Society for Human Resource Management We Know Next

Posts Tagged Employee-Engagement

  • Survey Finds Significant Erosion in Engagement Around Globe

    There is "a significant, across-the-board increase" in the number of workers seriously considering leaving their employer, according to a global survey released in April 2012. The data reflect "a profound shift in employee attitudes and opinions," wrote Patrick Gilbert, Ph.D., global leader for employee research at Mercer, and Pete Foley,…

    news update May 16, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • Wanted: Mind Reader/Magician

    You probably recall the dust-up in April after it was revealed that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) hired a clown and a mind reader to entertain some of its employees at a conference. Among the mind reader’s services was giving a GSA employee a message from…

    May 11, 2012  |  in Workplace

  • 5 Reasons to Rethink High Potential Programs

    We all talk about high potentials being the next best thing since sliced bread.   They are the employees in our midst that seemingly can do it all and we recognize them for their efforts.   We come to rely on them whenever there is something we need to get…

    May 3, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • Gamification and Learning Management – Two Truths and a Lie

    Employee engagement and participation in learning and development programs has always been a challenge. With the rapid development and deployment of new tools and technology in the workplace, though, there's more to be learned and mastered than ever. Leaders are now looking for methods to tackle this issue head-on,…

    April 27, 2012  |  in Trends

  • Workers’ Mental Health Disorders Go Untreated

    Three out of four workers diagnosed with a mental health disorder in Western Europe, Australia and the United States might forgo treatment out of fear of job loss, yet their conditions can still contribute to lost productivity at work, a recently published report found. Research by the Organization for Economic…

    news update April 24, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • Cognitive Attrition and Employee Engagement (Part 3)

    Note: This series is based on the paper My Generation.  One of the biggest challenges in the modern workplace is employee engagement.  An organization that struggles to keep employees engaged faces an onset of cognitive or mental attrition. So why do we need engaged employees? Engaged…

    April 13, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • Executive Book Club: April 2012

    17 Rules for Developing and Keeping Devoted Employees is a must read on how to foster commitment, respect, trust, honesty, fun and above all performance. Why people choose to work for you and why they stay. It’s not about money,…

    April 11, 2012  |  in Trends

  • Rousing the Remarkable: 9 Ways to Influence Extraordinary Actions (Even in Your Absence)

    Sheila from the Radisson Indianapolis Airport Hotel It was 3 a.m. when I called the front desk at the Radisson Indianapolis Hotel to beg for ointment for a wound. Sheila answered the phone but had nothing to offer, “I’m sorry sweetie. We only have Band-Aids down here.…

    April 10, 2012  |  in Workplace

  • #NEXTCHAT RECAP: Is HR Ready for the C-Suite?

    The time has come for HR to occupy a seat at the C-Suite table. Who better to advise and influence the CEO on corporate culture? Who better to recommend solutions regarding organizational health and workforce issues? Who better to identify talent from both a functional and cultural perspective? Who better…

    April 5, 2012  |  in Trends

  • We Know Next Weekly Recap, March 12th- March 16th

    In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next this week. Most U.S. companies plan to increase the dollar value of the incentives they offer employees to participate in health improvement programs in 2012, according to an employer survey conducted by Fidelity Investments and…

    news update March 16, 2012  |  in Trends

  • We.Org: Moving Their Company Beyond Bureaucracy

    The Beyond Bureaucracy Challenge, Part Two of the Harvard Business Review/McKindsey M-Prize for Management Innovation, seeks to advance progress on making organizations genuinely fit for human beings—more inspiring, open, and free. Management innovators from around the world in every realm of endeavor were invited to share the…

    March 14, 2012  |  in Trends

  • Executive Book Club: February 2012

    The Executive Guide to High-Impact Talent Management is a must read for business leaders who prioritize the need to continue to drive future business performance to enable their companies’ upward mobility and secured sustainability. Recent studies…

    February 24, 2012  |  in Trends

  • Failure and Learning Through Leadership

    Achieving milestones within a department or an organization is a process that involves a clear strategy, research, team members, and the flexibility to change and adapt along the way.  Just like leaders, a company’s culture or environment doesn’t just happen.  Great cultures are made…

    February 15, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • Consultants Can Say ‘No’ but Keep the Door Open

    Even in a tough economy, HR consultants can’t take on every opportunity that comes their way. Sometimes the timing is off. Sometimes the expertise required is beyond the scope of their services. Sometimes, they just might not be interested. But, saying “no” can be risky. A…

    news update February 15, 2012  |  in Trends

  • Diversity and Inclusion: Getting It

    What will you do? If your team or organization is going to get serious about pursuing additional value or advantage associated with diversity and inclusion this year, it will likely be because you decide to make it so. I spoke to a lot of HR professionals in 2011 and…

    February 8, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • Does a Mentor have to Breathe?

