March 2008

Scholars at the Wharton School of Business endorse mentoring efforts and contend mentoring programs can retain talented employees while also invigorating the corporate social network. Still, mentoring programs face challenges in the modern world, especially since workers jump from company to company precluding the development of lasting relationships. While bosses acted as mentors a generation ago, supervisors no longer necessarily see themselves as mentors. At the same time, nearly three-quarters of Fortune 500 organizations run a mentoring program, and a 2006 study by Gartner confirms the myriad benefits of mentoring. Gartner spent five years studying 1,000 workers at Sun Microsystems and found employees involved in the firm's mentoring program received significantly more salary-grade changes and promotions and exhibited higher retention rates than non-participating employees. One surprising result was that mentoring was least valuable to the highest-performing employees, prompting the Gartner researchers to suggest companies focus on lower performing workers. Meanwhile, the Wharton management team urges younger employees to act quickly so as to find a mentor before a job shift takes them elsewhere. Senior management should be proactive in encouraging managers to advise a wide swath of employees because some workers might struggle in the mentor search.

Most modern global companies are struggling to acquire the employees they need, and therefore must overhaul their strategies for recruiting and developing top talent. Ideally, such tasks will be unified into one strategic plan to maximize efficiency. One common problem is that the demand for talent in emerging markets like China is outpacing, by far, the supply of talent in those areas. The aging population in the United States is playing a role in the talent shortage as well, and the past decade of downsizing has rendered some companies destitute in terms of candidates prepared to fill key management roles as older employees retire. Many companies have also dropped the ball in terms of grooming employees who understand the importance of offering integrated services to increasingly demanding customers; many companies are neglecting to draw from talent pools of minorities and women, too. Employees themselves are contributing to the problem, as few contemporary workers see a job as a lifetime commitment, unlike workers from previous generations. However, multinationals can take steps toward becoming premier talent factories. Companies can begin by ensuring that they are developing skills among their workers that align with the company's best products and services. Best-in-class companies have CEOs, senior executives, and managers who are deeply engaged in the hiring process. Well-designed hiring procedures at local branches will produce a rich flow of talent; automated tracking systems can also swiftly pinpoint which internal candidates are qualified for open positions worldwide. Companies must also remember that even high-performing workers need feedback, coaching, and opportunities for professional development. Finally, companies should adopt a set of talent development metrics to evaluate how well talent-management practices are working and to connect the recruitment and development process to the company's long-term business strategy.

 

Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn have made an enormous impact on the Web, providing young adults and businesspeople alike with an excessively time-consuming hobby. Though many employers have attributed access to such sites as a vehicle for wasted production time, the social networking platform might provide a new addition to business collaboration tools and foster a greater sense of communication and information-exchange within a company. Facebook hosts the Facebook for Business network, providing a portal for the customization of relevant company information through internetwork feeds. The Tacit and Awareness Networks offered by SelectMinds and Leverage Software focus on business networks that are closed, providing a more private level of information exchange between members of the same company. Motorola VP Toby Redshaw spearheading a Web 2.0 social networking system attests that the application has "improve[d] the quality and the cycle time of the collaboration inside the company." Microsoft and IBM are also among companies that feature employee profiles, blogs, and professional interests, while technology is underway that will enable incorporation of MS Outlook and Office modules. Even the Federal Aviation Administration is instating the Activities application for emergency notifications and forums during a disaster. Some employers are concerned about the potential for business-social networking to increase security exposures and company leaks, while others say individuals would be burdened by having yet one more social network to maintain. Companies can choose to network through sites that have pre-existing business profiles, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, or to network through their own private sites.

The first step toward building a team is cultivating trust, engaging in clear communication, and supporting pride, motivation, and other intrinsic drivers, writes Tina Korecky Bowness. Thought must be given to an organization's structure and its operators to determine the necessity for teams, and the next consideration should be the degree to which the current environment supports the organization's general objectives; if personnel are already functioning well in effective work groups, the imposition of team interactions may actually hamper performance. "Make connecting the dots between everyday actions and the organization's purpose your priority," recommends Bowness. "By doing so, you establish context and priority for what's first versus what's next." Organization leaders need to gauge the team's satisfaction levels on a regular basis so that problems can be detected and corrected early on, while staff needs and underlying concerns must be honestly evaluated. "If you want to build a successful team, go slow to go fast," maintains Bowness. "Start from a position of strength and use the natural talents of the team to build out the future state of things." When a team-building outcome is unrealistic under normal work circumstances, external resources can be a viable option, particularly when a leader wishes to expedite a major transformation and devise strategic direction; carry out a scalable working session for newly organized or intact teams; intervene and manage team dysfunction; and take up adventure-based activities, among other things.

* * *
If employee engagement is an issue in your organization, consider EDSI:
www.employeedevelopmentsystems.com

Abstract News © Copyright 2008 INFORMATION, INC.