Imagine spending eight to ten hours every day working side by side with your parents, grandparents or children. Would it be all plain sailing? Perhaps not! We are not strangers to the tensions between generations, so how do we get it right at work?

Answer: The key is to understand the values and needs of each group.

Baby Boomers – Who are they and what do they want!

Baby Boomers (“BBs”) are loosely defined as the group born post World War II to the early sixties. This group are aged 42 – 60.

BBs were initially influenced by their very hard working parents (who typically grew up in the depression era). BBs were taught to be grateful for what ever they got. Times were tough growing up and money and opportunities were scarce. I like to call this group the “just eat your peas brigade” – you don’t question, you do what you are told and you respect your elders! Sound familiar? Here is what is important to BBs:

• Security and stability
• Loyalty and long term service
• Saving for a rainy day
• Respect for authority, position and experience
• More focus on effort than results.

Generation X – (The ME Generation)

Growing up in Australia in the early seventies to mid eighties produced an interesting environment for our Gen X group (aged 30 – 42 ish)! The end of the Vietnam War marked a relatively peaceful period in Australia. Prosperity increasing, higher disposable incomes and increased consumer spending helped to set the scene for a “fast food – disposable culture”.

Gen X saw their late BB role models (hippies) “sell out” on their values in order to get ahead. Gen X learned very quickly what is important to survive - WIIFM (“what’s in it for me)!  Growing up in a disposable society meant that Gen X were the first group to experience in larger numbers the heartache of parents separating and the scourges of high financial debt.  So how do you spot a Gen Xer?

• Less respect for authority and position
• “WIIFM”
• Loyal to people who look after their individual needs
• Struggle with work – life balance
• Ambitious, driven and focused on results
• “I want it now”.

Generation Y – (WHY)

Born in the eighties, Gen Ys are no strangers to technology. Change and innovation have been a constant for this group. More often than not, Gen Ys’ parents were both working. Over time this group learned to develop strong networks through friends and later work colleagues.

Gen Ys were educated differently to their Gen X role models. The environment, the impacts of war and the future, were themes broadly discussed. The title “Y” (Why) is no accident. This group have been taught to question the way we think.  Working as a team rather than individually on projects and given scope to solve problems for themselves produced a generation that is future focused, questioning and demanding new solutions. Gen Ys typically have:

• A strong moral, ethical and environmental concern
• A focus on team and socialising
• A respect for people who stretch them (rather than experience or expertise in an area)
• Need to understand WHY
• Technology focused
• Want it now
• Highly mobile and independent
• Know their value.

You can probably see the three generations making up our workforce are at times likely to clash. So how do we get the best out of each group and promote productivity and harmony?

As a general rule, it’s very difficult to change the values of adults. It takes time, effort and a great deal of re-conditioning. Rather than attempting to change people, we are often more successful when we use their strengths and minimise the impacts of the things that challenge them.

Working with Baby Boomers

BBs contribute valuable practical and life experience, depth of knowledge and have a respect for past lessons learned. Sadly this knowledge can at times be undervalued by younger generations and often overlooked as these valuable lessons are poorly packaged as “ in my day stories”. When BBs are under threat, they tend to withdraw rather than vocalise their concerns (partly due to their upbringing and also fear of speaking their mind).

Do

• Encourage them and reward them for sharing their knowledge so they feel important and valued
• Give them a clear and precise structure for Why, What and How things are to be done (step through this with them) and ask them about the impacts of this on a broad level)
• Encourage them to mentor others by focusing on impacts and not “in my day stories”
• When setting tasks, do not just state what you want done but also clearly outline the result and the standards to be met.

Don’t

• Challenge them in front of others (it threatens their position)
• Put them on the spot in a brainstorming session
• Give them a problem with unclear parameters (BBs can solve problems however are used to asking for permission before they take steps)

Working with Generation X

Generation X provides momentum and immediacy to business. They are action focused and very good at challenging the status quo. Generation X is likely to rise to a challenge if they can see a clear personal reward. Often Gen Xers run like a “bull at a gate” not assessing the broader landscape and hurting others or themselves on the way. Burnout is a common outcome for this group. When working with Generation X:

Do:

• Spend time on selling Why they might do something and give them a personal reason for it to get done (WIIFM)
• Use brainstorming to encourage them to work more collaboratively with others
• Help them to understand their strengths, limitations and impacts on others and themselves
• Focus and develop healthy time and stress management practices
• Debrief and uncover lessons learned from their encounters and projects – do this regularly (Gen X prefer to learn from their own experience rather than others)
• Focus on how important they are in the environment (status is often a motivator)
• Focus them on solutions rather than problems (they tend to be quite critical)

Don’t

• Negate your promises
• Hide (be totally transparent with this group)
• Leave them for too long without contact (they require regular follow up to build connections)

Working with Generation Y

Generation Y bring creative problem solving, a social conscience and technological competence to the workforce. They are often challenged by rigid structure, hierarchy and projects or outcomes that are too far in the future with no short term change in sight. When working with Gen Y:

Do:

• Spend time selling the WHY – and focus on the social justice, environmental and technological impacts
• Engage them in team work
• Motivate and stimulate them with new problems
• Given the scope to make decisions
• Provide a vision for the future
• Provide regular feedback and be willing to receive feedback from them
• Be accessible
• Be seen to be fair to all

Don’t

• Micro manage and spell out HOW things are to be done (outline outcomes instead)
• Be formal at every meeting
• Be out of contact

Each individual is unique, and a reflection of the mood of their generation. At the end of the day we are working with people who have unique motivators, needs and values. Spending the time to understand these may just help future generations live and work harmoniously.

