Archive for the ‘Workplace Policies’ Category |
Best Recognition and Rewards Programs for the Post-Recession Economy
February 23rd, 2010 by Jeremy Lurey
At Plus Delta Consulting, we are committed to creating a brighter future for those seeking to improve individual, group, and organizational performance as well as those focused on transforming organizations in ways that produce better business results. Broadly speaking, we are part of “OD” (Organization Development), but we also push the boundaries of the field and what many call “new OD” to connect communities of organizational professionals from other arenas. We not only seek but also strive to share new theories and practices that serve the 21st century organization with others. Towards that end, we launched a LinkedIn group called the “Future of Organization Development (OD)” last fall (see http://bit.ly/FutureOD) and regularly participate in other online conversations to facilitate these discussions.
Here is an excerpt of a recent discussion about the Best Recognition and Rewards Programs for the Post-Recession Economy:
[Jeremy Lurey]: A couple weeks ago, I facilitated a great session with a local NHRA (National Human Resources Association) chapter. The topic was Recognition and Rewards programs, and we used a World Cafe (see www.theworldcafe.com) format to bring everyone – and their richly diverse perspectives – into the room. During the World Cafe rounds, groups were asked the following 3 questions:
1. What are the top three MONETARY recognition and rewards approaches that you use in your company?
2. What are the top three NON-MONETARY recognition and rewards approaches that you use in your company?
3. What are the underlying assumptions of your recognition and rewards system, and does the absence of receiving a reward equate to PUNISHMENT?
Provided below are some of the key themes that emerged from the group. I’m curious if this is in line with your experiences or if you have other “best programs” you would recommend.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: blogging, employees, future of OD, HR, incentives, Leadership, Management, new media, OD, Organization Development, organizational culture, post-recession economy, punishment, recognition, recovery, remix culture, rewards, workplace, Workplace Policies
Posted in Accelerated workplace, business, economic recovery, Groups/Teams, topical, Workplace Culture, Workplace Policies | 4 Comments »
12 Organizational Idea Starters to Get You “Going Green”
February 16th, 2010 by Samantha Lurey
Many organizations have realized that green business practices provide a competitive business advantage. It’s an opportunity to make a real difference in a way that benefits not only bottom line results, but also fosters stronger employee engagement, improves community relations, and creates a sense of corporate responsibility.
Some companies have integrated their green initiatives into every aspect of their business, and have even resulted in the addition of innovative products and services to boost bottom line results. In most cases, though, it’s not easy to come up with potentially significant contributions that result in a measurable impact to cost or profitability.
Plus Delta Consulting recommends collaborating with all of your stakeholders — employees, customers, vendors, and business partners — to gather input, ideas, and perspectives. Educate your stakeholders about sustainability and the company’s vision, and then involve them so everyone feels like they are contributing to the goal. They will be much more engaged in the process and will be much more likely to participate in any new initiatives.
Whether your organization is looking to implement green initiatives as part of a large-scale transformation, or just at a grassroots level, Plus Delta suggests the following idea starters to… Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: corporate social responsibility, CSR, environment, green, green consulting, Management, OD, Organization Development, organizational change, organizational culture, workplace, Workplace Policies
Posted in Accelerated workplace, business, Collaboration, Workplace Culture, Workplace Policies | No Comments »
Employee Engagement: Changing Workplace Conversations
February 9th, 2010 by Cris Hagen
Every major consulting or research firm has the data to prove it. Engaged employees are not only happy employees, but they are much, much more productive employees. They make companies more profitable, and shareholders richer. (Click here to download a Gallup white paper on the power of employee engagement as a core business strategy.)
I think that most leaders are coming around to believe that this is a truth: engaged employees are a good thing for the business. The problem is that many leaders have trouble figuring out what it takes to get those employees “engaged”.
Let’s make it clear. “Engaged” employees are emotionally involved with their job, their company, and their co-workers. Some of their co-workers become friends outside the workplace, and they care about and support one another.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that HR departments in companies should start planning weekly company picnics or make a return to “fermentation Fridays”. I’m not suggesting that we run a “social Meet Up” application on the company intranet.
We don’t need to run “team building” meetings and ropes courses in every department to get employees engaged. And no, we don’t need executives to do a weekly “lunch with the President” meeting (UNLESS the “Pres” is willing to stick with the program and actually follow through on his/her commitment to meet with employees, get to know them, and do something about their suggestions).
