There are two complaints I most commonly hear from employees
“No one communicates around here” and
“I don’t like the people I work with.”

These two vital strategies go hand in hand — communication and connections. Communication is obvious, but “connections” represents the bonds that exist between people at work. Even though these strategies are emotional, subjective, and difficult to measure, both of them form the glue that leads to retention and increased job satisfaction.

High retention organizations thrive on information and share it to the maximum extent possible. In a survey I conducted, I asked respondents to answer this question, “What can managers do more of?” The overwhelming response was, “Better at communicating.” The more information people have, the more quickly they can respond to the changing needs of customers and the environment.

Building Strong Connections Among Employees

Individual Retention Profile

Each person should have a retention plan. Consider finding out the following information to help build a more power ful relationship with the people you manage.

Questions You Need to Know

• What aspects of your job have you enjoyed the most?
• What has been the least enjoyable aspects of your job?
• Why do you stay?
• What frustrates you about this place?
• What can we do to make this a better place to work?
• Which supervisor would you like to work for?
• What is your dream job?
• What can we do to make your job even better?
• When do you feel most appreciated for what you do?
• How can we communicate better in this department/organization?
• What are you overdue for?

Using Assessments and Behavior Profiles

Today, business success is measured in TALENT — the RIGHT talent for the RIGHT job. Jim Collins said in his book, From Good to Great, “People are not your most important asset. The right people are. Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.”

Having the wrong person is like putting a six hundred pound jockey on a racehorse. No matter how hard you push, you are not going to get that horse to go any faster. Successful organizations have come to realize talent management is integral to sustaining their leadership and growth in the marketplace. Attracting, hiring, and retaining high-caliber employees in today’s labor market challenges organizations to manage talent at every level.

People are not cut out for every job. Past experience is not a predictor of future success. Putting the wrong person in a job is going to generate employee turnover, poor performance, missed business opportunities, lost sales, unhappy customers, and increased costs.

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle

Each job requires a unique set of motivations, competencies, and tasks. To reiterate what Jim Collins said, “Get the right people in the right seat.” Obsolete hiring practices and poorly trained interviewers are not helping the situation. The reasons traditional hiring practices are not working include:

• Failure to detect motivational fit with job
• Applicants “exaggerate” to get a job
• Relying on past experience as an indicator of success
• Legal liability
• Most interviewers are not properly trained to interview appli cants
• Hiring decisions made by intuition, not fact

Each person brings their own set of unique skills, talents, and competencies to the job. The trouble is most organizations fall short in matching the job with the individual. Businesses have not analyzed what it takes to be successful in each job.

Many organizations are taking the next step and turning to behavior assessments and personality trait testing for hourly workers, managers, and executives. Back in the late ’90s, only 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies used some type of assessment. That figure has climbed to 65 percent. A year 2000 study by American Management Association showed nearly half of 1,085 employers polled use at least one assessment in their interviewing process.

To maximize effectiveness, businesses and individuals must understand their strengths and have a well-defined plan to help them reach their potential. How well they do this makes the difference between an exceptional organization and an average one. Assessments and profiles can help you:

• Screen job applicants and identify which positions they are best suited for
• Help managers become better leaders
• Improve retention
• Coach and mentor key employees
• Reduce conflict between teams and individuals
• Design development plans to overcome shortcomings
• Predict a job applicant’s success before they are hired
• Give performance feedback to people in a style they understand and accept
• Enhance communication
• Select, hire, develop, and motivate sales people

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Mediating Disputes Among Subordinates

Every line manager in corporate America has felt frustrated over employee tensions and unresolved conflict. And let’s face it: There’s typically more than enough work that needs to be done without involving hurt feelings, resentment, and that walking-on-eggshells sensation that makes you feel more like a referee than a supervisor.

With the critical need for retention of key talent, however, managers have to find ways to get their people ‘‘plugged in’’ again or else face premature turnover. The reality, though, is that your staff members will almost always take the path of least resistance with each other—which is avoidance—rather than address problem issues head on. As the manager, you must intervene in a mediating role to ensure that a lack of communication doesn’t lead to performance problems or turnover.

Pretending that a problem doesn’t exist or allowing staff members to work out problems on their own may be a safe strategy when a new interpersonal conflict first arises; however, once that initial frustration has festered over time, it becomes time to step in.

The Solution

When two of your staff members are at war, meet with each individual separately and explain how you intend to resolve the problem:

Sam, I’m meeting with you one-on-one and will do the same with Christina once you and I are done. I want you to understand how together we’re going to resolve the underlying tension that’s become fairly obvious between the two of you.