Rebecca Cushway.

Rebecca Cushway is a Workplace Psychologist and General Manager of Careers Excelled. Careers Excelled provides solutions for Management, Leadership, Selection, Staff and Development. For more information visit www.CareersExcelled.com.au or phone Careers Excelled on 9624 4141.

Workplace Psychologist Rebecca Cushway from Careers Excelled shows us how.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were treading ever so lightly with someone in order to not offend, and then all of a sudden; “boom” – you lashed out and told the person exactly what you really thought?

Delivering feedback, whether it is positive or negative can be challenging. So why is it so difficult to say what we really want to say? Most people are concerned about how the other person will receive the feedback. What we are really afraid of is whether the recipient is able to separate the message we give them from our relationship with them, which may potentially turn sour. So how do we prevent this from happening?

As leaders and managers of people we need to separate the dependence of a message from our relationship with our people. Good leaders deliver both good and bad news. It’s not the nature of “the news” that determines the quality of the relationship with the leader; it’s the fact that the leader is willing to add value by telling the truth and using it to develop their people.

Separating messages from our relationships with people requires the application of five key elements:

• Being Specific
• Being Timely
• Being Relevant
• Being Balanced
• Supporting Self Esteem
• Being Specific

Most people don’t like to be pigeon holed, particularly when they can’t see the reason for it. So telling John that he is disorganised doesn’t serve much of a purpose other than either aggravating him because we do not offer any help in this statement, or giving him no reason to change his ways. Specific feedback focuses on the behaviour that we see or don’t see, not the label. Focusing on the behaviour is more useful because we have some access to getting an improvement. Perhaps if we told John “to make a list or a daily plan and setting deadlines” we might get the result we both want. Being specific requires the identification and communication of current and desired behaviour.

Being Timely

Some managers treat giving feedback like a transaction account. If people make enough deposits without any withdrawals, they are rewarded with measly interest at the end of the month, quarter or year! On the other hand they get charged fees for every withdrawal. More often that not, managers respond to negative feedback and save the positive for a rainy day and worst still, don’t deliver any feedback until the pay review!

Ideally timely feedback is given shortly after the event. This helps people to make the connection between the feedback and a potential solution.

Another important point on being timely is that the feedback is given in response to actual events and not in response to what is diarised in your calendar. Feedback is only meaningful when it relates to what is actually happening.

Being Relevant

Good leaders question their own actions. Good leaders also know that their feedback needs to pass the relevance test. Sometimes we are tempted to “open the floodgates” and use the event that has recently occurred to give every piece of “saved up feedback”. If the feedback we are giving is not relevant to the situation at hand, it is easy for the recipient to feel as though they have been targeted or “picked on”. This is where the message and the relationship become entangled, dissolving trust.

To ensure that your feedback is relevant:

1. Focus the feedback on the event past recently (not every other event)
2. Encourage the recipient to thing about the impacts of their actions (before you tell them what those impacts are).

Being Balanced

When people are saccharin sweet it can be nauseating. When people can only find negative things to say it can be exhausting and demoralising. Creating balance in the feedback we give is important if our messages are going to be taken seriously by our people.

A technique that can be very useful in feedback situations is called debriefing as it facilitates a balanced discussion about a particular event. The leader asks questions in the discussion to encourage thoughtful evaluation and ownership by the employee. Typical debriefing questions include:

1. Tell me about the situation?
2. How did you go in the situation?
3. What worked well for you?
4. What didn’t work so well?
5. What were the impacts on you and others?
6. Would there be anything you might do differently next time?

Supporting Self Esteem

Our goal when delivering feedback whether positive or negative is to change or enhance the behaviour rather than focusing on “changing the person”.

One of the ways we can support the self esteem of our employees in feedback is by being conscious of our language. The key here is to understand when we personalise and when we depersonalise the feedback message.

Personalising the feedback message requires us to give the credit of the result to the individual. For example, “John you did a great job, well done!” Here John is the direct subject of the feedback.

Depersonalising the feedback attributes the result to the action taken by the individual, and not the individual themselves: “John the schedule did not get in on time because a list wasn’t made up and there didn’t seem to be a plan in place… What do you think you might do differently next time?” Here John can see that “failure” is related to his actions rather than himself. In addition relating the result to action gives the employee some access to changing their behaviour next time which is the outcome we all want.

Good leaders are always aware of their true motives when they are delivering feedback. If we simply are angry and want to vent, chances are the feedback message will be taken that way. It is important to be in a constructive mind space before giving feedback. A useful thing to remind ourselves of before engaging an employee is that if they didn’t make mistakes and made the “right” choices, they wouldn’t need leaders.

Rebecca Cushway is a workplace psychologist and General Manager of Careers Excelled. If you would like more information about Careers Excelled Leadership and Coaching Programs contact Rebecca on 9624 4141, Rebecca@CareersExcelled.com.au or visit www.CareersExcelled.com.au

Workplace Psychologist Rebecca Cushway from Careers Excelled shares with us the keys to employee retention.

