In his book Profits Aren’t Everything (They’re the Only Thing), business expert George Cloutier reinforces one basic premise time and time again –  the bottom line speaks the loudest.  Cloutier, a consultant who BusinessWeek once dubbed the “Turnaround Ace,” offers these five rules for turning excuses into profits:

1. Live and die by an “official plan”: Have a set of precise goals and a step-by-step plan for achieving each of those goals. Constantly gauge employees’ progress (as well as your own) and adjust to meet each goal on time.
2. Develop a performance-based compensation plan: Update your comp so employees are amply rewarded (or penalized) based on how much value they bring to the organization. Offering generous base salaries based solely on experience or past achievement gives staffers an excuse to rest on their laurels. It also breeds resentment among the ranks. When employees are paid more based on performance, they become highly motivated to achieve their goals.
3. Delegate, delegate, delegate: Make a list of responsibilities you can delegate and pass them on to senior members of your team. Giving employees more responsibility empowers them, and it frees you up to deal with big-picture issues.
4. Measure success by profit margins: Ultimately, managers have one objective – help the company increase its profitability. If you’re not accomplishing that, no other metric really matters.
5. Take full accountability: Whether it’s the economy, price or competition, great leaders pinpoint the problem, develop a solution, and rally their troops onward to victory.

“I would see what I wanted to accomplish. Let’s say I saw from A to F, but I would forget to tell everyone what F was and what the steps were for getting there. I was a bull in a china shop … Fortunately, I had people working on the team who were not shy. And they called a team meeting and sat me down and said: “We know you’re full of energy and passion. But you’re not telling us what you want and you’re not telling us how you think we should get there and why, and you’re doing a bad job and we’re not happy working for you.”

Regarding her reaction to such criticism, Fields recalled: “I was lucky to have had that experience so early on, that someone could say, ‘You have to articulate. You have to tell people what you want. You have to have a reason why, and you can’t operate as an island.’”

Fields further claimed that experience taught her the value of a truth-telling environment where employees are encouraged to share their insights, feedback and feelings. In that spirit, to this day when an employee comes to Fields with a legitimate concern, she gathers the team to discuss it as a group and come up with a viable solution moving forward.

Source: “Valuing Those Who Tell You the Bitter Truth,” by Adam Bryant, New York Times, 10/2/11.

1. Map out an agenda: Over time, it becomes easy to assume you can just walk into a meeting and play it by ear. But the reality is, that’s a surefire way to steer the meeting off-track. Take some time before the meeting to determine what your specific goals are, how you’ll incorporate the central message in a meaningful way, and what — if anything — you expect employees to do differently as a result of the meeting.
2. Set a strict time limit: One of the reasons employees become frustrated with long meetings is that they’re tiresome, and they tend to take them away from what they need to be doing. With that in mind, let it be known meetings will never go past a certain time limit and bring a stop watch or timer with you to ensure the meeting doesn’t exceed that limit.
3. Be sure to begin and end the meeting with praise: It sets a positive tone as they enter and exit the conference room.
4. Make sure everyone has a role to play: It’s not necessary for everyone in the room to make a speech or rise to the pulpit, but it is essential to find a way to engage them, whether that means asking good questions or encouraging them to participate in some other way. The bottom line is that the more engaged staffers are, the more the message tends to resonate.
5. Use incentives to maximize attendance: The most popular incentive is food. A lot of managers give their weekly meetings catchy names like the Monday morning bagel breakfast or lunch-n-learn. The key is to ensure employees show up for the meeting on time by telling them they can only cash in on the free food if they show up for the meeting before a certain time. You can also tease the meeting by telling employees you’ll be making a major announcement, or telling them they can leave a half hour early on Friday provided they’re on time for the weekly/monthly meeting.
6. Use visuals to reinforce the point: PowerPoint is a great resource for departmental meetings, as are charts and graphs that reinforce what you’re saying. If you can incorporate videos as an additional training resource, it’ll provide yet another medium for getting your point across.
7. Rotate moderators/Invite a guest speaker: Employees tire of hearing the same buzzwords and catch phrases from the same department head. Mix things up by having a different exec or employee lead each meeting. You may even want to bring in a loyal customer, or perhaps even a well-known name in the industry to provide a fresh perspective on an age-old topic.
8. Include a call to action: Give employees a mission to accomplish after they leave the meeting. Let them know when and how you plan to follow up. It gives them ample reason to listen to what’s being said and increases the chance they’ll take the central message to heart long after the meeting is over.
9. Have someone take minutes of the meeting and email them to all attendees: This way they have a series of bullet points that break down key takeways, which they can either print out or reference any time they like.
10. Ask for honest feedback after the fact: This is one way to determine whether the meeting was valuable from an employee’s perspective. 

