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By DAVID SCHEPP, THE JOURNAL NEWS
The nation's improving employment picture has allowed some workers who have found themselves in careers or jobs they'd rather not be in to move on, including those with less-than-stellar work performance.
However, struggling and disenchanted workers and their employers may want to think twice before severing their relationships, experts advise.
Workers must consider the time and expense involved in finding a new job, if one isn't already in the works. And employers have to weigh the costs of finding fresh help and the burdens that may be heaped upon the exiting employee's coworkers.
The first thing workers who find themselves in less-than-ideal jobs may want to do is take a hard look at their current situation, advises Quentin Burchill, vice president at Angott Search Group, an executive search firm in Rochester Hills, Mich.
He encourages workers - if they haven't already - to seek out a mentor within their company.
Ideally, it should be someone outside the department who will provide unflinching advice.
Mentors are key to being successful within a company, Burchill says, noting that larger ones, such as General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and large investment banks, assign a mentor to new employees upon hire.
"That person should ... give them some very candid, straight-forward feedback - different from what they would get from their boss," he says.
The next step, should circumstances warrant, is to talk with your immediate supervisor or manager.
Schedule a time that is unencumbered and grants you undivided attention, Burchill advises, and come just as prepared and organized as any other meeting.
Workers should be able to explain how they feel, and give the manager or supervisor the opportunity to discuss or give feedback to the employee's areas of concern.
In that meeting, the boss should give candid feedback to the employee's questions, and allow him or her to go off and make a decision as to what they want to do, whether that's sticking with the company or maybe looking for another job.
Burchill notes that the most common reason employees give for leaving their jobs is a lack of career development.
"It's not about the money," he says of those workers he's spoken with. Rather, "these people want to be challenged."
On the other side, the uptick in the labor market has prompted employers to find ways of retaining current employees even if they aren't stellar players, says Mark Haering, senior partner at Princeton Search Group in Indianapolis.
How managers or employers learn of employees' underperformance varies according to the workplace, Haering says.
Where some companies run into trouble, however, is in failing to provide expectations and minimum standards when an employee first begins employment.
"Sometimes that's where the breakdown occurs, is that the employer just sort of assumes that a person is going to come in there and do a good job" and know what it takes to do it, he says.
Employers would do their employees better by specifying minimal performance levels and conveying them effectively to their new hires.
Anytime you have performance that's not measuring up it typically can be a knowledge deficiency or it can be an execution deficiency, Haering says.
Knowledge deficiency usually takes two forms. Either the employee doesn't know what's expected or they don't know how to do what's expected.
Both of those can be addressed through traditional training or communication channels, he says.
Execution deficiency is different. "It can be a case where a person knows how to do it, they just don't like to do it," Haering says. "That obviously becomes the challenge for the manager (to) motivate them to the point where even if they don't like to do it, they are willing to do it."
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People at work: Improving job picture provides
hope for unhappy workers
April 5, 2005
By DAVID SCHEPP, THE JOURNAL NEWS
The nation's improving employment picture has allowed some workers who have found themselves in careers or jobs they'd rather not be in to move on, including those with less-than-stellar work performance.
However, struggling and disenchanted workers and their employers may want to think twice before severing their relationships, experts advise.
Workers must consider the time and expense involved in finding a new job, if one isn't already in the works. And employers have to weigh the costs of finding fresh help and the burdens that may be heaped upon the exiting employee's coworkers.
The first thing workers who find themselves in less-than-ideal jobs may want to do is take a hard look at their current situation, advises Quentin Burchill, vice president at Angott Search Group, an executive search firm in Rochester Hills, Mich.
He encourages workers - if they haven't already - to seek out a mentor within their company.
Ideally, it should be someone outside the department who will provide unflinching advice.
Mentors are key to being successful within a company, Burchill says, noting that larger ones, such as General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and large investment banks, assign a mentor to new employees upon hire.
"That person should ... give them some very candid, straight-forward feedback - different from what they would get from their boss," he says.
The next step, should circumstances warrant, is to talk with your immediate supervisor or manager.
Schedule a time that is unencumbered and grants you undivided attention, Burchill advises, and come just as prepared and organized as any other meeting.
Workers should be able to explain how they feel, and give the manager or supervisor the opportunity to discuss or give feedback to the employee's areas of concern.
In that meeting, the boss should give candid feedback to the employee's questions, and allow him or her to go off and make a decision as to what they want to do, whether that's sticking with the company or maybe looking for another job.
Burchill notes that the most common reason employees give for leaving their jobs is a lack of career development.
"It's not about the money," he says of those workers he's spoken with. Rather, "these people want to be challenged."
On the other side, the uptick in the labor market has prompted employers to find ways of retaining current employees even if they aren't stellar players, says Mark Haering, senior partner at Princeton Search Group in Indianapolis.
How managers or employers learn of employees' underperformance varies according to the workplace, Haering says.
Where some companies run into trouble, however, is in failing to provide expectations and minimum standards when an employee first begins employment.
"Sometimes that's where the breakdown occurs, is that the employer just sort of assumes that a person is going to come in there and do a good job" and know what it takes to do it, he says.
Employers would do their employees better by specifying minimal performance levels and conveying them effectively to their new hires.
Anytime you have performance that's not measuring up it typically can be a knowledge deficiency or it can be an execution deficiency, Haering says.
Knowledge deficiency usually takes two forms. Either the employee doesn't know what's expected or they don't know how to do what's expected.
Both of those can be addressed through traditional training or communication channels, he says.
Execution deficiency is different. "It can be a case where a person knows how to do it, they just don't like to do it," Haering says. "That obviously becomes the challenge for the manager (to) motivate them to the point where even if they don't like to do it, they are willing to do it."
Executive Search | Recruitment Process Outsourcing | Contract Staffing | College Recruiting | Site Map
This site is optimized for 1024x768 resolution and Internet Explorer.
Copyright © 2010 PrincetonOne