All posts by Elaine

About Elaine

Imprinting a little +ve impact in my own little way

Which Personality type are you?

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Which personality type are you? Recently, I had been described by a friend that I’m a “typical Type A” as I can’t seem to sit still and I’m always out and about. Typical Type A? Hmmm, I’m not sure if I like to be placed in that bucket. So for the fun of it, here’s my own analysis based on this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/are-you-a-type-a-or-type-_n_4549312.html

  1. Waiting in long lines kills you a little bit inside – Yes it does but it is also partially because I know things can be improved in this situation. I tend to put on my HPI (Human Performance Improvement) hat on: Does the person behind the counter knows how to do the job? Are the right tools and systems in place to help him to perform better? Has the organisation given enough planning and resources to better manage this process? Etc.
  2. You’ve been described as a perfectionist, overachiever, workaholic or all of the above –Not all the time. Perhaps been described twice as an overachiever and maybe less than 10 people told me that I’m a workaholic, which I think comes from my Chinese Singaporean mentality.
  3. You bite your nails or grind your teeth – No. I have lovely nails and I listen to my Osteo who advised me to avoid having my teeth touching each other all the time whenever I have my mouth closed.
  4. You have a serious phobia of wasting time – Yes but I won’t say it’s a serious phobia. I don’t break out in cold sweat.
  5. You’re highly conscientious – Yes. I call it being very organised or a more positive term being “proactive”. I like being effective and efficient. Like the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.
  6. You’ve always been a bit of a catastrophist – This is definitely a big fat No. I always believe in making the best out of the time I have and the decisions I make each day. No regrets.
  7. You frequently talk over and interrupt people – Not all the time. I do have moments when I hardly talk and just listen. Or perhaps totally zone out if I got too bored. I only tend to talk over and interrupt when the individual is stuck or going about the same thing. It’s a way to facilitate the meeting / conversation. I do apologise for interrupting.
  8. You have a hard time falling asleep at night – No. I sleep real well. My sleep patterns from my Jawbone Up reports make a lot of my friends jealous.
  9. People can’t keep up with you – in conversation or on the sidewalk – Yes I admit so. I’m a fast walker (but not in heels) and talker, especially if I’m really excited about the topic.
  10. You put more energy into your career than your relationships – No. This may be true when I was younger. Now, work-life balance and relationships with people I care about are more important.
  11. Relaxing can be hard work for you – No, not at all. Bring on beach vacations, massages, spas, food, culture, sight-seeing, etc. Did I mention I’m a sucker for massages?
  12. You have a low tolerance for incompetence – Yes. I also get irritated with people who doesn’t use common sense or have basic manners or courtesy. As Billy Connolly says it best, “As my years grow longer, my tolerance of fools grows shorter.”
  13. You’d be lost without your to-do list – Yes, I have a to-do list. But I won’t be lost.
  14. At work, everything is urgent – No. I strive to be in Quadrant II (Important & Not Urgent of Stephen Covey’s Four Quadrants for time management) most times.
  15. You’re sensitive to stress – No. I deal with stress well and I know which are the best ways for me to de-stress.
  16. You make it happen – Yes! Things will not happen if there’s action associated with it, isn’t it? What’s the use of intentions when there’s no action?

So, how did I score? That makes Yes = 7, No = 7 and Not all the time = 2.

Somewhat in the middle? Well, at least I’m not a “typical Type A” … I just have a little more of Type A and there is nothing wrong with that.

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Just add Tech – Include Technology into your Learning Strategy

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Just add Tech – Include Technology into your Learning Strategy – The key trends that everyone is talking about these days are cloud technology, data analytics and mobile technology. There are many factors pushing towards these trends such as availability and accessibility of mobile phones; the increased mobility of workforce; the increased skills and education of the workforce; the move away from spreadsheets; more HR getting into the strategic role; skills shortages; the need for staff retention, engagement and development and so on.

So what do you need to do now in order not fall behind the competition? Where do you even begin to include technology into your learning strategy?

For a start, we need to look at both the present & future states of your organisation. Where is your organisation at now and where does it want to go in the future? What are its future business goals? Your learning strategy should be aligned to it. You will also need to consider the current and future states of the following:


Technology Infrastructure

The first step is to examine your organization’s existing technology infrastructure. To put it plainly, some organizations may not have the technology to offer the most advanced technology. You may know what your organization is capable of, but even if this is the case, you should always get your IT department involved in the planning stages of your learning strategy to avoid any nasty surprises later. For an example in this organisation of about 1,200 employees, it was a rude surprise to find out later after the e-learning programs had been rolled out that Flash updates need to be requested by employees calling into Helpdesk individually! Or you will need to write a business case to have Flash updated for the whole organisation! In another example, training records and e-learning courses need to be sent to the vendor for an initial mass upload but sharing documents through Dropbox or any cloud file hosting service to an external party is against IT policy. In other words, to make your life a little easier, you will need to find out your IT department’s security, infrastructure, IT support levels and availability, business objectives, future directions, etc. that may impact on your learning strategy.

