Taking Care of Your People Takes Care of Your Business
In an economy where every dollar is cautiously and carefully spent, the most important investments become apparent. Companies admit the secret to their success is their employees. Even in a down economy, investments in employee programs are on the rise.
Organizations with strong employee development initiatives achieve a critical competitive advantage. A global workforce survey conducted by Towers Perrin found that companies with the highest levels of employee engagement achieve better financial results and are more successful in retaining their most valued employees. In fact, companies with the largest percentage of engaged employees experienced an increased operating income of 19 percent. By engaging employees with development and training programs, they believe the company values their efforts and feel a part of the organization’s overall success.
For four years, Helios HR has hosted the Apollo Awards, a program dedicated to recognize employers that invest in employee development initiatives. In parallel, leading market research firm, Market Connections, collects survey data from all nominees. This data is analyzed in a best practices program overview. Through the Apollo Awards, executives and human resource (HR) professionals can learn about the actions of enlightened and innovative organizations, which exemplify strong HR programs. Certain commonalities become evident, this year a clear trend emerged: leading companies are offering their employees customized training programs in skill development (i.e. personal, time management, technical) via a diverse array of learning channels.
Offering Multiple Channels of Learning
The finalists for our awards program take very unique approaches to employee development, but one common thread is in offering customized training through different channels. Most of these top organizations offer a variety of employee development opportunities such as peer-to-peer mentoring, attendance at events, seminars, online training and instructor-led classes so that employees can select the training that will be individually most effective.
The benefits of offering different learning approaches can include increased retention, a positive effect on company culture and productivity, improved ability to effectively recruit, enhanced quality of work, and increased organizational expertise. Reduced opportunity cost also occurs when employees are assimilated into an organization more rapidly. Two of these forward-thinking organizations, Dewberry and Métier, offer customized programs, with a variety of channels to cater to individual learning styles and preferences.
Dewberry’s Blended Learning
Dewberry, a professional services firm, recognizes that people learn different ways; therefore, they utilize a blended learning approach. This approach offers employees a variety of learning channels as part of The Dewberry Learning Center including: classroom, software, mentoring, coaching, one-on-one, seminars and brown bag lunches, among other approaches.
One key to Dewberry’s blended learning success is in involving internal resources such as corporate leadership to host or participate in the programs. The active involvement of top executives impresses upon employees the seriousness of the training and demonstrates that their efforts are valued.
Métier’s Development on Day One
Métier, a project portfolio management solutions provider, doesn’t have an assembly line. Tweaking and fine-tuning the organization is all about polishing their greatest asset – the employees. Métier considers each employee’s learning abilities and needs with customized development beginning on the employee’s first day. Every new employee attends a two-week orientation known as Boot Camp, where each individual’s strengths and weakness are assessed to provide a benchmark for their career-long professional development activities. The Boot Camp also provides instructive and interactive orientation in a variety of learning ways such as instructor-led, computer-based, seminars, webinars and on-the-job-training.
Métier’s approach paid off: the company witnessed greater employee camaraderie and improved knowledge retention. In fact, when Métier shifted Boot Camp from one week to two weeks, the percentage of employees with tenure of one year increased 25 percent and tenure of two years increased by 12 percent.
One Size Does Not Fit All
Dewberry and Métier are just two companies finding value in offering their employees multiple development opportunities. It’s no surprise that both organizations are service providers that understand their success is tied to the performance of their employees. Both provide innovative employee development initiatives. We can look to these companies as models in implementing strong programs.
Companies that don’t explore developing their greatest resources – their employees – will loose a competitive advantage that can be a costly loss. Organizations are quickly finding that there is no “one size fits all” approach to learning.
Hubert Humphrey, former Vice President of the U.S. put it very simply, “There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.” And it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who quoted, “The mind, once stretched, never regains its original dimension.” Innovative employee development practices offered through multiple learning channels provide an organization the opportunity to stretch beyond “its original dimensions.”
~Kathy Albarado
The Neuroscience of Leading
One of my leadership coaching clients had a challenging week. A direct report filed a grievance against her that my client feels is completely unfounded.
How would you react in that situation? Thanks to what neuroscientists refer to as the “negativity bias” of the brain, most of us wouldn’t handle it very calmly.
I recently interviewed two experts on the neuroscience of getting along with others. Dan Goleman (author or Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, and several other best-selling books) described the brain’s natural reactivity. He explained, “The brain is wired so that if the amygdala [the threat detection center in the limbic system] thinks there is danger, it can hijack the rest of the brain in a second. The neocortex, or the thinking part of the brain, takes much longer to get the message. So, the amygdala is able to use kind of a hair trigger mechanism when it thinks there is danger to take us over before we have the full rational understanding of what’s going on.”
My client was initially upset when she heard about the grievance. Because she understands how her brain works, she caught her reaction pretty quickly and was able to stop herself from saying or doing something that would make matters worse.
In our coaching conversation, she was even able to keep her direct report’s mind in mind.
Rick Hanson is a neuropsychologist and author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. Rick described my client’s ability to create a Theory of Mind. That’s the capacity to construct “a notion of what in the world is going on inside the head of other people…If someone is treating you badly, a really effective thing to do is to pause, have compassion for yourself, get on your own side and then try to look clearly at what in the world is going on here. Because you have paused, you are buying yourself time. Try to sense what the hurt is in the other person.”
When I asked my client what she thought was going on for the woman, she replied, “I don’t know exactly. I just know that something is wrong. She doesn’t feel safe enough to come and talk with me about what’s bothering her.”
My client decided that her best strategy was to give the woman a cooling off period while the grievance is investigated. In the meantime, her direct report has been performing her job well and talking with my client in a very professional manner.
Whenever possible, keep the mind in mind.
You can hear my interviews with Dan and Rick on Peace Talks Radio at http://www.goodradioshows.org/peaceTalksL85.htm.
Suzanne Kryder
The Helios HR 2010 Apollo Awards
Join us on June 3rd from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. to network with 400+ CEOs and HR professionals as we recognize the following finalists for their passion and commitment to employee development.
Emerging Companies Mid-Size Companies
Evans Incorporated Apple Federal Credit Union
Justin Bradley Capitol Concierge
Metier Ltd. Goodman & Company
Rose Financial Services, LLC High Performance Technologies, Inc.
SpeakerBox Communications SkillStorm
The North Highland Company
Small Companies Large Companies
BrightKey, Inc. Ascend One
Horizon Consulting Deltek
Snyder Cohn, P.C. Dewberry
The QED Group LLC Greenspring Retirement Community
VISTAtsi Ogilvy PR Washington
The Helios HR Apollo Awards™ recognize Washington area organizations that promote employee development. Come hear the latest trends that provide a competitive advantage. Register today at 2010 Apollo Awards Registration.
ABOUT HELIOS HR
Helios HR provides human resources outsourcing, consulting and recruiting services that optimize your workforce and HR operations. With Helios, you gain a strategic business partner with a keen eye on your organization’s culture, growth, business strategy and budget.
Listen to Kathy Albarado on Executive Leaders Radio
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Preventing the Snow from Wrecking Havoc on your Business
Yet another day of blizzard conditions. That was a word that was barely uttered in the Washington area in previous winters, yet now it appears to be commonplace. So what actions should one take to proactively combat what there is no denying mother nature? I came across this blog post from Joe Mechlinski, of EntreQuest, a colleague and trusted advisor and I encourage you all to read it. Good, good stuff packed in here (yes, pun intended)…Let us know how you are creating opportunity out of this weather! Click Here
~Kathy Albarado