The majority of managers at Fortune 1,000 companies never become effective leaders, according to a ConceptReserve study.

Why not? Well, the largest contributing factor is the fact that 50% of managers who are promoted from within still feel a constant pressure to fulfill the duties of an everyday employee, in addition to their new role – a reality which isn’t only distracting, it also makes them feel overwhelmed and reluctant to delegate tasks to others.

Here are the top five misconceptions that cause managers to think that way:

1. “Being a great player will translate into me being a great coach”: Being a top performer may cause other employees to respect your ability, but successful leaders need to place more emphasis on big-picture initiatives that have a more significant overall impact (e.g., New ways to attract prospects, tap into new markets or increase annual revenue, etc.).
2. “It’s not my problem”: Front-line employees are generally responsible for their own results, and no one else’s. As a leader, you may not create the obstacles, but it’s ultimately up to you to come up with effective strategies for dealing with them.
3. “The people I manage are just like me”: It’s often said that the toughest part of being an effective leader is managing a wide array of personalities. Rather than try to change people, great leaders work to understand what motivates them, using that as a means of inspiring them to do great things.
4. “Great employees don’t need my help.”: In most departments, 80% of productivity is the direct result of 20% of that department’s top staffers. Top managers spend the bulk of their time keeping those employees motivated and on top of their game, rather than focusing all their efforts on chronic low-performers who have very little impact on the bottom line.
5. “Being an expert is the key to winning respect”: There once was a manager who said to his mentor, “Every day I tell employees what they need to do to be successful, but nobody ever listens to a word I say.” The mentor replied, “Instead of telling them, why not ask where they feel they have the most opportunity for improvement and then ask how you can help.”

There are intricacies to every situation, but here are two common ways good managers make the transition into great leaders:

1. Develop and delegate: In most organizations, there’s pressure from upstairs for the manager to take on too much (and/or still perform the duties of a salesperson). Great leaders create new roles that energize employees by making them feel like they’re moving up in the organization. Managers can delegate tasks like training and development to those salespeople, which frees up more time for the manager to focus on big-picture initiatives.
2. Relinquish some control: Most managers are unwilling to trust others to handle what they view as their responsibility. Here’s a great way to overcome that: Choose two responsibilities for veteran employees to handle. Once you see how much more successful you can be by building a management team around you, the more apt (and motivated) you’ll be to getting others involved.

Most business leaders are well aware of how much it costs to keep an IT team going. But slashing the technology budget can have nasty consequences for productivity and competitive edge. What to do?

Figure out how to cut the IT budget without hurting service. And there’s a way to do it.

The only thing that costs more than all that hardware and software your IT group buys are the salaries it takes to keep everything they purchase running right.

Many organization’s are anxious to hold the line on IT pay and, luckily, there’s a no-cost benefit many IT workers want more than money: the ability to telecommute.

In fact, 35% of IT employees said they’d give up a full 10% of their salary for the chance to work from home full-time, according to a recent survey from IT job board Dice.com.

Roughly the same number of people (36%) wouldn’t make the trade. The rest of the folks already telecommute, or were unemployed and said they’d accept any job.

Telecommuting is a rare but valuable benefit for IT pros, according to Dice — less than 1% of the jobs currently posted on the site list working from home as an option.

But offering it to IT workers on a full- or part-time basis can raise morale among current employees, as well as set your company apart from the competition when it comes to hiring new workers.