First, I’ll want to hear your side of the story, and then I’ll share that with Christina when we meet. I’ll then want to hear Christina’s side of the story, and I’ll share her feedback with you before the three of us come together as a group. This way everyone will know everyone else’s issues, or the what of it all, and we could come together and focus on how to resolve it.

In short, we’ll solve this in three meetings: Our meeting right now, Sam, is the first one. My meeting with Christina right after we’re done will be the second one. I’ll follow up with you after that and give you her feedback. Finally, we’ll have a third meeting this afternoon where we can talk this out together. Again, everyone will know the issues, so there won’t be any surprises, and we’ll solve this like adults, maintaining each other’s respect and dignity. Are you clear on how I’m planning on handling this?

Privately find out Sam’s side of the story at that point. In your meeting with Sam, ask him why Christina may be feeling the way she does. Ask Sam what he’d like to see happen ideally in terms of his relationship with Christina, and then ask him what he’d be willing to change about his own behavior to elicit a different response from her in the future. Afterward hold the same meeting with Christina, learn her side of the story, and then share her perceptions with Sam.

The third meeting where you all come together is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Understanding that employees may be nervous or anxious that a serious escalation may occur, set the ground rules as follows:

Okay, Sam and Christina, I’ve got two key ground rules that we all have to follow before we begin.

First, you shouldn’t hold anything back. This is your chance to get it all out in the open, and if you withhold anything, then you’ll have missed a golden opportunity to share your side of the story. You’re not going to get another chance to readdress these pent-up issues and frustrations in the future. After our meeting today, I’m re-welcoming you both to the company as if it were your first day of employment. I’m also holding you both accountable for reinventing your working relationship from that point forward. Understood? [Yes.]

Second, everything that you share has to be said with the other person’s best interests in mind and in a spirit of constructive criticism. There is no attacking and no need for defending in this meeting; this is really more a sensitivity session where you both get to walk a mile in the other’s moccasins and hear firsthand how the other is feeling. Do I have your agreement on both of these ground rules? [Yes.]

Setting up a meeting with these qualifiers automatically de-escalates feelings of angst or anger in the participants. It also gives you the chance to take a gentle approach to interpersonal issues that, like scars, sometimes run long and deep.

Special Note

During the group meeting, you’ll sometimes notice that each employee will first address his or her concerns directly to you—the mediator. It will be as if the other person weren’t even there. Third-person ‘‘he-she’’ discussions need to be changed into an ‘‘I-you’’ dialogue. To accomplish this shift in audience, simply stop the conversation as soon as one of the participants begins speaking about the other in the third person. Ask the individual to speak directly to the other person as if you weren’t there. That may appear a little challenging for the participants at first, especially if emotions are running high, but direct communication works best. After all, you’re helping them fix their problem.

In addition, you should encourage your two staff members to use the phrases ‘‘this is how I feel’’ and ‘‘can you understand why I would feel that way?’’ Feelings aren’t right or wrong—they just are. Since perception is reality until proven otherwise, it’s each individual’s responsibility to sensitize the other regarding the existence of perceptions that have developed over time.

Knowing that guilt will allow for the assumption of partial responsibility for an imperfect situation, that element of accountability will serve as the seed of goodwill that helps heal old wounds. For example, if Christina feels bad about her relationship with Sam, shares with him why she feels the way she does, and admits that it takes two to tango and that she’s part of the problem, then Sam will likely respond positively to the olive branch that Christina’s extending.

Once you’ve pierced the heart of the combatants, so to speak, then the battle is won. You’ll know you’re there when they’re talking to each other, agreeing that they’ve got a problem on their hands, and demonstrating a willingness to fix it. These kinds of management interventions aren’t normally investigations of fact-finding. Instead, they’re sensitivity training sessions where goodwill and openness naturally heal the wounds associated with ego and principal.

Conclude the meeting this way:

Christina and Sam, you’ve both heard the other side of the story now. I’m not asking you to become best friends, but I’m insisting that you both demonstrate respect and open communication toward each other at work from this point forward.

I’ll end this meeting with two questions. First, do I have your commitment that you’ll view the other with goodwill and assume good intentions from this point forward? Second, do you both understand that if the situation doesn’t improve and the work flow is negatively impacted in any way, my response next time may result in formal progressive discipline rather than a goodwill sit-down like this?