Can you remember the real reasons you left any of your previous jobs? If you are like most people, chances are you told you boss you were leaving for more money, a better opportunity or a different experience (if they bothered to ask). Was that the real reason, or was it important to keep them on side in case they were called to provide a reference?

For up to 40% of working Australians, what drives us to “greener pastures” is our relationship with the boss!

When you consider between the ages of 18 – 65+, most waking hours of full time employees are spent working with, or under the supervision of “the boss”, it is no wonder the boss can have such an impact on job satisfaction and our choice to stay or go.

So why do people leave?

The drivers of staff turnover have remained consistent over the past 10 years with the majority of research citing the following reasons why Australians change employers:

1. Poor Manager Relations
2. Lack of opportunities to use or grow skills
3. The role itself not meeting expectations
4. Uncompetitive base salary
5. Change in personal circumstances

Poor Manager Relations

The basis of most relationships whether personal or work, centre around being trusted, respected and treated fairly. The difficulty in any relationship is that trust, respect and fairness tend to be subjective and judged according to the perception of the individual.

What is common to managers with genuinely good employee relationships is that they tend to do the following with their people:

• Give balanced, relevant and timely feedback that is solution focused
• Seek and receive feedback graciously, taking it on board to make changes to their own behaviour when appropriate
• Take employee concerns seriously and investigate them
• Gain input from their staff and involve them in building solutions
• Treat people as individuals yet demonstrate consistency in expected standards to be achieved
• Appreciating staff for their efforts and outwardly stating this regularly
• Not “reacting” when issues arise – treating these situations as learning experiences
• Follow up and keep promises every single time.

Lack of opportunities to use or grow skills

One of the challenges faced by small to medium businesses is size which is often linked to the perceived opportunities available in that environment.

While on the surface it can appear that SMEs fall short in supporting career growth, these businesses can attract and retain great people by focusing on career development and creating skill building experiences, - a paradigm shift from the traditional “career ladder”. Generation Y employees (aged 18 – 28) who tend to have the highest turnover in the workforce, are savvy enough to embrace skill building experiences reducing risk of them leaving in the immediate future. This can be achieved by:

• Providing variety and multi-skilling opportunities
• Involving staff in project work
• Giving staff formal “managerial responsibility” for outcomes
• Delegating more interesting tasks where staff demonstrate capability and interest
• Involving staff in review, evaluation and process improvement
• Involving staff in training, publicity or creative activities around the business
• Giving end to end ownership of a process including outcomes
• Publicising and talking to staff about upcoming opportunities and the changing business to keep them interested

Creating these opportunities is only half the solution. For this to be an effective retention strategy managers will need to engage staff in performance feedback on each of these staff where they

• Set clear goals and outcomes up front
• Monitor and be available for advice between milestones
• Evaluate outcomes against pre-agreed standards
• Coach and help staff to find different solutions when standards are not met
• Be willing to have challenging conversations about what has really been achieved and what still needs to be achieved
• Encourage and praise on a job well done
• Measure outcomes not inputs
• Allow employees to take ownership and share their learnings with others.
  

The role itself not meeting expectations

When we start a new job we enter into a legal and psychological contract with our employer. The psychological contract operates independently of the job description we were handed on day one, and refers to the invisible, un-stated expectations or assumptions about the job, the employer and the workplace. When these expectations are not met, or change without employee “permission” or involvement, the psychological contract is broken and often the deal is off!

To maintain a workable psychological contract with employees it is essential to:

• Clearly identify their motivators during the recruitment process
• Present a realistic “warts and all” view of the position
• Talk about the nature of change in your environment
• Have the person prepare questions for a range of employees about the environment during the recruitment phase
• 
  Check in regularly (at least monthly) on the things that are working well and not so well for them in the environment rather than reacting when things appear to be not going well – ask them about changes they would like to make
• Provide feedback on what you have noticed about their behaviour and investigate how that might be impacting them and others
• Look at other areas of the business the person can contribute to and focus development in that area
• Find out what might make a difference for them and be prepared to let them go if requests are unrealistic.

Uncompetitive base salary

There is only so much money in the bank, yet it is important to remain competitive as an employer, after all, it is a labour short market place out there! These days people are not loyal to organisations, people are loyal to people who give them what they need and want. This makes the cry for more money a challenge for most businesses.

All too often employees cut clippings of job advertisements and hand them to their manager demanding a pay rise with the threat of exit from the organisation. To manage this situation effectively it is important to:

• Benchmark roles against other comparable roles in different organisations annually (even those outside your industry) and attempt to pay at least around the median base salary
• Offer performance based increments in salary where deserving bi-annually (yearly seems like an eternity especially for younger employees) – have this mapped out and differentiate salary levels according to performance (not experience)
• Challenge the employees assumptions about their information sources about other salaries they present to you, and differentiate the uniqueness of your environment and other things that are on offer
• Provide regular feedback about performance (4 times a year) and how they are able to progress their salary pointing out what they might need to do to reach the next level.

Change in personal circumstances

In every deck of cards is a wildcard, unpredictable and it can pop up at any time. Wildcard’s are out of the player’s control as are life changing circumstances when it comes to our employees.

