Smart companies see the writing on the wall and anticipate by proactively addressing issues before they occur. Retention is one of these issues.

I attended a very engaging webinar on this subject recently. You can see it here: http://hrwebinars.wordpress.com/. EQ Mentor has these free 1/2 hour webinars that will open your eyes with leading subject matter experts.

Surprisingly, half of the people in your workforce are not happy and 30% are actively looking for different employment! Accenture’s research tells us 2 of 3 executives are concerned about retention, but what are they doing about it? It’s often OD’s budget that is cut when funds get tight!

What sorts of activities work to keep employees, especially key employees?
– Make sure your critical workforce gets challenging assignments that build their skill set and get them exposure to other parts of the business.
– People need more communication when they’re fearful. This means you must communicate what you know about the future, a viable future, and be transparent in all you know. If you don’t know, say it. And promise to let them know when you do.
– Make sure employees know the strategy and their alignment to it. Honestly, do your employees even know your strategic plan?
– Get your leaders to be more inspiring so employee engagement goes up. Leaders at the top can either add value or destroy the environment. Do you know where they stand on engaging their employees?

If you’re stumped on what to do first, give Soft Solutions a call for a free consultation. We’re at 336-272-7940 and can perhaps help you with local providers that can assist you.

It’s just too important to ignore. Be proactive. Take a risk. Your business depends on it!

Articles attrition, critical workforce positions, employee engagement, key roles, leadership, retention

Earlier this week I was driving to a meeting and decided to wear my name tag. When I couldn’t find it with my hands, I looked down for a second and hit a parked car. I hit the car in a way that my Miata rolled over and over until it landed on it’s tires. Talk about split second life-changing events! I was totally stunned as I sat there looking at my steering wheel in the passenger seat, airbags deployed, glass all over and smoke rising. Luckily there were people walking down the street (this was five blocks from my home) and they called 911. Three firetrucks, ambulance and two police cars later, we determined I was OK and did not suffer any injury.

Later when I was back home, I went to brush my disheveled hair, I discovered blood in my hair so I called a friend to take me to an Urgent Care facility to get checked out. Although I had a few abrasions, there were no broken bones and the bump on the head took a few staples to close.

You can’t help but wonder why. If I’m honest with myself, I had to admit that car was jinxed and it was time to move on to another bigger, safer car. In the past few years, I had been hit SEVEN times! No one can see the little car! Although I wasn’t at fault, I wondered how all this bodywork would affect my selling it later. I don’t need to be concerned about that as my car was totaled.
I’ve noticed that the Universe often gives us warning signs, whether we choose to acknowledge them or not. Then It will make sure you listen!

One thing I remember besides the impact is how calm I was as I was rolling. I’ve been consciously watching my self talk and coach others to watch how they speak to themselves. During the roll I told myself “you’ll stop soon and you’ll be okay”. It was as if an angel was there comforting me! Now you may not believe in angels, but I know they exist and I know I’m protected by them often. How often have you had a close call? What was the lesson?

I know for me, I will never take my eyes off the road again. Even a few seconds can change your life. You need 100% attention while driving.

Today I feel alive and grateful I’m not in a position where I couldn’t work. I love my work and even resting these past few days has been challenging. But here I am safe and sound. I even found a great car and am off to Asheville to pick it up. Deed done. Life changed. Grateful to be alive again!

Uncategorized car wreck, grateful, wake-up call

I attended the 8th Annual Economic Forecast Forum in Raleigh and enjoyed the preliminary session on healthcare.

The panel had a powerhouse of experts: Jack Bailey, SVP GlaxoSmithKline, Secretary Lanier Cansler, NC Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Victor Dzan, CEO Duke University Health Systems, Billie Redmond, CEO Coldwell Banker Commercial, William Roper, CEO UNC Health Care System and Bradley Wilson, soon to be CEO of BCBS of NC.

What were the themes? Most of them agreed that:
- we need a fundamental reset of entitlement mindsets.
-NC has a huge opportunity to lead the way in healthcare IT. It is the way to manage costs and redundancies. Even more than costs, we need outcomes to be standardized and measured for quality. We have the talent and stimulus funds to step up NOW!
- the program needs to have integrity with appropriate utilization and preventative care components. There needs to be a better model for delivery of care (teams) and more primary Physicians that practice evidence-based care and have incentives for quality care.
- the IT that currently exists is from the 70’s and was made to process payments, not manage care. As a result, incidences like the one mentioned where a patient went to over 300 ERs in a year complaining of pain, which involved as many CAT scans in only an attempt to obtain pain medications! The system simply couldn’t catch this abuse since it is a payment-based system!
-Medicare has an unsustainable business model. The policies & processes would never happen in modern business practice in today’s world.
- There needs to be a strong mandate for coverage
- We need to get more value for the dollars spent on healthcare in this country and we need to solve the problem of uncompensated care that currently costs over $300 million in NC.

The panelists agreed we need major reform in our healthcare system and wondered what we would give up to move from individualistic to a communitarian attitude.

Since the 1983 Regan healthcare reform attempts, we are close to at least starting the journey towards quality, affordable care in this country and I sincerely hope we take this opportunity to address the problems of this sector as the population ages and healthcare becomes even more important.

