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1. Communication Expectations – are your people engaged?

   August 10, 2018 11:32 am Leave a Comment

   Communication Expectations in the Workplace

   This article on employee expectations looks at communication expectations in the workplace and the impact on employee engagement.

   If the cost of poor communication is: mistakes, wasted time, wasted money, bad recruitment, missed sales, dysfunctional teams, poor morale and slow innovation – so what is the value of good communication?

   Good communication is a key indicator of how your employee engagement strategies are working.

   Rather than assuming what communication expectations may be, managers can now explore each team member’s personality and communication expectations in ways not previously possible.

   The organisational view

   

   8 Areas of Employee Expectations

   Understanding how employees and teams deal with different styles of communication, and which ones they prefer,  is the cornerstone of organisational effectiveness.

   If an employee wants or expects a good deal of frankness when speaking with other team members and is not getting it, they may well alter their behaviour so that they too are less open and even given to being undiplomatic on occasion.

   Similarly, if an employee is looking for more informative levels of communication and this is not being offered by their line manager or team members, then changes to communication styles can help bring a better understanding and an increase in productivity.

   Does everyone in the group have the same communication expectations?

   Finding out what employee’s communication expectations are can be highly enlightening; by using Harrison Assessments engagement and retention analytics we can explore them in detail.

   

   What can we interpret for this group?

   • This group has a moderate desire for others to communicate in a frank and straightforward manner, including when giving feedback.
   • This group has a moderate tendency to be frank when communicating – which could be a cause of poor productivity when the pressure is on.
   • This group has little desire for others to be diplomatic during discussions and when giving feedback.
   • This group has a moderate tendency to be diplomatic when communicating – so neither a strong tendency to be frank or diplomatic; is there any real communication going on?

   The individual’s communication expectations

   Of course, there may be employees who don’t want to be burdened with overly frank conversations that make them feel under pressure. Likewise, someone may want honesty and forthright speaking but is unwilling to give it back in return.

   Asking the right questions, and analysing each individual employee’s real engagement factors ensures managers and the wider organisation provide an environment that retains the best talent.

   

   Communication Expectations: Frankness and Diplomacy

   Getting the communication mix right both for an individual and groups of staff can be hard work, especially if views on its importance are divergent within a department.

   A line manager may wish to be more frank with his staff but is being held back by those higher up, or they may not want to upset someone who is naturally introverted.

   It’s a fine balance to achieve and knowing what communication expectations individuals have can help develop the engagement strategy that has more chance of working, tailoring it to specific needs and behaviours within the workplace.

   Wants Frankness

   • The desire for others to be direct, straightforward, and to the point
   • For many people, being able to have a frank conversation where they can speak their mind is important, particularly in difficult situations such as department reorganisations where things can naturally get a little fraught.
   • In return they expect to receive honest feedback so that they know what the true situation is and can organise their working life in respect of this information. That could be about the future of their department, the quality of their work or their prospects of getting that new promotion.

   Is Frank

   • The tendency to be straightforward, direct, to the point, and forthright
   • Whilst we all expect some honesty in the office, it’s not always the case that we give it back in return. This is seen by most businesses as a two-way street and employees have to be prepared to be honest and have the confidence to express their opinion.
   • It’s not easy for some employees to always speak their mind and enter into a frank discussion. They may be worried what their boss or colleagues are going to think or they might not want to damage their chances of moving up in the company by raising an important but negative issue or making a complaint.

   Wants Diplomacy

   • The desire for others to be tactful
   • You can, of course, be too frank and, especially in the work place everything needs to be balanced by a healthy dose of diplomacy. This can be a difficult equation to get right even for the most talented of supervisors or employers.
   • Most employees want their fellow workers, including bosses, to be polite and present themselves in a respectful way.  Others prefer to hear it straight with no waffle, and find staff who are overly diplomatic as evasive or time wasting.

   Is Diplomatic

   • The tendency to state things in a tactful manner
   • Again, wanting diplomacy in the workplace is a different thing from being diplomatic yourself. This can be affected by many factors including how secure an individual feels in work and how they view other members of staff.

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   Using Harrison Assessments Talent Solutions to understand communication expectations

   Managers can measure an number of key employee expectations, the intrinsic behaviours that drive individual and group engagement. This helps to understand any differences between an employee as well as looking at the overall group or team’s expectations. These insights facilitate the essential dialogue between employee and manager, fostering a shared responsibility for engagement to build a culture of employee engagement.

   Managers can use the Manage, Develop and Retain report as a guide to getting the best performance out of an individual member of their team, and shows how mis-matched communication and management styles could potentially demotivate a talented employee. Instead the report suggests how best to develop and engage the employee, what type of tasks to delegate and behaviours to watch out for that could impede performance.

   Employee Engagement White Paper

   • This employee engagement white paper will outline why this is the case and what is needed to achieve a greater impact on organisational performance.
   • It includes some key areas relating to engagement in the workplace and a crucial 3-step guide to assist with the application of engagement analytics.
   • Written by Dan Harrison, Ph.D. – Organisational Psychology, developer and CEO of Harrison Assessments, this white paper is a must read for anyone involved in employee engagement.  Request your copy here –

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2. What’s keeping your talent in your organisation?

