If you are looking to increase the sales of your product on-line or just want to get more exposure for your web site, here are some practical tips to get you ahead of the pack. My tips encompass two fundamental strategies:
1) The first strategy involves getting much more visits from people searching for a term in the major search engines.
2) The second strategy encompasses generating more interest in your product or the information you offer from would-be purchasers and information seekers.
There is some overlap between the two strategies, as you will see. To begin with, let us look at the first strategy.
(Strategy 1) Getting more visits from people searching on-line is largely accomplished by increasing the number of incoming links to your information pages or your product page. I am assuming here that you have already completed some basic search engine optimization, such as having well-formed web page Titles, having the right keywords on your page, well structured and named site navigation, and so on.
Most experts agree that getting other web sites to link back to your web site counts for at least 50% in importance in getting visitors to your web site via the search engines. And search engine visits are free, so it's worth the effort. The key ways to get other people to link back (with so-called "backlinks") to your web site are:
• submit articles to article distribution web sites with backlinks to your product/information pages • contribute to blogs, forums and wikis, leaving a hyperlinked backlink in your signature line • submit press releases to press wire web sites (when you have something newsworthy to say) • set up blogs on third party web sites, such as Blogger and Wordpress, and blog about your interests with backlinks to your web site • bookmark your web site on social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Stumbleupon • set up a Facebook fan page and a Twitter page and post items with links back to your web site
(Strategy 2) Now let us look at the second strategy, which involves generating more interest in your product. This strategy requires you to engage in activities both on your web site and off. What are these activities? The key things you can do to encourage interest are the following:
• add free downloads to your web site, such as free templates, checklists and PDF e-books, with mentions of your product or newsletter • add new content pages and article pages regularly to your web site on product related subjects • start a regular newsletter with informative articles, news, tips and product specials with hyperlinks back to your product pages • tell your clients, colleagues and friends about your product or information and how they can easily get it online • add your web site address to your email signature line
Did you notice the interdependencies between the two strategies? Getting more backlinks (Strategy 1) also assists you directly in generating interest and leading prospects to your product or information pages (Strategy 2). Adding new content demanded by Strategy 2 likewise encourages others to link back to your web site, hence increasing the number of backlinks (Strategy 1).
Get started this week in implementing these strategies in your business. Start with one activity, master it, and then move on to the next. See you on-line.
Which Process Maps Should We Create?
24/02/11
You might be thinking of mapping your core business processes, as I describe in my article on documenting process maps. One very important question that arises early in the project is: How do you determine which processes are necessary to document? How do you prioritize the processes to map? The same goes for writing your more detailed work instructions. Not all processes and work practices are created equal, and to document them all would be a waste of your organization's valuable resources.
Well, here are my criteria for sorting out the most important processes and work practices to document first.
Map processes and create work instructions where:
• the task is performed infrequently and prone to forgetting the steps • the task is complex and difficult to follow • it would be useful for training inductees • the process has been prone to failure (e.g., high defect rates) • the process involves handover to another department/team
Get your employees to brainstorm your list of business processes and possible detailed work instructions. Then, when they have completed that task, get them to apply the above criteria to create your short list of high priority documents. Well, what are you waiting for? Get started.
Obnoxious Employee Behavior - Why Me?
21/02/11
Have you ever had team members that refused to co-operate with other people? They could either subvert the team overtly, by shouting at other team members, or refuse point blank to do their allocated tasks. Or, on the other hand, they could join the underground, spreading rumors or doing the absolute minimum needed to get by. I'm sure you have experienced such worker resistance. Why do these people react so negatively?
Well, you could blame them for their misbehavior. And many managers and team members do just that. Many times, however, the cause of their behavior is much more complex than them just being "troublemakers". Here are some possible reasons for their recalcitrant behavior.
• belief that the team activity is a passing fad • lack of clarity over their role in the organization • loss of status or social standing • lack of confidence in developing new skills • feeling of work overload • team activities inconsistent with religious or cultural values • loss of opportunities for promotion within the organization • loss of income or job security • loss of time with their family • lack of support from supervisors and managers
What other reasons can you think of for why an employee would not want to co-operate? And how would you find out? Tell us your story.
Australia lagging the World in Employee Engagement
18/02/11
Infogroup's research arm, ORC, recently conducted a survey of employee attitudes and intentions across the globe. The good news (depending on whether you see the glass half full or as half empty) is that globally 57 per cent of employees are engaged.
Australia lags in terms of employee engagement, finding itself behind many other countries. The main reason for this, the report highlights, is Australian employees' stated intention to leave their current employer within 12 months. The report goes on to say that human resource practices are not the cause of this itchy feet syndrome.
The cause of our low ranking, the survey reveals, is due to two factors. The first is deficiencies in manager capability. All too many managers do not inspire employees to work more effectively, with over 30 per cent of survey respondents not answering positively to the question about manager inspiration.
In addition, managers still have a long way to go in coaching employees for performance improvement. One quarter of respondents answered negatively to the question asking whether they received regular and constructive manager feedback.
The second major factor reducing engagement scores is the perceived lack of career advancement. Well over half of all employees are not satisfied with internal job opportunities within their current organization.
