4 Things Which the Employees want in 2013

A new year is knocking at the doors. There is something about January. We all feel fresh and rejuvenated. Our hearts are filled with a new hope, some new beginnings , a sense of freedom from the old ways and looking forward to newer things and meaningful changes. 

The following are my take on what changes the employees of any organization might be looking forward to :

• Transparency and communication :  The new generation values transparency. They want more and more communication so that they can understand the actual status of the organization / project. They are adequately prepared to mould  themselves accordingly so that they remain in the thick of things and are a part of making things happen. Sugar-coating the situations and vagueness of the communication puts them off. 

• Instant feedback : This is the age of  instant "everything".  The employees want instant feedback. Instead of waiting for the half-yearly or annual appraisal discussion, the Gen Y wants to get immediate feedback. And the managers should understand that their teams are capable of dealing with it.The   feedback will be appreciated more if they get time and chance to improve upon it rather that looking at it in retrospect. 

• Empathetic bosses :  The stick should be replaced by a pat-on-the-back.  The employees expect their managers to be empathetic.  Technology has made things easy and the team expects their managers to be more supportive and friendly rather than being too technical.  Employees needs nurturing. They want their bosses to be more of mentors than supervisors. 

• Flexi work hours :  I have seen many organizations trying to adopt flexi-timings . But sadly, they put in too many checks and balances which sometimes become quite cumbersome and not at all employee friendly. I think full ownership of the work should be given to the employees and after that total flexibility in timings. The employees do understand that there will be some project/organizational bindings - example, weekly team meetings , all-employee ,get togethers etc. The culture of the organization itself should make the employee "adapt" to these bindings.  Once the sense of ownership is developed in the team and when they get the adequate flexibility to balance the work and life, the employees will give their 100% to the organization !

I look forward to see these changes in 2013 ! 

A very happy and prosperous new year to all the readers . Welcome 2013 !

The Controversy of Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction is a very controversial topic. 

The bookish definition of Job Satisfaction is the degree to which individuals feel positively or negatively about their jobs. There is a complex relationship between the employee job satisfaction and the performance of the organization. So does the overall performance of the organization  lead to employee job satisfaction or if the employees are satisfied , the organization performs well ?  

One of the most important tasks of a Manager or a Leader is to make their team perform and  Job Satisfaction has a big role to play in the performance of her team. So what is the relationship between Job Satisfaction and performance ? There are several theories :

•  Does Performance cause Job Satisfaction ? If  the manager finds that the performance of the people in his team is leading to Job Satisfaction, then she should focus on helping people achieve high performance. The goals for the team should be tangible and stretched to the maximum feasible limit. And once the goal is reached, commensurate rewards should follow. But again , if the employee feels that the he has been unfairly rewarded, then this theory will not hold good. 

• Does Job Satisfaction cause performance ? If this is true them the managers should simply make their employees happy. Well,  in my own experience, I have realized that a person becomes either complacent or settles down so happily in the regular repetitive day job that his performance either decreases or remains static.  This theory might work with higher level employees , but job satisfaction is not a consistent factor of the employees work performance.

• Does Reward cause Job satisfaction and performance ? This theory propagates that rewards can boost both performance as well as job satisfaction. Again , the reward should be regarded as commensurate.  Rewards might be of many forms. It can be monetary or some extra perks or something intangible , e.g. a member of the President's club.  Research has indicated that higher the reward, the better is the job satisfaction, but it has also been found out that lower rewards to low performers has led to dissatisfaction ! 

So , it is not so simple as it seems ! The manager or the leader should use all the facets of job satisfaction to boost the performance of her team. So, depending on the situation , the manager has to utilize the work itself or the promotion opportunities to increase the Job satisfaction and the performance of the team.  Another very important area for job satisfaction is the quality of supervision and the relationship of the team. And last but not at all the least, pay and rewards to the appropriate people leads to job satisfaction.

So go ahead and make your team perform by making them satisfied with their job ! All the best !

Self Worth

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a Rs 1000  note.

In the room of 500, he asked, "Who would like to have this note ?" Hands went up.

He said, "I will give this to one of you but first, let me do this."

He proceeded to crumple up the note . He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.

"Well", he continued, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and , put his shoe on the note and crushed it . He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.

"Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth Rs 1000.

Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless. 

The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.

You are special- Don't EVER forget it.

Look again. Look Hard

What do you see ?  

At the first glance , you see something – correct?  

Look again. Look hard.  

Read between the images and think....  Do you see something else too ?  If  still you cannot see, try to rotate the image. Now, is that better? 

Well, first you must have seen a bespectacled person and then when you looked the second time or the third time, you saw “Liar” written. 

"Things are not always what they seem, the first appearance deceives many, the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden"

The point which I want to make is when you see something or hear something , do not form an opinion about it immediately. As in this illusion, most of the times, what meets our eyes at the first glance might construe a completely different meaning when we look at the situation the second time. 

This is true in most of the situations both at the workplace and in our personal lives. 

Sometimes we have a preconceived notion about a certain person or thing or most importantly about ourselves. Think about your last appraisal discussion when some scope of improvement about you was discussed. It is very hard for most of the people to take the feedback positively because we have an image of ourselves in our mind, and this obstructs us from improving ourselves. 

We see what we want to see , not what it actually is.

I have seen several managers write-off a team member merely because they could not meet their expectation the first time or the person acted or spoke in a particular way. I have also seen incidents of strife between people when they have assumed something just by a simple act or conversation. 

Look twice, think at least twice to check out the different angles and you will be amazed just like I was when I looked at this picture.

If we can do this, then we can ACT on and not REACT to a situation. 

So, open your eyes and look again and be ready for surprises !