Five Reasons to Leave the Office Behind When You're on Vacation

Your vacation plans are set. You’re ready to go and ready to get away from theoffice. The problem is you don’t ever really leave the office behind. If you’re like most of us, you feel the need to stay connected to your workplace even when you’re on vacation. Truth be told, you’re more likely to leave your wallet at home than your BlackBerry when taking vacations.   

Recently, a client of ours who is a VP at a Fortune 100 company arrived in Paris to start his honeymoon. On his first day, he couldn’t find his BlackBerry and realized that he had left it in a cab that morning. His first reaction was, “Oh, my God! What am I going to do?” Then a strange thought occurred to him. Maybe this was a good thing. After all, he was on his honeymoon. Two weeks later, he was back at work and vowed never to be held hostage to the office during vacation getaways. Sure, he had to catch up on a backlog of work, but it was still better than work intruding on his holiday.

For those of you thinking, “OK, but I have my own business” or “Yeah, but I have a lot of responsibility,” this VP was running a $3 billion division.

Here’s why it’s a good thing to disengage from the office when you’re on vacation:

1. Disengaging Can Be Better for Business

When you take the time to clear your mind of business issues, you gain a better perspective on them when you return to the office. It’s similar to someone who takes a job in a new industry and brings a fresh perspective, which can be incredibly valuable. Relaxing helps your subconscious come up with creativesolutions. By not thinking about work, your mind will have the ability to look at old issues in new ways.

2. Subordinates Can Step Up

Remember the first time you had to make a decision while your boss was away? Without your boss as a safety net, you experienced more growth than you would have otherwise. Whether you have direct reports or are part of a cross-functional effort, you give others the opportunity to take the reins if you don’t work while you’re on vacation. This hands-off approach benefits everyone.

3. People Will Respect Your Time More

We all do it -- take calls from coworkers when we’re on vacation. The problem is that these calls disrupt your vacation and aren’t fair to you -- especially if the issue in question could have been handled before you left or can wait until you get back.

4. You’ll Have a Better Time

When you go on vacation and know the office won’t contact you, you can enjoy yourself more. Have another margarita -- no one’s going to pick your brain about anything important today.

5. Your Family Will Appreciate It

Your spouse and children want and deserve your undivided attention when you’re on a family vacation. They can tell when you’re thinking about the office, and know that they’re playing second fiddle to your job.

Remember the adage, “No one on their deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.” Don’t wait until then to have this revelation. Use your vacation as it was intended. You, your coworkers and your family will all reap the benefits.

By Gladys Stone & Fred Whelan, Monster Contributing Writers

Five Negotiating No-Nos

While it's difficult to make definitive statements about what to do and what not to do in every negotiation situation, you should be aware of some definitive pitfalls before entering the negotiation process. Here are five of the most common no-nos.

1. Initiating Negotiations Too Soon

Timing is important here. The appropriate time to negotiate is when a formal job offer has been made. If the offer meets your needs, by all means accept it. It's a mistake to negotiate just for the sake of negotiating, but don't assume you can't negotiate at all. There's nothing wrong with asking for time to consider the offer or outright asking if the offer is negotiable.

2. Negotiating Only Salary

While money is the most frequently negotiated piece of the compensation package, it's not the only one. It's also true that many employers have benefits such as vacation time and health insurance coverage that are established by company policy and are therefore not negotiable.

But other parts of the package may be negotiable. They include signing bonuses, unpaid leave, relocation expenses, flextime, severance and predetermined timeframes for salary reviews.

In the end, it's important to maintain some salary flexibility until you've seen the whole package, including benefits. For instance, the job you're seeking may have a built-in profit-sharing plan, a great company-funded health insurance program, or a bonus or incentive program -- all of which have real dollar value.

3. Mistrusting the System

Many job seekers operate under the assumption that employers will, without exception, try to lowball them, no matter how well-qualified they are for a position. While there are employers who pay employees below industry standard, you should never enter a negotiation with a them-versus-me mentality. And don't assume that just because you've researched a job's market value, you'll get an offer within that range. While market averages are good barometers of pay averages, they're just that -- averages.

The fact is, many companies have a predetermined budget for every position and have pay ranges and benefit packages based on their established compensation hierarchies. An offer may boil down to a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, only because that's all the budget allows for the position, not because the employer is trying to take advantage of you.

4. Assuming Your Degree Entitles You to a Higher Starting Salary

Increasingly, having advanced education is nothing more than a threshold requirement that enables prospective employers to narrow the pool of applicants to a manageable size. If you have relatively little real-world work experience, your degree may keep you in the running, but it won't entitle you to a higher salary.

Also, don't assume your degree is all you have to offer the employer. Having significant work experience will probably carry more weight than a degree alone. There's a major difference between job-performance potential, which a degree can suggest, and past job performance, which indicates previous work experience and achievements.

5. Believing Every Negotiation Will End in Your Favor

No matter what you bring to the negotiating table, it's naive to assume you'll always get what you want. Negotiating isn't a win-lose proposition; it's a compromise, and you should expect that going into discussions. Very few of us are in such demand that we can write our own tickets. That doesn't mean you should settle for any offer that comes your way, but sometimes an agreement won't be reached. And accepting a job just for the sake of a paycheck could lead to mutual dissatisfaction. Ultimately, it could be better for you to turn down the job offer and continue your job search.

