Top Management Story

Writen by R.G. Srinivasan

Managers are often confronted with high employee attrition. For most managers the easiest solution when a valuable employee resigns his job is to offer more benefits in terms of money and perquisites. But rarely does it work. Exit interviews often point out low moral due to infrequent appreciation and recognition of the contribution of the employee leading to de-motivation and disenchantment with the job.

Improving employee motivation and morale is the easiest method of improving organizational productivity and cut down employee turnovers. Replacing good employee could be expensive in terms of recruitment costs and time.

Research has conclusively established that the major reason for attrition in an organization is not money. It is more a matter of lack of recognition and rewards. You may be able to reduce attrition considerably if managers are trained to recognize and reward good performance. In fact every opportunity must be used to appreciate the work of the employees. Easier said than done, it takes a dedication and commitment towards the employees.

Here is a list of the ways one can motivate employees

Find every opportunity to appreciate good work

Recognize contributions in public forums and employee get together or meetings

Offer opportunities to learn, improve skills and knowledge through training

Create scope for sharing success through with others through narrating best practices adopted

Token gifts and invitation to a Dinner with family

Offer opportunities for rest and relaxation on attaining goals and good performances

Feature in house journals. If house journals are not available make sure to write out a appreciation and put on notice boards and circulate to all members of the organization

It only takes imagination to create a list as long as you want. Plan and create the list for frequent use.

Employee motivation is a complex subject and generally a neglected area. Whatever recognition and rewards are conferred are very mechanical and lacks warmth and spontaneity.

It is easier to theorize than practice employee motivation programs. It would not be a bad idea to train your managers extensively on this area. The rewards for the organization could be less employee turnovers, high levels of motivation, increased productivity, commitment and team work.

R.G. Srinivasan is a managerial professional, Writer and Author. He writes a regular blog on management thoughts with interesting articles, resources, personal experiences and links useful for any manager at http://management-thoughts.blogspot.com

Writen by Mike Shannon

The other day someone asked me for one of my informational brochures. As I was giving her the piece I stated that if I were printing these today it would be a little different. The piece was only about two months old and already the way I wanted to communicate things had changed slightly. Then I got to thinking. If I were to print informational brochures six months from now, they would probably be a little different too. Don't get me wrong. I am a big believer in consistency of marketing. However, in today's business environment especially as fast a pace as our business develops, things change...sometimes minutely and sometimes in a big way. What do you do?

What I do is to keep my printed materials updated with my current thinking on my computer. That means if I have a new idea or thought or way of saying something to my prospects I put it right in my pieces even though I may not print off more for a month or longer. Developed a new product? Put it right in your flyer now instead of waiting until the last minute. Come up with a better way to explain what you do? Update your brochure while you are thinking about it rather than waiting until you need to print 500 more and don't have time to change the copy. Keep your marketing pieces current at all times and you will save a lot of hassle when you need them.

As a matter of fact, why not jot down an action task in your list to review all of your pieces as soon as you can. Update them with your current thinking. And then practice keeping them updated between printings as your business evolves.

Mike Shannon is the owner of Shamrock Business Coaching, a coaching practice that helps business owners increase profits. You can visit Shamrock Business Coaching on the web at: http://www.ShamrockCoaching.com.

Writen by Peter Fisher

We all complain about meetings which are a waste of our time and the truth of the matter is that so many are exactly that. We've also seen the "corridor" meeting that takes place afterwards where it seems the real decisions are taken, or the agreed decisions are overturned.

You'll get your chance at some point in your career to run your own meeting - is yours going to go the same way? or will you make sure it's effective and does the job it is supposed to?

Well run meetings contribute to team building and high morale; badly run meetings are at best a waste of everyone's time and at worst potentially damaging to relationships and the business as a whole.

Here's how you can get it right:

All successful meetings depend upon a number of independent factors and if you approach each one methodically you'll find that your meetings are the ones that get action.

Planning

Preparation

Information

Structure & control

Records & action

Planning

What is the meeting intended to achieve?

what will the meeting actually achieve?

what happens if you don't hold the meeting

who needs to attend and why?

is there a more effective way of communicating?

Preparation

prepare and circulate an agenda in advance;

invite agenda items before the meeting;

arrange agenda logically;

consider the important - v - the urgent issue;

arrange the timings and set limits;

clarify objectives for each item.

Information

tell those involved what's expected of them;

tell everyone time, date location etc;

circulate any required pre-reading or information.

Structure & Control

Discuss each item in turn;

seek contributions but keep people to the point;

avoid going over old ground;

be aware of thre needs of the group;

prevent splinter discussion groups;

summarise often to bring back to the point;

commend contributions;

confirm any conclusions;

stress actions and who takes it.

Records & Action

record discussions, actions and responsibilities;

produce clear simple minutes immediately.

There are a number of points to learn about the effective handling of meetings:

invite the right people;

set an agenda that's do-able;

control timings and people;

encourage members to listen to each other;

note actions;

review and record

So if you want to avoid the "let's all turn up and see what happens" approach it just means you need to take the time to think through to what you really want and need to achieve, and then get on with it. People will thank you for not wasting their, or your, time.

Peter Fisher is a Director of Career Consulting Limited and provides pragmatic career advice at all levels from junior staff to executive directors. Visit http://www.your-career-change.com/index.html for help with career change issues from self-marketing to CV writing and Interview techniques.