With more that 15 years between us and the tabling of the Karpin Report - the biggest enquiry into business capability in Australia's history - it seems we still have a long distance to travel in our efforts to retain our best employees and engage them in the quest for superior performance. References
2010 Kelly Global Workforce Index Report on Pay for Performance
15/02/11
In their latest annual Kelly Global Workforce Index survey, Kelly Services provide a window into employee attitudes towards performance-based pay.
Their 2010 report shows that 30 per cent of employees are currently included in a pay for performance scheme. Interestingly, Gen X and Gen Y workers are much more likely to be included in such a scheme.
Of those employees not currently in a pay for performance arrangement, 37 per cent indicated that their productivity would increase if their pay was linked to performance results.
Before you rush out to implement a pay for performance scheme in your organization, consider these points:
1. The majority of respondents not currently on performance-based pay did not believe that including them within such a scheme would boost their performance.
2. Of the minority that did believe that their productivity would increase, take care to separate a belief from actuality. Implementing a pay for performance scheme may turn out to be an expensive way of finding out that many people are not in fact motivated by more money.
3. Make sure that your pay for performance scheme balances team rewards with individual rewards. Incentive schemes weighted towards individual rewards can be counterproductive in encouraging selfish, maverick behavior.
4. Ensure that your incentive scheme fires up only once a minimum trigger point is reached. Handing out bonus payments when the company is suffering a loss for that year is a sure fire way to go broke.
5. With your scheme, make sure there is a line of sight between the individual's and team's results and the actual reward. If employees cannot see the connection between what they do and the rise and fall of the performance results being paid on, any supposed incentive is diminished.
6. One year's bonus may become next year's entitlement. Be mindful that after implementing a pay for performance scheme, employee expectations may increase as their sense of obligation wanes.
Pay for performance may work well in some industries and for some job role types. Conduct thorough research before committing to rewards based on performance. Once you commit, design the scheme very carefully, considering all of the different permutations and combinations possible.
Implementing a poorly thought out scheme will markedly increase your organization's payroll liabilities with no or a marginal increase in productivity. In such cases, when the magnitude of the disaster has set in, withdrawing the bonus scheme will only make matters worse as morale and productivity plummet.
Contributing to social networking web sites such as LinkedIn and PartnerUp can bring significant value to your business or organization. Posting on sites like these holds two great benefits. Firstly, it connects you with like minded people. Fellow contributors give you insights and new ways of looking at your world. And, as an added bonus, they may turn out to buy your product or want to form a business partnership with you.
Secondly, your posts give valuable back links to your web site. These are valuable as the major search engines count relevant back links as a vote of confidence in your web site. It is partly through these votes of confidence that the search engines raise your position in search engine queries.
The question is, "How can you improve the effectiveness of your postings?" You spend appreciable amounts of time and energy contributing to on-line discussions and you want to make the most of each posting. Right? Well, here are my tips on how to get the most from your on-line contributions so that you can reap the two key benefits I outlined in my introductory paragraph.
Make a meaningful contribution with each post. Do not post spam or useless comments, such as "Great post". Add value to the discussion, pointing people to additional resources or sharing your experiences. Always, and I mean always, remain respectful of other people's contributions. Remember, you are on public display. Remain professional at all times. Nothing will put people off you and your business faster than you engaging in a flame war with someone you disagree with. State your disagreement plainly and without emotional undertones.
Post regularly as a way of developing relationships and increasing your exposure. As you become better known to the other contributors, they will more likely visit your web site. New business partnerships are sometimes forged after initial contact on a social media site.
For web sites that allow you to post a profile, submit as full a profile as possible. Avoid posting highly personal information, such as your birthday and private address, as identity thieves scour social media sites for personalities to steal. Include a professional looking photograph in your profile, as this shows that you are a real person.
Include relevant hyperlinks in your profile, such as links to your web site, blog, your other social networking profiles and publications you have authored. Doing so increases your back link count for the search engines and gives other contributors an easy way to find out more about you.
Include a well crafted signature line at the end of each post. Include your name, your title and your organization's name, where appropriate. Hyperlink prominent words in your signature line, such as your organization's name, tag line or book title.
It is very important that you hyperlink your keywords (such as your business name), and not only your urls. Your hyperlinked words are known as anchor text. The words you use in your anchor text signal to the search engines what your web page is about, raising your significance in the search results for those terms.
Vary the urls and anchor text in your signature lines. A preponderance of specific urls and anchor text in your hyperlinks looks contrived to the major search engines. Such weight given to a limited number of hyperlinks does not look natural and will devalue your web site in the eyes of the search engines.
Add the title attribute to your hyperlink code wherever you can. Some social media sites allow you to edit the HTML of your comment. In the hyperlink code, add a descriptive title, such as title="life coaching services". Many web browsers display this text when visitors hover over the hyperlink with their mouse. The major search engines also use this text to figure out what your web site is about.
Where possible, do not spend a lot of time and energy on social networking web sites in which your hyperlinks sport the "nofollow" attribute. This attribute is attached to your hyperlink in the HTML code and functions to diminish the value of your hyperlink as a back link to your web site.
