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| "The Latest News and views" |
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NEWSLETTER
February 2009 |
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| In this Issue |
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“What does the Central Party School in Beijing, China and The Human Resource Practice have in common? In order to service our clients
better, in both an economic downturn, and in preparing for the upturn, The Human
Resource Practice had leading Scenario planner, Clem Sunter facilitate a strategic session for themselves.”
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| Why train during a recession? |
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If you, as a business owner, haven't lost money in the recession you either had none to begin with, or you have so much that the loss didn't touch sides. The rest of us, in the grey area between, are faced with the tough decision about how to lower costs, and save money, while at the same time keep our staff fresh and well informed with training.
Traditional economic wisdom tells us that a recession will pass. Sometimes we're up and other times (when we place the fate of the world economy on the price of houses) we're down. The reality is that the world's economy works in a cycle, and although things are gloomy, some enterprising youngster will likely lift us up from the depression.
So the facts are there - we know the economy will bounce back. The question, however, is what you should be doing to ensure you'll be ahead of the pack once things improve. One of these answers is training.
Training your staff is beneficial for several reasons. The obvious one being that when the economy does inevitably bounce back, your staff (and you) will be capable of dealing with the demands of this stronger economy. Rather than languishing their current skills, training will allow them to thrive by reinforcing previous knowledge while offering skills facilitating them to approach problems with innovative solutions. These are significant skills, as they will equip your employees with the faculty to tackle situations that our currently tumultuous economy throws their way.
Another reason to consider staff training would be that offers new avenues in your business. Marketer extraordinaire, Seth Godin, theorised that the way many companies will survive the recession is by creating new positions. His example of the "Community Manager" would be someone tasked with looking after the clients. Training a current staff member to be a Community Manager is a further example of how beneficial training can be. Rather than sitting around doing nothing, people can even consider peer training each other.
Whatever the reason, when the wheel turns back to economic boom, make sure that you are not behind on the curve.
"IT IS THE MARK OF AN EDUCATED MIND TO BE ABLE TO ENTERTAIN A THOUGHT WITHOUT ACCEPTING IT." - ARISTOTLE
Want to take your training onto a new level? Contact Caryn for any training need - 011 453 0555
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Using organisational development to weather the eonomic
turmoil |
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In today's desperate world economy, the HR fraternity needs to take leadership in mediating the impact on people. Organisational development has an important role to play to create organisational effectiveness. In particular, organisational development initiatives need to focus on:
- Increase organisational agility
- Improve employee morale
- Engage employees
- Build change resilience
Organisations need to focus on both the hard and soft people issues. The soft people issues focus on the change process to create an effective organisational structural design whereas the hard issues focus on the change process to enhance the effectiveness of an organisations culture.
Increase organisational agility
The way organisations organise themselves play an important role in creating productivity. Organisational design is more than just moving or removing the desk chairs (deployment and retrenchment) or the boxes on a page. Organisations often jump into reducing employee numbers without following a systematic approach to determine the shape and size of the organisation. It involves understanding the strategic context, developing design criteria to evaluate the options, grouping business processes into design options, determining integrating mechanisms, the levels of work required and then finally optimal number of employees to complete work. Following a logical and systematic organisational design process will ensure alignment to the business priorities, create organisational flexibility and responsiveness to business and customer needs.
Improve employee morale
In South African organisations, leadership need to understand and deal with both diversity and organisational culture. Organisational culture is "the way we do things around here". According to Schein, the way employees behave cannot entirely be explained by examining these adopted values and beliefs. The ultimate source of values and behaviour needs to be addressed to engage employees. Most organisations use traditional diagnostics such as climate or culture surveys to determine the current culture and to inform culture shift interventions. However, a post modernist approach calls for understanding the narrative in the client system and focus interventions on changing mindset and what people think. This approach takes an individual perspective and attempt to create congruence between individual, work and the organisations.
Engage employees
Most research shows a strong relationship between employee engagement and employee performance. Engagement involves connecting with employees at an emotional, intellectual and physical level. Creative, internal communication plays a critical role to connect employees with the organisation. In these times, organisations need to keep employees informed about the state of the organisation within the current economic situation, how strategic priorities will assist the business and the role of individuals to deal with these challenges.
Build change resilience
The only constant in the current economic turmoil is more change. Organisations need to support and build employee capacity to deal with the current and future changes. Our training programme refocuses people's thinking and behaviours in order to address your particular business objectives or priorities. By cultivating a win/learn/change philosophy, the programme creates a supportive environment where participants can view change as an opportunity rather than a loss. It encourages them to consider new ways of working, try new approaches, question their perceptions of what is possible, and take action.
In conclusion, South African Finance minister, Trevor Manual believes that things will become harder in the local economy before it becomes better. However, South African organisations need to brace themselves for the butterfly effect of the world economy. In these times, we cannot continue with business as usual. We need to become creative on how we engage our people to ensure organisational effectiveness.
