7 Steps for Building an Olympic Level Team
There is a common understanding that for athletes to reach the top of their game and compete at the Olympic level, they have worked very hard to train and develop over an extended period of time.
Creating Your Dream Team 101
The Pros and Cons of Developing Talent Internally
Originally posted here by JazzHR.
Balancing between training current employees to fill future positions and investing in staffing processes to land top-tier external candidates is tricky. Even if you’ve already found (and hired) your next top performer; it’s important to know the pros and cons of developing talent within your company.
According to recent research on employee training, the answer is not so cut and dry. Where to focus dollars now to meet future staffing needs depends as much on your organizations’ current makeup as it does on future goals. A 2015 Bersin study determined that while established companies increased their per-person spend on internal training and development by 10 percent in 2014, emerging market leaders primarily focused on maximizing their recruiting processes and talent brands to attract the best and the brightest external hires. In fact, established companies spent 38 percent more on employee training than their up-and-coming peers.
The question for staffing strategists, then, is: Which approach best fits your needs?
Ten Ways to Optimize Your People & Culture Efforts
A strong and vibrant company culture is integral to the success of any organization. Your HR team plays an influential role in the creation and maintenance of this culture, in addition to fostering employee engagement and happiness, and ensuring the smooth running of day to day operations. And for businesses with a smaller People & Culture team, it can feel like there are simply not enough hours in the workday to achieve all of this!
Fortunately, there are a number of tools and scalable solutions available to optimize your People & Culture efforts. Not only can these methods help streamline your existing processes and procedures, which saves a significant amount of time, they can also help your organization move towards a stronger and more defined company culture. Let’s take a look at ten of the top tools for enhancing your company’s HR efforts:
The Difference Between an Engagement Survey and a Culture Survey
As organizations strive to grow and optimize business practices, they oftentimes look inward to their people. Rightfully so – people are the backbone of any company.
When employers evaluate themselves internally, they frequently use the terms ‘culture’ and ‘engagement’ interchangeably. This makes sense – they are inextricably linked. But engagement and culture are also distinct, differing in the way they are created, measured, and enhanced.
In short, engagement surveys look at the “I” point of view, while culture surveys examine the “We” perspective.
Now let’s get in-depth about it:
4 Reasons Why Your Brand Will Suffer Without CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) used to be viewed as the obligatory “giving back” of the big bad corporation. It’s how companies atoned for the sin of being a for-profit business. But that’s not exactly the case anymore. In a transparent, highly-connected world, there are now good companies and bad companies in the eyes of the public. Not just bad companies who try to make up for it with CSR.
In this article, we’ll share four reasons why it’s critical for companies of all sizes to become cause-driven in their CSR efforts (and why the term CSR is quickly becoming outdated). […]
Use Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ Theory to Improve Employee Engagement at Your Organization
If you ever studied Psychology, you probably learned about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If not, here’s a brief rundown:
The basic idea behind Maslow’s theory is that people will excel in life when their basic needs are met.
The theory is often visually represented as a hierarchical pyramid with 5 levels, or different ‘needs’ (see image below). In order for higher-level needs to be fulfilled and influence behavior, the lower level needs must be satisfied first.
The lowest level of the pyramid includes the basics – food, water, sleep, etc. and moves upwards into more advanced needs like security and belonging.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory can be directly applied to how an organization keeps its employees engaged.
We’ve all heard that higher employee engagement positively impacts the success of a company – but how well do we really understand the motivations that drive high employee engagement?
For a lot of people, the basic needs are a job are that the salary lets them pay the bills. Generally speaking, having a sense of financial autonomy is innate in almost all of us. Most people won’t feel comfortable disregarding money in favor of other things.
Moving up the pyramid, employers should consider security.
While we may like to think we are motivated by other factors, after the salary meets their needs, job seekers will then consider if the position is permanent or if there is room for growth.
By nature, we crave stability.
Given the volatility of the job market, most people will be reluctant to take a position they may not be able to keep, or one that has no upward mobility.
Luckily, the majority of organizations recognize the importance of the previously mentioned survival and security needs. It’s the higher-level survival and security needs where employers should be paying closer attention if they want to attract and retain great employees.
The third level of Maslow’s pyramid, is belonging.
We like to feel like we a part of something.
Do your employees know your mission statement? Do they recognize the values of the company? How is your company culture?
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that hiring great people is enough on its own to create a company culture and camaraderie.
The 4th level of Maslow’s pyramid is what really enables an individual to excel in their job and reach the highest level of engagement with an employer – importance.
