The World According to Cachia

Yes we all know that 'laughter is the best medicine' but i wonder how effective and appropriate it is when negotiating your next salary review?

In a study conducted in the U.S. it was considered that individuals who jokingly suggest they wish/expect to receive a high salary increase, are more likely to actually secure a better rate than if they where otherwise!

The study which involved 206 university students required the group to determine the starting salary of a hypothetical administrative assistant who was well qualified and had previously earned $US29,000. The students came up with an average of $US35,523 for candidates who kiddingly said they’d like to make $US100,000, but just $US32,463 for the others.

Why did it work? apparently because due to the mentioning an extreme figure in jest, it can set a high ‘anchor’ for the final offer while minimising negative reactions from the employer. Almost like setting a high target provides more scope (or room to move) in the negotiations!

The trick of course is for HR professionals to be prepared for employees to perhaps push the boundaries (having their tongue firmly planted in their cheek)... and so HR must maintain the Company's position on what increases are available and in keeping with what the Company can actually afford.

For many organisations the diversity journey begins with legal compliance around EEO, bullying and harassment. The communication of policies and procedures that have been developed play a crucial role in guiding a workplace to being more respectful, however it is the knowledge and skills that are imparted to staff that are critical to ensuring an inclusive workplace that will be accepting of diversity in all its forms.

It is hard to believe that in 2011 organisations still weigh up the cost of skilling staff in the area of equal employment, bullying and against the likelihood of a claim occurring. As human beings we all have bias, both conscious and unconscious and as a result it is a fair assumption to make that at some point a negative opinion will be formed about someone or a group of people based upon race, religion, gender, age or disability without knowing all the facts, and inappropriate behaviour will result. It is never a question of if this behaviour is likely to occur; it is always a question of when this behaviour will occur.

Organisations need to be committed to developing the knowledge, understanding and skills of individuals across all levels of the organisation. Often organisations opt for a quick and easy fix either in the form of a short online program that covers the key components of the legislation or a video for all new employees to watch during induction. This does not guarantee a deeper level of understanding around the core competencies of respect and equal opportunity. To ensure that organisations maximise their return on investment when implementing diversity and inclusion strategies, significant resources need to be allocated to this basic cornerstone of building an inclusive workplace.

The middle managers in your organisation have the opportunity to directly influence the attitudes, behaviours and performance of a vast number of your overall staff. When these managers feel frustrated by particular actions and events from above it can have significant impact on the effectiveness of their performance, which then impacts the overall performance of the organisation.

After years of training hundreds of middle managers across a wide range of industries, the feedback on the frustrations that middle managers experience with their bosses (the executives in the organisation) remains remarkably constant...

While some of the frustrations are inevitable, the best (and most successful) executive managers are those who truly believe that high performing teams lead to high performing executives and are willing to take the time to invest in understanding how to get the best out of their people.

For Human Resources professionals, when executives come to discuss issues, concerns, or just to complain about their team, it’s worth re-enforcing some basic fundamentals as to how they can get more from their teams – particularly with the added pressures of today’s tough economic climate:

1. Communication is key

2. Deliver on your promises to your people

3. Support your middle managers

4. See potential but realise limitations

5. Provide coaching and offer suggestions 

It's important to remember the more engaged and motivated your people, the greater the amount of discretionary effort – and hence productivity – you’ll receive in return!

It seems that it’s happening in ever increasing numbers and employers are supporting this, whereby employees are taking [paid] time off work to act as volunteers and their doing it on company time.

In a recent article, I’ve read that employees are taking advantage of ‘service leave’ to be able to be away from their ‘full time’ job and become active in their community conducting volunteer work.

In a recent report it showed that in 2005 only 150 employees had ‘services leave’ and so had permission from their employer to conduct such volunteer work…interestingly in 2010 some 1050 staff were accessing such leave, this is a 600 percent increase in the last five years.

There are a number of large organisations involved in this program that supports charities like the Australian Red Cross, Mission Australia and The Smith Family.

In addition to this being good for the company’s reputation, it seems as though it’s having a positive impact upon staff morale and retention! For those workers who are ‘values driven’ participating in volunteer programs gives them an alignment between the jobs and their values!

Although there seems to be an apparent rise in Industrial Disputes…official figures (for the March quarter) show that disputes are at their lowest level on four years.

In recent Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reports, there were only 37 disputes recorded for this [March] quarter, which is lower in comparison with the same quarter last year where 54 disputes were recorded. The December quarter showed 70 disputes!

In the last year, there were 53,800 workers involved in disputes which related to 117,000 working days lost as a result. These lost days occurred in the construction, transport, postal and warehousing industries… in contrast the mining and manufacturing did not suffer any lost days.

Reading a recent article which states that the way for women to ‘break the glass ceiling’ (i.e. succeed in Senior Management positions), is for Australia to change its attitude to working long hours! Ostensibly such working conditions which are deemed family ‘Un-Friendly’ were in effect killing off women’s chances of progressing into senior management positions.

The so-called go home for dinner culture relates to both men and women working such hours that will allow them [both] the opportunity to attend to domestic duties. Suffice to say, that if both men and women share the home responsibilities, then it is believed that women are more likely to get into corporate roles.

The current practice is for many organisations to have its senior managers work long hours (in the office) despite advances in technology that can enable them to work from home instead of staying late in the office!

