Daily Biz Solutions

Are you wondering if it’s a good idea to conduct an employee satisfaction survey for your small business? While many small business owners think that this type of workforce tool is something that applies to large businesses rather than to their relatively small enterprises, that is not always the case. If you have enough employees for a survey to truly be anonymous – say 10 or more as an estimate – there is a lot you can learn from asking them how they feel about their jobs. Here are a few important benefits small businesses may experience as a result of conducting an employee satisfaction survey.

4 Possible Employee Satisfaction Survey Benefits for Small Businesses

• Identify opportunities for improvement – By giving employees a chance to let you know how they feel anonymously, you just might identify some areas that needs to be improved that you were not aware of.
• Reinforcement for what you are doing right – Just as employee satisfaction surveys can help you identify what you might be doing wrong, they can also help you find out what your employees think you are doing right.
• Improved employee engagement – When employees of a small business realize that the owners really care what they think, the result can be greater engagement.
• Improved customer service – When your employees see that you value them, they just might be inclined to provide a higher level of service to your customers.

Researcher and Author Shawn Achor discovers long-term benefit of positive psychology in the workplace

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – April 5, 2011 – Tens of billions of dollars are spent worldwide every year on employee training, but often the long-term return on investment (“ROI”) remains questionable.  A new ground-breaking study from researcher and author of Shawn Achor investigates this issue and finds that a new kind of positive psychology training exhibits a valuable ROI. A single training session on the principles of positive psychology was shown to improve the overall happiness, energy and stress management skills of 77 managers against a control group.  Subjects were evaluated again four months later, and impressively, the benefits of significantly higher life satisfaction (quality of life) continued compared to the control.

“By testing employees over many months we can determine if there is a long term ROI,” said Shawn Achor, researcher, author of The Happiness Advantage, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies. “This sets a new standard for trainings.”

In December of 2008 as the worldwide economic crisis was beginning to take shape, a ten minute survey was administered to 77 KPMG managers getting a baseline reading of 14 different metrics including stress, social support and optimism.  Then, Achor delivered a three hour training entitled “Positive Psychology: the Science of Happiness and Potential” to the 77 mangers.  A week after the training, the survey was re-administered to the experimental group and compared with a control group (managers who did not go through the training but took the surveys).  In April 2009, both groups were tested again.  Even after four months, the group of trained managers showed significant increases to optimism and life satisfaction – one of the greatest predictors of performance and success.  Extensive studies have shown that employees with higher levels of life satisfaction are more productive, produce greater sales, and are more resilient in the face of challenge.

The study revealed three findings. First, teaching the principles and strategies of positive psychology is vital to preparing managers to deal better with the challenges of a modern work environment. Second, extensive research has already found that employee life satisfaction is a direct contributor to productivity and performance; thus, a training that conclusively enhances this quality could have far-reaching implications. Lastly and most importantly, this research indicates that even a short training on positive psychology will create a clear and long lasting ROI–an indication that it may be increasingly important for companies to start training their employees on the skills of positive psychology.

Over the past year, Achor has delivered these lectures and trainings to leaders in 42 different countries. “This is an emerging field and we are excited about its potential to help us rethink trainings,” said Achor. “More studies need to be done, in a variety of industries, to determine how these effects translate into higher profit and performance. We have only begun to tap into the potential ROI of positive psychology trainings.”

Achor and Good Think, Inc. Chief Learning Officer Elizabeth Peterson are currently continuing research in this field with Alia Crum at Yale University.

For more information, please visit: www.ShawnAchor.com, and for speaking or training opportunities, visit www.internationalspeakers.com.

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SHAWN ACHOR

Shawn, author of , has spoken in 42 countries to a wide variety of audiences: bankers on Wall Street, students in Dubai, CEOs in Zimbabwe. Prior to founding Good Think Inc., Shawn spent over a decade at Harvard University where he won numerous distinguished teaching awards for his work. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a Masters from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics. In 2006, he was Head Teaching Fellow for “Positive Psychology,” the most popular course at Harvard at the time. When the global economy collapsed in 2008, Shawn was immediately called in as an expert by the world’s largest banks to help restart forward progress. Subsequently his lectures on happiness and human potential have received attention from The New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, CNN, and NPR. The New York Times recently named Shawn a “world-famous expert” on positive psychology. For more information about Achor please visit: www.shawnachor.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Onokerhonranye_Gbenro

By John McKee

:::Expert Tips and a Quiz to Help Bosses Garner that Ever-Elusive Appreciation Among Subordinates:::

In the workplace, managers get a bad rap. The butt of endless water cooler jokes, bosses are more often than not characterized as the office “villain” and are maligned for simply existing, in perpetuity. How then does a boss transcend this collective disdain and actually become a supervisor that direct report subordinates are thankful for?

