Category Archive: Blog

  1. Is there a difference between ‘well done’ and ‘thank you’?

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    Appreciation Expectations

    This article on employee expectations looks at ‘appreciation expectations’ at work and how they impact on employee engagement.

    Most employees have appreciation expectations and want their contributions to be valued and recognised. However, some employees may not need external appreciation, relying more on their own assessment of their work, but definitely want recognition from their peers. So how does a manager discover each person’s expectations and meet them in the right way?

    8 Areas of Employee Expectations

    The organisational view

    Your organisation may well be able to attract top talent with a competitive salary but if their real retention and engagement factors are not met – they may soon be leaving for an environment where they can be met.

    Research by Monster.co.uk found that many of us don’t feel appreciated at work and employees even have put a value to it – they think compensation of £134 a month would cover the amount for not being thanked properly for their work.

     

    The individual’s expectations

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

    Appreciation Expectations

    Employees who don’t feel appreciated, recognised or listened to are more likely to be unhappy at work than those that get a thank you and notice taken of their efforts once in a while.

    Here we look at the different elements that make up an individual’s expectations around appreciation, based on the research of Dr Dan Harrison.

    Wants Appreciation

    • The desire to have an employer who expresses appreciation for one’s work
    • We all want to get some appreciation at work and those that receive it feel better and more secure. The trouble is that many employers and management staff don’t do it enough. Taking time to thank a member of staff for their great work can raise morale and put a smile on people’s faces.
    • An employee who isn’t appreciated is going to care a little less about their job each day and bosses need to make sure that this basic social nicety is given more focus. If employee expectations in this area don’t match what the company provides then something will need to change.

    Wants Recognition

    • The desire for positive acknowledgement (from others) related to one’s abilities and strengths
    • If an employee does a good job they want some kind of recognition even if it’s just sending them an email to thank them for all their hard work. Of course, there are some tireless employees who don’t want to be thanked and get embarrassed at being singled out for praise but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be shown some form of appreciation.
    • It’s not just a simple thank you that employees may want. Recognition could mean the prospect of promotion or a wage increase, the chance to undertake some valuable training or not having those low grade jobs pushed onto them all the time.

    Wants Warmth/Empathy

    • The tendency to express positive feelings and affinity toward others
    • However busy the office is, there’s always time for some warmth, particularly as it helps create a better, kinder environment that improves productivity. During stressful times understanding and empathy can often go out the window but if your employee values this kind of interaction and expects it then there needs to be more effort made on these occasions.

    Wants Opinions Valued

    • The desire to have an employer who listens and gives importance to one’s views
    • Most career minded employees will expect to have their opinions valued. There may be those who don’t put it high up on their list of priorities but most of us like to think we have something important to say from time to time. A low score for expectations in this area could also be a sign that the person in charge is not someone who likes to listen to other opinions.

    Is Collaborative

    • The tendency to collaborate with others when making decisions
    • It’s all very well expecting to be appreciated but if you prefer to work alone and have less focus on effective collaboration then this could point to an imbalance between what is expected and what is actually the case.
    • Creating opportunities for better collaboration in an office environment can improve social cohesion and also allow everyone to work more effectively as a team.

     

    Using Harrison Assessments Talent Solutions to understand appreciation expectations

    Using the individual Harrison Assessments Engagement and Employment Expectations report (click here to access a sample report) and data provided by Organisational Analytics, 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 being able to look 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.

    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 –

       

      If you would like to know more please contact me at pat@quadrant1.com

    • What Makes HR Look Good in the Board Room – if indeed they even get there!

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      Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash

      What Makes HR Look Good in the Board Room – if indeed they even get there!

      Its easy to see the results of the Sales Director, the Operations Director and to review the numbers of the Finance Director.  These things are tangible and measurable and tend to receive the majority of the Board Room focus because of this very nature.

      Most organisations will tell you that their people are the most important resource they have and that looking after them and developing them is paramount.  So why is it that the person who is Head of HR is often not represented on the Board and if they are, they often have to shout loudly to be heard?

      The answer may be contained in just one word: ‘evidence’.  People are not machines; they cannot be counted as a stock number and additionally, unlike stock, they have a thing called choice!

      There are no norms – all people are exceptions to a rule that doesn’t exist

      Fernando Pessoa – Late 19th Century Portuguese Poet

      Hence HR people are often left with unquantifiable results.  Being experts in their own field they can see what strategic decisions have to be made in relation to developing a productive, engaged workforce but with no statistical evidence this can be hard to justify.

