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. Read More…

Posted in Employee Communication, Employee Engagement | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Read More…

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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.

Posted in Employee Engagement, Healthy Organizations | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

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. Read More…

Posted in Employee Communication, Employee Engagement, Meeting Facilitation | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

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? Read More…

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

Leadership Training in the Cloud

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

Imagine what your leadership development program would look like if you could source most of your contents from the Internet, for free.

What? Source content from the Internet? How do I sell this program to my managers and employees if it’s not built by our team in-house or bought from a reputable vendor? Did I hear objections already??

Well, Google did just that. At the ASTD Golden Gate Chapter‘s program last week, Julie Clow at Google presented to a full room of eager L&D professionals in San Francisco about the future of leadership training–learning in the “cloud.” Read More…

Posted in Organizational Development | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Employee Survey Feedback: Have fun with your presentation

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

We advise our clients to share their employee survey results with their employees after the conclusion of the study. Acknowledging that employees’ opinions have been heard will help build employee trust.

You don’t have to show all the results by each questionnaire items (you don’t want to overwhelme your employees with too much information!). But you need to share with them highlights of the survey results, and interpret the results within the context of your business environment and business goals. If you have results from a previous year employee survey, it would be beneficial to show trends on key metrics such as employee engagement score, overall job satisfaction scores, and any particular areas of measurement that you want to track. Read More…

Posted in Employee Communication, Employee Engagement, Employee Survey | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Top 10 Ideas to Engage Your Employees

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi
A Good Humor vendor

Image via Wikipedia

You know engaged employees are more likely to improve your bottom line and customer satisfaction. But you don’t have big budgets to create a full-fledged employee engagement program. No worries, you can do something small everyday to create a positive work environment that engages your employees. Read More…

Posted in Employee Engagement, Healthy Organizations | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Using Performance Appraisals to Engage Employees and Create a Positive Work Environment

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi

2011 is off to a quick start and the economy seems to be on a gradual recovery. According to a 2010 Manpower survey, 84% of employees plan to look for new jobs this year.  Do you have a strategy in place to keep your key talent?

Our research shows that key factors that engage employees include:

  • a clear company mission
  • open and honest communications that build trust among employees
  • commitment to employee development
  • regular recognition and acknowledgement of employee contributions

Read More…

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

He Says, She Says, and Checkers

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Pi Wen Looi
Standard checkers set

Image via Wikipedia

My fiance and I played checkers this past weekend, and we had an AHA moment that could help facilitate better understanding when working with people across cultures. Here’s our story. Read More…

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