Research shows that in an eight-hour day, the very most you can expect is about five hours of productivity from computer users.

Now there’s a way to find out exactly how much time with the computer means actual work is being done. But makers of user monitoring software caution against adopting it for “big brother” style oversight or surveillance.

The designers of this kind of tracking software usually got their start in developing applications that helped consultants or contractors keep tabs on their time for billing. It was only later that companies opted to use it to help workers find the black holes their time fell into.

But rather than using one of these products to secretly spy on workers and what they’re doing on their computer throughout the workday, experts recommend implementing the software to help employees understand how best to use their time. Many will be surprised at how little actual work they do in the average day. The software cannot only help workers manage their online time, but it can also show managers how close tasks and projects are to completion without having to interrupt workers.

Using the software, employees can also see feedback from managers as they complete tasks, which has proven popular with companies that have a far-flung workforce, including the growing legions of teleworkers.

Makers of this kind of software plan future integration of its capability with project management applications such as Microsoft Project. Some of these applications have a free trial versions you can sample. For examples of these apps, have your IT team check out RWorks and RWave.

A survey, conducted by the MBA Career Services Council, revealed 81% of business school officials believe MBA internships will increase this summer, based on early indications they’ve seen.

That’s a 20% increase over last year, when only 60% of officials were optimistic about intern opportunities for MBA students.

More importantly, it signals an important shift where companies are once again looking to hire young, reliable employees wh0 won’t break the budget. This may be a great time to either see if your company qualifies for an internship program or start actively pursuing top recruits at college job fairs and recruitment centers.

More than 60% of business schools have already reported an increase in hiring activity at their on-campus job centers.  To put that in perspective, last year at this point, 79% of schools were reporting a considerable decline in job postings and intern possibilities.

Source: “2011 MBA Job Outlook Bright,” by Alison Damast, BusinessWeek, 1/13/11.

“Organizations that create multiple, flexible pathways to success will keep their best people, keep them engaged, and keep them longer.”

So says Harvard Business Review’s Susan David.

As Co-Director for the Harvard Institute of Coaching, David’s gained a great deal of expertise regarding how to train and develop employees into senior positions.

In a recent interview with one of the Harvard Business Review‘s bloggers, David shared these three tips for determining which employees should be promoted into management, and which ones are better left right where they are (we’ve provided our own commentary along with each one):

1. Gather feedback from multiple sources: You may believe a specific employee has true leadership potential. But it’s not you that person will be responsible for leading. That’s why it’s essential to gather honest feedback from key staffers regarding your potential candidate. If it’s clear most employees won’t accept (or respect) that person’s leadership, you may need to reconsider your choice.
2. Seek out candidates who WANT to take on more: Some employees would prefer to simply go about their business without any need for promotions or other distractions. Take note of which employees are constantly volunteering to take on more, as well as who’s least likely to put up a fight whenever it becomes necessary to implement change.
3. Make sure the candidate endorses the company’s mission and values: Seek out employees who not only share the company’s vision, but yours as well. The last thing you want is a subversive manager who’s undermining your authority at every turn. Avoid promoting top perfomers unless they have the ability and desire to move into management. Otherwise, you could wind up losing some of your best employees shortly after you’ve promoted them into management.

Source: “When to Reward Employees with More Responsibility & Money,” by Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review Blog.

Companies that avoid (or, at the very least, minimize) the risk of viral attacks do so by taking proactive measures before a problem arises. A few simple precautions can help your company save significant amounts of time and money (not to mention any breach of confidential files, etc.)

