Competency and Performance Solutions

In a weak economy with high unemployment, it’s easy to lower the priority of retention, employment brand etc. Here is a quick review of the business case and financials.

You can use the following information to develop a company-specific spreadsheet to estimate your turnover and retention costs. CPS does not guarantee that this list is complete. Continue reading »

1    What your customers say.
2    What your employees say.
3    The Generation Y / Millennial guarantee.
4    County funds for CPS services

1.     What your customers say:

Generation Y is a worldwide phenomenon. In the USA, our 80 million Millennials are a daily challenge to how we strategize, manage, and market.

Open a business publication.  Organizations are constantly criticized for poor service that is specifically blamed on disengaged GenYs. I tested this today: the St Pete’s Times listed AOL, Comcast, Sprint, Abercrombie & Fitch, Qwest, Capital One, Bank of America, Time Warner Cable, HSBC Finance, and Cox Communications as examples: http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article749365.ece

There are well-researched solutions to these issues. There are specific management skill-sets and behaviors that prevent or cure the problem. Continue reading »

It is very easy to spend months, or $$$$$ on a competency-based program, and end up with very little to show for it.

Three tips:

Tip One: You are likely to run into a very specific problem, unless you are working with a fully-qualified competency expert. (Look for an international qualification, specifically in competencies, like City and Guilds.)

Here is the problem: as you discuss competencies, you become very familiar with the information. You therefore take the material to higher and higher levels of abstraction. You also start to clump the competencies together, so you end up with about 12 broad abstract statements, covering a whole position. These are no use at all. Continue reading »

80 million Millennials are changing every aspect of the business environment, and they’re your customers, suppliers and employees.

CPS is finding that a lot of companies don’t have comprehensive strategies to manage this generation. They are paying heavily with low productivity, high turnover etc. They are also failing to make good use of the many opportunities the Millennials bring.

We found, however, that some managers want a more strategic approach to this challenge, whereas others simply want the hands-on skills for dealing with Ryan, Ashley, Jessica and Daniel now. Continue reading »

It’s common to hear complaints about GenYs, but the Millennial Generation has its own frustrations. There are far too many to list here, but a common one is that they are full of innovative ideas which are ignored. Every cohort has new ideas, but this one thinks in a dramatically different way from the generations before them, even when compared with GenX. And they often have the “Mouth” to say so.

But your Millennials are finding out a great truth about business - that risk takers and innovators are a good thing in theory, but in practice they usually receive a very cool reception. Continue reading »

The Suncoast ASTD OD Sig met with Lisa Jacobson, from Univ. of Pennsylvania, who is working with Dr. Martin Seligman, Chairman of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center.

Lisa’s presentation focused on how the hard science of positive psychology research can help to create:
a. better thinking, judgment, deductive reasoning and creativity
b. durably strong personal and interpersonal climates.

She emphasized that some people still think of positive psychology as “fairy dust and rainbows”, instead of the science-based psychological equivalent of creating good physical health, and taking research-proven preventative measures to maintain it.

Continue reading »