   10:33 am Leave a Comment

   

   Happy people make productive employees…
   “If people enjoy 75% of what they do, they are 3 times more likely to be successful”

   Dr Dan Harrison PhD

    

   As leaders, managers or HR professionals, we’re constantly challenged to find ways of increasing and measuring employee engagement.

   We don’t need to tell you that organisations with engaged employees benefit significantly with –

   • Increased productivity
   • Reduced absenteeism
   • Reduced long term mental health issues
   • A vibrant working culture attracting the best talent
   • A healthier bottom line

   Many tools will measure current employee engagement levels according to factors set by your organisational expectations, but how do you determine which factors are personally important to your employees, and therefore will keep them in your organisation?

   We measure 8 employee engagement and retention expectations using an objective questionnaire based on enjoyment performance theory.  It has been tested worldwide and is based on over 30 years of research by Dr Dan Harrison PhD into what makes people successful at work. These 8 areas of expectations, which fall into 3 categories of Self, Others and Organisation, include –

   

   The 8 Areas of Employee Expectations

   Bespoke reports provide valuable data which align employee factors with organisational factors to maximise engagement and retention, and give you an insight into your team’s expectations. These reports can be produced for both individuals and groups.

   If you would like to try this for groups of 30+ absolutely free call Pat on 07768 922244 or email pat@quadrant1.com
   All that is required is half an hour of each participants time to complete an online SmartQuestionnaire

    

   You can find out more about Engagement & Retention and how our talent management solutions align people’s qualifications, wants, needs, passions and goals to the requirements of the organisation and specific jobs by exploring our website

3. How are you Measuring the Success of your Competency Framework?

   April 12, 2018 3:28 pm Leave a Comment

   

   Are you leaving it to subjective opinion or measuring it accurately?

   What are you measuring?

   We never cease to be impressed with the time and effort that organisations put into producing competency frameworks.  Many hours of research and careful analysis goes into such frameworks which are then rolled throughout the organisation with the intention of maintaining consistency of approach.  Sometimes they are linked to pay reward and form an essential part of the appraisal system.  More often than not they form the foundation for personal development plans whereupon important decisions re training, coaching and mentoring are made.

   Competency frameworks are playing a bigger and bigger role in decision making re recruitment, succession planning and talent management.  So why is it that such an important feature of the organisation is measured in such a subjective way?  Often when we speak with organisations and ask them this question we find that the only measurement is a simple scoring system – often 1-4 based on a yearly appraisal where the score is dependent on the opinion of the manager.  Even if a 360 degree feedback system is used the information obtained remains subjective.

   As a result appraisal conversations often avoid the, until now, immeasurable results and remain focused on perceived measurable achievements and setting targets.  But what if you could measure such things as interpersonal skills, enthusiasm, ability to take initiative, team work, influencing skills, frankness, diplomacy, levels of self-acceptance, how well an employee handles autonomy – just a few of the 175 factors employers typically ask for but find it difficult to measure.  How much easier would an appraisal conversation be if employees were measured against such factors?  How much money could be saved in designing specific programmes that hit the mark for individuals and groups?  How quickly could a culture change if everyone knew what was expected of them in terms of working approach and attitude and they were continually working towards achieving this as well as the operational targets expected of them?

   

   Click on the image to view the HATS Behavioural Competency

   Harrison Assessments offer just this opportunity and we have been working with organisations who see the benefit of measuring in this way.  Here is just one example of how it is being used by an organisation which has just undergone a merger.

    

   A Real Example- Case study 1

   Preparation

   The newly merged organisation was looking to combine two distinctly different cultures very quickly.  The senior team of 25 people got together to brainstorm what an ‘outstanding’ organisation of its nature would look like.  They asked themselves the question ‘if this organisation was demonstrating outstanding practice what would that look like over and above operational excellence?’  They came up with 23 behavioural traits that they would like to see demonstrated by each and every employee.  We then mapped these onto a Harrison profile and came up with a list of traits with a relevant weighting.  They include 6 essential traits – takes initiative, enthusiasm, ability to influence, interpersonal skills, optimism and teamwork and 24 desirable traits including diplomacy, ability to handle autonomy, wants a challenge, receives correction, warmth and empathy and the ability to handle pressure.  There was also a list of 10 traits to avoid including rebellious autonomy, dogmatism, harshness and permissiveness.

   Gaining Buy In

   The profile was then presented to the next layer of management for discussion and buy-in.  They tested the system by completing the online questionnaire for themselves and discussing the results.   Once buy-in had been achieved the Harrison profile was incorporated into the appraisal form for every employee and it was time to roll out the programme.

   Rolling out the programme

   All managers were trained in using the new appraisal system which includes opportunities to discuss the various traits and their measurements.  This was an opportunity to re-inforce the importance of appraisals, teach skills where necessary and to develop the managers as role models.  Managers were now in a position to have conversations around such issues as an employee’s over frankness or their ability to handle stress for example.  These conversations may well have been avoided in the past because it could have been perceived as a subjective view.