If you use the Firefox web browser, you can easily see which web sites use the "nofollow" attribute by installing the Quirk SearchStatus add-on. Alternatively, you can look at the web page source code to search for rel="nofollow" and . If a social networking site attaches this attribute to contributor back links, do not immediately discount the site altogether. The web site may still be of great value if the site is active with lots of potential buyers or business partners.
For more information on on-line promotion, refer to http://www.businessperform.com/webcoach Now that you know what makes for a valuable on-line post, what are you waiting for? Get in there and start posting. See you on-line.
Gimee Feedback - Email Communication Blues
09/02/11
Email is a wonderful tool. Don't get me wrong. Our business just could not get by without it. It's quick, it's flexible with how you want to format the message and with what you want to attach, and it's accessible.
What bugs me is the lack of instant feedback. When you speak with someone face to face, you can see immediately if they are getting your message. If they are looking the other way or falling asleep as you speak, you know straight away that you aren't getting through. And then you can take steps to help your message find its target. You can give the person a nudge or offer to speak with them later when they may be more receptive.
You can also gauge how they are feeling about your message. If they are laughing, then that says one thing. If they suddenly start looking distressed, that says another thing. You can then adjust your message to get the outcome you want.
But what if you send your important email and you don't hear anything back for three days? Did they get your message? Did they get so enraged by it that they immediately hit the delete button? You just don't know.
What can you do about this lack of feedback? The first thing I do is to make sure that my expected action is clear. If I want someone to call me, I say just that: "Please call me on xxxx xxxx". Notice that I even spell out my phone number so that they do not need to go searching for it. If I need the response by a certain date or time, I make that clear as well. Are you making your expectations clear in the emails you send? In spite of how direct my message may be, some people do not respond as I expect. To fix this, what I have been doing for quite a while now is to keep an email correspondence list on the office wall closest to me.
When I send an email for which I need a response, I update my list. I check it daily for who has not responded. If someone hasn't responded, I sent them a gentle reminder. That way, important tasks won't fall into a black hole, never to be seen again. Don't do this for every email you send out. Do it only for the emails that are important for you to get a response.
Even after sending several reminders, in some cases I don't get a response. Oh well! I guess that person didn't want to carry on the conversation. Those cases are usually where someone has committed to an action that I am following up. My only wish is that those people at least pay me the courtesy of telling me that they do not want to do what they promised. Do you deal with people like that from time to time?
Email is both a curse and a blessing. Which aspect dominates for you will depend on how you treat it. Perhaps by making your emails action orientated and by creating and maintaining a correspondence list as I do you will see more of the former than the latter. What tips can you share for making email more productive? I'd love to hear from you.
Pricing and Marketing Your Book
06/02/11
I have successfully published a number of works and am sometimes asked for advice on pricing a product for the market. More often than not, the author is asking about a book or an e-book. Although my comments below are in relation to pricing and marketing an e-book, many of the principles apply more generally to any kind of information-type product. Here are my main considerations for pricing an e-book.
Assess the relative levels of supply and demand for the information or resource you are offering. If there are not many publishers distributing similar works to your own and not many people are wanting it, then adjust your price down. If supply is short and demand is high, lift your price.
Consider the amount of value-add you provide with your e-book. Do you include a CDROM or DVD, or customizable templates or workbooks? The more you can include, the more you can command in price.
What is your degree of specialization? If your e-book appeals to the mass market, price it lower compared with a product suitable for a tight niche. Highly technical or specialized works generally command a higher price.
Review your competition. What price are similarly placed resources demanding? This will give you an indication of what people are prepared to pay for your e-book.
What is your reputation in your industry? If you are well-known and respected in your profession, you will be able to demand a higher price compared with the situation where you are relatively unknown.
All other things being equal, the more pages and illustrations contained in your book, the higher the price you can ask. Given a consistent and high quality throughout, the more you provide to your customer, the higher the value.
If the information you provide is cutting-edge, then ask a higher price. On the other hand, if your e-book is simply offering what is generally known already, don't expect to command a top price.
Some e-book creators allow you restrict the customer copying and printing your work after purchase. If you restrict what a customer can do with your product, they may consider it to be of lesser value to them and will want to pay less accordingly.
In addition to your selling price, the other key determinant of your sales volume is your marketing plan and how you execute it. In your marketing plan, consider these success factors.
Determine your value proposition. Ask yourself what it is that makes your e-book different to other offerings in the market and what value your product provides to your customer.
Obtain an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for your work. Getting and displaying the ISBN in your e-book will give it respectability and credibility. Find out which organization distributes ISBNs in your country.
Offer a free sample download from your or your distributor's web site. This could be a complimentary chapter, chart, game or checklist. To give your prospective customers added confidence, let them taste before they buy.
Ask people you know and respected people in your industry to review your book prior to publication. Include these reviews and testimonials on the inside or back cover and on your web site. If your e-book is already published, no matter. It's never too late to collect and publish reviews and testimonials.
Create an attractive front cover. Choose colors and themes that will stand out on a web site. Consider how your e-book will look as a thumbnail.
