Engagement Building Behaviours

As Newswise reports, based on employee engagement research by Florida State University business school professor Wayne Hochwarter,

recession-based uncertainty has encouraged many business leaders to pursue self-serving behaviors at the expense of those that are considered mutually beneficial or supportive of organizational goals.

This plays out in behaviours that Hochwarter's team classified using the biblical Seven Deadly Sins as a framework.  

While the percentages attached to each of those "behavioral sins," based on feedback from more than 700 mid-level workers, is interesting, what appears further down in Newswise's article caught my attention more from a productive workplace standpoint: FSU found that employees with leaders who committed any of these "sins" said they cut back on their contributions by 40%.  Notably, they were also:

• 66% less likely to make creative suggestions, and
• 75% more likely to pursue other job opportunities.

Hochwarter's findings tell me that workplace qualities that some leaders might consider as soft (or at least far down on the totem pole of what they need to worry about day to day), such as trust, respect, and fairness, are not just "nice to do's" – they have a real impact on product/service delivery and quality, and company spending on recruiting and retraining.

Connecting Generational Norms, Culture and Personality with Development

Our friends at BC HRMA have published an interesting model about the link of various environmental and personal factors with professional development.

There are a huge amount of developmental options for employers to choose from and in order to be cost effective our organizations are constantly looking to fine tune selections to hit the broadest audience possible in terms of applicable programs. The most cost effective approach to employe development is having standardized processes, access options and alignment to organizational and personal goals.  However, given the growing demographic changes to our working populations, our clients need to also recognize how this change impacts the effectiveness of our current development systems.




There is general acceptance that a larger than expected amount of baby boomers are delaying retirement.  But are current development options effective for this group of employees who remain employed for very different contextual reasons than those of mid or jr. career levels? And how can organizations continue to ensure that this valued older workforce be developed to successfully manage through the ever increasing rate of change? 

The re-framing developmental options for organizations has begun.   And it is important to begin this discussion if it has not already been tabled.  Specifically, are we addressing the critical need to proactively ensure that the top band of experienced and aging staff are effectively developed?  That they are developed to ensure we meet both their more specialized needs and our organizational goals?

Equal Pay for Equal Work

  

The jurisdiction of Ontario has been dealing with the issue of Pay Equity for some time based on the converging provincial legislation that is steering the correction of gender specific pay differentials for equivalent work. 

An excellent guide to investigating your organizational pay equity and how to manage through the required changes can be found in a 2006 presentation made for the Ontario Federation of Labour. 

This material covers a 2 step process:

1)   Achieving Pay Equity

The initial stage in achieving pay equity consists of the process of identifying male and female job classes within the establishment, conducting gender neutral evaluations of the jobs, comparing the wages of female and male job classes of comparable value, developing a pay equity plan which identifies the extent of any discriminatory wage gap, and receiving pay equity wage adjustments that close any discriminatory wage gaps.

2)  Maintaining Pay Equity

Maintaining pay equity is an ongoing process of ensuring that female job classes are not subject to any systemic discrimination in their compensation. Maintaining pay equity is required to be a regular part of the compensation practices of an employer and the monitoring practices of trade unions.

Greater flexibility in work arrangements has become more common in the workplace and will add pressure to the capacity to determine equivalencies.  As creating a flexible employment experience becomes more of a recognized competitive advantage we will need a strong capacity to balance this need with ongoing cycles and commitments such as our capacity to maintain pay equity.

Great HR Practice and Coaching Sources

 

One of the critical parts of our work in HR and OD is staying on top of the 'new'.  New and successful ideas, innovations, constructs and applications that we need to find, and selectively approach our clients with, in terms of the value-add we must provide.  Although the internet provides great options for the 'quick and dirty' needs that we get on a day to day basis, I have always found that well written books are better in that I generally save reading for times that I am uninterrupted by calls, emails or 911 requests.  By not being distracted, the focus I can give a book really helps me absorb and retain the material which transitions into how I change what I do day to day.  Here are 3 recent reads that I am loving right now:

For those of you like myself who love data driven research, Dave Ulrich and his team of co-authors do an excellent job at breaking down the key behaviors and actions for HR professional.  This work came out in 2008 and is aptly titled: HR Competencies.  His term "Credible Advocate" is slowly but surely replacing the traditional term "Trusted Advisor" that we have heard for decades now.  I have mocked up a Coles Notes review but the book is a fantastic read and has wonderful data metric evaluations that the nerd in me loves as well.  This is one of the few times I've seen this extensive amount of quantifiable evidence (surveys with regression strength analysis) support an HR concept.

I love Dorling Kindersley (DK) press.  They are the masters at adding easy to follow graphics and pictures to their material that works for both the HR and OD professional yet also for the managers we are helping develop.  This handbook, Coaching Successfully, is actually targeted towards managers, but I have used it to help with both group training and one on one developmental sessions as a great resource.  It works very well due to its small size, inviting layout and it's very easy to absorb, step by step processes.  One that managers find especially helpful when dealing with this so called 'fuzzy' subject.  Under the chapter 'Why Coach?' are excellent materials to help influence and persuade those resistant to the subject matter about its value to both the company, and to their own development as leaders.

The previous material on coaching is great for the beginner or intermediate manager.  However, what about the big hitters? The top ranked company officers, leaders and high performers/potentials who get the basics, but really need a more progressive resource tailored for the advanced company contributor.  This where the highly influential, experienced and knowledgeable Marshall Goldsmith comes in.  His book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There is a goldmine for those of us looking for a credible approach to help gear the developmental plans for this highly demanding and action oriented client base.  Much like Coaching Successfully, he structures his process in very easy to understand sections chronologically.  The big difference is that he targets his readership as university educated and uses business and psychological concepts that provide a more advanced and thorough platform for the reader.  The material advances through self investigation, new modes of thinking and dealing with day to day issues, teamwork/coaching and long term strategic focus.  This is a bit of an evolution from Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence but really targets people who know success and know it very well.  'Where do I go from here?' is the question, and this material gives us great insight in how to help them help themselves.