Articles tagged 'Company culture'

Increasing Employee Engagement: You Must Give First, Then Receive

by David Lee on May 9, 2012, 7:20 AM | 3 Comments

First of two parts

In his EO Alchemy 2011 talk, Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action reported the response he received during his interviews with members of the U.S. Marine Corps about what made it such a remarkable organization.

He said one succinct response summed up the ethos best: “Officers eat last.”

Sinek went on to say: “If you want your employees to be completely devoted to you and your cause, you need to be completely devoted to them.”

His observation reminded me of the many conversations I’ve had with frustrated leaders who wondered why their employees didn’t seem to care. It reminded me of Human Resource professionals asking for tips on improving employee engagement. Read more…

HR Management, Leadership

Change Management: Why You Must Address the Pink Elephant in the Room

by Scott Span on May 8, 2012, 11:37 AM | 3 Comments

So your organization is going through some type of change. How can lack of communication during times of change affect your productivity and profitability?

More than likely your employees know what’s going on sooner than you may think. Actually, if your organization is currently going through a change, employees and customers are probably talking about it as you read this. So it would best if you addressed that “pink elephant” in the room and nip that water cooler talk in the bud soon as possible.

Whether it is downsizing, merger or acquisition, implementation of new technology, or change in strategy, regardless of the situation, honest, transparent, and timely COMMUNICATION with employees and stakeholders is imperative to success. Without information, assumptions form. Assumptions lead to rumors. And rumors can impact performance and can sabotage positive change. Read more…

Leadership

Building Relationships: You Must Dig the Well Before You Need the Water

by Ron Thomas on May 7, 2012, 7:20 AM | 1 comment

Six years ago, Fred had a friendship with a rep for a small brand. The brand’s contribution to our sales was insignificant, so going to a dinner with him during a shoe show, when there were hundreds of other brands there, didn’t make a lot of sense. But it was still something Fred prioritized, based on the friendship. A week after the dinner, Fred’s friend became president of a major brand we had been trying to get.

If you’re focused on friendship as its own reward, serendipitous stuff just happens. I know that sounds weird, but I can tell you for our 12 years of existence, it’s actually how a lot of stuff happens.”

That story was told by Tony Hsieh in an interview about his former co-worker Fred Mossler, who helped him start Zappos.

Focusing on friendship as its own reward is a very powerful statement, especially in this difficult economic climate. So many times we are befriended by people only because they know that we know someone they want to connect with. We have all gotten requests from friends through LinkedIn wanting help. Read more…

HR News & Trends

Weekly Wrap: Survey Says Big Companies Bullish About 2012 Hiring

by John Hollon on May 4, 2012, 12:57 PM | No comments yet

Sometimes, it seems impossible to get a fix on which way the economy and job market is headed.

Two cases in point:

April’s Labor Department jobs report shows, according to TLNT’s John Zappe, that hiring and job growth remains sluggish and that, “The numbers offered more evidence that the becalmed recovery isn’t about to spark, but neither is it about to slip backwards.”
A new study sponsored by Allied Van Lines that says that, “Corporate recruiting is moving into high gear, with two-thirds of HR professionals reporting that they have “extensive” or “moderate” plans for hiring in 2012.” Read more…

Classic TLNT

The Office Dress Code Debate: How Would You Deal With Katy Perry?

by John Hollon on May 4, 2012, 9:27 AM | 1 comment

Editor’s note: Sometimes, readers ask about past TLNT articles that they have heard about but may have missed. That’s why every Friday we’re republishing a Classic TLNT post that some of you have requested.

Who would have thought that pop singer Katy Perry would have kicked open a debate about what is appropriate dress in the workplace?

If you have been awake at all the past couple of years, you have probably seen Katy Perry in action somewhere — at the Grammy Awards, on her “I Kissed a Girl” video, or somewhere else. She’s over-the-top in her actions and her dress, and even her Wikipedia entry says that, “She became known for wearing unconventional style of dress, often combining bold colors and vintage fashion.”

Okay, Katy Perry has a pretty outrageous style. Anyone who has seen her knows that. So why were the producers of the PBS children’s show Sesame Street surprised when Perry showed up and performed as, well, Katy Perry on a segment for the show? And more to the point, why did they get cold feet AFTER it was taped and competed? Read more…

Talent Management

Will They Stay or Will They Go? In This Economy, That’s Up To You

by Scott Span on May 3, 2012, 10:04 AM | 2 Comments

When accounting for the costs (both real costs, such as time taken to select and recruit a replacement, and also opportunity costs, such as lost productivity), the cost of employee turnover to for-profit organizations has been estimated to be up to 150 percent of the employees’ compensation package.

Can you afford that?

The U.S. economy is slowly improving. This is a good thing for companies and job seekers alike, though it’s also positive news for employees – employees who may have felt over worked and under-appreciated during the downturn.

Should you be concerned about retention and loss of employees? Read more…

Culture, Leadership

It Takes a Village to Build a Strong Organizational Culture

by Derek Irvine on May 2, 2012, 9:15 AM | 2 Comments

The rise of the importance of organization culture in the last few years has been quite striking.

No, wait. That’s not true. The rise in the realization of the importance of culture in the last few years has been striking.

Culture – the spoken and unspoken rules and mores by which an organization functions – has always been critical to company success. It’s only in recent years that more and more organization leaders have begun to fully understand their own ability to manage and, indeed, manipulate the culture to he best benefit of employees, customers and the organization as a whole.

But that cannot be accomplished in a “culture initiative” or efforts that focus on the few. Read more…

Culture

The Key to Successful Mergers? It’s Usually About People and Culture

by Ron Thomas on Apr 30, 2012, 7:17 AM | 1 comment

“I knew enough to allow them to handle their own culture, headquarters and management,” said Paul Murry, CEO of Calvin Klein, a PVH Corp. company.

In 2003, PVH bought Calvin Klein when sales were $2.8 billion. Last year, the numbers ended with sales at $7.6 billion.

That statement alone tells why M&A must have a people component. According to a KPMG research study, 83 percent of all mergers fail. Hell, even the divorce rate in the U.S. is about 50 percent and that has nowhere near the impact both financially and personally that failure a M&A will extract if not successful. Read more…

HR News & Trends

Who’s Wasting Time at Work – How, Why, and What You Can Do About It

by Eric Chester on Apr 27, 2012, 1:02 PM | No comments yet

I love it when an article writes itself. This is a gift from heaven.

The company, Tempo, has creating an entertaining and revealing infographic that defines the problem (wasting time), the biggest offender (young employees), the reason (lack of job satisfaction) and offers several ideas and solutions, including (but not limited to) their own software product.

All I can do is sit back and applaud.

Er, I mean, all I can do is sit up and get back to work! Read more…

Culture

Company Culture: How Do You Get Your Company to be “Brand New?”

by Tim Sackett on Apr 26, 2012, 8:42 AM | 1 comment

Acting Brand New: (definition via the Urban Dictionary):

When a person displays that they are better than their friends, or treats their friends indifferently, especially where there has been a relationship of good standing previously; hence the term ‘new’. i.e. without any history with you.”

Using it in a sentence: “Why Jamie acting brand new like he don’t know nobody? Just because he got a car don’t mean s**t; we practically grew up in the same house and yesterday he said he couldn’t come over my house because it has a garage. I was like, well what about all those other 1000′s of times?” Read more…