Employees

While you’re looking at the organization’s current technology, take the time to also take a realistic look at your employees. The question you want to answer is not whether your employees are ready for technological advances in learning, but rather what kind of technological advances are they ready for.

Depending on the industry, age and nature of the organization, you may find that your audience is already highly technically savvy and may expect the Learning & Developing (L&D) team to provide them with stimulating technological learning interventions. On the other hand, your employees may be resistant to blogging or watching a training course via a synchronous web conference. Either way, your job is to determine just how far you can go.

Policies & Procedures

You will also need to review your current policies and procedures. Are there anything that needs to be changed? How does your management feel about work-life balance, e-learning and m-learning? How are you going to manage when online training needs to be conducted? Will these be during office hours or after office hours? With all these new technologies and mobile phones as well as with everyone and everything accessible 24/7, how are you going to draw the line? Are you going to be like the French and put a legal ruling in place that says employees are to shut off work devices and avoid work emails after going home for the day?

The L&D team & technology

As part of the L&D role, you need to plan, organise, deliver and evaluate the learning & development activities of the organisation. There are several tools and systems available to assist and streamline your L&D processes – from authoring tools to develop your online courses to the different Learning Management System (LMS) to administer, report and evaluate your online programs.

Considering the different delivery methods of training, be it face-to-face, electronic learning (e-learning) and mobile learning (m-learning), does your L&D team have the capability to develop the materials on your own in-house or do you need to outsource this?

You will also need the right LMS to provide a great way to track and report grades, completions and performance metrics. In fact, if your organization is ready for the latest and greatest, can you have a cloud-based LMS so that your learners as well as your team are not restricted by location? Can your LMS collect the key metrics that you need as well as generate meaningful reports? Can your LMS can be a Social Learning Management System (SLMS) that provides for online interaction and social networking or, if you plan to work on rapid development, will a content management system (LCMS) work better for you? Regardless of your choice, make sure it is the right choice for the direction and technology you want to deploy.

You can also consider including technology in classroom courses. For example, blogs, discussion threads, and social networks can be used as both before and after class exercises. Trainers may be able to gain insight in the learners’ knowledge levels both before and after the intervention, as well as learn how well the training affects behavioural change.

Look for opportunities to create online applications for courses, such as quick reference guides, games, short knowledge based modules, testing, podcasts and videos that can be downloaded and viewed after or before class. Methods like blogs or social networking are also great ways to get learners involved and keep them involved. The question is determining how to begin using these applications.

Overall, as you look for ways to integrate technology into the learning strategy, you will also be able to create a culture that is open to technology and at the same time, help the organisation stay competitive as well as retain and engage with your people.

Article republished from LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140803125130-5398941-just-add-tech-include-technology-into-your-learning-strategy?trk=prof-post

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HR and L&D Professionals: Checklist for Business Success

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Just like any part of the business, HR and L&D Managers can get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations and activities. We get absorbed into the “fire fighting” mode and have no time to be proactive.

business-successWhile this list is by no means exhaustive, it does form a good start to assist HR and L&D managers to refocus.

To earn that seat, HR and L&D managers need to develop C-suite-level thinking and contribute to the business conversation, not just the HR conversation. So, stop getting accused of being paper pushers and start being proactive and think like the business.

BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING CHECKLIST

  • Understand the organization’s business – its business model, its products and how it makes money in its industry
  • Speak the language of business to gain credibility
  • Understand the balance sheet and how it relates to business success measures
  • Provide advice on how human capital can be developed and aligned to meet current and future business needs
  • Recognize and act on emerging opportunities to quickly help prepare the workforce to respond to them
  • Understand what makes an open and learning organisation, and then support and develop that environment
  • Partner with senior leaders to establish HR and learning and development strategies that support the organization’s business strategy

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE CHECKLIST

  • Focus your efforts on improving those areas that will enhance business performance – such as customer loyalty, product quality and innovation, speed of development and delivery as well as sales effectiveness
  • Make sure there is a clear business case for an initiative prior to any investment, including the identification of the initiative’s drivers such as increased market share, improved leadership capability, reduction of key staff turnover
  • Establish clear measures that help answer the questions: Why are we doing this in the first place? Have we been successful? How do we know we are successful?
  • Demonstrate ROI and business contribution by linking initiatives to lasting and important business metrics that are key differentiators – such as revenue, market share, customer service and loyalty, quality, retention, turnover, efficiency and innovation
  • Share results with business partners and senior management and those who matter

