Comments on: Doing More With Less

By: Dining al Desko — hr bartender

Dining al Desko — hr bartender — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 09:03:00 +0000

[...] I understand what’s going on in the workplace. We’re getting asked to do more with less – one more job responsibility or one additional project. In order to get home at a decent [...]

By: HRM Today - Blog Archive » Is Management Good For Your Health?

HRM Today - Blog Archive » Is Management Good For Your Health? — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:00:58 +0000

[...] now, our management teams are being asked to do more with less. If our managers don’t have the skills and support to manage their teams, how can a company [...]

By: Chris - Manager's Sandbox

Chris - Manager's Sandbox — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:29:28 +0000

Even when benefits get slashed, staffing gets cut and work-loads increase, it's still possible to keep productivity up and people motivated. Someone else through out engagement, and culture obviously plays a huge part in the engagement of employees. This is a great time to examine how effective your reward and recognition programs are, too. Are they based solely on money and promotions (instrumental motivation). If so, people are missing out three or four other great ways to inspire and motivate people. Instrumental Motivation: Putting people in jobs they love. They'll do they work even if they're terrible at it (which doesn't help you, of course - but if you can align what they're good at with what they like... jackpot!) Internal Validation: Provide people with challenging but realistic work. People motivated by internal validation enjoy the internal thrill of completing a challenging or difficult task. If the work isn't realistically achievable, you'll just demotivate. If its too easy, they'll lose interest. External Validation: Money and success are great, but are you publicly announcing people's successes. Make a big show of it, put their name up somewhere, give them a certificate. Allow people to bask in the glory of a job well-done. Goal Identification: One of the hardest to achieve, people who are motivated by goal identification do things they hate just to see their company succeed. You see this more at non-profits and companies that make or do cool stuff. Sharlyn, I hope you don't mind a shameless plug, and if this is inappropriate, please feel free to delete this part. I've written at length about motivating employees on my blog, and offer a free podcast and ebook. You can check it out here: http://managerssandbox.com/archives/motivating-your-employees/ Cheers! Chris

By: hr bartender

hr bartender — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:22:50 +0000

Those of us who are tuned in to social media know its power for internal engagement and external marketing. Stay tuned and you’ll see more about this in my prognostications for 2009. And yes, hard work without good decision-making is always a recipe for failure. There is never a substitute for strategic planning. Let’s hope Dustin is right . . that the posers have indeed left the building, leaving it up to us socially networked inmates to take over the asylum. Cheers!

By: eitan

eitan — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:13:13 +0000

Thanks for the nice post and for bringing this important subject up as it tends to be pushed aside in the current climate. I second George’s point: engagement plays a key role now, as it is when economy booms. I read some people suggesting to postpone, defer or “soften” retention initiatives now. While I think the strategy should be adjusted, it cannot be put in a time capsule box that will be opened in a year or two.
Engagement = Productivity. And productivity is very important now.

By: Dustin Henderson

Dustin Henderson — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:51:59 +0000

Why all the doom and Gloom – this is the beginning not the end!

It is in this environment the real innovators will emerge. I heard this quote once and I really liked it – “Innovation requires constraint.” We are emerging from a time of very little constraint. All bets were winners. No one had to think creatively.

Now, times are hard. There are very few answers. Good people are loosing their jobs and their homes (and that is bad!). Budgets are shrinking. We have to do more with much less. In other words, we are in a time of significant constraint.

Increased constraint means a decreased in the idea pool. The posers have left the building. It is now up to the believers, the real innovators, to step up enjoy their place in the sun.

By: George Black

George Black — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:35:29 +0000

Management attitude greatly affects how productive employees care to be. Being stimulated by an exciting and shared objective is very different from “…beatings will continue until morale improves.” New, more entrepreneurial businesses, with deeply engaged, skilled employees—many with an ownership stake in the enterprise—have reputedly very high productivity. I suppose they must have…or die.

I don’t know the answer for more established traditional businesses as to how they can create or encourage such engagement but it seems to me that fear of job loss alone won’t do it. Proactive steps must be taken. Massive layoffs encourage a wave of fear and resentment among those left with the mandate of producing the same amount of work as before–or be the next to go. My sense is some will be happy to go…or if they can’t afford it…may surreptitiously subvert the project.

Could social networking work to release the pressure felt by layoff survivors? Or be used by management to inform and initiate two-way interaction to encourage buy-in to the mission by employees? So much traditional corporate communication is slow, formal and clunky by contemporary social networking standards.

What is the current thinking of social networking-conscious HR folks, Sharlyn?