Strategies to minimise the risks to the business when unplanned changes occur include:

• Identifying and multi-skilling staff to step up so a range of responsibilities can be covered at any one time
• Documenting processes and procedures when things are going well rather than when we are in crisis mode
• Offering flexible work arrangements such as part time, varied hours, tele-commuting, working from home where possible.

People can be unpredictable, and when it comes to work, employees will “vote with their feet”. The key to keep them employed with “the devil they know” is to be a better manager by engaging them.

Rebecca Cushway.

Rebecca Cushway is a Workplace Psychologist and General Manager of Careers Excelled. Careers Excelled provides solutions for Management, Leadership, Staff Retention, DIY Selection, Staff and Development. For more information visit www.CareersExcelled.com.au or phone Careers Excelled on 9624 4141.

Sometimes people mistake good performance today for potential talent tomorrow. Potential is not the same thing as performance.

Potential tells us whether a person is able to be developed to a higher level with more responsibility, however it does not reflect the type of work the person is suited for. It does not take into account their interest and motivation and it does not guarantee if the person will succeed in the position.

Identifying potential is important if we want to identify people who will grow with our business.

Performance is also important and will tell you whether the person is likely to succeed in the job you are giving them in your environment. Predicting performance is difficult and is influenced by many factors; some of which are in your control as a manager and some of which aren’t.

When you are identifying staff for your business, it is important to separate these factors to understand whether a person is likely to succeed in the role in your business or not. The things that are out of your control are a “must have” as no amount of training and support will give you the performance outcomes you need.

Identifying potential is more about understanding specific personal qualities and competencies.

Questions to ask for Potential

·         Are they driven?

·         Do they take responsibility?

·         Do they exercise good judgment and consider impacts and consequences?

·         Are they self aware and realistic about themselves?

·         Do they respond to coaching?

·         Do they take initiative?

·         Can they anticipate problems ahead of time?

·         Are they able to solve problems and use different methods?

·         Are they perceptive in seeing the needs of people?

These qualities are important for identifying all types of potential. However depending on the type of things you are want you may also need to focus on a range of other things such as, leadership, teamwork or creativity.

How do I work with high potential people?

You may have met someone who has high potential, and is not performing even though they have the ability, the skills and the aligned values. Much of this can be put down to a poor fit for the role or our own management style. When we work with high potential people we need to focus on their strengths and give them the opportunity to use them. Constant monitoring and lack of involvement in decision making frustrates high potential people and will not allow their talent to shine.

Techniques for working with high potentials include:

• Provide problems  a step above their current performance level
• Play “devil’s advocate” to challenge their thinking rather than giving your opinion or feedback
• Encouraging them to constantly evaluate themselves and debrief when you set new challenges.

Your talent comes in many forms; not everyone needs to be a high flyer.  Knowing what you have in the first place will help you to get the best out of your people at work.

Rebecca Cushway

Psychologist Careers Excelled.

Why are some people able to sell ice to Eskimos, while others appear to be at war when they are putting their view forward?

Influencing, like many other interpersonal skills is part art and part science. Certainly, some people are born with natural charisma; however the majority of us need to understand the steps and principles that make us truly influential.

So what are the seven keys to being influential?

• Clear Messages and Meaning
• Stakeholder Identification and Involvement
• What’s In It For Me – Step into their shoes!
• Credibility – Understanding what you are and what you are not!
• Believe in what you are saying
• Understand that influencing is a process
• Question don’t tell.

Clear Message and Meaning

Far too many attempts to influence fail, often due to lack of clarity of the overall message being communicated. Creating clear and meaningful messages requires two elements:

• Understand in simple terms the single most important message that you want people to remember. Creating a simple statement that captures this message, assists memory and is a powerful reference point for people
• Ensure your simple message has a specific action that is linked to consequences (either stated or implied). People are moved by what could be!

Stakeholder Identification and Involvement

You’ve seen it happen many times. Someone had a great idea, gave the idea the green light and then was usurped by a department who was not involved in the project. To be truly influential, people need to feel as though they have been consulted and involved in the idea you hope to implement. Mapping and understanding all potential stakeholders and consulting them in the early phases of projects, is generally a more effective way to prevent your project being “dropped” before the finish line. Asking the simple question about who else needs to sign off on this project can be a significant time saving exercise.

What’s in it (or not it it) for me?

Human beings are designed for survival. When presented with many choices we find ourselves basing decisions on outcomes that will deliver maximum benefit with minimum pain. Understanding the potential impacts on the person or group you seek to influence is a simple matter of stepping in their shoes. How could your idea impact them for better or worse, what will this mean to their day to day life, what challenges and opportunities will this present. Most impacts or benefits can be summarised to a few key areas: money, time, productivity, flexibility, growth, autonomy. On the negative side, it is the human condition to protect ourselves from situations which may threaten our survival namely disruption, exposure and failure. To be successful in influencing, it is important to present a clear shared understanding of what the benefits and concerns of your audience might be. By stating these things up front, your audience is more likely to believe you as you not only demonstrate empathy, you also disarm any concerns early.

Credibility

Used Car Sales people are often thought of as the least credible in the sales industry. This is potentially because efforts are often made to hide their less than perfect products. What makes people ultimately credible is honesty. Knowing what we are and what we are not; what we can and can not deliver, and being willing to say it out loud increases people’s confidence in us.