   All employees in the organisation were then invited to complete the online questionnaire in preparation for their annual appraisal.  Change is measured from year to year in specific areas and development plans formulated as a result.

   The results

   • A focused workforce who know what is expected of them both operationally and in terms of behaviours and attitude.
   • Specific development plans for individuals saving valuable time and money.
   • Raised awareness of expectations. Having 6 essential traits to remember forms the foundation of the culture and knowing that they will be measured fairly against such traits gives people confidence in the system.

   Case study 2

   A large national public sector organisation wanted to be able to measure its prospective senior leaders against their own leadership competencies in preparation for their Aspiring Leaders programme.  We were able to map these across using the 175 factors available and the competencies were used as part of the assessment process for the programme.

   Harrison Assessments – The Background

   Harrison Assessments are used across the world and are accessible in 30 languages.  They are the result of 30 years research by Dan Harrison PhD who focuses on the link between results and the enjoyment factor.  It is well documented that people who enjoy what they do produce better results.  The assessments therefore take into account working preferences and cross match 175 factors.  There is a consistency regulator which prevents ‘fooling’ the system and profiles can be tailor made to fit the needs of individual organisations.  The system is using over 8,000 cross references thus ensuring a very high level of accuracy.

   For more information

   To find out more about measuring behavioural competencies and company values click here or call 44 (0)7768 922244 or visit www.quadrant1.com

4. Can you clone your top performers?

   March 23, 2018 12:36 pm Leave a Comment

    

   We’ve been talking in our recent blog posts recently about Engagement and Retention. Now you know more about how to engage and retain your best performers using Harrison Assessments, how about cloning them to develop a super team?

   Well, you probably wouldn’t want to clone someone – warts and all. Did you know, however, you CAN benchmark the behavioural traits of a group of successful employees?

   Benchmarking can be carried out against top performers to produce a template against which you can recruit and develop your talent.
    Click here to read more and/ or to download our brochure

    

   

   As always, you can contact us here or give us a call on 44 (0)7768 922244

5. The many ways prospective employers blow it!

   March 1, 2018 10:38 am Leave a Comment

   

   I’ve just read an article entitled ‘The five ways job applicants blow it!’…  Great stuff and all points that prospective employees should take into account.  It’s also important for employers to be aware of the ways they can blow it too. I have called this article ‘The many ways prospective employers blow it!’ because I am convinced there are more than 5.  So here goes….

   The competition for top talent is fierce – keeping top talent and making sure engagement levels are high is a key factor to success and bottom line impact. So what can employers do to make sure they attract and retain the top talent – or rather, what should they not do?  Here are some major booboos!

   • Failing to recognize that talent acquisition is a two way process. Too many organisations approach talent acquisition as if it is a privilege to work for them.  Whilst there may be some anomalies in the job market many organisations find it difficult to attract talent – this can be to senior positions as well as to their apprenticeship schemes.
   • Making the job out to be something it’s not in the advert! We often hear of people leaving a role fairly quickly because the advertisement has asked for something the role can’t deliver.  A classic example is ‘creativity and innovation’ when every decision has to be referred to the host company and takes months to be acted upon.  Entrepreneurship is another – let’s be honest true entrepreneurs do not work for large organisations.  What the role probably requires is the ability to take initiative, to work autonomously if necessary and maybe a level of optimism about the future.
   • Not saying ‘thanks but no thanks’ to unsuccessful applicants of the first sift. Such a simple step that can do wonders for the company brand.
   • Interviewing on the basis of eligibility factors alone – experience and qualifications are of course an essential part of the criteria. They definitely determine whether a person is capable of performing the role but do they measure their suitability for the role?  By measuring suitability factors accuracy can increase from 40-45% to nearer 90-95%
   • Resorting to subjectivity at the interview stage. Eligibility factors are easy to measure and check.  Interviews are often conducted on a subjective scoring system with the results being calculated and discussions taking place following the interview.  Behavioural questioning can give some indication of a person’s willingness and ability to perform in a variety of scenarios but it can’t measure working preferences which are the real indicators of success.
   • Trying to fit to role by personality testing. Personality testing has little to do with job success.
   • Failing to fit with manager/leader. All too often employers fail to match their new recruits to the style of the manager causing friction and mismanagement and often resulting in the newly found talent moving on to pastures new.
   • Failing to check engagement and retention factors. What actually motivates new talent is not always the same.  It is important to find out what the engagement factors are and be honest if the organisation cannot satisfy them.  What are the employees expectations in relation to development, appreciation, remuneration, communication, authority, social, personal needs and work life balance?
   • Failing to satisfy the GRT of expectations. According to Kevin Kruse the best talent is generally looking for 3 things – growth, recognition of input and ideas and trust – trust in them and the ability to trust in the organization.

   These are just a few of the blunders organisations can make in the pursuit of talent. To find out more about what you CAN do to acquire, develop and retain talent, contact us here or give us a call on 44 (0)7768 922244