What I am saying is that the major reasons employees:
- Enjoy being at work
- Are willing to give more effort to work
- Feel good when they tell their friends and family about their work
…are that they: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: employee engagement, engagement, groups, OD, Organization Development, organizational culture, productivity, team building, teams, workplace, Workplace Policies
Posted in Accelerated workplace, Collaboration, Groups/Teams, OD Insights, Workplace Culture, Workplace Policies | 3 Comments »
5 Steps to Improved Performance As You Kickoff the New Year
January 13th, 2010 by Jeremy Lurey
All of us at Plus Delta Consulting have been reflecting on what we will do as we enter the New Year to improve performance in our organization – and with our client organizations. 2009 was a rocky year for many, and I for one am very glad to put it behind me. With that said, I’d be remiss if I simply said, “Thank God it’s over!” without doing any planning for 2010.
As we enter the New Year then, we’d like to recommend 5 simple steps for you to drastically improve performance in your organization. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take as you begin the New Year to produce better results? Please take a moment to comment below and share your own actions and ideas with us and all of our readers. Until then, here’s our list!
1. Plan your future from the future:
If anything was possible for you and your organization in one year from now (or even 10), how would you have the future be? Suspend reality for just a moment, and don’t worry about being practical or even reasonable. Focus on defining your ideal future based on your most important values and longer-term business objectives. And don’t frame this as “fixing” something that already exists or working within your current constraints. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: executive coaching, goals, high performance, Management, management processes, mentoring, mentorship, new year, OD, online networking, Organization Development, organizational culture, productivity, social networking, transparency, workplace, Workplace Policies
Posted in Accelerated workplace, business, Collaboration, Groups/Teams, OD Insights, Social Media, topical, Work/Life Balance, Workplace Culture, Workplace Policies | 1 Comment »
6 Suggestions on How to Work From Home and Stay Productive
December 10th, 2009 by Cris Hagen
More and more I see companies embracing “work-at-home” policies, not only as a way to be more “green” by keeping cars off the road, but as a way to reduce the real estate “footprint” in the office. Some companies estimate the cost of maintaining office space for an employee at around $9,000/year. These same companies are offering as much as $1,000 for work-at-home employees to purchase the necessary office equipment to set up and maintain a home office.
So as the economic drivers for working at home seem to be well established and as companies define the appropriate policies and procedures for determining which jobs lend themselves to “working-at-home” (not to mention the question of how managers will measure the productivity of employees working at home), the question is, how does the “work-at-home” employee stay productive?
Speaking from experience, I would like to offer the following suggestions, and then invite the reader to contribute their own ideas. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: home office, Organization Development, organizational culture, productive working, productivity, work from home, working from home, workplace, Workplace Policies
Posted in Accelerated workplace, OD Insights, trends, Work/Life Balance, Workplace Culture, Workplace Policies | No Comments »
Does Light Boost Workplace Productivity? Green Offices Increase Business Success
November 13th, 2009 by Cris Hagen
We’ve all heard of the “Hawthorne Effect”, right? Studies done between 1924-1932 at the Hawthorne Works (a Western Electric facility located outside of Chicago) attempted to study the effects of lowering or raising the levels of light in the building on employee productivity. As students of OD, we learned that workers responded with higher productivity levels NOT because of higher or lower levels of light, but primarily because they were being shown some interest by management. In fact, other changes such as maintaining clean work stations, clearing floors of obstacles, and even relocating workstations resulted in increased productivity for short periods of time.
A quick Google search on the impact of environment on productivity brought up several studies on the impact of such things as temperature, visual comfort and view, and office layouts. Once such article cited two cases of note: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: green, hawthorne effect, lighting, lights, Management, office lighting, organizational culture, Plus Delta, Workplace Policies
Posted in Accelerated workplace, business, OD Insights, Workplace Culture, Workplace Policies | No Comments »
Are we Tour Guides or Expedition Specialists?
October 18th, 2009 by Jeremy Lurey
Last night, several of Plus Delta’s team members attended a reception hosted by Geoff Bellman in Seattle. It was designed to be a warm welcome to kickoff this year’s OD Network annual conference, and boy was it ever! The food was excellent, the wine was superb, and the conversation with our OD brethren – some long-time friends and colleagues, and others new acquaintances – quite delightful. The high point of the event though was a presentation by Rob Fijlstra and Harry Wullings, two seasoned OD practitioners from the Netherlands (click here for more on them).
