When talented, high performing team members leave the organization, everyone from peers through leadership likely feels a sense of loss and disappointment. Often, once a resignation has been announced, everyone quickly assembles to identify and close whatever knowledge gaps will be created in the wake of the departure. This survival-mode mentality is understandable, yet short-sighted. That departing employee holds far more valuable information than just how they functioned in their role. They also hold the secret to how you can retain the rest of your staff.
Six Reasons to Implement Job Rotation
Job rotations often fall in the ‘sounds good, but we don’t have time” category for most organizations. Most leaders believe that, in theory, the advantages outweigh the possible negative effects of workplace disruption. Yet, few organizations have an active job rotation strategy or plan. The feeling is that most teams are barely keeping their heads above water. They simply can’t lose any team members, nor can they take extra time to train a temporary outsider. This view is understandable, yet short-sighted. We prioritize what matters. From job swapping to shadowing and rotations, here are some benefits that alternative job assignments … Read More
Numbers Don’t Lie: Making the Case for Employee Development—Flashback Friday
Does this scenario sound familiar? You identify a common skills gap within your team and express your concerns to HR/Leadership. They agree and say they’ve seen a similar issue. You ask for support/funding to train your team. You know they need it, and HR knows they need it, but senior leadership is reluctant to allocate the necessary budget. After all, they just spent tens of thousands on an updated virtual video library for their LMS. Often, identifying the skills gap and the training/coaching solution is far easier than getting budget to fix the issue. Additionally, using a basic ROI equation … Read More
Six Underrated Next Gen Leadership Skills
Given the declining value of the undergraduate degree while the cost of higher education skyrockets, many employers are finally coming to terms with a skills-based approach to resume reviews instead of requiring a degree. While it takes more effort to identify which candidates truly possess business-critical skills than it does to scan for a completed degree, the benefit is unquestionable. College graduates consistently report that they feel prepared to successfully enter into the workforce in their given specialty, but when those same individuals are surveyed a year later, they report they were largely under- or fully unprepared to succeed in … Read More
Seven Signs Your A-Player Has an Exit Plan
Without a moment of thinking, you should be able to name the A-players on your team. He/she is a shining star who requires very little of your energy, willingly takes on the biggest challenges, outperforms their colleagues, has a positive attitude, is reliable, supports the team, and makes everyone around them a better employee. A-players are incapable of failure. They rise to the top because success is in their DNA. Famously, Steve Jobs once said that the A-players he recruited to Apple could outperform an average employee at a rate of 50 or 100 to 1. Given that A-Players are … Read More
Corporate Learning: Are You Still There?
“Are you still there?” That phrase always makes me laugh when it pops up on my TV as I binge watch a season of Netflix shows in one sitting. I always think, “I’m not sure…am I still here? Is it still light outside? How many episodes have I even watched?” Sure, I’m breathing and have a pulse, but I’ve been sitting in one spot for so many hours that my Fitbit thinks I’m sleeping. Netflix has popularized binge-watching so pervasively that we associate this kind of extreme passive digital consumption with the entertainment platform. Perhaps that’s why it’s so disturbing … Read More