How Do We Teach Our Managers to Become More Effective Communicators?
—Breakdown in Progress, human resources director, financial services, Seattle
The best way to start an engaging conversation with employees is by active listening:
Show genuine concern
Giving someone your undivided attention is the best way to start an engaging conversation. Eye contact, a relaxed yet alert posture and modulating your voice are essential. Keep in mind that your employees want to receive your message and better understand your situation. Showing empathy, however, does not mean forbidding them from having differing points of view. The object is to find mutual ground.
Prompt for clarification
This involves clearing up confusion to foster greater understanding, without passing premature judgment. In other words, don't use an attempt to clarify things as an excuse to dismiss another person's viewpoint. Rather than telling them they're wrong, soften your approach: "I disagree" or "My data say otherwise" are likely to be more well received
Paraphrase and pause
Part of clarifying things is repeating what someone tells you. This gives the listener a chance to correct your understanding and make sure both sides are on the same page. Providing people with a laundry list virtually ensures that key issues and ideas will be lost. Learning to pause and segment your message helps the receiver catch the gist much quicker. Also, take momentary breaks from the back and forth so the parties can ponder and posit new possibilities. That turns active listening into "creative listening."
Sometimes you may not know what the other person is feeling. Rather than guess, you might say something like: "I know you are on board, but it sounds like you may have some frustration with the decision. Would you care to discuss it?"
Strategize and summarize
Strategic listening takes active listening to a next level. The goal is more than awareness and empathy. The purpose of such strategic back and forth is synergy, a sharing-listening-sharing loop that generates ideas, insights and imagination. It's important to stop along the way and review and record agreements, unresolved differences and future steps at problem-solving.
SOURCE: Mark Gorkin, also known as "The Stress Doc," is a licensed clinical social worker and motivational speaker based in Washington.
LEARN MORE: Communication is considered crucial to engaging new employees, as well as explaining bonus and other compensation moves.
How Do We Overcome Impersonal Responses to Recruits?
Our recruiters are overwhelmed by the hundreds of résumés we receive weekly. Our standard reply: "A recruiter will contact you directly with questions should an opportunity arise." But job seekers are desperate and their calls are becoming more frequent and confrontational. I guess that's a sign of the times. Is it time for us to start using automated phone/e-mail messages to respond to people? This seems so impersonal. Any suggestions on how we can address this would be appreciated.
—Image-Conscious in Staffing, services, Indianapolis
In this case, automation is the way to go. Clear communication will help the applicant set realistic expectations that your firm can meet.
To be most effective, response letters should be frequent and well crafted. Applicants should receive an acknowledgement that their interest has been received as soon as possible after initial contact. This acknowledgement letter should explain that the volume of responses precludes individual replies and that those whose experience most clearly aligns with the job requirements will be contacted by a specified deadline: within two to three weeks.
Once reviewed, applicants who will not be moving forward should receive a letter informing them that their materials were reviewed and, at this time, there is not a match. However, applicants should be encouraged to apply again and be assured that their résumé is on file for consideration for future roles. Language could also be included that, although qualified, the applicant's experience is not a match for this specific role.
In an age when an applicant can apply for multiple positions with relatively few clicks, automated responses should clearly reference the job listing. Each response should thank the applicant for continued interest in the firm and provide a contact e-mail address or phone number. Automated letters and responses may seem impersonal, but when clearly written and well timed to the recruitment cycle, they can help ease applicant anxiety and improve the image of your firm.
SOURCE: Cynthia Gervais, project leader, Futurestep, Provo, Utah, October 30, 2008
LEARN MORE: A new recruiting alliance aimed at helping large companies has attracted some big names.
How Do We Keep Contingent Workers From Jumping Ship?
My company provides staffing services to the manufacturing industry. Contingent workers historically have a high turnover rate. My motivation is to get these people to stay on assignments longer and be more productive, thus increasing my client's return on investment. What can we do?
—Stop the Revolving Door, vice president of sales, staffing/human resources, Atlanta
Contingent workers have traditionally been treated quite differently compared with permanent staff. The perception is that the nature of their employment—short term—and the higher rates they typically receive for that work justify the sometimes shabby treatment they receive at work. For example, contract, project and casual employees are usually not included in training courses, social events and internal communications. Often our clients, for whom we conduct stay or exit surveys, will want to exclude the opinions of contingent staff. We just cannot understand this approach.
