New Year, New Website…and more

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Pi Wen Looi

Happy New Year!

I’ve been working hard in the past few months with my designer to redesign our website. And now it’s here! Anyone who’s undertaken a website redesign knows how much energy and time it takes. So it feels right to celebrate this milestone in Novacrea’s history and make a proper announcement of it to all.

This new website is designed with a more focused message of who we are and of the services we offer–customized employee surveys, employee engagement consulting, and action planning facilitation. It highlights our goal to embrace new tools in social media. It shows our vision of integrating research in positive psychology, talent management, and design thinking to bring  you customized solutions that keep up with the rapid changes in the world of work. Continue reading “New Year, New Website…and more” »

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All I need to know about employee engagement I learned from practicing yoga

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi
Flexibility and yoga

Fun with yoga, photo by Pi Wen Looi

I’ve been practicing yoga on and off for more than 10 years. I always enjoy my class and feel refreshed after the class. Today, as my yoga instructor led us through various poses, I saw the connection between practicing yoga and creating a work environment that engages employees. Here are the insights I gathered:

Insights

Model the desired behaviors. In addition to telling us what poses to do, my yoga instructor demonstrated the pose herself. She showed us the correct alignment of arms and shoulder, and used visual cues to help us “get it.” Similarly, leaders in an organization need to model the desired behaviors for employees and articulate clearly what is expected of employees, how their performance will be measured, and what it means to contribute to the success of the company. Continue reading “All I need to know about employee engagement I learned from practicing yoga” »

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Back to Basics: Employee Communications

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi
Communication | ArtPrize 2010

Image by Fellowship of the Rich via Flickr

This is an article I wrote two years ago, it’s still relevant today!

Times are tough these days. But there are a few things you can do to engage your employees and prepare your company for future growth when the economy recovers.  A key factor in maintaining or improving your employee engagement is through effective employee communication.

Our employee research shows that employees want to feel valued by their company. Employees want to be involved in their work and want to understand their company’s direction, mission, and vision. In addition, employees want to have the necessary information to do their work, such as operational processes and product information, in a timely manner. For example, customer care employees need to know the launch of a new product before their customers learn about it from promotion materials. Continue reading “Back to Basics: Employee Communications” »

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People. Places. Activities.

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

This is one of the few non-talent management posts that I write occasionally. If you prefer to skip this, I understand. If not, read on…

Since today is 11-11-11, I thought I’d have some fun playing with 11′s. In no particular order, here are 11 people I’d like to meet, 11 places I like to visit, and 11 activities I’d do if I were not consulting.

Alexander Calder's Untitled, 1976

Image by AlbinoFlea via Flickr

Continue reading “People. Places. Activities.” »

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Ideas for retaining your high-performing IT professionals

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi
working at home

Image by atconc via Flickr

A recent Technisource survey found that IT Employee Confidence Index has dropped from 56.2 to 47.3 in the third quarter of 2011.  Only 13% of IT workers believe the economy is getting stronger.  But, 32% of IT employees are still likely to look for a new job while in their current position, and their confidence in their ability to find a new job has not declined.

What does this mean to your company? Are you seeing disengaged IT workers in your organization? Continue reading “Ideas for retaining your high-performing IT professionals” »

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Tips for Re-engaging Employees After Layoffs

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi
Green fields

Image by _Hadock_ via Flickr

I am in the process of revamping my website, so I’m transferring some of the articles I wrote to this blog. These are oldies but goodies!

I wrote this one three years ago when many companies were laying off workers. It is as applicable then as it is now, with updated data from the Conference Board.

The latest Conference Board Employment Trends Index™(ETI) for August 2011 is 100.8, down from July’s revised figure of 101. The August figure is up 4.1 percent from a year ago, but still lags behind the August 2008 index of 109.3. Recent news such as that of Bank of America and BAE Systems indicate that many companies may plan to layoff workers in this weak economy.

While most companies take great care to help laid-off employees with their transitions, many companies are not doing enough for the layoff survivors. Consequently, employee morale drops and company productivity suffers. If your company has laid off staff, here are five tips to motivate and re-engage the remaining employees. Continue reading “Tips for Re-engaging Employees After Layoffs” »

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Design Google-Style Leadership Training Program

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

Last week, Celeste Villalobos Tahamont, Senior Program Manager at Google, presented at the ASTD Golden Gate Chapter. She gave us a behind-the-scene view of the redesign of EDGE, a leadership training program at Google that serves over 600 levels 3-5 engineers annually. Here are highlights from Celeste’s presentation:

Before the redesign

  • EDGE was an off-site, vendor led leadership training program
  • 2,000 engineers have gone through the program since its launch in 2006 through 2009
  • Program contents remained the same from 2006 – 2009 although the business world had changed significantly during that time
  • Used some Googlers facilitators to facilite the training

Continue reading “Design Google-Style Leadership Training Program” »

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Images of a Positive Work Environment

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

 

Image of a Chicago high rise

I just moved and have been spending some time getting my office organized. While the new place is quieter than my old location, it lacks direct sunlight. Bummer! But my new office has floor- length windows and it looks out to the woods. It’s quite tranquil except for some unsightly scenes at the bottom of the floor-length windows.

I’ll admit that I’m super sensitive to views and want my work environment to look beautiful so that when I’m in my office, I feel GREAT and HAPPY! Thus the beginning of small projects to beautify my office and block out unsighty views. Today, mission accomplished! I stand back and take it all in, I feel joy and actually want to go into my office to do work!!

This brings me to the question of what makes a positive work environment that sustains employee engagement. The physical space is clearly an important element for me, as I wrote in my previous post “Top 10 Ideas to Engage Your Employees.“ But I also enjoy working with colleagues who are professional and respectful, and the opportunities to learn and grow.

What is your idea of a positive work environment? I’d love to hear your stories, see pictures, or your sketches of what you’d consider a positive work environment.

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Community Engagement and Employee Engagement: Facilitating Japantown Community Meetings

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

One of the characteristics of a best employer is to listen to employee input regularly and to solicit employee feedback before making any major changes. Likewise, before implementing major rezoning changes to a community, you want to get input from your community stakeholders such as the residents and businesses. San Francisco’s Japantown did just that before implementing a rezoning strategic plan.

A team of ASTD Golden Gate Chapter‘s Community Outreach Program (COP) volunteers designed and facilitated the first of three large-scale community meetings in Japantown last Wednesday. The City’s Planning Department and the Japantown Organizing Committee had developed a set of recommendations for revitalizing Japantown. This meeting was aimed at getting the community’s feedback and input to these recommendations. Continue reading “Community Engagement and Employee Engagement: Facilitating Japantown Community Meetings” »

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Employee retention: What you can do to keep your key talent

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

A recent Corporate Executive Board (CEB) study of 983 employees in the financial industry found that compensation is not a key driver of employee retention although it has a very low satisfaction score (satisfaction with compensation ranked 35th out of 38 attributes surveyed).  Before you roll your eyes and say “really?” Please pause and think about it.  Who wouldn’t want to be paid more? And who would agree that they are compensated sufficiently even if they are well paid? Continue reading “Employee retention: What you can do to keep your key talent” »

Posted in Employee Engagement, Employee Survey, Organizational Development | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments