Human Resources

Workplace Dynamics

Our colleagues, core team and support systems at our workplace greatly influence our performance and consequently our career. It is vital to manage the workplace environment for a win-win - for the organization and us. This is not only for managers and supervisors but for all team members to contribute toward developing and maintaining a cordial, supportive and fun work environment. I see this as an important workplace requisite being forgotten so many times.

Well-honed interpersonal skills are required for maintaining a high-performing work environment and for handling different personality types. It is impossible to find an office where all people are friendly, helping and skilled at work. Sometimes you carry deadwood, at others not-nice-meeting-you people.

I find three types of people at work and call them:
a) Gate Openers
b) Gate Keepers and
c) May Bees - based on their work ethics displayed most of the time.

Gate Openers are friendly, supportive colleagues who go an extra mile to help. They know their job and do not feel insecure in empowering others. They are long-term thinkers and lead by example with or without a managerial title. It is in your best interest to surround yourself with gate openers – people who can open gates for you for growth. However, it is not easy because you need to be one to be among them, as birds of a feather flock together. You need to perform at the highest level and be a team player.

Gate Keepers are not friendly. They wouldn’t budge beyond their job description and show no initiative. They are generally stuck in a position and would tend to pull you back too. They are good at their work by being in there for long but lack creativity. It would be prudent to keep away from them and only interact on need-to-deal basis, being polite and proactive. Being in the same workplace, you may have to deal with them so cut down your losses by minimizing your interaction with gatekeepers.

May Bees are moody people. One day they are cool, another day they are horrid, depending on which side of the bed they got up in the morning, if they had an argument at home or their boss seems not so happy with them. They are generally reactive. You need to read them well and give them leeway on a bad day. Work with May Bees patiently through their mood swings, as this is a temporary phase.

It all boils down to developing excellent interpersonal skills, keeping a laser-sharp focus on work, adding value in what you do and thinking long-term. Try practicing the above and the workplace will be your oyster!

Fazal Siddiqi

Why I'm Optimistic

Fear not marketers and agency types. I am here to tell you that the future of our business is in good hands. I have just started teaching in the Communication Arts program at Seneca@York. And I'm pleased to report that I'm meeting young people who are working hard to break into our industry. They are passionate, creative, intelligent and hungry to learn.

The course I'm teaching is basically a workshop where students have 10 weeks to produce work toward building the perfect portfolio -- one they can take around to prospective employers. Or at the very least, Creative Directors who will give them an internship.

When I started in this industry, there were no courses at Humber or Seneca or Centennial for aspiring copywriters or art directors. I had no portfolio and wouldn't have known how to create one that would resonate with a Creative Director. I had a resume and the passion to break in and that was about it.

Today they have the passion but they have so much more. They have a place to learn. A place to prepare for "the real world". Although I have to tell you, the world they're living in is pretty real. If their work isn't up to snuff at the end of the 10 weeks, they don't pass and they don't get their internship. That's the real world they're living in. So it'll be interesting to see how the work develops and who makes the grade.

From what I've seen so far though, there's hope.

I'll keep you posted.

By Bryan Tenenhouse, Creative, The Tenenhouse Project

Young Workers Fear Career Stall

I read with interest from a recent Vancouver Province article reporting that young workers fear they will lose promotion opportunities to aging baby boomers whose retirement plans have been upset by the financial crisis. The economic crisis has made things more complicated because age seems to be an increasing ‘perceived’ barrier to leadership opportunities.

According to a recent Angus Reid poll, the youth of today want leaders who are under 50, or better yet, under 40. Young employees want young leaders and value vision over experience and charisma, the poll suggests. Across Canada, 40 percent of young adults said they believe vision is the most important quality of business leadership; 33 percent value experience most; and 21 percent want charisma from their leaders.

Smart managers must pay attention and work extra hard to ensure that age is never a barrier to leadership opportunities. And more boomer leaders should really prove the young people wrong by better marketing and publicising their continued vision!

Take It

“There is an awesome marketing job that has recently come up. You would be perfect for it! Tell me your current salary and email me your resume asap. Sorry but I can’t tell you who the company is, where the job is located or the salary due to confidentiality reasons. I’m sure you understand. Talk soon. Bye."

Some people view headhunters, recruiters or executive search partners with suspicion or even a degree of resentment. When someone receives calls like that it’s not difficult to understand why. However I don’t immediately hang up on all recruiters. I take the call. Why?

