Maximizing the Human Potential

Accelerate Your Growth

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andrew shaffer consulting accelerate your growthNow that the Holidays are behind us and we are facing the first full week of the new year, how do you feel about 2020? I know that is a trick question. Will it be better than 2019? This year my blogs and newsletters are going to be focused on addressing problems that you have. As I meet with business owners, and hear about common struggles, I will share what I learn with you. I want to help you make 2020 a breakout year for you and your business. Today, let’s talk about how to accelerate your growth.

Accelerate Your Growth

At the end of last year (2019) I talked to a surprising number of business owners that didn’t see their businesses improve from 2018. Revenue and profits were just about the same year to year. One of the reasons I found this surprising is because I met with a few business owners that said their business was booming with huge year to year returns. I found the contrast odd, and often it was within the same industries. So, what is the difference?

Performance

Employee performance underpins everything a company accomplishes. There is no doubt that the better your employees perform, the better the company performs. Absenteeism, turnover and a lack of wiliness to change all hurt performance. These problems are typically caused by low employee engagement, although the root cause of low engagement will different for everyone.

Typically, I see companies take a team approach to employee engagement, instead of making it about the employee. Companies will bring in experts in team building to conduct workshops or have social events so “everyone can get to know each other”. Teambuilding is not engagement. Engaged teams do perform better as a team, but teambuilding doesn’t build engagement.

To improve employee performance, I recommend that you:

  • Make sure you have the right people in the right jobs based on desire, capabilities and aptitude.
  • Find those employees that might be toxic to your culture and deal with them appropriately. It will show strong leadership on your part.
  • Improve communication with your employees. Understand what motivates them and discuss assignments in ways that get them excited.

Decisions

I once sat in a staff meeting where my boss was sharing a new initiative from our executive. He unilaterally decided he wasn’t going to implement the new initiative because he thought it was the “flavor of the month.” Although he set a poor example, (if he didn’t listen to his boss, why should I listen to him?) he was right. The initiative was never implemented, and there were no consequences. Now, how effective do you think that executive is going to be? Do you think there was going to be any positive impact? Probably not.

In most companies, things don’t happen just because the boss says go make it happen. Sure, something might happen, but people don’t generally respond favorably to a direct order. “Because I said so” is not a recommended management technique. If you want to make sure your decisions are implemented, you need to engage your employees. The most effective way to do this, is to have a system in place where your employees (the ones implementing your ideas) have some input into the decision and how it will be implemented. When decisions are made, explain why a certain decision was made. Keep in mind to use different communications styles so your message is received.

Development

Develop your employees. Help them build the skills necessary to perform at a high level. I have had a lot of discussion recently about how to do this, so I am going to share some guidelines.

Create development plans to help your employees develop skills for this job and the next. Development plans should be based on company objectives. For example, if you are implementing a new technology or going after a new product line. Create a training program that will have the most lasting impact. Consider using instructor lead, online, or on the job training. Consider how the person will be involved, a manager might not need the same type of training as a technician responsible for doing the work.

Employee development should be designed to develop new skills the company needs to take the organization into the future. If you cannot draw a straight line from the training to the business objective, you should consider if your training is necessary.

This Week’s Challenge

If your performance in 2019 was less than impressive, or if you want to make sure that 2020 is a breakout year, start with employee performance. Get your team motivated, engaged, and excited about what this year has to offer. Employee engagement isn’t about making people happy, it’s about driving business forward and ultimately, you will accelerate your growth.

If you need help, or would like to learn more about how to drive performance, productivity and profits, please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Finding and Keeping the Best Employees

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best employees andrew shaffer consultingOne challenge many business leaders are sharing with me is a frustration with finding and keeping high performing employees. Some companies are struggling with retention, others with finding qualified candidates, and still others are dealing with a lack of productivity or innovation. No matter what the issues is, business leaders are always looking ways to help their employees improve. Today I am going to talk about how to help you attract, retain, develop your employees to give you a competitive edge.

Finding and Keeping the Best Employees

Business leaders spend countless hours developing and executing strategies. Much of that strategy is centered around two things, developing new business and executing on existing business.

