Research and Analytical Skills
Other important skills that employers seek in new employees are research and analytical skills. Some employers often require employees to conduct market research for new products or production research to keep production costs low and profits high and determine what is in demand on the market. Rather than taking everything at face value, employees must be analytical and test all information found in the research.
Planning and Multitasking Skills
Each employee is responsible for meeting deadlines, planning a schedule and multitasking various assignments, tasks and events currently on the employee’s plate of responsibilities. Employers seek workers who can handle the workload without needing too much guidance or hand-holding during the workday. This skill includes solving problems, being flexible with project changes and taking feedback from other workers.
Leadership and Creativity Skills
Employees often work together on projects, so some employees must take on the leadership role to ensure deadlines are met, problems are addressed and all ideas are being considered. Employers often seek employees who have natural leadership skills. In addition, these employees must also have creativity skills so they can find and use solutions for potential problems on tasks, projects or assignments.
Five Steps for Business Problem Solving
by Kevin Johnston
Every business problem seems unique, but the techniques for solving business problems don’t have to be reinvented each time you face a dilemma. Adopt a methodical approach to solving all problems so that you won’t find your business in constant crisis management. Running a business means solving problems, so tackle problems with a well thought-out plan to avoid making rash decisions.
Identify the Problem
You may realize that something is not working in your business, but you may not be able to put your finger on it. Take the time to identify exactly what difficulty repeats itself. Describe it in detail so that you get a clear picture of who or what disrupts the profitable flow of your business operations.
Describe the Cause
Why does the problem occur? Identifying the problem doesn’t tell you the cause. For example, if an employee constantly disrupts meetings, you might dig into the cause and find out she feels her talents get overlooked. You can address that. Or if products continually ship late, you might discover that a piece of machinery constantly breaks down. Finding the cause will suggest solutions.
Brainstorm Solutions
Don’t’ settle for your first instinct when problem-solving. Think of all the possibilities for solving a problem. For example, firing a problem employee could solve a morale problem, but moving that employee could make better use of his talents and boost morale once again. You might identify a cash-flow problem that recurs each month at the same time. Your first thought might be that you need to demand payment on all outstanding accounts receivable, but you could discover that renegotiating a bill due date with a vendor could easily resolve the difficulty.
Implement One Solution
Pick the one solution that seems most likely to solve the problem and seems least likely to cause further problems. Use this metric to measure all of the possible solutions and settle on one. Once you make your decision, commit fully to it and do not second-guess yourself.
Monitor Your Solution
Measure the effects of the solution you choose. Watch to see if it solves the previous difficulty, and make sure it does not present new difficulties. If your monitoring reveals that your choice of solutions was incorrect, you can switch immediately to a new solution.
Career Guide Saturday March 16, 2013
What makes a good employer? 6 signs of a good boss, and 5 common characteristics of good bosses!
Many studies have found that the key to being a great employer is employee-engagement.
Every year, thousands of fresh graduates enter the labour force. By joining the already existing workforce, these fresh graduates are trying hard to make the right decisions; decisions that may well shape the rest of their career as well as their future and that of their family. One such decision they need to make is which potential employer to approach. In addition to determination and resilience, a good employer is the key to having a successful career. What makes a good employer is a bit hard to know for sure. It is even harder to judge an organisation before even working there. However, there are tell-tale signs that we can look for. William Kalmar gives six indicators of a good employer: 1 A good employer makes people feel that they are part of a team, or, even better, a family. 2 They encourage open communication, informing their people of new developments and encouraging them to give feedback, suggestions and complaints. 3 They promote from within, giving their people the opportunity to progress on the career front. 4 They stress quality, enabling people to feel pride in the products or services they provide. 5 They share profits with their employees through profit sharing and/or stock ownership. 6 They reduce the distinctions of rank between top management and those in entry-level positions, and they bar exclusive perks for high-level people. Many studies have been conducted worldwide, asking employees or even fresh graduates about what they consider as crucial measurements of a good employer. Increasingly, salary and benefits do not constitute the basis on which an employer is thought of as great. Instead, many of these studies have found that the key to being a great employer is employee-engagement.
AON Hewitt’s Best Employer study in Malaysia 2012, found that employees thought of three key drivers of engagement: career opportunities, recognition and brand alignment. Career opportunities – in terms of what the organisation can offer in terms of career progression. Recognition – in terms of how much it recognises the employees and their contributions to the business/division. Brand alignment – in terms of how much employees share the same values as the company and its brand. A study by Towers Watson in the same year looking at sustainable engagement, found that drivers for sustainable engagement of the workforce are work life balance, performance management, image, and less so, pay and benefits. What the two studies indicate is the importance, increasingly, of non-monetary aspects of employment. The workforce no longer looks at salary and benefits as the reasons for staying in a company. Instead, career opportunities, performance management, brand alignment and worklife balance seem to be the key drivers of keeping employees engaged to the organisation.
As a result of a global study by Hewitt Associates, there seem to be five common characteristics among best employers around the world. 1 Inspired Leadership Best employers around the world tend to have leadership teams that set the example for commitment to their people. The leaders of the organisation truly believe that their greatest asset is their people and they are personally involved in developing talent, interviewing potential employees and communicating with their employees on the direction of the company. Even though at times taxing and frustrating, they ensure that they maintain visibility; they provide clarity and focus; and they encourage openness and involvement. 2 Unique Company Culture Best employers around the world articulate and maintain a unique organisational culture, ensuring that all new hires have a “cultural fit” to the organisation. They create a unique employment experience and emphasise on promotion from within the ranks of the organisation, ensuring in this way they attract people who see the benefit of furthering the success of the company. 3 Focus on Growing Talent Best employers provide more opportunities for their workforce to develop and grow professionally and personally. They place much attention on identifying high potential talent and ensure they receive the right accelerated training and development, as well as provide them with frequent opportunities to meet the senior leadership. More time and resources are spent on training and development by being committed to training, providing access to more training programmes, putting more employees on assignments or job-rotational roles and providing a robust mentoring system. 4 Strong Sense of Accountability Holding employees accountable for results and recognising achievements instil a great sense of responsibility. Employees in turn have a clear understanding of what is expected of them because of the frequent communication from leaders on the business direction and company goals. Their roles are therefore constantly aligned in order to keep up. 5 Aligned HR Practices and Excellent Execution The HR programmes and practices at the best employers are aligned with business strategies and are executed effectively. These programmes and practices are relevant to the business, as well as valuable to the employees.
There are many studies out there that provide information on what makes a great employer. Most of them provide similar results, indicating the importance of employee engagement. An employer that provides the aforementioned structures, processes and opportunities is likely to be more cherished by its workforce than one that doesn’t.
Top 10 trends for the world in 2017
In the coming year, we face a number of diverse and significant challenges: growing income inequality, heightened geostrategic tensions, the unsustainable use of our planet’s natural resources and, of course, the climate crisis.
Every year the World Economic Forum taps into the knowledge, observations and experiences of its Global Agenda Council members, asking them to identify the issues that they believe will have the biggest impact on the world over the coming 12 to 18 months. The resulting insights, gathered with the help of the Survey on the Global Agenda, ultimately generate the Top 10 trends – a forecast of the key social, economic and political issues that reside on our collective horizon:
Deepening income inequality
Persistent jobless growth
Lack of leadership
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