Recruit, Inspire & Retain
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August 2005
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Ideas for "Marketing" and
Providing "Customer Service" to Current and Potential Employees |
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READERS! If you find an article worthy of
Recruit, Inspire & Retain, please send it (with a note telling us
where you found it) to
rir@trainingsys.com |
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http://www.trainingsys.com/rir/index.htm. |
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We encourage you to use these
articles in your own communications with staff and
customers/members. |
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FREE!
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Your Employees Are Your FT Recruiters – Be Sure They Present
You Well
I recently spent some time preparing to help chamber of
commerce members learn how to get people into their Business Expo booth.
They had 20 minutes to learn so the time used had to be:
a) them practicing most of the time
and
b) only a couple of steps
What I came up with, it occurred to me, is what we should be sure all our
employees can do in order to get people to come work in our organizations.
Potential employees for your organization only want to know 3 things:
1. How your organization meets their needs for careers and employment
2. What your organization looks, sounds, feels like
3. Why your organization — why not work somewhere else?
Help your employees learn to answer these 3 things by:
● giving them written talking points
● practicing with example situations in group training or regular staff
meetings
● including it in new employee orientation
● including it in your employee handbook
● making a poster for the break room
Your ideas? Email to
rir@trainingsys.com and we’ll put them up in the
Recruiting Tips
section of our website.
**TOOL BOX**
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Selling the Invisible, by Harry Beckwith |
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Recruiting 101: Building a Big Network Fast, by Randy Gage |
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 Have
a recruitment, inspiration, training, or retention idea or question? Ask by
clicking the question mark, and we’ll post your idea or question (and the
answer) in Answers & Ideas
on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining Great Employees at
http://www.trainingsys.com. |
The ABC’s of Working With People
Accept
Differences
Be Kind
Count Your Blessings
Dream
Express Thanks
Forgive
Give Freely
Harm No One
Imagine More
Jettison Anger
Keep Confidences
Love Truly
Master Something |
Nurture Hope
Open your mind
Pack Lightly
Quell Rumors
Reciprocate
Seek Wisdom
Touch Hearts
Understand
Value Truth
Win Graciously
Xeriscape
Yearn for Peace
Zealously Support a Worthy
Cause
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**TOOL
BOX**
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PowerPoint screen show that features
40 humorous posters that are pre-set to work on “auto-pilot”.
Makes a great “WELCOME” message or enhancement to your session
break. Runs about 5 minutes, and is set to automatically
recycle. You can add in your own slides. (a great place to slip
in your objectives!)
Get your PowerPoint screen show here! |
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Love those COLORFUL QUOTE POSTERS you
see in
TRAINING SYSTEMS'
group training and conference bookstores?
Email or call 800-469-3560 to find out how to get packs of
the topics you need. |
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Last Month’s Contest.
Congrats to Cindy Dahl, St. Louis County Purchasing Dept., who
not only sent more than 10 Mnemonics, she broadened our
understanding of Mnemonic (I used to think it had to make a word to
be one). She showed the dictionary definition: “A device, such as a
formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering.”
ROY G BIV = Colors of the spectrum - red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo, violet
WYSIWYG = what you see is what you get
Every Good Boy Does Fine = treble clef lines
FACE = the notes between the lines on a treble clef
My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles = the planets in
order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto
7 stages of Management: POSDCRB = Planning, Organizing, Staffing,
Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, Budgeting
SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
RED = Rest, Elevate, and apply Direct pressure - what to do with a
cut that is bleeding
Righty tighty, lefty loosie = direction to turn a screw...generally
I Am A Person = The 4 Oceans (Indian, Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific)
RAVEN = Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun - To remember when to use
"affect" vs "effect"
POWER = Prepare Organize Work Evaluate Rethink
FYI = For Your Information
ASAP = As soon as possible
TGIF = Thank goodness it's Friday
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CapitolReader.com published in
their Political Book Summaries section a summary of THE LEADERSHIP
GENIUS OF GEORGE W. BUSH: 10 Commonsense Lessons from the Commander in
Chief, by Carolyn B. Thompson, President of
TRAINING SYSTEMS, INC.
& James W. Ware, Focus Consulting Group, Inc. To read this
summary in full, go to
http://www.capitolreader.com/sum/summary-6905-cbt-leadership.pdf
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ASAE Professional Development
Forum Online published a review by
TRAINING SYSTEMS, INC.
President, Carolyn B. Thompson, of 2 books on Training
For Non-Trainers (or How to give your conference and other session speakers
ideas to help participants really learn something!) To get a copy, call 800-469-3560 or email
rir@trainingsys.com.