In a recent client meeting I asked the management team some simple questions about who their customers were. They nailed it! They knew exactly who their customers were, what they wanted and how they provide that. Companies often come up with an “avatar” or ideal client so they can market to them.  But how many people do the same thing for the employees they want to attract? Here are some basic questions you should be asking about your current employees as well as those you hire in the future.

Who are your employees?

Just like companies identify who their target market is for their customers, business leaders should have a target market for their employees. If you look through any job search site, most (not all) employers describe who they are looking for by a set of skills and experience. Skills and experience don’t mean that someone will be effective in your company.

Look at your current employees. List some of the characteristics of your top performers. Those that have been there a while, what do they all have in common? You might even want to do the same exercise with those that haven’t worked out. What went wrong there?

What do they need?

This is something that is often overlooked or minimized. I mean they need a paycheck, right? I’ll tell you with 100% certainty, if that is the only need you are filling, you will have a hard time keeping employees. No matter how big that paycheck is, there is always someone willing to write a bigger check.

Everyone has different needs, and each generation has different needs as well.  Baby boomers needed job security. Millennials need flexible work arrangements. Employees at non-profits and charity organizations feel the need to serve (and usually don’t get paid well). When I work with companies I typically use an assessment to determine the employee needs, and how well those needs are being filled. This is almost always eye-opening for leadership!

How is the need satisfied?

Knowing is half the battle, so understanding the need is only the beginning of the solution. How do you fill that need? Learning opportunities is one of the common motivators, and motivational gaps, I find in my assessment. Employees are interested in professional development and expect the company to support that in some way.

It won’t be uncommon for business leaders to provide a laundry list of things they offer with respect to learning opportunities.  What they often don’t realize is their employees find the process to take advantage might be too cumbersome (needs too much approval), or they don’t feel like they are able to balance learning with their current workload. After you determine what need you serve for your employee, do you have a way to satisfy that need, that the employees are taking advantage of?

When do you satisfy the need?

Flexible work hours are becoming common place in todays workforce. From flexible hours to work from home options.  But not all businesses can accommodate these types of arrangements. And even those businesses that can, it isn’t feasible to do it all the time.  If you are a tax accountant, chances are you will have very little flexibility during “tax season”.

Every business cycle is different, and every need is different. As a leader you must determine the best way to satisfy employee needs without compromising business needs. What is ultra-important here, is to effectively communicate expectations, and when you will be able to satisfy certain needs.

Who provides that need?

Once you learn who your employees are, what their needs are, how and when it will be provided, someone must be responsible for providing it. Who will fill those needs? Often it is a combination of leadership, employees, and maybe HR. So, as a complete picture it is important to decide who is responsible for providing what.

For example: the need is career advancement. HR would be responsible for determining pay and promotion criteria. Leadership would be responsible for giving guidance and assignments to meet those criteria, and the employee is responsible for execute.

This Week’s Challenge

Take action to decide who your employees are and what they need. You will soon find that you will have higher productivity and retention (yes even with millennials)! If you need help, or would like to learn more about our assessments,  please reach out to me. I’ll be happy to help!

Leadership and Engagement and the Bottom Line

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andrew shaffer consulting leadership and engagement

When I talk about employee engagement or leadership, people tend to think it is a soft skill. Engagement isn’t something tangible, or that shows up as a line item on the P&L statement. I must admit; I had the same thoughts. In fact, when I started by consulting business, I tried to avoid the words leadership and engagement. Yes, I tried to avoid the words that describe what I do, precisely because they sound like soft skills.  As you can imagine, that made things a bit of a challenge when explaining what I do, and probably wasn’t good business practice.  This week, I want to get into some of the hard results I experienced when focusing on leadership and engagement, that made it important enough for me to focus a business around it.

Leadership and Engagement and the Bottom Line

In EVERY business I’ve worked in or with, there were always inefficiencies that impacted the bottom line. Whether it be people that weren’t properly trained in their jobs and inefficient, or unnecessary bureaucracy, or frequent re-work because of errors and lack of communication.  These things add to labor costs, and most of the time are the cost of doing business. What would happen if they weren’t part of the cost of doing business? What if you had trained and efficient employees or if decisions weren’t bogged down by bureaucracy? Could you minimize mistakes and do it right the first time? Those are the opportunity cost associated with leadership and engagement.