Your employees should understand that their work matters.
As an employer, are you adequately recognizing your team and meeting their need for importance?
If you’re not sure, consider implementing an employee recognition program
Hint: If you’re not sure how – Check out Employee Recognition and Engagement
Once the needs of survival, security, belonging, and importance have been met – Employees can reach the top of the pyramid: self-actualization
Employees who get to the level of self-actualization are highly engaged and able to reach their full potential. Simply put, they are passionate about what they do.
Reaching this final stage, the emphasis is on what an employee can do for others. Specifically, how they can help the business grow or inspire other people around them.
Interested in learning more about employee engagement or helping your employees reach the top of the pyramid? Check out one of our free resources below!
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The Glassdoor Effect: Do You Know What Your Employees Really Think About You?
If you’ve been a savvy job seeker in the past few years, you’ve probably heard of the website Glassdoor.
Giving more transparency for the recruitment and job-hunting industry is what the ‘glass’ in the name is referencing.
The Silicon Valley company provides an online platform where employees (past and current) can anonymously review companies and their management
The website is ideal for job seekers who want an inside look into potential employers. Users can browse through a company’s salaries, interview questions, and the pros and cons for working there (You can check it out here!)
GlassDoor is an excellent resource for candidates – But what are the implications for employers?
Every year, GlassDoor aggregates its own content (company reviews) and compiles a ‘Best Places to Work List’. Based on anonymous ratings and reviews, Airbnb topped the list last year and unsurprisingly, received a massive influx in job applications.
Last year alone, Airbnb received over 180,000 CVs.
Because of the power that GlassDoor’s list has in attracting candidates to a certain company, an increasing number or businesses are taking note of the website (or others similar) and realizing that the reviews cannot be ignored.
According to an article by Forbes, J.B. Kellogg, the CEO of software provider Madwire takes the time to personally respond to reviews on GlassDoor. He’s even gone as far as making changes to company policies based on reviews that have come into the website. For example, Madwire now offers a share of paid time off at the beginning of each month instead of requiring employees to accrue it over time. Kellogg believes that the positive reviews received on GlassDoor have helped him acquire top talent.
But what can you do as an employer to ensure you’d come across positively on Glassdoor?
When done properly, responses on GlassDoor can go a long way toward elevating your employer brand.
If you are in a leadership role with your company – ensure that there are outlets for your team members to give regular feedback. Be transparent, Glassdoor gives employees the option to rate their approval of the CEO.
As well, go as far back as your hiring process. Did you treat applicants fairly? Were people followed up with? Were interviews grueling and uncomfortable? One of the most viewed parts of the site is the section in which employees (or those that didn’t get the job) review the interview process, a section where things can get quite scathing.
Additionally, In an interview with Talent Management, Robert Hohman, Glassdoor founder and CEO explained how employers can engage with reviews:
“I highly encourage employers to thank a reviewer for taking the time to write it. If they highlighted something great you do, you can amplify that and give a little more detail; if they pointed out something that needs to be improved, and maybe you’ve changed it, you can talk about that, or at least thank them even if you don’t agree with what they said because they took the time to review.”
As seen through the rise of Glassdoor, the importance of employer branding cannot be overstated. To learn more about attracting top talent and becoming an employer of choice – Check out one of our FREE resources!
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Leadership Lessons from “Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together
In heavy industry, we often talk about optimizing processes and maximizing equipment efficiency. But what about optimizing our most fundamental human dynamics? Human beings are wired for connection. That’s the central idea behind Michael Morris’s groundbreaking work on tribal psychology: Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together. In the book, Morris reveals how our natural instincts to form groups can transform operational hurdles into powerful drivers of success. For business leaders, these same instincts hold incredible potential to build thriving teams and organizations—if we know how to harness them.
Top 5 Employee Recognition Strategies to Boost Retention
Employee retention has become a top priority for organizations across industries, especially in a competitive labor market. Recognizing and valuing employees isn’t just a “nice-to-have” — it’s a business necessity. According to Gallup, highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability and one of the strongest drivers of engagement is effective employee recognition.
How to Build a Culture of Recognition in a Remote Workforce
As remote work continues to shape the modern workplace, building a culture of recognition is more important than ever. When employees feel valued and appreciated, they are more likely to be engaged, productive, and loyal to their company. However, cultivating this kind of recognition in a remote workforce presents unique challenges, such as the lack of face-to-face interaction and spontaneous acknowledgment.