Competency and Performance Solutions

Third Prize: A self-sustaining system for monitoring your corporate information security and privacy on the Internet.

Second Prize: Engaged staff, increased retention, teamwork and trust.

First Prize: A long-term, company-wide culture of awareness of the importance of respecting and protecting corporate information. Employee-driven emphasis on its role in trust-based business relationships, legal obligations to business partners, competitive advantage etc.

In CPS’s Managing Millennials workshop, we suggest many ways to give your Generation Ys some variety in their work, to engage their interest and loyalty, and to offer some outlet for their creative minds, as they focus on routine tasks. Most of these suggestions leverage their technological and generational-specific skills, for the well-being of the organization.

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In July 2004, the Gallup Organization put the dollar cost to US business, of actively disengaged workers, at $300 billion.

In July 2009, the BBC World Service reported a $180 million cost to United Airlines, when Dave Carroll’s viral video “United Breaks Guitars” led to a share price drop of approximately 10%. www.longislandexchange.com

Carroll’s band and other passengers witnessed guitars being thrown on the tarmac by careless baggage handlers before take-off, and reported this to United staff. Three people showed no interest in their plight, and United dodged his $1200 claim for a $3,500 guitar for a year before denying it completely. Carroll’s song (complete with the badly-mutilated guitar) is apparently destined to become a United training tool. Enjoy it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo Continue reading »

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 »

Research shows that even young, highly-educated and assertive women do not ask for what they want, or know how to maneuver their way through systems that penalize them for asking.

The cost, to both women and organizations, is high.

Research proves that when women do ask for what they want, they do not do so as clearly, quickly or as often as men do. GenX and GenY women are following in the footsteps of their Boomer and Traditional predecessors in this pattern.

Women also tend to think that what is offered (“what is on the table”) is all that is available. Men draw on their socialization (which includes things like being taught how to slip the Maitre d’ a few bucks for a better table) and assume that their wants and needs might be met if they speak up, irrespective of what seems to be on offer.

Organizations suffer. Their valuable women work and wait for rewards or options, then one day, *poof*! They’re working for your competitor or running their own small business, and you’re saying “why didn’t she TELL me she wanted that position, the same salary as John, that title, a new computer screen, a more flexible schedule, a space heater? It would have cost so little … a tiny fraction of what this is costing us now!”
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