1. New employees are costly, there are expenses associated with hiring new employees, such as advertising fees and recruitment fees. Training employee also has corresponding costs attached. It has been estimated that the hiring and training of new members can cost as much as twice his or her salary.
2. Having a high staff turnover is a waste of time and effort; as the saying goes ‘time is money’. Equipping employees with the skills needed to do their jobs, and getting them up to speed with the way the company operates requires time away from the desk for both the trainee and the trainer. Every hour allocated to training, whether external or internal, means time away from accomplishing revenue-generating tasks such as; sales calls, networking or payment collection. When the time used up is accumulated it totals to a significant amount in dollars.
3. Having an unstable working environment also damages the morale of other employees; when an employee resigns or is let go, the rest of the team tends to speculate. It can also cause employees to consider the security of their own positions, which may push them to look for other options.
4. The training and recruitment process can hamper Business Operations. When a senior employee takes time out from his or her original schedule to train a new hire, it can mean that other tasks will need to be pushed back and may lead to some missed opportunities.

If the turnover rate of employees is high and frequent, the cycle of recruiting and training will persist. This has a flow-on effect for efficiency, affecting the bottom line results.

The good news is that there are ways to ensure your turnover rate is kept to a minimum. Some of these tactics are outlined below.

Efficient Hiring Process

Whether you have a Human Resources Manager or are doing the hiring yourself, it is essential to be aware of the correct hiring process and associated costs. Research the best and most affordable options for tracking down star candidates. Before the interview, it is best to know what your process will be. To define this process it is best to look at exactly what you are looking for in a candidate, your boundaries or flexibility to your requirements and offer and what recruitment methods may uncover this information.

Select the Correct Person for the Job

Gone are the days when the only thing that mattered was the credentials on a piece of paper. Nowadays, companies put a premium on the Emotional Quotient (EQ) of employees. More and more companies are hiring for attitude and training over skill. When reviewing resumes or while interviewing, be on the lookout for red flags relevant to the role. For example, if you are looking for someone who will build their skills within the business, look out for signs of job hopping which may indicate they are less of a long-term option.

Consider your Company Culture

It is important that the candidate that you choose shares the same values and fits with the culture of the company. In other words, the personality and attitude of the candidate should complement the environment of the workplace or vice versa. A good indicator of this is if the candidate shows a similar attitude and outlook with your present employees.

Provide Open Lines for Communication

At the outset, it is integral for you to lay your cards on the table in terms of your expectations for the position and the terms of employment including hours, salary increases, benefits and the like. Doing this will manage the expectations of your new hire and ensure that the understanding of the employment arrangement is the same for both parties.

Offer Competitive Compensation

The expression “You get what you pay for,” doesn’t only apply to material goods and services. It can also be applied to recruitment wherein the calibre of the employee that you get will have a correlation to his or her expected salary. If current budgets are an issue, think of the cost the company will incur in hiring the wrong person for the job (i.e. repeating the recruitment and training process). Alternatively, if the budget is lower, ensure you factor the training time into the timeframes for getting that employee to full capacity.

Be Flexible

If your remuneration budget is not alterable and you need a higher level employee, there is the option to offer other benefits in lieu. Alternatives that may be effective are options to work from home, a flexible work schedule, performance bonuses and flexible vacation packages.

Provide Feedback

Once the hire is onboard, feedback is key. Providing constant feedback, whether negative or positive, is an effective way to nip any problems in the bud and to reinforce positive behaviours/outputs. Getting your comments and being informed about the correct way to do things allows employees to learn what they need to quickly and do so in a way that meets the standards of the company.

Offer Training

Investing in the training for employees doesn’t only equip them with a better skill set to do their jobs, it also shows them that the company cares about and supports their professional development. This can be tailored training schedules with other members of the team or training from external providers.

Conduct Periodic Evaluations

Employees need to know where they stand in terms of meeting your expectations and what they need to do to get there. These ‘catch up’ sessions allow both employee and employers to set goals to identify what support or training is necessary to meet these standards. Within the probation period, it is recommended to set consistent meetings (e.g. monthly) to go over any feedback you wish to highlight and any performance areas they could improve.

The cost of recruiting and training a new hire is an expense that cannot always be avoided, but with consideration, in the early stages, it can be minimised. To make sure that your turnover is kept to a minimum and the recruitment process is efficient, begin the recruitment process correctly knowing what you are looking for from the onset. Once you sign with the right candidate, the next step is to ensure that the employee is kept satisfied and supported to succeed by following the tips above.

The post How to: reduce turnover and increase employee engagement appeared first on Reload Consulting.