I’ve gotten to know some recruiters over the years and quite a few are extremely professional people who take their craft very seriously. Many actively volunteer in their local communities. One of them I know took time off to volunteer for a summer in Africa which is more than can be said for most (including myself). Many have over the years given me pointers on my resume, interviewing tips and other invaluable career development advice.

I’ll also let you in on something else, I take calls or reply to emails from recruiters even when I’m very happy (as is currently the case) at work. Why on earth would I do that?

a. It’s always good to know what your relevant market value is.

b. If you have a firm relationship with your employer they won’t feel threatened by you getting unsolicited requests. If anything they should be flattered someone on their team is coveted. If they treat you well they should be confident they have nothing to worry about.

c. Someone in my network may be a free agent or looking for a change of scenery. If I can help a recruiter and another friend at the same time then I’ve helped two people in one stroke.

d. If I answer calls/emails from recruiters when they are looking for assistance, they’re more likely to answer mine when I am as well.

Now some may think “Well that’s all well and good when you know the recruiters or have experience dealing with them. What the heck do you do when you get contacted out of the blue from a complete stranger about a job? Or have never dealt with them before?" Indeed some people get nervous and don’t know what to do. I sure felt that way the first time a recruiter contacted me.

I’m not suggesting this works for everyone but my rule of thumb when fielding a call or email from a recruiter I’m not familiar with is to ask the following questions:

1. How did you get my name? I view this as a litmus-test. It shows the degree of transparency on behalf of the recruiter. Even if they say they found me on Google or LinkedIn that is fine but any relationship must be based on trust. If they are evasive or can’t answer that question it should tell you something,

2. What is the salary range for this position? I ask this not because money is the only thing as work-life balance, corporate culture and career development are just a few of many other elements that are as important as salary in making an employment decision. But I also don’t want to waste the recruiter’s time, my time or that of others in my network. So let’s cut to the chase so expectations are aligned from the start.

3. Who is the company? I’m not about to refer my friends to a place that has a lousy reputation or is viewed as a sweatshop. Just like I’m not about to refer a lousy candidate in my network to a good recruiter either. (You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.)

4. Are you on contingency or retained? In my experience I’ve found contingency-based recruiters look for a quick placement and not always examine the longer terms implications of proper fit. Based on the commission structure of their compensation they are there to quickly place someone and move on. My tendency is to only deal with retained recruiters in most circumstances. This doesn't apply to everyone but it applies to me.

5. How do you feel about them? This isn't a question for the recruiter but for yourself. Is the recruiter really pushy or not? Are they trying to jam a square peg in a round hole or do they carefully assess if there is a fit between potential candidate and employer? Excellent recruiters determine that before the dance begins and tell you. Mediocre ones don’t.

In the end, it really comes down to trust. Usually your first instinct about a recruiter is the right one. If you feel good then continue the conversation. If you get the heebie-jeebies politely decline and move on. But don’t view all recruiters to be ‘scum-sucking leaches’ as one person recently opined to me. You do yourself a disservice by making broad stroke assessments like that.

So the next time you get a call or email from a recruiter? Take it.

'Coaching' the Coach

At a time when training and overall employee moral requires the biggest boost, it seemed more than fitting that the CMA Contact Centre Council recently held a “Coach the Coach” session. It was clear from a room full of engaged attendees that many companies still see the value in ensuring that their leaders and managers have a fundamental understanding of the importance of “coaching” within their respective organizations.

Three industry experts presented at this event (Winston Siegel, Switchgear Consulting, Kim Chernecki, Fusion Learning and Terry Pruner, Seneca College) and all participants came away with a more structured understanding of the differences between, managing, coaching and leadership.

Today it is simply not enough to manage or to lead...coaching is an essential part of the development process and will enable some of your best to truly shine. It is a unique art that is being better understood and more broadly embraced than in times past. Solid listening skills, one-on-one meetings and the enhancement of a skill were all promoted as vital ingredients to becoming a good coach.

The session, which began with understanding what it means to be a true “coach”, then evolved into what types of tasks a good coach would engage in and ended with an educational approach to how one may learn to understand the fundamentals of leadership within a contact centre environment. There were also some key thoughts shared around how one might identify a learning organization and what key contributors are evident in such an organization. Recruiting and hiring for values, recognizing and rewarding behaviours and identifying with effective mechanisms that are in place to identify barriers to the learning process were all mentioned as key criteria to support a learning organization.

Fundamentally, we all took away the clear message that what you are doing is not the question; it is all about how you are doing what you are doing that makes the biggest difference and the most significant impact. To that end, Winston Siegel left all minds running in high gear with the thought that “if no SKILL has improved, no COACHING has actually taken place.”

