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A ‘Hard-Hitting’ Special Report for Managers
Practical Innovation for High Performance
Education in a Tough and Scary Economy
How to Build a Culture of Learning
From Words to Weapons: An anatomy of workplace violence in Canada
Addressing Workplace Violence
Stay Interviews
The What, Why’s and How’s of Organizational Culture
The Sergeant Shultz Syndrome
7 Ways to Attract and Retain Talent
10 Tips for Increasing People Productivity
Setting Goals Successfully
Performance Improvement Plans
Good Strategies for Tough Times
Questions for a Successful Business Project
Three Ways to Ensure Employee Utilization
Confronting the Skills & Talent Shortage
Why Are My Projects Struggling? Six Basics You Must Never Forget
Four Tips for Improving People Skills
Frank Swiatek is a facilitator, coach, high performance improvement consultant, and speaker who has conducted more than 3300 sessions for organizations throughout the United States and Canada.
He has had a long-term relationship with the Waterloo Management Education Centre (WATMEC) and has conducted sessions throughout Canada in that capacity. He has worked for companies like Alexander Tools Ltd., IBM Canada Ltd., Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd., and Samuel Son & Company Ltd.
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Written by: Bob Weinstein via Projecttimes.com
HR professionals and headhunters classify skills into two categories, hard skills and soft skills. “Hard” skills are easier to define because they apply to a specific function – computer programming, database management, driving a truck, piloting a plane, designing a house or office building (architect), building a cabinet (carpenter) or wiring a building (electrician).
Soft skills, on the other hand, embrace all the interpersonal relationships vital to selling a company’s products or services. In the past, many organizations considered hard skills more important than soft ones when considering job candidates. While an IT or engineering company may initially put more weight on technical skills when evaluating job candidates, they look for candidates who have both. They’re ultimately the most valuable because they have the potential to go the furthest…
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Provided by: ESI Horizons
Lately, I’ve noticed that my projects are getting more complicated and status review meetings are focusing mostly on issues and complaints. In fact, all projects on the dashboard are struggling, which made me ask myself, “What is going wrong in an otherwise well-oiled project management machine?”
After reviewing the projects and reflecting on our project management practices of late, I gained some valuable insight into what has changed: we lost focus on six basic, yet critical, practices that have made us successful in the past. This article provides an overview of the six basics that you should go back and focus on whenever you find your projects going off the track…
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Provided by: Profiles International
The workforce is changing in age, distribution, ethnic makeup, background, lifestyle and motivation. The ‘employment deal’ is also changing. No longer is it an exchange of loyalty for security but instead it has developed into a multifaceted give-and-take between employee and employer.
With our low unemployment rates, continued slowing of workforce growth and the imminent Baby Boomer retirement wave, if any manager thinks that the current skills shortage is as bad as it is going to get, then think again. The fight to recruit and retain talent has only just begun.
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Provided by: Profiles International
Employee utilization seems to be one of those over-used business terms that poorly describes one of the most important elements in productivity. The most productive companies in North America know that successful employee utilization is an active ingredient in their overall success. When human capital planning is at the top of a company’s priorities, they are sure to achieve their goals despite a potentially lean number of employees.
So, what do the most productive companies mean when they say they have impeccable employee utilization?
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Written by: Mike Provins
Nike came up with an award winning slogan for selling their sporting goods in 1988 but, as much as ‘Just do it.’ has worked wonders for that company, if you are given a project and told to ‘just do it’, you should think again. Every year, thousands of world-wide projects end up in jeopardy because of a universal tendency to try to rush into the execution phase before fully defining and planning the ‘what’ of that project. Before ‘just doing it’, a project definition document (often referred to as the project charter), must be prepared
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Written by: Michael Rosenberg, Author, Flexible Thinker
The key to any organization is how they can build a culture that allows ideas to flow and still be able to meet their short-term financial and production goals.
For many organization, it is almost like trying to plan a cross country trip while stuck on a treadmill; you use a lot of energy to keep moving in place and don’t seem to go anywhere.
The key is to allow your greatest resource – your people – to be able to express and build ideas. The question comes, how do you do it?
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Written by: Dave Hagel
You have an employee who is under-performing. You’re frustrated and you don’t know what to do. Perhaps it’s time to develop and implement a Performance Improvement Plan or a PIP.
Performance Improvement Plans demonstrate a positive and effective approach to remedy performance problems, while positioning you to dismiss for cause if an immediate and sustained improvement in performance is not achieved
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Written by: Susan Hanson
Your goals must be challenging enough to motive you to want to take action – as circumstances and situations change, your goals must be able to flex with you as you grow and develop to remain motivating
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Written by: Dave Hagel, CHRP and Facilitator for WATMEC Ltd.
Implement these tips and you will make dramatic steps toward improving the
productivity of your employees.
