Employees want:
• To train, mentor, supervise, and lead new employees.
“Induction trainings”…
Properly inducting employees, and in a quick manner, is an extremely important part of our success. If we can make someone happy through their participation (albeit, likely limited) in our induction process, which may also benefit the company, I see no reason not to do so.
I made a note to follow up with the potential inclusion of some employees into the induction trainings.
Employees want:
• To help introduce new staff to the company.
“I can take on more vacancies, now it is boring and I like to be overloaded”…
With this employee, I felt sincere empathy as I also love to be busy and stretched to the limits of my capabilities – that is why I make sure that I always am. However, in this case, there was not a lot I could do at the time given the slowdown in our business which, in turn, was attributable not to our performance but to the recession that adversely impacted hiring and our industry. Only an economic recovery, which takes time, will remedy the situation and help allow this employee to work at the rate she so desires.
However, as this was a very good producing employee, I did make a note to speak to management about the possibility of re-directing some of the upcoming vacancy distributions toward her.
Employees want:
• To be busy; and
• To have a lot of work.
“Organizing exhibitions, round table organization, assisting marketing”…
I believe, once again, that it would not take much effort on the company’s part to include this person, who is part of the recruitment team, in a future marketing-related meeting. I made a note to do so. I see little downside in this as she may have some great ideas or, perhaps, just lend solid organizational skills to the efforts of the department. This is a very small gesture, and in turn, we would likely make a team member happy.
Employees want:
• To be involved in marketing-related activities.
“I used to make a Staffwell newsletter and loved this, maybe for a team-building event we can do this again”…
I thought this was a good idea and it was one that I had recently been thinking about myself. It is a no-cost endeavor, if done electronically, save for a few hours of everyone’s time throughout the year. As it does bring everyone together in a fun way, I agreed that this can be seen as a team-building activity.
Employees want:
• To bring fun, team-related activities to daily work-life, on occasion.
Chapter 6
How Can The Company Enable You To Make Fuller Use Of Your Capabilities And Potential?
I thought this was a good question as it attempts to uncover the problems the company might have that may be limiting people from performing better.
“Now I have everything, even in this crisis with the salary default, what is important that I have freedom to create things, to open new offices and I can save us money”…”I am self-motivated, just for the management to trust me more, to let me fly more”…
The two people commenting here are valuable assets to the company. If it would help them develop more trust, respect and faith in their abilities, and in what they can achieve for the company, then I feel we need to provide them more space for creativity.
In addition, I believe that these two people were, in their own way, telling me that they were motivated to do and achieve more for the company. I took this as only good news and I am excited to see their potential developed.
Employees want:
• To be trusted;
• To be given more room to grow;
• To have less management controls on them when they are not needed; and
• To prove to management that they can make significant contributions without help.
“Our CRM needs to be improved and full documentation written on it, there is a useless function on reporting on statistics, update the operations manual”…”Anything! Participation in operations (operations manual and systems review and overhaul, and training, IT training not sales training, I can analyze if it is effective or not effective and I can make content of tracking programs and make them into measurable results”…
Fantastic! I am a true believer in strong operations so I support ideas people may have to enhance them. Operations need to be constantly improved, as they can become quickly outdated. We try our best, like most companies do, but realize it is a never-ending task.
For me, these were very useful answers as they gave specific areas of improvement that we can work on, fix, or implement. I made notes to follow-up on these issues and to include those commenting here in the process.
Employees want:
• Strong, optimally-efficient operations; and
• To help with operational improvements.
“The team needs to be motivated and developed”…
I believe this to always be the case. This quote is from a top manager, indicating, I believe, what she personally needs to focus on to achieve success for the company and for herself.
I notice a pattern in her answers which I find interesting. She never answers in terms of herself. Rather, she focuses on the team and what we need to do to improve team members so that the company improves. These are very selfless, big picture answers and, to me, indicative of good leadership and executive management qualities.
Employees want:
• Employees to always be the best they can be.
“The new office and new services that we have now”…”I asked for a cold-calling room and got it”…
I was glad to know that these staff members felt taken care of.
The new office referred to here was in Saint Petersburg, where we down-sized into a smaller, but nicer office space. The new services were related to out-placement and gave our staff a brand new project to focus on and sell to clients amidst a slow market.
I personally like an open-plan office as I think it promotes teamwork, accountability and a group-bonding environment. However, it can get loud at times when everyone is talking on the phone or with each other. The cold calling room was requested to enable the team to occasionally have private, quiet, important discussions, when needed, with clients or candidates with whom they are working.
Employees want:
• What they ask for;
• On occasion, privacy – for important business calls; and
• Nothing at times, because all may be fine just as it is.
“My current seating location is not great and the room is too stuffy for me and hot and there is not enough light”
This is an easy aspect to fix and look into immediately, especially as it is a one-person issue.
Some staff members have specific