Today I am going to share a few examples of hidden profit killers that I have seen throughout my working life.

Process Inefficiencies

At one point in a previous career, I was responsible for the testing of some complex engineering systems. We were the final test before the units were shipped to our customer. Because we were almost the last step in the process, there was rarely any slack in our schedule. By the time the systems showed up, we had to turn them around quickly to meet customer need dates. From set up to tear down, the whole process should have taken 3 hours.  Meaning we could easily test two systems in a typical 8-hour shift.  When I started this almost NEVER happened. Rarely could we get through a test in 3 hours.  Typically, it took almost an 8-hour shift to complete a test. Why? There were terrible inefficiencies inherent in our process.

Showing Leadership

How does this situation apply to leadership and engagement? Last week, I talked about complacency, and this is the way it is. And before I took over, that is the way it was. The difference was that someone on my staff approached me and said this was terribly inefficient, and he wanted to do something about it. He saw a problem and had a vision of a better future.  He knew there was a better way.  So, he shared that vision with me and the other members of my team, and elicited help. This is leadership.

Creating Engagement

At this point, creating engagement was easy. A better future was laid out to the team, and people wanted to be part of this process. So, I assigned a team to review our testing processes and inefficiencies to create a more robust testing condition.  I have to say the level of participation was astounding. There were second shift people coming in early, first shift people staying late. We had junior personnel and senior personnel and everywhere in between looking to create a better test environment.  The goal was to reduce testing by 50%, or from 8 hours down to 4 hours.

Results

What was the result?  Well, when I moved on, we didn’t quite get the testing down to a consistent 4 hours. On average, we got the test time down to about 5 hours. So, with two people running the test, we freed up about six man hours each night (30 hours each week) to accomplish other tasks. With the same amount of staff, we reduced testing costs, and increased productivity. Both of those were metrics any manager will be happy to see.

I could share a story where there was a recurring problem where there was a lack of leadership and engagement. But that would be boring, because they are probably still having the same problem!

This Week’s Challenge

Are you curious if there are hidden operational costs in your business?  Give us a call for an assessment and consultation and see how you can start improving your bottom line.

As a loyal reader I am offering a 25% discount on our motivational assessments. Do you want to know what motivates your employees? Contact us now and let’s have a conversation.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

 

Recruiting Talent

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andrew shaffer consulting recruiting talent

Last week I talked about the need for having “ball players” or superstars in your organization. What if you don’t have any ball players? What if you have some, how can you stop them from leaving to work at your competition? This week I am going to share with you three differentiators that will help you in recruiting talent and retaining superstars in your organization. Spoiler alert… it’s not money!

Recruiting Talent

Identifying and retaining talent these days is difficult. In today’s work force highly skilled individuals are in high demand, and can often pick and choose where they want to work. When recruiting top talent, you don’t always have to be the highest bidder (i.e. pay the most) although you do have to be competitive. Today’s employees are looking for more than a paycheck, they are looking at what the company offers above and beyond the pay. College level athletics recruit talent all the time, and are unable to use pay as a differentiator. Let’s look at some of the strategies used by top athletic programs for recruiting and how that applies to your business.

Be a Winner

Everyone likes to win. I know we tell our kids things like; it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game, just do your best. But honestly, if you do your best and play fair it still hurts to lose. Right?

When colleges are recruiting athletes, they will boast their winning records. If they cannot boast about a winning record, they’ll talk about a history and a plan to start winning. We’ve hired new coaches, we recruited new players etc. When talented athletes have a choice of where to go to school, they will want to play for a winning team.

The same is true when recruiting talent to your company. They will want to see you have a winning organization, or at least the potential to be a winning organization. Boast about the growth you’ve seen recently, new large contracts or expansion. Let potential employees know about any awards you may have received, and company history. These things will send a message to your prospects that when they come work for you they will be joining a winning team.

Culture

Everyone wants to fit in. We are tribal by nature, and we want to be surrounded by people with the same values and motivations. Have ever worked at a company, or joined an organization, where you just didn’t fit in? How hard was it to make friends? Did you feel comfortable? Even if you did, did you really enjoy yourself? Probably not.

