The Bagg Group Blog

Sometimes it’s not what you say, but the words you use to say it that can work for you or against you. 

When working with hiring authorities at companies across the GTA, our staffing solution experts at The Bagg Group often help our clients find the right words for everything from a job performance review to a job description. 

That is because we know from more three decades of interviewing candidates that words have the power to either inspire and motivate, or overwhelm and defeat.  

It’s often surprising to bosses, but not to us, how employees can remember word-for-word line that a boss said to them, even years after it was spoken.  Many top talent have picked up the phone to call The Bagg Group after a manager said something to them that left them feeling dispirited. Sometimes, when our expert recruiters probe further, we find that the manager simply used the wrong words to convey a message.

For example, telling employees they have a problem can trigger defensiveness and concern.  But if you use the word challenge instead, people are likely be intrigued and open to tackling the issue.

In the same vein, if you tell someone that they are working for you on a project, they may feel as if they are meant to just fulfill orders, and their initiative and ideas aren’t necessary.  But when you tell someone that they are working with you, they feel as if they are a contributing team member, whose input is valuable.

Richard Gallagher, author of How to Tell Anyone Anything: Breakthrough Techniques for Handling Difficult Conversations at Work, says the key to good communication in the workplace is to speak to your employees as if they are part of the solution, not the problem.  He mentions, as an example, the internal employee slogan at WestJet, “We succeed because I care.”  In other words, the employees view themselves, and are viewed, as key to the company’s success.

In his book, he cautions managers who want to seek improvement, or need to deliver bad news, from using standard workplace phrases that set a negative tone from the get-go.   Telling people, “I hate to tell you this,” prompts them to put up a mental shield to prepare for bad news.  But if you say, “There’s something you need to know,” the listeners will pay attention to discover the benefit to them in what is to follow. 

Likewise, “I have no idea” suggests the conversation isn’t worth time or effort.  Conversely, “I wish I knew”  makes the listener feel like the speaker would help, if they could.  

The simplest way to choose the best words is to put yourself in the place of the employee who will hear them.  Do the words suggest possibility or make you feel defensive?

Finally, just ask yourself the question that almost always opens the door to improved communication, “Is there a more positive way for me to say this?”  It’s amazing the difference a good word can make.

At The Bagg Group, we know that giving your employees a high-five can make all the difference

It’s been more than a month since the Vancouver Olympics, but the cheering that took place in offices during the Games doesn’t have to stop.

During the Winter Games, our clients across the GTA saw employees interact in new, more positive ways.  Staff from different departments who rarely exchanged two words found common ground.  Cheers rang out office-wide when Canadians won medals.  Team spirit was high, and so was morale. 

In fact, the Winter Games were terrific for team-building in the workplace.  But like all team-building activities, the real challenge is to ensure the bonding continues long after the exercise ends. 

At The Bagg Group, our staffing solution experts talk to candidates every day who say they want to feel connected to their workplace, to be part of a community.  That’s why when there’s not an outside event to bring people together, our recruiters suggest creating one.

Here are two tips that our clients have implemented with great success over the years.

Get a company team together to participate in a fun-run:  Spring heralds the beginning of fundraising marathons, and now is the time to get organized and to get staff in shape and training.  As the Olympics proved, nothing brings people closer together than a physical challenge.  

Launch a Spring into Shape challenge:  Volumes of study prove that physical fitness improves productivity and morale.  Keep Olympic medal fever alive by setting up awards for employees who meet measurable, attainable physical fitness goals — like getting to the gym regularly for one month — and who buddy up to help colleagues meet their goals. 

An article entitled Finding the Right Fit that appears on the Canadian Bar Association’s website examines how some law firms are rewarding employees for getting into shape.  At one firm, staff voluntarily record their runs, yoga classes, power-walks, etc. on a special card, in exchange for points that lead to prizes.  

The most important reward, however, is nothing more complicated than a high-five.  And that’s been confirmed by a recent University of California study that shows the best teams in the National Basketball Association — the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers — recorded the most high-fives and slaps-on-the-back among team-mates. 

The researchers conclude that acceptable physical contact, like a high-five, reduces stress and increases good feelings.   

It’s been great cheering on our country’s best athletes, and now it’s time to cheer on each other for any and every professional and personal accomplishment.

