Navigator #176

The Navigator is published by Greg Smith,
Lead Navigator, Chart Your Course International Inc.

View this newsletter and see photos on our website:
http://www.chartcourse.com/Enav-176.html

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PERSONAL NOTE FROM THE LEAD NAVIGATOR

Thanks to everyone who answered our "Biggest Issue" survey question.

You can see the results by clicking the link below.

http://chartcourse.com/survey-bigissue.html

To take the survey, click on this link

http://www.assess.biz/survey_form.asp?m=918&s=2719
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Can You Afford Employees Who Are Unmotivated and Incompetent?
Motivated and Engaged Employees Generate Powerful Results

One of the biggest issues facing many businesses is how to motivate and keep workers engaged with their jobs. Employee engagement goes hand in hand with high job satisfaction, lower employee turnover and better productivity.

Employee Engagement Definition

Our definition of employee engagement is the employee's connection to the work, the organization, their customers, the leaders and the connections they have with their co-workers. Engaged employees stay with their employers, have higher levels of job satisfaction and make significant contributions. Employee engagement is not optional, but an essential requirement to achieve organizational results.

A 2010 survey conducted by the Conference Board showed only 45 percent of Americans are satisfied with their work. This is the lowest level ever recorded by the Conference Board in more than 22 years of research. Businesses that fail to improve job satisfaction not only risk losing their high performers when the economy improves, but it is way more expensive to keep unmotivated and no longer competent workers. A large percentage of unhappy employees are staying just for a paycheck. As a result, many organizations are hamstrung with employees who are only performing at a minimal level. Instead of taking action, they accept it as a matter-of-fact. What a pity.

When working with business owners and executives, it is sometimes useful to put a dollar figure on what disengagement is costing their business. To do this, I ask them to participate in a simple exercise. I give them a piece of paper and they draw a square with four quadrants. Then they divide and place a percentage of their workforce into each of the four quadrants.

For the sake of brevity, I will just cover the first two. The first one is the engaged and competent quadrant. We want to see a big number in that square, but rarely does that percent exceed 30%. The second quadrant is called, unmotivated and incompetent. These people were once motivated, but for some reason they changed. I then ask them to put the number/percent of their workforce in this section. Sometimes they even put names of people inside that square. The next step is to take that number and multiply it by their average salary. Now the cost of disengagement becomes a painful reality. We go through the next two quadrants asking several more questions. This is not a motivational exercise for most people, but it does create a powerful discussion.

How do we fix it? How do you transform people into engaged and competent employees? You have to spend the time to find out why. "Feel good" programs usually don't help and can even make the problem worse. Taking the wrong action can end up costing you even more money. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Here are a few questions you can ask to determine how well your organization is engaging employees:

1. Do employees feel what they are doing is important? Are they connected to the organization's goals and mission?

2. Do employees understand their role? Do they know what goals and objectives are required from them?

3. Are there special development programs for top performers? Are they recognized and rewarded for their actions?

4. Do employees feel as if they are advancing in their careers? Are they growing, developing and improving themselves?

5. Are employees getting frequent and regular informal feedback on their performance? Do they get it more than once a year?

6. Does the employee have a good relationship with his immediate supervisor?

7. Does the organization have strong values, a compelling vision and inspirational leadership?

8. Are employees talents matched with their jobs? Does your organization do a good job hiring the right people?

Find out how your organization ranks with our employee engagement survey tool. Call 770-860-9464 or fill out our contact form on Chartcourse.com.

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Important Workforce Dates

Employee Appreciation Day (March 4)
Employee recognition is a powerful motivator. This is a day set aside to remind employees of how much they are appreciated.

April Fools' Day/Humor at Work (April 1)
Levity on the job can help build rapport, but humor should never be mean-spirited or at the expense of others.

National Employee Benefits Day (April 4)
This year's observance will focus on benefits communications.

Administrative Professionals' Week (April 24-30)
Here is an opportunity for employers to recognize and celebrate the contributions of these key front-line employer representatives.

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work (April 28)
Employers can introduce children to the workplace of their future and encourage them to start thinking now about how their career-related dreams can be achieved.