By By Paul W. Barada, Monster Salary and Negotiation Expert

5 HR Policies to Build a Woman-Friendly Enterprise

Author: Tony Mira,Founder at Ajuba

Ajuba Solutions, a provider of revenue cycle outsourcing services to healthcare systems in the US is a pioneer in this vertical has placed itself in the list of top providers from India with over 1900 employees currently.

At present, 47 % of Ajuba’s workforce comprises of women, which is one of the highest in the industry, bearing testimony to their efforts at having created an employer brand that is perceived by potential as well as existing women employees as highly women-friendly.

Tony Mira, Group CEO and founder, Ajuba Solutions India Pvt Ltd, shares with YourStory.in, the Top 5 HR Policies  that worked for their women-force:

Women’s Forum Shakti: This forum connects all women employees and encourages them to come up with problems that they face at work and suggest ideas to improve the work environment. The core team drives many initiatives for the women employees at Ajuba.

Gynecologist on Call: A qualified Gynecologist has been engaged especially for women employees at the health center of Ajuba called “Svasth Center”. The Gynecologist provides consultation as well as counseling regarding contraception, pregnancy, diet and fitness for all women employees.

Women’s Lounge: A special lounge has been created in all the three facilities of Ajuba that offers a space to pregnant or unwell women employees for resting and relaxing.

Flexi work hours: Taking into consideration the needs of employees who are also working mothers, Ajuba helps the women employees transition slowly back to work after their maternity leave by flexi work hours depending on their work and personal preferences.

Programs focused on women: Ajuba conducts special programs for women employees consistently, to contribute to their holistic development. Some of the recent programs include self-defense program and breast and cervical cancer awareness programs. Each of these programs are developed exceptionally with utmost quality.

11 Ways to Find Women-Friendly Employers

Trying to find a company that will meet your changing needs as a woman? According to experts, you need to investigate how the organization supports its workers, particularly its female workforce.

Jan Shubert, associate director for Babson College's Center for Women in Leadership, suggests you investigate "anything that helps you get a picture of how they look at and value women."

Shubert and other experts say the clearest picture will emerge as you research corporate culture, company leadership, and policies and programs aimed at promoting women, respecting workers and their individual rights, and providing family support.

So how do you obtain the information you need to evaluate these areas? Start your detective work with these 11 strategies:

1. Look for Blue Ribbons

Many companies that recognize women's work issues get recognized. Catalyst, a nonprofit that researches, consults and educates on workplace gender issues, recognizes pioneering companies. For starters, Julie Nugent, senior associate of Catalyst's research and model workplace initiatives, advises women to take full advantage of the organization's Web site. The National Association for Female Executives' (NAFE's) Top 30 Companies for Executive Women and Working Mother magazine's 100 Best Companies lists are also great resources.

2. Scan the Web for Who Came in Last

"You can do this by searching on phrases like ‘gender discrimination' and ‘lawsuit,' or ‘sexual harassment' and ‘settlement' to see companies against whom suits have been filed or with which settlements have been reached," advises Susan Colantuono, CEO of Leading Women, a Rhode Island-based firm offering leadership education for women.

3. Find Out Who's Running the Show

"Take a look at their leadership," says Nugent. "Are there any women? Are there diverse individuals on their site? Do companies have diversity on their agenda, and is it plainly important to them?"

Shubert advises women to scan annual reports and company Web sites to count the number of women in upper-level management. Is it a boys' club, or is it inclusive? Is it diverse? More top-level women usually means a better environment for all women.

Also consider who your boss will be. You can work for the most women-friendly company in the industry, but if your boss does not embrace the company's espoused values and is unwilling to acknowledge individual needs, that potential job may not work for you. So pay attention during the interview process. Look around your boss's office or cubicle. Is there a sign that your boss has a life outside work and respects others? Ask her what she is most proud of. If she says, "the time I got everyone to pull an all-nighter to get a job done," take note.

4. Evaluate Programs and Policies

"A company's policies around what kind of packages they provide speak to their values," explains Deborah Cutler-Ortiz, director of national programs and policy for Wider Opportunities for Women, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that trains women for better paying jobs. "When you're talking about no benefits, no nothing, you're communicating how you value your employees."

Again, awards, reports and Web sites are excellent research tools. Shubert recommends reviewing the criteria Catalyst, NAFE and Working Mother use to judge companies for their lists. See which policies are most important to you and base your search accordingly. Programs that typically matter to women most are those that affect promotion, work-life balance and pay equity.

5. Rate the Space

Does the physical office space look gender-neutral? Shubert recalls once visiting a company with the women's bathroom a hiking distance from the executive offices. When you visit a potential employer, take note: Do you see women? Are you introduced to women during the interview? If so, what are their positions and do you get a sense of how long they've been with the company? Retention rates are an important gauge of worker satisfaction.

6. Interview Them

Don't be shy about discussing gender. "It's completely appropriate for a woman to ask the questions that will impact her own career and career growth," says Nugent. And when you ask questions, consider: "Does it feel like an open culture where things are shared and the process is clear?" she says.