STRATEGIC CHECKLIST

  • Ensure that employees have the right skills and knowledge to meet the strategic challenges of the organization in an effective manner
  • Work with senior management to identify high potential individuals to fill key positions in the future as well as a succession plan in which valuable knowledge of key senior &/or experienced employees are retained and transferred back into the business
  • Help the organization realign talent to meet the organization’s critical business needs
  • Develop your HR and L&D strategies to align with each other and more importantly, to the organisation’s vision and strategy
  • Ensure that the supply of talent equals the organization’s demand
  • Help implement career development and talent management strategies to retain and motivate the organization’s high potential and high performing employees
  • Help leaders diagnose developmental needs, identify training and development opportunities and create a learning culture
  • Budget for key development and training
  • Promote an environment where employees feel they make a difference, are valued and are continuing to learn
  • Capture employees’ hearts and minds to keep the best people who can create, innovate and move the organization forward

TECHNOLOGIES CHECKLIST

  • Learn about new and emerging learning technologies and support systems and how they can best help deliver training and learning as well as engage employees. For instance,
    • Mobile computing
    • Cloud computing
    • Social media
    • Big data
  • Ensure organization’s systems (e.g. employee selection and recruitment, promotion, rewards planning, management, information and control) encourage effective performance among employees
  • Ensure that these systems are reviewed regularly and are consistent across the organization and that they mutually support each other and produce meaningful reports
  • Analyze and select training and learning technologies based on a needs driven approach to meet diverse learners’ needs and accomplish learning goals and objectives
  • Integrate training and learning technology options to produce coherent blended-learning solutions that best meet an individual’s learning needs and learning styles

ETHICS CHECKLIST

  • Advocate and implement organizational practices that respect the individual and support a humane workplace in times of instability, high pressure and constant changes
  • Value multidimensional learning experiences that facilitate the development of emotional intelligence as well as knowledge and skills
  • Operate ethically and with integrity, “walk the talk” and ensure the right consequences are in place (i.e. rewards and punishments are fairly carried out)
  • Lead by example and serve as a role model for the organization’s values
  • Model personal development by actively identifying new areas for your own personal development

DIVERSITY CHECKLIST

  • Understand cultural differences and how to develop, design and implement HR, training and learning solutions for a global, culturally diverse audience
  • Help your organization’s leaders develop cultural sensitivities and abilities so that they can produce, market and sell products and services in other cultures
  • Stay current with all employment laws and regulations and ensure internal policies and procedures are current to the changing times
  • Leverage diversity to help employees, including leaders, understand and maximize relationships with associates form other cultures, countries, races and backgrounds
  • Make your learning community and learning resources available freely in the organisation

Article also available in: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140714110523-5398941-hr-and-l-d-professionals-checklist-for-business-success?trk=mp-reader-card

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Alignment

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“Alignment” is a hot topic in management circles for years, especially because of its importance to the running of an organisation. Alignment involves setting goals, strategies and processes that will support the achievement of an organisation’s mission, vision and values. Without good alignment to strategy, every bit of forward motion is a struggle. With everyone working together towards the same objectives, your company can execute strategy faster and with more flexibility. Essentially, alignment of goals strengthens your leadership, creates organisational agility and improved productivity and results.

However … alignment is easier said than done as it involves a lot of effort and coordination and it is complex, especially in this constant changing environment.


CHALLENGES
Faced with a dynamic environment of fierce competition, shrinking budgets, skills shortages, and heavy price pressures, businesses must do more with less and execute on strategy with razor-sharp focus or be left behind.

While we all know that goals and goal alignment are important – in a lot of organisations, these are just not getting executed the way it should be. There are often cases where goal alignment practices, such as talent management, are used to a point, but there is a big breakdown when it comes to execution. The effort just does not seem to stick or management may not be using it for some reason (e.g. it is too hard, it is time consuming, they do not know how to use them, there are more pressing issues to deal with, etc.). For instance in the area of talent management, has job analysis and assessment validation been completed to help enhance the predictive power of selection tools so that the right people are recruited to advance with the organisation way into the future? Are roles, specially the critical ones, clearly defined in the organisation? Or are the training employees are sent to, aligned to their roles and will help them reach their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)?