And voilà—you’ll have given both employees their day in court, so to speak, where each vents and shares perceptions of the problem. You’ll end the meeting on a constructive note where both agree to change their behavior. And you’ll also create a healthy sense of paranoia where both realize that if the problem surfaces again, there may be a more formal management response—most likely in the form of a written warning. Congratulations! You’ve treated your warring parties as adults and held them accountable for fixing the perception problem on their hands.

Remember, no matter how much you care, you can’t manage their differences. Only they can do that. Still, you can provide a forum for solving employee disputes that brings out the best in people. Establishing a culture of openness means confronting people problems in an environment that’s safe and that maintains the individual’s dignity. It enhances your position as a leader and establishes your reputation as a fair arbiter of disagreements. There’s no better formula for employee retention than treating people with respect, dignity, and a caring ear.

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There are many theories and insights that management psychologists and behaviouralists have come up with about human motivation. Certainly this is a complex area in terms of human energy and behaviour. What most specialists agree, however, is that:

? Motivation comes from within; it is drawn out of individuals, not imposed on them.
? Motivation is multi-dimensional and there is no single universal answer about what motivation is, true for all time and all people.
? Some things motivate and encourage extra effort; others only cause dissatisfaction by their absence.
? Clear goals are an aid to motivation: they enable individuals to know what to aim for, and feedback gives an energizing sense of progress.
? Increasingly, ‘carrots’ are seen as generally more effective to foster sustained motivation than ‘sticks’.

To foster long-term, sustained motivation, recent thought is that managers must inspire employees to draw their motivation from inside rather than rely on external factors such as pay.

There are eight fundamental needs that motivate employees in the long term and which are shared to varying degrees by us all. These are:
Desire for activity.

People want to be active and involved. In their personal lives most people avoid boredom and monotony. Yet at work employees are expected to accept boring, repetitious, monotonous jobs without complaint.
Desire for ownership.

Owning things makes people feel better about themselves. ‘Psychological’ ownership is even more important than ‘physical’ ownership. Employees want to psychologically own their work. They want input into their work and want to feel responsible for their jobs.
Desire for power.

People want to control their destiny. They don’t want to feel powerless over external forces shaping their lives. With fewer top-down, control organizations more and more employees are demanding their freedom back.
Desire for affiliation.

People are social creatures. They like to interact and socialize with one another, though the degree of sociability will vary. Social support and helping relationships are among the many benefits provided by work.
Desire for competence.

This is the core of self-esteem. People welcome opportunities to feel more competent. Work can provide these opportunities.
Desire for achievement.

It is important for people to succeed at something. Under the right conditions, employees will be willing to work hard and overcome obstacles to achieve a goal.
Desire for recognition.

People want to feel appreciated by others and be positively recognized for their efforts. Recognition is a powerful force which has the capability to unleash energy and motivation.
Desire for meaning.

People want a reason for doing something. They want reassurance that their efforts, however small, are making a difference.

We advocates that the manager finds out which of these eight desires the individual most wishes to satisfy and then facilitate ways of helping the employee achieve these desires.

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Employee engagement is personified by the passion and energy employees have to give of their best to the organization to serve the customer. It is all about the willingness and ability of employees to give sustained discretionary effort to help their organization succeed.
Engagement is characterized by employees being committed to the organization, believing in what it stands for and being prepared to go above and beyond what is expected of them to deliver outstanding service to the customer. Employee engagement is more a psychological contract than a physical one. It is something the employee has to offer. As we will see, employees make a choice about how they behave and the extent to which they are engaged. Engaged employees feel inspired by their work, they are customer focused in their approach, they care about the future of the company and are prepared to invest their own effort to see that the organization succeeds.
Engagement can be summed up by how positively the employee:
?    thinks about the organization;
?    feels about the organization;
?    is proactive in relation to achieving organizational goals for customers, colleagues and other stakeholders.
In other words, it is about the degree to which employees perform their role in a positive and proactive manner.
Engagement therefore is about what employees think rationally about their employers, what they feel about them, their emotional connection, as well as what they do and say as a result in relation to their co-employees and their customers.
So why has employee engagement become so important across the globe? There are two key reasons: the increasing power of the customer and the increasing power of the employee.

