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In Business - It Takes Money To Make Money!

 

We have all heard this saying. And now that we are in business; owning, leading, managing a company, how does it affect our company & what does it mean?

We continue to see an increase in training & development spending and it is worth the investment. US spending on corporate training rose by 15% last year. This represents the highest grow rate in 7 years according to a study from Bersin by Deloitte.

Why?

  • Training improves customer satisfaction
  • Training improves employee satisfaction & retention
  • Training saves labor
  • Training saves money
  • Training improves a company's competitive edge
  • Training increases work productivity
  • Training enhances company profits

Motorola calculated that every dollar spent on training yields an approximate 30 percent gain in productivity within a three-year period. They also used training to reduce costs by over $3 billion and increase profits by 47 percent.t

Source: Tim Lane et al., "Learning to Succeed in Business with Information Technology," Motorola
 


How To Attract Top Talent For Your Team

As an employer, finding the best employees to compliment your business can be a difficult task. It is hard to know a person's character or performance abilities based off a resume and a few interviews. In order to find people that will round out your team and are full of the talent you need to run a successful business, keep these ideas in mind.

The Right Employee for You: Before taking out employment listings and beginning the hiring process, you need to clearly define what you are looking for in an employee. This is not as cut and dry as task oriented lists that you need an individual to fulfill. Personality plays a key role in this decision as well. Consider your own personality and those of other people on staff. Aim to hire an individual that will bring the diversity and balance to the team that is necessary for success. Do their behaviors & motivators match the needed behaviors & motivators of the job?

Take a Look at the Future: Employees that are highly motivated and interested in building a career will be unsatisfied in a job that lacks challenges. Understand the needs of your company at the present time along with laying out the needs you expect to have in the coming year or two.

Knowing what you will have to offer an employee in the time to come will help you know what type of person will fit into your team the best. If you foresee the position to be unchanging or offer little challenges, then finding an individual suited to that job is in order. If the position is going to require flexibility and motivation, a different personality type should be pursued.

Know What Kind of Employer You Are: Defining what kind of employer you are can be a difficult part of attracting top talent to your team. It requires self-examination and honest evaluation of yourself and the company you run. Employees leave companies on account of poor management every day. Make sure you are the kind of employer that has the ability to have good employee relations to give clear cut expectations, and are quick to resolve problems within the job. Building a good working relationship with people who are highly qualified is key in the success of a business.

Employees that are incredibly talented will have competitive offers from other businesses. Attracting good employees is a slow process and can't be rushed. It will take time to find a suitable person for the position you are hiring for. Making a hire that is premature is not doing your company any favors, even if the person seems to be highly qualified for the position. It is best to make sure that the personality along with skill set and attitude will fit well in your business environment.t

If you have any questions about attracting top talent for your company, contact us today!

Written for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected. All rights reserved. 

Handling A Bad Performance Review

Should there come a day that you receive a bad performance review at your job, there are some things to keep in mind to handle the situation appropriately. It can be so easy to feel offended about critical feedback, especially if you feel that you are doing a good job at your place of employment. Here are a few helpful tips to handle the review in a positive way and improve your job performance for future reviews.

Don't Take Offense: As hard as it is to not take offense about the feedback, this is very important. When you take personal offense to the statements being made in the review, you will likely make poor judgment calls about how you handle yourself in the meeting.

You tend to act defensive when you take a personal offense to something and it can easily cause you to point blame at other people or processes within your company. It is important to not immediately begin placing blame on others when you are called in for a performance review, because it will seem that you are not willing to take personal responsibility for your own actions.

Listen to the Feedback: Another difficult thing to do is genuinely listen to the feedback that you are being given about your performance. It can be very easy to spend the entire time during the review coming up with your response or excuse to an area that needs attention. When you take the time to actually listen to your reviewer, you might find that there really are some things that you need to do better in your position. There certainly can be some misunderstandings or poor perceptions that are adding to the negative review. As hard as it may be, it is important to fully listen to what the reviewer is sharing with you.

Be Humble and Ask Questions: Once you have heard all of the negative comments, it is time to be proactive. In a humble way, ask questions about the information you have received. Make certain you really understand what the issues are and what is being said. It is important to walk away from the meeting with a clear understanding of why you received the poor performance review. With this knowledge you can address the issues as you move forward.

Stay Positive: Even though you can feel like you are being attacked when negative comments are being shared about you, it is better to see those pieces of feedback as a way to further your career. Keep a positive attitude as best as you can. Shy away from complaining to other employees about your meeting or poor review. That can definitely be seen as unprofessional and that you are immature for not being able to handle the criticism. Certainly, you will want to discuss your frustrations and feelings with someone that will relate to you, but that shouldn't be someone in your office.

If you listen to the comments and understand where the other parties are coming from, then you will be more successful in your career. t

Please contact us if you have any questions about improving your performance or career!

 

Written for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected. All rights reserved.

 

Enticing And Retaining Millennials

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2015 millennials will be the majority representation of the workforce and by 2030 this always-connected, tech savvy generation will make up 75% of the workforce. We have seen this coming as the baby-boomers continue to exit the workforce.

Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation or Generation Y) are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates when the generation starts and ends. However, researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s - generally 1982-2004.

The Millennials are not only tech savvy, but they are accustomed to being connected all the time. They did not know life before the Internet or cell phones and are always communicating via social networks. They have not had to wait for the IT department when it comes to using technology. They seek to solve problems on their own if they are unsatisfied with the technology being provided.

What are Millennials looking for when considering working for a company?

Here are some findings from the annual Deloitte Millennial Survey:

  • Organizations must foster innovative thinking. 78% of Millennials are influenced by how innovative a company is when deciding if they want to work there.

  • Leadership development. Millennials are eager show off their leadership skills and to make a difference. Additionally, 75% believe their organizations could do more to develop future leaders.

  • Commitment to the community. 61% reported that company involvement in the community would influence their decision to a job offer. 63% of Millennials donate to charities and 43% belong or volunteer to community organizations.

    If you have any questions about this article, or about how we can help you entice Millennials to your company, contact us today!   

If you have any questions about this article, or about how we can help you entice Millennials to your company, contact us today!

 

Written for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC. Copyright protected. All rights reserved.

 

 

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