Articles, Uncategorized

Got 30 minutes on a Monday morning? Join HR Momma for a discussion of practical people practices that build world class organizations as only HR Momma can deliver.

http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/7530/attend

Uncategorized HR, human resources, people practices

http://www.triadcareers.com/content/2009/10/02/article/careers_101_what_is_your_brand

Articles

Corliss McGinty received her Emotional Intelligence (EQ) certification from EQMentor, based out of Charlotte, NC. Dr. Izzy Justice has pioneered this work and has created a site for EQ Mentoring for his certified practitioners and clients. The site, EQMentor.com, is the hub of mentoring activity, research, documents, blogs and is mainly utilized by corporations providing this cost-effective coaching benefit to management. EQ, unlike IQ, can be improved and has been found to be one of the major factors in career success.

Online mentoring is a new concept. Check it out!!

If you want to know more about EQ or want to take an assessment, contact Soft Solutions at 336-272-7940.

Press Releases certification, cost-effective benefit, emotional intelligence, EQ, IQ, online portal

I recently came back from a vacation in Santa Fe.  What a pleasure to be back in the Land of Enchantment!  I took my boyfriend who has never been to the southwest. I was thrilled to be able to share with him the piece of my life lived in this wonderous part of the world.

He noticed all flight connections were on an older airplane, one of the D series of McDonnell Douglas.  He also noticed the person next to me with the sniffles who kept to herself hardly moving the entire flight.

So is it a coincidence we both got ill the week we returned? We were home Monday evening. He went down Wednesday night. I was managing 55 volunteers Wednesday through Friday afternoon. Maybe I was too busy to even notice, but when I arrived back home Friday I had to take a nap! I was “spent”. And so I spent the following three days in bed, exhausted and achy. He continues to also be in bed with sore throat and congestion. I requested he have the doctor take a look. Even if it is the Swine Flu, you’ve just got to ride it out. It’s just best to rest your body and drink fluids. For two workaholics, this is asking alot!!

So, is it a coincidence we both got sick or was it the plane ride? They say air quality has greatly improved for planes, but these planes were older. I didn’t touch the sick person next to me and her face was toward the window. Yet here we are both sick as a dog (that’s a southern saying)!!

Uncategorized airplanes, Santa Fe, sick, Swine flu, vacation

Soft Skills – Can They be Taught in
the Classroom? (from TTI friends)

More and more companies are measuring soft skills in their work force and evaluating their impact on performance. Only recently do we have evidence that soft skills may be age- and occupation-related. This is based on four different studies. The first two studies were conducted in the fall of 2008. Nine hundred college freshmen from two Midwest universities were asked to respond to an assessment that measures 23 specific soft skills. The results from both groups (business and engineering majors) indicated that, as a group, they have almost no mastery in these 23 soft skills. In fact, their lowest scores were in decision making.

In the spring of 2009, a small group of seniors were given the same survey. The results showed only a slight improvement.

Curriculum or Practice?

Looking at the numbers, it is becoming more and more apparent that certain soft skills cannot be taught in the classroom. To mention
a few:
• Interpersonal skills
• Personal effectiveness
• Futuristic thinking
• Self-management
• Diplomacy
• Goal orientation
• Flexibility

Uncategorized Interpersonal skills • Personal effectiveness • Futuristic thinking • Self-management • Diplomacy • Goal orientation • Flexibility, soft skills

FromTatum LLC. “Tatum regularly surveys our nearly 1,000 Financial and Technology Executives nationwide to gain insight into the U.S. business climate. Over the time since we began this monthly assessment over 6 years ago, the survey has proven accurate in predicting business conditions for the coming 30 to 60 days. Here is an excerpt from the July survey:

“Good news! Following a modest lull last month, the recovery again appears to be under way. Gains are seen in most indicators. Employment is again up slightly. Backlogs were weak at the end of July but the outlook is positive. The outlook for financing conditions is positive. Importantly, the Tatum Index of Business is headed up again, to nearly the same level as two months ago, and it is on the upper border of the Recession zone. The bottom has definitely occurred. Traction for the recovery will continue to depend on Employment and Financing conditions, both of which look very positive in our Survey.”

Here’s a link to the full survey results. Feel free to share it with those skeptics out there!

http://www.tatumllc.com/perspectives/survey-of-business-conditions.asp

Uncategorized

What Makes Employees Happy? It’s no longer appreciation….

In the past employee’s relationship with management and being appreciated were first on lists on employee satisfaction surveys. Even lately, money wasn’t even in the top three. But now a brand new survey, conducted by Chuck Martin, president of NFI Research, reveals that, perhaps for the first time ever, compensation topped the list of things most important to employees. But the big news is why. I think the answer is fear.

The sudden collapse of the global economy beginning in Q4 2007 has created more workplace fear than anyone has seen since the Great Depression. And as if that weren’t enough, the way many corporate managers and politicians have reacted – and over-reacted – has poured fuel onto the fear fire.

When a manager or employee is afraid to propose a new idea or take a risk for fear of losing his or her job, creativity and innovation become collateral damage. Without creativity there can be no optimism. And without optimism the spirit is wounded, trust weakens and relationships break down.

In this kind of environment – where relationships up and down the organization chart are questioned – the historically reported job fulfillment feelings give way to survival. If you can’t find fulfillment in how your boss appreciates you, the default fulfillment source becomes money.

Sadly, people who have acquired money, and even nations, are still not happy. Nobel Prize winner (in economics) Daniel Kahneman has turned his attention to studying happiness. His research with colleagues has found little support for the connection between wealth and positive emotion. “The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusionary. Moreover, the effect of income on life satisfaction seems to be transient. ” Surprisingly, some people feel more depressed once they have attained material prosperity than they did when striving for it! Are we heading for even more depression with the focus on money?

Uncategorized depression, happy