Tips for Employees with New Managers

This post builds on last week's article setting up new managers for success.  Many look to their new manager to set the tone for a working relationship. It's also very important for new employees to be open, build credibility and want the new reporting line to work. Here are some tips if you have a new manager.

For an Employee with a New Manager:

There is comfort in having worked for a manager for a period of time – they know the way you think, they have trust in your abilities, they know the best way to coach you. How do you start all over again?  It’s a scary time but also a great time to grow your skills and be challenged by a new perspective.

Tips:

-          Come in open minded. Your new manager is going to likely operate differently, seek to understand their perspective. Don’t make snap judgments.

-          Ask Questions – this is tied to not making quick decisions or judgments. Ask questions to seek understanding about changes your new manager is making if they aren’t giving you the rationale/background.

-          Deliver results - delivering results with a great attitude is the best way to will build your personal credibility with a new manager.

-          Speak with your current manager about the transition they are completing with your new manager. If you had an open relationship with your previous manager, you can help shape this discussion by highlighting key things that really work in your current relationship

o   If your current manager is unable to have a transition with your new manager, take matters into your own hands. Put together a “get to know me” email with your job description, org chart of your team (if applicable), previous performance review, and current targets/goals. Book time with your new manager to get to know each other and walk through your current work load and goals.

Open conversation & transparency will work well on both sides to create a strong relationship. Good luck!

Have you recently had a new manager? What do you think they did well to support you? What do you think you did well to set your new manager up and make them look good? Reading the above tips, what would you have done differently?

Tips for New Managers

With fast paced moving companies, reporting lines often change due to realignment of departments, promotions or general business needs.  Change creates natural trepidation but also hints at great possibilities. Reporting relationships take time to build from both a manager’s and a direct report’s perspectives. This week’s blog post is for a manager with a new direct report & next week’s will be for an employee who has a new manager.

For a Manager with a New Direct Report:

Getting to know your team is a big challenge. You want to create quick wins and not steamroll new reports with big changes right away. These tips will help you gain credibility and build trust.

-          Listen first. Seek to understand procedures, strategies, organizational charts, and roles/responsibilities of your new team. As a new manager, you are likely eager to make your mark in your new role. First seek to understand why things are done a certain way before barging in with changes.

-          Ask questions - understand what your team thinks works well, how processes align to goals, and ask what they would change. If your team agrees on priorities they are more likely to buy into such change. 

-          Create transparency – talk to your team about your goals/mandate and what you are trying to achieve so they can be part of the solution.

-          Get to know your team – your people are your greatest asset to create quick wins in your new role. Potentially use a questionnaire that they fill out and then book time to review it together. It’s a way to have a little fun, get to know them professionally and start to build a personal relationship. I often use something called a management contract to start this (read here: http://bit.ly/gOr24X). You can ask things like: favourite coffee, morning or afternoon thinker, and then things like strengths, growth opportunities, personal goals, what they like in a manager, etc… Using this to facilitate a conversation can get you going on a great foot right away.

-          Transition from past managers - If you are taking on an employee from another manager within the same organization, book time to do a proper transition. Ask them to share previous performance reviews and tips for management.

-          Talk about your management style – just like you want to get to know your new team, they want to get to know their new manager. Talk about tips for working with you, the working environment you like to create and your plan for the team.

-          Have regular team updates – book a bi-weekly or monthly meeting with your direct reports to discuss your findings, recommended changes & the team’s progress. This will help you create buy in and overall transparency and be viewed as a leader who is creating team work right from the get go!

 

For those who have recently moved into a new role managing a new team, what do you think about the above tips? What helped set off your new relationship for the better and what do you wish you had done differently?

Stay posted for next week's post on tips for employees with new managers.

