By Philippa Youngman
As New Zealand heads out of recession mode, the job market is seeing signs of change. But have employers paid enough attention to their staff during the downturn? Pivot spoke with a senior organisational development professional at a leading Christchurch employer, who believes leaders should use this time to focus on staff engagement before the job market starts to pick up throughout the year. “Now is a perfect opportunity for leaders to ensure all staff are engaged and committed to helping achieve company goals. As the year progresses I think we’re going to start seeing signs of change and leaders need to ensure they haven’t left it too late.” Referring to recent New Zealand studies that rated individual job satisfaction, Kate* says results showed that people are not as happy as their employers assume. “Depending on what study you look at, a third to half of people actually want to move jobs. They might be sitting tight at the moment but as we start coming out of the recession, they’ll be fleeing. They’re bored and are not seeing any initiatives to keep them motivated, engaged and loyal to the organisation.” There are two implications of those results, she says....(read more) |
HR Magazine, December 2009
By Philippa Youngman
“Will it make the boat go faster,” is the famous guiding principle the late Sir Peter Blake articulated for his 1995 Americas Cup winning team. One of the key ingredients in the success of that campaign was the ability to focus everyone’s activity on that vision. How can you achieve the same focus on performance in large and much more complex organisations? |
HR Magazine, October 2009
By Philippa Youngman
| Moses led the Israelites through the red sea. Winston Churchill led Great Britain to help defeat the Germans. David Kirk led the All Blacks to win their first and only rugby world cup. These may all be ancient history, but they are still lessons in how inspiring leadership can help galvanise people to succeed against the odds. In this time of global economic crisis can leaders inspire organisations to survive and thrive? In many ways the recession has revealed a crisis of leadership in our organisations. The pressure has been brought to bear and too many leadership structures have been revealed as short-sighted and self-interested rather than visionary and selfless. The impact on staff engagement has been significant...(read more) |
HR Magazine, June 2009
By Philippa Youngman
Unemployment is on the rise again after years of labour shortages. Does that mean as human resource professionals we can relax when it comes to introducing technology into key employee engagement processes like remuneration and performance management? The stark reality is that good people are good people in any sort of economic environment. A weak employment environment doesn’t reduce the risk of losing your talent to another organisation desperately in need of the same skills and committed resources. Now is the time to review and improve key processes that underpin your company’s employment offer, especially while there is less pressure in areas like recruitment. Technology can play a role in this improvement but it must be applied with care ...(read more)
Employment Today, June 2009
By Philippa Youngman
Recent controversies over incentive payments in the public sector have the potential to set back employee engagement and effectiveness in our crown agencies, writes Phillippa Youngman. Predictably the payment of bonuses and other incentives to government employees is coming under media scrutiny in these tight times. Bonus is almost a dirty word in Wellington these days. Understandable perhaps, but the implications of these controversies for human resource professionals and other managers in the public sector could be significant. A projected $50 billion hole in our economy over the next three years will put pressure on government budgets, but talk of pay freezes and scrapping bonuses is misdirected. It is simply the wrong discussion to have, and risks missing the greatest opportunity in a generation to improve the performance and productivity of our state sector...(read more) |