Technology – Friend or foe?
Although technology is a huge assistance in the process of alignment, communication and talent management, some of the initial challenges faced will be that there are a lot of products and systems in the market to choose from and that there is also the perceived risk of letting go of legacy systems. In addition, there is also a need to align the different systems within the organisation as it is likely that each department or division may have their own system. Moreover, how often do we hear problems of systems that are not “talking” to each other; there is duplication of data; information are not consistent; there is huge set up costs; the systems no longer meet the current or future requirements of the organisation and so on.

Some other issues that may crop up include not having a technical / IT person from the start in the sourcing of vendors and products, thus, the internal IT limitations, requirements and support are not ironed out in the beginning. The project may by poorly scoped that it opens the door for misinterpretation and work falling between the cracks. The project may be spearheaded by just one department without the full buy-in from other internal stakeholders. There may be poorly drafted agreements with the third party vendor that are inflexible or inhibit change, or unreasonable vendors who are unwilling to make adjustments when circumstances call for them. There may also be changes in management that create uncertainty about the tenor of, and outlook for, the relationship with the vendor and/or IT project. Expectations may be poorly set that may lead to misunderstandings, disappointment and immediate misalignment. And finally of course, poor project and stakeholder management throughout the project implementation.


ALIGNMENT THROUGH PEOPLE
Organisations that survive in turbulent times tend to have established talent management systems for aligning their people and teams to the essential objectives of the organisation, providing continuous feedback about alignment with those objectives, and adjusting them accordingly. A study from The Hackett Group found that companies with more mature talent management capabilities reap strong bottom line benefits, including earnings that are about 20 % higher than typical Global 1000 companies. These same talent management leaders outperformed their average counterparts across a bunch of other efficiency and effectiveness metrics. Leaders demonstrated better ability to increase overall employee engagement, faster recruiting cycle time, and a tighter link between talent management and business strategy.

In other words, high performing organisations know why they exist and what they are trying to accomplish. Their mission and goals are threaded into their work from organisational level strategy down through teams and to individuals, with the means to measure performance at all these levels. People work best when they understand what their organisation is trying to accomplish, and how their role contributes to those goals. When people understand how the work they do contributes to the goals of the organisation, they can monitor and control their individual paths of success within it. This is the foundation of clear accountability and provides greater clarity and confidence in which efforts and successes will be rewarded. 

Hence, it is essential for learning initiatives, including assessment and evaluation, to align with the strategic goals of the organisation. Just as assessment is critical to the learning process of individuals, evaluation is critical to organisational learning and continuous improvement. A systemic approach to learning provides a lens to focus the organisation on its goals and allows it and the individuals within to learn continuously and adjust performance as needed.

ALIGNMENT THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Goal alignment can be used to communicate expectations, document progress, and identify employee development needs. By ensuring that your employees understand what your organisation is trying to achieve, and how his or her role – and performance – contributes to the organisation’s core mission, you can focus their efforts on your company’s mission critical goals and make strategic decisions rapidly.

Goal alignment is primarily a people and process issue, however, the implementation of measurements and visibility can be well supported by technology. Technology also helps in the speed of information and communication. For instance, in most paper-based Performance Appraisal systems, employee goal plans and reviews usually get filed away somewhere, never to be seen again. But with a good technological system, you can incorporate your existing Performance Appraisal process online as it captures the training and developmental needs for each employee. It helps you to determine competency gaps and pinpoint any missing organisational skills. You can also consolidate all employees’ needs for the year for better budget and scheduling management. There are many software products that will help streamline business processes and manage your business operations and risks. 

All in all, alignment of business goals to strategies and processes that will support the achievement of an organisation’s mission, vision and values is no easy task as you need to be focusing on both business results and people. Goal alignment is a powerful management tool that not only clarifies job roles for individual employees, but one that also demonstrates to employees their ongoing value to your organisation. When you engage employees with their work through goal alignment, they become more committed to your company and achieve higher levels of job performance. You need commitment, time, information, support and the tools to do so. Find a cost effective and efficient technological system and create a good vendor partnership, it makes the journey to alignment much easier.

Article also found here: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140707011333-5398941-alignment?trk=mp-reader-card

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Five ways you’re wasting money in your operations and administration

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Time and money are precious and every one of us tries to make the best of it. Almost in every organisation, there are 5 ways you’re wasting your money in your operations and administration.

1. Death by spreadsheets

Everyone loves a good spreadsheet. Spreadsheets can help you organize and manage all sorts of information, from expenses, budgets, client lists, employee data and even telephone lists. But if you have more than a few hundred employees and clients, tracking performance, training, orders, requirements and so on with spreadsheets is the stuff nightmares are made of. It gets more complicated if these spreadsheets need to shared and updated by a few people.

