Team Management Q&A

David, I like your answer! Now that's thinking outside the square !

Regards, Jeffrey

Much prefer to loose a client!

I only keep employees if they are awesome.

Hi Nathan,

Ask them, have a conversation with them!

It will be as different and as individual as they are.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you can apply a blanket approach. People and their behaviour are reinforced and rewarded in different ways, at different times, in different environments.

Behaviour can be shaped, predicted, reinforced, punished and most important measured.

How often do we start a conversation with...you always...everytime....you never....

Get baseline, behaviour and then measure.

To get more of the behaviour you want or want more of, reinforce through reward (actually has to be though). If you do this well you will find the behaviours you don't want or want less of start to go diminish and go way.

The absolute correct answer to your question is right there...right there... with that employee and that employee and that employee.....

Cheers

Greg

I have several questions that encounter and deal with on a recurring basis. How do you vet a developer that is beyond your own technical comprehension to ensure they have qualified knowledge experience?

What approach do you find works best for cross-training different roles within a team (e.g. technical analyst to designer, designer to developer, developer to customer service, etc.)

Absenteeism is a result of multiple factors. The best thing to do before taking any action towards attempting to resolve the issue is to first understand it.

Some basic analysis of the issue should help identify some trends, for example what are the most common days people are taking off. Do those days correlate with any internal or external events. If you can see a trend appearing, for example every second pay day the same employee is calling in sick, you can start to understand what is happening.

People are creatures of habit, that is why behavioral modeling is so effective if done correctly. If you have a system in place to identify when employees are starting work you may even be able to identify early signs of absenteeism and address the issue before it starts.

Absenteeism reporting is common place in large businesses, sure they have expensive reporting software however the same analysis can be done without expensive software.

In some cases it could simply be the person is lazy however in a lot of cases it is something you need to do to change. Like Neil said in his reply, review internal factors as it could be something your doing. KPI, bonus structure and other incentives work however some people just need a challenge and may be getting bored with their job and seeking new challenges.

I totally agree with Greg but would like to add that everyone deserves recognition for a job well done. Consider the individual before deciding how to display that recognition.

• Do they enjoy public recognition?
• Would they prefer to get more personal handwritten "thank you" note?

Types of rewards that can work when properly aligned:

• Additional vacation time (could be an extra day, or week)
• Loyalty bonus (specific dollar amount for milestone years of service)
• Flexible Work Hours or Location (let them work around their life schedule when and where they are comfortable)
• Paid Experience (could be going to an industry conference, or just a fun adventure)
• Additional Education / Training (put up money toward a degree, class or certification)
• Promotion (could be pay raise or just a new title to reflect their effort)

We did personality profiles on a team building day. Was really insightful, got us all understanding each other a bit better and how to work better with each other.

This is something every workplace must do, unfortunately in our experience most of them do it poorly!!

The most important point I will make it that feedback must be a continuous conversation, whether it is for positive or negative feedback. Too often people reserve giving feedback for annual or 6 monthly performance reviews. Why is this an issue? Because you top employees who are doing a good job will feel disengaged. You know they are doing great work but they don’t, so in many instances these people will end up leaving your workplace as they feel undervalued. This is not good for you! Alternatively bad performance does not get rectified in a timely manner. The longer bad performance goes on, the harder it is to rectify. Often one of the biggest issues is that people managers lack the skills or confidence to have the hard conversations.

In regards to recognition, yes things like recognition and presentation of awards and certificates in front of the team can be valued by employees. However our experience shows that often the little things have the biggest impact. Our work has show that things like a team lunch to celebrate a project milestone can go a long way to rewarding a job well done. Or for a smaller thankyou instead of just saying job well done, take them for a coffee and explain what it was you valued about their contribution. Trust me, as managers we see these things as small, but team members really value them.