Sue is a featured column writer for the monthly magazine, ADVANCE
for Providers of Post-Acute Care. To read her articles on
management and human resources topics, click on the direct links below:
"Thinking in Future Tense"
Employees
of the future will have different needs than the employees of today. Will
organizations and society be ready?
“Dealing with Crazymakers”
You know
who they are. They can be in your workplace, neighborhood, or even your family.
Here's how to deal with them.
“Communication Channels”
With
changing technology, we have many ways to communicate. Choose the method that is
most appropriate for your message and your audience.
“SWOT Your Department”
Examine
your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to improve the
health of your department.
“Expressing Workplace Concerns”
One of the most difficult types of communication is expressing a concern
or complaint in the workplace. Here are some tips to make it easier.
“Taking Control”
You can take more control over your own life in and outside the workplace.
"Re-Recruit Employees"
We spend a lot of time and expense recruiting qualified
employees and selling them on our organization.
After the newness of the
position fades, employees need continued attention so
they still feel wanted and valued. They need to be
re-recruited.
"Balancing Act"
Manager and employee collaboration is the key to managing the
many demands of work and family.
“Communicating to Reduce Conflict”
Effective communication is a learned skill. Here are some tools to
help ensure there is open and nondefensive communication in your
workplace.
“Relationship
Building”
Employers want their employees to be
good team players. Employees want their coworkers to be good team
players. How does a good team player act in the workplace?
“Elevating Manager Training”
People don’t quit companies, they quit
bosses. A well-trained manager can retain employees and reduce
turnover. Training is more than formal classes; it also includes
coaching and reinforcement from managers’ supervisors.
“Netiquette for E-Mail”
With the overwhelming popularity of e-mail,
make sure your messages are not misinterpreted. Here are some ways to
create more effective e-communication.
“The Trilogy”
Employees, managers and human resources
professionals can work together to promote a more productive work
environment.
“Creating a Caring Culture”
With too much cold emphasis on the bottom line, we can lose sight of creating a
caring culture for the mental well being of employees.
“My Mentor”
With
the current and persistent nursing shortage, a strong mentoring program
could be a very viable solution.
“Budget-Friendly Benefits”
Get the most employee satisfaction without breaking
the bank.
“Fixing a Flat”
Dealing with a weak team member is like fixing a flat tire: You can ignore it,
change it, patch it or get a new one. Here’s
how to
choose.
“Solving Team Conflict”
When conflict occurs within a department or between departments, a structured
approach to bring employees together will result in solutions not complaints.
“Maximizing Employees”
Employees want to feel valued by having their skills used and maximized. Make
the most of your employees’ time and skills by matching their job duties to
their strengths.
“
Retaining Productive Employees”
Staff
retention may be the biggest and most critical challenge for companies. It is
imperative to keep the productive employees you already have.
“How to Say Goodbye”
Terminating
an employee is a difficult process, but you can take steps to reduce the pain
for managers and employees.
“Creating Time to Manage”
It is difficult for managers to find time to do their own work and manage their
employees. Consider these six tips to create a balance.
“Soft Skills”
Soft skill coaching is necessary to help employees be successful in the
workplace.
“Growing Employees”
Productive employees enjoy and are motivated by learning new skills. Managers
can creatively push the outer edges of organizational boxes with
multi-directional career pathing.
“My Generation”
To recruit and retain employees of all ages, managers
must understand the different motivators of four distinct generations.
"Back
to Business"
For many Americans, the events of Sept. 11 have
dramatically changed the workplace. Here's what managers can do to help their
employees cope.
"More Than Money"
Designing effective compensation and recognition
programs entails looking at more than salary.
"Preventing
Workplace Violence"
While there are no guarantees that workplace violence
can be totally prevented, employers can better educate themselves on what may
trigger acts of violence in the workplace and take measures to reduce the risk.
"Taking
Charge of Your Career"
No one can make you successful but yourself. Here
are five things you need to get where you want to go.
"Talking
Teamwork"
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Follow
these 10 steps to a high-performance team.
"Managers
as Change Agents"
Most organizational changes can make or break a
company's future success. Managers can help their staff handle change
successfully.
"Celebrating
Diversity in the Workplace"
Managers play a crucial role in ensuring that diversity is valued in the
workplace. Here are some helpful tools to create an inclusive culture and not
just give lip service to valuing diversity.
"Handling
Employee Performance Problems With Care"
Employee performance problems require a tremendous amount of a manager's time.
These skills will help in handling difficult employees and improve performance.
"Smoothing
the Rough Edges of Conflict"
Understanding how to effectively resolve conflict brings definite benefits to
both managers and employees. Follow this guide to successful conflict
resolution.
"Hiring
Right The First Time"
For most companies, employee turnover can cost the equivalent of between two
months' pay and six months' pay. This article shows how employers can control
their turnover costs by matching the right person to the job the first time.
"The
Fine Art of Management"
Using these tools for effective management will help you motivate your
employees--and yourself.
Sue had the following article published in Computer
World:
"Employee's
Self-pride Seen as a Key to Motivation"
Most important to all employees is a program that capitalizes on their
self-pride. This program can sporadically, immediately and privately recognize
various employees across the organization.
