14°c A few clouds
28°c Isolated showers
Barbara Bowes
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Don’t do dysfunction
THE Phoenix inquiry, that horrible ongoing story of child abuse and neglect is finally over but not before there were 126 witnesses, 85 days of court, 35 lawyers and $9 million of costs. And what’s the result? There’s been restructuring within the support systems, more attention, some additional resources and some new investments made. However, the last of the experts testified that prevention and prevention as early as possible is what will truly make the difference. As a former social worker, educator and now a human resources professional, when I think of the childwelfare system, I can clearly see some terribly scary and unwelcome parallels in our workplaces.View Full Column | 06/15/2013 10:06 AM | 0
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Hear them roar?
Are you the type of person who's tired of being told to be more assertive, to get out and network more effectively or to speak up at meetings? Are you avoiding large social events and, if you do indeed attend, you're ready to go home in an hour? Or are you the candidate who simply doesn't interview well because it takes time to get to know you? How many of you have spent countless hours attempting to be extroverted, only to feel lonely and exhausted at the end of a day? Believe it or not, this is what introverted people experience every day. Introverted individuals are more internally focused and don't need external stimulation from others. They are typically quiet and reserved, especially when in a crowd of unfamiliar people. They tend to be very thoughtful yet very private and they keep their emotions to themselves. Introverts are usually detail-oriented, good listeners and interested in learning and knowledge. Also, in general, introverted individuals have a small group of carefully chosen, long-term friends; for instance, their spouses are usually their best friends.View Full Column | 06/8/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Performance jitters
June -- it's that time of year again for report cards and performance reviews! And, if your employees are blurting out, "Ugh, oh no, not that time already" and you are seeing them physically cringe, I'd like to suggest that you might well be holding on to an outdated philosophy about employee performance management. If that's indeed the case, then you are also more than likely applying outdated performance appraisal tools. In fact, the term performance management itself is now considered by many leaders to be old and worn out.View Full Column | 06/1/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Trust me
I recently experienced that frequent traveller's struggle of sorting through all my expenses and ensuring I abide by our established travel and accommodation policies. At the same time, I just happened upon a Canadian survey of 1,076 travellers that suggested I wasn't alone with my dilemma. For instance, the survey suggested that almost 15 per cent of travellers have trouble remembering to obtain their travel and accommodation receipts while five per cent struggle to abide by their employer's policies. For a moment, I had a little bit of sympathy for Sen. Mike Duffy whose travel-gate and accommodation scandal is continuing to hog public attention. Yes, expense rules can be confusing and the paperwork is a nuisance but the whole purpose of rules and/or policies in any organization is to establish and maintain accountability and trust. In case we have forgotten, the magic word is transparency.View Full Column | 05/25/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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More than a new boss
WHILE it's true many baby boomers are indeed not retiring at the lightening speed first expected, for business leaders to think the issue of succession planning is a lot of ado about nothing is crazy. In my view, ignoring the broader issues related to succession planning is tantamount to burying your head in the sand. Yet at the same time, these same business leaders often think of succession planning from a very narrow perspective. More specifically, many leaders tend only to think of what human resource professionals know as replacement planning. In other words, they will think about the singular potential of replacing an organizational leader but fail to look at all the other elements of succession such as employee demographics, inter-generational issues and the natural culture change that often accompanies a so-called replacement.View Full Column | 05/18/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Career change seeds
I'm not sure I truly believe it, but the weather specialist has promised spring has finally sprung! Yes, I can see a few buds on the trees and I know the geese and many of our favourite birds are finding their way back, but I question, "is spring really here?" As you know, spring is typically seen as a time for new growth, rebirth and new beginnings. For instance, those gardeners among us are restless and eager to get their new plants into the soil and to start making the changes they believe will add to summer beauty. Yet, at the same time from a work perspective, I know there are also many employees who experience a similar restless feeling at this time of year. Their restlessness is all about a strong intuitive sense that it's time to harvest the skills and experience gained from their current work and to continue growing their skill "seeds" in a new environment.View Full Column | 05/11/2013 5:43 AM | 0
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Entrepreneurial stamina