Don't worry. Be optimistic.

A couple weeks ago, the cover story of the Sunday New York Times was about an executive who went from a $70,000 a year middle management job to a $12 an hour janitorial job for a friend's company.

Over the last year (and just this week), I've heard so many stories about friends and acquaintances, business associates and former colleagues and staff getting laid off. They range from intermediate to senior level. And certainly, it's happening more than any time in my lifetime. So, it got me wondering. Do people really know what to do when they get let go? Do they know how to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and carry on?

I've had to lay many people off in my career as a Creative Director and unfortunately, all too often, it wasn't for performance related issues. A client consolidated their business somewhere else or "New York" insisted we "hit a number" that probably wasn't realistic in the first place.

However, today good people are being let go everywhere because of the economy and it must feel like there's no end in sight. And yet, there is hope.

Here's some of what I've learned (from people wiser than me and from my own excellent adventure) over the last year since I left the agency world and started my own creative consultancy.

1. Clients want to work with people who project a positive attitude – even on the days you're not feeling particularly positive. This might seem basic, but it's easy to forget -- especially when the news is all bad. Someone gave me this advice before I had even one client, but it's proven to be the best advice I've gotten.

2. Decide early on what you're going to focus on, then focus on that one thing. I knew I wanted to start my own business. So that's what I focused on. If I had divided my attention between that goal, talking to recruiters for another agency job or changing careers completely, I wouldn't have accomplished anything.

3. Network in the way you feel most comfortable. Not everybody likes to cold call or go to industry events and shake a lot of hands. Email, Facebook and Linkedin are great ways to break the ice. It gives your contact an opportunity to be thoughtful about their response and lets you craft your words more carefully than you might over the phone -- or worse, in a voice mail that inevitably ends up being way too long-winded.

4. Journal your experiences, thoughts and feelings. Whatever you're thinking makes more sense when you get it down on paper. It also helps you shake yourself out of a funk when you see that you've been throwing yourself your own pity party for way too long.

5. Exercise. It's a great way to deal with stress and whatever anxiety you're dealing with. If you're like most people I've spoken to over the last year, you wake up in the morning thinking you'll never work again. By noon you're worried about how you're going to handle all the work on your plate. Exercise gives you the fortitude to deal with both kinds of stress.

If you're reading this and you've recently been "economized", take solace in the fact that you're not alone. In fact, there are far too many people going through exactly what you're going through right now and they're not hard to find. So find them and commiserate.

Then decide what you're going to do next and get on with it. You might just discover, as I did, that your decision was the best one you ever made.

Current Economy and Attrition…is there a link?

I’m certain every situation is unique to its own circumstances, hence, my commentary speaks to the majority only. What makes people leave their job in the first place? Who has the biggest influence over this decision? Is it the direct boss? Is it the organization as a whole? Is it money? Is it co-workers, culture, motivation, etc? There are many reasons why people pursue alternate careers.

Which begs the question, what makes people stay? In recent months, the trend has been a lot heavier weighted to companies reducing their workforce versus the workforce attrite on their own. The reduction in workforce is clearly linked to the economic situation North America is in. However, a positive for organizations is the economic situation has dramatically slowed down voluntary attrition. One can Google the cost of attrition and come up with varying degrees of hard dollar cost. Regardless of the different amounts companies attach to attrition cost, all organizations agree it is a large cost.

The situation deepens further. As companies downsize in large numbers, it puts more pressure on the staff that stay. Workers are taking on more and Leaders are managing considerably larger groups of people. This forces organizations to ensure they keep the “right staff” and “highest performing leaders”. I have personally spoken to several companies (no names mentioned due to confidentiality) that tell me their attrition ratio’s have gone from high 60’s % to under 20’s % since the economy went south. And some that were in the high teens are now seeing next to no attrition. This has resulted without any additional spending on retention programs, no major changes to routines, basically, no efforts required.

One survey (Execuserve Corp) suggests the most negative impact of turn-over is felt in the Customer Service department. Downsizing is a vicious circle. As companies down size, generating revenue becomes a tougher challenge. When revenue is not coming in, organizations downsize further.

A personal opinion as to why voluntary attrition has reduced considerably in our down-turn economy is this: Hiring in all organizations regardless of industry has reduced considerably, making it extremely difficult for employees to move from company to company. The sheer fear of not knowing if a job will be available at another organization further solidifies employees to their current organization.