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People Aren’t Led by Mission Statements, They’re Led by People
David Breslow,
TRAINING SYSTEMS,
INC. Associate & a professional
leadership development coach, writes:
“As a professional coach I have been in organizations that have beautifully
scripted mission statements prepared for their organization. Unfortunately,
many staff have their mission statement tucked somewhere in the bottom of
their drawer. Or, even if it’s on the wall, managers don’t make the words on
paper come to life. Both are required for that mission statement to actually
help people do their jobs. You want your mission statement to be useful?
Then, the managers have to lead using it!
Here are 3 simple questions to ask yourself and answer them as
honestly as you can:
1. Are others following you because they have to or because the want
to?
2. As a Leader: are you as effective as you can be? What isn’t effective?
3. Is what you’re doing working? (are you getting the outcomes you desire
from people and processes?) What’s not working?
Think of the people in your professional or personal life that you
admire.
??
What makes you “follow” them?
??
What do they spark in you that propels your interest in knowing or doing
more?
Mission statements are no replacement for authentic leadership. In fact,
without authentic leadership, faith and confidence erode and negatively
affect an organization. Any process, project or organization that breaks
down has done so because of poor leadership. A mission statement never
satisfied a customer or made an employee happy.
Develop your leadership skills and make the words on your mission statement
come to life!”
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Thinking of Leadership Training? |
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Has the Burgeoning Be-A-Better-Leader Training Industry
Produced Better Leaders? |
A recent Newsweek article said, “Yes, to a degree”:
First: The increased attention on bosses’ people skills
has led to less tolerance (by boards, shareholders and
employees) for bad leadership than in the past. So, leaders
are having to learn to be great!
Second: The pressure on leaders to act appropriately will
only grow. “This will keep leaders more in line in the future —
we’re simply watching them too closely now,” says Barbara
Kellerman, a Harvard professor and author of Bad Leadership:
What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters.
Another Factor: While in the past, aspiring leaders
mostly tried to emulate good managers, today there’s newfound
interest in learning from managerial train wrecks. And there
are so many to learn what not to do from, it’s easier!
You can make an argument that society’s focus on leadership is
overblown in truth, no matter how ambitious we are, most of us spend
more of our lives as followers than leaders. But as business gets
more complicated and workdays grow ever longer, bosses will have
little choice but to delegate more and micromanage less. In today’s
world, like it or not, you may be a leader sooner than you expect.
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**TOOL BOX**
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The Leadership Training Activity Book,
by Lois B. Hart |
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Handbook of Leadership Training Activities: 50
One-Hour Designs, by Dennis Kinlaw
Call
TRAINING
SYSTEMS, INC.
at 800-469-3560 or E-mail
books@trainingsys.com to order and get a 10% discount. |
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Think You Can’t Train in The Summer?
Vacations, children home from school, “lazy, hazy, crazy days of
summer” all make us think people won’t learn as well, so might as well bag
it for the summer. I don’t know about your world, but ours is moving so fast
we can’t afford to take the summer off anymore.
Here’s an idea that works well in a more casual time or environment:
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HOLD A BOOK CLUB |
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Objective:
Yes, you have to set a learning objective! “By the end of the
book club the learners will be able to ______________________.”
Frequency/Time/Location:
● This could be an in person get together or web conference,
even a bulletin board or listserv.
● Once a week works best – longer and no one can remember!
● Beginning of the day works best, before people’s schedule and
brain gets crazy.
Books:
● Choose one book and everyone reads a certain amount.
● Choose a topic and everyone reads whatever book they choose on
that topic.
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Processing/Discussion:
● Send questions before each session. Then discuss those.
● Have people come to each session with questions to ask.
● Have people come to each session with the coolest, most
useful, etc. thing they read that week and how they’ll implement
it on the job. |
Call
TRAINING SYSTEMS,
INC. for more ideas on how to use
innovative learning methods this summer, 800-469-3560 or
TSI@trainingsys.com. And let us
know what you’re reading!
Horrors From The Bad-Firing Files
Lawyers representing terminated employees love an ugly firing the way
personal-injury lawyers love a bad car wreck. No matter how well
deserved the termination, no matter how flawless the documentation of
the employee’s poor performance, and no matter how high the hopes for
calm following the departure of a contentious employee, a poorly handled
firing can turn even the best intentions into a nightmare of litigation.
Consider the following examples:
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A computer systems engineer took his 8-year-old daughter to the office
with him on "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." He was fired that same day
(with his daughter sitting beside him in the human resources manager’s
office) and escorted from the building.
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A cattle-feed salesman, employed for over 20 years by the same
multinational company, was called late one snowy January night by his
supervisor and instructed to drive to a city more than 300 miles away to
discuss his sales goals for the upcoming year. When he arrived the next
day, he was met by the HR director and handed a notice of termination,
effective that day. The HR director took the keys to his company car,
and the salesman had to call his wife to drive through the snowstorm to
pick him up.