Entrepreneurship and in particular small, owner-operated businesses have always been a driving force in our economy. Manitoba for instance, thrives on thousands of small businesses, many of them family owned. Yet at the same time, entrepreneurship seems to ebb and flow with the economy. For instance, when job loss is high and job opportunities are seemingly limited, self-employment rises. This phenomenon has borne itself out again with the recent announcement that Canada's economy lost 55,000 jobs in March 2013, while the number of self-employed people increased by 39,000. I recognize that many people who are suddenly laid off have been dreaming of starting their own business for quite some time. Perhaps the opportunity to invest a severance package was just what they needed. Others of course, start up their business as a last resort after a frustrating and lengthy job search and/or after experiencing general frustration in their career.View Full Column | 04/27/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Time is, indeed, money
Time is money, a phrase credited to Benjamin Franklin has become pervasive in how we think about time and work. Earlier in our industrial history, factory workers were subjected to significant measurement strategies; however, today almost all occupations and all industry sectors, including not for profits, focus a good deal of attention on a wide variety of efficiency programs and measurements. Over the past number of years, we've experienced programs and philosophies all related to enhancing efficiency and quality. These have included programs such as quality circles, quality management, total quality management, process improvement, the ISO standards and the lean philosophy. Local, provincial and national award systems, as well as quality conferences, have also sprung up around these philosophies to help drive the quality movement toward the goal of efficiency and effectiveness.View Full Column | 04/20/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Move early on lateness
If we're honest with ourselves, we can admit that each of us has a hot button word, phrase or action that simply sends us off on a tizzy. My hot button is the word late. In other words, I abhor an employee who is continually and chronically late for work, late to submit reports, late to respond to customer needs and late to communicate with their colleagues or their boss for that matter. It's almost as if they live by another clock as there just isn't any sense of urgency in anything they do.View Full Column | 04/13/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Spring clean
Spring has finally sprung! While it's a time when we'll soon see evidence of budding tree leaves and the greening of our planet, it's also a time when many organizations engage in strategic planning review and renewal activities where invited participants work hard to think about and map out their future. The result is the development of a comprehensive long-term plan that essentially will bring change into an organization.View Full Column | 04/6/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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There are lots of I's in 'team'
The idea of employees working in a "team" has been with us since the early 1930s when the so-called Hawthorne experiments found that productivity increased when workers felt supported and involved. It was also during this time period that more attention was paid to the influence of organizational culture and the interaction between supervisors and employees. Over the years, the lessons learned from these early studies have continued to impact our work world to such an extent that "teamwork" is part of everyone's vocabulary. In fact, most organizations today look for reference to teamwork on new candidate resumés. However, talking about teamwork and actually building effective teams with healthy relationships are two entirely different things. That's because in spite of the fact people know the theory, taking a group of individuals with different skills and perspectives and building it into a cohesive interdependent unit with a common goal and vision is a colossal task.View Full Column | 03/30/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Polishing policy
The month of March has always represented the tipping point between winter and spring. The weather is warming up, the sun rises earlier every day and the days are longer. People also begin to feel a sort of a spiritual renewal. They feel more energetic and long to be outside in the fresh air and they have a sense of wanting to change things and fix things. Thus, people begin the annual ritual of spring cleaning. Typically, spring cleaning in the home refers to washing walls and cleaning cupboards and preparing spring and summer clothing. However, I sincerely think that March is also good time for spring cleaning to occur in the workplace. For instance, it's a good time to reflect on the many organizational issues that accumulate over the years like dust in our homes.View Full Column | 03/23/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Emotional rescue
While I haven't engaged in curling for a number of years, my ears always perk up when I hear the curling sports news, especially when I learn that one of the big-name professionals is experiencing a losing streak. It's certainly no fun being in a loss position as it takes a great deal of stamina to retain the kind of positive attitude required to keep your team energized and motivated. And believe me; I've seen many a situation where one individual team member personally hits a sour note, continues to sing sad songs and in turn poisons the entire team. Yet, losing a game in sports is very similar to suffering a personal loss in the workplace. Perhaps your favourite boss or a close friend at work has moved on or perhaps you've lost your most recent bid for promotion. Or, horror of horrors, perhaps you've just lost your job.View Full Column | 03/16/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Bully battle