What is the right answer? Execuserve states unequivocally, “economy is directly linked to attrition”. Now what? Smart organizations should (and are) retain their top talent, knowing that the economy will come back. When the economy improves, finding and hiring top talent will be a daunting task.

Conclusion: Doing nothing to retain top talent is a critical mistake any company can make, during a strong or poor economy. Corporate values should not change simply because employees don’t have as many choices. Those who work at building their workforce now will definitely come out stronger once the economic situation turns around.

Gen Y and Boomers Getting Along!

With the recent economic downturn, the dynamics between old-school managers and young talent is changing. Generation Y or the Millennials (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) are often perceived as spoiled, narcissistic individuals who cannot write, and waste too much time on instant messaging and Facebook. The Millennials, on the other hand, defend themselves that all their digital savvy proves that they are computer-literate multitaskers who are skilled at using online collaborative tools.

According to The Economist, this culture clash has been going on in many organizations - the Net Generation has grown up with computers and are brimming with self-confidence. They have been encouraged to challenge received wisdom, to find their own solutions to problems and to treat work as a route to personal fulfillment rather than merely a way of putting food on the table. Bosses complained that after a childhood of being coddled and praised, the Net Geners demand far more frequent feedback and an over-precise set of objectives on the path to promotion. In a new report from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 61 percent of chief executives say they have trouble recruiting and integrating younger employees.

For the boomer managers, the current recession is the joyful equivalent of hiding an alarm clock in a sleeping teenager's bedroom. Having grown up in good times, Net Geners have laboured under the illusion that the world owed them a living. But hopping between jobs to find one that meets your inner spiritual needs is not so easy when there are no jobs to hop to.

As I've previously discussed in other blogs, compromise will be necessary on both sides. Net Geners will certainly have to temper some of their expectations and see the world as it is, not as they would like it to be. But their boomer bosses should also be prepared to make concessions. The economy will eventually recover and demographic trends in most developed countries will make clever young workers even more valuable. Many of the things that keep Net Geners happy - such as providing more coaching to young employees; providing more instant feedback; or embracing cheaper online ways to communicate - are worth doing anyway. In difficult economic times, the younger working generation is, at least for now, easier to manage!

Talent branding and multi-generational employees

With four unique generational segments in the workforce and increasing competition for talent, companies must develop attractive internal brands to attract and retain employees – both Gen Y’s at a junior level and experienced Baby Boomers at a senior level.

Although Baby Boomers and Gen Y’s differ in terms of what work benefits they value most, through our research and consulting practise, we have found that their work enjoyment is ultimately tied to how well an employer engenders the following three feelings in their employees:

1. Employees trust who they work for (employee – management relationship)
2. Have pride in what they do (employee – job/company relationship/ CSR programs)
3. Enjoy the people they work with (employee – co-worker relationship)

Companies that are striving to be a top employer must find ways to engender this trust, pride, and enjoyable work culture in their workplace.

Although the internal brand gets shaped and lived in all day-to-day activities, companies must provide a platform from which it is lived (bring the internal brand to life). The employment experience platform created could include company wide communication guidelines, updated health benefits, and work-life balance initiatives. It is within employment areas such as these where companies can improve employees work life; however the value proposition differs between generational segments.

Bottom line, all employees value the three aspects listed above but companies must develop the platform and foster a culture that addresses unique generational needs – health and well-being for Baby Boomers, and Career Development for Gen Y’s.

I look forward to your comments on this perspective.

Red Herring Season

At the time of writing I have just left a meeting with Sandy Weill (of Citibank fame), where he told me we are entering into the deepest recession any of us has seen in many, many years. Of course, he was talking about the US. But let’s say, hypothetically, that Canada does not miss this bullet (in spite of our government’s solid, stay the course plan) and we too enter into a recession. What then?

Unemployment climbs, demand for consumer good drops, the economy shrinks, inventories shrink, profits disappear, and so on. Most importantly, though, none of this is our fault at a micro-economic level. It is all the fault of the economy; a comforting thought to many Canadian business leaders who love nothing more than to find a convenient external source to blame for whatever happens to their business (high taxes, the liberal government tax and spend policies, the free market conservative policies, the dollar, 9/11, SARS, Listeria, and so on).

Don’t blame these poor souls. They are suffering from RHD, Red Herring Disorder, a viral disease native to the Canadian Urban Regions.

