Executive Housekeeping Today - April 2009 - (Page 7) organization, and become a type of self-fulfilling prophecy. Emmerich states, “Lead your people to the understanding that even during the darkest of times, many do well, and you intend to be one of those. Your team needs to shift out of their doomsday story and into one of possibilities. When people say ‘We can’t because,’ the broken record response needs to be, ‘Well, how CAN we?’” The GPS direction of this is powerful—be an advocate for the vision rather than an adversary against the vision. • Look for the silver lining: In the February 27, 2009 issue of Business Week, there is an interesting article by Patricia O’Connell. The article discusses a first look at a recent Accenture survey that reveals that women and men feel they have more to offer their employers. O’Connell states, “Managers looking for an edge amid a dismal economy, likely hiring freezes, and even staff cuts may have a hidden resource—their own underutilized staff. According to a winter 2008 Accenture survey, 46 percent of women and 49 percent of men worldwide believe they are insufficiently challenged in their jobs.” This affords unique opportunities to organizations that will reap possible benefits for employees as well as employers. This may be a time to review the opportunities and challenges of an organization and how the skill sets of individual employees may be used to enrich jobs and the workplace. Armelle Carminati, Managing Director of Human Capital and Diversity at Accenture, stated, “Companies should shy away from the ‘onesize-fits-all approach’ with workers The art of tailoring a career offering is the new space where employers have to go and will be the key to both employees’ and employers’ success.” As time gets tighter and the workforce slimmer, this presents maintenance department of an a unique opportunity for employ- organization may be downsized. ers and employees to sit down as If work rules permit, it may be a team and evaluate the possibili- possible to cross-train or up-skill ties for the future. It is amazing a custodian to be a plumber or the skill sets and aptitudes that electrician’s helper, since the may be uncovered when people are trades are often the first to be challenged to rise to the occasion. downsized in many organizations. The GPS direction point for this is (If work rules do not permit, now to look for the silver lining in your is possibly the time to review those organization, your employees, and rules, as organizations that are not the unique skills and talents that flexible face increased challenges may be uncovered during these to survive during tight economic days of unchartered challenges. times.) Our GPS pointer on this • When things go downhill, is to train, train, and train again, up-skill: “Up-skill” is a term used as the individual and organization in The Irish Times article cited gains from this investment of time, earlier that basically encourages effort, and resources. coordinated training during tight • Appreciate the little things: economic times. For companies to Emmerich states, “Appreciate the survive and for employees to retain little steps along the way during their jobs, it may be necessary to challenging times.” People will be have an aggressive cross-training expected to do more, and in many program, Regrettably, when times (continued on next page) get tight, the training budget is often one of the first to be cut; however, it is probably an understatement to say that when times get tight, training becomes more essential, as managers and employees seek to hone skills to survive. In that - Durable Stainless Steel Carts and Fixtures article, Michael - Factory Direct Pricing McDonnell - 10 Year Guarantee Against Breakage stated, “helping employees to up-skill is the most motivating thing that an organization can do for their people now.” For example, during �������������������������������� tight economic times, the �������������������������������������������������������������������� Royce ������������ Company April 2009/Executive Housekeeping Today 7 http://www.roycerolls.net http://www.roycerolls.net
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