1. Define the job – Partner with your employee to craft a job description
that outlines the duties and responsibilities of the job. This will get
employee buy-in. Review and update the job description
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Written by: Michael Rosenberg, Author, Flexible Thinker
If “The attitude around here is that the floggings will continue until morale improves.” laughed my friend Tony. His company, an old-line manufacturer, was facing a number of problems. They had a militant union, managers were being forced to work long hours, burnout was high and turnover was constant
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Written by: Dave Hagel, CHRP and Facilitator for WATMEC Ltd.
If you’re a fan of 1960’s television, you’ll definitely remember the comedy Hogan’s Heroes. If not, let me provide you with some background information. It was set in a prisoner of war camp in Germany during World War II. Lead by an American Colonel by the name of Hogan, a group of POW’s manipulate a group of bumbling German guards and officers to sabotage the German war machine
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Written by: Michael Rosenberg, Author, Flexible Thinker
Culture does not take place in a vacuum. It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about leadership, innovation, diversity, change-management, training, quality improvement/assurance, engagement, sales, delivery, customer service, communication, etc., it is all about culture.
Look out the window any evening. There goes 90% of your assets leaving the building. It is the real value of your organization and your only real differentiator against your competition. They have the potential to be creative, passionate people who want to wake up every day, go to work and do their very best. They also have the potential to be dysfunctional, controlling, egotistical, and complacent.
Organizational culture is what makes the difference between which person walks through that door. It is the fundamental difference between long-term successful and profitable companies and those who eventually end up in the dustbin
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Written by: Michael Rosenberg, Author, Flexible Thinker
Has anybody ever thought about the logic of asking people why they are leaving when they have one foot planted out the door?
Often times when you ask people why they are leaving they may tell you to pursue other interests, for more money, etc. instead of the saying that they did not like their managers or felt undercut or stymied in their team. Their attitude often is “why burn a bridge”.
As a human resource professional, ask yourself has anybody ever stopped during an exit interview and said “Wow, now that I told you that I am ready to go back to work?” The answer to that one is no. Likewise, have you ever heard something during an exit interview and thought, “If I only knew that, we could have rectified the situation and not lost this person”? The answer to that one is probably yes.
The truth is, however, that on the last day, when they are leaving they will likely tell you what’s politically correct or what you want to hear instead of the truth
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Written by: Glenn French, CEO The Canadian Initiative of Workplace Violence
Long before Pierre Lebrun tragically shot 4 of his co-workers at the Ottawa Transit terminal in 1999, much had been written about the deceptively slow increase in workplace violence. Content to brand such renegade behaviour as either mental illness, or a blatantly US phenomena, Canadians have all but sheltered themselves from workplace violence.
It takes only one or two conspicuous incidents to jar us into a heightened state of reality, one in which we quickly realize that Canada is not immune to acts of violence. In fact, if one was to scratch the surface of Canadian workplaces, it doesn’t take long to realize that workplace violence, in a variety of forms, has germinated in Canada and is quietly growing
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Written by: Glenn French, CEO The Canadian Initiative of Workplace Violence
Occupational health and safety concerns regarding workplace violence have now caught the attention of legislators, mental health practitioners, employers, and organized labour. Prompted by heinous and well publicized examples of workplace violence, decision makers are quickly becoming aware of the potential for this type of behaviour to take root in almost any organization.
No longer can we find comfort in our long-held belief that such rabid behaviour is the product of a “madman” or an aberration of U.S. culture which has momentarily drifted northwards
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Written by: Michael Rosenberg, Author, Flexible Thinker
Training doesn’t work! That is the axiom that many people have lived by for years.
The reason is that training is the magic wand that one waves in the air and suddenly everybody comes back changed. But, as we all know, it never really works that way. You can almost hear the manager say, “Hey, I sent you to that class to make you smarter and you are coming back dumber
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Written by: Delia Vuletici, former Director of Marketing, WATMEC
For those of us in our twenties, when the “R” word gets thrown around, we tend to get a bit worried.
Will I lose my job? How will I pay off my debt? How is this going to affect me? For those in their thirties, the worry goes a little deeper. Will I lose my house? How much less do we put into savings? Where do I cut spending? And those in their 40’s and 50’s really begin to worry about their debt-to-equity, children’s education and their retirement funds.
And while worry is the by-product of any recession let alone a global recession – it is imperative to remember what TO DO during these inevitable economic times
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Written by: Michael Rosenberg, Author, Flexible Thinker
As we all know, we live in a time of very rapid change. Companies that were small businesses less than 10 years ago have become huge multi-nationals and companies that dominated industry for generations are declaring bankruptcy.
There is talk about the decline of North America and the rise of Asia, unemployment has reached the double digit figure and the death of entrepreneurship is predicted. With so many issue facing organizations, both private and public, from so many directions, the term competitive advantage is taking on a new urgency
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