Three steps you can take right now to significantly decrease your risk of exposure:

1. Back up everything on your system (and make sure employees do the same): No matter how well your servers are protected, there’s really no way to guarantee your system won’t crash, or someone’s personal PC won’t fall into a river, or a major storm won’t knock out the power. The point is, you need to make sure everything is backed up, not only at another location on your internal servers, but also on some type of external hard drive where those files won’t be in danger, should your company’s server go down. For increased protection, equip every one of your employees with a personal thumb drive, and make it a company policy that once a quarter, they need to take a few minutes to upload any new files.
2. Install antivirus software (It’s free): There are tons of antivirus software programs out there, and a lot of them are offered as free downloads (e.g., AVG provides a free download of reliable antivirus software for any system that operates using Windows). A lot of computer viruses operate like cancers, slowly (or in some cases, very quickly) spreading to every nook and cranny until the hard drive is completely unresponsive. Send an email once a month, reminding employees to run a quick scan before they start their week. They’ll catch a lot of viruses that fly under the radar, slowly revealing themselves through slower running systems and other system failures.
3. Bring PCs in for regular check-ups: Partner with IT to ensure every computer in your department receives regularly scheduled tuneups, during which IT pros can update operating systems, flag any problems, and suggest ways for employees to streamline their operating systems so things run more smoothly.

Preventative maintenance is the key. The time you spend taking proactive measures is nothing compared to the hours of lost work (not to mention privileged info) you risk by leaving your operating system open to threats.

Source: “Resolved: How to Keep Your Computer Safe, Clean, and Backed Up in 2011,” by Adam Dachis, Lifehacker, 1/3/11.

The annual study, conducted by the Conference Board for the past 20 years, seeks to measure job satisfaction across all industries in this country.

The bad news: Employee satisfaction levels have continued to drop consistently over the past several years.

In 2009, only 45% of Americans claimed they were satisfied with their jobs. That’s the lowest level in the history of the Conference Board’s annual study. While this years results have yet to be tabulated, anecdotal evidence suggests that percentage could increase even more.

Why do employee engagement continue to drop? Here are five contributing factors:

1. The economic crisis: Most employees have been asked to take on additional responsibility over the past three years, with little or no opportunity for advancement or a salary increase.
2. Management’s failure to acknowledge low morale: On top of mounting responsibilities, many employees feel as if they now have an adversarial relationship with management.
3. The overwhelming rise of big business: As big-name corporations continue to swallow small business owners whole, more and more mid-level employees tend to feel like cattle – slogging away day in and day out for a corporation that continues to profit, despite the fact they have little or no stake in the company’s direction.
4. Fear of being laid off/fired: With unemployment rates so high, most employees have switched gears, settling into a mode where they simply do as they’re told and keep their gripes to themselves. Unfortunately, once the economic clouds begin to part, more than a third of employees have already confirmed they look forward to testing the job market.
5. Lack of new challenges: With the majority of companies still in a holding pattern when it comes to launching new products or diversifying into new markets, most employees have found themselves working on the same projects week in and week out. The lack of any variety or change is enough to make anyone feel run down, burnt out or unmotivated to perform at the same level.

Can you think of any other factors that are contributing to the lack of employee engagement in this country? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: “How Leaders Impact Employee Morale – And the Bottom Line,” by Ladan Mikravan, CLO Media, 12/15/10.

Statistically speaking, most people remember:

• 11% of what they hear
• 32% of what they see
• 73% of what they see and hear, and
• 90% of what they see, hear and do (or discuss).

With that in mind, here are four ways to ensure your meetings resonate with employees and the message sticks:

1. Incorporate visual aids: Use PowerPoint, spreadsheets, facts, figures and charts to get your point across. The more visuals you can use to reinforce the point, the more salespeople will respond to it.
2. Get interactive: If at all possible, use email surveys or other online resources to engage employees prior to the meeting. It’ll get them thinking about the topic at hand and get them interested in finding out how other employees responded.
3. Get everyone involved: Consider holding roundtable discussions where one employee is asked to keep the discussion on point, while everyone else is asked to contribute their own ideas, examples, experiences and feedback.
4. Schedule a follow up: Tell employees which areas you’ll be focusing on in the weeks to come, in light of what the meeting was about. Let them know how and when you’ll follow up with each of them, so they’re aware they’ll have to be accountable for their results.