Make your e-book easy to purchase on-line with multiple purchasing options. Publish a reasonable returns policy that gives people confidence in parting with their money.
If you are preparing your work for the market or have experience in marketing your product, please share your experiences here. We would love to hear what worked well for you and what learning you gained along the way.
Building Employee Trust - What Does It Mean?
02/02/11
In my earlier post on Employee-Manager Trust: How Do Employers Rate?, I recounted the results of Right Management's recent survey. That survey put a spotlight on the alarmingly low levels employee trust in today's organizations. It revealed that three quarters of all employees mistrusted their managers.
The kind of trust the survey authors were researching into was trust in managers' ability to make the best decisions for their organization. However, that is just one component of the trust equation. When we say that we trust another person, what does that mean? Well, it may mean that we believe that they:
1. have the requisite skills and knowledge 2. accurately judge their own strengths and limitations 3. not act primarily from self-interest 4. maintain confidences 5. follow through on their commitments 6. are being truthful
To round out this definition, we can put each trust component into one of two bundles. The competency bundle includes the first two components. Right Management's survey touched on this bundle only. The second bundle is the integrity bundle and includes components 3 to 6 above. This bundle is about the person displaying their true character and intentions; being who they say they are. Stephen Covey calls people who fail in this respect "duplicitous".
In engaging the hearts and minds of our employees, it is this second bundle, the integrity bundle, that is as important, if not more important, than the competency bundle. If a manager is lacking in skills or judgment, but is sincere, his or her employees are more likely to work with them in mutual problem solving and goal attainment. A manager that is highly skilled but seen as manipulative and deceitful by his or her employees will quickly find employees checking out at the gate. And once this kind of trust is lost, it will be difficult for the manager to regain, if not impossible.
What examples can you think of in your work where your manager lost your trust? What aspect of your trust did they lose (look at components 1 to 6 above)? In a future post, I will gather all of your contributions and summarize them into a list of examples of how managers can lose the trust of their employees.
Employee-Manager Trust: How Do Employers Rate?
30/01/11
In May 2010, Right Management undertook a survey of over 4,000 employees in the United States to gauge levels of trust within organizations. The results demonstrated a clear gap in employee trust that needs attention if organizations are to remain competitive in the longer term.
When employees were asked in the survey how often they trusted their managers to make the best decisions, this is how they responded:
• 20% always trusted their managers • 57% occasionally trusted their managers • 19% rarely trusted their managers
With three quarters of all employees expressing low levels of trust in their managers, managers clearly have a long way to go in forming a collaborative partnership with their workers. If employees do not trust their managers, they are unlikely to give of their best in advancing the interests of the company.
Where should managers focus their efforts in starting to build trust levels in their organization? The survey gives some helpful pointers. Trust levels decline as one moves closer to the front-line. Whilst 31% of senior executives always trust their managers' decisions, this trust reduces to 22% for non-management employees.
Levels of trust also decline as companies grow larger. At smaller companies, 26% of employees always trust their managers' decisions, declining to just 20% for larger organizations.
Finally, trust levels decline with age. Of employees aged 18 to 24 years, only 15% said they rarely trusted their managers to make the best decisions. The level of mistrust rises to 27% for employees aged over 55 years.
Every company's situation is different, so I'm not suggesting you take the above results as indicative of your own company. However, there are some important pointers here on where you might start looking to improve trust levels in your business.
Firstly, spend more time developing trust in your front-line employees. They are the ones dealing with your customers, right! Other studies have shown that poor manager-employee relationships breed poor customer relationships. Get managers to show their employees the big picture and how their role is important to achieving the organization's objectives. Prompt managers to speak frequently with their direct reports. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
Secondly, as your company grows, don't overstretch the span of control. Ensure that the number of employees reporting to each manager does not strain the manager's ability to communicate effectively with his or her direct reports. Also, review how often messages come down from the executive suite to the lower levels of the organization. I'm talking here about messages to do with company strategy, financial results, and so on. And think about what mechanisms you have in place to allow for genuine employee dialogue; the sharing of ideas and feelings up the food chain as well as down. When employees feel as if they have a stake in the decisions made, they are more likely to support it as problems surface down the track.
Thirdly, with your more senior employees, make them feel valued. Consider training them up to become trainers and coaches, and assign them younger employees to mentor. Trust levels will grow if they feel they have been brought into the fold and trusted themselves. Trust is a two way street. When you trust your employees to do the right thing, they are more likely to trust your actions as a manager.
How are trust levels in your organization? If you were to run a similar survey, what do you think would be the results? What are you doing to improve trust levels in your organization? I encourage you to put your comments here and share your ideas.
Just how important is keyword analysis in building a business web site? Some prospective business owners labor over it endlessly. Yes, keyword analysis is important. Don't get me wrong. In fact, it's very important. It's important, say, for deciding between "succession planning" and "talent management" for a product name and web page page url, title tag and description. However, don't let keyword considerations dictate the business model and theme of your web site. Your interests, abilities and passions need to play a dominant role here if you are going to survive the long haul in getting your web site profitable.