Steve Jobs = Apple's Employment Brand

Steve Jobs’ death rocked the world this past week. He dropped out of college after only 1 year & co-created one of the most innovative brands in his parent’s garage in his mere 20s. He followed his heart & focused on what inspired him versus fumbling his way through what he “should do.” Not only was a he a leader that people fought to follow but he created an atmosphere of innovation and doing things differently at Apple. Steve Jobs personified Apple and its employer brand of innovation, leadership, and credibility.  Apple’s employment brand is strong yet they barely publicize what working at the company is like versus some of their major competitors like Google or Microsoft.

Jobs was not a perfect leader. He had his ups and downs and was so headstrong that he was actually fired from Apple, the company he co-created, in 1985. After his very public banishment, he subsequently founded NeXT (a computer platform) that Apple actually purchased in 1996 and brought Jobs to his role as CEO. Jobs was not afraid of the lime light or telling his career stories including the good, bad & the ugly. He drove trust in Apple as a visionary through his innovative thinking and delivery of consistently doing things differently.  With Jobs’ heroic lose to cancer, Apple needs to build on this legacy and expand their employment brand to overcome the loss of their powerful CEO. Time will tell how they do on this mission.

As a reminder of all of the wonderful things Jobs lead & the things he stood for, please see the below quote about allowing innovation to lead your path to great things. If you haven’t yet also watched Jobs’ 1995 commencement address at Stanford, do so here:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
~ Steve Jobs

My Final Thoughts: Do you have an inspirational leader within your company? Do you use them to lead your employment branding efforts & set the tone for greatness within your company culture?

Talent Management 101

Talent Management is a HOT topic. It is really about managing your talent proactively, aligning talent to organizational values and opportunities, and succession planning to keep your top talent happy at YOUR Company. According to Wikipedia (the best definition source) talent management “refers to the skills of attracting highly skilled worked, of integrating new workers, and developing and retaining current workers to meet current and future business objectives.” As the article calls out, “companies engaging in a talent management strategy shift the responsibility of employees from the HR department to all managers throughout the organization.” HR is a lead player in working with a company’s senior leadership team to align on a talent management strategy but ALL managers must then take accountability for developing their direct reports. Thus, training & organizational education is also a key part of a talent management strategy.  Talent management also goes hand in hand with recruiting so you can acquire the right talent to meet your business needs once you create a language to discuss skill gaps or needs. Talent management is increasingly a point of differentiation as happier employees are more productive and it helps you keep your high performers/high potentials happy and not seeking (or being open) to other opportunities.

The economy is picking up and the market for strong talent is getting hotter than ever. Many companies are failing to bench mark their talent, create guidelines for talent management development, and build succession plans for top performers.  This puts your talent at risk when other’s come calling and puts you in reactive mode dealing with counter offers or potentially being too late in the game to keep your high performers.

Here is Talent Management 101

If this is a hot topic for you, please let me know so I can build out further posts on the topic.

Step 1: Determine bench marks for talent.  What are the key pillars involved in each role & at which level to you want each manager (based on title) to be an expert? This is an exercise in itself that takes time.

Step 2: Make a companywide plan on succession planning & create guidelines for promotions, bonus plans, talent reviews, and learning & development.

Step 3: Internal Talent Review. Work with all of the senior managers to bench mark your employees (aka your talent) & identify the top performers/high potential candidates. Ensure that all managers are aligned. There are many tools/processes/templates out there to help you with this process. This should be an executive/senior manager discussion so you can really compare talent from multiple teams and have a consistent evaluation among all employees. Start with your most senior managers and work your way through each level. HR should manage these conversations.

Step 4: Coach your managers on how to have conversations with all employees – especially those high potential individuals and take them through template succession plans to determine their 1-3 year plans. Work to have a consistent strategy on getting these candidates additional exposure & opportunities based on their long term talent to truly grow them into your company’s future leaders. Templates, training & education is very important at this step as some managers may be leading high potential candidates but they themselves might be more a “steady Eddie” – also people important to keep happy & developed.

