Hiring a new employee to join your team is an exciting, and often stressful, process. Finding an individual with the right combination of skills, knowledge, and experience is only one piece of the puzzle. The individual also needs to have a personality that aligns well to the nature of the role. For example, if the role involves a fast-paced environment where the employee must adapt to rapidly changing priorities, then an individual with a slow work tempo who has a high need to finish tasks may struggle and become overwhelmed. For many organizations, it’s also important that the individual’s values … Read More
Employee Recognition on a Budget
Recognizing an employee for their hard work, dedication, and consistent performance is a simple way to show they are a valued member of the team. When employee recognition is given often and applied consistently, team members become more engaged, have stronger individual performance, and tend to have a longer tenure with an organization. Additionally, when employee recognition is directed at target behaviors like improving collaboration, small rewards can greatly impact key organizational needs like stronger teamwork.
Six Reasons to Hold Frequent 1:1 Meetings
Holding frequent 1:1 meetings with your team members is an effective way to build deep relationships, increase engagement, and solve problems all at once. However, when calendars begin to fill up and managers feel overwhelmed, one of the most common activities that is cancelled to free up more time is 1:1 meetings. It may seem like an insignificant decision with limited consequences, but cancelling 1:1 meetings can deprive managers of many strategic meeting benefits:
Being the Bearer of Bad News
At one point or another, all leaders will have to deliver bad news. From benefits changes to layoffs and project cancellations, disappointing news is occasionally necessary. Planning effectively for delivering the information in a strategic yet empathetic way is essential for maintaining strong relationships and engagement with employees throughout the change process.
Coworkers: The Family You Choose?
Most adults spend 90,000 hours of their lives at work, so it’s natural that we want to feel deeply connected to the individuals we work alongside all day. Employees who feel emotionally connected with one another report they are not only happier at work, but also more engaged and creative. In fact, employees who work with their best friend are 7 times more likely to be fully engaged at work. With such key business outcomes on the line, naturally many organizations aspire to a family-like culture where employees feel deeply connected and comfortable with one another. From picnics to softball … Read More
Seven Universal Soft Skills Everyone Should Master–Flashback Friday
A 256% net return on investment—it’s the holy grail of training outcomes and easier to achieve than you might think. A study conducted by Boston College, Harvard University, and the University of Michigan found that soft skills training does NOT create soft results. The study showed that even minimal time investments in each skill (5-12 hours) boosts productivity and retention 12 percent and those results last up to 9 months.