To illustrate this point further, I see two approaches to building a profitable site. The first I'll call the mechanistic/atomistic approach. This approach focuses on keyword analysis up front. But even with this approach, there is a business model in mind. And that business model is usually based on affiliate advertising or pay per click commissions, such as Google's AdSense.
The second approach I'll call the organic/themed approach, which is the approach I've been advocating for a while. The first approach is just too sterile for me. I think you need to be passionate about a subject and have some materials (preferably your own intellectual property) to see you through the long period of hard work and steep learning.
However, even with both approaches you will need a business model before you look at keywords. Consider your business model. How will your business turn a profit? Will it make a profit by:
(a) selling other people's products (b) selling your own products (c) providing free information and profit from advertising (d) a combination of two or more of the above
I keep coming back to these two crucial questions:
What are you interested in? What materials do you have (or have access to)?
I sometimes meet with managers that have trouble getting their direct reports to accept responsibility for this or that task or objective. In cases such as these, I often find the manager's employees have become disengaged to such an extent that they no longer wish to cooperate with their peers. All too often, the manager has allowed this low performance and non-cooperative culture to develop over some considerable time.
I ask such managers to take a big-picture view and ask themselves what it is they do on a daily/weekly basis to engage their employees and cultivate a team-based approach to work. I prompt them with a bunch of questions, including the following:
• Do you set challenging department goals that are mutually agreed with your staff? • Do you devise goals that require collaboration for success? -or only individual goals? • Do you track and report progress on your department's/team goals? • Do you meet weekly in a team meeting with all of your staff to share ideas and update progress? • Do you meet with each of your staff weekly for a one-on-one "What-Is-Going-On" meeting to discuss individual concerns and progress? • Do you show a personal interest in each and every staff member? Do you practice Management By Walking Around? • Do you provide both positive and negative feedback on a regular basis? • Do you reward positive behavior and team achievements? • Do you confront poor behavior in a non-emotive and direct way? -or do you blow up? • Are you open to criticism without becoming defensive? Do you actively seek feedback from others? • Do you compliment existing employees by asking them to buddy/mentor a new recruit?
If you are in a similar situation, ask yourself how you can apply some of these ideas to your case. Begin by clearly articulating the benefits of completing the task or achieving the objective (a) to your department and (b) to your employees. Benefits to your department may include less rework and customer complaints. Benefits to employees may be increased respect from peers and people in other departments. Once you have articulated the benefits, call a special meeting to discuss your new direction. You now have a base from which to work.
Secondly, find out why your employees do not want to perform the task or achieve the goal. Find the real reasons, not just the presenting reasons. You can do that at your regular weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your direct reports. Find out the roadblocks and remove them. It may be that they are under resourced or feel unappreciated. Whatever the reasons, fix it. You may find our employee performance diagnostic tool helpful here.
Thirdly, reward those employees that act on their responsibilities and discipline those that do not. Their behaviors will not change if there are no or inconsequential outcomes. Perhaps set up an employee of the month award or give the best employees time off. The rewards do not need to be financial to be effective. For those that continue to refuse even after the roadblocks have been removed, start them on your company's disciplinary process. Ignoring obstructers will only serve to demoralize those that are putting in the effort.
I have touched on some of the questions raised in my list of questions above. Now go through the remainder and fill out further how you can more actively engage your employees in carrying out their responsibilities. Tell us about your staff challenges and how you overcame them. We would love to hear your stories.
Minimum Employee Training Hours - Useful Target or Dead Weight?
21/01/11
I'm wondering how many organizations are still using a set target of minimum number of training hours per employee per annum to guide their training uptake. You know what it looks like: Each employee will undertake a minimum of 40 hours training in one year -or something similar.
It strikes me that this kind of target is a real anachronism. Doesn't the amount of time each person needs to spend in training each year depend on the strategic and operational objectives of the business? I see this kind of minimum target as being akin to the HR Manager declaring a minimum weight for everyone's work clothes. What would we think if the HR Manager announced that every employee is to wear a minimum weight of clothes of x kg/lbs? Wouldn't we think he/she was a bit loopy?
How could one minimum weight capture the needs of short trim people, large tall people, people sensitive to the cold, those sensitive to the heat, those working in offices near the equator, those working at much higher latitudes, those working in air conditioned offices and those working outdoors? And yet we issue that kind of pronouncement when it comes to training. Are you using this kind of training target in your organization? And if so, how are you using it?
Management Skills and Business Performance - The Missing Link
12/01/11
Enterprise Connect conducted a recent study of management practices in today's organizations. It draws some highly valuable conclusions on the impact that management capabilities and actions have on business performance.
The research was conducted by the University of Technology Sydney, the Macquarie Graduate School of Management and the Society of Knowledge Economics as an extension of the international study conducted by the London School of Economics, Stanford University and McKinsey & Co. In 2009, the researchers conducted patterned interviews with 439 medium and large-sized manufacturing companies in Australia, along with a smaller number of services organizations.