Poor or veiled communication indicates an unfriendly manager or work setting. This is also the chance for you to evaluate the hiring manager. Look for signs that she is gender-neutral. "Your first and foremost concern as a good leader is the development of talented people," says Shubert.

7. Go to Lunch

In the advanced interview stage, ask to go to lunch with a would-be colleague. Shubert explains this is where you can ask questions about how women fit into the work environment. You also can get a better indication of whether employees feel the company is a good place to work and whether workers feel valued.

8. Turn on the Tube and Flip through Magazines

If a company advertises, see if it recognizes the importance of the female consumer, suggests Shubert. Women affect the majority of purchases in the US, and not acknowledging this fact signals that a company isn't aware of the importance of women to its success.

9. Rank the Industry

Catalyst's Web site lists studies by industry. Here you can get a sense of which are friendly by evaluating the industries big players, says Nugent. But, adds Cutler-Ortiz, don't dismiss industries that aren't yet women-friendly as they generally pay higher wages. Look for standouts and unionized companies to get the best pay and the best setting.

10. Make Some Phone Calls

"Have a robust network of women colleagues who can tell you what it's like to work in a particular company or who can connect you with a woman who can," says Colantuono. And if you can't find someone connected to your prospective employer, try to connect with someone in the industry who can speak about industry practices. Companies will often benchmark their policies against industry practices as a whole.

11. Consult Your Intuition

If your instinct is telling you something's not right in a company, listen to it. That prospective employer should not only value women but value and respect all workers and their rights. If the employer's emphasis seems to be on input rather output, or face time rather than results, beware.

"Don't ever treat any one piece of the puzzle as the big picture," says Shubert. "Trust your tummy. If it doesn't feel like a good fit for you, keep looking."

By Susan Aaron, Monster Learning Coach

2012 Strategic Road Map for Employee Performance Management

Many organizations find that their existing pay-for-performance process doesn't work well. It doesn't improve performance, and demotivates workers. This road map shows how to leverage social computing to breathe new life into these programs.

Overview

Key Findings

• Many organizations do not believe they have a good pay-for-performance process. In fact, many find these programs do not increase performance.
• Many workers find traditional performance reviews unfair and demotivating.
• Many managers and executives are not good at providing workers with high-quality, consistent and timely performance feedback.
• Social recognition programs and solutions can help improve worker motivation and performance, while decreasing reliance solely on manager and executive feedback.

Recommendations

• Test a social recognition program alongside your existing pay-for-performance process.
• Quantify any improvement in performance from social recognition, compared with your existing pay-for-performance process.
• Adjust your investments in social recognition and traditional pay for performance programs based on results.
• Continue to adjust the balance between programs annually, as business needs change.

Future State

Formal performance reviews are not likely to go away anytime soon. They provide a needed checkpoint for making compensation and staffing decisions, and to mitigate risks from litigation (and in some cases, as in the U.S. healthcare industry, are required by regulations). However, leading organizations will start to move toward more bottom-up feedback, recognition and rewards. This will likely manifest itself in the shifting of budgets from traditional, top-down-determined, annual merit increases and incentive compensation to bottom-up, event-specific and more frequent rewards.

In addition, parts of traditional talent management activities effectively become crowdsourced. For example, managers and executives will be able to see the frequency, type and magnitude of feedback for each individual employee. More importantly, senior executives can use this data to see if manager performance decisions align with what coworkers indicate through their actions. Taken even further, if properly designed, the feedback, recognition and rewards can be used to identify high-potential, high-performance individuals for succession planning, and as an input into promotion decisions (for example, Symantec has compared the results from its 9-box grid against data from its recognition program, and found strong alignment).

Current State

Most organizations larger than 100 employees have some sort of performance appraisal process that drives an annual merit increase and/or an incentive compensation reward. In an ideal world, merit increases and incentive compensation would be driven by performance ratings from the performance appraisal. In the U.S., approximately 85% of organizations say they have a pay-for-performance program or culture (see the WorldatWork survey). However, the reality is that the traditional pay-for-performance program is problematic in many ways:

• Organizations that say they do it don't think they do it particularly well. The 2010 Study on the State of Performance Management by Sibson Consulting and WorldatWork (see theWorldatWork survey), a professional association, found that more than half of the respondents (58%) gave their organizations' performance management system a grade of C or below.
• There is evidence that pay for performance does not actually lead to increased performance. In the same Sibson WorldatWork study, only 47% of respondents felt their performance management system helped the organization achieve its strategic objectives.
• Employees do not view the process as fair, and frequently find it demotivating. In the "Psychological Bulletin," Avraham Kluger and Angelo DeNisi published a meta-analysis of 607 studies of performance evaluations (see "Psychological Bulletin") that concluded that at least 30% of performance reviews ended up in decreased employee performance (see"Psychology Today").
• Not every manager is a good manager. In the Sibson WorldatWork study, respondents (63%) felt that managers' lack of courage to have difficult performance discussions was the top challenge in performance management. Managers do not do a good job of providing feedback to employees, frequently don't do it in a timely fashion and are inconsistent in how they reward employees (which has led to other processes like calibration to avoid grade inflation and inconsistent grading).

