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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Top 5 ways to improve attrition in Organization

Attrition is often seen as a health check for any business. If a high number of people are leaving then something is wrong. The question is what, and what can be done to improve it.




Communication:

Communication is key to any successful business! In IT companies there is a need for everyone to understand the goals of the business.  It is important that employees feel part of the brand, and understand what the business is striving for and the part that they have to play in making it happen.

  • Attrition rates are high in IT companies when employees feel disengaged, “nobody listens to me”.

  • Targets need to be aligned and communicated effectively. Results need to be reported and discussed.


Promotion/Progression:

Promotion/Progression is also very important for business success.

  • The project lead should encourage the team members, while reaching the goals

  • Internal Job Postings - This gives employees the knowledge that if they work hard and do well they have a chance to progress.


Management Style:

This area is closely linked to communication. Does an employee feel valued? Do they want to come to work? There is an old adage: “you don’t leave the business you leave your manager”. How many times have you heard someone say “the job’s ok but the people are great”? This shows how important management style is to employees. The company should be a great place to work, with an element of fun and hard work. The management approach will go a long way to achieving these goals.

Work-Life Balance:

Work-life balance is not easy to achieve. Employees have to understand that the business must meet its customers’ demands, while the business must understand that employees have external pressures as well and do all it can to help them.

All employees are different and it would be wrong to assume we know what everyone wants or needs, so providing options is a great way of providing a suitable solution for all.

5 Ways to Prevent Employee Attrition:

Although attrition is a natural element of any business, it would be nice to keep your employees with your, especially if they are great workers, for as long as possible.



1. Recruitment. When you look for a new employee, don’t settle. If you have released a job posting, don’t fill the position until you have found someone that is perfect for the job. Avoid hiring someone “because you have to.” Make sure you hire those who are the utmost best for the position.

2. Make them feel irreplaceable. If they feel that they are worth something in the company, your employees will likely want to stay in such as flattering position. Don’t be shy with praise and let your workers know that without them the business cannot be successful. This must be given constantly in order to keep your employees happy as much as you possibly can.

3. Career advancement. Many employees will leave a company because they feel that have reached the pinnacle of what they can do for you. This should be avoided. Make sure that your employees know that there is never an end to potential advancement.

4. Be aware of the way they feel about your company. Many employees leave a company because they are not happy with either their work or the mission statement of the company. Make sure your employees are satisfied, challenged, and happy with their work and with your company in general. They should enjoy coming to work every day.

5. Be aware of any problems between employees and management. Many problems occur when an employee is dissatisfied with their immediate supervisor. You must stay aware of these relationships. Many people leave their job because of a poor relationship with their bosses.



Summary:

If you understand what motivates employees and what de-motivates them, you then know which areas to focus on to improve attrition. Many believe that pay and benefits have a significant impact on their attrition rate.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Top 10 Tips for Career Success

1. Decide to Succeed
Success will only come to people who wants to succeed (to the people who dare to think big). So, one cannot wait for the success to come his way. The wait will go infinite if it is calling no actions.

2. Remain Bold
People who want success have to fight with many challenges. Some challenges may be a hard obstacle and some may be a soft way to failure. It is important to resist both affecting the ambition.
If you have any complains then raise it sooner than later. Do not compromise on things specially if it is prolonged issue. The solution will follow only when the issue is raised.

Consider a scenario where you are a associate and you have problems with your manager. Till you complain, no one will even think over the issue. Even there are ample chances for you to be under the same manager next time too. It will be a less risky step for the Sr. Manager or Director to continue a bond where problems are not seen. That makes every sense.
Everyone have their own work and they seldom think for you, and that is how organization work. They all are right in their own way. So if you want peace of mind and good career with a company, be bold to raise any issue faced.

3. Plan and execute your promotion
Most people complain about Manager for the later not helping him succeed and when I ask them whether they have raised the issue to the manager, mostly the answer is NO. If something is unsaid, it is highly probable that it is not communicated. It is always the self who can understand the wants of an individual and for everyone else it has to be communicated.
Also, the best career map can be made by self. No one else can make it for someone else. Manager can at best facilitate the people under him to attain his goals, but it is highly dependent on the individual to make good career plan and execute it.

4. Push-pull theory
The best way to grow in any organization is to force manager to grow upwards. Once he is grown, there is a vacancy created and it is in your manager’s interest to pull you up rather than filling it from outside as you are the person whom he understands best. Restricting any body’s success in your group will make it difficult to grow as any friction created to anyone’s success is always reciprocated.
So, if someone has to grow it has to be you, your lead or your manager.

5. Complain up and motivate down
People at the management are responsible for change. They are better be criticized for betterment. Positive criticism brings good energy to the organization.
But criticism of any company policy or product has to go up and not down. You are the people who is looked by your juniors and any complain downwards looks like frustration to them, and that increases negative energy in the company. It will damage in two ways. One it make your juniors less motivated to work affecting the day to day operation of the company and another it eroding your image as a good leader.