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Sign Up For Greg's Free Weekly Leadership Tips

Each week Greg will provide you a comprehensive range of very practical and highly effective leadership tools and approaches you can immediately apply to the job. The knowledge you gain will take you and your organization to the next level and help you achieve measurable, bottom-line improvement results in a short period of time.
http://www.chartcourse.com/freebusinesstips.html

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Simple Employee Motivation Tips and Techniques

The Talking Stick
Try introducing the "talking stick" into your office. This idea originated from a Native American tradition. Each month a different person in the office receives the talking stick, which provides that person certain rights and privileges for the month. For example, the "owner" could provide fellow employees one hour a month administrative leave.

Management by Fooling Around
When Herb Kelleher was the CEO of Southwest Airlines, he combined fun and hard work into something he calls "management by fooling around." At the nonconformist airline, everything—from the tickets and boarding passes to the casual dress and occasional costumes attendants wear— clearly demonstrates that something is different.

Man (Person) Overboard Award
CIGNA believes in rewarding employees who go above and beyond for their customers. The Man Overboard Award is a life-saving ring, which the president presents to an employee at a special ceremony. CIGNA also pays teams as high as $25,000 for implementing ideas that improve productivity.

Choose Your Own Reward
A Miami-based business owner rewards her employees with parties, expensive dinners, chauffeured shopping sprees, spa sessions and cooking lessons. She lets her employees decide what they want, and then figures out how much their package costs and also how much additional business they have to generate to cover those costs. Choose your own reward—sounds like fun!

Tech Engineering Bucks
The technicians at the Weather Channel in Atlanta created their own recognition system called Tech Bucks. All they did was Xerox a dollar bill and give five of them out at the beginning of each month. They give them to each other for doing a good job. At the end of the month they tally up who got the most and the winner gets a special prize.

After Dinner Phone Call
Even though you took time during the work day to thank the employee who went "above and beyond," go a step further and call them at home after dinner to say thanks. You might be surprised how much this can mean.

Source: Dynamic Ideas to Reward, Energize and Motivate Your Teams

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TOOLS, PRODUCTS & RESOURCES

Tall Ships
Building Effective Teams

Raise your team's effectiveness with Tall Ships, the fast-paced simulation that challenges teams to race against the clock — and others teams — to build the tallest ship mast at the lowest cost. Participants learn about and practice the 7 skills critical to effective team performance: Clarity, Capability, Collaboration, Commitment, Communication, Continuous Improvement, and Creativity.

http://www.chartcourse.com/tall_ships.html

Workplace Motivation Individual Assessment

The Workplace Motivators report helps clarify the six inner drives people bring to the job. What motivates employees to sell, manage, service or connect with customers the way they do? What prompts an employee's enthusiastic response—a happy customer, a big sale, a tough problem solved? Why do they differ? How can you place the right people in the right jobs and motivate them to achieve more for the organization? The answers to these questions are all based on values. Values are the drivers behind our behavior; what motivates our actions. With the knowledge of values, we can encourage employees in a way that satisfies their inner drive. We can determine if their position will be rewarding, based on the values they hold. This report helps illuminate these motivating factors and attitudes and enables you to understand the driving forces behind their decisions.

http://www.chartcourse.com/Assessment_Center.html

Leadership Development
Online Learning 2.0

Chart Your Course International is bringing you from the now generation to the next generation of online learning in order to dramatically enhance the way you deliver training in your organization.

We're introducing Vital Online 2.0, a technology that will save your organization both time and money. Our user-friendly online campus begins with 12 programs from the Vital Learning Leadership Series™. Your participants can work at their own pace, and we also offer a blended approach (classroom and online classes) that maximizes social networking tools. We can also easily create a branded portal campus especially for your organization. And, with our special introductory pricing, your savings are greater than ever.

Vital Learning's online courses start with the 12 core programs, the Leadership Essentials, and 23 additional courses in leadership, customer service, sales and productivity. We invite you to take a few minutes to experience our free demo today.

For more information:
http://www.chartcourse.com/VL-onlinecourses.html

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FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS

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Copyright 2011, CYC International Inc.

Published by Greg Smith
Chart Your Course International Inc.
Phone: 770-860-9464/800-821-2487
Address: 2814 Hwy 212, Conyers, GA. 30094

http://www.Chartcourse.com

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Posted by Chart Your Course International We show businesses how to hire, retain and engage the workforce. http://www.chartcourse.com 770-860-9464