Step 5: When new business is secured or a promotion is justified, ensure that you look to those ready & willing candidates who have the right skills & the right aptitude to move into the role. Base your promotions on fit & talent versus things like tenure.

Step 6: Visit your talent review annually to revisit how you are doing on your strategy & re-evaluate your team’s growth over the past year.

Step 7: repeat repeat repeat. Remember that training & development of your managers & support from a strong HR Talent Manager/Lead is very key to lead all of the change management necessary to properly build & execute a strong talent management strategy. This is different way of thinking and thus this strategy will take time and needs alignment between HR and Sr leaders in developing the organizational plan and managing this change for your organization.

There are many assessments/processes out there to support your talent management strategy. Remember to use tools & research research research! Have a plan & then work that plan.

For those of you with existing talent management strategies, what is working? What have you learned? What would you do differently? For those just starting, how are you doing in your planning?

Below is just one visual example of an important talent management strategy as it should include everything from Acquiring Talent, to Developing, Aligning, & Assessing Talent.

Wikipedia definition of Talent Management: http://bit.ly/oDuhlt

Talent Management Process Example <via Taleo>: http://bit.ly/q3q3hE

Global Campus Recruiting Best Practices

As I’m working internationally this week in Europe, I was inspired to share information about campus recruiting at a global level. As many of my readers know, my specialty is building campus programs & I have developed & successfully run campus recruiting programs in over 12 countries from North America to Asia to Western Europe and Eastern Europe. It may shock you that students around the world essentially want the same things – enjoyment of work, development opportunities, exposure to leadership, work/life balance. Though the cultures of each country influence the practices/students, best practices in student recruiting essentially do work globally. Building the right programming is important to find that perfect new hire!

Though many global companies build management trainee or global recruiting principles, there are some things to keep in mind that work globally & some things to consider in tweaking your programming for each individual market. Read on to find out more!

From my experience, here are some best practices for building campus recruiting programs in multiple countries:

-     Strong employment branding website with information about a day in the life at your company. Remember, your website should ENGAGE with students. Think blogs, twitter feeds, YouTube videos of your office, testimonials etc

-     Key messaging/job offerings that speak to students. Knowing what students want & ensuring your offering speaks to these categories is important. Look to local/nation surveys on student values to build out your messages

-     Campus Ambassadors, students who work a set number of hours per work promoting job opportunities with your company, helping to build your brand on campus & generate referrals.  I have seen this program work around the world. The key factors are training them, have ongoing management & KPI’s (key performance indicators) that they are rewarded for meeting.

-     Referral based programming works! Track referrals to applications & reward based on results.

-     Campus events are so important for building up your brand on campus and recognition among students. Job fairs, information sessions, company presentations, case competitions etc are a great way to engage students.

-     Relationships with Career Centers – Career Centers can make or break your experience on campus. Getting to know your contacts and  educating them on your company’s offering is very important as they will help market your campus events, promote your company to influential students & help you gain access to deans & professors

-     Relationships with Deans/Professors are very important. Guest lecturing in class rooms, supporting with real business cases to supplement curriculum and seeking referrals from influential professors will help gain traction with the right students.

-     Supporting student groups. Find those groups that are part of your target market and work to be a key advisor/support. Do not just provide sponsorship dollars but instead work to provide the group mentors, internships, and/or business advice as this will be a better use of your sponsorship dollars. By spending time with these groups you will get to know the top students you want to recruit for your company.

-     Giveaways are not a key part of a campus program. They are supplementary to educate students on your EVP (employer value proposition) but a cool giveaway is not going to sell a student on applying to your company

 Things to tweak on a country by country basis:

-     Consider Internet Access

o   Some countries outside of Western Europe & North America have limited internet access or slow speeds. Having a length application process that relies heavily on internet access/online testing may decrease your applicants and candidate engagement in some countries. Consider this access to technology when tailoring the application for each country.