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A whistle-blowing lawyer who worked in state government was fired when
she reported to work one morning. After the lawyer was escorted from the
office, the state official who had fired her wrapped the lawyer’s desk
with yellow police crime-scene tape, "for effect”.
A universal description for each of these firings? Messy, public and
humiliating. And fodder for hungry plaintiffs’ lawyers. Business owners,
executives and managers should be very concerned about how company
terminations are handled. Since no termination is without significant
emotion on both sides, there should be as much preparation, detailed
planning and levelheadedness in a firing as in putting together a
company’s disaster plan. Trial lawyer, Alan L. Rupe, recommends:
 Know
your company’s terminator. A common factor in bad firings is a
poorly trained HR director. Know the personality, training and
background of that person. Ensure that the individual has the
temperament to be fair and impartial, and the ability to ask some hard
questions: Is this termination legal? Does anyone have a hidden agenda?
What are the repercussions of this termination? Make certain the
terminator has an impartial script prepared in advance that responds to
all possible questions by the employee.
Treat each termination as if it were thine own. Business owners and boards
of directors are ultimately responsible for their employees’ actions.
View each termination as if your own job were on the line, and do not
simply "rubber stamp" each recommended termination. Remember that if
there’s an employee lawsuit, it will almost certainly require your
deposition and trial testimony, and you will have to explain your
actions to a jury most likely composed of more staff or line workers
than supervisors and business owners.
Expect the unexpected. Although I am not a proponent of escorting a
terminated employee from the building, particular circumstances may
dictate otherwise, and employers should be prepared in the event that
the unfortunate or unexpected occurs. Be prepared, but not obvious or
ridiculous.
Three words: civility, courtesy, candor. Too many employees are told,
"You’re not a fit with this firm," or "This is an ‘employment at will’
company," or "We don’t have to give you a reason." In an effort to
obtain an explanation, those employees generally go to a phone book,
thumb through the yellow pages and find an attorney eager to sue an
employer. I recommend that employees be told the reason for their
termination. There is nothing wrong with responding, "Because of your
continued poor performance."
Remember that this is business and not personal. Firings are not an
opportunity for the employer to vent or relive past affronts to the
corporation. If an employee tries to turn the termination into a "boxing
match," the terminator must remain as levelheaded and calm as a chess
player. Remember that events at the termination might be replayed many
times in a lawsuit and before a jury.
If you don’t like to do firings, don’t do them. You won’t be any good at
it. Use someone with the training, temperament and ability to handle
terminations in a legally permissible manner that will allow all
involved to behave with dignity.
Adapted from Workforce Management, November 2003
Buy
The Leadership
Genius of George W. Bush: 10 Common Sense Lessons from the
Commander-in-Chief
from our
online
TRAINING SYSTEMS,
INC. catalog
or by
E-mailing or calling 800-469-3560.
WWW.TRAININGSYS.COM
Get FREE access to great recruiting, inspiring, training & retaining tips,
ideas & resources where you can:
-
Download articles for your newsletter!!!
-
Use free online assessments!
-
Purchase books, tapes & fun
incentives to help you & your employees be the best!
-
Get new tips each month on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining
great employees!
-
Click on links to great managing and training websites!
-
Purchase our famous inspirational quote posters!
-
Get answers to your employee recruiting, inspiring, retaining, & training
questions from our experts!
|
 Have
a recruitment, inspiration, training, or retention idea or question? Ask by
clicking the question mark, and we’ll post your idea or question (and the
answer) in Answers & Ideas
on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining Great Employees at
http://www.trainingsys.com. |
AUGUST HOLIDAYS
August 6 – Halfway Point of summer (Oh, no!)
August 7 – Friendship Day
August 8 – Cheesecake Day
August 9 – Send An Email Greeting Day
August 12 – Thank You Day
August 16 – Joke Day
August 17 – #2 Pencil Day (They gave a pencil its own day?!)
August 19 – Spicy Food Day & Soft Ice Cream Day (Now this was good planning!)
