Management Questions

Jun 9th 2007 Hiring Questions

What are the sources for your new hires — newspaper ads, recruiters, referrals from current employees?
What source produces the most productive and long-term employees?
Just how good is your hiring process?
Are you getting high-caliber people?
Are they staying long enough to offset your investment in them?

Source:
Loyalty and the Bottom Line
by Carol Orsag Madigan
Business Finance, February 1999

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Jun 7th 2007 Empowerment Questions

Do we agree that empowerment is a key ingredient in our continued success? If so, why? If not, why not?
Does our performance review process support or hinder participation and commitment of all staff?
Do we compensate and promote those who embody the values we espouse?
Do our communication channels promote or inhibit free exchange of information and ideas between individuals and departments?
What informal messages do people receive about our culture? What impact does this have on productivity and morale?
What do we suppose employees say about our organization when we aren’t in the room?
Once people are trained and have proven their competency, do we have the courage to trust them?
What happens when someone takes an educated risk and fails?

Source:
Thoughts on Empowerment
by Rick Maurer
CEO Refresher

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Jun 6th 2007 Employee Recognition / Motivation

Not sure how to individualize recognition? Just ask your employees questions like these:

By what name do you like to be called?
What are your “hot buttons” — hobbies or interests you like to talk about a lot?
What increases your positive emotion or “fills your bucket” the most?
From whom do you most like to receive recognition or praise?
What type of recognition or praise do you like best? Do you like public, private, written, verbal, or other kinds of recognition?
What form of recognition motivates you the most? Do you like gift certificates, a title for winning a competition, a meaningful note or e-mail, or something else?
What is the greatest recognition you have ever received?

Source:
The Best Ways to Recognize Employees
by Tom Rath
Gallup Management Journal, December 2004

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Jun 5th 2007 Employee Performance

Executives need to take a fresh look at their businesses and realize that in the parts that are people intensive, capital-based measures may not provide the insights they need. The risks of not understanding employee performance and failing to set up differentiated rewards based on value creation are substantial. Executives can avoid such problems by asking some basic questions:

What kinds of business environments are we competing in? How important are people (as opposed to capital investment) to our success?
If people make a significant difference, do we have people-oriented metrics in place to help us understand productivity and manage the business?
In which parts of the company are employees most productive, and where do we receive the highest return from our investments in them? Do our current reward structures recognize employees who create value? Are these structures aligned with our business strategy?
Are our employees focused on generating short-term or long-term business value? In business units that have a long-term orientation, do we need separate metrics to measure and reward employee performance?
Is the performance of our business units interdependent? Do we have assessment mechanisms in place to measure managers’ contributions that depend on coordination with other business units? Do managers trust us to reward them fairly?
Which companies compete with us for talent? Are our current compensation and benefit systems fully competitive? Do they adequately reward the people who generate the most value?

Source:
Workonomics: Measuring the Importance of People
by Felix Barber
Boston Consulting Group, March 21, 2001

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Jun 4th 2007 Employee Involvement / Satisfaction

Do your employees have confidence in the job being done by senior management?
Do your employees believe the company conducts business with honesty and integrity?
Do your employees trust senior leaders at their company?
Do your employees believe the company effectively manages business changes such as downsizing, mergers, restructuring, and expansion?
Do your employees believe the company communicates effectively with employees?
Do your employees believe the company involves them in decisions that affect them?
Do your employees believe senior management motivates them to perform well?
Do your employees see a clear link between their jobs and pay?
Do your employees believe that high-performing workers go unrewarded?
Do your employees believe the company does a good job telling them how their pay is determined?
Are your employees satisfied with their pay?
Are your employees satisfied with their benefits?

Source:
Dazed and Confused
by Stephen Taub
CFO Magazine, September 11, 2002

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Jun 3rd 2007 Choosing and Rewarding Managers

Did you choose people for managerial roles because they were the type of people who could get their fulfillment and satisfaction out of helping other people shine rather than having the ego-need to shine themselves?
Did you select them because they had a prior history of being able to give a critique to someone in such a way that the other person says: “Wow, that was really helpful, I’m glad you helped me see all that.”
Do you reward these people for how well their group has done, or do you reward them for their own personal accomplishments in generating business and serving clients?

In other words, are you choosing people who want to do the job, who have demonstrated any prior aptitude for the job, and are you rewarding them for things other than doing the job?

Source:
Why (Most) Training is Useless
by David Maister

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Jun 1st 2007 6 Questions CEOs Need to Ask Their HR Leaders

Which segments of the workforce create the value for which we are most rewarded in the marketplace?
Which areas of our business will be most impacted by impending waves of retirement? What are we doing to prepare successors? What impact will anticipated retirement have on the skills and productivity necessary to meet future demand?
In what areas is the talent market heating up (i.e., demand will outpace supply)? Which segments of our workforce will be most impacted? What are the potential top-line and bottom-line implications?
What skills will we need over the next five years that we don’t currently possess? How will we create that capacity? What happens to our business if we don’t?
What is our turnover within critical areas? How much is it costing us? In customers? In productivity? In innovation? In quality? What are we doing to resolve the root cause?
Are we actively developing talent portfolios or workforce plans that will help us to understand and communicate the financial consequences of talent decisions on our business?

Source:
Why Must a Leader Be a Learner?
by William Luckert
LiNE Zine, Fall 2001

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May 31st 2007 5 Key Training Questions

Who needs training?
Who will deliver the training?
What form will the training take?
How will the training transfer to the job?
How will the training be evaluated?

Source:
Five Critical Aspects to Getting More Return from Employee Training
by Sharon Daniels
Journal of Business Strategy

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May 30th 2007 10 Questions to Consider BEFORE You Select Your New Manager

How will they fit into the environment?
How well will they develop and treat the employees?
How much do they really want to be responsible for getting things done through others?
How well will they build relationships with customers and other business partners?
How will they react under stress and when things get the most difficult?
How much initiative will they take to assess barriers and make process improvements?
How much flexibility will they show when the unexpected arises?
How responsible and accountable will they be for achieving results?
How committed will they be to supporting changes in business goals and directions?
How much initiative will they take to develop themselves?

Source:
Disaster Prevention Tips for Hiring a New Manager
by Lora J. Adrianse
The CEO Refresher, March 2003

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Jun 9th 2006 Employee Performance Questions