Eight Strategies for Effective Meetings

We've all been to "those" meetings --- the ones where it seems like nothing is accomplished or where the same old topics are discussed with no resolution. The most productive, effective and engaging meetings require clear objectives, open communication and strong leaders who understand the essentials of communication:

• Design clear and concise messages.
• Pay attention to nonverbal cues.
• Listen to feedback.
• Overcome barriers to understanding.

The way in which meetings are conducted to some extent determines an organization's culture. Beneficial meetings are productive, timely, useful and relevant, and they are the result of good leadership.

Case Study: UPS

UPS holds daily pre-work communications meetings at the beginning of every shift. This practice has been part of the company's culture at all of its centers worldwide since 1924. These highly structured meetings last only three minutes, and managers are responsible for delivering important information before drivers start the day.

UPS's meetings help reinforce the company's values on a daily basis, as well as provide relevant information, such as updates about weather and road conditions, safety reminders, and customer service tips. Employee anniversaries are also mentioned during these meetings. UPS has found a formula that works to provide timely information to and elicit feedback from a large workforce.

To Meet or Not to Meet, That Is the Question

Many organizations exhaust and overwhelm employees with meetings. Thanks to e-mail, everyone has at their fingertips the power to invite people to meetings. The problem is that nowadays meetings are often called when informal communication would work better and save everyone time.

According to one university professor, the best way to determine whether a meeting is appropriate and necessary is to find out whether the communication is one-way or if feedback and consensus are needed.

Consensus-building works best face-to-face; thus, a meeting is a good idea in these situations. If, however, feedback and consensus are not required, then an informative e-mail can work just as well.

Strategies for Effective Meeting

1. Plan the Meeting Objectives. If you are leading the meeting, you must know why you are calling it. Clearly write down 10 to 30 words about the purpose and objective of the meeting prior to completing your agenda. Preparing this at least an hour or so before sending the meeting invitation is helpful because you can set it aside and revisit it before you actually send the invitation. By reviewing the information, you perform a "gut check" to determine whether everything still seems necessary and relevant.

Along with the invitation, you should craft an agenda that provides a framework for the meeting length necessary to accomplish the objective. If you hold a regular weekly meeting, then a standard meeting format is also useful.

2.Invite the Right Participants. Invite only those team members who really need to attend to contribute, carry out action plans or make decisions. Including superfluous attendees may slow progress, or they may resent being invited to a meeting that they don't really need to attend.

3. Notify Invitees if They Need to Prepare. Meeting leaders and facilitators should ensure that that participants are informed about any advance preparation required of them or anything they need to bring to the meeting, e.g., reports, records, etc.

4. Start and End on Time. Always respect attendees' time commitments, especially those who are coming from previous meetings or who need to move on to the next meeting. End your meeting a few minutes early, if possible.

5. Preserve Order and Focus. Your organization should have established standard meeting practices or ground rules for meetings, as well as expectations to be followed. Always designate someone to be responsible for taking accurate notes and reviewing minutes with the meeting leader before sending them to meeting participants. Creating a standard format for meeting notes will also prove helpful.
Although conflicts and heated discussions sometimes occur, good leaders keep meeting participants focused on the agenda, give everyone a chance to be heard and redirect topics that need further discussion as action items to be resolved during a separate meeting.

6. Assign Tasks and Obtain Participant Agreement. As soon as consensus is reached on a subject, assign an action item to the person(s) who will be responsible and accountable for it, and be sure to set a deadline for the action item. Then, obtain participants' agreement that they understand and accept what is required of them.

Be aware of nonverbal cues given by participants during consensus, assignments and agreements. Probe and clarify directions so that participants understand what is expected of them and commit to the task. Recap during the last few minutes of the meeting and verify that everyone has the same understanding.

7. Follow up and Check Action-Item Status. Leaders should follow up with participants after the meeting minutes are sent in order to help smooth out any misunderstandings that may have occurred during the meeting. Status checks ensure that action items are on track, questions are answered, unanticipated roadblocks are discovered and better decisions can be made.

8. Keep on Track. Good leaders recognize issues or problems early on, and they attempt to correct such situations, e.g., participant conflict, task completion breakdown, lack of collaboration, etc. Failure to stay on course impedes progress, costs money, and affects delivery and quality.

Attendees and team members often perceive poorly run meetings as a waste of time. Meetings do have a place, and conducting a productive meeting requires that you invite the right people to the right place at the right time to collaborate, make decisions, and set the course for action items and project fulfillment.