Gap Analysis and Interdependencies

Blending more frequent co-worker feedback, recognition and rewards with traditional pay-for-performance processes overcomes many of the challenges:

• There is more transparency in social recognition and rewards. The specific reason for the feedback and recognition is tied directly to the reward. Also, everyone can see the cause and effect. This improves the perception of fairness, and allows workers to have more of a voice.
• Initial anecdotal evidence (case examples include organizations such as DHL, Deloitte Canada and Dow Chemical) shows that giving workers more control over recognition and rewards is motivating.
• Recognition and rewards are not as dependent on the quality of the manager. Many other data points are generated through social recognition and rewards that can form a value check and balance with an individual manager's opinion.

Higher Priority

• Test a social recognition program alongside your existing pay-for-performance process. Ensure that you get broad participation (from workers, managers and executives), and look out for workers trying to "game" the system.
• Quantify the impact of the social recognition program on business performance and employee engagement.

Medium Priority

• Adjust the social recognition program based on the results in the test. Expand the program as appropriate.
• Adjust the investment mix between the social recognition program and your existing pay-for-performance program based on comparing the impact on business outcomes and employee engagement.

Lower Priority

• Because business needs and the macroeconomic environment will change, continue to adjust the relative investments in social recognition and traditional pay for performance annually.

By http://www.gartner.com

Are Fewer Employers Using Employment Background Checks?

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) just published an eye-opening study on employers use of employee background checks.

The big takeaway that SHRM and other industry writers have chosen to highlight is that the use of pre-employment background screening has declined since their last survey was conducted in 2010. In the 2012 survey, 14 percent of respondents say that they never perform criminal background checks compared to 7 percent in 2010.

This finding is particularly puzzling and runs counter to what we are seeing in the marketplace.

Key findings

In fact, I often tell clients and prospects the key difference in screening between the time we started the company in 1999 and now is that we used to walk into meetings convincing employers that they should have a background screening program.

Now, we simply ask what they are currently doing and how we can make it better. I haven’t had a conversation with a mid to large sized organization that doesn’t perform an employment background check prior to hire in years.

When I looked at the survey demographics, I noticed that 24 perent of all respondents worked for organizations with 99 or less employees. I’m not sure what the demographics were in 2010, but perhaps that might help explain the findings. In fact, the study notes that only 48 percent of organizations at this size conduct background checks.

Here are SHRM’s other key findings:

• 69 percent of employers say that they conduct criminal background checks on all job candidates, 18 percent on select candidates, and 14 percent say they don’t perform them at all.
• 62 percent of employers conduct a background check after a contingent offer, 32 percent after a job interview, and only 4 percent before an interview.
• 52 percent conduct criminal background checks to reduce negligent hiring concerns, while 49 percent do so to ensure a safe work environment.
• 96 percent say that they are influenced not to hire convicted violent felons, and 74 percent say they are influenced by non-violent felony convictions.
• 58 percent of organizations allow job candidates to explain the results of their background check before a decision is made, and 27% percent allow them to explain after a decision is made.

Three Reasons Good Recruiters are Good at Recruiting

What separates good recruiting from bad recruiting

I think there are three big differences that separate good recruiting from bad recruiting. They are:

1. Good recruiters have the ability to change your mind about an opportunity before money is even discussed. Bad recruiters lead with the money. Good recruiters believe in their organizations, believe in the position, and believe in the hiring manager as a great leader. Then they make you a believer!
2. Good recruiters know your rejections before you know them and address them as such. Relocation is probably the toughest one that comes to mind, next to relocation and a spouse who doesn’t want to relocate (that’s like kryptonite to a recruiter!). Getting someone to relocate for a new position, new company – when they are a great talent with a great organization – takes a recruiter with an exceptional ability to connect the dots for the candidates. This becomes the “this is why you need to be here, right now” kind of moment that great recruiters come up with instead of just hanging up the phone and calling someone else.
3. Good recruiters know how to dig and love to get dirty. Let’s face it: mining the Monster database isn’t recruiting. I can easily find a $10/hr administrative type who can do that and they’ll actually be more engaged doing it! Good recruiters love the search. Yeah, it can be frustrating and heartbreaking, but when you uncover that hidden gem, it very much is worth the work!

Why good recruiting is invaluable

The last four or five years have given us an environment where newer recruiters just coming into the industry didn’t have to be good – they just had to be present. Being present isn’t a qualification, necessarily, to becoming a good recruiter. High unemployment and a low number of jobs available gives you an abundance of candidates, and usually qualified candidates as well.

This doesn’t make you a good recruiter; it makes you a good screener. In many industries, we are now seeing the value of good recruiters come back as certain job markets are opening up in a big way and candidates, even bad ones, are no longer advertising themselves as available.

Good recruiting is invaluable to a good HR shop – and bad recruiting is the quickest way for your HR shop to lose credibility with your leadership. So, what can you do? Don’t allow bad recruiting to live in your barn!

Good recruiting is hard, and it shouldn’t look easy and it doesn’t work 40 hours per week, 8 to 5 pm, Monday thru Friday. But, bad recruiting is betting on the fact that you don’t know the difference, or, you are to lazy to do anything about it.