THE BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Creating the conditions where employees feel able to give of their best therefore results in documented benefits such as:
?    greater productivity;
?    increased passion for and commitment to the organization’s vision, strategy and goals;
?    greater alignment with the organization’s values;
?    a high-energy working environment;
?    a greater sense of team;
?    higher levels of creativity and innovation;
?    a greater sense of loyalty to the organization;
?    higher staff retention, lowered attrition rate;
?    better recruitment and selection;
?    higher talent retention;
?    employees being better brand ambassadors;
?    attractive reputation;
?    improved customer experience and customer loyalty;
?    boosted business growth;
?    greater value creation;
?    sustained, long-term success.

IDENTIFYING ACTIVELY ENGAGED EMPLOYEES
When employee was highly engaged, I would probably see this through:
?    Cognitive engagement: the degree to which the employee focuses very hard on work. Engaged employees are focused and at one with their work. For example, they are not distracted from what they are doing, they display single-mindedness and high energy.
?    Emotional engagement: the degree to which the employee feels engrossed in the work. Engaged employees are ‘in the zone’, they are engrossed in what they are doing to the extent that they do not become distracted. They live in the ‘here and now’ when they are at work.

?    Physical engagement: the degree to which employees are willing to go the extra mile, not just in terms of customer service but also for themselves, for example in taking responsibility for their own learning and development, in finding new ways of doing things and in putting in discretionary effort.
?    Advocacy: the extent to which employees recommend the organization to their family and friends in terms of job opportunities and doing business with the organization. A key determinant is how employees portray the organization to others when they are outside work. Do they show pride in the organization? Do they relate to it and talk as ‘we’ rather than ‘they?’

There is a buzz about an organization where employees are truly engaged. People feel trusted, valued and empowered. They are emotionally committed and personally involved; there are high levels of motivation and enthusiasm.
One way of describing the level of engagement that an employee has is to gauge their enthusiasm and energy level and the degree of positivity that they display at work. The model has two dimensions. The first is employees’ attitude towards the customer, their colleagues and the organization, be it positive or negative. The second is their enthusiasm and drive towards activity, be it positive (active) or negative (inactive).

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One big issue to consider when designing an executive plan in China is the relative scarcity of executive compensation market data. While the data pool is growing exponentially each year, the volume of data in China is much smaller than other locations in the world where executive compensation is common. As such, it is a good practice in China to collect some of your own data from competitors and/or other companies that you believe are comparable in some ways to yours. This should give you more confidence that you are doing what is common in the market than that you would get from a third party’s market data alone. If you choose to rely also on foreign company databases, you should be aware of the following significant differences between China and elsewhere:

�� �Eligibility for participation in an equity plan in China tends to be reserved only for the highest executives, as compared to firms in the U.S., Australia and Europe that allow eligibility for ownership at lower levels. Actually, even in China, multi-national firms tend to go deeper into the firm than local firms when determining eligibility.
?�� �The mix of performance measures in China is also slightly different from elsewhere. For example, in the West, the performance measures for executive plans tend to be primarily related to the company or the division. In China, the mix includes a large percentage of individual performance. So, while the company/individual mix in the West might be from 100:0 to 80:20, in China, it is more like 60:40.
?�� �Grant sizes in China tend to be approximately 60% those of the U.S.
?�� �Around the world, there are large differences in payout schemes for executives in different industries. While some industry differences exist in China, they are not very significant.
?�� �The frequency of grants is less in China than elsewhere. Again, using the U.S. as an example, the most common approach is a payout every year based on three-year goals. This is called a “rolling” plan. In China, the most common approach is to pay out every two years with new goals developed at that time. This is called a “cliff” plan.

Generally, Chinese human resources professionals can learn about executive compensation by studying the plan elements of other countries. If you are part of a multinational, then you may be advised to use a similar plan in China to what is done in your home office. But be cognizant of the cultural issues mentioned earlier in the chapter. What is done in the U.S. or in Europe may simply not make sense in China and you may need to start from scratch. The primary differences between Chinese executive compensation plans and those elsewhere are not in the plan elements but in the details of those elements.

Thus, the leader should look very closely at eligibility, grant size, grant frequency, and the mix of performance measures to ensure that the plan is comparable to that which makes the most sense in China. Again, let me mention for the third time, when looking into executive compensation in China, it is wise to include a third party so as to have objectivity and technical expertise when designing the plan. Most human resources professionals in China are not experienced in the special nuances of executive compensation. While all of the major human resources consulting firms have expertise in executive compensation, the level of expertise varies significantly from office to office and from time to time. Good executive compensation consultants are unique and very much in demand in China, so it is prudent to do your due diligence instead of just hiring someone based on the consulting firm’s reputation.

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