This concept is not about providing reduced working hours for women in the workforce rather promoting flexible working hours that both men and women can take advantage of…whilst much has been done to improve opportunities for women; it seems more can be done.

A recent report commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identified how we (as people) spend our time… On average we spend one third of our day working (paid or unpaid), no real surprise there!. It seems however that half of our time is taken up with personal care (eating, sleeping etc…), which sadly only leaves a few hours for leisure!!!

Interestingly, although Australians seem to spend a little less time in paid work (as compared to International trends), we have done better when it comes to performing ‘unpaid’ work. Seems we average about 4 hours of unpaid work (each day), which is the third highest in the OECD. Other interesting statistics include:-

-          3.5 is the average hours of unpaid work performed (per day) across the OECD;

-          46% is the value of Australian unpaid work as a percentage of gross domestic product;

-          26 minutes is the average [daily] time spent (unpaid) caring for other household members – this is the OECD average;

-          45 minutes is the average [daily] time spent by Australians (unpaid) caring for others. This is the third highest in the OECD;

This report, however has identified that the Mexicans those that work the longest hours as they average 10 hours (both paid and unpaid) per day. This compared to the OECD average of eight hours (per day).

And finally, given my penchant for food, I might move to Turkey, as they spend some 74 minutes per day preparing/cooking food. The OECD average is 50 minutes per day, but our American friends devote only 30 minutes to cooking!

It was not so long ago that employees would be frowned upon by the Boss as they popped out for a quick ‘Smoke Break’ apparently, this was seen as a [loss of] productivity issue… however with the advent of social media is the smoke break being replaced by the computer?

Once again we see Companies scrambling to implement policies and processes to curb this new habit, which may include a ‘block’ on the system so it wont be able to access such sites!

And whilst employers may look upon ‘Facebook’ and the like as a bad thing, those who use it seem to disagree, of course using them can waste time, but then again so can anything

Interestingly by not having access to networking sites can be seen as lost opportunities…some organisations will use social network sites to help them throughout their recruitment processes.

It seems that savy businesses are harnessing the opportunities that social networking sites offer, for example, having staff monitor special [relevant] programs and/or using it to post links to an appropriate site.

If a Manager gauges productivity by volume then he/she will no doubt restrict access to social networks, however if success is considered more in what is produced rather than how much, allowing a little fun and/or flexibility at work may be to the benefit of the Company, rather than to its detriment.

Unless you’ve been successfully hiding away thus able to avoid the Global Financial Crisis ‘AKA’ the ‘GFC’ organisations have been restructuring their business in an attempt to continue trading; and as such, an inordinate amount of employees have lost their jobs through Redundancy.

Being made redundant hasn’t just become an issue.   Employees were being made redundant, well before the ‘GFC’ and so the anguish associated with loosing your job remains – if it’s any consultation, there plenty of people in the same position.   Given there are more people out of work because organisations are consolidating; finding your next role has now become somewhat more difficult!

When talking to recruiters and candidates, the apparent issues have become there aren’t as many jobs openly advertised, and for those that are the number of candidates applying has increased dramatically.   This leads to increased pressure on the recruiter as they now have so many more applications to consider.  

Some suggest that as a result [of the level of applications received] candidates would be considered more so because they meet the criteria in the ‘key word’ search rather than because they can demonstrate [transferable] skills to perform effectively in the position.

Additionally, candidates feel frustrated, whilst they believe they meet the ‘broader terms’ of the selection criteria, they are not considered suitable because they don’t have experience in the [respective] industry.   The problem for the recruiter is that they have an enormous amount of applications to process and with the selection criteria being so specifically defined; they won’t need to broaden the scope of the search.

In reading news articles and/or [HR] publications, there appears further discontent from the candidate… and that revolves around the ‘Human Element’ of the recruitment process.

Comment suggests the candidates are dealing with recruiters who don’t really understand the fundamentals of the positions they are trying to fill.   Some of the criticism [of the recruiters] includes; they don’t confirm receipt of the application; they don’t return phone calls; they don’t call me when a position becomes available.  

However from the recruiters’ perspective, it is seen that the candidate may have an unreasonable expectation of what the recruiter can actually do!   The recruiter is not there to attend to the needs of the one candidate – the recruiter must provide a certain standard of service to the client organisation as well as manage the expectations of the numerous candidates applying for any given role.

Notwithstanding the good recruiter will appreciate that the candidate he/she places today, may well become the customer/client of tomorrow!

I’ve spent a number of years delivering outplacement programs to people made redundant, and during that time I’ve witnessed the plight of the candidate, actively perusing their next role… and the recruiter struggling to appease their customers and managing the ever increasing number of anxious candidates (and let’s not forget that a number of recruiters themselves have since become candidates).

The one thing I advise participants [of the program] is that you cannot [solely] rely on the recruiter to do your job search for you! Candidates must be proactive; Candidates must network; Candidates must make job search their major task!

Yes job search is hard work, but then again, most things that are worthwhile take some effort!

According to a survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) the shortage of skilled workers in Australia will worsen, with more than three quarters of executives surveyed suggesting their organisation has experienced a ‘workforce skills gap.'

Interestingly it has been suggested that this skills gap will increase despite the improvement of economic conditions…this means that a number of Australian organisations will face the risk of underperforming.

Some suggestions have been made that organisations will have to increase their investment in training and development as well as bettering their recruitment and retention strategies.