Practices were examined across eighteen different dimensions in three management categories; people, performance and operations. Each management practice was scored on a scale from one (worst practice) to five (best practice). The study found significant correlations between management practices and business performance. Amongst its key findings were:
A single point increase in management score is associated with an increase:
• in sales of 13% • in output equivalent to a 56% increase in the labor force • in output equivalent to a 44% increase in invested capital
In the area of creativity, the highest scoring firms were found to be about 50 times more innovative than the lowest scoring companies. The study also drew a clear link between management education and capability on the one hand and company productivity and profitability on the other. It found that:
• 64% of managers in the highest scoring firms are university educated (only 3% in the lowest scoring firms) • 20% of non-management employees in the highest scoring firms are university educated (only 1% in the lowest scoring firms)
With higher management skill levels leading to more effective management practices, researchers concluded that organizations need to focus more on training and development initiatives aimed at upskilling managers and the wider workforce. One impediment to such upskilling, the report authors noted, is the disconnect between how managers perceive their own company's management capability and the real level of capability. In the survey, managers consistently overrated their own firm's management performance. This can lead to a "blind spot" impeding further improvement in management skills. The report also highlighted the importance of granting more autonomy to managers and front-line workers as a way of fostering innovation and a sense of accountability.
Looking at the performance of Australian firms in particular, the report made the following findings:
• Australian management practices overall rate slightly above average, ranking sixth among the sixteen countries participating in the survey. • In the area of operations management practices, Australia ranks seventh among the sixteen countries. • In the area of performance management practices, Australia ranks sixth among the sixteen countries. • In the area of people management practices, Australia ranks eighth among the sixteen countries.
For the researchers, people management arose as an area in which Australian organizations need to devote significantly more of its energies. The report highlighted the closing performance gap between the emerging powerhouses of China and India. For Australian businesses to remain competitive in this new deregulated environment, it noted, local firms need to improve their human capital practices. In particular, they need to focus more on attracting, retaining and developing their talent and diagnosing employee performance issues.
Reference:
Management Matters in Australia: Just how productive are we? - Findings from the Australian Management Practices and Productivity global benchmarking project Report commissioned by the Australian Government, Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research November 2009 ISBN 978 0 642 72626 1
Managers Ignore Systems to Focus on Individual Employees
06/01/11
W. Edwards Deming, the famous quality guru, said that over 90% of performance problems were not due to employee shortcomings, but to deficiencies in systems and processes. Why is it then that business owners and managers continue to focus most of their efforts on the performance of individuals? You can see this misguided focus in the setting of individual goals, the awarding of individual rewards and the whole annual performance appraisal ritual. Well, from my experience, I put it down to these four common factors.
Managers don't know how to fix the system The vast bulk of managers are not aware of the impact of natural variation on process conformance and product quality. They typically jump at any downturn in results and look for a quick solution in changing some poor employee's behavior.
Fixing the system shifts the focus from employees to managers How much easier is it to point the blame on the underlings? And when the product or service does not improve, then managers are let off the hook. "It's the workers fault. I tried, but they are just incorrigible."
Fixing the system often means managers working collaboratively Managers have their own little fiefdoms that they feel the need to protect. In reality, getting satisfied customers depends on a number of interfacing systems working seamlessly together. Managers need to work as a cohesive team to ensure that cross-functional processes interlock efficiently.
Fixing the system takes time and effort Repairing broken processes requires knowledge of systems and variability, skill in engaging employees and managing stakeholders, and perseverance. How much easier is it to simply offer a new incentive scheme and hope the problems go away.
IBM's Making Change Work Study Gives Stark Warning
03/01/11
Managing change in today's organizations is not getting any easier. However, doing it well is the new imperative. How are organizations faring with moving their people and systems in new directions? IBM Global Business Services researched change management practices across the globe. Their extensive Making Change Work Study quizzed over 1,500 project leaders, sponsors, project managers and change managers from many of the world's leading organizations, ranging from small to very large in size.
The IBM study reveals that the percentage of CEOs expecting substantial change has risen from 65% in 2006 to 83% in 2008. However, CEOs reporting that they had managed change well in past projects climbed from 57% in 2006 to only 61% in 2008. This constitutes a more than tripling in the size of the gap between actual change capability and needed capability. The costs to organizations are real and sizeable. Failed change initiatives bring in their wake budget overruns, disgruntled customers and demoralized employees.
How successful are organizations at implementing change? The IBM study reports most CEOs considering themselves and their organizations largely ineffective at bringing about change. The change practitioners themselves reported the following change program success rates:
• 41% fully met objectives • 44% missed at least one objective • 15% missed all objectives or aborted
UK Equality Act: Impact on Pay Claims and Employee Turnover
22/12/10
With the newly proclaimed Equality Act coming into force in the United Kingdom on 1st October 2010, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a survey of 1,148 employees to find out their level of sensitivity to pay inequality. The new Act makes pay secrecy clauses in terms of employment unenforceable in cases where the employee seeks to determine if they are being discriminated against. Such "gagging clauses" will be largely or wholly ineffectual under the new Act.
The PWC survey found that around half of all employees would ask for a pay rise or look for a new job if they discovered that workers at the same level as them earned more. Women (at 52%) were less tolerant of pay inequalities than men (at 46%).
