By Brandon Laws
The sun is beginning to poke out from behind the clouds and the winter months are behind us. That can only mean one thing: your summer vacationing is fast approaching!
Category Archives: Business Development
By Molly Kelley
Following a year of such economic and political turmoil, employees and employers are looking ahead to trends for 2010. With fears of a continued recession easing, it seems a fine time to look forward to next year’s hot issues.
by Brandon Laws
The worst is hopefully behind us, but there is no doubt our economy is slowly recovering from one of the worst recessions in history. As many businesses struggle to climb out of an unfortunate 2009, there have been emotional strains within organizations that need to be somehow addressed. It starts with the company’s leadership.
Leadership has an unusual opportunity to keep the organization from slipping financially, emotionally and productively, and actually thrive during an irregular economy. Here are five practices that will help lay the foundation for future growth.
Organizational Transparency: Be open and consistently communicate the vision of your organization. Talk about challenges and new opportunities, and even share financial information, whether it’s fully disclosed or in a limited fashion. The point is that you keep employees involved and ensure they have a clear understanding of how their individual and team contributions impact the success of the organization.
Productivity is mostly driven by the employees; and if you are authentic about where the company currently stands and where the company intends to go, employees will more likely be engaged and dedicated to achieving company objectives.
One-on-One Coaching Sessions: Organizationally speaking, front line managers are a key influence of employee productivity and engagement. Similar to being transparent, have one-on-one coaching sessions with managers to clearly articulate company goals and share challenges, opportunities and new ideas. And, ensure that the managers and lead employees are doing the same with their staff. This will keep leadership more connected to what happens at the ground-level. These sessions not only help improve communication, but can build strong relationships between leadership and employees…
Click here to read the full article @ http://www.xeniumhr.com/
By Brandon Laws
How often have we talked about someone when he was not around, worried ourselves silly about losing a job, or taken on a task because we felt someone else couldn’t get the job done the right way? In the workplace, these are not uncommon scenarios. Surveys indicate that trust has dramatically declined over the past few years.
By Brandon Laws
Lately many organizations have questioned why their employees’ lack of motivation makes their days less and less productive. In down economic times, it has become progressively more difficult for leaders in an organization to keep spirits and productivity at their highest level. To solve this issue, leaders of an organization must build a culture where employees feel personally valued, have a sense of purpose and have the ability to make decisions.
By Molly Kelley
Watching our 401(k) slowly tank over the last year leaves most of us feeling that the most widely recognized employee investment vehicle is taking us for a wild, stomach-churning ride. When the market turns volatile, many employees reduce or entirely cease contributing their portion of 401(k) contributions. Now might be the perfect time to explore another type of investment for your future – education.
(from the Xenium July 2009 Newsletter)
By Cristi Jaksic
Highly successful organizations all have something in common: a willingness to respond to the needs of their employees, and a workplace culture that fosters employee engagement and yields high productivity.
As the world economy shudders and contracts, businesses across the globe are struggling to come to terms with the changing economic landscape. Financial collapse, layoffs and work shortages have rippled across national borders, dominating our media and our thoughts. Employees and managers alike are worried about the health of their company and wonder about their likelihood of retaining their positions. In an atmosphere ripe with rumor, uncertainty and fear, there is no better time for one-on-one meetings between managers and their employees.
This has been the most frequently asked question of me over the past month. Employers are looking for any insights or trends to best prepare themselves for the months ahead. We are already seeing record highs in Oregon unemployment and anticipating the “free fall” of initial workforce cuts and layoffs to level off by Q2 2009.
(From the October 2008 Newsletter)
Uncertain times require certain and strong leadership. The following Key Leadership Actions are recommended Keith McFarland, author of The Breakthrough Company, a book highlighting an elite nine of 8,000 companies producing the highest growth and profitability performance sustained over a 20 year period. One of the featured companies is that of Xenium’s CEO/Chairman, Bill Stoller.