to these changes, the HRD department conducts training with the goal of improving on the capabilities of the organization’s employees. This training is referred to as the HRD. The goal of HRD is to improve the skills and knowledge of the employees towards achieving the objectives of the organization.

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

Filed Under: Career Development, Employee Performance Tagged With: ,

Employee Retention, Turnover Reduction

September 27, 2011 By Comments

Employee turnover costs organizations money and time.  When an employee walks away from an organization, productivity is lost and recruitment, interview, and training time are spent.  An organization can expect to spend anywhere from one month’s to one year’s salary to replace an employee, depending on the complexity of the job and the skill level required. Decreasing the turnover rate can be beneficial to organizations by providing better-trained, more experienced employees and a better opportunity for teams to develop.

What Are Some of the Causes of Employee Turnover?

One cause of employee turnover is boredom.  Employees become bored from performing the same job day after day.  One way to prevent employees from becoming bored is to offer opportunities to learn new skills.  If an employee is not allowed to development new skills, the result may be an employee with good skills but a poor attitude.  If employees are not offered opportunities for advancement, many will eventually seek those opportunities elsewhere.

Another cause of employee turnover is dissatisfaction with their own job performance.  Employees want to succeed and feel competent.  If new employees are inadequately trained, they become frustrated and fell embarrassed because they perform poorly on the job.  Their once positive attitudes become poor.  An employee who once had a positive attitude but poor skills becomes an employee with a poor attitude and poor skills.

Conversely, well trained employees are more likely to have a positive attitude to go along with their skills.  They are dependable, interact positively with other employees, satisfy customers, and are competent in their positions.  They maintain a positive attitude toward themselves, their employer, and their future in the organization.

Summary

Employees can remain interested in their jobs and become more valuable to the organization by being presented with new challenges and opportunities for growth.  One of the most important retention tools that an organization can have is good training.

By Shirley J. Caruso, M.A., Human Resource Development

Filed Under: Adult Learning, Career Development
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