Thought for the Day

"It gives them a guide to where you're going. It has a point of view and an action step. You're influencing them toward something, not just informing them."

---Bert Decker, Communications Consultant on Meeting Agendas

Sources:

Essential Skills of Communication, Vital Learning (2010)
Define Goals and Distribute an Agenda, B-NET
Kalvar, S.T. (May 2006). 10 Things You Can Do to Organize and Lead Effective Meetings, Tech Republic Project Management Newsletter.
Let's Be Careful Out There (Case Study), B-NET
Make Every Meeting Matter-or Don't Meet At All, B-NET
Mochal, T. (Jan. 2006). Use Time Wisely With Effective Meeting Management, Tech Republic Project Management Newsletter.

Keeping Cool When Things Go Wrong

"He dozes off after lunch for 15 minutes in his cubicle."
"Her tattoos are distracting me."
"He rolls his eyes every time I speak."
"It's not fair that she takes all the credit for the team project."

You may hear complaints like these frequently in your workplace. According to a 2009 CareerBuilder national survey of 2,667 hiring managers, unusual complaints are commonplace.

In everyday life, communication breaks down and misunderstandings occur even more frequently in a diverse workplace. The varying perspectives about how to get a job done or directives from the top can become a breeding ground for complaints and conflict.

Effective leaders make it clear to all team members that they want to hear their complaints. Then the leaders deal with the complaints in an even-handed way to resolve the underlying problems. Constructive working relationships are maintained. The workplace remains productive.

Managers and supervisors must deal with three areas in order to keep the workplace cool: managing complaints, mediating conflicts and using discipline effectively. Without training in these areas, leaders are unequipped to handle these situations. Everyday issues become problematic and can explode like a powder keg.

Unresolved complaints and grievances cost an organization time and money. The flip side of this is that well-trained leaders know that complaints, conflicts and effective discipline provide an opportunity for open communication, produce better solutions and keep the workplace productive.

Intervening to Keep the Cool

Whether you work in a large corporation or for a small nonprofit organization, the potential exists for growth and development as a result of a complaints, conflict or discipline. There are four areas of interaction in which a leader may intervene:

• Individual or between individuals
• Team or groups
• Inter-group
• Throughout the organization

First, it is important to understand the style differences of individuals. People don't communicate in the same way, and this influences how they react to each other in the workplace. When leaders understand their own styles, they can better understand and value the differences of others. This is a self-awareness practice that leaders can use to articulate clear business goals and keep individuals and teams focused.

According to a global study, "Workplace Conflict and How Businesses Can Harness it to Thrive," 54 percent of U.S. workers, report a better understanding of others after conflict, versus 42 percent of workers globally. Furthermore, forty percent of U.S. workers find that conflict leads to better solutions to workplace problems, comparedwith 31 percent globally.

Leadership training for conflict resolution should focus on four key objectives:

• Accept conflict as an inevitable part of all work situations and deal with it in order to maintain individual and team focus and productivity.
• Recognize positive and negative impacts of conflicts so that they may be leveraged for all involved.
• Recognize the sources of conflict so that they can be resolved fairly, effectively, respectfully and amicably.
• Establish a cooperative atmosphere to resolve conflict as they arise.

When Discipline Is Necessary

When team members perform their jobs while keeping with the established standards, they do so out of a sense of self-discipline. Occasionally an employee may lapse, but a reminder from the team leader usually puts the entire team back on track. If a team leader overlooks the situation, then the issue may continue and the team member may not realize that a certain behavior is unacceptable. When the team leader fails to respond altogether, the situation can deteriorate. Co-workers may be watching a bad situation unfold. If it persists, then morale suffers.

The effective team leader approaches the team member on a mature level, presenting the disciplinary matter as a problem to be solved by the team member. Using this communication strategy elicits an adult response and a solution to the problem. The team leader obtains the team member's agreement to solve the problem, evaluate possible solutions and select the best course of action. This works because the team member is committed to, and has responsibility for, maintaining appropriate behavior.

Mediation as a Cool Strategy

Mediation is a strategy to use when issues have progressed without resolution through other means. Mediation involves the voluntary agreement of conflicting parties to consult a neutral third party to help them reach a resolution. Even if no resolution is achieved through the mediation itself, employers can demonstrate that solid steps were taken to investigate and evaluate the problem.

