How does your organization keep employees engaged during tough times? There's good evidence that organizations that can keep their employees engaged when the economy takes a dive are those that are most successful in the long run.

Keeping employees engaged is not the same as keeping them satisfied. Engagement drives performance - employees understand where the organization is going and how it is going to get there. They know how they fit into the organization's big picture, and what is expected of them. Unnecessary barriers that inhibit working effectively are removed. Employees are held accountable for their work, and experience the adulation of work well done, as well as the consequences when performance does not meet expectations. Feedback is timely and meaningful. Rewards are comensurate with performance and value contribution. These are the ways to engage employees. Enhanced employee engagement is a critical busienss outcome that drives organizational performance. At Knowledge Infusion, we work with organizations every day on better enabling these outcomes through people, process and technology.

What likely does not work at all, and may indeed backfire? Distributing motivational "stuff": posters, mugs, lunch bags, and other chatzkes. Have you heard of Despair, Inc.? Or "The Wailing List"? I bet your employees have. This is an organization that has made a statement parodying the motivational "stuff" industry. As you can imagine, their website becomes pretty popular in tough economic times. If you see Despair, Inc. "Demotivators" popping up around the office, that may be an indication that all is not well on the engagement front.

The good news about the drivers of employee engagement? Most of those things are behavioral - how leaders and managers do their jobs. And behavior changes don't cost a lot of dollars. Behavior changes do require concerted focus and effort, though. So here's my question: can organizations afford the costs of engagement during rough times? Or maybe the better question is: can organizations afford the costs of non-engagement? Would love to hear your thoughts...

I've always been a firm believer that just about anything can be outsourced. If there's a function that you can't or don't do well, there always seems to be someone out there that can do it for you for a small fee.

Inc.com recently reporting on a new spin in the outsourcing market - the notion of the outsourced termination. While outsourcing some functions may make good business sense, the concept of outsourcing terminations takes the game to a whole new level. With the talent shortage that is quickly becoming more and more of a reality, the image you present as a company to future and even past employees has never been more important. As talent becomes scarce, you may just find yourself in a situation where you are recycling the same people you let go just a few months prior. By outsourcing terminations and leaving talent with a negative impression, the job of future talent acquisition only becomes harder.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20071101/meet-rebecca-shes-here-to-fire-you.html

On a recent flight home to Phoenix from the east coast, I picked up a copy of Outside Magazine to help pass the time and to help fuel my passion of the outdoors. To my pleasure, the issue showcased an article about a Navy SEAL and his pursuit of the sport of Triathlon. To my surprise, this same article also emphasized one of the talent management principles that I continually work with clients on - critical roles.

The article highlighted the US Navy's efforts to recruit qualified candidates for its SEAL program. You see, the US Navy has identified the SEAL as a critical role that enables success in modern warfare and is making special efforts to recruit candidates that stand an increased chance of success in that role. To recruit for SEALs, the Navy has broken away from their traditional recruiting methods such as high school fairs and strip mall recruiting offices, and has gotten out into the environments that contain the talent that can excel at what they will ask them to do. They've taken the notion of critical roles and applied it in a way that ensures a higher rate of success. By focusing recruiting efforts in talent rich environments such as triathlon events, surfing competitions, water-polo matches, and lifeguard competitions, the Navy has increased it success rate from 26% to over 40% for candidates that can make it through their insanely difficult qualifying school (BUD/S).

As the US Navy has shown, the ‘peanut butter' approach to HR process and practice just isn't working anymore. Applying the same processes and level of effort to all jobs and roles within your organization ends up inflating costs and inevitably wasting precious time that could have been dedicated to the critical roles that differentiate your business in the market. By focusing on critical roles and applying special handling to these roles, you increase your success rate and enable a critical component of your talent pipeline.

Knowledge Infusion works with client's everyday to define their Talent Management strategy focusing on critical roles and the integrated Talent Management technologies that support them.

Link to Outside article