6. Growth is always organizational
People grow when company grow. It is very hard for people to grow in a loss making organization. So everybody should work for the best interest of the company and avoid any actions that affects company’s growth.
It includes not criticizing company in external world. It has to be avoided in all cases. The company’s image adds to the personal brand equity and negative publicity will harm you as much as your company management.
Also, any criticism of your company can be played by its competitors to play against both you and your company. This can also lead to damaging your personal image in the mind of other people in the industry making you less employable.

7. Hard work and hardcore fun.
Everyone knows that it is very important to work hard to grow. But most people forget that to work hard, it is essential to keep own body ready for the challenge to avoid any health hazards and frustrations/work stress. Hardcore fun while not working does that. So, enjoy up to your limits in the weekends and work hard in the weekdays. This may include regular outings, parties, long drives, adventure sports etc. Choose something that gives you maximum fun.

8. Work you portion but know the big picture
Company pay us to do the work assigned, so it has to be done in time at all cost. But that should not stop you from knowing why you are doing that work, basically knowing the overall picture of the project. If you are not working in a open company which provides this information to all working, you should ask to your seniors.
Here you are trying to understand the business goal of the project. This will prepare you to take higher positions.

9. Know your company
Knowing your company is important to your project. Knowledge about the project will be given to you but for other information you need to take initiative yourself and learn. Try to get as much information as possible regarding your company’s management, organizational structure, offerings (products and services) etc. This will help you work better and be an brand ambassador of your company, thus adding fuel to your company’s growth.
Knowledge about the company also gives good impression to the seniors helping you grow faster within the organization.

10. Competitor Analysis
Well, this is quite a tricky step to grow faster in the industry. Knowing your company accelerate growth within a company but knowing its competitors guarantees your success in the industry. there are two advantages competitor analysis brings.
One you can help your company counter the competitors move thus affecting your company’s revenue positively. This is in most cases rewarded with promotion and bonus. Secondly, if you are not given fair compensation from your company, you know where to move next. Thus you give tough time to the management and the HR not to let you grow.

Top 10 reasons why employees hate their boss

Bangalore: Bosses! Can't work with them, can't work without them. Everything seems to be fine when you join the job but if you are one of those fortunate ones, sooner or later your boss starts smirking in your nightmares.

A chat with employees working under tough projects and small teams who usually face tremendous work pressure will give us interesting insights about the bad bosses they have. Even in a company sans work pressure employees regularly bump into bad bosses. And their experiences are real bad [pardon me of your boss is really good] which they only share once they are in a new job. Good bosses are hard to find and employees hate their bad bosses for very many reasons. We at SiliconIndia did a survey to know why employees hate their boss. Listing the Top



10 reasons below:

  1. Incompetent and unacknowledging – Employees hate bosses who doesn’t have the essential competitive skills but still scorns the work they do. Whether or not the boss is competitive, the employee really longs for his good work to be acknowledged and not to be treated as a ‘piece of crap’.

  2. Privacy Invasion – ‘He always keep guard about what I do, constantly checks out on the office phone about what I am busy at (an indirect way to know whether I am on a call with any acquaintance) and one day even peeped through the door to see what I am doing. Now I even doubt whether he is watching me once I reach home’ says Anamika (name changed to protect identity). Now that’s a real bad boss.

  3. The narcissist boss – Employees hate bosses who acts as the ‘know it all’, who thinks they are second to none, hears nothing until it directly benefits him and so self obsessed to be called in the informal way ‘a narcissist glory monger’.

  4. Personal Insults – Bosses who torture employees with personal insults rather than choosing to reproach on the basis of their work quickly gets in the hate list. Many employees have long stories to say about bosses who frequently torture them with comments about their attitude and discriminate them deliberately.

  5. The angry ‘yelling’ boss – You are the boss, thumbs up. But how on earth could you yell at me like that. Employees at some point or other meet the unfortunate fate of being victim to their boss’ wrath. Justifiable the reason may be, but you are in my hate list boss.

  6. The ‘opportunist’ boss – Employees obviously develops a dislike to their boss who refuses to mind them. But one day the same boss who never acknowledged your presence comes to you, smiles at you and the next thing you know, you are on an extra shift with heavy workload. Dislikes turn to hate for such opportunist bosses.

  7. The ‘tensed’ boss – Employees tend to hate bosses who are always tensed and want them to finish of the work in a hurry. “He is so tensed and rushes things as if his head is on fire. His tension is so contagious that even we get tensed in his presence” Rahul, a software employee.

  8. Stealing credits – Employees feel cheated and hate their boss when he or she steals the credit of their work but never forgets to blame them if something goes wrong.