Mediation generally results in a quicker resolution, reduces costs and preserves relationships. Disagreeing parties often are able to resolve the dispute better than a third party issuing a decision. Mediation is particularly useful in addressing the underlying cause of a disagreement so that a resolution can be found and damaged relationships can be healed.

Some Final Tips

Keeping the workplace cool is not always easy. But, it is possible to encourage more harmony in a culture that values issue management. First, train supervisors to communicate more effectively. Train them in conflict-resolution, managing complaints and effective discipline skills. These should be treated as core competencies for leaders. Leaders should also be able to set clear expectations for their teams. Leaders also should have an open door for listening to concerns, and they should know when to intervene.

Contact your Vital Learning representative to learn how to create a training system for your leaders in the area of conflicts, complaints and discipline.

Thought for the Day

"Working relationships are less likely to be damaged when the individuals in dispute listen to each other, share opinions and feelings, and determine their solutions."
--- Jim Hanley, Adjunct professor and Mediator

Sources:
Effective Discipline (2010). Vital Learning
Managing Complaints (2010). Vital Learning
Resolving Conflicts (2010. Vital Learning
Gurchiek, K. (Aug. 2009). Big Hair, Magnetic Personality Among Oddball Co-worker Complaints, SHRM.
Hanley, J. (April 2010). Transformative Mediation, HR Magazine.
Mooney, J. (Jan. 2009). Coaching Can Help Counter Personality Clashes, SHRM.
Wolfinger, P. (Dec. 2008). Workplace Conflicts Differ by Persona and Locale. SHRM

Transforming Your Organization's Culture

Using training to give your organization's culture a boost for current and prospective employees is imperative for 2010 and the upcoming decade. To remain competitive and increase productivity, businesses must hire and retain high-achieving employees. That's difficult to achieve if your culture has a negative reputation and does not engage employees.

The Disengaged and Dissatisfied

Disengaged employees create a culture of absenteeism, conflicts, turnover, declining work quality, loss of productivity and reduced customer satisfaction. This affects an organization's bottom line with loss of customers, diminished revenue and reduced market share.

In the Conference Board's annual job satisfaction survey, 22 percent of respondents said that they don't expect to be in their current job in a year. John Gibbons, program director of employee engagement research and services, said, "The data throws up a big red flag because the increasing dissatisfaction is not just a 'survivor syndrome' artifact of having coworkers and neighbors laid off in the recession."

Although many leaders consider recruitment and employee retention critical to business, few are actually prepared to address the issues with the appropriate training. A Towers Perrin study of 650,000 employees found that fewer than two out of three believe that management provides a clear business road, down from 1 out of 100 in 2008.

Communication Training: Road Map for a Better Culture

Training leaders for enhanced communication skills improves their ability to provide a clearer picture of what is expected from employees. Providing a roadmap for engagement boosts morale and helps transform the business culture for the better.

Studies show that improving employee morale creates an effective workplace culture regardless of organization size or industry. A Sears study, in conjunction with the University of Michigan Business School, linked employee satisfaction with customer retention. It found that as employee satisfaction improves, so does customer satisfaction, and this can increase quarterly revenue by about 1.6 percent.

So what does improving an organization's culture accomplish? Effective and productive cultures have the following characteristics:

• Effective workplace practices
• Opportunities for two-way communication and feedback about what is and is not working
• Flexibility in the workplace
• Supervisors and managers who treat employees with respect and dignity
• Effective problem-solving and conflict management skills
• Demonstrated value of employees
• Supervisor and co-worker support for employees
• Employee input into management decision-making
• Collaboration between management and employees in deciding schedules, developing customer service protocols and designing solutions for efficient business operations
• Managers who seek to bring out the best in workers by providing training and enrichment opportunities

According to a National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) conducted by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), organizations that adopt effective workplace principles have employees who are more loyal, engaged and productive:

• Eighty-three percent of employees express high levels of job engagement and commitment.
• Eighty-one percent express high levels of job satisfaction.

Preparing Leadership

Driving the imperative for transforming a culture is a multigenerational and highly complicated workforce challenge. Stephen Parker, chief commercial officer of Healthy Companies, said, "Our research indicates widespread uncertanity about the future. Many CEOs will be severly tested in the decade ahead. CEO's are struggling to build trust with their employees."