1. Partner with the employee for a day or two: Depending on which department the employee is in, this may be easy and it may not be. But the idea is to select a day and – without notice – either spend a few hours with the employee or have another supervisor do so. If you suspect the employee is drinking before work, do it first thing in the morning. If you suspect it could be throughout the day, schedule some time in the afternoon. Pay close attention to the employee’s speech, smell and eyes. They’re all sound indicators of whether an employee may be tipsy (or recovering from a late night).
2. Monitor expenses very closely: In many cases, employees who have developed a drinking problem will indulge their habit at trade shows and conferences, as well as dinners or other outings with clients. They’ll more than likely try to pass some of the drinks off on the company tab, as an “entertainment” or “meal” expense (depending on the situation). Keep an eye on expense reports, and compare similar charges for meals and entertainment from a year ago to current ones. Are the tabs significantly higher? Where’s that extra expense coming from? Are there any other expenses on there that are suspect?
3. Keep a close eye on attendance: Depending on the severity (or lack thereof) of the potential problem, employees who are drinking on a regular basis may start showing up for work late, calling out sick, leaving early, asking to work from home, and/or disappearing in the middle of the day to sneak in a nap or drink more. If a pattern emerges (e.g., the employee is calling out sick every Monday or coming in an hour late most days), start sending early morning e-mails that require an immediate response, or scheduling impromptu meetings first thing in the morning. It’s a convenient way to shine a light on the employee’s whereabouts without seeming like you’re calling him/her on the carpet.
4. Keep an eye out for small oversights and errors: Generally speaking, employees who drink to excess on a regular basis aren’t nearly as good with details. Because they’re not as sharp as usual, it’s easy to spot constant mistakes in reports, slight oversights and scheduling mishaps, etc. If you suspect there is a problem, keep an eye out for recurring errors in reports and other work the employee’s responsible for. If you start to spot recurring errors, it’s best to have a discussion ASAP, before those errors lead to bigger problems for the company.
5. Look for dips in performance, productivity and morale: Employees who are drinking go from taking pride in their work to collecting a paycheck. In the case of an employee who may have developed a drinking problem over time, it should become apparent the employee’s performance has begun to dip accordingly. If the problem escalates, you may notice resentment from other employees who feel as if they’re suddenly “covering for” the employee in question, handling his/her responsibilities and spotting errors.

****Note: Situations like this are always delicate. Accusing an employee without the proper evidence could land the company in major hot water. The best bet is to build a case slowly, over time. Document every incident that occurs, so you can confront the employee when/if the time is right. Documentation may also help the company avoid a lot of legal pitfalls if the employee’s drinking ever leads to problems with other employees and/or clients. Also, be proactive and approach the situation as a health and wellness issue, rather than an indictment of the employee’s overall work ethic.

For more information about dealing with employees who are drinking on the job, visit:

“Alcohol and Employees: Risks and Responsibilities,” at Entrepreneur.com

“Alcohol and the Workplace” at About.com 

“Chrysler Fires 13 Workers Caught Drinking on the Job” at Jalopnik.com

“Dealing with Problem Drinking on the Job,” at BNET.com

Would you believe the reason for that reaction has a lot to do with an employee’s fear of mortality?

That’s the reality, according to a recent Harvard Business Review article that describes a phenomenon known as “terror management theory” (i.e., the fear someone’s very way of life is being threatened).

The article cites three “existential buffers”that motivate most employees’ fear of change:

1. Consistency: Because work is such a large part of most people’s lives, they view corporate changes as a threat to their very way of being.
   Solution: Spin change in such a way that reps automatically recognize it as something that works in their favor. Make a list of all the potential benefits and use them to explain why you’re implementing the change.
2. Standards of justice: This speaks to an employee’s basic sense of right and wrong. For years a company’s staffers have been taught to do things one way. When management alters that, most employees tend to rebel, assuming perhaps the way they’d originally been taught to do things was wrong.
   Solution: Explain change in terms of why the old system was no longer viable, and how the new system creates a win-win. Avoid the “because -I-said-so” school of management.
3. Culture: The sense employees have contributed in some way to the company’s enduring legacy.
   Solution: Explain change in terms of how employees are going to help the company evolve, building upon its long-standing reputation.