      Dan Harrison’s 30+ years of research into what makes people successful in the workplace, in particular roles and working in particular teams now gives us the very analytics needed to:

      • Identify the success behaviours required to perform in a particular role
      • Produce profiles against which to recruit successful candidates
      • Assess for leadership, BCs, values-based behaviours, remote working EI and much more
      • Conduct progressive engagement surveys upon which to make strategic engagement decisions as well as individual ones

      Armed with such analytics, the HR professional stands a much better chance of making effective business cases in the Board Room!

      If you would like to know more click here, or please contact me at pat@quadrant1.com

      www.quadrant1.com

       

       

       

       

       

    • Anonymous Engagement Surveys – why they don’t work!

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      Anonymous engagement surveys

      I was discussing Employee Engagement Expectations with a customer recently and he happened to mention that they had just completed an anonymous engagement survey. He was disgruntled because, although the survey suggested pockets of people who were likely to leave the organisation due to lack of recognition, as just one example, he didn’t know who or where they were and couldn’t therefore take action.  In other words –

      ‘Someone somewhere in the organization is unhappy about something but we don’t know the details and can’t therefore have a progressive conversation’

      So why do organisations involve themselves in the anonymity of such surveys?  Frankly its due to a perception (not always reality) of a lack of trust.

      In other words they believe that employees will be more open if they don’t have to put their name to something.  Doesn’t this reflect on the very organisers of the survey who unconsciously believe the organisation can’t be trusted?

      Engagement tools are really useful for retaining talented staff!  But they have to be used properly.  Dan Harrison believes that employee engagement is a two-way process – it’s as much the organisation’s responsibility to keep staff engaged as it is for them to be engaged.  A survey should be the foundation for a conversation on an employee’s expectations.  For example, if an employee wants recognition, in  what format does he/she expect this, who from and how often?  If an employee is looking for development – in what areas, when and what format?  OK so it won’t always be possible to fulfil expectations but at least the employee receives the message that the organisation is interested in them and will consider them when opportunities arise.

      Such an approach requires trust so pre-framing the exercise is crucial.  Employees must understand that the tool is to be used for improving engagement and not for anything else.

      If you would like to know how to assess groups of employees, individuals or even the whole organisation for engagement expectations quickly and effectively, and to see the results instantly on an easy-to-read visual dashboard so that you know with whom to have progressive conversations please get in touch at pat@quadrant1.com or on 07768 922244 or find more information here. You can also read further about engagement analytics in this blog.

      In the meantime ‘Stay Engaged!’

      Pat Hutchinson

       

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    • 12 principles of effective training

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      As a trainer of, amongst other things, presentation skills I came across my notes from when I first attended NLP Trainer Training with Realisation at Stenhouse back in the day and found these principles which are oh so relevant still today ……

      Click the image to view a larger version and download

       

      1. The flipchart/Powerpoint is NOT the training (John Rogers)
      2. There are no difficult groups only inflexible trainers
      3. Excellent training comes from CAUSE not Effect
      4. Feedback feeds learning
      5. Every response is a training opportunity
      6. You reap what you Say – If you always do what you’ve always done …. the delegates will fall asleep!
      7. Trainers with high Flexibility will reach parts that other trainers don’t even know about
      8. Learning to trust your own resources is the most powerful learning of all
      9. The trainers choice: whether you believe something is possible or not you are right
      10. Inside every delegate there is a real person
      11. The key to training is NOT in your head
      12. Everybody has something to learn. Everybody has something to teach

      Unconsciously I have stuck with these principles during the 20+ years I have been training leaders and managers – they have served me well – thanks Realisation at Stenhouse!

      Are you interested in how we can help with developing these and other presentation and communication skills for yourself or your team? Check out our Advanced Presentation Skills wi th NLP course, or please get in touch at pat@quadrant1.com or on 07768 922244

    • Employee engagement is a personal matter for each individual.

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      Engaged employees who wholeheartedly give discretionary effort help the organisation succeed.

      While employee engagement is now afforded greater focus, energy and resources by most organisations, traditional employee engagement surveys only measure group engagement issues, ignore the individual data that is crucial to engagement, and assumes only their managers are responsible for engagement.

      To significantly increase employee engagement you need to understand the passions, motivations, and expectations of the individual, and use an approach which is based around engagement being a shared responsibility between the employee and the organisation.