Again, it isn’t uncommon for college recruiters to have prospects visit for a day or more. Typically, they’ll shadow someone from the team and see what it’s like to be part of the program. The idea here is to get the prospect a “feel” for what it’s like to be part of the team. The coach, and the player will want to know if they will fit in, if they can be part of the culture or if they’ll be an outsider. Those that fit in can thrive, outsiders tend to hold back.

The same is true in your work place. Although it’s not typical for a company to invite a prospect to shadow another employee during a job interview, but there are other ways that prospects can learn about culture. When you bring in a prospect for an interview, how are they received? Websites like indeed.com or glassdoor.com often have employee reviews so candidates can get an idea what it’s like to work at your company. What do prospects see when they look you up online?

Development

Prospective athletes understand that they are investing time to play at the college level, and in return want to know that they will become better during that process. In college sports, this is an easy discussion. Coaches can talk about the number of players that went on to play professional sports. If that isn’t an option, they will talk about graduation rates, and successes that former athletes have had in professional careers.

Your prospective employees will have similar questions:

  • If I work for you, what will the future look like for me?
  • Do I have career advancement opportunities, or will I be stuck doing the same thing for my entire career?

Top performers didn’t get to be top performers by accepting the status quo. Top performers achieved success by learning, developing and growing. Having a proven employee development system will help you attract and retain high performers and high potential employees.

This Week’s Challenge

I know there are still some employees that will go to the company that pays the most. Most of the time it’s best to let them work somewhere else. Eventually someone else will offer them more money and they’ll leave. Save yourself the headache and cost of losing talent. Create an environment that attracts and retains talent. Develop a strategy for:

  • Competing and winning at a high level
  • A welcoming and inclusive culture
  • A proven effective employee development system

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Team Building Ideas and Misconceptions

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team buliding andrew shaffer consultingDuring a conversation over coffee with my friend Steve Morris, founder of Catylator, we had an interesting discussion on some common techniques for team building and why they fall short of the goal. One thing we both agreed on was that some techniques for team building, while fun, don’t actually achieve any objectives of team building. Steve has a unique, interesting and effective method for team building and problem solving. If you think you could use his help or want to learn more, I encourage you to check out his website. This week I am going to share some ideas and misconceptions of team building.

Team Building

Most of us agree that working on a cohesive team improves productivity, engagement, and business outcomes. The terms “team” and “teamwork” are ramped in job descriptions and prospects inevitably boast about being team player or team leader. Many organizations I know will attempt team building through some social activity as a way to get to know each other outside of work. They might invite teams to a happy hour, lunch outing, or bowling. Is this the best way to build a team?

While these activities are fun, and can help build friendships, they don’t always build teams. I mean think about it, how is bowling or a beer going to help you be more productive at work? Personally, I prefer to have a beer or go bowling (actually golfing) AFTER I’ve established a relationship with someone.

Common Purpose

For a team to be highly functioning, they have to have a common purpose. Sports is the best and simplest example of this. The common purpose of any sports team, at least the good ones, is to win a game or championship. That’s it. Everyone in the organization from the owner, to the GM to the rookie that just signed this morning, all have the same goal. To win games.

In the business world, the common purpose could be a project completion, customer satisfaction score, or sales goals. The best teams I’ve ever worked with was when we were ALL focused on the same goal. The team was diligently working to complete a task. The team leaders were actively removing obstacles that impeded progress. Everyone knew what success looked like, everyone was keeping score, and everyone participated in achieving results. I’m actually getting excited just remembering these successes!

Belonging

Being part of a team, is more than just having a role to fill. Being part of a team was a sense of belonging. I’ve been coaching little league baseball for several years now. One of the most exciting days for the boys are when I hand out the uniforms. Actually, from the first day of practice I generally have someone asking when we’ll be getting uniforms. Why? Because when we all have our uniforms on, we feel like we’re part of something. I make sure the coaching staff is always dressed like part of the team as well. Again, we ALL belong and it makes a difference.

When someone belongs to something, they recognize they are part of something bigger. Being part of something bigger tends to help us be less concerned about “me” as we are about “we”. When we’re concerned about “we” then we can help each other and the team improve.

