Happy Employees Archives

When Helping You is Hurting Me: How to Encourage Healthy Teamwork

In case you missed the news, Intertech was named a “Best Place to Work” by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal. While this marks our ninth time on the list, I’m still as delighted as the first time we received the honor in 2004.

Unlike the many awards we’ve received for growth during the past 20 years – which also are greatly appreciated – the Best Places awards are extra special because they are based on the candid (and confidential) responses of our employees. While I never take the outcome for granted, our company has many practices in place to ensure that employees feel valued and have opportunities to do great work for great clients.

Intertech’s ACE program—recognizing our core values of Attitude, Commitment, and Excellence—has institutionalized the importance of noticing the contributions of colleagues and making sure those contributions are called out and appreciated. A recurring theme in our employee recognition program, which is based on employees nominating each other for ACE awards, is the importance of teamwork. Intertech consultants frequently go the extra mile to help each other meet a deadline or handle a particularly challenging assignment.

Helping each other is a cornerstone of Intertech’s culture. So I was particularly interested in a recent article in Harvard Business Review, “In the Company of Givers and Takers” by Adam Grant, which looks at the decisions employees make every day about whether to contribute to others—and their willingness to help other employees, which is “crucial to group and organizational effectiveness.”

Grant, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and the author of Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, has given a lot of thought to workplace generosity. He writes:

“In a competitive, often zero-sum, world, generosity can be a dangerous path. How can leaders foster it without cutting into productivity, undermining fairness and allowing employees to become doormats?”

His article shares some surprising answers to this question, which are based on a review of 38 studies of organizational behavior representing more than 3,500 businesses in a wide variety of industries. In my next three posts, I will pass along some insights highlighted in this intriguing article, as well as how Intertech encourages employees to help – without harming – each other.

Would Your Employees Recommend You?

The latest issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review had an interesting article “Would Your Employees Recommend You?” by Julian Birkinshaw. Mr. Birkinshaw is a professor at London Business School and the author of Becoming a Better Boss: Why Good Management Is So Difficult.

In his research, he and his team, developed a Net Management Promoter Score (NMPS). The NMPS (think of it as an internal Net Promoter Score) was based on the question:

“How likely is it that you would recommend your line manager to a colleague, as someone they should work for in the future?” (1 = not at all, 10 = extremely likely.)

The article states “…the NMPS is a good indicator of the level of employee engagement in a company… the correlation between employee responses about their level of engagement at work and the likelihood that they’d recommend their manager to a colleague is approximately 0.75.” A correlation of .75 is very high. In short, if you’re likely to recommend your boss, you’re very likely to be engaged at work.

High engagement indicates how likely someone will put discretionary effort into a job. While there are other factors in engagement–quality of work, physical working environment, etc.–the NMPS suggests no matter how great a workplace, it may mean nothing if the employee dislikes his or her immediate manager.

15 Worst Employee Training Videos

Did you ever have to watch job training videos… videos showing you how to do common sense things like washing your hands after you use the bathroom, flipping the burger when one side is too bloody, and keeping your cool with a problematic customer?

Fresh from YouTube here are the 15 Worst Employee Training Videos.

Marketing Director Wanted!

This is a deviation from my normal posts. In the past, some of you have inquired about working at Intertech. This position reports to the Intertech Partner in charge of training sales but has “dotted line” reporting to me. If you have interest or know someone who may, please apply at Intertech’s website (http://www.Intertech.com/Jobs). We’re looking for candidates in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Below is the copy from the job posting on our site.

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Intertech, an award-winning firm named the #1 mid-sized employer in Minnesota by Minnesota Business magazine in 2012 and eight-time winner of the Business Journal’s Best Places to Work competition, is looking for an exceptional Marketing Director.

This role will continue the drive in Intertech’s growth (Intertech is an eight time Inc. 500/5000 winner).

As a Marketing Director, we’re looking for someone who can provide direction to the leadership team yet organize and implement the day-to-day marketing activities. We’re looking for an extraordinary individual who can:

Provide a yearly marketing plan with execution details
Manage activities and events like our newsletters, user group, and conference exhibiting
Engage our customers on social media
Create phenomenal content
Work with our outside marketing design firm on branding
Work with our outside retained public relations firm

Additional Skillsets Needed:

The ability to get the big picture and get things done
Past marketing experience
An undergraduate degree in marketing, business, or English is preferred
Excellent writing skills
Solid organization skills

Why Join Intertech?

There are many reasons Intertech is the employer of choice. Below are just a few:

The ability as the Marketing Director to have an important voice and visible role in our firm
Flexible schedule including standing work-from-home day(s)
A remarkable environment. We’re the recipient of over 35 awards for work environment and growth
A three month paid sabbatical for every seven years of service

All the other stuff needed to be recognized as the #1 mid-sized employer in Minnesota… good pay, comprehensive benefits, …

With Training, Take the Long View – 3rd and Final in the Series

As I described in my previous post, I’m taking issue with the article: “Who Can Fix the ‘Middle-Skills’ Gap?” by Thomas Kochan, David Finegold and Paul Osterman, which appeared in the December 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review. The authors simply accept at face value the notion that individual employers should not train employees because those employees might leave. I disagree.

In fact, I believe the best way to retain employees is to continually offer them great training. At our annual senior leadership offsite planning retreat, we always have an agenda item around how we ensure job satisfaction for our associates. We believe there are multiple components, including:

Stimulating, challenging work
Clear expectations
Continuous feedback
Unparalleled learning
Explicit career paths
Fair reward and recognition
Inclusive culture

I recently did a presentation to the leadership team of a local college on “programs or incentives to increase morale and productivity.” I explained that if the above components aren’t covered, no program or bonus system matters. Focus on the core blocking and tackling of creating satisfied/happy/productive employees!

Similar to training, professional certification makes some employers feel at-risk for losing talent (after their people become certified). There was a local, large firm who stopped incentivizing their employees to be certified because its management believed certification created opportunities for people to leave.

Here, too, I think it is short sighted. We pay for study materials, pay for the exam (pass or fail), and give a spot-bonus of $750 for each technical exam passed (for Microsoft, there are typically four exams in a certification so it’s $3K total). That investment in our people is small in comparison to the benefits we reap: extraordinarily loyal and satisfied employees who do great work! Our employees are happy, our customers are happy and Intertech thrives. It may sound simplistic, but it’s a formula that works!