RHD starts, as do all worthwhile disease, with flue like symptoms. Subsequently the patient slumps into a lumpish, self-sympathetic pose, often muttering: “But there’s nothing we can do,” over and over again. RHD victims generally cut budgets and cancel activities, mostly to avoid being responsible for anything, but also, in most cases, to reduce their workload in order to spend more time bemoaning their fate. RHD is probably caused by an airborne pathogen as it is easily transmitted from person to person (and, in an odd, metaphysical way, from organization to organization).

As RHD progresses it takes control of the autonomous nervous system, causing the patient to become increasing boring and repetitive. A compulsive need to stifle any external stimuli and repeat the “cut the budget” mantra is the reason this disease is often mistaken for an obsessive-compulsive mood disorder. Practitioners now believe this not to be the case, as RHD is often accompanied by a contradictory psycho-neurotic behavioural symptom: pathological self-preservation syndrome. The precise relationship between RHD and PSPS is not clear, but the fact that they so often occur in parallel has opened an entirely new path of study for experts in these diseases.

RHD is often incurable and, in the worst cases, ultimately results in the sufferer being separated from the organization organism at such time as the economy improves. Unfortunately for the organization organism and the world in general, this occurs far too late to be of any use.

In the US, a vaccination has been tested and shown somewhat successful. At the very first intimation of the virus, test subjects are given massive doses of courage and creativity. Early test show that the resulting hard work, positive outlook and immediate business success appear to be effective in fighting off the disease.

If not caught in time, the disease cannot be effectively treated.

Under no circumstances, should sufferers be exposed to competitors who have taken advantage of the difficult economic climate to rethink their fundamental mission and vision, and develop innovative, effective, and hard-hitting strategies.

Marketing and My Mat Leave

Those of you who happen to be my Facebook friends may have noticed my recent posting, “Want My Job? Hiring Yahoo! Trade Marketing Manager” and will know my news. My husband and I are expecting. So in just three short months, I’ll go from Marketing Manager to Mom. Maternity leave, which I’ll be taking for up to 1 year, is going to be a huge change, personally and professionally, impacting both my family and co-workers.

There’s few of us in marketing who will go through our careers without being affected by a maternity leave, whether it’s our own, our spouse’s, or a co-worker we rely on.

In 2000, parental leave was greatly expanded in Canada from 10 weeks to 35 weeks divided as desired between two parents. This is in addition to 15 weeks maternity leave, giving a total possible period of 50 weeks paid leave for a mother. There is still no paid leave for new fathers, however. (Wikipedia).

So how does mat leave impact marketers? And how do you start planning your own mat leave contingency plan to keep your marketing projects chugging along, while you’ll be busy chugging the choo choo train with junior? I can’t say I have all the answers. But here are the Do’s and Don’ts I have gathered from my time being pregnant and starting to plan for my leave:

• Don’t rely too much on HR or your bosses to guide you on all the aspects. Don’t get me wrong, my managers and HR staff were extremely supportive and informative when I told them my news. But the truth is, depending on the company where you work, your mat leave may be a situation they haven’t had a lot experience dealing with. There may or may not be a set company plan in place for employees who take mat leave, especially at companies or agencies with a young (or male) demographic skew where they’re not yet accustomed to the situation among their staff.
If they’re doing their jobs, like my HR and management team is, they will provide you with info on your legal rights, the benefits you’re entitled to from EI, and info on how your compensation, insurance, RSPs, etc. will be impacted. What you likely won’t get guidance on is doing the mat leave version of temporary succession planning. I.e. setting someone up do successfully take up – for up to one year – where you left off.

• Do start recruiting early and be active in the hiring process. As I’ve discovered, it’s not easy to trust someone to take on your job, or to find the ideal person with the perfect mix of skills and experience. Luckily, I am getting lots of support from HR and my company’s recruiter to aid in the search. But whether you’re hiring someone external, or recruiting internally, no one knows your job better than you. You want someone who can match the level of work you do, be just as trusted by your colleagues, but also have the flair and initiative to add their own creative twist to projects so they’re not lying fallow for a year.

• Don’t expect to have any control over what happens when you’re away. This is a tough one for us Crackberry (or now iPhone) addicts. If your company is an 11pm email culture like Yahoo! is, where even a few unplugged days away means coming back to a mountain of email, it’s pretty hard to contemplate being away from that constant change and upheaval for up to a year. You’d be pretty much coming back to almost a brand new company and job. I’m not going to pretend I have any advice in this arena. But my action plan is to not be completely unplugged (OK Moms who have been on mat leave…I can hear you laughing!) I’d love to hear from other readers for a reality check on how you handled this. But my plan now is - I will try and be copied on emails for major projects and to check in every month or so to see what’s going on. The idea is to try and help without being a constant hovering presence that prevents people from doing their jobs.