Research is indicating that mid-level and first-level leaders are lacking in readiness to fulfill workforce challenges. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) conducted a study called "Understanding the Leadership Gap." Among the competencies identified were the following:

• Building and mending relationships
• Compassion and sensitivity in showing understanding to human needs
• Acting resolutely when dealing with problems
• Being culturally adaptable
• Coaching and encouraging employees to develop their careers
• Inspiring commitment by recognizing and rewarding employees' achievements
• Leading people by directing and motivating them
• Managing change effectively
• Respecting individual differences

By training leaders in these areas, organizations can take the first step in achieving a better culture.

Prescription for Transformation
Vital Learning offers training programs and tools to help organizations get started in building a more positive culture:

• Start with the Leadership Skills Assessment™ to pinpoint the individual training needs of managers and supervisors. This assessment is linked to Vital Learning's Leadership Series™ programs that address critical leadership competencies
• Consider Essential Skills of Leadership™ and Essential Skills of Communicating™ as foundational training.
• Leadership mini-series packages are available to incorporate into training plans.
• Flexibility of both classroom-based and online training formats provides opportunity for creative learning opportunities, such as collaboration and coaching

Moving Beyond the Babble to a Climate of Open Communication

Leaders are role models, trendsetters, visionaries and voices for change within their organizations. Change is everywhere, and today, there is constant babble about what should be done to improve an organization. But the message is unclear. Employees often don't know why a change is being implemented and how their jobs contribute to the intended result.

Employees want to know the answer to the question, "Why should I care?" They want to know from leaders what the plan is and what the outcome will be.

Most employees rarely learn the reasons for major change initiatives from the top of the organization, and they are not often asked for their input or involvement. Thus, major change becomes disruptive.

The culture becomes cold and unproductive.

Managers should share the organizational vision and explain each employee's role in the company's future. If leaders don't communicate, it shows employees that they don't care about them and that the employees are not a priority. In addition, many leaders are only interested in communicating operational or financial information to employees. Employees become frustrated with leaders who don't listen to them.

At this point, leaders lose their credibility.

Fostering an Engaged Culture With Communication

Curt Coffman, co-author of First, Break All The Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently and Follow This Path: How the World's Greatest Organizations Drive Growth by Unleashing Human Potential, said that when an employee first joins a company they are highly engaged. The first year with an organization is often their best.

Too many times, the jubilation doesn't last. Employees can become unengaged (wait-and-see attitudes, which are neither positive nor negative) or actively disengaged (against everything and sharing unhappiness with others every day). Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees --- the least productive --- cost the American economy up to $350 billion a year in lost productivity.

Engaged employees consistently perform at high levels, and these are the employees organizations need to keep. To retain this winning talent, organizations must have strong managers capable of building relationships and able to construct clear communication. Furthermore, organizations must be clear about what they expect and ensure that managers or supervisors care about their employees.

How They Do It: Communication Lessons From Leaders

Former U.S. Secretary Colin Powell said, "Optimism is a force multiplier." Leaders should communicate to employees that things can change with outstanding results and that the company will be the best in class.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz likes coffee, of course, but he's also passionate about creating a workplace that treats people with dignity and respect.

Microsoft's leaders created a forum for sharing internal and external communication plans across the business to build a "one-company" approach that preserves the integrity of individual division plans where they are relevant to separate audiences but also enables employees to identify connection points between plans. Through the use of its communication technologies, Microsoft uses a "storytelling" framework that cuts through babble and clutter. Company leaders practice constructing messages that are respectful, essential, professional and unambiguous.

Cisco doesn't describe itself in technical terms; instead, leaders communicate the company as one that changes the way people live, work, play and learn. Employees want to become part of the bigger picture by contributing to the company. Cisco's leaders craft and deliver the company's vision in messages that are concise and specific and that draw on emotions.

One leader at Google holds office hours where anyone can sign up for time to provide feedback on topics or projects.

The Ritz-Carlton holds daily staff meetings where leaders share stories of employees' outstanding service. This is motivational for employees, and creates a positive attitude throughout the workplace.

Delivering on the Communication Promise

Employees are motivated indirectly through leadership and communication. However, research shows that less than half of employees are typically satisfied with communication from senior leaders.

"Leaders strategically use communication to produce enthusiasm and foster an atmosphere of open exchange and support," said James A. Trinka, Ph.D., chief learning officer at the FBI. "They are adept at energizing people to see pathways that get to goals-despite challenging conditions."