By Tim Sackett, MS, SPHR is Executive Vice President of HRU Technical Resources , a contingent staffing firm in Lansing

Survey- Employees report sick to chill out at home

A global survey has found that many employees call in sick from work just to watch television or stay in bed when they are not suffering from any illness, with those in India and China leading the charts.

Employees surveyed in India, Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Mexico and the US, have all admitted to varying degrees that they have called in sick when they were not actually sick, a survey commissioned by The Workforce Institute at Kronos has revealed.

China led all other surveyed regions with 71% of employees admitting to pretending to be sick, followed by India with 62%, Australia (58%), Canada (52%), the US (52%), Great Britain (43%) and Mexico (38%).

France had the smallest number with only 16%, the survey said.

Of the surveyed, 44% employees in India said they called in sick because they felt stressed or needed a day off.

In India and Mexico staying home and watching TV was the top choice followed by meeting up with friends and relatives.

When asked what their employers could do to prevent this practice, most employees around the world felt that the opportunity to work from home and to take unpaid leave could help reduce this practice.

About 24% workforce in India also felt that providing more paid time off to employees would make a difference.

"The majority of employees in all regions said they were negatively impacted when co-workers called in sick, with the top reason being that they had to take on the work or shift of the missing employee," the report said.

These kind of unscheduled absences, like when an employee calls in sick at the last minute, cost organisations 8.7% of payroll each year, the survey said.

Business Standard: Mumbai Jun 17,2012

Why Employer Brand is Critical to Retention and Engagement

Trends related to talent shortages, globalization and offshoring, not to mention the economic slowdown, have ensured that talent managers are focused on engaging and retaining their current talent pools. To ensure top talent stays where it should - within your organization - talent managers must consider how to create a positive employee experience as a piece of an employer's overall brand.

The Importance of the Employee Experience

The bigger the consumer brand, the more likely it is that an organization will attract top candidates, at least in the initial recruiting stages. However, your company brand is only as good as the employee's experience of that brand promise. If the consumer brand is strong but the employer brand is weak, an employee may feel deceived or undervalued and think, "This company is not what they portray to the public," or "they are not committed to their people." Neither is a good message to send to potential or existing talent.

The employee experience starts with an employee's first interaction with an organization. That first impression may extend far beyond company offerings in position, salary and benefits. Today's workforce is equally concerned with opportunities for career advancement, rewards and recognition, management style and company culture. Together these blend to make up the employer value proposition and employer brand, that impact the employee experience and, ultimately, the hire's decision to join and remain with an organization.

"Early-stage companies must put their best foot forward to attract top talent, as they don't necessarily have a visible consumer brand," said Blake Wolff, COO of Astadia Inc., a management consulting and on-demand technology solutions company. "Once new hires have joined the organization, the employer should reinforce the brand promise with an environment of open, honest communication and a well-developed career development program."

Connect Employer and Company Brand

One leading high technology organization has a mission to foster highly customer-centric employees. Its mission to deliver superior customer service and satisfaction is reinforced throughout the recruiting process. This mission drives the branding and messaging for all its online recruiting campaigns. Resulting candidates are deemed a good fit for a position if they demonstrate proven customer-centric knowledge and skills. By ensuring their new hires' skills and prior experience match core company culture, the organization is setting a strong framework for success.

But the importance of brand doesn't stop at the recruiting process. Financial services firms are known to support formal career tracks for their talent in order to create the right kind of employee experience. Many have received the "Best Company to Work For" label that aids brand building because employees like to know that an organization is committed to employees' long-term growth and development. Companies that incorporate this commitment into their employer brand and message will have an advantage because the employer brand validates why top candidates came to the organization in the first place.

"A thoughtful employer brand can be just as valuable as a well-executed consumer brand," said Gordon Rudow, CEO of San Francisco-based Bonfire Communications, an agency that specializes in building company brands. "Just as a good consumer brand inspires trust and loyalty, so does a strong employer brand help attract, engage and retain the best people and harness their performance."

Many talent managers partner with the marketing department to help build an effective employer brand. It makes sense to leverage the expertise of marketers that spend their days building brands and running programs to attract and retain customers. They know a customer today is not necessarily a customer tomorrow, and HR and business leaders can apply marketing concepts to their recruiting and branding efforts to build a competitive edge.

Employer Brand, On-Boarding and Company Performance

On the first day of work, an employee is exposed to a company's values, mission, culture and attitudes. This usually happens during the employee on-boarding process. The new employee soaks in the company atmosphere via provided materials, messages from colleagues and communications from HR and business leaders.

Imagine an employee who has a negative first impression because the company mission is unclear, on-boarding instructions or product materials are inconsistent or colleagues are complaining. Given those mixed messages, that person may wonder about the viability of the company and may not commit fully to the organization or his or her new role.

Then imagine an employee arrives for the first day of employment and finds a solid company message on the organizational culture and mission. Colleagues are upbeat, and company product and service information is clearly and consistently presented. This employee likely would be more excited to be part of that team than the former. Further, the employee presented with positive, consistent employer brand message is more likely to refer a skilled peer to the organization.

