November 15, 2008

Table of Contents:

Keeping Up: Current Events

Impatient Youth

Consulting Firm Novartis conducted a poll regarding how long companies had to "prove" that Gen Y workers should remain with their company. A whopping 51% responded that they had between one and six months. Even more shocking, 26% report having less than 30 days.

LMS Valued, but Underused

According to an independent UK study HR professionals agree to the tune of 79% that having managed learning through an LMS is important. Yet only half have made an investment in a platform, and even fewer are actually utilizing the tools.

Too Much Social Networking?

According to a survey run by 8e6 a full 55% of American workers are using social networking sites, and 72% of them believe that they should be given full access to social networking for personal reasons. The survey reported similar results from every generation.

Self Management Skills: A "How To"

"Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with Direction"
  – Unkown

Change—Controlled or Chaotic?

You manage small scale projects in b etween the larger, more far-reaching projects. You strategize to integrate the right resources for all of your projects, and you also spend a lot of time managing your subordinates. You are there to encourage or educate them when things go wrong, you take the time to recognize their efforts when they excel, and you still take time to manage long-term planning processes for next year and beyond.

But are you managing yourself?

Executive Team Stalemate

"Conflict can destroy a team which hasn't spent time learning to deal with it."
– Thomas Isgar

Are times when no matter how much it deliberates, the executive team hits a decision making stalemate, and it is up so the CEO to be a tie-breaker. This is a difficult position to be in, because it results in the CEO being the killjoy of everyone’s ideas.Harvard Business Review calls this the dictator by default syndrome.

How can teams be expected to reach a collective decision based on individual preferences, anyway?

 eEducate is the online training solution that delivers

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Editor’s Note

As witnessed in the past few weeks, the financial crisis creates very uncertain times.  And, during these times, employees are even more disengaged than usual.  A Towers Perrin study of 90,000 employees in 18 countries from November 2007 found that 71% of the employees were not actively engaged.  The Gallup Organization estimates the cost of disengagement to corporations at $300 billion per year.  That’s about half the bailout every single year!   EDSI has always maintained that the accountable employee is the engaged employee and our course Increasing Personal E ffectiveness® builds accountability and 26 other competencies.

Book Report

Buy∙ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy
Martin Lindstrom

Author and speaker Martin Lindstrom set out on a mission – to find out how we react to brands, and why we buy. He undertook an incredibly expensive research project using MRI technology to watch over 2,000 brains react to different stimuli in an effort to determine which types of marketing work and which don’t.

The results are uncovered in Buy·ology (Doubleday, 2009) and they are fairly surprising. 

 Read more...

 Situation Room
Service Quality

As part of your expanding product lineup the company has begun to offer software solutions for products that have traditionally been available as hard goods. You were able to keep the costs down but now realize that the amount of support being given to customers has become quite costly.

In an effort to make the product line viable you researched what other companies have done is a similar situation and learn that most of them charge for any customer support given. Your product comes with an extensive users manual and is supported by online FAQ’s. Most of the questions you have been getting are from existing customers who used the previous version of the product. The new customers seem to be more accepting, or more able, to use the support materials.

In an effort to cut down on customer service time you announced 6 months ago that a new service charge would be added for telephone support for questions that could be answered in either the manual or your growing list of FAQ’s. You were comfortable with the timeline and sent out 3 reminders of it to your current client base with links and instructions for your support options.

However, your biggest customer has just called and is furious. They received a sizable bill for more than 50 support calls, and now are claiming that they were never notified. Your support department notifies of the charge with each call that comes in, both before and during the conversation. Detailed records of suc h calls are logged and in this case are all properly documented. The bill is right.

You mention the notice of policy change and that service records are kept and seem appropriate. The customer becomes more agitated and voices displeasure with the policy, stating that they purchased the program before service payments were mandated. They threaten to walk away if you force them to pay the bill, which you don’t want, but the amount of service time they have used brings their account to a reduced but still significant profit level.

What do you tell them?

Send in your solutions!

Author Profile

Alexander Hiam

This prolific Amherst, MA based author has written more than 30 books, assessments, and workshops over the past 15 years for seemingly every notable publisher in the professional development industry. His "Dealing with Conflict" workshop has been the leading unit seller for independent HR and Training Publisher HRD Press for 3 consecutive years and is in use with over 300 companies worldwide.

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