Leaders must learn skills to present themselves as principals who communicate well. The following are characteristics of leaders who communicate and deliver effectively:

• Communicate with transparency to show employees they are valued. When you communicate with open lines of dialogue, employees know they are appreciated.
• Deliver praise and provide feedback.
• Be honest. Talk straight. If something is critical, like quality, then say it.
• Be respectful. Don't talk down to employees. Treat them like adults.
• Listen to employee feedback without being reactive.
• Be open. Even during times of crisis, tell employees what they need to know.
• Be timely. Employees shouldn't be the last to know about a change or major company issue or announcement.

Harvard professor John Kottner, said, "First, help the group establish some sensible direction. ... Second, great leaders are all good at getting relevant partners align with, buying into, and believing in the direction they have set. ... Third, is the ability to create conditions that energize and inspire people to get off their fannies."

Vital Learning's Essential Skills of Communicating™ can help organizations build a successful culture, ensuring that managers understand the two-way communication process. During this program, leaders learn the following:

• Design clear, concise and interesting messages
• Manage nonverbal behaviors to reinforce the message
• Listen actively to employees
• Create a climate of open communication for greater employee motivation and engagement

Leadership in Action: Become an Undercover Boss

The new television show "Undercover Boss" allows the audience to ride along as CEOs pose as frontline employees to find out what things are really like in their own companies. Through the magic of television editing, we see good people working hard for their companies, although sometimes a procedure breaks down here and there. The real story in organizations, however, could prove to be much different.

A new Towers Perrin Global Workforce study, "Closing the Engagement Gap: A Road Map for Driving Superior Business Performance," shows the complex nature of what actually goes on in most organizations.

The study reveals that employees do care about their work, and they want to learn and grow. They also want stability and security, and with the right opportunities and resources, they'll commit to a company. Although these are positive, there is a downside: The global workforce is not as engaged as they must be in order to drive results.

The Current State of the Workplace

The Towers Perrin study shows that four out of 10 employees surveyed said they were either "disenchanted" or "disengaged" --- which means they are not working to their true potential because they don't have any motivational connections to the organization.

Gallup polls spanning 1989 to 2009 show that 85 to 94 percent of respondents said they were completely or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. The Conference Board reports workers' job satisfaction dropped sharply from 1987 to 2009:

• Interest in their work decreased 18.9 percent.
• Job security decreased 16.5 percent.
• Interest in the people at work decreased 11.6 percent.
• Satisfaction with supervisors decreased 9.5 percent.

These results further define the underlying problem growing in the workplace: The growing disconnection for employees and their employer is exacerbated by layoffs, budget cuts and continued uncertainty. Employee confidence in long-term career opportunities has dwindled.

The Towers Perrin study defines engagement as "employees' willingness and ability to contribute to company success" and measures employee engagement based on three dimensions:

• Rational: How well employees understand their roles and responsibilities
• Emotional: How much passion and energy employees bring to their work
• Motivational: How well employees perform in their roles
The engagement gap is the difference between employee effort and the organization's ability to garner this effort from the bulk of the workforce.

Disengaged leaders stand in the way and are unable to recognize the changes needed to align with emerging workforce circumstances. Turning leadership into action requires focused training of an organization's leaders, so they can develop a culture that cares about the employees while understanding the importance of performance.

Author Michael Beer, in his book High Commitment, High Performance Management, indicates six leadership barriers:

• Unclear strategy, priorities and values
• Leaders who have a hands-off leadership style
• Ineffective leadership team that doesn't spend time on strategic and people issues
• Poor coordination and collaboration for value-creating activities, preventing effective execution
• Inadequate leadership development
• Closed vertical communication with employees about values strategies and priorities

Improving the State of Your Organization

Essentially, strong leaders can make a difference in motivating and engaging the workforce. This requires them to go "undercover" to really understand employee's needs, values and motivation, ensuring that they are performing the right tasks in the correct way for the proper business outcomes.

Furthermore, a highly trained and engaged leadership team can shape the work environment and culture aligned with business strategies, goals and priorities. This is what you will find as you close the gap: a better performing organization. Become the undercover boss and train your leaders. Put them in action and close the engagement gap with courses from Vital Learning.

Vital Learning's Essential Skills of Leadership™ online seminar, along with coaching, can help build strong, actionable leaders. Leaders learn to maintain team member self-esteem while managing, evaluating performance, improving work habits and resolving issues. They also learn to listen to employees and involve team members in decision-making and problem-solving to motivate employees.