Trust

Trust is a foundational aspect of any team. I need to trust that the other members of my team will be there when I need them. Going to back to my hobby of coaching little league. Sometimes my pitchers get focused on getting a strike out, and will get frustrated when players get a hit. When this happens, I’ll remind them that it’s OK, and there are 8 other players on the field that are there to make a play. Actually, the other players are hoping the batter hits the ball so they have something to do!

Trust is essential to everything in business and in life. My kids trust that someone will pick them up from school each day. My wife and I trust each other to uphold our responsibilities in the family. I trust my employees to do the jobs they say they are going to do. When the trust breaks down, the team breaks down and sooner or later you stop winning. Once trust is broken it is very hard to repair.

This Week’s Challenge

I want you to think about what you do to build a team at your company. Does it help you work towards a common goal? Does it foster a sense of belonging? And, does it help build trust?

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Connecting with Employees

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andrew shaffer consulting connecting with employees

Last week I had the privilege of giving a presentation to the Small Business Council at the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce. I discussed how an employee development system impacts the bottom line. We discussed how an employee development system impacts productivity and retention, as well as a few other benefits. During the talk, I also shared a winning strategy for employee development, which lead to a hearty dialogue. This week I am going to share some of the takeaways from that discussion about connecting with employees.

If you our your business would like to understand how employee development can impact YOUR bottom line, please contact me, and I’ll be happy to meet with your business.

Connecting with Employees

First and foremost, there is no one size fits all employee development plan. Everyone is unique with their interests, ambitions and motivations. Therefore, an employee development system should be able to produce a development plan unique to the individual.

How do you know what your employees need in a development system? Well, you have to be able to connect with them on an individual level. You must create a bond beyond the manager/employee relationship. In other words, you really need to know who your employees are as humans.

Many companies, including ASC, can help you with assessments to understand personality types, behavior profiles, and motivations. However, when you compliment these assessments with genuine human interaction you will amplify your results! Here are three techniques I have successfully used to supercharge my employee development systems over my careers.

Monthly 1:1 Meetings

I advise all leaders to have 1:1 meeting , typically for 30 minutes, with their direct reports every month. This time should be set aside each month and shouldn’t be moved. The meeting should have some structure to it, and still allow for a conversation. I recommend covering these topics:

  • Any progress on development plans. If no progress why and how do you catch up?
  • Challenges faced since last meeting. How did you overcome them? How can you prevent them next time?
  • Anticipated challenges in the next month? Plan to deal with them?
  • Any help needed? (be sure to follow through)
  • Ask the employee what’s on their mind, anything they need to discuss?

Many times, people get “busy” and when they are trying to squeeze an extra 30 minutes in to their week, and these meetings are the first to get moved or cancelled. Resist the that temptation. Remember that developing the talent on your team is a primary function of a good leader.

Development Plans

Create a development plan for each individual employee. Determine a specific goal with action steps to get there. To be “better” at my job isn’t a development goal. To create an effective employee development plan you should set goals, one or two at the most, geared at mastering current Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or developing skills towards the next job promotion. What is most important, is your development plan should have measurable goals and actions steps.

Depending on the size of your organization, employees might have an option of several career paths in front of them, or you might be a small business with just a handful of employees. Either way developing the talent on you staff with employee development plans will help your team contribute to the success of the company (your success) with each team members unique skills. You may find some hidden talent or skill on your team that could give your business the edge over your competition!

MBWA

MBWA is simply Management By Walking Around. In my discussion last week, this received the most attention. MBWA is simple. When I was doing it, I’d literally get up from my desk, walk to where my people were working (cubes, offices, labs, shop floor, wherever) and see what they were doing. I would ask about what they did, how they were doing it. I didn’t start doing this to get status on a project, or to tell them how to do their job. Then, I went to learn about them, and how they approached their jobs.

Then, I used other forums such as the 1:1 discussion or the development plans to offer advice on job improvements. Over a relatively short period of time, my team began to trust me. When I showed up, they didn’t think I was there to look over their shoulder to critique them, and they would begin to tell me about issues and problems they were having then. They’d ask for help then. Often times they actually would be glad to see me.