 Believe in what you are saying

It sounds simple enough, yet many of us do not apply this golden mantra. People who are genuinely confident are more likely to be influential. Some of the things many people do to diminish their influence include:

• Overuse indefinite language like “maybe” and “could”
• Constantly apologise
• Retort and back step when directly challenged rather than deal with the concern.

Believing in what you are saying means that it is important not to make excuses for the statements you make. Clear simple definite statements not only build the speaker’s confidence, but also the listeners’.

Understand that influencing is a process

It is important to recognise that influencing is a process. People need to go through their thinking and emotional concerns before they “buy in”. They require the time and space to go through this process. Most objections or challenges that come up when we influence are based on the genuine needs and concerns of the listeners. To be an effective influencer it is important to recognise and adapt our style to cater to the different needs of our audience. Here are some things to consider:

• Approximately 50% of people prefer to engage and ask lots of questions along the way while the other 50% prefer to take things away and consider what they speaker has said privately
• When influencing some people prefer to see practical logistical “how will that work” information where as others prefer the big picture and outcomes and are bored by the detail
• Half the population is more likely to be moved by information that is objective, scientific, tested and proven. This people are more likely to be moved by facts and figures. The rest of the population are more interested in how this will impact people, relationships and well being. It is important to know what the concerns are of your audience.
  

Many of us like to feel in control. Agendas which allow up front time for input and consideration provide people with a sense of control which increases the likelihood of them engaging with you.

In any audience it is important to consider that you will have a diverse mix of people and all styles will need to be catered for, size up your audience and use a balanced approach to ensure you do not isolate anyone. Do your research and a needs assessment to test the water before diving in.

Question don’t tell

We spend our childhood being told what to do, then we enter the workforce and again mostly get told what to do – yet reaching adulthood is considered a milestone marking the point where we get to make choices. When engaging with people the act of “telling” serves to remove the listeners’ choice. Using questioning as a technique to guide and lead people to conclusions they arrive at themselves is more likely to gain buy in from your audience. Questions that provide access to influencing tend to be open yet leading and start with “what ifs” and “how might we”.

Influencing effectively takes practice. There are no magic formulas as people come with different needs and concerns. Focusing on what is important to them rather than what is important to you is critical to provide you with a head start to get your point across and gain the commitment of others.

Rebecca Cushway

Stress isn’t a dirty word.  In fact, almost becoming a dirty word in the workplace; the increasing trend to not openly talk about it in case employees go off on “compo” overcomplicates the issue. The fact is, stress is necessary to sustain performance in any work place – the secret is creating the right kind and amount of stress to support productivity.
There are several sources of sStress that creates negative responses in the workplace all of which can have damaging and expensive impacts on your business. These types  and need to be avoided whereof stress need to be avoided possible.
Threat StressThe first category is threats.
 Threats rock the boat and undermine our basic need for security. Typically the types of threats that create problems at work include:
• Job Insecurity
• Harassment and Bullying
• Discrimination and
• Potential for Physical Injury.
Thankfully these stressors are the least common in most workplaces. Strong policy and active management role modeling are the best forms of deterrent for these types of workplace problems.
Frustration StressThe second category is frustration –
Tthis is an unproductive and negative kind of stress that needs to be avoided or acted on constructively to produce practical solutions for people. These include:
• Poor workplace communication
• Lack of recognition of achievements and issues or concerns
• Lack of appropriate training
• Boredom
• Constantly being overlooked for promotion without understanding why.
More often than not, Ffrustration stress stressors are the mostis common in Australia and leads to three types of negative workplace behavior — high  staff turnover, high unplanned absence or sabotage and noncompliance in some form.  Many of tThese issues can be addressed by opening the lines of communication and encouraging a culture that responds constructively to feedback and recognition.
Personal Stress
Personal circumstances play a significant role in contributing to workplace stress. Employers  often struggle to understand what they should or shouldn’t do to help. It is important to recognise that managers do not need to take on the role of counsellor. It is quite appropriate to listen; however, offering solutions and being the only sounding board is risky. If you believe there are underlying problems with employees, seek support from a psychologist or Employee Assistance Program service on how to deal with the issue.

Workplace pressure is a common and healthy form of stress necessary to sustain performance. The trick is providing the right dose! The most common forms of pressure include:
• Deadlines
• Change
• Personalities and Management Styles
• Stretching capabilities
Too much pressure is caused most often by management behaviours such as:
• Taking a seagull approach – some managers fly in when there are problems, squawk, dump on staff then fly off
• Dumping rather than delegating 
• Not providing a clear plan and pathway for development with a realistic appraisal
• Constantly changing direction without getting buy-in  and providing a process to support it
• Overloading people with too much information or work at once.
These types of behaviours can result in burnout.  The greater risk here is for small business where there is usually little back up, and often, because of people’s loyalty, the warning signs are carefully hidden.
Why is too little pressure a problem?Rust Out
If you have ever returned to work from an extended break, you probably recall the feeling of total relaxation, with little motivation to do anything too taxing or strenuous. Even taking the garbage out becomes a challenge.  At work people want clear purpose and a sense of achieving something. Rust out occurs when people feel underutilised which has the impact of people feeling undervalued. Not only is this a waste in resources, it undermines confidence and when you do need to up the ante, people suffering rust out find it much harder to pick up and start again.
 Taking preventative measures against unhealthy workplace stress requires managers to focus on:
• Monitoring their own behavior
• Tuning in to the needs of their team
• Processes and communication to support productivity.
Careers Excelled specialises in assisting managers to get the best out of their people at work. For further information contact us.