It is rather a coincidence that National Anti-bullying Day (Feb. 27) and International Women's Day (March 8) are so close together this year. Frankly, I really want to celebrate all of the accomplishments and strides that women have made in society and in the workplace, yet the area of bullying in the workplace still bothers me. In reviewing my files, I noted that my first article about the issue of bullying occurred in 2002, and I wrote about it again in 2004. I clearly recall that I received 96 emails from people who were being bullied within three days of the second article. And here we are in the year 2013 and bullying is still an issue. Believe it or not, I continue to receive approximately two help requests per week. As someone who has been bullied myself at least three times throughout my earlier career, it pains me a great deal to hear these latest stories.View Full Column | 03/9/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Climbing ranks
It's that time of the year and another opportunity to celebrate International Women's Day, March 8. You know, it still amazes me that women were once shut out from public life; we couldn't vote, we were barred from advanced education and we couldn't enter into some professions such as medicine. In some provinces, women couldn't hold property and, in fact, women were not even defined as persons. Thanks to the hard work of a determined rights advocate named Nellie McClung, women in Manitoba gained the vote as early as 1916 while women in the rest of Canada had to wait four more years. Where are we today? Well, women are finally moving into leadership roles as heads of state: in fact, we now have six female provincial premiers. And while Bertha Wilson was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1982, now we have at least twelve women appointed as judges to the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench.View Full Column | 03/2/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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No quick fix
Employee performance appraisal and performance management has long been a core pillar in a manager's tool kit. However, I'm sure it isn't a surprise to learn that employee performance management is the most mismanaged functional area of human resource management. All kinds of complaints have surfaced such as inconsistency, subjectivity, lateness, a top-down approach and a failure to tie the process to organizational goals, to name only a few. Some of the problems essentially stem from the fact that many organizations continue to take the old Taylorism approach from the 1800s where the focus is on "fixing" employees rather than developing them. On the other hand, there are many progressive organizations that have adopted a more coaching and mentoring approach to employee development and performance based on a set of competencies for each job.View Full Column | 02/23/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Ask the 'right' questions
Albert Einstein, the world-renowned physicist made famous through his theory of relativity, was also known for his general skill in problem solving. In fact, he once stated that if he had one hour of his life left to save the world, he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes of time on the solution. In other words, his message is that there's a lot more power in asking questions and the "right" questions to define a problem rather than simply jumping in and trying to find a solution. But believe it or not, many of us continually jump right into a problem instead of stepping back and investing time in defining the problem. As you might expect, the solutions to problems depend on how much time you spend on defining the problem. Therefore, applying a question-based strategy to problem-solving has a number of benefits. For instance, asking questions gives you personal power and control over a conversation. The information you glean from responses to your questions gives you power. In addition, the questions you ask also force you to develop better listening skills. The so-called open-ended questions are particularly helpful because they allow another person to give a broader response, which in turn provides you with more information.View Full Column | 02/16/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Engaging challenge
While the last few years have found baby-boomer retirement issues holding top priority, the latest human resource surveys are showing that employee engagement is now taking over the primary lead. In fact, one survey reports that 94 per cent of survey participants indicated that employee engagement was the most important workforce challenge they were currently facing. Yet, what is employee engagement and why are HR managers so concerned? Employee engagement refers to whether or not employees have a positive or negative approach to their work and to whether or not employees are willing and/or not willing to perform at their best in ways that further benefit their employer.View Full Column | 02/9/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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More than money