• Do – relax and try to slow down. If you’re like me, you may be in a state of denial of how pregnancy will physically and psychologically affect you doing your job. It’s better to accept and listen to your body when you are hungry, dead tired or sick. Also, give a heads up to your colleagues, as well as learn to delegate and ask for the support when you need it. As you will need to be out for numerous appointments, ultrasounds, doctor visits, etc.. at least once or twice per month. Nobody expects you to go to as many industry parties as you did before. But the drive to remain visible, relevant and appear just as capable is still there. Still, you don’t want to stress out to the point where it’s impacting the baby. Baby’s and Mom’s health are your number one priorities, and you may need to be more assertive and ask for some flexibility in deadlines and workloads to accommodate that. Again my plans and advice do not always equal my own reality. But at some point in the next few weeks I do plan to do work from home (or..gasp, vacation day) on Fridays.

There is no doubt this is a women’s issue as well as an industry one. Much has been written on whether women who step off the ladder from their fast paced careers bump right into the glass ceiling when they try and get back on, tot in tow. The whispered rumblings you may not always hear among the congratulations, mazel tovs and smiles is sometimes a hidden resentment, often among old-school male management and less progressive companies. “You hire these women, invest in them, then they go on mat leave for over a year,” is sometimes the unspoken (or in my case with another job – spoken!) complaint. So does that mean your prospects of promotion and advancement get sucked up like the soiled sausages in the Diaper Genie when you decide to take that year off?

While this hasn’t been an issue at my current job, I have heard this before from employers in more traditional businesses I’ve worked for. And it’s true to a large extent…your mat leave is going to be disruptive to the flow of business and to the company. But a responsible and progressive employer knows that a parent who is supported on their mat leave often returns as a more committed, loyal and motivated employee who is less likely to move around, especially when they have a family to support.

I’d love to hear some more from those of you who are or have been on mat leave, and how you, your spouse and your work team dealt with it. It should be a fun three months..and lots of change to come. But in the meanwhile… I’m dying for anything lemon flavored.

Employee Retention: The Leader’s Unique Role

"Chris how do you consistently maintain such high employee retention?" That’s one of the most frequently asked questions I get whenever I chat with leaders – regardless of the size, industry or geographic location of their business.

Now that highly-skilled, highly mobile and highly-sought professionals are a company’s lifeblood, I find that leaders are showing more interest in equipping themselves with the tools and knowledge to keep their most precious assets – i.e. their professionals. This newly found enthusiasm for employee retention is natural given that, according to the CMA’s President & CEO, John Gustavson in June’s 2008 e-Communicator, there is currently a talent crunch.

Below, find some of the key lessons about retaining enthusiastic and engaged employees that I’ve gathered over the years of building a thriving leading-edge company from scratch. One theme is common throughout: the smartest investment a leader can make is in ensuring that their team of employees succeeds. Make this your mantra and your employee retention will always be something of which you can be proud.

Lesson 1: Take a hands-on approach to employee orientation

Sustaining a corporate culture that encourages on-going innovation is the best path to achieve business goals. Leaders can play a critical role in shaping their culture during orientation – recognized as one of the most important times for setting a strong foundation with new employees. For example, leaders can:

Establish a bond with new employees. Within the first 10 days of new employee joining your company, spend time with them to understand their background, skills and future career aspirations.

Share the company’s vision. Within the first 20 days of a new employee joining your company, repeatedly expose them to the vision – and make sure they understand how their work contributes to achieving that vision. This can involve a one-on-one discussion, team discussion or company-wide presentation.

Acknowledge unique contributions. Beyond having the ability to function on a day-to-day basis, an employee only becomes truly oriented to a company when they feel as if their unique contribution is acknowledged. Within the first 30 days of a new employee joining your firm, recognize their contribution. This also becomes far more meaningful when done in a team or company-wide setting.

Lesson 2: Apply marketing skills to employee retention

Successful leaders know how to engage important audiences. And your team of employees is your business’ most critical audience. Bring your skills as a marketer to actively engage employees:

Anticipate future needs. Pro-actively develop plans that capture the imagination of what is important to your employees. This could involve modifying benefits plans, updating training programs or bringing other perks that align with your employees’ desires to grow personally and professionally.