Please contact Ruwayne Kock on 011 453 0555 for any discussion on developing your organisation.
"THE RIGHT PEOPLE DON'T NEED TO BE MANAGED. IF YOU NEED TO TIGHTLY MANAGE SOMEONE, YOU'VE MADE A HIRING MISTAKE." - JIM COLLINS
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| Talent Acquisition – a case study |
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Our client a major mining house was looking to create a Capital projects division headed by a team of experienced mining project staff. The Team would act as owners representatives on all major projects and be in control of all phases of a project from conception to handing over the project to the mining division.
We were faced with a number of challenges over the last 18 months. The mining sector was in a boom phase, there was a distinct lack of people with the skills and experience to manage complex multidisciplinary projects of this nature and the client was located in an area that would not be a choice of most families.
The project was approached from a top down direction.
Of the initial three specifications, we were able to fill two of them with highly senior individuals from competitors filling the top roles of Vice President Mining capital projects and Vice president Capital Projects services. This process took approximately 5 months from start date. The project was run alongside the client advertising themselves and using an international search team. We were able to combine advertising, networking, search and internet resources to find these two individuals. A distinct advantage of our approach was the fact that we had a strong understanding of the client and the culture of the organisation and this enabled us to sell the opportunity of working at our client to these individuals.
Once the individuals were bedded in we assisted with the recruitment of Senior E band project managers. Working closely with the Hiring managers as well as the Recruitment team of the client, we were able to fill 3 of the 6 roles in the next layer.
The success of the project can be directly attributed to the following:
- A partnering approach to the recruitment project with the client.
- A deep understanding of the client's needs.
- A long term approach with most deals taking between 3 and 9 months.
- Perseverance
- A combination of sourcing methods
For your professional Executive Recruitment & Search contact Gary Cowan on 011 453 0555.
"MANY OF LIFE'S FAILURES ARE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT REALISE HOW CLOSE THEY WERE TO SUCCESS WHEN THEY GAVE UP." - THOMAS A. EDISON
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| Power of the mindset by Greg Melvill-Smith |
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A colleague of mine and her husband were recently part of a traumatic robbery, which included the thieves wanting to take her with them as they left. She managed, very courageously, to talk them out of course of action. The following day I phoned them to offer what ever assistance I could should they want any. My colleague's husband said they had decided that they would respond to this event rather than react to it. He said that they would not allow this event to colour their perception of the country and drag them down into the abyss of depression and negativity about the state of crime.
This response to a traumatic event shows remarkable emotional maturity as they are choosing how they will deal with what has happened to them. An event beyond their control took place and they are now choosing to engage in a cognitively positive response to the situation.
It is no different for any of us in our current economic environment, indeed an environment which can be traumatic at times. The consistent barrage of bad economic news, the broader downturn in the economy manifests in us as an uncertainty, a fluctuation between despondency and resilience. Also the impact on one personally as everyone has to make smarter choices about their own personal finances. The key however is to understand that we can choose our response to this situation, our emotional response as well as our strategic response.
For a lot of companies it's imperative that at this time our workforce remains motivated, driven and ultimately productive. This requires a combination of practical measures; realignment of work streams or cutting of costs through pragmatic restructuring etc. It also requires enabling your workforce to understand that they have the power to remain productive, that they have the ability to remain motivated. At the end of the day we do not motivate our people, we enable them to motivate themselves, or put another way, we do not impede their ability to motivate themselves. This means providing the basic essentials for them to do what they need to do, such as an environment, resources, tools which allow them to function. The motivational factor is encouraged through rapport, empathy, understanding, coaching, encouragement and a handing over of responsibility. It means inspiring them to respond as opposed to react to the new economic environment in which they are operating, allowing them to engage their cognitive brain.
My colleague and her husband have spent the next five days after the event taking actions which allowed them to get on with their lives in an effective, productive manner. Leading your people to do the same will enable them to remain motivated.
Please contact Caryn for our Mindset Change programmes. 011 453 0555
"IF YOU WANT SUCCESS, THEN DON'T RELY ON OTHER PEOPLE TO DO WHAT YOU CAN DO!" - SASHA AZEVEDO
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| Funny - The haircut |
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One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies, 'I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The florist was pleased and left the shop.
When the barber goes to open his shop the next morning there is a 'thank you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.
Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, 'I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The cop is happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a 'thank you' card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.
Later that day, a college professor comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, 'I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The professor is very happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber opens his shop, there is a 'thank you' card and a dozen different books, such as 'How to Improve Your Business' and 'Becoming More Successful.'
Then, a Member of Parliament comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies, 'I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this week.' The Member of Parliament is very happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber goes to open up, there are a dozen Members of Parliament lined up waiting for a free haircut.
And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the Members of Parliament.
Vote carefully this year.
For any of your human resource management and development needs, please contact The Human Resource Practice on
011 453 0555.
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