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Workplace Communication
10 Tips for Conflict Resolutions in the Workplace
Communication is all about bringing people together and understanding each other. With so many different people and personalities in our workplace, it's no wonder there's sometimes conflict.
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05/16/2012 07:09 AM
Solutions
Workforce Wellness
Workforce Wellness is a synonym for culture. It is an orderly look at a corporate society that is designed to measure (classification and relative scale) and portray the “health” a company’s workforce. The analogy we use most often in describing this effort is that we are building a MBTI® (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) instrument at the corporate or group level. This information can be used in many ways to recognize issues and to improve Workforce Wellness or Culture. Scales include measures along attributes such as: Cooperative, Competitive, Passive, and Aggressive. Mapping where your company presently lies culturally, can help managers begin to move toward a position of improved environment. Focused awareness and thought can have significant impact on corporate performance.
Since cultural issues are the biggest driver of employee frustration and ultimately attrition, this should make it highly important to corporations to understand where they “are” and where they need to improve as it relates to Workforce Wellness. It is estimated that every dollar spent on cultural wellness adds ten dollars to the bottom line (to a limit); so evaluating and decisively addressing identified issues could represent a considerable return.
Survey Programs
One of the best ways to enhance your workforce or maintain its current strength is to listen. Surveys are great tools and routinely administered to gather information. But any survey initiative must be thoughtfully planned, including both execution and follow up actions, in order to ensure that the message to your team is clear.
- We are interested in what you have to say
- We will act upon the information you give us
Since a survey takes your employees’ time and more importantly, gets their attention, it needs to be done right. Action Mechanics will work with you to ensure that the questions you ask are on target to collect the information you need, and that the answers you gather will lead to specific actions you can take that will begin improvement and be visible to your workforce.
We will work with you to build a customized survey and solution and assist with data analysis and definition of the steps to improve and maintain workforce wellness.
Culture Assessments and Diagnostics
More now than ever, culture has become a critical factor in overall employee satisfaction. According to the 2007 Society for Human Resource Management Annual Job Satisfaction survey, 80% of employees indicated that the company’s culture was either important or very important in their job satisfaction. As you work hard to retain your employees and to attract high quality talent, focus on the health of your culture should be a high priority. Assessing and diagnosing the health of your organization, then taking swift action to control the system that influences culture, is critical to your long term success.
Using the Cooke & Rousseau findings, Action Mechanics can help you determine the current characteristics of your organization and then implement changes that will steer you towards the optimal organization—one which is built upon healthy competition and cooperation.
Organizational Planning and Preparedness
An organizational plan is basically a “to do” list for an organization. The plan lists the intended work, programs, and organizational growth over a period of time—six months, a year, or even longer. Creating a plan can simply mean compiling the tasks involved, defining who is responsible and accountable, and setting a target for when each task will be completed.
Preparedness is the organizational state where the plan is complete and you are ready to begin execution. At Action Mechanics, we use a step-by-step approach to preparing your organizational plan and getting you and your team equipped and aligned for what lies ahead.
Categorize Your Tasks. First, compile all the work that your organization does, and list out the general categories.
Set Goals. Second, make sure the goals for your work in each category are clear. Ask yourself, “How will we measure a successful outcome?”
Set Tasks. Next, break each goal into the tasks that need to be done to achieve that goal. Some will be specific, while others are more loosely defined, but the more specific the better. You may not know how to reach some goals, yet and that’s OK. This is where a partner like Action Mechanics can be particularly helpful.
Plan a Schedule. When all the tasks are listed, decide on their order. What must happen first, what should happen at the same time, what comes last? Compile these results into a schedule for the tasks—either when they will be completed, or (for ongoing tasks) when they will begin. The goal is to set a schedule that is challenging but realistic. If the schedule doesn’t stretch your team reasonably, then you could be setting your goals too low.
Choose Responsibilities. Assign responsibilities by asking people to volunteer to be responsible for goals or tasks. A person’s name next to a task doesn’t mean that they’ll do it—just that they take responsibility for making sure it gets done. The goal is to make sure the work is equitably divided and that everyone has enough responsibility to challenge them. If nobody is willing to volunteer for a particular task, ask the group if it is really necessary. If the group decides that it is, try to break it down into smaller tasks that might be easier to assign.
Support. Brainstorm other individuals and organizations that can provide support, advice, or assistance in helping you carry out particular tasks or achieve general goals.
Follow through. Come up with a plan to check in—support and encourage people as they carry out their tasks. This may mean choosing one person to regularly check on the status of different tasks, or it may be accomplished through regular status meetings.
Plan Evaluation. Finally, set a time to revisit the plan as a group to evaluate how things are going and revise assignments and schedules. Depending on circumstances, this follow-up may occur from three to six months in the future.
Action Mechanics can assist by offering our talent, skills, and experience to shift your organization into a state of continual preparedness, by helping you define the plan as well the execution.
Individual and Group Coaching
Jobs can be demanding and complicated, with expectations changing as the market changes. It can be difficult to find the time to hone all of the skills needed to be effective in all areas. Fortunately, at Action Mechanics we make it our business to not only hone our skills in the critical areas of Transition Services and Workforce Wellness, but we make sure that when we learn something beneficial, we are prepared to share it with our partners and clients. Contact us today if you are interested in scheduling individual or team coaching.