Improve Customer Care in 2011

As you start to make plans for 2011, consider making customer care a priority in your organization. Rid your workplace of old employees' poor customer care habits and train new employees the right way.

With the current economy and workforce demographic shift, learning programs must be aligned with business goals and challenges. Customer care should be one of those goals.

The 2010 Major Issues Survey from the Institute for Corporate Productivity illustrates the priority. Nearly 37 percent of respondents indicated that focus on the customer service is an issue to a high extent, and more than 55 percent indicated so to a very high extent. However, high-extent respondents indicated that their companies are only 38.80 percent effective in addressing it, while very-high-extent respondents indicated only 21.71 percent effectiveness.

In a Harris Interactive Study of 2,049 U.S. adults, 80 percent of respondents indicated that they have decided never to return to a company after a bad customer service experience. Customer care is a defining issue for businesses, and to grow, organizations must attract new customers and retain their current customers.

Frustrations with customer care have come into focus during the past 10 years, according to researchers at the University of Iowa. Dozens of studies confirm that today's organizations have less committed workers, have made cuts to customer service operations and have reduced hiring and training. To remain competitive, organizations cannot survive on pricing; they must offer outstanding customer service.

The technology revolution has brought new tools and software for customer relationship management, profiles, trends and customer history. But technology can't solve the fundamental need for trained employees to deliver the following:
· Increased consistency in creating positive memorable customer service experiences
· Increased customer retention
· Expanded business relationships
· Increased customer referrals

How They Do It

American Family Insurance recently turned to its education division to revamp internal training to provide a better customer experience. Agents are now required to attend a thorough training program that prepares them to help customers achieve financial security. The new training focused on performance-based learning, multiple learning styles, interactive hands-on learning and measurement. This has brought positive outcomes, including increased efficiencies and cross-divisional work.

The Walt Disney Company is well known for its superb customer advocacy and service recovery principles. "Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends," said Walt Disney. One of Disney's methods is to solicit knowledge of mistakes and rectify them so the situation becomes better than if no mistake occurred.

Aside from a focus on good merchandise at a reasonable profit, L.L.Bean, Inc., focuses on customer expectations, treating customers like neighbors and, thereby, changing the dynamic of the interaction. L.L. Bean said, "Self practical, tested merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings and they will always come back."

Put Strategy Into Motion With Training

Giving customers what they want isn't enough; you must anticipate their needs, resolve their complaints and provide service that electrifies them. Preference for products and services goes beyond selection of the product. You want to rid your organization of poor service and become a company of preference by winning customer loyalty. Permanence in the personal relationships that your service employees create brings long-term commitment from your customers. At this point, customers recognize your value proposition.

Creating this sustainable differentiation involves training employees and communicating with them. Your employees must understand that customers are the center of your business.

Vital Learning provides training tools to assist organizations with their resolution to eliminate poor customer service. Winning Through Customer Service is a program designed to help employees to understand their role as a professional within the organization and promotes a problem-solving culture. Employees will learn essential communication skills and behavioral styles that will help them adapt their personal style. In addition, they will identify and utilize a structured process/model for conducting customer service transactions while at the same time mastering strategies for dealing with difficult customers.

Vital Learning's STAR Service is another program designed to improve customer care. It presents four key areas of learning:
S: Sync-up with the customer
T: Target to determine customer needs
A: Assist to meet the customer's needs
R: Reaffirm assistance and the relationship

Vital Learning and its team of affiliate training professionals offer classroom, online and blended learning options that are easily customizable to fit your training strategies. When your employees understand their role in the customer value proposition, your customers will come back.

Thought for the Day

" A sale is not something you pursue, it is something that happens to you while you are immersed in serving the customer."
---Author Unknown

Sources:

McCauley, L. (Dec. 2007). How May I Help You? Fast Company.com
Hartley, D. (Feb. 2009). Customer Satisfaction Through Training. Chief Learning Officer Media.com.
University of Iowa News Release. UI Business Professor Studies Lousy Customer Service (Nov. 2006).
Winning Through Customer Service (2010). Vital Learning Corporation
STAR Service (2010). Vital Learning Corporation
Preliminary Survey Results 2010 Major Issues. Institute for Corporate Productivity.

Retaining Top Talent in 2010 and Beyond

If retaining talent is not high on your list of concerns in 2010, then it should be. We're half way through year, and to remain competitive, your organization must retain its truly talented people.
Some executives might think that with the current economy and high unemployment rate there's no need to worry about employee retention. This line of thinking brings a false sense of security.