August 20 – Lemonade Day
August 26 - Women’s Equality Day & Cherry Popsicle Day & Toilet Paper Day
(Celebrate women’s equality by eating a popsicle, using TP for a napkin)
August 27 – Banana Lover’s Day
August 30 – Toasted Marshmallow Day
August 31 – Eat Outside Day
August 9-10, 2005
6th Annual Illinois Human Resources Conference & Expo, Holmes Student Center,
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL,
http://www.shrm.org/conferences
August 15-17, 2005
HR Generalist Certificate Program, Seattle, WA,
http://www.shrm.org/conferences
August 15-18, 2005
CCL: Leadership Development for Human Resource Professionals, Colorado Springs,
CO, http://www.shrm.org/conferences
September 23-25, 2005
National Christian Leadership Coaching Summit, Sheraton Capital Center, Raleigh,
NC, http://www.valwoodcoaching.org
September 25-27, 2005
HR.com Employers of Excellence Conference 2005, Phoenix, AZ,
http://www.hr.com/events
September 28-30, 2005
Speed to Competency: Developing People, Building Capabilities Conference,
Hyatt
Regency Huntington Beach, CA, http://www.clomedia.com
October 19-21, 2005
8th Annual HR Executive’s Technology Conference & Expo, McCormick Place,
Chicago, IL, http://www.hr.com/events
October 24-26, 2005
Workplace Diversity “New Challenges, New Opportunities” Conference, Las Vegas
NV, http://www.hr.com/events
November 7-11, 2005
International Career Development Conference (ICDC), Hyatt Regency Orange County,
CA, http://www.careerccc.com
November 14-16, 2005
2005 SMT Annual Conference, Amelia Island Plantation, Amelia Island, FL,
http://www.smt.org
SHRM HR Generalist Certificate Programs,
http://www.shrm.org
October 31-November 2, Nashville, TN
November 14-16, Washington, CD
December 5-7, Phoenix, AZ
Dave Meier’s 3-Day Accelerated Learning Training Methods Workshops,
alcenter@execpc.com
August 22-24, 2005, Hyatt Regency, Chicago, IL
September 12-14, 2005, Embassy Suites, Denver, CO
September 16-18, 2005, AmeriSuites, Dallas, TX
October 3-5, 2005, The Geneva Inn, Lake Geneva, WI
November 7-9, 2005, Washington Athletic Club, Seattle, WA
December 5-7, 2005, Embassy Suites, Phoenix, AZ
VOLUNTEERING & GIVING
Global Volunteers
Have an “Adventure in Service” anywhere in the world! See
http://www.globalvolunteers.org
Be a Pen-Pal to a Soldier
Got to the Manhattanville web site, http://www.mville.edu, sign up to correspond
with a soldier, and receive a red wristband stamped with MY SOLDIER (like the
Lance Armstrong “LIVE STRONG” bands).
RECYCLING
Responsibly Dispose of Your Old Electronics
Donate PCs to National Cristina Foundation,
http://www.cristina.org
Recycle PCs and other computer products at Hewlett Packard and Dell. See their
websites for details.
Find local Electronics recyclers at http://www.earth911.org
and http://www.ebay.com/rethink
WWW.TRAININGSYS.COM
Get FREE access to great recruiting, inspiring, training & retaining tips,
ideas & resources where you can:
* Download articles for your newsletter!
* Use free online assessments!
* Purchase books, tapes & fun incentives to help you & your employees be the
best!
http://store.fastcommerce.com/trainingsys/
* Get new tips each month on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining
great employees!
*Have a recruitment, inspiration, training, or retention idea or question?
Send e-mail to TSI@trainingsys.com
and we’ll post your idea or question (and the answer) in Answers & Ideas on
Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining Great Employees at
http://www.trainingsys.com
* Click on links to great managing and training websites!
* Purchase our famous inspirational quote posters!
* Get answers to your employee recruiting, inspiring, retaining, & training
questions from our experts!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Copyright 2005
TRAINING
SYSTEMS,
INC.
All rights reserved.
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**ARTICLE REPRINTS FOR RECRUIT, INSPIRE & RETAIN
An ideal way to introduce new ideas or stimulate learning with the employees
in your organization.
Article reprints can also serve as a powerful promotional or sales tool -
include them with your
brochures, newsletters & media kits. For complete information on article
reprints or copyright
permission, call 1-800-469-3560 or e-mail to
rir@trainingsys.com
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retaining employees. E-mail
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rir@trainingsys.com.
**We’ll be back next month with more great tips, ideas, success stories, and
information to help you recruit, inspire, train, & retain great employees!
RECRUIT, INSPIRE & RETAIN contains links to websites operated by
organizations other than
TRAINING SYSTEMS, INC.
These links are for your convenience and we assume
no responsibility for the content or operations of those sites.
RECRUIT, INSPIRE & RETAIN is a free e-zine of
TRAINING SYSTEMS, INC., published 12 times/year. Editor: Carolyn B. Thompson, Data Entry:
Patti Lowczyk (Lowczyk Secretarial), HTML: Debbie Daw (http://www.helpquestdomains.com). Visit
us at http://www.trainingsys.com
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