Team building isn’t a single event; it must be an ongoing process. In today’s tight job market, employees are less willing than ever to stay in unhappy situations, making it vital for managers to pay attention to the work environment. Teambuilding is effective in changing group dynamics, increasing team interaction and to foster a more productive work climate. Strategies that have been used to turn working groups and meeting attendees into highly interactive teams are presented below.
Empowered employees who actively submit improvement suggestions, give an organization a competitive advantage in generating cost savings, improving productivity and increasing efficiencies when/if a program is properly implemented. This article tells how a maintenance worker, a construction crew member and even teams have submitted suggestions resulting in very positive contributions to the bottom line. It is estimated that approximately 37% of submitted suggestions do have merit by saving an organization money, time and/or identifying strategies for increased effectiveness.
A seismic shift is occurring in the job market! Knowledgeable workers, technology changes, labor market shortages, and historically low unemployment has put workers in control of their career options.
Just as shamans, snake doctors and financial folks once freely dispensed unregulated advice and wares to the public, business coaching currently requires no specific training, experience or credentials. Any organization or individual, including your neighbor, bartender or hairdresser, can legally profess to be a coach.
A telecommunications company recently calculated the cost in replacing an operator. After considering the exit interview, administrative activities, replacement and training costs of education, and coaching, the cost exceeded $6K. In addition, there were indirect costs associated with employee turnover including increased workloads and strains as coworkers pick up the slack until new employees are hired and trained.
Since the 1980s, about 10 million jobs have been eliminated and the downsizing trend continues as organizations hope to cut costs and improve performance. Yet, research has shown that most of the anticipated economic and organizational benefits of downsizing are not achieved. Downsizing is a chaotic and uncertain experience at best. Unfortunately, there are few guidelines on the best way to achieve the desired results. Below are a few things that we have learned about downsizing:
Studies reflect fewer than 30 percent of downsizing efforts have achieved anticipated profitability. This statistic suggests the real downsizing losers are organizations and stockholders. Similarly, the low unemployment figures reflect that downsized workers are no longer helpless victims. Many organizations are downsizing in one area while ramping up hiring in other areas. This decrease and expansion procedure has been coined as employee churning and this practice contributes to financial losses. The good news is every market imbalance finds ways to correct itself, and modifying strategies during downsizing can increase the statistics of profitability and organizational success.