Spreadsheets are also dependent on manual entry and human error, which in turn impact on the quality of work and time required for these manual activities. These manual tracking also increases your administrative workload which leaves you less time for the more important stuff.

2. Inefficient and/or lack of systems

Processes and systems need to be in place for the efficient and effective running of the business. Processes need to be clear, documented and often simplified further to be effective. A few ways to find out how efficient your processes and systems are:

  • Is your organisation able to duplicate the desired result every time?
  • Are your processes consistent throughout the organisation?
  • If new employees are asked to perform a task, do they have a clear path to follow to ensure that the desired result is achieved?
  • Do employees have a hard time finding the content and information in your organisation?

Technology is a great way to improve your processes and systems. There are numerous systems out in the market that will streamline your accounting, payroll, documentation, training, incidents, risks and etc. processes. All of which in the long run will help improve the speed of the tasks, reduce human error, reduce stress, improve quality, increase productivity as well as reduce cost and of course, save money.

3. Keeping hardcopies

Even though there is technology available to reduce the amount of paperwork in the office, it is still surprising that organisations are still keeping hardcopies and loads of them. Ask:

  • What information do you use or add to the paperwork? Why is it needed?
  • What information do you obtain from the paperwork? Why do you need it?
  • Why is this paperwork important for you to perform your job?

If there is no clear answer other than “because it’s always been done that way”, then it is quite certain that this is a good part of the process for reducing paperwork and streamlining the process. Also, if each piece of information cannot be justified, it should be eliminated from the hardcopy form to reduce the amount of work necessary to process the paperwork.

Another related area to consider here is filing and storage. File cabinets and storage boxes that keep these hardcopies take up valuable office space. Consider using a document management system to archive paperwork for long term storage and retrieval to free-up the office space that is being occupied by paper storage or even an online document management system.

Furthermore, spreadsheets and paper-based processes cannot give you deep, quick, real-time insight into how your employees, clients and activities are doing. “Going paperless” can save money, boost productivity, save space, make documentation and information sharing easier, keep personal information more secure and help save the environment.

4. Lack of Staff Development

With skills shortages and the high costs of recruiting, it is more cost-effective to retain and engage with your current employees and provide them with developmental opportunities. However, how often do you provide opportunities to develop your employees? Most people think of employee training as sending the employees offsite to a training seminar or training centre. Another way is to conduct the training onsite by bringing the trainer into your premises to do the training for a group of employees. Both of these alternatives can be expensive but there are other alternatives that can save you money and still get your employees the training and development that they need, such as online training, on-the-job training, coaching, mentoring or even, based on the concept of ‘teach to learn’ – send one employee out for training and as part of his/her post-training assignment, this employee is to teach the rest of the team on what was learnt.

5. Inefficient Wasting Energy
Quick wins and easy ways to improve your operational efficiency and safety, save money as well as create an environmentally friendly reputation are to conduct a walk-through assessment. By taking time out to walk around and observe the working environment and daily/nightly operations of the business, it will help you to identify opportunities to improve performance and implement the appropriate initiatives. These include:
Lighting

  • Switch off lights when not needed
  • Replace globes with more efficient ones
  • Remove globes/lamps in areas that have more light than needed
  • Install timers or sensors to switch lights off
  • Install zoned lighting so you have more control over turning off lights in some areas

Heating and cooling

  • Reduce the amount that you use heating and cooling
  • Adjust the temperature to use less power
  • Improve insulation
  • Purchase a more efficient heating or cooling system

Appliances, equipment and machinery

  • Switch them off when not needed
  • Turn them off standby
  • Maintain the equipment to ensure it works efficiently
  • Purchase more efficient equipment

Vehicles

  • Use different fuels (e.g. gas, diesels)
  • Reduce the number of trips or encourage car pooling
  • Reduce the total distance being travelled
  • Purchase more fuel efficient vehicles or convert existing vehicles

Rubbish and waste

  • Increase your recycling
  • Re-use material that was previously discarded
  • Reduce the amount of rubbish and waste produced
  • Introduce recycling for different types of waste
  • Change business practices so that less waste is produced

Let me conclude with a simple thought: if you are still doing 3 out of the 5 things above and you don’t have an integrated management platform yet, you should seriously think about it. We can help you with strategy, compliance and implementation of practical, effective solutions for your businesses, large and small. These systems are not only highly valued by HR, OHS and green groups, but now highly valued by your employees as well. In fact, with the new financial year, isn’t it time to start it by saving as much?

Article also found in: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140701001045-5398941-five-ways-you-re-wasting-money-in-your-operations-and-administration?trk=mp-details-rr-rmpost

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