Workplace Psychologist Rebecca Cushway from Careers Excelled shows us how to recruit motivated staff!

For many businesses, recruiting staff can be likened to falling in love: - we start our search for a suitable partner, we occasionally date less than desirable sorts, sometimes we enjoy conversing with a kindred spirit, and when we happen to find someone who looks like “the one”, we are bedazzled and work hard to secure their partnership.

In our personal and employment relationships we sometimes receive less than what was promised. Having the right qualities and getting along together is not enough. People also need to be motivated to do what we want and need them to do. So how do we actually identify this at interview? Let’s start by dispelling a few common myths.

Myth 1 – Enthusiasm is a good gauge of how motivated people really are.

Have you ever pretended to be more excited about something than you really were? If you have, I am preaching to the converted! Enthusiasm under normal circumstances is easily hammed up! When people come across as enthusiastic they are typically more likable. This makes it harder for us to see their underlying motivators.

We cannot dismiss enthusiasm altogether. It is more important in selection interviews to identify if there is a strong lack of enthusiasm, rather than lots of expressive enthusiasm from the candidate.

The other problem with “the enthusiasm gauge” is that people have different ways of expressing it. Shier more retiring people may come across as less expressive – however this does not translate to less motivation for the role. 

Myth 2 – You can tell someone is really motivated by the amount of research they do.

There is no doubt that information is helpful in shaping our decisions, particularly when shopping around for a new job. However, judging motivation by how much a candidate knows about your organisation is dangerous because:

• You are more likely to get a reflection of what is on your website, which is highly accessible. This information will tell you little about whether the candidate will want to work with your organisation

• Some people believe that “seeing is believing”. In a candidate short market a great deal of the candidate’s research about a role takes place at the interview and in assessing your responses to their questions, in particular questions about the business culture. Many for this reason will choose to save their questions for the interview.

Regardless of the limitations of “the candidate research gauge”, it would be reasonable to expect that candidates know basic information such as the industry you operate in and your main products. Beyond this, information you wish them to know at interview is highly dependant on the role. The types of things people typically expect include your competitors, values, financial positioning and who the Managing Director is.

Myth 3 – Motivated people tend to be busy.

Ever felt like a headless chook? It would be difficult to argue that headless chooks running around the barnyard are involved in motivated action.  In interviews, this type of “busy-ness” often get’s translated into being “up to stuff” and therefore being motivated. Motivation is the desire or want that energises goal-directed behaviour. Going about our “busy-ness” does not mean we are out to achieve a goal.

Identifying true motivation

For many people, motivation operates at a subconscious level. This makes identifying true motivation challenging. The “motivation puzzle” is complex because we need to look for patterns of behaviour over time and across different situations. Here are some of the patterns to look for:
 
1. Preferences
2. Expectations of others
3. Achievement and action history
4. Needs Compatibility.

Preferences

Although highly controversial, Freud has given us some valuable principles for understanding human behaviour. The pleasure – pain principle is very useful in identifying people’s motivators. Simply put, people direct their behaviour towards things that give them pleasure, and avoid things that cause them pain.

Many of us apply the pleasure-pain principle when we ask candidates what they like most and what they liked least about their past jobs. So why does this well guided question often tell us so little about real motivation?

People can be clever; they tell us what they think we want to hear in order to achieve a goal. That in itself is a sign of motivation!! But are they motivated to do what we need them to?
A more useful way of applying the pleasure-pain principle is to focus on where candidates actually spend their time. Here are two useful questions to ask.

List all of your responsibilities in your past role(s). (Three roles is a useful benchmark). Rank them starting with your most preferred.

Out of these responsibilities, please break down the time you spend over a period (day, week, month) doing each task.

Answers to these questions will help you to understand:

• Linkages between less preferred work activities and reasons for leaving past roles
• If their preferences for different work activities align to your role on offer
• The level of control they had over the time spent doing different activities and how this impacted their satisfaction at work.

Expectations of others

I often speak to managers who feel they are in a “parent-child” relationship with some of their employees. This is often caused by the employee’s expectations of their employer to provide for their every need no matter how unreasonable these expectations might seem to us.

To identify candidates with unrealistic expectations, it is important to first understand the direction of their locus of control. Locus of control is the extent to which we believe we control our own destinies. People with a high internal locus of control believe that consequences in their life, good or bad are a result of their own action. People with a high external locus of control believe that their actions do not influence outcomes in their lives. These are a result of fate or destiny, and therefore these people tend to not be motivated, or demonstrate goal directed behaviour. A higher external locus of control is related to higher staff absence, higher unrealistic expectations of managers to bend to their needs, and often lower levels of performance.

Useful questions to identify a person’s locus of control include:

• Ask their reasons for leaving past roles. Identify external patterns of blame such as: the organisation did not provide career opportunity – and the candidate did nothing of their own initiative to improve themselves
• 
  Ask candidates what they would do if they were managing themselves and their peers in their previous roles. This will give an indication of what they are likely to expect of you. Ask yourself how realistic these expectations are.