MBWA Reactions

When I talk to leaders about MBWA, I typically get three common reactions. Let me briefly share them with you now:

  • What do I talk about? Ask what they are doing, and how it’s going. Ask about their day, or their favorite sports team. The idea is to build trust. Once you have that trust, your team will open up and share more.
  • How do I do this without looking like I am micromanaging? Simple, DON’T MICROMANAGE. Don’t jump in unless they are doing something unsafe, unethical, or otherwise damaging to the company. If they ask for help, help. Once the rapport and trust is there, then you can use this time to coach. If you’re new to MBWA and you start out with coaching, your employee will see you and think your there just to tell them what they are doing wrong. That is counterproductive.
  • My employees don’t work directly with me, I can’t physically go see them. Personal communication is what MBWA is trying to accomplish. Call them, or better yet, video call them. Ask how they are doing, and build the rapport that way.

Building a connection through MBWA opened me an my teams up to a whole new level of communication. I was able to learn about issues when they were happening, and get help before they became problems.

This Week’s Challenge

Incorporate a system for connecting with your employees. If you already have one in place, great! Ask yourself, what improvements can be made to that system. Your efforts will be well worth the time you invest.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

Employee Development and the Bottom Line

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andrew shaffer consulting employee development

I appreciate all the positive feedback from last week’s blog post.  It was supposed to help you think about the message you send, by the words you choose. Last week, I attended an event featuring Gerry Sandusky (voice of the Ravens), and in his talk he also highlighted the fact that people like to win. When trying to attract and retain talent, always keep in mind that people want to be part of a winning team. Develop a winning team, and watch your success skyrocket! Today, I’m talking about how employee development can help your business grow.

Employee Development and the Bottom Line

I grew up in Illinois, and I was a HUGE Chicago Bulls fan. HUGE! When I say a Bulls fan, it was probably more of a Michael Jordan fan. I wanted to be like Mike. Why? Well, because Jordan was the best of his time (and maybe all time). Having Jordan on the court was a game changer, he gave the Bulls a competitive advantage. Need proof? Michael Jordan led the Bulls to a championship in ’91,’92 and ’93, after a brief retirement and an unsuccessful pursuit at a baseball career. He came back to basketball and lead the Bulls to another threepeat in ’96, ’97 and ’98. Fun fact: I was in the United Center in Chicago when the Bulls won in 1998.

Almost everyone I knew wanted to be like Jordan. Jordan was more than a winner; he was a game changer. Every athlete I know dreamed of being the player that was given the shot with the game on the line as the clock is ticking down and comes through with the clutch shot, or play or whatever is necessary to win. Nobody dreams about being the guy that passed Jordan the ball.

Athletes at that level have a tremendous work ethic. However, we all know people with extraordinary work ethics that get ordinary results. Perhaps you have people in our company like this. Perhaps your company is like this. To achieve greatness, you need to combine that work ethic with a useful employee development tool. You may not have a championship trophy to show for it, but you will see the impact on your bottom line as you leave your competition behind.

Retention

I have talked with team leaders, and executives that have lost a top performer from their team. The story is almost always the same. I didn’t see it coming, and I wish I’d have known so I could have done something. These leaders struggle, often in vein, to find a direct replacement. In fact, most of the time they end up needing two people to get the same productivity.

Even if you didn’t have to hire multiple people, the replacement costs can exceed 1.5 times the salary of the person that left. Not to mention the impact to morale and team cohesion. And now your best employee, the one that gave you a competitive advantage, might be giving your competition that advantage you just lost. Wow!

Retention has an indirect, but real impact on your bottom line. Let’s keep this in perspective. As your company grows you run the risk of higher attrition numbers. Now not all attrition can be avoided, but if you could reduce turnover by 3-5%, how much money could you put back into your business. Where would you rather invest your hard-earned capital?

Productivity

Having an employee development system will improve the productivity of your team. We’ve all heard the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the work is done by 20% of the employees. There is a natural tendency in business where teams typically have about 20% that are exceptional. Roughly another 60% that are solid performers, and the remaining employees just don’t fit. What if you could tap into the underutilized productivity in the 60% of your solid performers and improve productivity by just a few percent. What you’ll see is dramatic increases in productivity.

