Saturday, August 22, 2009
Toyota Way 2001
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Human Capital for Millenials
At nearly 70 million strong, Generation Y is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. workforce. They are techno-savvy, goal-oriented, excellent at multi-tasking, and require a completely different approach to management. These entry-level workers are also changing careers faster than their older colleagues, making it harder for HR professionals to retain these talented performers.
Researchers have found that millennials are both ambitious and high-maintenance, and they believe in the strong skills that they bring to the table. Generation Y believes in speaking your mind at work, and is less likely to respond to traditional means of management. They've grown up questioning their parents, and won't respond well to commands or authoritative methods.
With a basic understanding of how their workforce perspective differs from other employees, there are a few essential ways you can effectively manage millennials.
Make the Job Challenging
Generation Y workers are not afraid of change. They don't expect to stay in the same job for long, and are often skeptical about the idea of company loyalty. They excel in multi-tasking, and desire to be challenged in their work. You can increase retention by keeping them moving onto new assignments, and finding ways to help them expand their skills on the job.
Encourage a Sense of Balance
Unlike the baby boomer generation who tend to place their priorities on career, Gen Y workers want their jobs to accommodate their home lives. They value the work-life balance, which means that flexible schedules and telecommuting options are very attractive. You can also encourage balance through team-oriented activities or social company events.
Set Clear Expectations
HR managers sometimes assume that members of Generation Y understand the same rules of the office by which older employees abide. At times, they will have their own interpretations, so you should detail your expectations in the employee manual. If there is a specific dress code, you need to be up front about it. If you don't want them using company time to use their iPods, BlackBerry mobile devices or instant messaging, you need to mention that as well.
Gen Y workers commonly exhibit ambition, talent and financial smarts on the job. Along with these strengths, they also have a different work attitude and respond to different management techniques. Since traditional forms of managing won't be effective, HR managers have been able to effectively use these creative ways to help recruit and retain top millennials. To keep a deeper sense of the career perks that they value the most, you can use annual reviews and anonymous surveys at your office.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Mergers and Acquisitions Execution - Avoid the Failure
A successful merger and acquisition can be measured against two major factors:
- Shareholders value increase. A sustainable increase in shareholders value should be achieved over time.
- Synergies materialised. The achievement of expected synergies such as more efficient operations, increased profitability and an increase in market share.
A merger and acquisition is normally one of the most important strategies that a company will embark on. Unfortunately many mergers and acquisitions are failures (or at least in some aspect). One of the best ways to increase the chances of success is to plan properly for a merger and acquisition and to see it as a project and manage it in such a way. A merger and acquisition typically has all the important characteristics of a project - it is multidisciplinary, has specific objectives, is once-off and has time and budget constraints.
How to Deal With Employee's Turnover Rates
A turnover rate is the ratio of employees leaving the company (or some specific industry) in a given period. A company or industry has high turnover rate when the workers of that company tend to ditch their jobs more often than the employees of other companies (in the same industry). Some industries and jobs have high turnover rates because of the nature of work, however if your company has a high turnover rate than your competitor and you are not able to sustain your employees with you, there maybe something wrong with your policies. In case you don't pay attention, not only you will be loosing your good employees to your competitors, your business will also suffer from high costs of attracting, recruiting and training the new staff.
Atmosphere and working conditions:
At certain workplaces, you will feel the tense atmosphere as soon as you put your feet in, reason can be strict management or unrealistic targets. Being a manager, it is necessary to maintain some discipline but some managers overdo it by importing rules straight from the books of military. For many individuals (especially fresh graduates) it becomes really hard to adjust in this kind of atmosphere. Working conditions are linked with health related issues. Light, ventilation, air conditioning, heating systems and safety measures are some of the basic requisites. Sometimes, improving your high turnover can be as simple as loosening up some rules or dealing with some unhealthy environment issues.
Salary & Growth Opportunities:
Excessive work, no incentives and low salaries, these are all grounds for a high turnover rate. Employees are here to earn, and their morale is directly related to their income. If you are expecting them to give their 100 %, you should be giving back in form of good enough salaries. Your salary packages should be competitive if not the best in market. A good salary package will make up for many other factors, but if the salaries are low from the market standards, nothing can hold the employees for long. Similarly, motivating employees by providing growth opportunities is also necessary.
Choosing the right candidate and the nature of the work:
If your recruitment and hiring process is flawed, you are meant to have a high turnover. Many small businesses, in a hurry to fill out vacant positions, hire some unskilled individuals, thinking that he/she will learn the traits with the passage of time. Such hiring is nothing but wastage of time, both for employee and employer. The interviewee should have complete knowledge of the skills required for some particular job, and the successful candidate should be having most of them, if not all.
Sometimes the reason for high turnover is the nature of work, for example the jobs that require night shifts or excessive late sittings. These types of jobs are not suitable for everyone and they are supposed to have high turnover rates than others. These are some of the common reasons, apart from looking into these areas; you can approach your employees to get the exact idea about their reservations.
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