Maintain an on-going dialogue. Since every successful dialogue begins with listening, establish a schedule of social and business events throughout the year where you can engage with your team of employees. These are terrific opportunities to learn about what projects and processes are exciting and/or frustrating your team. A natural extension to this on-going dialogue is establishing training and/or mentoring programs – identified as a possible retention method in the CMA’s recent study, Cultivating Market Talent: Overcoming the Obstacles.

Watch for reduced involvement. Just as you monitor clients for signs of disengagement, watch for employee behaviours that suggest that they are losing interest in their projects or their teams. Often, employees are looking for new challenges and opportunities to innovate within your company. Make sure your company can truly harness that energy and enthusiasm.

Lesson 3: Quantify employee retention in terms of contributions

All too often the rationale for tackling employee retention is framed in terms of cost-reductions. With that focus it is easy to overlook the unique contributions to your company’s effectiveness and productivity that result from retaining committed and engaged employees. Some of these measurable benefits include:

• New opportunities for business associated with developing new products/services
• The ability to take on additional work because of a “strong bench” of professionals
• Client retention and loyalty
• Time and cost-savings when existing employees train new employees

By quantifying and tracking these retention benefits, leaders are in a much better position to prioritize the resources required to retain employees.

Finally, by integrating all of these lessons into your regular schedule, you can have a positive and dramatic impact on your employee retention while building the foundation for future leaders. That, in turn, will provide you with an increased ability to meet the challenges that face your company now and in the future.

I welcome hearing any suggestions that you have for ways to help leaders retain employees - share here on the CMA Blog, or feel free to contact me directly at president@thindata.com

The Marketing Talent Pool – Running on empty?

THE REALITY

Census Canada recently released a report that “Management and professional occupations lead the retirement wave” with 55% of the workforce 40 or older. This is a terrifying statistic and leaves us to question what this will mean for Canadian Business in the next 10 years. Ultimately the traditional way of staffing up an organization (not to mention how we structure these organizations) is going to change. The Y generation is already throwing temper tantrums and demanding better work life balance. So what happens when that 55% retires? Does this mean that the workforce mix is going to change? Historically sticking with one company for life was of the norm. That is certainly not the case in today’s market. Will there be more freelancers and consultants? Will the age of retirement evaporate? Or will senior management be comprised of part timers making full time salaries just so the company can retain higher calibre talent? One thing that is sure to be noticed is that the immediate economic crisis has hiring in check. .. so when hiring is frozen and workloads boom... what does a marketer do to manage marketing resources(MRM)?

AN ALTERNATE ROUTE

What if a corporation knew they had a service that gave them access to high quality resources in marketing that were available quickly to address interim needs of the department to meet demand. This resource would eliminate the need to hire an additional Full Time Employee (FTE) or build additional resources and/or to farm the business to the costly advertising agency. This would in turn positively affect speed to market and address work life balance issues. This is not a new concept.

ACCOUNTING VERSUS MARKETING

The concept of bringing in skilled workers for short term assignments is not a new idea. Companies such as Adecco have made a huge name for themselves delivering generalist / admin temps on an as needed basis. However, when exploring the more senior and professional calibre roles, companies are far more reluctant to entertain temporary employees. The most common objections stem from concerns of the learning curve, because the common belief is ‘their business is so unique’, to more proprietary worries about confidentiality. Both these issues are easily overcome which has been clearly demonstrated by one company who started providing temps to the vertical considered most sacred… Finance. Accountemps has grown to become the largest and most successful financial temporary staffing firm in the world. It has since become very common to see firms that specialize in outsourcing/consulting for IT, HR, Supply Chain/ Operations and Creative services. Marketing however has not been a part of the temp renaissance.

The North American market for the Marketing Staffing segment has been estimated to be worth 1-3 Billion Dollars. The question that arises is if marketing staffing is such a hot service line, why are we not seeing more staffing firms focused on this segment, especially when there is so much depth in variety for the vertical? Marketing is deep and wide particularly within Fortune 500 organizations. Roles range from database management, brand/product management, Marcom, PR and Event Management, E-commerce and Market Research. The list goes on. So what is holding us back?

THE CLIMATE

Challenges a company faces within the marketing organization are far different from 10 years ago. Corporations are experiencing accelerated growth of core brands by expanding products and marketing programs. The explosion of new channels means that organizations more frequently run into skill gaps. Efforts to drive world class productivity limits bandwidth/resources for new marketing programs. Now add the whole Economy and recession fears to that equation. Efforts to find ways to cover surges of work in marketing departments often leads to outsourcing the load to the advertising agency… at a huge cost. This cost is not only monetary. When work life balance becomes compromised an organization runs into attrition risks. One risk is that overworked staff end up burning out and become less productive and take more sick leave. Secondly the reputation of the organization that becomes known as a ‘sweat shop’ has an adverse affect on ability to attract new good replacement talent. This is fast becoming an issue in marketing departments already!