Source: “Employees See Death When You Change Their Routines,” Harvard Business Review, by James R. Bailey and Jonathan Raelin, 11/23/10.

While your employees may be well-acquainted with your policies about safe use of the computer, their kids, spouses and other extended family likely aren’t.

And that’s where your company’s network becomes vulnerable.

It’s the hard-hearted worker who won’t let junior do his homework assignment using the company laptop. When junior finishes his work, however, who’s there to stop him from playing a game or two of “Age of War” or “Epic Battle Fantasy 3″?

Then there’s the impatient spouse who wants to check a Facebook account, just for a minute, because the kids are tying up the family computer with Formspring or MySpace.

Of course, there’s also Uncle Frank, visiting for a few weeks and itching to monitor his Ebay bid (and check out a few porn sites while he’s at it.)

So the company laptop gets a little home use by folks who’ve never read, much less signed, your computer fair use policy. This is how infected computers are born and thrive, spreading the malware and trojans they collect to your network and its users.

The solution: A strong policy about who can use company computers that is not only monitored but strictly enforced. Yes, it may mean you have to devote human resources to the project, but you’ll be committed to using then when the network gets hit with infections. It’s also true that clean up is always more costly than prevention.

You can also make sure that there is disciplinary action taken against folks who violate the policy, along with a warning that activity and access involving company equipment will be monitored. (You don’t want employees saying they had an expectation of privacy with company equipment.)

One other strategy: See if you can work out a deal with a local laptop or netbook supplier to offer your employees a discount, so they can buy another system for their family and friends to use instead.

The study, conducted by Hewitt Associates, found employee engagement levels have plummeted to their lowest level in 15 years.

Yet, organizations with high levels of engagement outperformed the competition and posted total revenues 19% higher than the average company.

Companies with low levels of employee engagement averaged 40% lower profits than their competitors.

Some keys to achieving high levels of engagement/employee satisfaction:

• Allow employees to develop flexible work schedules
• Provide company-issued cell phones and laptops that allow employees to stay in contact with one another (or customers) from anywhere.
• Ask yourself what type of incentives (above and beyond salary and bonuses) would cause employees to think twice about leaving the company to work for a competitor.
• Give employees a voice in the mission and direction of the company.
• Hold “town-hall” style meetings where employees can speak their mind and have their grievances addressed.

Can you think of any other ways to engage employees? How does your company keep employees motivated on a regular basis? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: “Nurtured employees lead to a healthier bottom line,” by Cindy Krischer Goodman, The Miami Herald.

The four studies, led by a professor at Washington State University, found that “unselfish workers who are the first to throw their hat in the ring are also among those that coworkers most want to, in effect, vote off the island.”

The phenomenon is widespread, having negative impact on everything from group projects to non-profit initiatives to military units to boy scout troops.

The reason: Colleagues feel that these employees “raise the bar” on what’s expected of others by constantly volunteering to take on extra tasks without asking for any additional compensation (or anything to be taken off their plates). In other words, the do-gooder makes everyone else look bad.

Some co-workers also feel that do-gooders pick up the slack for employees who aren’t getting the job done, thereby causing the bad employee to keep his or her job, while everyone else is working harder to get results.

Long term, it creates an atmosphere of resentment, each of the studies found.

Bottom line: Nice guys may not finish last, but they’re not helping anyone else finish first either.

Do you have any do-gooders in your workplace? How does everyone else respond to them?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: “Do-Gooders Get Voted off the Island First,” ScienceDaily, 8/23/10.

Recent studies show that IT pros have more faith in the economy than in recent years. While that might boost morale and reduce stress, your ability to hang on to your best employees could take a hit.

More than half (54%) of IT staffers believe they can find a new job now, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll — a big jump from the 41% who said the same thing in the first quarter of this year.

And 37% plan to look for a new job within the next 12 months. That’s up from 32% in the first quarter.

To avoid a wave of staffers headed for the exits, company leaders should be taking a close look at IT salaries. A close examination of what you offer and tweaks to the IT budget can head off retention problems you don’t need.