-     On Campus activities really differ per campus. Some schools allow for class presentations by other students and some don’t. Know what’s allowed in your country & per campus to meet your KPI’s.  Work with your career center to understand what works best on their campus. Tailor this metric not only by country but also by school.

-     Postering/handouts – many schools internally have different rules about what is allowed on posters or if posters are even allowed to be hung on campus property. Ensure that you allow local offices to determine these nuances before ordering global quantities with a set design.

-     Timing – even within a continent, the countries may have very different calendar years. Your recruiting season in England and Germany are very different as German students don’t go back to school until October versus August/Sept in England. Thus, your timing for applications, interviews and job offers will be sensitive to each country.
-     Social media sites/usage varies per country. Ask your recent new hires what social media sites you should be using!

I hope these tips help you understand what global recruiting best practices work on a global level & what needs to be tweaked locally. Cheers & happy recruiting!

Thursday News Day: Employment Branding

As I’m currently consulting in Europe for clients, I was inspired to discuss global campus recruiting in this week’s articles. Despite my BEST goggle searches, I didn’t find any relevant articles about global employment branding or campus recruiting … this of course inspired next week’s post about campus recruiting and global best practices. For this week’s article (as it is Thursday News Day!) I have included a good piece about employment branding as knowing the basic principles in building your EVP (employee value proposition) will help set you up for understanding global best practices for campus recruiting.

Employment Branding:

 “Employment Branding: The only long term Recruitment Strategy”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  Dr. John Sullivan

-          Publishing date: Jan 7, 2008

-          Link: http://bit.ly/Wfj0a

Though this article is a couple of years old, it really highlights the basic principles of employment branding and those principles haven’t changed. The way you execute on your brand has evolved but this is a good introductory read to the key components of and long term benefits of employment branding. The author quotes that typically companies only spend 5% of their budgets on employment branding… which camp do you fall into?

I hope you read over this solid employment branding article so that in my next few posts about campus recruiting & global recruiting, you understand the benefit of having a EVP prior to hitting campus. Shockingly, I found very few other articles about campus recruiting unless they were tied to a company as a pitch document. Looks like I found a new wealth of things to write about! Stay posted over the next few weeks for posts on campus recruiting & global student behaviours.

Onboarding Existing Employees

The topic of interest this week is the importance of onboarding existing employees – those employees that are joining your team from another division. We recently welcomed an employee to my team at work who had worked in another team for the past year. Though her old & new teams worked closely together, she moved desks, has a new manager, and new responsibilities. We are just so excited to have her.

As her manager and I discussed her training, we also thought about how we could show this excitement and make her first day just as special as we would for a “new” employee. As a best practice for new employees, we always make a welcome sign, bring in a beautiful plant to dress up the new desk or leave a few little favourite treats of the new employee in addition to a first day team lunch.

It got me thinking:  Why don’t we make it a best practice to do this for transitioning employees? The reasons is that most teams & companies don’t take the time to make that first day in the new team just as special as it isn’t viewed as a “first day.”  Well, it should be! The extra effort it takes to welcome someone new to your team is going to pay off big time in how they feel about their transition.

Next time you welcome either a net new employee or an existing employee onto your team, I hope you really make them feel that personalized special welcome!

10 tips to do this:

1.   Create a welcome sign in their favourite colour & have the entire team write a welcome message

2.   Ask them their favourite candy & have a dish of it on their desk

3.   Ensure their favourite colour pens or highlighters are in a cool new pen holder on their desk

4.   Decorate their desk area with streamers, balloons or other fun finds

5.   Have lunch plans for their first day with their new manager & new team members

6.   Have the team make lunch plans (even just to sit in the lunch room) each day of the first week so the new employee can get to know their colleagues

7.   Ensure the employee has some time with the department manager on their first day and day 5 to see how the first week is going

8.   Bring in a coffee for them on their first day in a special mug you bought just for them that they can keep at the office

9.   Welcome them via social media sites if you/they are active in that space

10.  Buy them a cool new notebook for all of those new notes to be captured in  

Remember it doesn’t have to be fancy; the goal is to leave someone with the feeling that you recognize their uniqueness and are so excited to have them on your team. This is especially true with millennial onboarding as they want to feel recognized for the unique individual they are and what they will bring to your team.