      Using objective data, we can map individual employee’s passions, motivations, expectations and the degree to which their expectations are perceived to be already being fulfilled, against eight essential Engagement metrics:

      • Development • Remuneration • Authority • Social

      • Appreciation • Communications • Personal • Work Life Balance

       

      View of top 21 employees alphabetically sorted from a group of 81 employees in total

      What does this tell us?

      The graph above provides a clear picture of this group of individuals; overall fulfilment scores are predominantly high. This indicates that the majority of these employees feel that the employee expectations which are important to them as individuals are mostly being met.

      Do Darvin and Esmerelda appear engaged in their day to day role? Their scores would indicate otherwise, and this will probably be apparent in some way in their behaviours and productivity levels.

      Why may Darvin feel like his opinions are not being valued? What may be behind Esmerelda’s apparent lack of fulfilment in her advancement and desire to lead?

      Amanda, Antoine and Britt look like it wouldn’t take much for their engagement levels to drop either, and there are some areas where various individuals have rated factors as very important (10’s) which are not being fulfilled and could cause some issues.

      The key is to find out what is behind the data

      Each of these people – and everyone else in the group – could all benefit from a positive 1-2-1 discussion with their manager to firstly to explore may be behind these scores and to see why they feel their individual expectations are not being fulfilled, and what could be done by their manager, the organisation and they themselves to improve this, and their engagement in their role.

      We can also see from the number of high scores afforded across the first 5 expectations – the desire for Development, Advancement, a Capable Leader, To Lead, and to have Opinions Valued, that these seem to be the most often identified as being important to the majority, whereas Quick Pay Increases and Personal Help do not appear to be deemed as important to the individuals in the group.

      Room for improvement

      The yellow and red areas indicate those expectations that are not necessarily being fulfilled, and can provide a great basis for 2-way conversation firstly to explore may be behind these scores and then to discuss how both parties can improve the situation and benefit from greater engagement. There may be some personal circumstances which are influencing the scores. There could be some simple local solutions in the team which could be implemented, and individual’s feedback could also be useful in feeding into developing wider organisational plans and strategies.

      This granular level of in-depth engagement analytics can develop your leaders’ capability to engage their teams and retain top talent. Being able to see how individuals’ values align with your organisation’s business objectives and goals can promote open and engaging discussions and make performance reviews comfortable and productive for everybody.

      • Understand individual employee’s expectations and the degree to which there are met.
      • Provide effective engagement intervention for each individual employee by targeting the factors that are important to each employee.
      • Place employees in roles that are engaging.
      • Identify how the organisation can help fulfil the employee’s expectations as well as what the employee needs to do.

      Understand engagement and fulfilment levels across the business

      As well as individual data, an Organisational view enables you to understand collective engagement and fulfilment levels across the business.

      View of employee engagement expectations data from a group of 81 employees in total

      Again, we can see clearly that whereas the overall fulfilment of the group of 81 employees is around 2/3rds satisfied, there remains 1 third of expectations unmet.

      We can also see that ‘Wants Development’ is the highest placed expectation, and ‘Wants Opinions Valued’ is the most unmet of them all. The grey areas show where those expectations have not been ranked highly, and indicates that flexible work time, quick pay increases and personal help are of little value to this group of individuals.

      Explore your data in many different ways

      Interactive dashboards allow you to select groups to analyse by department, team, or manager using customisable tags and easily generate reports. A traffic light colour scheme easily identifies any hot spot areas to focus on.

      Using advanced organisational analytics such as these for PEOPLE means you can measure, identify, develop, and improve across individuals, groups, teams, business areas and behaviours using global and individual data to support people plans, drive action, and to create a culture of engagement and high performance.

      Visualise your Group Data

      This is a snapshot of the high-level Organisational Analytics data available just across Employee Engagement Expectations. You can also get data for your people and your organisation on:

      • Senior and emerging leadership competency
      • Culture of your organisation
      • Collaboration and Team competencies
      • Team Dynamics
      • Emotional Intelligence competencies
      • Remote Working competencies

       

      How helpful would this data be for informing your people development plans, culture and engagement programmes and succession plans?

      You can find out more about Organisational Analytics here. leaders skills and competencies

      If you would like to discuss how Organisational Analytics can help support your business objectives and people plans please contact Pat Hutchinson: pat@quadrant1.com or on 07768 922244

    Quadrant 1 International