Although the research study surveyed employee intentions, and these may not be played out in actuality, the study clearly highlights how equity considerations play out in the thinking of employees. This finding is not new. However, what is clear is that employers in the UK will no longer be able to hide behind a veil of secrecy in order to guard themselves against employee dissatisfaction over discrimination and unfair pay scales. Now is the time to revisit your company's remuneration scales with the intention of putting in a plan to level out pay inequalities over a predetermined period.
References:
Staff to seek pay rises as Equality Act comes into force - People Management http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/10/staff-to-seek-pay-rises-as-equality-act-comes-into-force.htm
Equality Act 2010 - Government Equalities Office http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx
The RogenSi's 2010 Global Mindset Index survey reveals that employees may have been hit harder by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) than first thought.
Key findings from the report reveal the following impacts on employee engagement:
• employee passion for the job has decreased 18% on the previous year
• Gen Y are the worst affected with a 23% drop in passion for their jobs
• one quarter of all employees are displaying indications of depression
The global recession left many organizations scrambling simply to survive. In this pressure cooker atmosphere, we expected and employee motivation well-being to be negatively impacted. Now that global and regional economies are improving, it is time to refocus our efforts on lifting employee engagement. Those organizations that devote time and resources to reengaging their workforce will be ahead of the pack. You can find our more about how to engage employees at http://www.businessperform.com/workplace-training/workplace_environment.html
Latest Research Results on Learning and Development Practices
27/11/10
Last year proved to be a tough year for training professionals and businesses alike when it came to developing their people. Bersin & Associates latest studies reveal where companies spent their learning and development resources in 2009 in both the US and UK markets. For the US market in particular, some of the report highlights were:
• learning and development spending dropped by 11% • average employee hours spent in formal training was 12 hours • average spend per employee was $714 • percentage spend on leadership development rose to 24% • instructor-led training (ILT) dropped to 60% of all training hours • percentage of organizations using blogs and wikis for learning was 14%
Organizations experienced major changes in the way they delivered their learning and development programs. These included the rationalizing of training functions across the organization, more frequent use of online platforms and a greater focus on programs with higher strategic importance. Although companies tightened their belts, in all they are perhaps now better prepared to meet the challenges ahead.
Source: The Corporate Learning Factbook 2010, Bersin & Associates
Leading Organizations Leverage Collaboration, Technology and Information: New Study Reveals
09/06/10
IBM recently released its report into how organizations are using technology and people in 2010. The report, titled A New Way of Working - Insights from Global Leaders, highlights the fact that today’s business environment is becoming increasingly complex and volatile. Coupled with the new reality that customers, suppliers and workers are becoming more and more geographically dispersed, organization’s today need to work smarter, not harder. This study examines what practices leading organizations are using and refining to keep ahead of the game.
What are high performing organizations doing differently compared with their underperforming counterparts? For a start, the top performers are better at building collaborative work processes around realtime information. For example, compared with their lower performing counterparts, the high performers were:
more than twice as focused on directly embedding collaborative capabilities within processes to improve the speed and quality of their decisions
three times more likely to enable users to rate and comment on the information they are using
3.5 times more likely to integrate different sources of data to a significant extent
2.6 times more likely to use realtime information for decision making
The top organizations spend effort on ensuring that information is practical and that people are actually sharing and using it to make realtime decisions. Think about how your organization is collecting, packaging and disseminating information. Is it accurate? Are the people needing it to make decisions getting it on time and in a form that they can understand and use? Can the information be shared within and outside the organization and discussed easily?
In conclusion, the best performing companies are using technology to enable collaborative working practices and realtime information to drive quality business decisions. In fact, high performance companies are three times more likely to be using these smarter working practices compared with their lower performing counterparts. And don’t forget, in pursuing these practices, the top performers are leading the pack in satisfying the ever increasing demands of customers. How are your customers faring?
Read the complete New Way of Working summary at http://www.businessperform.com/articles/nature-work/new-working-paradigm.html
Our new training database has finally arrived
22/04/10
I know it’s been a long time coming. We’ve been burning the candle at both ends for a while, but we’ve finally released the latest version of Training Tracker. We designed it for small business owners and training co-ordinators with departments that don’t need or can’t afford a full blown expensive LMS. You can download the Press Release to find out the latest enhancements in this version or just go straight to the Training Tracker product page to find out more. If you’d like a free copy with the promise of writing a review, please contact me off the forum.
Towers Watson 2010 Global Workforce Study
08/04/10
Between November 2009 and January 2010, Towers Watson surveyed 20,000 full-time employees in 22 markets around the globe. Their report reveals the deep impact of the recent financial storms on the employer-employee relationship. In summary, the findings of their 2010 Global Workforce Study include:
• worker mobility is at a decade-long low point • employees’ strongest desire is for security and stability • employees see themselves as being responsible for their long-term financial and physical health and well-being • employees see themselves as being chiefly responsible for their careers and performance • significant numbers of employees are sacrificing career growth for job security • employees want more freedom and flexibility in their work • employees’ confidence in leaders and managers is disturbingly low • employees see their leaders and managers as poor in interpersonal skills
Dan Pink examines the common management notion that financial incentives drive employee performance. Scientific studies spanning the last forty years show that financial rewards boost performance in only a limited range of circumstances. These are where the task is routine and rule-based and in which there is only a single solution. Where the work involves judgment, creativity or innovation, financial rewards lead to a decrease in performance as people focus on the extrinsic reward instead of broadening their mind to possible solutions. Financial rewards can lead to impaired performance even for jobs that require a modicum of cognitive thinking.
