Carrots - Far Better Than Sticks

Do you know what they say about recognition? Babies cry for it, soldiers die for it – a powerful similie indeed. But how often is recognition and to a greater extent rewards used in the workplace.

Certainly giving recognition in the workplace is simple…and costs nothing! Yet it is a tool so rarely used by supposedly enlightened management who are trying to “get the most” (sorry best) out of their staff. Everything today seems to be about the latest tech-savvy gizmo and everyone is talking about “the cloud” and regurgitating on the latest acronyms. OMG! I’m lost in a dark cumulo nimbus!

Sometimes all you need to do is go back to the “age-0ld” basics. To use a metpahor, rip off a piece of paper and write it down!

You see, there is very little that is as powerful as recognizing a job well done (that is recognizing publicly) and then rewarding that job well done. This has two effects.

Firstly the person who receives that recognition and reward is hugely motivated to maintain the level of performance that achieved the rewards. Secondly, his or her fellow members of staff that witness the recognition and giving of the rewards will “want some of that” for themselves.

Coming from a recruitment background I know this very well indeed. I don’t think I’m giving any secrets away when I say I delibertaely played my staff off against each other in the recognation and rewards stakes! I created a fun but competitive enviromnent where there was plenty of recognition and some stunning rewards for high performance. It worked like a dream and allowed us to go from start up to nearly £9 million in turnover in just 17 months.

That is a clear demonstration of the power of using a properly structured rewards and recognition environment.

I read a Towers Watson study which showed that organizations with high employee engagement had a 19 percent increase in operating income and almost 28 percent growth in earnings per share. On the other hand, companies with low levels of engagement experienced a drop in operating income of more than 32 percent and an EPS decline of 11 percent. Personally I believe you can show even more dramatic results than this as my personal example showed. But, the environment has to be right.

Anyway, talking of rewards, it’s nearly time for Santa to deliver me some well earned rewards…so on that note I would like to wish you all a very happy christmas and a prosperopus (recognised and rewarded) and peaceful 2012.

Happy Christmas

Derek

Oh dear, the unemployment figures for the U.K have just been released and they do not make pleasant reading.

A rise of 129,000 (which is a big rise in the number of people out of work) making a total of 2.62 million. If you’re a Conservative minister, that makes pretty scary reading. It is, of course, far more scary for pretty much everyone in the workforce. It’s true the “job for life” disappeared many, many years ago, but what is happening now, is very definitely worrying.

I wrote only the other day that job creation in the private sector was supposed to take up the slack from public sector cuts, but that many (private sector) firms are sitting on the fence at the moment – wating to see what happens in the economy and Eurozone. Today’s figure seems to confirm that trend.

The worst figure in all of this is that the number of “under 25s” unemployed has gone above 1 million, and that is sad. Many graduates are still searching for work and more still are working in low paid jobs where they do not use any of the skills they have invested 3-4 years of their life acquiring. This is the saddest fact of all…and I speak from first hand experience with my own children and their friends here.

Thirteen years of labour quango and public sector building have bred an economy where there is little creativity, everyone expects a handout, no-one is prepared to take any responsibility and red-tape rules and it is virtually impossible to get anything done. Even sadder is the fact that the Tories seem to be doing very little to sort out the huge mess left behind.

Until they take the proverbial “bull by the horns” and make some radical changes then improvement is going to be slow and painful and unemployment will likely rise further before we see an improvement. As for the lost generation of youth, my message has to be use your creativity and get out there and try a few things. Don’t wait for something to happen – make something happen.

The one thing emplpoyers like most in ANY candidate is proactivity and a can-do attitude. Demonstrate that and you are more than half-way to getting hired.

Just a quick update on the unemployment situation on the back of a CIPD report released today.

We all know unemployment has been rising over the last couple of years. Indeed, I believe the government expected that to happen given they were quite open about the need to cut public sector jobs to help cut the defecit. I totally believe that was necessary.

However, it seems, if you believe this CIPD report that public sector jobs are being shed at five times the rate the Office of Budget Responsibility expected. Good for the defefcit? Well, yes and no. Sure it gets the number of public servants down and therefore reduces the public payroll. But there is a bit of a double whammy in this. Firstly less tax is collected, and secondly and more importantly the CIPD reports that private sector job creation is not keeping pace.

The fact that private sector job creation was going to take up “the slack” from the public sector contraction was an absolutely key cornerstone of Government policy.

So, what have the CIPD had to say about all this?

Unemployment Graph Courtesy of the BBC

They have stated that they see a “slow and painful” contraction of the labour market in the U.K. They all see the predicted job market will worsen in the short to medium term due to the global “economic turmoil”. There is no doubt the entire Western world has been on a credit fuelled spending frenzy…so now it is time to balance the books. The former Labour Government have been the worst culprits, and it is a damn good job they didn’t get back in otherwise dear old Gordon would be in a similar position to Mr Burlesconi about now. Although that might have had some amusement factor attached to it.