    To most of us, mentors are people of experience and knowledge who help the less experienced advance their careers and/or their education. There are plenty of well-known examples throughout the course of history; Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great, Laurence Olivier mentored Anthony Hopkins and Freddy Laker mentored Richard Branson.…

    February 7, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • 3 ways for HR to avoid unlawful, overbroad social-media policies

    Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board announced in this press release that it had issued a second social-media report to help provide further guidance to practitioners and human resource professionals.   The social-media memo, a copy of which you can obtain here, covers 14 cases, half of which involve questions about…

    January 30, 2012  |  in Workplace

  • Employee Use of Social Media: Laws Fail to Keep Pace with Technology

    When considering workplace privacy rights in the age of Facebook and Twitter, “we are not walking on paths of concrete, we are walking on paths of shifting sand,” John Quirke, an attorney with Archer & Greiner in Haddonfield, N.J., told attendees March 14, 2011, at a session of the…

    news update January 27, 2012  |  in Public Policy

  • Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey Report

    This research report provides comprehensive information about factors important to overall employee job satisfaction and engagement. More than 20 aspects of employee job satisfaction, including career development, relationship with management, compensation and benefits, and work environment are examined. New this year, the survey was expanded to include multiple aspects of employee…

    research January 19, 2012  |  in Workforce

  • How’s Life? Report Measures Well-Being

    Having a job is a critical element of well-being. It provides a sense of identity and offers a way for socialization and connection—key components of contentment. So say the findings in a new publication called How’s Life. Published recently by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and…

    news update December 14, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Experts: Flexible Workplaces Should Rely on Social Media

    What does flexibility have to do with social media? Plenty. Social media can help employees stay engaged—particularly those who work remotely. That’s what conference attendees learned during a session at the inaugural Work-Life Focus: 2012 and Beyond Conference held recently in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the…

    news update December 13, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • The Multi-Generational Workplace (Part 2)

    Note: This series is based on the paper My Generation. The makeup of formal – and informal - organizations has always mirrored that of society as a whole. As societal demographics shift, organizations have no choice but to consume the transformation.  A “failure to respond to…

    December 5, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Influential Leadership & my SHRM Conference Keynote

    Late November, I had the privilege of delivering the luncheon keynote address to the 1,000 volunteer leaders gathering in Washington, D.C., for the annual Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) Leadership Conference. It was a fitting conclusion to my conference keynote schedule for the year and marked my 12th engagement…

    December 2, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Four Creative Ways to Start Your Day

    1. A strategy from Hemingway The Hemingway Bridge In order to avoid starting a new day with a cold, blank piece of paper, Ernest Hemingway ended his day by writing the first paragraph of a new chapter. During the evening, he considered where the paragraph…

    November 30, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Harmony is Overrated

    As a loud and proud advocate for diversity and inclusion, I am supposed to be all about harmony right? Well, I am not. Harmony scares me. At the core of the definition of harmony is: a consistent, orderly, or pleasing arrangement of parts; congruity It is hard…

    November 21, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Businesses Face an Engagement Crisis

    As the global economy recovers from the worst recession in decades, low employee engagement has hit epidemic proportions, according to Kevin Kruse, president and founder of Krū Research and co-author of the book We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement (John Wiley &…

    news update November 17, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Four Generations of Workers in the 21st Century (Part 1)

    Note: This series is based on the paper My Generation. Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.  - George Orwell For perhaps the first time in recorded history,…

    November 17, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Study Explores Mysteries of Employee Engagement

    Why are some employees so devoted while others seem to have “checked out”? This is a question the Accenture Institute for High Performance sought to answer in What Executives Really Need to Know About Employee Engagement, a study published in June 2011. Accenture surveyed 1,367 employees at…

    news update November 15, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • How ‘Moneyball’ Measures Up as an HR Approach

