4Cs Blog: Happy Employees = Happy Customers

What Could be Wrong with Unlimited Vacation Time?

The Pros and Cons of PTO

The idea of unlimited vacation sounds intriguing but is it feasible? Besides sounding like an employee’s dream, strategically, it is a tool that can be used to benefit recruiting, reflect a culture of trust and ease administrative burdens. Like so many ideas that sound too good to be true, it can lead to bigger problems if it’s not managed properly. This is one reason companies are slow to adopt and are watching to see the outcome from Sir Richard Branson’s move to adopt unlimited PTO at The Virgin Group. If all goes well for Virgin, this could be a model for other big companies to follow.

According to an article in Employee Benefit News by Dane Hurtubise, less than 1% of US corporations currently offer unlimited vacation days. It is gaining popularity as companies like Netflix, Best Buy, Evernote and Motley Fool adopt the program, however. In terms of employee engagement, unlimited vacation days has considerable merit because it implies a strong relationship between employee and employer, based on trust, which is one of the foundations for achieving engagement. But just like as adopting an open office plan, ‘each company should carefully evaluate and research if it is right for them’.

Why Does Communication Matter?

Employee Engagement Begins with Communication

It’s well documented that how people feel towards their work will always impact their attitude toward their organization and their productivity levels. People rarely give their best to an organization they do not believe in. No wonder that the success, or failure, of any organization is determined largely by their own employees, which is why it matters so much if they are engaged or not. Amassing a team of people who demonstrate dedication and commitment begins with an organization’s commitment to investing in its employees, and true employee engagement begins with honesty and communication according to Mahan Tavakoli, a leader at Dale Carnegie Employee Training, who writes that the “Foundation for genuine employee engagement begins with extensive and effective communication… and the resulting behaviors show up in increased productivity, heightened innovation, and improved job satisfaction”.

The Ideal Work Schedule

A New Way to Get (More) Work Done

You can’t be at your best all day long…it’s not humanly possible to be amazing all day long because our energy ebbs and flows like the tides. This is why our ideal work schedule should not be imposed upon us but rather be a reflection of our own internal clocks, also known as our circadian process. In his article titled “ The Ideal Work Schedule as Detemined by Circadian Rhythms’’ Christopher M. Barnes explains that each of us have a well-defined internal clock that controls our energy levels throughout the day. Each of us functions based on our own circadian rhythms, which tend to be common and regular and quite predictable. Jetlag is used as an illustration to explain how time changes can interfere with our circadian rhythm. Needless to say ’this natural and hardwired ebb and flow in our ability to feel alert or sleepy has important implications for how we schedule our work days’.

Working From Home Gets the Nod

Do you ever wonder if you should try working from home?

With so many people doing it, it kind of makes you wonder what all the fuss is about. Back in 1997, the US census reported that 9.2 million people worked from home. That number climbed to 13. 4 in 2010 and in 2015 there will be an estimated 30 million of us working from home. It’s become so popular that right now 82% of Fortune Magazine’s Best Companies to Work For already have virtual workplace policies. Harvard Business Review predicts that this year 40% of the world’s workforce will be remote…that’s 1.3 billion people worldwide.

So back to you and your decision… maybe all you need is a little nudge to prove that working from home really works. To help you make a decision, read the full article to get some interesting facts about WFH w

To Work or Not to Work on Superbowl Monday?

Should Superbowl Monday be a Holiday or Not?

For many Americans it’s become the one football game almost everyone watches, even the people who never watch all season long. Altogether some 112 million people in the U.S. alone are expected to be up late Sunday night carrying on pre, during and post Superbowl. Of course they are going to have a hard time showing up and being productive on Monday. And for reasons that are mildly mystifying, there is a global obsession sweeping the planet that means Americans won’t be the only ones who will show up for work with sleep in their eyes. And some of these fans maybe even more tired than we will be…. Just imagine that there are over 30 million fans in China who will be just starting to watch the game live at 8:30am Monday morning when they should be on their way to work. Meanwhile European countries are tuning in after midnight and pulling all-nighters in order to watch the game. What is an employer to do?

What Kind of Leader Do You Want to Be?

Choose Your Own 'Leadership Footprint'

Statistically, our research shows that one reason people leave their jobs is because of a bad relationship with their boss. We also know that just because a person has been promoted to a leadership role doesn’t mean they are automatically equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to be a great leader or boss; it takes time. So how do you help your team become better leaders? In her most recent article titled, ‘What Kind of Leader Do You Want To Be?’ Rebecca Newton refers to a Leadership Footprint which combines the two most central components of successful leadership together - leadership intent (the kind of leader you want to be) and impact (the legacy you want to leave). Without question, making this a reality takes effort but in the process of using this footprint to guide daily decision making, sharing it with others, seeking feedback and being held accountable for achieving it, there is greater chance for succeeding and becoming the kind of leader you really want to be.

In this way, new and inexperienced managers, who are on their way to becoming great bosses, will be more mindful of their roles and responsibility towards their employees and will have a greater positive impact than a negative one.

The Voice of Authority

The Connection Between Leadership and Voice

The sound of your voice could make you more powerful according to new research published in ‘Psychological Science’. Findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between acoustic cues and power, that can have significant impact on the way listeners perceive and behave towards the speakers. On one hand, the research showed that people in a position of power speak differently than those who do not but it also shows that we all have the ability to control our own voices so that we appear more assertive or authoritarian (this is also good for parents to know).

Understanding Employee Engagement in 2015

And the 'New World of Work' 

Often times, in the process of implementing an employee survey, senior HR management will admit that they ‘think they know what is happening with their staff but could be fooling themselves too’. We, like so many people who work in the field of HR and employee engagement, recognize how fast the world of HR is changing and how difficult it is to really understand what is happening.
An article recently published by Josh Bersin does a fabulous job of providing clarity on the subject of this ‘new world of work’, which he claims is really a ‘new world of life-one where work, home, family and personal lives are interconnected in a real-time way’. Bersin explains how this interconnected way of life, combined with the shift in demographics (today’s Millennial’s could make up 75% of the global workforce in five years), means that ‘businesses must think about talent very differently than they have in the past. Workers now join companies like athletes join professional teams’.

A powerful shift indeed.

Easy Ways to Engage Your Employees

8 Simple Steps to Increasing Job Satisfaction

Recent research provides plenty of evidence that as employee engagement and satisfaction grows at a company so does…
• Employee retention, so you save money by not having to replace experienced employees.
• The level of productivity among your staff, which leads to improved service to clients.
• The degree of morale and engagement your employees feel.
• Customer satisfaction with your products and services; and most importantly.
• Your organization’s financial performance and overall health.

Leadership: Better to be Kind or Tough?

What The World Needs Now is Kindness

There is significant evidence that, as employee job satisfaction and engagement increase, so too does an organization's financial performance, as a direct result of higher employee productivity, improved employee retention and greater customer satisfaction. Apart from the surveys we conduct for our clients we also conduct our own independent annual survey of randomly selected employees to create statistically valid Employee Engagement Norms to help us evaluate real levels of engagement.
Using open-ended questions, we often get comments that the least satisfying aspect of working for a company is that other employees are not held accountable. On the other hand, we also hear that senior management is often distant, inaccessible and does not understand what employees are facing every day. For example, “they pass me in the hallways and don’t even acknowledge me”. Sound familiar?

About

Recent Posts

Categories

Favorite Links