For illustration purposes. Suppose you had about 50 employees in your organization. Increasing productivity by just 3% will yield an additional 3000 hours of work over the course of a year. That is like having another 1.5 people on your staff without all the overhead of having employees. And an additional 3% isn’t really all that much. It comes out to ~15 minutes a day/employee. Think of it this way: 5 minutes first thing in the morning, 5 minutes after lunch, and 5 minutes at the end of the day. How does this happen? Just being more deliberate, and focused.

Employee Development System

An employee development system is not an annual performance assessment. It is not long drawn out conversations about why someone needs to improve. I have 2 boys that play sports. I do my best to coach them both. When a player strikes out, as he’s walking back to the dug-out I often give him a quick piece of advice. Adjust your hands so you can get the bat around, or shift your balance so you can get a more level swing. Something quick and immediate. I didn’t wait until the end of the season (like an annual review). We try to make corrections now so we can see improvements at his next at bat.

To continue with the coaching analogy, there is one coach, one piece of advice, and one conversation. I don’t overload the ball player with three for four pieces of advice. It’ll clutter his head, and he’ll certainly fail again next time. We don’t have every coach giving advice at the same time (I do see this at times). Again, keep it simple, direct and understandable. Normally the change doesn’t come immediate in a game, and that is OK. But at our next practice I remind the player what we needed to work on, then we practice it until we get it right.

As a coach I develop my players on a game by game, day by day system. I work to elevate performance, so at the end of the season we are better ball players. Hopefully at the end of each practice we are a little better. When creating an employee development system, these same fundamentals apply. A quick, simple, timely  process for feedback, with the intent of elevating talent, will improve productivity, lower retention, and drive profits that you will see in your financial statements.

This Week’s Challenge

Do you have an employee development system in place that is designed for continuous improvement? Do you have a system in place that elevates the talent on your team on a continuous basis? Are you creating a system that gives you a competitive edge?

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

How to Avoid Having Dissatisfied Employees

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how to avoid hearing i quit andrew shaffer consultingI’ve had some serious writers block today, so I scrolled through some social media to see what inspiring things people are posting, or articles that are being shared. I thought I’d write about something that seems to be on the minds of other people. I found it quite surprising, that there were a lot of articles and statistics about people quitting their jobs to find new work. One article went so far as to state 60% of all employees have quit or are considering quitting right now! Do you have dissatisfied employees? Are your employees looking for a new job? How would you know?

How to Avoid Hearing “I Quit!”

As a business owner or a team leader you know how costly turnover can be to your bottom line. Retention is especially important when you have highly skilled workers that are in demand. I recently wrote a blog on the key to retention. In today’s economy there are more jobs available than people to fill them, and highly skilled workers are in high demand.

To be completely honest, I have quit more than one job and it took my boss by surprise. When I give an honest assessment of my performance leading up to deciding it was time to move on, the signs were obvious. If your employees are displaying any of the following traits, it’s a good idea to talk with them about their future.

Engagement

For the weeks, and months prior to ever leaving a job, there was almost always a lack of engagement in my work. I was doing my work, but I’d have a tendency to procrastinate, or let a task take longer than was necessary. During this time, I would participate less in meetings, and was reluctant to volunteer for any “extra” assignments. I didn’t necessarily do this on purpose, but most of the time, my mind was elsewhere. Sometimes, I was thinking about where I wanted to work next, or other things I’d rather be doing. I would easily be distracted by non-work-related things which resulted in a lack of concentrated focus on my current job.

High performers generally have a high level of engagement. They bring excitement and enthusiasm to their work which drives them to be top performers. As a leader, it is important to monitor and observe changes in behavior in your employees. Changes in behavior, and engagement, are symptoms of an underlying issue. When you observe these symptoms, it is in your best interest to identify issues quickly and resolve them if you can.

Absenteeism

Employees looking for new work tend to miss work more often. If they are less engaged and can be doing something else, they are more likely to do so. Also, if your employees are looking for work, they are likely to take time off to attend job fairs, networking events, or even interview for another job. Unplanned or one day time off can be an indicator that someone is looking for another job.

