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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Attitude Toward Customers/Clients - "No Customer—No Job."

•    Understand cultural diversity—including race, religion, sex, and mental and physical disabilities.
•    Be service-oriented.
•    Always greet people with a smile.
•    Always stand to greet people (if possible).
•    Practice making proper introductions and greetings.
•    Observe nonverbal communication of others—and be careful with your own.
•    Use positive language—especially in negative situations.
•    Do not react to irate customer/client—learn to diffuse the anger.
•    Practice courteous and efficient telephone techniques.
•    Make a good first impression.
•    Always endeavor to be helpful.
•    Be sympathetic with a customer who has a problem with the company—but do not admit any guilt prematurely. Don't take the blame too quickly!

Put yourself in the customer's place.
Understand "no customer—no job."

Attitudes Toward Your Co-Workers

•    Respect privacy of others.
•    Understand cultural differences.
•    Be supportive of each other (especially female/female relationships).
•    Promote teamwork.
•    Help others to accept change.
•    Use positive language, even in conflict situations.
•    Strive to settle differences before they become a problem—don't carry a grudge.
•    Work to achieve common goals.
•    Do not overemphasize winning—may lose more by winning than by losing a few arguments.
•    Be a good negotiator.
•    Think before  you speak (don't shoot from the hip).
•    Learn to be assertive, not aggressive.
•    Refuse to participate in malicious grapevine information.
•    Don't brag constantly (or whine).
•    Pay value to co-workers—their feelings do count. Show appreciation. Genuinely care about your co-workers.
•    Listen!

Attitude Toward Your Job

•    Accept change.
•    Maintain honesty and integrity.
•    Understand cultural diversity.
•    Understand the entire business operation and where your job fits in.
•    Understand the importance of teamwork.
•    Avoid office politics.
•    Observe office hours—and other company regulations.
•    Accept constructive criticism concerning your work.
•    Accept responsibility.
•    Remain loyal.
•    Respect privacy of others.
•    Learn to work under pressure and adjust to being pulled in many directions at once.
•    Respect time—make every minute count.
•    Look for the challenges of your job—enjoy doing a job well.

Attitude Toward Yourself

•    Think well of yourself personally—self-esteem, self-confidence.
•    Think well of  yourself professionally—competency.
•    Project a professional image at all times.
•    Appreciate and understand the importance of the work that you do.
•    Seek professional self-development on your own—don’t wait to be told!
•    Carefully select professional and/or community organizations for membership.
•    Consider the value system of others while examining your own values.
•    Realize your personal worth.

If you don't think well of yourself, it is difficult for others to respect you.

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.