Employee motivation, an individual's internal drive to achieve a goal is now one of the most studied areas of human resource management. Over the years, multiple theories have been put forward. For instance, the popular Maslow theory suggests that employees are motivated to first look after their physical need, then their safety and social needs and, finally, they are motivated to seek satisfaction for their own ego and self-gratification. The Skinner theory on the other hand, suggests that if an employee's behaviour is positively reinforced, this will lead to ongoing positive outcomes.View Full Column | 02/2/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Workplace like country song
I don't ever recall paying much attention to changes and growth in our English vocabulary, but I was surprised at how quickly new words were created after the Lance Armstrong confession spilled over to the news waves. These new words, doprah, liestrong and livewrong, will stay with us for some time and will continue to be a symbol of the deep corruption seemingly found in the area of cycling sports. While the Armstrong story is said to be the biggest lie in sports history, it's by no means the only story of personal or corporate corruption. For instance, many readers will remember the American energy firm, Enron Corp., whose CEO along with his executive team engaged in corporate fraud and corruption resulting in bankruptcy and the loss of 20,000 jobs.View Full Column | 01/26/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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End waiting game
Have you ever heard of the concept of a psychological game? This usually refers to a conscious or unconscious communication tactic that plays out like a game with real live winners and losers. It's really a type of psychological one upmanship that people engage in while trying to gain the upper hand in a situation. You can recognize you've been inadvertently involved in a psychological game because at the end of it, you'll probably feel angry, annoyed and/or simply exhausted from your efforts. At the same time, when this happens, an individual often won't know why they feel so down, yet if someone pointed out the gamesmanship strategy, it would be recognized right away. For instance, how many times have you made suggestions to someone at home and/or work only to be bombarded with, "yes but, yes but, yes but, yes but?" Did you feel exhausted at the end of it all? You bet!View Full Column | 01/19/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Take charge of career
Wow, what a way to start the year 2013! More full-time jobs. With the 5,200 new jobs created in December alone, it seems our province is finally on a roll. In fact, this type of stellar performance might lead us to becoming a "have" province once again, a thought that certainly creates a positive buzz in the minds of job seekers and employers alike. However, in spite of this ongoing good news, there continue to be a few naysayers who suggest these job numbers are not sustainable over time. The fear is that once the many construction projects in Manitoba finish, our job numbers will sink to all-time lows.View Full Column | 01/12/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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As the new year begins and people return to work, employers need to focus on creating a better workplace
HAVE you ever have had a song just ringing in your head? For some reason, the lyrics, “Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s home from work we go,” made famous by the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, have been ringing in my head. Only, this time the tune changed to, “it’s back to work we go!” And, I guess that’s the reality as Christmas and New Year celebrations have concluded and it is indeed, “back to work we go.” As we return to work in the New Year, our personal resolutions behind us, we know that owners and organizational leaders are also busy setting their own business resolutions for the year 2013. According to many surveys, these include goals such as placing a new or renewed focus on retaining employees, developing the next generation of leaders, developing a culture of engagement and training leaders to be coaches.View Full Column | 01/9/2013 4:46 PM | 0
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Planning for people
The year 2013 is looming on the horizon, and from all appearances, it's going to be a great year for Manitoba businesses. Newly reported economic statistics indicate the provincial economy showed modest growth in 2012, unemployment is down and salaries increased moderately.View Full Column | 12/29/2012 1:00 AM | 0
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Taking charge of change
Most of us have recently heard rumblings about the 2012 phenomenon and the potential meaning of this date. Some say there'll be a cataclysmic or transformative event, while others suggest it's simply the start of a new era. With this in mind, some people set their wedding for the once in a lifetime date of Dec. 12, 2012 (12/12/12). Still others throughout the month have simply ventured into the dark of the night to have a celebratory drink under the stars or send off firecrackers. For those extremists who favoured a belief that December 2012 signalled the end of the world; well, it seems this is proving to be much ado about nothing. Christmas and New Year's are only days away and families are gearing up for the traditional exchange of gifts and good food. Some people are also anxious for New Year's Day as they have their so-called resolutions all lined up and ready to go.View Full Column | 12/22/2012 1:00 AM | 0
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