Absenteeism isn’t always manifested in unplanned time off or time off with short notice. Often times, it is strolling in just a few minutes later than normal. Nothing completely unusual, but a sign that getting to the office wasn’t a priority. Leaving promptly and taking longer than usual lunch breaks are also signs of absenteeism. If you notice a high performer taking more time off than usual, or longer breaks than they are accustomed to, this could be a sign someone is looking for another job.

Productivity

Your high performers are high performers because they are productive. I mean these are the people you count on when things absolutely have to get done, right? Productivity decreases as engagement decreases. This can sometimes be difficult to spot, but the signs are there. High performers, engaged or not, will still be productive. They are wired that way, and really don’t know how to not be productive. However, there will be signs of slowed productivity. Maybe they are completing tasks on time, instead of beating deadlines. Another symptom could be turning acceptable work quality instead of the exceptional work they typically provide.

This Week’s Challenge

Dissatisfied employees always leave signals of their dissatisfaction. Attentive leaders are tuned into changes in behavior and are willing to take action. In an economy where the employer is at a disadvantage, and qualified highly skilled employees are in demand, ensure your leaders are watching for signs that your best talent is looking for another job. Being proactive with your employees can help you retain your best performers and keep your competitive edge.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

What were they thinking?

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andrew shaffer consulting what were they thinking employee moraleOccasionally, I hear a story that just makes me stop dead in my tracks, and say, “Really? What were they thinking?” These stories come in different varieties, from not watching market trends to see new technologies, allowing complacency in the workplace drive them to be obsolete, or not investing in employees because they might leave. This week I am going to share one of these stories with you.

What were they thinking?

I had a meeting with someone that was referred to me for some advice. He explained that at his company they just survived a major crisis. In the middle of the crisis his boss quit, leaving him to pull the pieces together. After several weeks of long days with no breaks, they resolved the crisis. It was a tremendous learning experience with the most important lesson that he didn’t want to do that again. He was seeking advice on what he could do to make sure he, and the company, didn’t have to go through that again.

My advice was to take some training to learn how to recognize and prevent a crisis like this from happening again. He wasn’t sure if his company would be able or willing to pay for the training, so he decided he’d cover the training if his company would give him the flexibility to make up his hours for the time he was missing. Essentially, he wasn’t asking for the company to invest any money, just some flexibility. They refused to give him the flexibility because they were afraid if he learned more, and became more valuable, he’d leave. That response never works, and here are a few of the impacts of this type of thinking.

Morale

That kind of response is a morale killer. Morale in the workplace has a bigger impact on profitability than you might think. Low morale kills creativity and problem-solving thinking. In cultures where morale is low, people are willing to accept the status quo, and think they can’t affect the outcome and just try to survive. This is what happened at the company I described. Low morale causes management to think only about surviving, and they can’t see the benefit of avoiding problems in the future. Create a culture with high morale, and you’ll no longer be facing the same problems. Your company will switch from survival mode to thriving mode.

Productivity

What do you think happens when you tell an employee that they don’t matter? How does that impact productivity? It kills it! At different points in my career, I had felt that my efforts were unappreciated, even if I’d go above and beyond to achieve a significant accomplishment. As a result, I withdrew. I lost all motivation and my productivity plummeted. I did enough to stay out of trouble, but when it was 5:00, I was out the door. Therefore, I have observed top producers quickly turn into mediocre performers when they are not appreciated. On the other hand, according to Gallup, companies with high morale (highly engaged) were 17% more productive than companies with low engagement.

Retention

Loss of productivity and low morale are probably the best scenarios you can hope for. High turnover is extremely expensive to a company. It’s no secret that in today’s economy highly skilled workers are in high demand. There are more jobs available than people to fill them. Also, according to that same Gallup Report, 51% of the American workforce is looking for a new job! According to a paper written by the Center for American Progress, replacing skilled workers could cost up to 216% of an employee salary. And in every case, where I have observed low morale, there is an issue with employee turnover!

This Week’s Challenge

It is no secret that the secret to growing your company is by growing your people.  Invest in your people and you’ll create a loyal, productive, and profitable team.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.