Greetings from Rising Sun Consultants
Welcome to the August issue of Rise & Shine –
Your Leadership Solutions and Resource Newsletter!
What’s New at Rising Sun:
We are extremely pleased to announce the newest member of the Rising Sun family!
As of July 1st, Shala Pulgar came on board as our new Director of Client Relations.
Shala holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management with a focus in Human Resources and General Management from the College of Business at Arizona State University. For the past six years, she has worked in the retail industry providing customer service support and solutions, managing sales presentations, and facilitating leadership training. Shala’s experience includes supporting retail operations of a multi-million dollar business as part of a leadership team that facilitated the opening of the Hershey’s Times Square store in New York. She was also responsible for designing, implementing, and managing a complete customer service department for the Hershey Chocolate Company’s Visitor Center.
Shala has a passion for career and personal development. She has worked as an independent consultant on outplacement projects where she has provided one-on-one consultation with employees at various organizational levels to develop skills needed to pursue a successful search for a new or continuing career. Shala is also a contributor to The CoachCompass® Navigation Tools for Career and Life Success, written by Wendy B. Adams and Gene A. Pometto, Jr.
We are very excited to have Shala as part of our team and look forward to her positive outlook and contributions to Rising Sun Consultants!
Bright Lights(Tips/Solutions):
This month’s Tip will focus on Supporting New Employees
As we have shared in previous issues of Rise & Shine, at Rising Sun Consultants we believe that one of the primary responsibilities of all supervisors is to help ensure the success of their employees - especially their new employees,
Although many organizations have some type of "New Employee" orientation program, it is up to the immediate supervisor to provide the necessary information and support all new employees need. Based on Rising Sun’s 10 Keys of Effective Supervision™, the following list represents a sample of the areas to be addressed:
Support Growth
> Provide a thorough orientation to new employees.
> Teach specific job-related or technical skills.
Unite With Your Team
> Hold regular one-on-one meetings with new employees.
> Represent employees' issues and concerns to upper management.
Praise Others
> Publicly acknowledge progress toward agreed-upon goals.
> Recognize and reward so as to inspire, promote optimism, and build self-confidence.
Expect Excellence
> Provide employees with guidance and support to improve their performance.
> Encourage and support employees in their pursuit of job-related training.
Require Accountability
> Ensure new employees have specific goals in key performance areas.
> Communicate both formal and informal realities of expectations within the organization.
Verify Potential
> Assign work so that new employees are able to use existing skills.
> Hold informal career development discussions with new employees.
Instill Independence
> Make sure employees understand developmental priorities and objectives (Mission and Vision).
> Make sure employees have opportunities to develop both personally and professionally.
Share Continuously
> Provide regular feedback to new employees about their performance.
> Provide opportunities to discuss performance problems or concerns.
Optimize Ownership
> Solicit input from employees in regard to new proposals and pending decisions.
> Encourage and support employee participation in "high visibility" activities.
Reinforce Relationships
> Speak to anxieties, confusion, anger, and distrust.
> Celebrate the people you work with.
Shining Stars (Best Practices):
This month’s Organization of Excellence is Chambersburg Hospital. This hospital is a family-oriented, values-based organization that weaves the values of integrity, compassion, excellence and service throughout everything they do. By nurturing a positive cultural climate, they are able to attract and retain not only enough people, but the right people as employees. Here are a few ways that this service oriented organization has become an award winning health care institution:
- A formal outline of leadership standards within the organization, focusing on the development of specific competencies that include Character, Job Performance, Interpersonal Skills and Innovation.
- Clearly stated Core Values that everyone is expected to use when making decisions and performing on the job.
- An extremely approachable senior management team that puts a priority on positive relationships among the staff.
- Conscious efforts to show appreciation for and recognition of employees.
- A recruitment process that not only identifies the required skills, but also the character and talent of the individual, which optimizes the selection of the people who will fit in their culture.
Chambersburg Hospital goes above and beyond to encourage the building of positive relationships between staff, particularly between managers and their employees. These relationships truly help people get through the stressful and emotional situations faced in a hospital setting. We thank Lynne Beeson, Director of Education & Organization Development, for meeting with us to talk about their organization. More information about Chambersburg Hospital can be found at their website, www.summithealth.org.
World Views (In the News):
Is your turnover rate higher than average?
"If managers want to see an increase in productivity and a positive impact on the bottom line, then focus on retention," says Gregory Smith, author of "Here Today, Here Tomorrow."
Turnover rates vary from 300 percent in the fast-food industry to 9 percent for Southwest Airlines. Low employee turnover allows an organization to focus on revenues and productivity instead of spending time in the rehiring cycle.
Smith's research reflects that it costs $4,000 to $7,000 to replace an hourly worker. The costs associated with turnover include lost customers, lost business, bad reputation for managers, damaged morale of survivors, and the hard costs of time spent in screening, verifying credentials, checking references, interviewing, hiring and training the new employee just to get back to where you started.
This expenditure of time and money does nothing to give a manager or an organization a competitive edge.
Despite these known costs and loss of productivity, Development Dimensions International reports that 54 percent of businesses do nothing to create a high-retention culture or reduce turnover. The revolving door keeps moving. Employees leave. Managers interview and hire more workers, while competitors with low turnover focus on productivity.
(Adapted from Freda Turner, The Business Journal of Jacksonville)
Rays of Hope (Stories/Parables):
Enjoy The Coffee
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, its just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... and then began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."
God brews the coffee, not the cups..........enjoy your coffee.
Author Unknown
New Horizons (Meetings/Events):
Summer Workshops:
August 16, 2006 – 9:00 am – 11:00 am – Harrisburg, PA
"The 10 Key of Effective Supervision™"
The purpose of this two-hour workshop is to provide participants with the applied skills needed to build a strong organizational culture which focuses equally on both people and productivity.
To Register by Phone, contact Lynn Lehman @ 717-512-7531
Special "Getting To Know Us Offer":
COMPLIMENTARY* Corporate Climate Assessment
CultureCheck™ assesses the overall "health" of the organization, while the "Push Factors" Report identifies the specific issues contributing to employee disengagement.
COMPLIMENTARY* Seminar for Supervisors
This seminar presents a series of practical strategies for effective supervision designed to engage employees by focusing equally on both results and relationships.
COMPLIMENTARY* Coaching Sessions
Rising Sun’s Supervisory Coaching Program provides a mentoring and advisory platform to help leaders advance their leadership skills and improve their supervision of key personnel.
To Schedule One of These
COMPLIMENTARY OPPORTUNITIES*
Call Today!
717-512-7531
(Limited Time Offer)
* Cost of travel, if necessary, not included.
Thank You:
On behalf of all of us at Rising Sun Consultants, we want to thank you for reviewing the August edition of our Rise & Shine Newsletter. As always, we invite you to visit our website (www.risingsunconsultants.com) and to enjoy our latest book review and white paper.
Until next month: Always Keep Your Eyes on the New Horizon! |