Although there are legitimate reasons to treat contingent employees differently in many respects, they are still people who go home at night and reflect on their day at work.
All human resources, irrespective of the nature of their employment contract, contribute to the value of the organization. And like most of us, if contingent workers are more engaged, they are more productive. If they like the job, the manager and the people they work with, contractors are more likely to stay longer and perform at a higher level.
Contingent employees do have one facet of life that is quite different from permanent staff: They have to address the question "Where is the next mortgage payment coming from?" much more frequently than those drawing a regular salary.
Any employer or project manager who assumes that a contingent worker is happy to wait until the end of a contract before starting discussions about the next one probably experiences massive turnover. Workers of all types flock to certainty—and if that's not provided by their employer, the worker will provide it for themselves, by going out and securing their next project elsewhere.
So, in terms of practical implications for reducing turnover for contingent staff:
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Automatically establish a "next steps" discussion at the midpoint of any contract, then at subsequent midpoints until the contract expires. For example, for a six-month contract, hold the first "next steps" discussion at three months. Hold the next discussion at 1.5 months, again at three weeks, and again at 10 days to go. At each subsequent discussion, provide increasing levels of detail about future opportunities.
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Conduct stay surveys among your labor pool so that you can provide feedback to your clients as to what they can do differently to hold on to or attract good contingent staff in future. For example, you may discover that one client includes contingent staff in Christmas parties and staff social events and that increases engagement, word-of-mouth and intention to return on a future contract.
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Educate clients as to the practical steps they can take to include contingent staff, such as team-based "storming, norming, forming and performing" activities to introduce new project workers into an established team.
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Provide some "contract proxies" for high-value contingent staff when they're between contracts with your clients. For example, you may subsidize their external training or you may engage them to mentor other contingent staff in keys skills.
There's clearly a relationship between the level of basic human regard given to contract staff and their subsequent intentions to stay, return and perform at their highest level. Treating contractors in line with the true value they contribute to the organization will pay dividends in future retention.
SOURCE: Lisa Halloran, Retention Partners, Sydney, Australia, October 16, 2008
LEARN MORE: There are sound business reasons for acting promptly to keep contingent workers from leaving the fold.
Why Should We Reduce Subjective Appraisals?
Should our performance appraisals reduce subjectivity? Despite the fact that we use objectives, I am convinced the subjective view of employees by their managers affects the outcome.
—Subject to Objectivity, HR specialist, finance/insurance/real estate, Budapest, Hungary
You're absolutely right. Performance experts try to reduce subjectivity in performance reviews, but as long as reviews are rated by humans and are based on human behavior, they will be somewhat subjective. Taking out subjectivity—making reviews more objective—is a continuous challenge.
Why do we really care about making performance reviews objective? It's because employees want to be treated fairly. For example, two employees may process the exact same number of orders, but orders for standard products are likely much easier to handle than the orders for complex, customized solutions. Or, all things considered, it's usually a lot easier to generate revenue from a territory that is thriving than from an area that is economically depressed.
Naturally, the employee handling the more difficult orders or the more challenging territory wants to be acknowledged and rewarded for the extra challenge involved. Determining how to factor in the difficulty of the sale or the quality of the service makes performance harder to measure.
So how can you create performance appraisals that are perceived as fair to both the employee and the manager? Here are some suggestions:
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Start by having the manager and the employee work together to develop performance goals. Be sure they reach agreement on what needs to be done and how to do it. If the goals are clear and reasonable to both parties, those goals will be a lot easier to evaluate at review time.
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Be sure the employee has the resources to do the job. Plan ahead for the obstacles involved in reaching the goal, and line up the tools and training the employee will need to be successful.
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Identify upfront how you will know success when you see it. In other words, "cracking into the Southwest region" is much harder to measure than "opening at least 200 new accounts with initial sales of $500 in the Southwest region." Set metrics that make sense to both the manager and the employee.
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Remember to give the employee recognition along the way for the effort involved, as well as guidance to help the employee succeed. The key is to give praise for successes and keep focused on what the employee is doing right. Negative feedback should be used sparingly.
SOURCE: Patsy Svare, the Chatfield Group (which offers a SMART Goal-Setting Guide in a downloadbale pdf format), Northbrook, Illinois, November 3, 2008