"A new hire's on-boarding is only the beginning of the overall employee experience," Rudow said. "That initial interaction is reinforced by a series of touch points around the company's mission, vision and values, learned through the attitudes and behaviors of colleagues and executives. Those touch points become the foundation of an employer brand."

On-boarding programs are a perfect opportunity to reinforce the employer brand and generate a positive employee experience. For example, a leading media organization has a comprehensive way to help new hires get acclimated quickly and get them excited about the company and its brand. Each employee goes through a formal online on-boarding program in which they hear the company mission from the CEO, learn about the company culture and history, and learn about its core products and value propositions. They receive buddies or mentors to guide them on their career paths.

The company's focus on the employee experience via a formal on-boarding program has had a high impact on engagement and performance. Employees know how to do their jobs, are clear on company values and messaging, and feel part of a greater purpose. Activities and messages are delivered through a Web-based on-boarding application that standardizes how the information is delivered and also manages activities such as shadowing a manager or attending a specific course or seminar to help them grow in their roles.

On-boarding programs also are an opportunity to set expectations around performance and establish employee guidelines for a successful working relationship with the organization. Astadia connects company strategic objectives to employee actions immediately. During the first day of employee orientation, an Astadia executive reviews the company's strategic objectives and outlines the importance of aligning them with individual objectives and tasks. Then the annual employee review process measures individual objectives success and how that success impacts the company's strategic objectives.

A company's strategic objectives and mission should be clearly communicated early and on a continual basis throughout the employee life cycle because they make up the core components that drive the employer brand.

Happy Employees Can Be Great Brand Ambassadors

Imagine a happy new hire has been working for the organization for a couple of months. Now imagine this employee in front of a potential customer, partner or other influencer. If this individual shares the vision, mission and can clearly articulate the value of the organization's products or services, he or she is a strong ambassador for the company brand.

"All too often, companies overlook the role their people can play as frontline champions of their brand," Rudow said. "But the more these companies develop their external brand, the more they realize the value of starting from the inside out."

Companies need to continually align employee knowledge, the corporate mission and brand messaging. If an organization is launching a new product or service, make sure employees are appropriately trained to speak about that product or service.

"Our client's perception of our brand is based on the actions, statements and successes of our team," Wolff said. "With consultants deployed globally, we work constantly to increase the consistency and impact of our internal messaging to drive positive external branding. Mentoring during an employee's first few months at Astadia has not only positively affected performance, but also has significantly helped in getting employee buy-in and engagement in regards to employer brand."

Solicit employee input regularly to see if the organization fulfills the employee brand promise. This can be done through annual employee engagement surveys, or through more frequent, informal surveys. Feedback received will help the company ensure it is investing in the programs that matter most to its talent.

Further, company brand and experience can and should extend out to an organization's network of partners, resellers and distributors. Just as internal employees are brand and company advocates, a company's trusted network of indirect sales channels should be, too. Many organizations use extended enterprise training solutions to share best practices, vision, mission and brand with their partners.

For remote partners, Web-based systems can facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration of brand and related materials. Many organizations also request partners be certified on their ability to deliver consistent brand messaging.

Beyond Employer Brand

Companies spend billions every year on their consumer brands to attract new customers and open new markets. These vast sums are meant to entice the consumer to buy and continue buying throughout the product and company life cycle.

Leading organizations may suffer if their employees don't understand or can't articulate company value to the marketplace. Formal employer brand programs will help attract, retain and motivate top talent in a market in which the talent pool is shrinking and recruiting costs are growing.

[About the Author: Julie Norquist Roy is director of marketing for Cornerstone OnDemand.]

Use Personal Communication to Boost Engagement

A still-uncertain economic environment - which includes repeated downsizing, heavier workloads, smaller raises, less job security and fewer opportunities for advancement - dampens morale, and talent managers find themselves struggling to engage employees.

The October 2011 Gallup Employee Engagement Index showed that 71 percent of American workers are not engaged or, worse still, actively disengaged. Many talent managers think they're already pulling every lever to engage employees; however, there's one that's vastly underutilized: the personal connection between top executives and employees.

Here are five ways to improve this type of internal communication:

1. Band together.

From the dawn of human history, people facing fear and insecurity have formed tribes to which they often develop unshakable loyalty. Banding together in the face of adversity is hardwired into the human psyche. Deep down, we long to belong. Especially in stressful times like these, employees are genetically predisposed to be engaged.

If a business organization is analogous to a tribe, then executives are its de facto tribal leaders. But rather than personally promoting group identity and shared purpose, executives too often stand distant and aloof. Not enough top leaders set a compelling example for middle managers and front-line supervisors.

2. Provide a place to meet.

"It is the CEO's duty to be a platform where people can meet to share best practices and learn from each other," said Daniel Vasella in an interview he contributed to research and consulting firm Healthy Companies' leadership research while he was CEO of Novartis. Vasella was broadly visible to employees across the pharmaceutical giant, earning trust through open and authentic two-way communication. He then leveraged that trust, pushing his people to do "the slightly impossible."

3. Make it personal.

Personal, two-way communication is vital. Most employees pay little attention to proxy communications such as those issued by the internal communications department. People recognize that while the message may be issued in the name of a senior leader, it actually comes from staff.