Achievement and Action History

One of the key mistakes made in recruitment is judging the achievements of others by our own standards. Achievements occur within a context. Being caught up in what might look like a sensational feet, tells us nothing of the action taken to get there. How people deal with success and failure tells us a great deal more about motivation.

When looking at a person’s achievement history we need to focus on:

• If the achievements are their own or others
• The steps taken to achieve the outcome (this will give you an indication of the level of support needed from others)
• How obstacles were handled
• What they hoping to achieve with you and is this in line with their capabilities
• When things do not work out what is their “action pattern” – do they attempt to overcome the real issue or do they simply avoid those types of problems. Avoidant behaviour is a sign of not being motivated to develop and improve
• Do they understand what it might take to achieve in your environment – or do they underestimate what it takes and overestimate their own capability based on past patterns
• 
  What is their locus of control in relation to past achievements and disappointments.

Needs Compatibility

Needs are the reason people work. Financial needs are primary, however we also have personal and psychological needs. Many of us could earn the same or a similar amount of money else where yet we choose to work in particular environments for a range of social, economic, comfort, convenience, development reasons just to name a few. It is important to ensure the needs of people we employ can be met in our environment. To assess needs compatibility remember to ask:

• What they hope to gain out of this role both personally and professionally
• 
  The sorts of benefits the role should offer to attract the right sort of people – people believe they are right for the job so offering certain things will tell you more about why they really want the role
• 
  Other types of roles they have applied for – it is important to emphasis the role and not the companies applied to. This will give you a clue about the person’s clarity about what they are looking for and the consistency with what you are offering in a role.

Remember, people are complex. Understanding motivation is like working through a set of clues. Pay attention to the subtleties and look for underlying themes to avoid problems at work later on.

Rebecca Cushway.

Rebecca Cushway is a Workplace Psychologist and General Manager of Careers Excelled. Careers Excelled provides solutions for Management, Leadership, DIY Selection, Staff and Development. For more information visit www.CareersExcelled.com.au or phone Careers Excelled on 9899 9674.

The days of the “sickie” are numbered. Despite the stereotype of Australian employees take sick days when they are not genuinely ill, multiple studies demonstrate the majority of Australians are more likely to come to work sick rather than take a sickie when they are not ill.

Presenteeism is an emerging threat to the productivity of Australian businesses. Being at work soldiering on through ill health or being seen to work excessive hours are forms of presenteeism. Ironically, the cost of presenteeism far outweighs the cost of employees taking sickies three times over as demonstrated in a recent study by Medibank Private.

What drives Presenteeism in Australian Business

Australian workplace culture has been changing gradually over the past 20 years. Presenteeism is something that has crept up on us while we were not looking. Some of the factors that have influenced this change include:

• Attitudes of Senior Management regarding absent employees
• Gaining maximum productivity
• Peer pressure and group norms
• Economic pressures to attend work
• Positioning ourselves for career opportunities
• Having a Trooper attitude.

Recently Gerry Harvey was quoted on a popular current affairs program endorsing the practice of coming to work sick unless he was on his “death bed”. Although the intent behind this statement was productivity driven, the practice of encouraging workers to attend work ill is counter productive for a number of reasons as it:

• Reinforces the value that sick employees should simply “build a bridge” hard line attitudes are likely to polarise management from employees making it more difficult to engage and coach them and get the most out of them when they do regain health due to the resentment caused
• Is likely to increase the spread of infection in the workplace environment
• Increases the risk of errors of injury in the workplace due to limited capability to concentrate and perform to the normal standard.

This “build a bridge” trooper attitude is not only shared by some senior people, but also often by employees. It is this attitude that can be destructive in the work environment and requires intervention by management to create a healthy attitude towards achieving outcomes and the management of employee health and morale.

Our role as business managers our role is to encourage productivity, attendance and balance to achieve our business goals. Strategies we can employ include:

• Have clear attendance management and health policies in place
• Promote the use of sick leave as in insurance policy and is there to be used when needed
• Train leaders in your business on how to communicate attendance expectations
• Work with Troopers to become more balanced role models and to communicate more effectively
• Do not openly reward perfect attendance as it has been proven to not impact workplace productivity
• Be prepared to send people home when they are ill
• Develop flexible work practices so employees are able to make up work time if required or telecommute.

Rebecca Cushway.

Rebecca Cushway is a Workplace Psychologist and Managing Director of Careers Excelled. Careers Excelled provides solutions for Management, Leadership, Selection, Staff and Development. For more information visit www.CareersExcelled.com.au or phone Careers Excelled on 9899 9674.

Psychometric testing is one of those things most people either love or hate using. These sorts of extreme reactions to testing are based on misunderstandings about the benefits and pitfalls of the tools.

 
First let’s dispel a few myths:

Myth 1 – You can easily fake responses on a test.

Good psychometric have built in scales that allow the psychologist to detect when people are responding in an unusual way. In addition psychologists are trained to pick up inconsistent response patterns in testing. Fake responses are often best picked up by psychologists rather than lay tests users.

Myth 2 – Psychometric tests will tell me if my employee has a “good attitude”.