In time for Thanksgiving, here is some practical advice to help managers at all levels – bottom, middle and those in the executive suites – hone a style that serves everyone’s best interest and, as such, fosters a feeling of thankfulness, gratitude and appreciation among subordinates:

• Give credit where it’s due – Among the biggest complaints about managers is that they are “glory hogs.” One of the fastest ways for a manager to become disliked and disrespected is by taking the recognition for others’ work – or exclusive credit for a team effort. Staff members will be appreciative and pleasantly surprised when they notice you sharing the accolades that will ultimately further their career growth as well.

• Have an open door policy – Let’s face it; most managers have to work hard to keep up with daily demands and expectations. Meetings, telecons, emails, number crunching, planning – all of these tasks can keep managers separate and apart – both physically and emotionally – from their team. It’s important to remember, however, that one of a manager’s primarily jobs is to know what your staff is doing at all times, and help them to do it better. The best way to accomplish this is by staying visible and accessible with staffers by not only welcoming them into your office, but also by walking around the department where you can ”mix it up” with subordinates in a less formal way and in their territorial comfort zone.

• Appreciate face value. Today’s professional is decidedly “wired,” with email, voice mail, teleconferencing and web-conferencing taking the place of good old human-to-human interaction. The most effective managers communicate with their staff in person whenever possible. Although remote communication is admittedly efficient, technology is not entirely effective when it comes to getting people energized or feeling like they are part of a team led by someone who cares about what’s on the collective plate. There is simply no direct substitute for having a face-to-face dialog – not a monologue – with staff members if you want to get things done while also cultivating a positive spirit within the organization.

• Be firm but fair. Every office has its “suck-ups” and “brown-nosers,” and everyone knows who they are…except the boss. If your team thinks you are allowing others to have special privileges or that you are too naïve to recognize when you’re being manipulated, you will lose their respect very quickly. Once lost, respect is a virtue that is very hard to regain. To avoid this, debrief your team as often as possible so they understand why you do things a certain way or have made a certain decision, and so they consider your decisions fair in a business context.

• Find, and maintain, a “whole life” balance. Busy times and demanding jobs can cause managers to lose their humanity – those other things in life that make it “all worth it.” It’s okay to burn some midnight oil once in a while, but everyday demands at the expense of your personal or family life is a recipe for disaster: high stress levels and low energy, attention span, patience and tolerance levels makes for a less than lovable boss. This, of course, leads to low morale and decreased team productivity coupled with increased staff turnover – all of which plays into a vicious cycle of both professional and personal unhappiness. When you are frustrated and wound tight, your staff truly feels your pain.

Not sure if you’re a boss that employees are thankful for? McKee offers this quick quiz to help you find out if your management style is helping or hurting employee perceptions: Simply answer yes or no to each question, below.

1. All employees generally dislike work
2. The best motivator for your team is money; it’s what brings them back every day
3. Keeping emotions out of the management process has served the operation well
4. Your staff prefers to work as a team so that individual accountability is lessened
5. As much as I would like to, I just don’t have the time to spend talking in-person to my subordinates
6. I encourage feedback from a suggestion box or other anonymous method
7. I live for the weekends – this job is a paycheck to support my “real” life
8. I don’t believe outsourcing can happen to my company
9. Regular team meetings are not justifiable as they take too much time, which lessens productivity
10. My current management position isn’t very influential, but when I move up the ladder a bit I can make a “real” contribution to the company

Score Card: Give yourself 1 point for every time you said “No”:

10 = Excellent!! You’ll be running the show in no time!
9 = Brilliant. You obviously see your employees as an asset
8 = Solid. You have the right attitude, and the team will see that
7 = Well done. You know people and their needs
6 = Good. You recognize the power of your role
5 = Fair. May be time to re-think your management strategy
4 = It’s definitely time for an attitude adjustment
3 = Change or die (metaphorically). Things aren’t good, but it’s not too late to make
impactful changes
2 = Do something significant that will be viewed in a positive light or your employees
will leave
1 = It’s time to consider a new job where you do not manage people
0 = Ever consider a job as a bounty hunter?

About the Author

John McKee, Founder and President of BusinessSuccessCoach.net, is the author of “Career Wisdom” and “21 Ways Women in Management Shoot Themselves in the Foot.” He can be reached at 720-226-9072, [email protected], or through his web sites at www.BusinessSuccessCoach.net and www.BusinessWomanWeb.com.