    Billy Beane, chief human resources officer?  The corporate finance adage of “We cannot manage what we do not measure” echoes through many additional business functions and disciplines thanks to breakthroughs in data analytics, behavioral economics and the new “science” of decision-making.…

    news update November 14, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Experts: Telework Still a Hard Sell for Managers

    Supervisors find creative ways to engage remote employees  What’s the biggest obstacle to telework? It’s not technology. It’s management. So some human resource professionals say they’ve begun to tie management acceptance of telework directly to managers…

    news update November 10, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • GE Capitalizes on Vets’ Strengths

    NEW ORLEANS—General Electric’s Junior Officer Leadership Program (JOLP) is a tool for attracting and integrating one of the largest overlooked sources of talent—military service professionals transitioning into civilian careers, according to Susan Schieren. Schieren, program manager of JOLP at General Electric (GE) and a…

    Case Study November 9, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • 7 Ideas for Generating Buy-In by Leveraging Human Influences

    Whole Foods Employees Vote for New Hires Every new hire at a Whole Foods store is subject to a peer-based selection process. The newbie is provisionally assigned to a team, for example in bakery or produce, pending a 4-week trial and a team vote. After the trial period,…

    November 8, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Today’s Managers Must Be Connectors

    By Shirley Davis and Lisa Horn, Co-Project Directors, SHRM’s Workplace Flexibility Initiative The first joint SHRM and Families and Work Institute work-life conference is next week in Washington, D.C. The conference — Work-Life Focus: 2012 and Beyond/Workplace Effectiveness Strategies that Work — promises to…

    November 7, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Time Management in Three Words

    Everything you need to know about getting a grip on time is contained in three words. Eliminate … Delegate … Accelerate Eliminate: Stop unnecessary or low priority tasks. Delegate: Give tasks to others. Accelerate: Become more efficient. All time management tips and…

    October 28, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Remove the Barriers to Raise the Bar

    There are many things that great leaders can do to create opportunities for employees to perform at their highest possible level.  Aside from developing and sustaining strong personal relationships built on a foundation of trust, feedback and coaching, leaders have the power to implement workplace initiatives such as flexibility,…

    October 27, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Player, Please: Gamification & Social Engagement

    Lost in all the buzzwords and best practices about social media recruiting is a simple fact: it’s supposed to be fun.  In the olden days of faxed resumes, form cover letters and cold calling, engaging talent could be a chore.  But new methodologies have developed along…

    October 25, 2011  |  in Trends

  • Work/Life Balance – Are we Kidding Ourselves?

    Since October is National Work and Family Month, it’s a good time to discuss work-flex. I love how Jason Seiden described “work/life balance” recently at Illinois SHRM: “We talk of it as something we separate by a slash and then hope we can balance…

    October 20, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Creating a Red Rubber Ball Moment in the Workplace

    Have you ever had a red rubber ball moment?  Kevin Carroll, author of the Red Rubber Ball Book Series describes these as when play transform even tense, high-stakes moments into pure fun and result in deep connections formed that can last a lifetime. My…

    October 18, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • 8 Ways to Feed a Need and Stifle a Fear to Innovate from the Middle

    Flight Attendant vs. Consultant “They paid some consultant millions of dollars to figure out how to load this plane. They should have just asked me. I’ve been a flight attendant for 22 years.” I overheard this on a recent flight when the boarding…

    October 13, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Fortune 500 Companies Lead with Diversity, Happiness

    Fortune 500 companies, such as Boeing Co., Coca-Cola Co., IBM, Lockheed Martin Corp., Procter & Gamble Co. and Verizon, Inc., continue to pave the way for engaging women and minority employees. Chicago-based aerospace company Boeing was recognized by a series of diversity awards in 2011, including the Diversity Council Honors Award, the…

    news update October 10, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Abercrombie & Fitch’s Diversity Journey

    NEW YORK—It wasn’t difficult spotting Todd Corley, chief diversity officer for clothier Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), at Working Mother Media’s 2011 Multicultural Women’s National Conference held here July 20, 2011. In a sea of “suits” at a Times Square hotel, Corley…

    Case Study October 6, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Executive Book Club: September 2011

    Have you ever heard of a company like this? Or is this just a dream job?  Pays new employees $2,000 to quit. Makes customer service the responsibility of the entire company-not just a department. Focuses on company culture as the #1 priority. Applies research from the science of happiness to running…

