What Are The Differences Between New Employee Orientation and Just Doing The Paperwork!

I’ve said in past newsletters that employee retention begins during the recruiting process and it is true.  But the next high level impingement, is the actual new employee orientation.  I’m not speaking about getting the W-4’s, job applications, benefits and other items needed to get him/her into the payroll system.  I’m talking about actually doing an orientation that has substance and a defining meaning.  Letting the new person know the ropes from the corporate cultural seat is paramount to all parties concerned reaching a successful relationship.

There is a huge difference between the inauguration of a new employee into the current organization and really defining the path.  Unless you are hiring mind readers or prophets, these points in time are the beginning of the make or break relationship of any given new employee and/or your overall system and absolutely have a direct affect on your bottom line.

This is the instant in the new hires life where you both agree on the goals, aspirations, initial paths to be taken and provide YOUR expectations of him/her.  On the reverse side of this, it is your opportunity to listen instead of talk and learn about the new hires expectations so that you can both play nice in the sand box.

If I am correct and based on years of experience I know that I am, (how’s that for ego?), why would you want to risk hiring an employee that is not going to stay because of initial misunderstandings, or not knowing the proper processes when conflicts arise, or having a person(s) to discuss issues without retribution?  Why would you want to waste time and money?

If you begin with a Profile Management Assessment, you have the most accommodating tool to begin to understand just who this person is you hired.  You can evaluate this person by using and understanding this Human Resource tool to see where the career path pot holes might lay and address them before day one comes to an end.

So if you do this as I am suggesting, what is the intrinsic benefit to you, your team and/or your company?  How does camaraderie, cohesiveness, quality, high level of production, employees that want to be there, higher levels of bottom line profit and a system that is not broken sound to you?

 We Can Help!

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, CPC

President

Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

Grinnell, IA 50112

Does Your Organization Have A Maverick Culture?

Poorly communicated set of corporate cultural values tends to emotionally charge employees with feelings of uneasiness or non-responsiveness.  In addition it tends to enhance the nit-picking - fault finding – hypercritical symptoms, thus causing toxic levels of distrust, lack of loyalty and out and out disruptive behavior within the organization.  Employees, ALL employees, thrive on and deserve recognition not continual carping criticism.

The danger of this type of culture not only includes discord within the organization but has a high level of seeping into the overall business world and local communities.  Once this happens, the word spreads like an out of control wild fire about the Maverick culture within the company. 

Your organization becomes known as a not so nice place to work.  The locals talk about their neighbors quitting or getting terminated.  And usually they all believe terminated for the wrong reasons.  Recruiters have difficulty convincing prospective new employees to hire on, because the word is on the street that their tenure might be short lived.

Maverick over achievers don’t stay long.  They reach their perceived personal piqué of value and start looking for a new hunting ground to feed their quest for notoriety, or the next short hop to the top and usually for more compensation.  Maverick over achievers want to be the continual star of the show and in most cases they do not care where the bodies lie behind them. 

All companies must have revenue streams that support the company.  But if you don’t have a definition, a set of values, a set of goals, the proper hiring mindset, “FAIR” motivational factors that include all levels of employees, then your company is NOT running on all cylinders.  Your revenue stream is being attacked every day and many times the “C” level folks don’t realize it until it reaches an epidemic intensity.

BOTTOM LINE…..Your System Is Broken!  Employee Retention Will Be Off The Charts…..Cost Of Replacement Of Employees Will Silently Affect The Profit Of Your Organizations Bottom Line….Employees Will Quit Their Bosses Because They Know Their Bosses Are Trying To Enforce A Broken System….And Worst Of All, Employees Will Go Into The Business World Believing That Top Management And Owners Just Do Not Care.  And they will tell their side of the story.

We can help.

George F. Mancuso, CPC

President

Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

Grinnell, IA

ClientGrowthConsultants.com

Does Ethical Behavior in Business Bring A Financial Return?

Understanding that business ethics IS an intricate part and perhaps even an extremely critical tool for companies to realize the full impact of its’ value, within their business model.  It is my personal opinion that having a defined ethical behavior strategy will to help to enable more revenue, higher profits and in general a more successful company.