  9. Lack of clarity and feedback – Employees hate bosses who don’t brief them properly and keep the employees ignorant with any real feedback on their work. And worse, employees are blamed for something which in turn would be the result of void feedback.

  10. Lack of rapport – Employees hate bosses who lacks mutual respect and always play bossy without any real interest in befriending the employees.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

How to Avoid Gossip in the Workplace




A negative work environment is a less productive work environment. Gossip in the workplace can create an uncomfortable atmosphere for not only the person the gossip is about, but for everyone in the workplace. Gossip can often become likened to the old childhood game of "Telephone", where one person starts the spread of information, and by the time it reaches the last person, it has evolved and changed into something entirely different. Some bits of gossip may have truth to it, while other bits of information carried on the gossip relay may be false. Either way, gossip is a hurtful means of communication and should be avoided at all cost. Read on to learn more.


Instructions:

  1. Analyze the source of the gossip. Think about whom the person is and their character when considering the information they are spreading. Ask yourself why they would say what they are saying, how will they benefit from spreading the gossip? There is no real benefit that will come from gossip and its main reason is to degrade and take pleasure in negative information about another person.

  2. Evaluate the information you share with co-workers. There are some things that are better left unsaid than to share it with those you only socialize with in the workplace. You may think what you are sharing is harmless to you and others, while someone else may see it as the latest scoop and start spreading it. Again, think back to the childhood game of "Telephone" and consider how your information may get twisted and changed as it gets passed along.

  3. Limit your association with the office gossip. By not being associated with a person that tends to thrill from spreading gossip, you will have less the chance of being included as the original source of the gossip. Remember how easy it is to fall prey to guilt by association.

  4. Let the gossip end with you. When you are given a tid-bit of gossip, do not pass it on. Gossip that receives no fuel will smolder and fizzle out before it has the chance to do any harmful damage.

  5. Walk away from situations where gossip is being formulated. Again, not giving power to the source of gossip will help extinguish the spread of information that may have little truth.

  6. Change the topic. A quick way to stop gossip in its track is to change the topic of discussion.

  7. Confront the person that is gossiping. Ask them why they believe this information should be spread around the office and what personal gain they will derive from it. Sometimes the best defense against office gossip is to have a strong offense in not tolerating the action of gossip. Let the gossiper know you are not comfortable discussing the information they are fueling the gossip with. You can even say, "Hey, I do not like talking about other people's private business, because I sure would not like them talking about me."

  8. Tell the person who is gossiping that maybe you both should go and ask the person the gossip is about to clarify the information. This is a sure way to stop gossip in its track, because most gossipers tend to cower away at that thought of confronting the person the gossip is about.

  9. Remind the gossiper that workplace gossip does come with consequences that can include them being reprimanded by the higher-ups if they are found to be the source of gossip. Most workplaces have an established work environment handbook that includes discipline actions for the spread of gossip.

  10. Do not gossip yourself. Lead by example. When you choose not to gossip or participate in gossip sessions, you send a clear message to others that gossiping is a negative attribute in the workplace. Also, you do not want to be part of spreading information that might be false and or hurtful about another person.



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

SWOT Analysis

SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.



It is the culmination of much internal analysis and external research. Thinking about the outcome, one can define SWOT analysis as the extent to which a firm’s current strategy, strengths and weaknesses are relevant to the business environment that the company is operating in.

SWOT analysis is often presented in a matrix form:

SWOT Analysis Matrix

Strengths and weaknesses are internal aspects and Kotler (1988) suggests that these should cover the four areas of marketing, financial, manufacturing and organisational.

Opportunities and threats look at the main environmental issues such as the economic situation, social changes such as the population getting older and technological developments including the internet.
A SWOT analysis example for a cosmetics manufacturer might include:

Strengths

* Strong, experienced marketing team
* High brand recognition
* Well established consumer testing panel

Weaknesses

* Prices perceived to be too high
* Costs spiralling out of control due to increases from raw material suppliers
* Inconsistent brand identity

Opportunities

* Growth of the internet leading to an increase in the number of consumers willing to buy online
* New emerging teen market

Threats

* New ‘affordable luxury’ entrants to the market threatening to take share from premium brands
* Major competitor planning to integrate vertically and sell direct to the consumer
* Rise in popularity of nail spas leading to decline in demand for nail products

10 Steps To Improve Our Personality

The "personality" is the typical pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaviors that make a person unique.
When we say that someone has a "good personality" we mean that they are likeable, interesting and pleasant to be with.

  1. Be a better listener.

  2. Read more and expand your interests.

  3. Be a good conversationalist.

  4. Have an Opinion.

  5. Meet New People.

  6. Be yourself.

  7. Have a positive outlook and attitude.

  8. Be fun and see the humorous side of life.

  9. Be supportive of others.

  10. Have Integrity and treat people with respect.