January 4, 2017 | Posted in: Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully

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Seems we can’t get away without having meetings. Communication is a key element to empowered workplaces and effective employee morale. But it seems that so many get it wrong when it comes to hosting meetings. What is up with that? To help pump up the effectiveness of meetings; I share the following tips.

 

If your meetings are becoming stale, try www.effectivemeetings.com with lots of tidbits for running terrific meetings.

 

Improve your all-employee meetings

• Draw on the experience of top performers and celebrate the successes of others – have them share their stories.

• Work actively with professional speakers to familiarize them with your organization.

• Encourage informal interaction with round tables and allow for socializing activities.

• If you are presenting awards: staff should participate in the selection of rewards.
  • Employers should reward measurable activities or a point system.
  • Offer reward that have some brag value – offering cash may be fleeting.
  • Recognize employees who talk up the company and spread good words.

 

Improve morale with the five R’s

1. Rewards: check competitor’s salaries, perks, and benefits packages and exceed it or get more creative to retain top talent.
2. Room to grow: offer a chance to grow professionally and personally and advance skills through a mentoring program, promotions, and training.
3. Recognition: Practice regular formal and informal praise and appreciation. Generation X and the incoming Millennials are used to getting feedback every 60 seconds with computer games and expect to know where they stand and get noticed for it.  We tend to get antsy just waiting for our computers to download and that’s only 22 seconds.  An annual appraisal won’t cut it.
4. Respect: Make a determined effort to listen with an open mind and show genuine respect to avoid the “Because I’m the boss” attitude.
5. Reasonable Workloads: Productivity will decline if workers are expected to produce 110% all the time. People need time to renew and refresh to avoid burnout and especially since September 11^th, we need to understand that there will be a general defocus in work and productivity. Offer flexible work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and compressed workweeks.