A meta-analysis of 51 studies on pay for performance plans, led by Dr. Bernd Irlenbusch of the London School of Economics, concluded, "We find that financial incentives ... can result in a negative impact on overall performance."
For many jobs in the 21st century, employers will elicit peak performance not by monetary rewards, but by creating jobs with autonomy, mastery and purpose. Find out more by viewing the video of Dan Pink’s address at http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html and checking out Business Performance Pty Ltd’s employee motivation factors page at http://www.businessperform.com/workplace-training/workplace_environment.html
Business Performance P/L Releases New Version of Succession Planner
08/02/10
In today’s challenging economic environment, organizations are looking for ways to outmaneuver their competition without blowing their tight budgets. In the area of talent management systems, Business Performance P/L is leading the way this week with the new release of their Succession Planner software.
Succession Planner Version 2.0 is designed to benefit anyone who needs to track their leadership potential economically and efficiently. It is well suited to human resource managers and consultants, SME business owners, directors and anyone else with a need to manage and report leadership succession.
The new version of Succession Planner builds on its key capability of tracking, managing and reporting succession nominations. A key benefit with Succession Planner is that it is based on Microsoft Excel. Leslie Allan, Managing Director of Business Performance P/L, explained, “Succession Planner really cuts to the chase in avoiding the complexity and administrative overhead of other talent management tools. By using the familiar and simple Excel interface, our software makes light work of managing leadership potential in any organization.”
The tool’s author, Andy Beaulieu, outlined some of the enhancements included in the new version of Succession Planner. “In this new version,” he said, “I expanded the capacity of the Organization Chart and the Position Profile report, added a cell occupants report to the C-P Matrix and altogether made the tool more configurable for users.” “Given the broader spans of control common in organizations today,” he added, “users will find the added capacity on the Organization Chart very helpful. In addition, users can now copy any chart or list to paste as a graphic into Word, PowerPoint or another application.”
The tool is supplied as a Microsoft Excel template and can be used on any Microsoft Windows-based PC with Excel 2002 or later installed. Accompanying the tool are two key resources: a User Guide for those administering the tool, and a Process Guide to assist HR in setting up a strong succession planning process. Both resources are supplied as Adobe Acrobat PDF files, which are readable on almost any computer. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available as a free download from the Adobe website.
For those wanting to try out the tool before purchase, Business Performance P/L has made available a trial version of the tool as a free download. The trial version is complete with sample data that can be modified, so customers can see how the tool will work in their organization. The tool’s author is also available to help organization’s implement their succession planning process.
The complete succession planning pack and the free trial version are available for download from the Business Performance P/L website at www.businessperform.com/succession-planner
About Andy Beaulieu Andy has over 20 years of performance improvement experience as both an internal specialist in global organizations and as an external consultant. Based in Washington DC, USA, his services span the spectrum of technical and interpersonal interventions. He has developed and implemented large-scale tools and systems to improve organizational effectiveness, and he has also coached and trained managers to improve their individual effectiveness.
Andy holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, and undergraduate degrees in engineering and business from the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored ten chapters in books on organizational effectiveness, most notably multiple entries in the renowned “Pfeiffer Annual” series published since 1971.
About Business Performance Pty Ltd Established in 2003, Business Performance Pty Ltd provides business and management consulting services globally in a range of business areas. From its website, the company also proudly supplies a wide selection of business and management software products designed to make managing organizations easier and more effective. Products featured include tools, templates and guides in the areas of training and employee development, project management, organizational change and career planning. All products can be purchased and downloaded easily from anywhere in the world from the Business Performance Pty Ltd website at www.businessperform.com
Business Performance Pty Ltd December Newsletter Out Now
10/12/09
Our December newsletter is out with 40% discount on two of our popular management books. Subscribe now at www.businessperform.com/subscribe
Business Performance November newsletter out now
11/11/09
In our latest Business Performance November newsletter, we look at what leadership style is needed most to get our companies back on track. We also look at some practical ways you can extend the training room into the workplace in an effort to make your training more effective. You can subscribe at www.businessperform.com/html/newsletter_form.html
Business Performance October newsletter out now
10/10/09
Our Business Performance October newsletter is out now. We summarize the latest employee engagement survey results and include some interesting Q&As on current workplace challenges. You can subscribe at www.businessperform.com/html/newsletter_form.html
I know it’s been a long time coming. We’ve been burning the candle at both ends for a while, but we’ve finally released the latest version of Training Tracker. We designed it for small business owners and training co-ordinators with departments that don’t need or can’t afford a full blown expensive LMS. You can 
In today’s challenging economic environment, organizations are looking for ways to outmaneuver their competition without blowing their tight budgets. In the area of talent management systems, Business Performance P/L is leading the way this week with the new release of their Succession Planner software.