In their talk, Rob and Harry posed the question of whether or not those in attendance were “Tour Guides” or “Expedition Specialists”. To paraphrase them a bit, a tour guide is someone who leads his/her client group on a safe and well-planned journey to sites that he/she has probably experienced many times over again. While the metaphor may sound reasonable for many – and even necessary at times – this type of OD guidance may never get a client group out of their comfort zone or beyond something that might be called incremental change.
An expedition specialist, on the other hand, takes his/her client group off of this somewhat traditional path. In essence, he/she would say, “You know, I’ve never been down this road before, but I think you’ll enjoy the journey. Just trust me. Everything will be OK!” And the right type of client with ample trust in his/her OD guide might just agree. That’s the type of relationship and type of work I aspire to. Realistically though, I’m still committed to meeting my clients where they’re at and believe that incremental change is better than no change as long as it puts them on the path.
So are you a tour guide or expedition specialist? Check out these links to their presentation to learn more from Rob and Harry’s approach to OD:
Presentation part I
part II
part III
part IV
part V
part VI
Tags: Fijlstra, OD, OD Network, ODNetwork Conference, Organization Development, organizational culture, workplace, Workplace Policies, Wullings
Posted in Events, OD Insights, Workplace Policies | 1 Comment »
Tony Hsieh of Zappos tells us about importance of customer service at Inc. Conference in DC
October 10th, 2009 by Samantha Lurey
Another great speaker at the Inc. Conference in September was Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh. Tony came to talk with us about customer service. I decided to sit up straight and listen because this guy took a small-time internet company with less than $2 million in revenue to generating $1 billion (yes, with a ‘b’) in sales in less than 10 years. His main philosophy and road to success? Great customer service. Now many companies say the same thing, but here’s what makes Tony’s company different:
• All new employees – no matter what level – work in the call center and shipping docks for at least two weeks. This gives them a solid understanding of the needs of the customer.
• Zappos doesn’t spend a lot of money on direct marketing (magazine ads, billboards, etc.). Instead they put their money into the ‘wow’ factor for customers. This may take the form of free overnight shipping or other enhancements.
• The company doesn’t have restrictions on their customer service call centers. Customer service reps can talk as long as needed to ensure that the customer gets their needs met. According to Tony, the longest customer service call was over 5 hours!
• Lastly, Zappos has very easy access to customer service. The customer service hotline is on every page of their website (instead of buried at the bottom of a ‘contact us’ section) and they boast a 365-day return policy.
Way to go Tony! To learn more about Zappo’s culture and how Tony is leading the charge in customer service, check out their website.
Tags: customer service, DC, Fastest growing companies, Inc, Inc 500/5000, Inc Awards, Inc Magazine, loyalty, Tony Hsieh, workplace, Workplace Policies, Zappos
Posted in Events, OD Insights, trends, Workplace Policies | 2 Comments »
Customer Loyalty: The formula for success
October 7th, 2009 by Cris Hagen
Customer loyalty. It’s critical in every business and every industry. In the consulting service arena, it is often a “make or break” proposition for independent consultants, small firms, and even the large consulting houses.
What creates customer loyalty? Clearly, delivering promised results is an essential ingredient. But what are the essential qualities of the consultant who can nurture the kind of partnership with their client that leads to a steady stream of work, project after project. And, better yet, does their work lead to unsolicited referrals to other clients? What does the client look for when hiring a consultant, or more importantly, what does the client receive from a currently engaged consultant that makes them want to “hold on” to that consultant for the next project, and the next, and the next, etc.?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: customer relationship, loyalty, OD, Organization Development, workplace
Posted in OD Insights, Workplace Policies | 2 Comments »
Social Networking Sites in the Workplace: Generational Divide?
October 3rd, 2009 by Cris Hagen
A current Yahoo news story reports:
“A new survey developed by Robert Half Technology suggests people who like to use social-networking Web sites while they’re at work could be violating company policy. Fifty-four percent of the companies surveyed said they prohibit the use of social-networking sites, like Twitter and Facebook.”
“There are some places that allow social-networking, but not many. About 20-percent allow employees to use social networking sites for work purposes only. Only 16-percent allow personal use.”
I attended a conference on Talent Management about a year ago, and a panel discussion debated whether or not such social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Second Life should be allowed in the workplace. The consensus?
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: facebook, Gen X, Gen Y, generational divide, linkedin, online networking, Plus Delta, social networking, social networks, twitter, workplace, Workplace Policies
Posted in Collaboration, Social Media, trends, Workplace Policies | 4 Comments »
