Posts Tagged ‘employees’

Do you feel lucky to have a job?

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.  ~H. Jackson Browne

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.  ~Confucius

The Dallas Business Journal reports that Americans of all ages and all pay levels are increasingly unhappy at their jobs, according to a report by the Conference Board, an independent economic and business forecasting organization. Researchers interviewed 5,000 households across the USA and found that only 45% of those surveyed are satisfied with their jobs. Younger workers — those under the age of 25 — are the most dissatisfied. Older workers also are hurting, which may cost the nation valuable training of future generations, the report suggests.

Two thoughts come to mind:

  1. Companies and organizations have been called upon to get lean and mean over the past couple of years. The tendency of survival is to have fewer people to do more work for less income. When these companiein to make a profit, will your key people be burned out? Expect to share in the profit? Will they wonder why you are not hiring help? Hint: Consider this a caution not to burn out your racehorses and to do as much lateral training as possible.
  2. There is a positive sidebar to the recession. The boomers did not have the predicted mass retirement walkout, but continued to shrae their experience with the younger generation; who may, for the first time, understand a different form of entitlement based on economics.

Maybe it’s time to push the RESET and REFRESH buttons on your job. Feel blessed rather than trapped in your occupation. Look for creative ways to enjoy what you do. Make it a better environment in which to work, and if you must, consider this a stepping stone for conforming what you would like and EXPECT your future to look like.

No matter where you are and what you are doing, you have purpose — be purpose driven.

To bring Petey to assist you in recruiting, maintaining and appreciating employees, click here.

Are You Ready to ROWE?

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Are You Ready to ROWE

The workplace has long been familiar with the notion of flextime and telecommuting. Now, there’s ROWE: Results Only Work Environment. ROWE was created by two former Best Buy employees who wanted to reshape their company’s culture. Now Gap Outlet has adopted the practice for its more than 137 employees.

ROWE is a corporate culture initiative designed to significantly improve employee productivity, accountability and engagement. Departments that implement a ROWE environment empower their employees to work when and wherever they want to – as long as their performance goals are met.

ROWE methodology is different from simple “flextime” in two key ways: 1) it’s employee-driven and 2) it’s self-policing. In a ROWE environment, the emphasis is taken off time/hours worked and placed on performance. The fear of employees abusing ROWE is minimal, as each employee has a stake in their ability to work in an incredibly freeing environment. They’re not afraid to “snitch” on someone who could sink the ship! ROWE deals with nonadaptees in a performance management framework, thus removing the “I worked 60 hours this week” excuses of workers who still don’t hit performance targets.

The program seems to be working: Productivity increased more than 21 percent at the GAP outlet. A post-pilot assessment conducted in February 2009 revealed that productivity increased 21 percent and quality improved 15 percent among the pilot group.

The ROWE program was adopted in San Francisco, one of the worst cities in the U.S. in terms of commuting. They found it particularly helpful to female employees working to balance work and family needs.

In my book, Blueprint for Success, I noted that there will be a sonic boom as part-time baby boomers and flextime Generation X & Y’s collide. It’s important that we hire the best talent that we possibly can, and adapt to their skills and demands. Generations X and Y are highly motivated by autonomy and flexibility.

If your company is considering a ROWE-type experiment, be sure to do your homework. It promises to a remarkably effective generational bridge.