People Attrition and Talent Retention - Part 2/2

We have no choice but to admit the fact that retaining an employee is getting harder by the day. Information or recommendations can now be easily obtained. Fanned by the advancement of information technology – humans are separated by just a phone call or an email away. Social networks like Facebook, Friendster, Plurk, Twitter etc. spread information like wild fire with just a few strokes of the keyboard and clicks of mouse. Creative ways have to be thought of in order to maintain good employees and ensuring business sustainability. How?

Hire the right person – all potential candidates have to be well informed about the real situation at work. Slogans like “Enjoyable workplace”, “Fun at work” etc. might backfire if the gist of it is not well communicated. Hence, it is utmost important for a company to communicate clearly the working condition, reality at work and the company expectation on the employee to prevent any wrong perception and also to hire only those who think they suit the job.

Having a clear vision – communicate the company’s vision clearly to all employees and create visibility on how every employees’ action can contribute in achieving the vision. Vision must be able to be put into action or else it will remain only as words on the wall. Great company vision enables a company to build long term employees commitment. Committed employees will perform better and will give up life and limb to ensure a company’s success and stay loyal to a company. Engaged employees stay because of what they can give while disengaged employees stay because of what they can get.

Having a creative / competitive reward package – Creativity is a must in designing a reward package to seek a balance and create a win-win situation for both the company and the employees. Performance Based Remuneration System (PBRS) is now widely discussed and applied. It was discussed earlier there should be a clear linkage between the employees’ action and the company vision. It is best that employees’ action or contribution towards achieving the company vision can be measured and be rewarded accordingly. This will create a sense of satisfaction and ownership towards the company and hence ensuring a long term commitment. Employees need to feel recognized for their achievements and it is not necessarily to be in the form of money. As the Chinese saying goes, “Punishment and Rewards need to be in time”. A word of encouragement or token of appreciation that comes fast enough following a job well done will have a greater positive impact compared to something that comes months later or only during the year end. The value of an award or token given is not that important, what is more important is the recognition given to the employee and the suitability of the reward. In example, a family meal voucher can do wonders for a culture that treasures family bonding. An employee gets the recognition from the company and get to share the reward together with his or her family. The support from the family can even encourage an employee to strive together with the company.

Be a Learning Organization – One very important factor in employee motivation and retention is the opportunity for an employee to continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire. A lot of time, an employee left because a job has provide no room for growth. Provide a platform for employees to continually enhance their capabilities and grow their potential. With this, new and expansive patterns of thinking can be nurtured, collective aspiration set free and employees continually learning to see the whole together.

Be Employee Oriented – Focus on interactions between all levels of employees in the company. Let the employees feel that they are part of the company as a whole and with this, trust and loyalty can be built up. Encourage open communications – share problems and communicate success. Constant communication sessions between the management and staffs can promote mutual understanding. Private talk or coffee talk as some companies call it, are good for more introvert employees to voice some of their concerns that are normally not voiced during open session. Effective team building is a good way to nurture employees communication outside the workplace and provide a chance for employees to know their coworkers more.

You have more ideas? Voice it out to make your company a better place to work for!

People Attrition & Talent Retention - Part 1/2

Sometime ago, I watched a short video clip shared by a friend through Facebook. Here are some of the figures extracted from the video clip:

It was estimated that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38
1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than a year
1 in 2 has been with their current employer less than 5 years

This video, some incidents, together with some materials that I have came across lately has inspired me to write and a share a bit about my thoughts on people attrition and talent retention.

Let’s not argue about the trustworthiness of what was being portrayed in the video but let’s face it, people attrition is becoming a major problem affecting the industry and many companies are finding it increasingly difficult to retain employees. Encouraged by the advancement of information and communication technology development, the employment culture is also changing and it is now relatively common to change jobs every few years rather than staying with one company throughout one’s employment life.

A survey done by CompData has shown that in Year 2008, the voluntary turnover rate in the US averaged at about 12.5% with Hospitality sector topping the list (27.2%) followed by Technology sector (17.2%). The problem of people attrition has to be taken seriously and it is not surprising that keeping the people attrition rate low has been on the KPI list of many companies and will continue to be. Recruitment cost, training cost, lost of productivity / sales cost, etc. will definitely affect a company bottom line if not managed correctly. This is especially true for service oriented company where a people leaving might means losing a critical skill set that is key for the company growth. Imagine a capable doctor leaving a hospital, a system architect leaving the design team, a competent professor leaving a university, a signature chef leaving a restaurant, and the list goes on. Imagine the havoc!