BACK TO REALITY

When a company is striving to create a winning environment that values work life balance what happens when additional full time hires are not in the budget due to a head count freeze? It is becoming clear that out of the box thinking will be needed for companies to survive over the next decade. Marketing Resource Management will be an integral tool keep in mind for your survival kit.

Elevating Revenue: Marketing or Price or Client Experience

As globalization brings competitors from across the world closer and closer together, it is no longer about “lowest price always wins,” nor is it about “best marketing campaign always wins.” Growing any business successfully is only accomplished by attaining and retaining clients. This brings me to my first question: What has the single biggest impact on client experience? The answer: Your employees. To peel the onion back further, one would then have to ask, What has the single biggest impact on employees? The answer: Leaders and Managers.

Happy employees = Happy clients…

Keeping your staff happy keeps them engaged. That brings me to the next question: How do leaders elevate employee engagement? The answer: A leader’s trust is the number one driver of “employee engagement” hence, the well known quote: “people join companies but stay because of their boss.”

So, what is the real role of a leader? A large part of any people leader’s mandate is to create enthusiasm and loyalty. Those two qualities elevate employee experience.

Eight simple questions you can ask of your staff to validate if you are creating loyalty.

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
3. In the last 7 days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
4. Does my leader care about me as a person?
5. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
6. At work, do my opinions count?
7. Do I have a best friend at work?
8. In the last 6 months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

Nine specific To-Do’s for all People Leaders to elevate employee engagement?

1. Provide Purpose – Make The World A Better Place
2. Inspire Vision – Always earning the right to be your staff’s leader
3. Empower People Whenever You Can
4. Instil Values
5. Listen – don’t tell others what to do
6. Care About Others – Great Servants
7. Collaborate/Build Teamwork
8. Set Tough But Realistic Goals
9. Change transformation

In the end, why would a customer give you their business if when comparing companies you have similar products of similar quality and at similar prices? It is the front-line staff that make all the difference. The solution to elevating sales and revenue is not marketing driven, it is people driven. Spend development budgets in the right places.

Employment Branding: What’s Your Proposition?

In order to attract and retain top talent, a lot of companies often lose sight of the fact that they need to give their company (not just the products & services that they offer) a brand identity. Many fortune companies do a great job at this and have comprehensive marketing strategies in place specifically for recruitment and brand awareness. They spend millions ensuring that the integrity of their organization is communicated through various marketing vehicles specifically designed to attract potential employees and broadcast positive organizational messages.

You don’t have to be a multi-million dollar organization to do an exceptional job at communicating your employment proposition. By considering a few key tactics, you can be well on your way to appearing on one of those “best companies to work for” lists.

Culture.
Prospective employees are interested in more than just a pay cheque these days. They want to know what the corporate culture is like. Is there flexibility, opportunity to grow, career development, employee perks…? Is there an employee lounge with a TV and a Playstation…? Is employee teambuilding big at your organization?

Cultural fit is extremely important to employees, especially well educated ones… They’re not looking for a sweat shop, especially when there are plenty of companies around who believe strongly in work/life balance.

Awareness.
It’s one thing to have a well-kept secret; it’s another to try to get the right people to discover your secret. Brand awareness is absolutely imperative to maintaining an attractive employment proposition in the marketplace.

Engage in marketing, advertising and public relations ventures to increase the perceived value of working for your organization. Advertising your company as a great place to work will ensure that those resumes keep flowing.

Knowledge.
Arm prospective employees with as much knowledge as possible for them to make an enlightened decision about whether your company is right for them. It’s not just about finding the right candidates; it’s about ensuring that the candidates feel mutual about the relationship. People don’t like changing jobs often, and are quite happy to stick around if you make it worth their while.

Simply posting job openings on your website (especially when they are severely outdated) isn’t enough. Why not set up a separate recruiting site? Allow employees to upload their resumes directly to your site. Let them create alerts, letting them know when new positions become available. Set up social networking sites to foster dialogue and create conversations about what it’s like to work for the company. Take out ads, participate in career fairs, partner with recruiting sites. It is things like these that create positive perceptions and valuable word of mouth ambassadors.

Keeping employees happy and inspiring them to do their best, can not only lead to greater profits and increased morale, but it can push the boundaries of possibility and open many new doors.