Dear [firstname,fallback=Subscriber],
May 2009 has seen us consulted on many issues relating to people who work in our client organisations. We share with you some facts we have learnt along the way; and some ideas and techniques you may find helpful in your own organisations.
Recruit
Think carefully about what you are trying to achieve from an interview - a new employee or a co-owner of the organisation? The interview techniques are not the same... All too often, organisations use interviewing panels and techniques that are not appropriate for effective recruitment. This is not an employment interview - it’s quite quite different - it is a business case investigation and a ‘two way’ matching conversation between equals. Click here to read more...
Retain & Develop
A recent report published by the CIPD (using research undertaken by Cranfield University) states that most businesses intend to maintain or increase the management development of their staff. Interestingly, the public sector invests most in developing the management skills of its employees, the legal sector the least. In a time when effective business nouse and management skills are key to harnessing the opportunities that are around, how are you ensuring that you and they have the skills that they need? If the answer to the question is ‘we are not’, then perhaps we need to talk about the implications of that approach… contact us.
Ensure that, in this market, your staff are thinking about new business opportunities in the right way… ‘Think laterally’.
Suddenly, you are at the centre of a far wider hub of influence than you realised. And that will only serve you well in today’s market place of opportunity. Click here to read more...
Deal with redundancy
Many organisations are making redundancies. Those who have to make the decisions, break the news and deal with the aftermath are not finding life afterwards easy. And nor obviously are the ex-employees. For them, leaving a role where they have felt that they make a particular impact can be devastating. Click here to read more...
So, if making redundancies:
- Plan for the skills gap. Ensure the skills needed to further the organisation’s strategic goals are present in some other guise and reassure that this will be the case.
- Plan for the emotional gap. Warn people as appropriately as you can in advance. Allow people time to come to terms with what for many could be felt almost as a bereavement. Acknowledge that this is likely to be the case and that you understand that feeling.
- Give people time to reflect on the past but then start to motivate and initiate for change - new plans, new ideas, a new future. A different one maybe, but one which will provide hope, focus and energy for those left behind.
- Support those who have to fill the skills gap and ensure that the new teams that you will have to develop have the support that they need to become equally as effective as the old.
Diana Garnham, CEO of The Science Council led a humorous, stimulating and wide-ranging discussion over dinner: ‘Science Faction’
Other blogs/news
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