Today's youth may have different work styles, or look for different perks. What will attract the top talent? With these questions in mind, Jobstreet (Asia’s largest online job portal) has recently conducted a survey across Malaysia together with YouthSays (Malaysia’s largest youth opinion community) entitled “Understanding the Young Malaysian Jobseeker” with the hindsight that both employers and jobseekers can no longer rely on conventions from the past to shape the workforce. 3,217 youths aged between 15 to 35 have participated in this survey. I have extracted some of the results and you might find the following interesting :

1. When do you think you can make your first RM 1,000,000? 36.4% of the youths believe that they can achieve this between 30 – 40 years of age (Good to be confident! :))
2. What perks do you look forward to get from a company? 50% of youths picked flexible working hours as their preferred benefit 3. 90.27% of youth believe in work loyalty to the company
4. 56% of youths are willing to put up longer hours for higher pay
5. 75% of youths think that they are someone who will dedicate their life to their career
What are your thoughts?

I will write about some of my thoughts regarding talent retention in my next post. Till then, take care and enjoy your current employment!

5 Minutes Management Course

Lesson 1:
A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor.
Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.'
After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.
The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs.
When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?'
'It was Bob the next door neighbor,' she replies.
'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'

Moral of the story:
If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2:
A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident.
After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'
The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'
The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.'
Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.
On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:
If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Lesson 3:
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.
They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'
'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.' Puff! She's gone.

'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii , relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.' Puff! He's gone.

'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager.
The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story:
Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 4
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?'
The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.'
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 5
A turkey was chatting with a bull. 'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.'
'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients.'
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.
The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:
Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there..

Lesson 6
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field.
While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was.
The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.
A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

THUS ENDS THE FIVE MINUTE MANAGEMENT COURSE

IT's Risky Business

It has been awhile since I last touch the PMBOK (A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge) after passing my PMP (Project Management Professional) exam but risk is one of the terms that i can remember quite clearly. PMBOK define risk as an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project's objectives. This fits well with the Chinese character of risk (危机) - when there is risk, there will be opportunity.

Murphy's Law - "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong!" Well said! Positive risks need to be exploited and negative risks need to be properly managed. We can just close one eye, ignore it and it will surely come back and haunt us one day. You might not believe in gravity, but when you jump off 13th floor, gravity doesn't care.

I came across an article on Star InTech (15 July 2008) by columnist Simon Seow under Corporate IT which i think is very well written. You can't eliminate the risk factor from any equation but you can manage it. The trick is learning how. Below are some of the extraction with some of my comments for sharing:

1. Manage risk, as we can never eliminate all risks.
We want to "manage" risk because we can never eliminate all risks. The aim is not to reduce risk or to eliminate risk altogether. No risk, no gain. In an interesting scenario where a group of agricultural scientists gathered for training, the trainer asked a seemingly innocent question, "Do you guys have a way to kill all the insects that destroy crops?" "No, no, no! we don't kill insects. We manage them! No insects means no crops! No crops no food!" was the reply. Eliminating the risk of insects destroying the crops will also eliminate the crops. A more refined way was needed than simply to get rid of the cause of a risk. Hence risk management and not risk elimination.

2. Managing risk is not about handling the unpredictable
Another thing about the risk issue is that for a normal organization, we are not trying to handle the unpredictable, but the reasonable possibilities. Meteors hitting our computer centre and Martians landing are entertaining distractions but not in risk management. Until there is a reason for us to believe it could actually happen.

3. Risk analysis
We are assured by statistics that the probability of death from travelling in a motor vehicle is much higher than that from flying in an airplane. Yet, there are a lot more people who fear flying than there are who fear car travel. We make choices from perceived benefits versus costs and risks. We seldom, if ever, really consider all risks, or try to eliminate risk. In example, testing had been carried out for a complete system failure scenario but not for a single-point-of-failure scenario. It was felt then that single point failures were manageable if and when it were to happen. Perhaps it was thought that although the probability was higher, the impact based on cost and time to recover was small enough to warrant accepting the risk. Unfortunately, when it did happen, the single point of failure succeeded in making the entire system inoperable because recovery was much more complex than anticipated.

4. When risk strikes...
When risk strikes, the worst thing you can do is to put on a stern face and say that it is all too technical to explain and that the system will be ready when it is ready. The second worst thing you can do is to keep telling your users that it is only a minor issue and that things will be okay within the hour, when you yourself have no basis for making such an estimate. If it may take a whole day, say so. You will still be lashed. But at least the user will be able to make the best of the situation, and you will soon be forgiven.

That's some of the important points that i think worth sharing. Oh ya, if you are in a management position, i would think that the third don't when risk strikes will be to start pointing fingers and put the blame on your team members. That is the time they need your support the most. Keep cool, roll up your sleeves, access the situation and let's solve it together as a team. Most importantly, learn from the mistake so that you will not be bitten twice!