John F Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Every day, in hundreds of change situations happening in the workplace, the actions of leaders at all levels are risking the promotion of atrophy. This is simply because many managers are ill-prepared to address the changing landscape of the business world. Just as change is a law of life, so it is in business.

In and of itself, change is prevalent in any organization. But this is compounded by the changing demographics of the workforce, on top of other issues – such as management of strategies for new revenue growth, planned culture shifts, and initiatives to contain costs.

Imagine the impact to your organization if your managers ignored these issues!

Typically, your environment evolves into a turmoil of rumours, backbiting, lack of focus, conflict, employee anxiety, lack of energy in service to customers, and a breakdown of trust between superiors and their staff.

Can your organization sustain a competitive advantage under this scenario? Not under the usual circumstance of supply and demand.

Building Change Managers

It is not enough that people are promoted, or enter management ranks without understanding the impact of change. Change-ready managers are respected and effective, are able to motivate others to be receptive to change, and to build collaborative environments.

The fact is that people don’t leave companies – they leave bad bosses who are ineffective and not respected. These bosses can’t retain employees, and they certainly can’t motivate the ones who stay. A company can have great pay and benefits, but also have managers who are poisoning the well because they simply don’t know how to manage change.

Supporting and Motivating Change

One of the main conditions for the support of change is the degree of motivation among individuals. We have learned a lot about how individuals either hold on to the status quo or embrace taking the road to change.

Managers who understand the distractions and emotions of their team members, in association with changes, will be better prepared to support and lead them through it. The right training for managers gives them the tools to understand: first the change, its interpretation, and then to facilitate the acceptance of the new way in place of the old.

Change-ready managers will communicate more effectively with their employees, encourage greater participation, and empower them to be able to embrace the change.

Training Managers to Become Change Ready

As in life, the law of change for business is constant. That’s never been truer than it is today. Implementing a training program to make your employees change-ready will not only make them great bosses, but it will also build teams of greatly empowered employees who are ready for change.

“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable” William Pollard (1828-1893)

A Supporting Change learning program can empower your leaders and first line managers to:

• Understand why change happens, how people react to it, and how they need to be supported through the struggle
• Involve team members in change initiatives by promoting their understanding and ownership of change and its benefits.
• Plan for individuals or work groups to support the change process and reinforce personal and organizational goals.

And now, if this article was of interest to you, you can get further information on our Supporting Change online program, by visiting NorquestOnline.com or by Clicking Here

The Issue:

Organizations need to hire the right people – the first time. They need to hire people who can be productive right from the start, and then stay around for the long haul. Good hires not only impact productivity and morale, they also reduce turnover.

Some Perspectives

• How many times have you seen a new hire and knew, in the first few days, that the new hire was not going to work out? Once is too many!
• How many times have you seen a new hire who was hired on the basis of a resume, but who did not meet the behavioral expectations of the job?
• How many times have you seen three people interview the same candidate, and they seem to have three different expectations of the person the job requires?
• Or how many times have you seen a single person do the interviewing and hiring without seeking input from others on the job?

Unfortunately the time spent, and the productivity lost, as a result of a bad hire, far outweighs the cost of spending time to develop an appropriate interview and selection process.

A Solution

Managers, supervisors and team members need to understand how to use a structured process to identify, select and hire the best and brightest people who truly fit the work requirements and the organization’s expectations.

Organizations who can manage their human capital by hiring right the first time have the competitive edge. When employees are matched with the right jobs, then the amount and the quality of work is more positive. All of this can affect your bottom line.

The components of a sound hiring process might look something like this:

• Define what you are looking for. Included items might be a job description, and a prioritized list of job competencies
• A plan for the interview process: interview team membership, questioning techniques, resume screening, reference checking, and the advantages of working for the company.
• Establish an appropriate climate for the interview and a strategy for responding to challenging interviewee questions
• Establish the selection process; guidelines for decision-making, evaluation procedures, and communicating with the candidates

For some positions, behavioral characteristics may be important. For example it may be important for the Selection Team to consider the behavioral characteristics  of the  potential candidate in one or more of the following areas:

• Creating positive relationships with other people or groups
• Relating to other people
• Their approach to managing others
• Their approach to selling, etc.

If so, then a behavioral assessment such as DiSC^® Classic should be considered.

The advantages to the organization for establishing a selection process include:

• Establishes efficiency in hiring process
• Increases productivity by increasing the likelihood of finding the right candidate the first time
• Fosters team cohesion by involving team members in the process
• Increases productivity and retention of new talent

Remember that selection decisions are the first, and the most important part of successful talent management. Training your teams with programs such as Hiring Winning Talent helps managers, supervisors , and team members understand how to use a structured process to identify, select, and hire the best and brightest people – people who not only fit the work requirements, but also fit into the organization.

And now, if you wish further information on this topic, please click here or phone us at 1-800-842-5857.

 The learning environment to today’s leaders must be more flexible, time sensitive and cost effect than classroom-only courses allow.

Norquest Online is our Online Learning Campus. Here you will find Vital Learning’s award winning Leadership Series™ curriculum in a convenient interactive online format. Vital Elearning™ provides supervisors, team leaders and managers with the best skills-based training from any computer, enabling leaders to work at their own pace, as time allows. With these courses organizations can provide their employees with valuable training in leadership skills, sales proficiency, productivity, customer service, and talent management.

This video outlines the importance of customer service not only to external customers, but also to employees in the workplace. It is a demonstration in lack of leadership and communication in the workplace.

These are great examples of failures in the lives of famous people who we now consider successful. To live, is to fail, and we are reminded to try again.

On March 20, 2008 a gathering was held in Fort Albany in support of the proposed new school in Attawapiskat. Steve Hookimaw, Chair of the Attawapiskat First Nation Education Authority, Charlie Angus local MP, plus many First Nation Leaders, took part in the candlelight ceremony and the lighting of a sacred fire.

Shannon Koostachin, a 13 year old student in Attawapiskat said that she wants her younger brothers and sisters to have a better school than the portables she received her schooling in, “I don’t want others to go to school in portables that leak, windows don’t open, washroom doors don’t close and ceilings are cracked. This is not an atmosphere for learning.” Greg Coleman, who has apparently replaced Tony Prudori as the INAC spokesman says, “. . . right now our concerns are for the health and safety of the students . . . The last health and safety inspection showed it is safe.” But he was not sure when that inspection occurred.

Maybe Mr. Coleman is not aware, but in other parts of Ontario it is taken for granted that schools are safe and healthy. Their concern is for the quality of education that is taking place in the facilities that are provided. External educational experts from Ontario have indicated that the present facilities in Attawapiskat are NOT suitable for quality education. It should not be necessary to remind Mr. Coleman, or the Minister, that not every building that is judged to be satisfactory from a health and safety criteria, is suitable as a school.

Mr. Coleman states that in 2006 the government invested $194 million in First Nation schools across the country. He went on to say “we put the money where it is most needed.” (Timmins Daily Press. March 21,2008) But while the Government is prepared to invest $350 million in post secondary educational support, they will not build a school for the 400+ students in Attawapiskat who are receiving what education they can in facilities that represent only about 50% of the space required by the government’s own School Space Accommodation Standards – let alone those of Ontario.

Another comparison is Ontario’s budgeted $18.8 BILLION for primary and secondary education. This figure is up 20.3% since 2003/04. This represents the criteria that the Education Authority in Attawapiskat is trying to meet with a vastly reduced budget and substandard facilities!

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Hall was overwhelmed by the support shown at the gathering. “I am truly thankful for all the schools and students across Canada that have shown their support to our cause. We will not give up. Our children deserve it.”