    September 30, 2011  |  in Trends

  • Gen Y: Employers Get Low Marks for Benefits Communications

    Generation Y is taking over the world and the workplace—and employers who want to attract, engage and retain this huge workforce need to understand its preferences and communication styles, especially when it comes to workplace benefits. That’s the finding of a white paper by Colonial Life …

    news update September 29, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Rising From the Rubble

    Ten years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, HR professionals review lessons learned.  Ten years ago, Fred Alger Management Inc. was a highflying Wall Street investment company whose profitability was driven by the people who worked there. But when the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center collapsed…

    news update September 26, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Polite Meetings are a Waste of Time

    Poorly run, ineffective meetings frustrate everyone except the people running them. Recently, I interviewed Robert Herbold, former chief operating officer of Microsoft and author of “What’s Holding You Back.” Bob’s quiet, gentlemanly tone shifted toward disdain when I brought up wasting time in poorly…

    September 22, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Broken Trust Is Bad for Business

    When employees do not trust managers and leaders, various forms of organizational fallout are likely, including low engagement, high turnover and reduced innovation, experts say. And rebuilding trust isn’t easy. “Individuals can enjoy their work and have a strong sense of accomplishment, but if they don't…

    news update September 7, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Estis Shares Formula for ‘Rock Star’ Recruiting

      SAN DIEGO—The work recruiters do post-recession is going to look much different than the work they did before the recession, and companies’ people strategies will be the key component to defining their success and profitability for the next 10 to 20 years. So now’s the time…

    news update September 1, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Building Employee Trust Through Subversion Analysis and Ideation Workshops

    From last time…in the next post, we’ll talk more about what we tried on our team: We began “42projects” as an experiment to stimulate innovation by empowering employees to contribute in more meaningful ways. The overall goal was to liberate the tremendous…

    August 31, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • SHRM Poll Highlights Recognition Challenges

    Although 80 percent of organizations have a recognition program, less than a third of HR professionals (31 percent) believe that employees are satisfied with the level of recognition they receive for doing a good job. And while 56 percent of survey respondents said employees are rewarded according to their job performance, just 46 percent…

    research August 18, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • Full Engagement Lacking Around World

    Less than a third of employees (31 percent) are “fully engaged”—meaning that they have achieved maximum job satisfaction and are contributing to the fullest extent—and one out of six (17 percent) are disengaged, according to BlessingWhite’s Employee Engagement Report 2011, released Dec. 15, 2010. The consultancy surveyed 10,914…

    news update August 16, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • Pink: Raise the Employee Engagement Ante

    SAN DIEGO—After months, even years, of being hamstrung by layoffs, hiring freezes and flat-lined compensation packages, approximately 700 recruiting professionals have converged on this city to re-energize, recommit and learn how to reinvigorate their companies’ post-recessionary staffing efforts. The message they heard during the Society for Human Resource…

    news update August 11, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • 3M: In the Company We Trust

    Follow the lead of 3M’s HR managers and strive to strengthen employees’ trust. It need not be an elusive quality.  What do innovation, employee engagement and trust have in common? If you are a 3M executive, everything. The company’s record…

    Case Study August 8, 2011  |  in Workforce

  • ‘Most Admired’ Tie Rewards to Performance, Address Work/Life

    Rewards are linked to performance effectively at 89 percent of the "world's most admired companies" vs. 77 percent of their industry peers, according to the 14th annual World’s Most Admired Companies list compiled by Fortune magazine and Hay Group, a global consultancy. The most admired also are more likely…

    news update August 3, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • How Improving Trust can help lead to a Culture of Innovation

    From masking tape to Post-its, 3M is well known for its innovative culture. 3M has an annual goal that 30 percent of its annual profits come from products and businesses that are less than four years old.  Wired Magazine describes how 3M tackles that goal with their …

    August 1, 2011  |  in Workplace

  • More Companies Realize Business Opportunities Through Social Media

    Improved engagement, turnover, brand visibility and credibility among clients are goals   To kick-start the International Association of Business Communicators annual conference, John Santoro first cracked a semi-joke about himself. “I don’t Facebook. I don’t Twitter. I think this e-mail thing may catch…

    news update July 11, 2011  |  in Trends

  • 42Projects: Trust and Collaborative Play in the Workplace

    In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and—SNAP—the job’s a game! —Mary Poppins We live in an amazing time of demographic and societal changes, incredible communication and information developments, economic landscape…

    July 11, 2011  |  in Trends