This isn’t managing up. This is performance dishonesty.

Managing up, when done well, can have massive benefits for the individual employee, their immediate boss and the business overall.

So firstly, what is “managing up” when it’s done well?

Ultimately it comes down to communication. Everyone has a communication preference. In the workplace, this can boil down to a preference for face-to-face, email or phone communication.

But it also goes beyond just simply the communication medium, to also the types of information presented. Bullet points? PowerPoint? Long, winding emails? Facts and figures? Case studies?

Traditional notions of management have put the onus of working out the most appropriate communication method onto the manager (i.e. managing down). After all, they’re the ones responsible for the success of the project or business. However, the typical manager has on average 14 direct reports. That’s 14 different communication preferences a manager has to juggle.

What managing up does is reverses this. If a direct report is able to understand the communication preference of their immediate manager, and actually tailor their communication to that preference, things get done with increased efficiency. This can also include an understanding of what issues matter most to them in a decision? Is it speed, cost, growth potential, innovation, etc?

For example, if an employee is able to determine that their immediate manager likes things in writing, with costs in bullet points, and typically prefers a few days to “mull things over,” then arranging a face-to-face meeting at short notice and expecting an immediate answer is not only going to fail but likely going to be completely counter-productive.

An employee well versed in managing up is able to deliver the right types of information, using the right method, at the right time. Naturally, that sort of behaviour not only helps their manager make informed decisions more efficiently but also bodes well for the employee come promotion time.

For employees, managing up has obvious advantages, but many seem reluctant to do it. Again, traditional notions are probably to blame here. Research performed by Future Workplace actually suggest Gen Y is better at this than most (you can listen to a summary of this research in a Harvard Business Podcast on managing up here).

This is where managers can actually sit down with their direct reports and discuss the way they’d like to receive information, and openly discuss the way they go about making decisions and how their staff can assist in that process. With everyone on the same page, stuff gets done and everybody wins.

The post Why “Managing Up” is Good for Your Staff and Your Business appeared first on Reload Consulting.

Everybody in an organisation is accountable for their own communication which is why organisations need to make sure that their employees are properly trained in effective communication techniques.

Below is a list of techniques that we’ve found useful and encourage our clients to adopt in the workplace.

Taking the time to listen – It is amazing what you can learn from others when you take the time to listen. Often in a group situation, the person that makes the most noise is the one that people listen to. We’ve seen this time and time again and more often than not, they do not have all the answers. You can get more out of the people you work with if you take the time to listen to each person and manage those that are making the most noise.

Filtering necessary information – When it is your turn to pass on information, cut out the unnecessary information and only give people what they need. This will speed up communication channels, increasing efficiency and saving time.

Being clear and concise – Be clear and concise when reporting or passing on information to others. This principle applies to all forms of communication. People don’t have the time or the patience to read an essay-length report when you could have given them the same information in a few dot points.

Knowing the right form of communication – Knowing the correct communication channels to use for the right situation can save you valuable time and money. This applies to both internal and external communication. Should I make face-to-face contact, send an email, or make a phone call? There is no point going out to visit a client to ask a few simple questions that you could have done via an email or phone call and by doing this, you have wasted your time as well as your clients.

Finally, for communication to work effectively there needs to be an environment where questioning, discussing, reasoning and feedback are encouraged, as this is the nucleus for better communication.

The post Effective Communication: Why it Matters appeared first on Reload Consulting.

Throughout all this, the companies that survive are those that constantly innovate.

Stagnant companies get found out, particularly during economic slowdowns, when competition for consumers’ dollars becomes more intense.

During these times, innovative companies are able to hang onto their existing clients, steal market share of slow competitors and retain top staff.

One of the biggest misconceptions about innovation is that it only involves massive (and often costly) research and development projects.

Innovation can be as simple as putting a coffee machine in the office to help boost staff morale or as complex as an R&D investment in software or infrastructure that results in increases in productivity.

The other important factor when attempting to increase innovation within an organisation is to ensure that everyone within the business is contributing and being involved in the process.

Companies that have successful innovation programs actively involve everyone in the process. For instance, all employees should have the opportunity to provide suggestions for improvement within the business. This not only helps to reduce change resistance but also creates more avenues for new ideas to foster.

Google is one company that lives by this with a policy called 20% time. Employees at Google can dedicate 20% of their time to a project of their own interest. Google Maps was one such project that was created during 20% time.

Regardless of how big or small the innovations are, successful companies continue to do so on an ongoing basis.

The question to ask yourself is when was the last time your business innovated?

The post Innovation the Key to Business Success appeared first on Reload Consulting.