Banish Employee Burnout

November 4, 2010

Has the recession got your organization doing more with less?  Are you relying on fewer resources and smaller teams who are taxed to keep your organization afloat, competitive and profitable?

 Banish employee burnout and keep your organization running smoothly with happy employees performing at optimum levels.

Be aware of the signs of burnout:

  • Even stars crash and burn. Your star performers are most susceptible to burnout. Their champion attitudes will push them further and farther to do more and they can push themselves right over the edge.
  • Mistakes. Little ones and big ones become more frequent. These mistakes can become costly against your bottom line.
  • Burnout goes home. The toll on your employees goes beyond the work environment: illness, auto accidents, home problems and abusive behavior, to name a few.

Quell the flames of burnout:

  • Provide training for managers and supervisors to help them avoid overloading staff. Be sure that they recognize the symptoms and the risks of employee burnout.
  • Offer relaxation options like yoga or meditation or even just a quiet room to sit and think.  A focus on wellness and being centered can calm a stressed environment and refresh your employees.
  • Try to minimize the cause of burnout: an imbalance in work/life time. Discourage working late and coming in early, as well as taking work home. Insist that vacation days are used, even if it’s just for staycations. Make it a company policy if you need to.
  • Use teambuilding activities. Or, take it a step further and combine teamwork with philanthropy through a group volunteer project. When people feel like part of a team, a greater cause, and community, they know they’re not “in it” alone.

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Posted by Biz Dev

Managing the virtual workscape

September 2, 2010

If your company has a good mix of Boomers, Gen-X, Gen-Y and the emerging workforce of Millenials, then it’s very likely that there are pressures and influences on your business to support a virtual workscape – the workplace of your mobile, telecommute and distance workers.

When managing employees from a distance, you need to learn how to keep your team on task, even when you can’t be there to watch over everyone.

Are you realizing the opportunities that come from having employees in different locations? Or do you find it difficult to get the best out of these workers?

Here are three steps to minimize the stress and anxiety of managing a virtual workforce:

1. Set clear productivity expectations.  Make sure both manager and employee understand and agree to what is expected.  Hours on duty, modes of availabilty, reporting methods, and accountability for completed tasks.

2. Keep open lines of communication.  Be sure that there are regularly scheduled meetings with the supervisor or your teams to keep everyone on the same page and the operation running smoothly.  Email, instant messaging, Webcam conferencing, social-tools like Yammer, and the telephone are all viable tools to tether your virtual worker to the office team.  Collaboration software like Basecamp or SharePoint can help manage lists, projects, and knowledge sharing.

3. Provide access. For any distance worker to succeed – the essential tools required to do their job must be readily accessible.  This includes hardware, software, files, documentation, knowledge base and their teammates. Provide a clear outline to your virtual worker about how to handle  access to sensitive files from outside of the office, what paper files are or are not allowed off-premises, and have a clear understanding of how these files will be accessed whether via a hard-drive, laptop, flash-drive or remote log-in.  Make sure you and your virtual worker understand privacy and confidentiality policies that fit your company, before signing up or setting up an online storage service such as Box.net which allows users to easily upload your files and access them from any computer.

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Posted by Social Maven

Top three reasons for wellness in a down economy

August 12, 2010

In a recession, cash-strapped employees could be exercising less, eating more fast food and stress levels could be increased.

Employers who choose to maintain or even expand funding for employee wellness programs will maximize the benefits of a healthy happy workforce. Here are a few ways your wellness dollars translate to ROI for your organization by implementing wellness as a business solution.

1. Wellness = priority = more productivity . Employment services firm Manpower found that workers are eight times more likely to be engaged in their work when employers regularly beat the wellness drum. Employees said working for a company that promotes wellness encourages them to be more creative and innovative.

According to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Productivity losses related to personal and family health problems cost U.S. employers $1,685 per employee per year, or $225.8 billion annually.

2. Attract and maintain the best talent with wellness. The latest Principal Financial Well-Being Index reveals that 45% of employees working for small and midsize companies consider wellness benefits a reason to stay in their jobs. Their favorite wellness perks: on-site fitness rooms, discounts on gym memberships and at-work weight-loss programs.

3. Maintain wellness. Even during the recession, a Towers Watson and National Business Group on Health study shows that more than half of companies are maintaining or increasing spending on wellness.

A separate survey by Fidelity Investments shows that, on average, employers spend nearly 2% of their total health care claim dollars on wellness programs. Half plan to add at least one more health improvement plan in 2010, and 89% will maintain their current programs.

According to experts, employers that start wellness programs can see a positive return on investment “within the first few years of adoption.”

Harvard researchers found that for every dollar a company spends on wellness it can save $3.27 on medical costs, and $2.73 in absenteeism costs.

Coca-Cola’s fitness program recouped $500 per year per employee, despite the fact that only 60% of their staff was enrolled.

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Posted by Biz Dev

Top 5 mistakes During a Down Economy

September 10, 2009

As global and local economies cycle downward, many organizations in Hawaii are restructuring, downsizing or simply waiting and worrying. Yet, in the long run these may not be optimal responses. Following are five mistakes to avoid in this down economy.

1. Cutting talent.
Unless it’s absolutely essential for the survival of the business, laying off staff can be one of the worst decisions a company can make. The long-term damage to employee morale, team productivity, and customer relationships can takes years to overcome.

2. Avoiding risk.
Recessions have a tendency to lead to conservative behavior, but if you want to inspire innovation, you must be willing to take chances. Be brave. Take a step into the unknown and be creative in the ways you market and promote business.

3. Halting the creation of new products and or services.
This can damage a company in the long run. When growth returns, you have fewer products and services in the marketplace to attract customers. A downturn is the perfect time to develop and introduce new technology that can take years to get right.

4. Eliminating innovation.
The worst thing you can do in a recessionary period is to stop innovating. As the economic cycle inevitably shifts upward, companies who have failed to be innovative will find themselves behind their competition. Consider every business system you currently have in place: is it the right system? Can you improve upon it?

5. Replacing collaboration with hierarchy.
When business activity slows, however, companies have an opportunity to re-direct some attention—and resources—inward. Set specific, measurable performance goals for individuals and groups to work together. Ensure each employee understands the company’s goals and develop incentive systems that reward employees for positively contributing to the achievement of company goals.

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Posted by Biz Dev

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