The bottom line is that the CIPD are reporting most potential employers adopting a “wait and see” approach to hiring.

In truth the report is merely stating the “bleedin’ obvious” as it goes on to state that outsourcing has dropped and if the Eurozone crisis prompts a further recession then the outlook for recruitment per se will become worse. Someone give the CIPD a prize!

My personal view is that China cannot afford the West to “go down”, so whilst no deal was done in public at the recent G20, China will offer support, because it needs a vibrant Western economy to thrive itself.

I also have faith in the British entrepreneurial spirit and skill. I do believe the private secotr will come to the rescue. British people are very resourceful and they will find new and innovative ways to build wealth. As for “re-indsutrialising”, no that is not the way to go. Focus on new and cutting edge industries, bio-tech, micro electronics, new information technology. Areas where a technolgical lead is worth millions. That is where we excel here in G.B, and that is where the recovery, a sustained recovery will come from.

You heard it here first!

Hello again, I always like to keep the site fresh with new information and today I’ve got 3 job search tips for you. They are really basic commons sense, but nonetheless…here they are! I hope you find them useful if you are looking to find a new job at the moment.

Job Search Tip 1 – It’s a Full Time Job!

1) Approach finding a job as if it were a full-time job, because it is. If you had a job, you would report to work at the same time each day (like 8 am), take an hour (or less) for lunch, and quit at the same time each day (like 5 pm). You would work five days every week. And you would work hard to accomplish as much as you could because your career depended upon it.

When you are searching for a job, you should follow the same type of schedule because your future depends upon it.

Treating your job search like a part-time hobby guarantees that it will take longer.

So, begin tomorrow by reporting to work and spending the day on tasks that lead to a job.

Make It A “Project”

2) Approach finding a job as if it were a project. That means you should set goals for yourself, make plans, and monitor your progress. You should apply all of the tools and skills that you used in your last job to the project of finding your next job.

As you must expect, this is an important project. The sooner you complete it, the sooner you gain a promotion into a job.

Set Job Search Goals (And Keep To Them)

3) Be your own boss. Set expectations for what you need to accomplish, provide direction, and monitor your work.

Meet with yourself once each week to evaluate your performance. I recommend doing this by writing two reports. The first is a candid evaluation of what you accomplished during the previous week. The second is a description of your plans for the coming week. Your plans should include your goals, actions, and priorities.

The first time that you write these reports, write an evaluation of what you have done so far. Describe the results that this effort has produced. And compare these results with what you wanted to have.

Next, map out a realistic plan for the next week based on achievable goals. For example, you could set goals for the number of people you will call, the number of networking meetings you will attend, and the research you will conduct.

Analysis is Key

In the coming weeks, compare the results that you obtained during the previous week with the goals that you set. For example, if you planned to attend twelve networking meetings and you attended only two, you should a) explain why this happened and b) plan actions that will correct such a difference. You should also analyze why you missed your goal because this provides insights on what you need to do differently. For example, Your goal (e.g., of attending twelve networking meetings) may have been set too high. Or maybe there are things you can do that will make it easier to achieve your job search goals, such as car pooling with a friend who is also looking for a job.

Finding a job is a full time job. Work through it with a plan and the support of a good boss (yourself).

I wish you the best of success.

Topic:-

• Find A Job

• Job Search

• Job Search Tips

As the economy stares down the barrel of a double dip recession, sure as eggs is eggs the job demand fell in September 2011!

There is no doubt the mess from the banking crisis hasn’t been fully cleared up and it looks like we are in for another tough couple of years. In effect all that has happened is that weight of bank debt has been transferred to the Governments of the Western World and they can’t cope with the burden either.

Consequently austerity programs are in place and we are now seeing the results of that in massive job cuts in the public sector.

If we could get the private sector ramped up, that slack would be taken up, and certainly we have seen some degree of that here in the U.K. However, caution prevails and overall job vacancies have decreased across most sectors in the U.K during September. Almost as a paradox Engineering has seen an increase in employment but, that was before the annoucement by BAE at Walton.

The result of all this uncertainty is that overall salary levels are now 3 points below the level they were in December 2011. My feeling is this is being caused by older member of the workforce retiring or being made redundant and younger less qualified (and therefore cheaper) employees taking their place. Although, having said that, there is huge downward pressure on costs across all sectors, wages being a major cost item.

O.K that’s it for now, I’ll be back with more the next time I get interesting news from the U.K jobs market.

Cheers now

Derek