Employees want to hear directly from their top leaders and to know them as more than formal authority figures. To engage employees, executives must reach out year-round, keeping employees in the loop, clarifying where the business is going, specifying what each employee can contribute, and demonstrating that they genuinely care about the people they lead. Personal connection is how leaders help people across large organizations feel included and engaged.

4. Leverage technology.

Modern electronic communications platforms have improved the potential for top leaders to maintain continuous personal connection with every employee. Talent managers can deploy secured, private Internet platforms that foster ongoing dialogue between top leaders and the company at large.

5. Challenge executives.

Talent managers who have experimented with traditional approaches, but have not yet seen the employee engagement results they want, should constructively challenge their organization's top executives to take ownership of engagement and then provide senior leaders a platform that makes it simple and time efficient to stay personally connected with all employees throughout the year.


By Eric Sass- executive vice president, strategic communications and learning at Healthy Companies International, a research and consulting firm

ARE YOU CREATING DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES?

YOU CAN'T MAKE EVERY WORKER HAPPY, SURELY, AND SHOULD A BUSINESS EVEN TRY? EVIDENCE FROM OUR RECENT RESEARCH SUGGESTS, ACTUALLY, THAT THE ANSWER IS YES. OR RATHER, OUR EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT MANAGERS ARE GIVING UP FAR TOO SOON ON THEIR DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES, MAKING THEM LESS PRODUCTIVE THAN THEY COULD BE, EXPOSING THEIR COMPANIES TO UNNECESSARY RISKS FROM THEFTS AND LEAKS IN THE PROCESS, AND INFLATING TURNOVER COSTS.

WHAT CAUSES EMPLOYEES TO BECOME DISGRUNTLED AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PREVENT IT? TO FIND OUT WE ZEROED IN ON THE MOST UNHAPPY PEOPLE IN OUR DATA. THESE WERE 6% IN OUR DATABASE OF 160,576 EMPLOYEES WHO DISPLAYED THE LOWEST LEVELS OF JOB SATISFACTION AND COMMITMENT ON THEIR 360 EVALUATIONS OF THEIR BOSSES. WE WERE LOOKING FOR THOSE AMONG THEM WHOSE MANAGERS ALSO OVERSAW THE MOST SATISFIED EMPLOYEES. IN THIS WAY WE IDENTIFIED THAT GROUP OF LEADERS WHO WERE MANAGING BOTH THE VERY UNHAPPY AND THE VERY HAPPY AT THE SAME TIME.

THE RESULTS OF THE DATA WERE CLEAR: THERE IS MOST DEFINITELY SUCH A THING AS "THE BOSS'S FAVORITES." AND WHILE, IN ANY DISAGREEMENT WE INEVITABLY FIND BOTH PARTIES BEAR PART OF THE FAULT — THAT IS, THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES DO CERTAINLY PLAY SOME ROLE IN THEIR OWN UNHAPPINESS — WE CONSISTENTLY FOUND IN THE ANALYSIS THAT THEIR COMPLAINTS WERE JUSTIFIED. THEIR MANAGERS WERE IN FACT TREATING THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE DIFFERENTLY THAN THEY TREATED THEIR VERY SATISFIED EMPLOYEES. WHAT'S MORE, WHEN THE MANAGERS IN QUESTION STARTED TO TREAT THEIR DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, THE EMPLOYEES' BEHAVIOR QUICKLY IMPROVED.

OUR RESULTS SUGGEST A CLEAR PATH FORWARD FOR BRINGING DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES BACK INTO THE FOLD. IN PARTICULAR, THE UNHAPPY GROUP IN OUR SURVEY STRONGLY AGREED ON SIX MAJOR AREAS IN WHICH THEY FELT (AND WE AGREE) THAT THEIR LEADERS NEEDED TO IMPROVE:

• ENCOURAGE ME MORE. 

WHEN WE ASKED THE UNHAPPY 6% TO NAME THE SKILL THEY THOUGHT WAS MOST IMPORTANT FOR THEIR BOSS TO DEMONSTRATE, THE TOP RESPONSE WAS "INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE OTHERS." TOO OFTEN, MANAGERS TAKE A NEGATIVE TONE WITH DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES. EXPECTING THAT EFFORTS TO MOTIVATE WILL BE IGNORED, NONE ARE PROFFERED, AND THE EXPECTATIONS BECOME SELF-FULFILLING. BUT OUR DATA SUGGEST MANAGERS SHOULD TAKE THE OPPOSITE VIEW: WORK HARDER TO INSPIRE THIS GROUP. KEEP THE CONVERSATION POSITIVE. EXPECT THE BEST, NOT THE WORST.

• TRUST ME MORE. 

IT'S PROBABLY NOT SURPRISING THAT BOTH PARTIES — UNHAPPY EMPLOYEE AND BOSS ALIKE — DISTRUST EACH OTHER. THE KEY TO RESTORING TRUST IS TO OPERATE WITH THE BELIEF THAT THE OTHER PARTY CAN CHANGE. HERE WE'D SUGGEST THE MANAGER MAKE THE FIRST MOVE BY MAKING THE EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND THE EMPLOYEE'S PROBLEMS. THEN, AS BOTH PARTIES WORK ON THEIR RELATIONSHIP, THEY MUST STRIVE FOR CONSISTENCY —THAT IS, THE MANAGER MUST STRIVE TO TREAT ALL EMPLOYEES EQUITABLY, AND BOTH PARTIES MUST STRIVE TO RELIABLY DO WHAT THEY SAY THEY WILL DO. OVER TIME, TRUST WILL GROW.