Also, with hiring on the rise, you way want to get your HR and recruiting staff to beef up efforts to snag top talent before your competitors do.

1. Become an advocate: Regardless of whether an employee really “knows it all” or not, chances are that person doesn’t think he/she needs you telling them how to get the job done. So how do you win the respect of these employees? If they’re a valuable part of your workforce, you go to bat for them as often as possible, proving to them that you’re a valuable asset they want in their corner.
2. Focus on what motivates them: Some employees are motivated by incentives, others by recognition. But it’s often helpful to ask these employees what would motivate them the most. Generally, these type of employees prefer to be left to their own devices, but knowing they have a goal and rewards to shoot for is a perfect way to keep them in check without micromanaging them.
3. Give them a sense of ownership: A lot of know-it-alls don’t play well with others. That’s why it helps to find a project they can take complete ownership of. Having a pet project not only gives these employees an opportunity to prove their worth, it also gives them a sense that you believe in their abilities and trust them to get the job done.
4. Document everything: When it comes to the know-it-all employee, it’s a good idea to keep track of any/all incidents that have caused problems. Having a file of disciplinary issues is a strong reminder to these employees that they’re not as untouchable as they think they are. But it also gives managers leverage in situations where they need the employee to adjust certain behaviors.
5. Reward behaviors, not results: One of the biggest problems managers run into with know-it-all employees is that they know how valuable they are to the organization … perhaps all too well. One way to get around that is by creating a workplace where positive behaviors are rewarded as much as (if not more than) positive results. Creating an atmosphere like this ensures employees who go out of their way to endorse the company’s rules and processes will gain the recognition they deserve. It also minimizes the risk negative behavior and attitudes will become like a cancer, spreading throughout the department.

Based in part on “When Your Employees Know More Than You,” by Marshall Goldsmith, Harvard Business Review Blogs, 7/20/10.

It’s a delicate balance.

Trust is important to today’s employees. In fact, 79% say that, aside from job role and salary, the most important thing in a job is being trusted to manage their own time and workload, including being trusted to use the Internet the way they want.

That’s according to recent survey of 1,200 employees and managers in the U.S. and Europe by security firm Clearswift.

The desire for independence extends to employees’ views on using sites like Facebook and Twitter at work — 62% of employees feel they should be allowed to access social networking sites at work.

And more than half (51%) of their managers agree.

Perhaps most surprisingly, 21% of employees said they would actually turn down a job if they felt the company’s web policies were too strict.

Experts recommend that organizations avoid strictly forbidding or physical blocking sites, instead relying on monitoring web use and working with managers to deal with productivity problems as they come up.

Also, periodically have your IT folks remind employees that their computer use is being watched. This can go a long way toward stopping problematic web browsing.

For the second year in a row the bailout investment company, which has so often been vilified for its exorbitant spending, salaries and bonuses, canceled its annual holiday party.

Shortly after the announcement, employees received a rambling voicemail with specific instructions regarding mandatory restrictions and regulations that would be in effect throughout the holiday season.

Among them:

• No private parties arranged for employees at any staff member’s home
• No unofficial, “departmental” parties held at local establishments or private homes, and
• Outside of work, employees can only socialize in “small” groups (defined as ”no larger than 11″) throughout the month of December.

It’s that last restriction that has so many people scratching their heads. But the reality is Goldman doesn’t want to be accused of encouraging “unofficial” holiday parties at downtown bars or social clubs as yet another way for bloggers to claim the company isn’t taking any real steps to curb spending. It’s a better-safe-than-sorry approach, but the question is are these restrictions:

1. A step Goldman Sachs should definitely be applauded for
2. Just another small way to distract people from the real issue, which is the obscene salaries and bonuses high-level execs at Goldman receive, or
3. Unnecessary steps that only serve to lower morale by forcing low-level employees to suffer for the careless actions of C-level execs?

We’d love to know what you think.

Source: “Goldman Employees Aren’t Allowed to Hang Out in Groups of 12 or More,” by Courtney Comstock, Gawker, 11/30/09