By Sue Romero
How many times do we take 10 steps outside of our own organization to
observe and define our company's culture and employees? We may not like the results, but
that is the only realistic way to design and implement management styles and programs that
motivate and recognize employees. We are usually too busy running in between meetings and
fighting fires to find out about our environment. After working almost 10 years with data
processing personnel and trying to design motivation and recognition programs, I was
determined to find out why certain types of employees are motivated by different
management styles and programs. I asked the following basic questions to 10% of our
employees.
- Why do you work?
- What motivates you to do a good job?
- What motivates you to go above and beyond?
- What is the most demotivating thing that has happened to you, preferably at our company?
- What type of recognition works for you?
- What are your career aspirations?
- Explain our company culture.
- Is our company a "winning" company?
- Describe our employees.
- If you leave our company, what would be the circumstances?
- What is the worst thing we could do at our company to create dissension?
Diverse group of employees
I interviewed a diverse group of employees: highly technical employees, those who had
been with other companies prior to coming to our company, newly discovered, managers with
high potential, old-timers with years of experience and from the school of hard knocks,
young college recruits, females, males, minorities, employees raised in different
geographic areas and on and on. The most valuable part of my research was talking to our
employees and realizing how well the pieces began falling into place.
Based on responses, I was able to crystallize the definition of our culture, discern
which employees work well in it and which do not and why, find the basis of their
motivation and what types of recognition really work.
I finally answered the most important question. Motivating DP personnel is no different
from motivating employees in other professions. No matter what type, level or background
of employee I spoke with, the primary motivation was a desire to perform well, based an a
self-pride instilled at childhood. It is also important to recognize that it really does
not take monetary programs or a lot of hoopla to recognize employees. Very private
encouragement and rewarding opportunities particularly designed for the individual are the
key.
I grouped our employees into four areas. Of course, all employees had attributes in
each of the areas, but based on the majority of the responses, I developed trends into
specific groups. No matter how many additional employees I interviewed, the employee
resembled one of these groups. Group 1 includes our highly technical employees. They are
basically self-motivated, have self-imposed high standards and are most motivated when
they have the freedom to do their assigned projects the way they desire. This freedom
allows them to grow technically. They define our company culture as being very short-term
oriented and full of average employees who want to do a good job.
The highly technical employees have mixed feelings about whether our company is a
winning one. They prefer recognition that is private. Recognition is most meaningful to
them when it comes from their technical peers (only a. handful) or from technical managers
who know what it is they are doing. Their sense of recognition is strongest when they know
for themselves that their system has been-implemented with no glitches. The employees in
this group will probably leave the company if they feel their freedom is being stifled.
Group 2 comprises those who want to go into management or climb further up the
management ranks. As in the other groups, these employees are mostly motivated by
self-pride. In addition, they are goal-oriented, desire to do something worthwhile and
meaningful and are also motivated by peer pressure. They definitely feel they are working
for a winning company and also feel the company is full of highly motivated employees.
Peer recognition is most important to them, followed by recognition from senior
management (preferably in writing) and then from their subordinates. Some also like
the idea of team recognition awards.
It was intriguing to interview the employees in Group 3. All of them had
previously worked for at least one other organization. Depending on the size, location and
type of their previous employer, their responses were very different. They, too, are
highly self-motivated, due to self- pride, and like an environment in which they can
continuously grow and learn. Our company is viewed as a winning company by 50% of these
employees. This group describes our company as having a mix of all types of employees,
just like any other organization.
Most feel, especially if they came from a large organization, that our company is
technically behind. They prefer recognition in private – pats on the back in terms of
mutual respect – either from peers, management or their users. Employees in both the
second and third groups plan to leave our company if their next career step is not in the
foreseeable future or if their learning and technical growth is stifled.
Employees in Group 4 - are mainstays of the organization. They average 10 to 15 years
of service and have been performing much the same function for years. In addition to
self-pride, they are motivated by financial rewards. These employees like very much to be
part of the winning team and consider our company a winner.
They enjoy their job security and would be devastated if the company had any layoffs.
They feel they are being recognized if they are given more responsibility and authority in
performing their current job. Interviewing these employees was both important and
enlightening. Because of their years of service, they had a lot of perspective and history
about our company's evolution.
I found that all employees are basically motivated by a self-pride instilled during
childhood. They are not solely motivated by their performance reviews and increases,
working conditions or benefits, but these factors are important if not fairly and
competitively administered.
Recommended management styles
Based on these findings, I then recommended management styles and practices and
personnel programs to motivate employees further in our company culture. The following are
the recommendations separated by each employee group.
- Group 1: Managers should permit these employees as much freedom as possible to perform
their responsibilities in ways consistent with the goals of the organization. These
employees should provide in- put to the company's long-term strategic direction in
planning activities.
- Group 2: Experiment with a goal-oriented approach to recognition awards. Praise these
employees. Use matrix management and various sessions to encourage peer pressure and
recognition; try managers' meetings, planning sessions or brain-storming sessions. Assign
these employees to projects that are meaningful and valued by the users (none of those
"spinning-the-wheels" types of projects). Be very careful in promotion,
selection.
- Group 3: Continuously update this group and offer company training resources that
represent the state of the art. Try more frequent transfers between departments and more
frequent changes of entirely different product/project assignments.
- Group 4: Delegate more responsibilities and authority to perform the current job. Don't
talk about layoffs.
Most important to all employees is a program that capitalizes on their self-pride. This
program can sporadically, immediately and privately recognize various employees across the
organization. In addition, pay attention to those so-called dissatisfiers and
accurately reflect performance in reviews and develop fair and equitable administration of
salaries, promotions and benefits.
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