 

Realizing that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “ethics” as:  “the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group” [i.e. business ethics, professional ethics, work ethics] here are some additional pointers or thoughts for you to ponder:

A.     Be open for new ideas because if you are involved with improvement and change you are standing still.

B.     Continually ask for opinions and feedback; this should include your customers, vendors as well as your employees.

C.    Truthfulness in Business; According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of trust is:  “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

D.    Become involved with customers, vendors, employees and community because familiarity in a key component to being trusted.

E.     Be respectful of other, regardless of differences, status in the company or community, age or other comparable distinctions.

F.     Achieving your promised obligations is paramount to gaining trust with current customers; and amazingly it will help you regain past customers once they realize your commitment to meeting your promises and/or obligations is valid and in practice.

So the two big questions for you: “do you measure up?”  “Does your company measure up”

Have a tremendous week and if I can be of any assistance, please call or write and I will respond immediately!  Remember, your comments or suggestions are always welcome.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso, CPC

President

Client Growth Consultants, Inc.

ClientGrowthConsultants.com

Leaders Can Show The Way - George F. Mancuso

Leaders Can Show The Way - George F. Mancuso

Leaders Can Show The Way

Change begins with leadership. Leadership sets the tone and shows the way. How your leaders think will cast the mold for the rest of the organization.

    It must be clear to others that your organization’s leaders believe that management capability is an asset worth time and resources. Where leaders demonstrate this through their own behaviors, the organizations will have corresponding success. Having leaders publicly recognize individuals for outstanding team management (as opposed to personally exceeding business goals) will set the tone for the importance the organization places on the role of the manager in delivering results.

    When leaders spend time with their direct reports, setting clear goals and expectations, providing feedback and actively working to build bench strength in the organization, they are setting expectations for how others will act. Take Jack Welch during his GE days. He spent a great deal of his personal time both developing his own successor ( Gman says: I’ve preached for years that you should always be training your replacement) and developing leadership capability throughout the organization by participating the GE’s management development programs. As a consequence, GE is constantly cited as having one of the best leadership development programs in the world. This happened because the senior leadership believed in the value of its leaders and made investments to insure they could deliver their maximum capability.
  
Also, leaders are the ones who primarily create an organization’s fundamental beliefs, values and culture. Where leaders go astray, organizations often follow. Creating a powerful culture takes time. But leaders can play a powerful role in establishing the outward signs of culture and behaviors that they both embody and endorse.

Communication: Keeping everyone on the same page
    Organizations tend to undervalue communication. But communication plays a powerful role as the vehicle through which leaders demonstrate and publicly recognize the desired behaviors in the organization. How leaders talk about managers sets a clear message for what is expected in the organization. Strong communication systems can help organizations build strong cultures and enhance performance.

Competencies: The essential building blocks
    Identifying the critical competencies that make managers successful in your organization is the first step in creating the new manager role. New managers who are hired and current employees who are promoted into management roles must be selected because they have the capability to deliver on key functions of this role. These competencies include such skills as setting goals that fit the business strategy, providing coaching and feedback to others and helping employees understand how they fit into the big picture.

    Often promotions are given because someone is a good individual contributor. Good technical skills are a far cry from good management skills. We need alternative career structures if the only way to move up in the organization is to become a manager. Not all great individual contributors make great managers. By having management competencies defined within an organization we can also coach and develop individuals on how to improve in these specific areas.

Measuring, rewarding and reinforcing
    It’s a cliché, but it’s true: That which gets measured and rewarded gets done. If you don’t include management competencies and results for such areas as reduction in turnover or developing staff to improve organizational bench strength in performance appraisal systems, managers will not focus on these issues. Organizations that reward their managers for being good managers will stand the greatest chance of building strong management capability over time. Rewards do not need to take the form of money. In fact, simple public recognition of strong management skills sends a message to the rest of the organization: Managers are important to us.

Organization structure: The key symbol
    When organizations design jobs so that managers must spend 90 percent of their time doing non-management work, we send a very clear message about how we view the management aspects of a manager’s role: They are not important. We need to redesign organizational structures to support managers so they can truly manage the talent within the organization.
  
By involving your leaders, crafting key messages, developing managers and examining the current messages managers receive about their role in managing others, HR leaders can change how managers are viewed, and how they view themselves.
 
 The process of building better managers is not fast or cheap. But the rewards can be substantial and well worth the effort.

Regards,
George F. Mancuso, CPC
President
Client Growth Consultants, Inc.