Successful Employees will make you a Successful Employer

The question that pops in the minds of the employers or HRs today are, how do we retain employees? The recession has prevented people from job hopping this year but make no mistake, employees and all gearing up to exit your company. Those who aren't simply want security and are too afraid. But they are unhappy none-the-less. And that brings  be to the question that you folks should be asking yourself...

How do we help make our employees successful?

Mind you, this is totally different how do we make successful employees. You create successful employees by raising salaries, offering perks, fancy offices etc. But inorder to make employees successful you have to look for inspiration in the worlds largest organisation. I'm not talking about Microsoft or TATA, I am talking about religious institutions. What you are about to read is all done by religious institutions like the Catholic Church, Protestants, Temples etc

As a company in which your employees will spend half their non-sleeping part of a day, you are supposed to know the problems that employees have to deal with. Most of these are conflict of values. For example, if you ask someone to work extra hours without paying overtime wages there is a conflict of values and beliefs. You believe that since you are providing him job security he has to do what you say and that conflicts with his beliefs that if he has to spend time away from his family for you, he has to be compensated adequately.

The most common complaint I receive from genuinely honest and hard working employees that they don't have enough time. Yes, the dreaded To-Do list. I ask them, If I help you make time, what are you going to do in that time. The answer is obvious, to the rest of the To-DOs or add some more tasks to the To-Do list. The list never ends.

One of the goals of every organisation should be how do we make our employees financially free. In other words, what do we have to do to give our employees the knowledge to generate a monthly passive income which is higher than they monthly expenditure. This may sound weird but its not.

We seem to be stuck with the Master-Slave mentality from centuries ago when the slave is entirely dependent on the master for his or her livelihood. If more money is required the slave has to work for other masters, maybe even multiple masters simultaniously. The slave blame their masters for their misery even though they have the capacity to earn wealth.

Bottom line- the salary you pay is never enough. Help them use the money you pay them to be financially free. That way they dont have to worry about their bills, installments and others expenses during office hours.

 

Are your friends' friend your friend?

Just started a new business or thinking of starting one? Planning to switch your job and looking out for better opportunities? Or simply looking for a good tailor in town? It helps to know as many people as you can. Dont give the excuse that you are too shy or you dont need anybody. The truth is you do. To be successful you need to network.

Amway, QuestNet and other network franchises have become billion dollor companies by implementing the concept of network in their business model. Unfortunately over the years, these companies have focused on generating income by adding new members rather than on selling their products. This has brought a repulsive reputation to the concept of networking and is often viewed with suspicion.

To me, a network is a direct or indirect connection of friendship of individual to every other individual with the objective of helping each other out, which is also the meaning of friendship. The more connections two individuals have the more trust they have in each other. Hence the objective of a network is to make as many connections and and keeping in touch with as many people as you can in your daily life.

You can network anywhere any everywhere. It may be online on sites like facebook or Orkut. It may be offline when you attend parties and events. You dont always need a friend to introduce yourself to new people and make friends, although and intro from a mutual friend does give some credibility. In any case, you have to have a good introduction line and have even better delivery. With this, you can just walk up to anybody and make friends.

You shouldn't ignore anybody. Your gardener, milkman, shopkeeper, ex-girlfriends etc at times are respected people who know a lot of people(say their clients). Keeping good relationship with them could prove valuable in the future.

So the next time, you are on facebook and there is a friend suggestions or a "Do you know?" alert, just add them as your friend without thinking twice.

Three words that'll kill your career "I DON'T KNOW"

An hour ago I had a conversation with my friend, Alex, over the phone. He had got a call from a guy who had an opening in his company for a web designer. Alex graduated last year and has been working as a trainer at a private institute. During that time he trained students in various technologies and programming languages including HTML, JavaScript, Photoshop etc. For those who are unaware, they are used in designing webpages like the one you are viewing right now.

Obviously Alex doesn't have any hands-on "Industry" experience. But when asked whether he can design pages in Photoshop, HTML-JavaScript... should he admit that he's never done it before and therefore imply he hasn't done it. This is a universal dilemma. Does one admit to the truth or tell a lie and say that he has experience working with it before? This is the same problem most freshers (students fresh out of college) and career switchers face.

I would have never known the answer to that till I saw Barack Obama... till I experience Barack Obama. Here is a guy... a young guy with relatively less experience as compared to his opponent's, at the primaries and at the presidential election. The country is in economic turmoil, it is fighting a war with heavy human and economic casualties, jobs are moving away from the country, banks are going bankrupt, car industry is in a slump etc etc. Does Barack has any experience in all this? NO. But he believes he can do it. "Yes we can" he said.

Nobody wants an employee who boasts about his past experience but cannot adapt to the current situation. They want employees who will reply "Yes I can and I will" to any task given to him or her.

Well, Alex didn't tell the guy that. When he was asked if he could design webpages in Photoshop.He said he didn't know. He was honest. Should he have lied? No. It is like saying I know to cut with saw but I've not yet cut in the shape of a square. But by saying "I don't know", he created a perception that he doesn't know anything about photoshop and web designing. All he needed to say was I'm familiar to that, I just need to brush up on this topic OR I didn't feel the need to use that so far but if I do, I shouldn't have any problem learning and using it.

So, the next time someone asks you to do something you may not know, what will you say?

Its all about confidence and expressing, not what you can't do, but what you can do(and do it better than anyone else).