• TAKE AN INTEREST IN MY DEVELOPMENT. 

IF A PERSON WORKS HARD AND GETS A PAY CHECK HE HAS A JOB. BUT IF A PERSON WORKS HARD, GETS A PAY CHECK, AND LEARNS A NEW SKILL, SHE HAS A CAREER. CAREER DEVELOPMENT SHOULD NOT BE FOCUSED ONLY ON THE HIGH-POTENTIALS. AS COUNTERINTUITIVE AS IT MAY SEEM, DON'T LEAVE THE UNDERACHIEVERS OUT WHEN DISTRIBUTING STRETCH ASSIGNMENTS.

• KEEP ME IN THE LOOP. 

COMMUNICATION IS FUNDAMENTALLY A MANAGEMENT FUNCTION, SO THIS RESPONSIBILITY RESTS SQUARELY WITH THE MANAGERS. GREAT COMMUNICATORS DO THREE THINGS WELL. FIRST, THEY SHARE INFORMATION AND KEEP EVERYONE WELL INFORMED. SECOND, THEY ASK GOOD QUESTIONS, INVITING THE OPINIONS AND VIEWS FROM OTHERS — ALL OTHERS. THIRD, THEY LISTEN. AND NOT JUST TO THE PEOPLE THEY LIKE.

• BE MORE HONEST WITH ME. 

PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW HOW THEY'RE REALLY DOING ON THE JOB — AND THE ONE'S NOT IN FAVOR PERHAPS EVEN MORE THAN THE ONE'S FEELING THE WARM GLOW OF APPROVAL. THEY WANT TO KNOW WHY THEY'RE FALLING SHORT. THEY WANT A CHANCE TO IMPROVE. TOO OFTEN, THOUGH, THE BOTTOM 6% FELT THEIR BOSSES WERE NOT GIVING HONEST FEEDBACK, GLOSSING OVER PROBLEMS WITH COMMENTS LIKE "YOU'RE COMING ALONG FINE," WHEN CLEARLY THEY WERE NOT. WHAT'S MORE, MANY REPORTED PROMISES BEING MADE ("IF YOU FINISH THIS PROJECT ON TIME THEN...") THAT WERE NOT KEPT. HONESTY IS THE BEDROCK OF GOOD RELATIONSHIPS.

• CONNECT WITH ME MORE. 

ANYTHING MANAGERS CAN TO DO IMPROVE THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES WILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT POSITIVE INFLUENCE. HERE'S WHERE FAVORITISM TAKES ON ITS MOST CONCRETE FORM: MANAGERS GO TO LUNCH MORE WITH PEOPLE THEY LIKE, OUR DATA SHOW; THEY TALK WITH THEM MORE SOCIALLY (ABOUT CHILDREN, SPORTS, ETC); THEY KNOW THEM MORE PERSONALLY. THIS IS NATURAL, SURELY, BUT SO ARE THE FEELINGS OF EXCLUSION IT CREATES AMONG THE LESS FAVORED. A SMALL EFFORT BY MANAGERS TO SPREAD THEIR ATTENTION AROUND MORE BROADLY CAN GO A LONG WAY HERE.
AS LEADERS, OUR KNEE-JERK REACTION TO UNFAVORED (AND DISGRUNTLED) EMPLOYEES IS OFTEN — "IT'S THEIR OWN FAULT!" OUR RESEARCH SHOWS THIS IS NOT ALWAYS (AND OFTEN NOT WHOLLY) THE CASE. BEFORE YOU SETTLE FOR LETTING YOUR DISSATISFIED PEOPLE GO AND COST YOUR ORGANIZATION THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN EMPLOYEE TURNOVER, TAKE A MOMENT TO CONSIDER HOW THESE PERFORMERS NEED TO BE TREATED.

IF NOT FOR THEIR SAKE, THEN FOR EVERYONE ELSE'S SAKE. RESEARCH BY THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA RECENTLY PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCES HAS SHOWN THAT THOSE WHO WITNESS WORKPLACE BULLYING BECOME EQUALLY DISGRUNTLED AS THE VICTIMS AND JUST AS LIKELY TO QUIT. ALL EMPLOYEES NEED LEADERS WHO KNOW HOW TO INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE THEM, GIVE THEM OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT, AND TREAT THEM WITH THE RESPECT AND DIGNITY THEY EACH DESERVE.

A THIRD OF A PERSON'S LIFE IS SPENT IN THE WORKPLACE, SOMETIMES MORE. WHEN THE ENVIRONMENT IS CREATED BY AN EXTRAORDINARY LEADER WHO CARES ABOUT EVERYONE'S DEVELOPMENT, IT LEAVES EMPLOYEES WITH LITTLE ROOM TO COMPLAIN.

By JOSEPH FOLKMAN - PRESIDENT OF ZENGER/FOLKMAN - A LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANCY.