Six Tips for Developing Your Employees

I am not sure how many of you are like me, when I read an article stating, "According to a recent poll"..I wander off into LaLa land. The tips below might seem basic and well...simple. How many of us on a daily basis forget to apply the simple solutions to both our lives and our business.

The trusted, professional advisors at First Place Employer Services see business owners struggle on a daily basis to attract and retain quality employees. When we read tip number one we were in no way shocked. How about you?

According to a recent poll of HR professionals, only ten percent of managers are fully prepared for the next level. Given this information, is it really a surprise that approximately fifty percent of promotions fail (source: Corporate Leadership Council) when the selection decision is based on current performance level?

One of the most important qualities of a good leader is the ability and desire to develop their employees. Taking an active role in the development of your team demonstrates confidence and concern for the future of the organization. Although talent development should be part of a company-wide initiative, most of the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the supervisors. Unfortunately, development coaching doesn’t come naturally to many leaders. By following these tips, you can prepare your employees for success at the next level.

1. Encourage professional development. High-potential employees are not satisfied with the status quo. You WANT these employees your team. They are typically ambitious, high performing, and dynamic. They will be the future leaders of your organization if they are given proper guidance in their development. If not, be prepared to lose them to the competition.

2. Create a plan. Planning is crucial to advancing your career. Help your employees establish goals that are aligned with their strengths, interest and experience and then create a plan to get there. A development plan serves as the roadmap that will take you to your goal. It can be simple or complex but it must include action steps, resources, and deadlines. Not sure where to focus your attention? Try the step-by-step promotion planning eClass. You will focus only on building necessary skills and overcoming obstacles to get you to your targeted position.

3. Pair your employee’s with a mentor. Once their goals have been established, find someone who is in a similar role to the target position to serve as a mentor. Mentoring enables an organization to use it’s existing talent to impart their knowledge and expertise to one another. Everyone – the organization, the mentor, and the mentee – benefits from the mentoring process.

4. Identify opportunities to expand their professional network. Having a solid network is imperative to the success of future leaders. A network is a great source of information, advice, support and inspiration. Recommend opportunities within the organization, as well as, networking or professional groups that will help them build strong connections.

5. Challenge your employees to move out of their comfort zone. You can’t move forward if you don’t grow and you can’t grow if you never leave your comfort zone. When possible, give your employees challenging assignments. Help them prepare by providing them a safe environment to learn from the mistakes that they are bound to make.

6. Hire a coach. For high-potential employees and employees who need to be redirected to another career path, it can be best to bring in an outside coach. An external coach provides a confidential environment where employees are free to discuss the challenges and opportunities they face in their careers through the use of assessments, powerful questions, and individual development plans.

To learn more about this author, visit Jill Frank and her website
@ (http://www.leverageyourtalent.com/)

If you or someone you know may have questions regarding employee performance, please drop us an e-mail at:

firstplacerightchoice@1stplacemployer.com

and a trusted advisor will answer your inquiry within 24 hours.

http://www.1stplacEmployer.com

Workplace Politics – Lies, Lies, Lies

In honor of Super Tuesday the trusted advisors at First Place Employer Services voted to cover an unfortunate truth in the workplace. Lies. This time of year, America talks about the lies and the mudslinging over the dinner table or at the water cooler. What we do not publicly talk about often enough is how to handle and confront lying in the workplace. Your first instinct might be to ignore a lie about you, but as it swells to a crescendo, you might want to rethink your strategy. In the workplace, this is especially important, because a lie can rapidly contaminate the environment.

An article published on Courant.com takes a truthful look deeper into this issue. The article titled, "Don't Ignore Lies In The Workplace; Confront Them" suggests what to do with lies that sprout up like fast growing weeds in the workplace. Psychologist David Gruder offers containment tools below:

Escalating Steps to Confront Lying in the Workplace

• "Talk to that person privately, or with a neutral third party, where he doesn't have to put on a face for the public."


• "Identify key people in the system to tell that a lie is circulating. Ask these key influencers for advice about how to respond."


• "Organize an intervention if the previous methods prove ineffective."


• "Gather people who understand what the truth really is to collaborate on a procedure for publicly confronting the liar" — but only if you're desperate, because of the humiliation it causes. This could mean a note in a personnel file.

Read more of the article here: href="http://www.courant.com/business/hc-mildred0204.artfeb04,0,1785619.story">

The HR pros at First Place Employer Services tackle workplace challenges head on utilizing a team approach with our client as Captain. If you are an employer, we encourage you to take a look around and take note of behaviors which allow some people to be rewarded for behavior unrelated to doing a good job.

If you or someone you know may have questions regarding workplace behaviors affecting your place of business, please drop us an e-mail at:

firstplacerightchoice@1stplacemployer.com

and a trusted advisor will answer your inquiry within 24 hours.
to learn more vist us at:

http://www.1stplacEmployer.com

Is Sexy an Ingredient in Successful?

Did you ever wonder if your paycheck or your job stability depended on how attractive you were? Well published research suggests that in addition to our highly qualified skills and college degrees, looks are a highly compensated feature desired by employers across the land.

As a CFO or the owner of a successful business, does that also in turn mean that by hiring attractive, pretty people your business will be more successful than those competitors who hire their staff based on brains alone? You might wonder, but the research does not point out a profit equals prettiness factor.

Unattractive people earn less than average-looking people, who in turn make less than the good-looking, according to a study by economists Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle. The “plainness penalty” is about 9%, while the “beauty premium” is 5%, according to the report, which was published in the Journal of Labor Economics. So what exactly does this mean? Translation: An attractive worker makes 5% more per hour than an average-looking person, who in turn earns 9% more than their unattractive counterparts. In real dollars, this means that if an average-looking person makes $30,000; their beautiful colleagues would make $31,500, while the homeliest workers earn just $27,523. And interestingly, the impact was similar for both men and women.

Read more of the story here:
(http://www.theimproper.com/Template_Article.aspx?IssueId=3&ArticleId=1207)

Luckily, beauty is in the eye of the employer. What one recruiter considers plain, another HR executive finds beautiful. Will Corporate America be better off if they see that talent is a beautiful thing?

Good luck, stay legal, and look for the beauty within!

E-mail your questions concerning survival in the workplace to a trusted advisor and we will respond within 24 hours firstplacerightchoice@1stplacemployer.com
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