Most testing does not actually assess “attitude”, or whether a person is likely to take “sickies” or be lazy. Instead, testing will provide information about a person’s personality traits or temperament. Attitude is something that is learned and changes with knowledge and across situations. Good interviewing and role playing in selection can often be more effective at uncovering attitudes in potential employees.

Myth 3 – Psychometric tests should be used as the decision maker if you are deciding between two candidates.

Psychometric testing is best used to validate things we see in interviews or in work samples. When unfavouravble results come back from testing, it is important to evaluate these in light of your other evidence.

 
Myth 4 – Practicing on similar psychological tests will improve your performance

Practice does not make perfect when it comes to psychological testing. The best preparation if you are going to be “tested” is to have a good night sleep, stay calm and focused, and read questions carefully. Getting used to a testing environment will make you more relaxed and able to concentrate, but is unlikely to make “average” score become a “high” score.

Types of Tests used in Employee Selection 

Personality tests are used to better understand a person’s normal patterns of behavior and preferences in working style. These are highly effective in predicting behavior and add a great deal of value to decision making. Personality tests evaluate things like how dominant, social, anxious, structured, conscientious, optimistic, rule following and a multitude of other factors a person is. This information is useful as it will help you understand whether a person is a fit for the role and your environment. The secret of using personality testing is identifying tools that are most relevant to success for your role.

Cognitive ability tests are basically used to assess our “mental abilities”. Things like how quickly we learn and apply new information, our memory, numerical and comprehension, spatial abilities are all forms of cognitive tests. Cognitive tests are most useful when the role we are recruiting for has specific requirements.

When using psychometric testing it is import to:

• Make sure the test you are choosing is relevant to the level of role. Front line staff in particular are more likely to try and present more positively on personality tests making results unusable.
• Ensure the test has been used on the types of employees you are looking for. If you are looking for a pilot make sure the test producers haven’t only tested entry level accountants. Norm groups in testing should reflect the type of employee you are targeting. The test should have a solid sample size and should have independent research published about its validity.
• Make sure the test is in language your audience can understand.
• Let candidates know that you are planning on asking them to complete psychometric testing up front and ask them if they have done this type of thing before. For some tests it is important that candidates have not completed the test for at least six months prior.

Psychometric testing can be a double edged sword. When used effectively it is proven to increase the likelihood of choosing the right candidate. However when used by untrained people, as the saying goes, “a little bit of knowledge is highly dangerous”.

It’s an employee’s market at the moment; and old fashioned qualities of trust that become our most valuable commodities as business owners to attract great staff. Employers who genuinely trust their employees are also more likely to enjoy greater productivity, lower absenteeism and retain their staff.

Do you trust your staff?

When we ask employers the question, do you trust your staff; most of them will answer positively. Scratch beneath the surface and examine a raft of policies, procedures and daily communication and we often find a different story. Some of the signals we send to employees that we don’t trust them include:

• Insisting on doctors certificates after each absence from work
• Checking up on people regularly when we are out of the office
• Having people only be able to speak to us directly when calling in sick
• Attempting to assess the genuineness of staff over the phone when they call in sick
• Continual impromptu checking up on what staff are doing and what they have done without notice
•  Restriction of all outbound calls to family or friends to a designated phone
• Having blanket restrictions on access to information, even when it is needed to complete a work task.

Unfortunately many people management policies including those above are highly proscriptive and limit people from carrying out their role function. Much of the reason for this is because someone did the wrong thing before so a rule was made to ensure it does not happen again. In the majority of cases, these rules become counter productive.

Do your staff trust you?

This is often a tougher question for employers to answer, as things start to get personal. We hope that our people trust us; and we have the best of intentions, but often for employers it is their action or lack of action that erodes trust in the working relationship. Some of the common things employers do to erode trust include:

•  Missing, delaying or forgetting appointments with employees particularly on the subjects of pay rises and performance appraisals
• Presenting information to employees about their behavior without revealing the source
• Failing to acknowledge the input of their staff for a success, especially in front of other staff or customers
• Constantly changing the goal posts as to how the value of work is judged
• Delegating tasks without being clear, followed by criticising the result.
  

There plenty of opportunities to create trust or mistrust in our work environments. Creating rules for all scenarios becomes unworkable, and sends the message that you are not capable of working it out for yourself! Instead of rules, here are some simple questions you can ask yourself to check the trust meter in your workplace.

Q: Would I do or say this to a customer?

A: Staff need to be treated as well if not better than your “A list” customers. If you wouldn’t say it to a customer you had a good relationship with, you wouldn’t say it to a staff member either.

Q: Do my policies and processes in managing staff,  focus on the majority of good citizens or the person who “burned” me in the past?

A: Create policies and procedures that assume 95% of people do the right thing and provide people discretion in making decisions. Deal with bad behavior privately on an individual basis.

Q: Have I communicated how I will judge performance of my staff?

A: Ask your people what a good job and what a not so good job would look like. Set them timeframes with them and get them to evaluate the impacts on customers, you, themselves and the business when these are met and not met.
Building trust in the workplace starts with you. Trusting others is the key to growing our businesses.

Rebecca Cushway

Workplace Psychologist

Careers Excelled

P: 9899 9674

www.CareersExcelled.com.au