I leave you with a photo of my team welcoming our newest team member & a quote from Maya Angelou:

"I've learned that people will forget what you said,

 people will forget what you did,

but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Art of Listening

In a managers hope to guide and support their direct reports, they often forget the power of listening! I think that managers often want to stop their employees from making similar learning mistakes they made – but is this the right thing to do? Isn’t self realization more powerful than being told what to do!? Let’s just think back to a parent-teenager moment and when told what you do, you (the angry teenager) likely acted in the opposite way!  Let’s learn from the past & learn the art of Active Listening.

As a manager, asking the right open ended probing questions and guiding a direct report in a certain direction is a better technique than just directing. However, asking & listening is a WAY more difficult skill than just telling. As those who know me well, I’m a bit of a total talker so my natural premonition is just to TELL. I have to push back this part of my nature and instead focus on active listening traits I have nurtured like asking, clarifying, & confirming. By asking, being comfortable with silence (and not feeling the need to fill those silent moments) and being fully present (versus thinking of the million things on my to do list etc), I can be a better manager.

A few inspirational ideas & quotes:

-          Think of an 80-20 rule in terms of the ratio to listening versus talking in a coaching/management moment

-          “To listen well, is as powerful a means of include as to talk well, and is an essential to all true conversation.” – Chinese proverb

-          "Seek first to understand, then to be understood" – Steven Covey

-          "I can't hear the words you speak for your actions are deafening" - Unknown

How do you practice active listening? What are the best questions you use as a manager? Alternatively, what are the best questions one of your favourite managers has asked you to take a different perspective on a tough matter?

Setting Leaders up for Success with Manager Contracts

Years ago I learned the importance of setting expectations between managers & new employees through the tough lesson of not asking the right questions on management style of a new employee. I had managed an employee through a 16 week full time summer contract and they were one of the most pessimistic people I had ever worked with. I felt like I was constantly trying to keep him and his teammates motivated as his attitude seeped onto others.  At the end of the program, I sat down with the employee to do their evaluation and so many discussions points came out I wish I had known from day 1. I realized I was trying to drive positivity and results by challenges and incentives – I thought this was motivating to him as had a very competitive nature & always rose to win the challenge. In the review, it came out that he didn’t feel motivated on the program as he wanted increased responsibility to grow additional skills. At first I was frustrated with him – why didn’t he tell me this at some point over the 16 week program? Then, I stepped back and realized that as his manager, this onus was on ME to ask the right questions!

Though it was a tough 16 weeks, I learned a very important lesson that summer as a new people manager. I now believe that as a manager you should be a chameleon and adapt your management style to those that report to you. From this situation, I developed something I call the “Manager Contract.” It is a 2 page document that everyone I work with fills in as it facilitates a discussion on what we both need to have a successful working relationship. I personalize them to each and every direct report.  

The document is broken into 2 sections: section 1 is on expectations for each of us in our roles and section 2 is open ended questions around the topic of personalized coaching. In the expectation section, it reviews the top 15-20 expectations I have for that person in their role. This includes things like answering voicemails/emails within 24 hours and then specifics about team management, problem solving, being a role model etc. Following my expectations on them, it then reviews the expectations they should have of me as their manager. This is a 2-way relationship after all!