The U.S. Labor Department recently reported that the unemployment rate dropped to 10 percent in November and December from 10.2 percent in October. Momentum to pass a new spending package for jobs may offer a fresh view of whether the 15.4 million unemployed people in the United States will start to land the jobs they have so desperately been seeking.

As the nation's job outlook improves, a 2009 Monster.com study of 1,600 workers reveals how the recession affects employee loyalty. Forty-three percent of those surveyed indicated some or significant decrease in loyalty toward their employers. This is a sign that employees may leave their current organizations.

The trend toward the decline in job satisfaction has been occurring for decades, and it may be accelerating. According to Monster.com, employers may be experiencing the "early warning signs of the pain to come" should they fail to manage talent effectively during the current recession. As workplace trends from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) indicate, no aspect of the economy looks more precarious than the job market.

Two Sides to the Issue

Now is a difficult time for businesses, what with the economically driven burn of layoffs and downsizing along with the need to retain the most talented. Most team leaders are unaware of the total disruptive and financial impact the loss of a valued team member can cause. A key team member may be considering leaving three to six months before actually resigning. In the meantime, the employee's productivity and morale often decline. Some employers may have had to lay off employees and discover that they let go of too many. In this case, productivity and customer service also decline.

Cases in Point

One technical organization in California's Silicon Valley estimates that when just one team member leaves, it costs the company an average of $95,000.

Consider a national sales organization that must make up for millions of dollars in lost revenue due to losing a talented rep.

In health care, retaining talent is paramount. Over the next five years, hospital boards and senior executives face new and different workforce challenges, resulting in dramatic shifts in technology, demographics and economics. These organizations will need to allocate more resources to retain existing employees. The alternative is spending more on recruiting costs to replace employees who have already developed highly valued skills.

Facing an aging workforce, a skill labor shortage and changing demographics, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, a national federation of 39 independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance companies, began offering a variety of training and professional development opportunities to older workers to extend their engagement. The goal was retain the most skilled and valuable workers and to better equip them to supervise a changing workforce. The result is that many employees now plan to work for the association well past their retirement years.

Washington, D.C., is a marketplace ripe with talent but one drawing on the same talent pool, offering a variety of high-paying public- and private-sector jobs. George Mason University recreated its culture to retain its talented by appealing to workers of all ages, to keep the educational institution's employee satisfaction high and turnover low. Among the strategies implemented were knowledge transfer programs to help with on-boarding employees.

A Time for Creative Culture

According to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author, economist and founder of the Center for Work-Life Policy in New York City, in a tough economy, business leaders have greater opportunities to attract, retain, support and engage top talent.

Aside from a huge paycheck, leadership can improve employee satisfaction through flexible work arrangements and re-creation of pride and purpose through volunteerism. However, the most important reason talented people love their jobs, Hewlett said, is because of career development and important assignments that expand their skills and networks.

Retention Strategies Tailored to Your Organization
The factors influencing your talent retention may be similar to those at other organizations, b ut you must tailor your retention program to your organization and industry. The keys to this are creating retention strategies and ensuring that your leaders are responsible for tracking turnover. Companies must continue to invest in leaders; their skills can directly affect the bottom line and employee retention.

Can your organization's leaders identify the visible and hidden costs of losing its top talent, including productivity, missed deadlines, waning morale and poor customer service?

Vital Learning offers Retaining Winning Talent, an eight-hour workshop focusing on team leaders and their effect on the retention of key team members. The workshop teaches leaders to implement a retention action plan designed to increase retention for the entire team.

This program teaches leaders the following:

• Understand the scope, severity and cost of attrition
• Determine the risk of attrition for each team member
• Identify which retention factors motivate each team member
• Increase each team member's engagement and commitment

Don't wait to find out if you are facing a serious staffing shortage when the economy recovers. Develop strategies now to improve your organization's ability to retain its most important asset: top talent.

Thought for the Day

"It's absolutely clear that the reason people stay in jobs are the relationships that they have --- primarily with their supervisors."
---Irving Stackpole, President, Health Care Consulting Firm

Sources:
Retaining Winning Talent (2009). Vital Learning Corporation
AARP Outreach & Service (Feb. 2009). Age Friendly Work Culture Best Practice George Mason University, AARP.org
AARP Outreach & Service (Feb. 2009). Training and Development Best Practice Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. AARP.org
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