My favourite part of the contract is actually part 2, which is about personalized management. I typically keep these open ended questions the same for all direct reports though may edit out a few if that employee is not a people manager. I ask questions like:

-          My best working environment includes

-          I need the following from my manager

-          My goal in my role is

-          My personal career goal is

-          My strengths are

-          My growth opportunities are

-          I will be the following type of leader
-         Etc

I then include a section where I, the manager, answer similar questions about:

-          My best working environment includes

-          I need from those who report to me

-          I will help you achieve your goals/successes by

The process is that I create the template of the contract and then forward it to my direct report to personalize and send back to me. We then have a meeting to walk through the document and set ourselves up for success in our new working relationship. This is a living breathing document so if one member feels the other isn’t keeping up their end of the bargain, then we can pull it out and review; we also refresh/update the contract every 6 months as projects and priorities change. 

I learned my lesson about asking the right questions a LONG time ago and for over 7 years I have had a management contract with every single direct report. I now use the contract more as a reminder of the right questions for myself but use it as a great tool for all of my direct reports who are managers as it sets them up for success with new direct reports.

What do you do to set up new managers and direct reports for success? Do you coach your teams to ask the right questions? Do you want your managers to tailor their style to direct reports or vice versa? Remember templates act as a guide and are a great training tool for new managers!

Happier Employees are More Productive: How Corporate Social Responsibility Contributes

More companies are recognizing that having a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy and activities is not only about creating a favourable public image but is a key component in candidate recruiting & employee retention.  Starting in 2009, the 50 Best Employers in Canada Survey (by Hewitt Associates) included CSR as a factor affecting employee engagement. “According to Hewitt, the higher the overall level of engagement, the more your staff will:  Consistently say positive things about your organization; Intend to stay with your organization; Strive to achieve above and beyond what is expected in their daily role.” In summary, happy employees are more productive. Additionally, employees who are happy at work will share their excitement and build up your employment brand. This helps you recruit other great employees. It’s a simple Win-Win.

There is no one definition for CSR activities but it generally includes the integration of economic, environmental and social activities. The goal is to embrace responsibility of a company’s actions and encourage positive impacts.  Investing in social responsibility not only creates happy employees but can improve your bottom line as engaged employees will work harder.  The interesting thing is most studies show that the importance of CSR is not limited to one generation but affects ALL of your employees.

Similarly to the Hewitt Best Places to work survey, a report by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) on CSR activities states that “investments in CSR programs boost employee satisfaction, retention and loyalty.” The report polled 2,215 workers globally and found that employers want to be proud of their company and if they were proud, they were eager to discuss the positive deeds of their company with others. Thus, within your CSR plan, a communication strategy is also very important. This empowers your employees to act as ambassadors for your company and build up your employment brand.  Train those involved in CSR activities on your communication strategy and ensure to use social media platforms like a blog, Facebook & Twitter to ensure the messages go viral. Potential employees want to hear what their future colleagues think of the company versus PR messaging. What better way to show how great your organization is than share how you give back to your community? Retweeting tweets of employees volunteering, having those involved in CSR activities write blog posts for your website, sharing photos of employees volunteering or highlighting your green efforts online are important to gain value from your CSR activities for recruiting new candidates. Ensure your website features your CSR activities and messaging from your employees as candidates today want to know that their perspective employer cares – for its people, environment and community. 

Here are some of the things that I think are important to consider as you build out your CSR policy:

-     Poll and engage your employees in the process to understand what social activities mean something to them; they are likely more interested if they help design the direction of your CSR policy

-     Consider allowing employees to volunteer their time during company hours

-     Create committees internally to own the pillars of your CSR implementation; empower your team

-     Design Key Performance Indicators to measure your CSR 

-     Provide company updates regularly as part of your internal communication strategy.

-     Ensure your communication strategy considers using multiple platforms and update your website to showcase your CSR activities to support your recruiting initiatives

-     Evaluate and update your CSR policy regularly

Having a CSR doesn’t only make business sense but it will pay out in recruiting, retention & employee productivity. After all, isn’t every company after happier and more productive employees?

Good article about Hewitt Associates Employee Engagement Study: http://bit.ly/ieJEfo

Learn more about the CCL report at: http://bit.ly/h5tV4Q