February is the time of year when a lot of people call in sick, and we know, from more than 30 years experience as staffing solution experts, that it’s not just a virus that gets people down. 

About 15% of Canadians suffer the winter blues, according to the Ontario Ministry of Health.  And the desire to pull the blankets over one’s head is aggravated by stress and insecurity at work.  In turn, that prompts headaches for managers and colleagues who are left to pick up the slack. 

A survey of 1,700 employees showed that the three main causes of workplace stress are an uncertain future, an inability to assert control at work, and a lack of organizational support, according to Strategy + Business magazine (September 2009 issue).  The study confirmed that employees who are stressed have trouble concentrating and call in more sick days.  

It’s not news that when work becomes overwhelming, people are quick to take a mental health day.  In October, the Globe and Mail reported that a North American survey of 4,700 employees found that 32% of people call in sick at least once a year when, physically, they feel just fine.

And what do they do on their day off?  Some update their resumes and call staffing agencies.

At The Bagg Group, we work closely with hiring authorities at organizations of all sizes in the GTA.   And we collaborate on solutions to decrease workplace stress year-round for higher employee satisfaction and retention.

 Our clients, top employers in the GTA, know that ensuring employees don’t feel overburdened by their workload is good preventative medicine.

The first step is to support employees by ensuring they are not juggling too many priorities at once.  But if there is a multitude of tasks that must get done, the solution is to spread the work around. In other words, delegate.

With that in mind, our staffing solution experts offer these three tried-and-true tips on how to delegate.  

Trust the one you delegate:  Whether you are hiring a contract worker to take over a project, or an office temp to take over a variety of tasks, you must be assured that they have the appropriate skills, experience, track record, and initiative.  They need to have the right competencies and attitude so you can concentrate on your priorities, worry-free.

Take the time to know the task:  It’s important to break down your project into its smallest components.  For example, write down who needs to be contacted, what research needs to be done, what reports need to be written.  Next to each detail, write your name if you are the only one who can do it, or write a D if it’s something that can be delegated.

Say it, don’t just think it:  No one is a mind-reader.   The more clear and detailed you are about what you want done, and how you want it done, the greater the result.  Go over the breakdown of the task with the person who is taking it over and encourage questions.

Good delegating can’t melt snow, but it can melt away some of the panic and that’s a good boost to the immune system.

With the warm weather comes daydreams of vacations and dips in employee productivity. Recently, a survey of a British staffing agency showed 68% of employees admit to spending a significant part of their workday thinking about their impending holidays and 25% of respondents acknowledged a drop in their productivity.

That’s not unusual. When fine weather finally hits, even the most disciplined of us find it difficult to block thoughts of canoes and cottages. 

At The Bagg Group, we advocate vacations.  They are all the more important in a recession when employees need a break from a heavy workload and office stresses.

Across Canada, most companies offer an average of 17 annual vacation days.  That’s down two days from 2007, but still three more than Americans, according to a  2008 Expedia survey of employed workers in North America and Europe

In Europe, the practice has always been to provide significant time off. In 2008, employees in Great Britain typically got 26 days off,  a two-day increase over 2007, and Germany, Spain and France saw increases of one day, with workers receiving 27 days, 31 days and 37 days respectively.

Recruitment agencies in  the GTA concur that there are three reasons to encourage employees to take their vacations:

Vacation help reduce burnout:  Rest and relaxation is the best way to re-charge the batteries.

Vacations promote creative thinking:  Often, in stepping away from a situation, you can see it more clearly and so come up with better solutions.  

Vacations improve work/life balance:  A holiday is a time for employees to reconnect with families and personal interests and increased quality of life can lead to increased quality of work on the job.

Still, daydreaming and vacationing employees can add up to a seasonal headache for managers and hiring authorities who must ensure smooth operations, regardless of the temperature outside.  As staffing solution experts, here are some tips that we have shared  successfully with top employers in the GTA.

Create work schedules for the summer frame of mind:  Allow flexible work hours that let workers start and finish the day earlier.  In this way, workers complete eight-hour days at the office and still have time to enjoy the sunshine

Post a visual chart showing who is absent when:  This is useful for colleagues, and helps managers ensure key employees are not on holiday at the same time.

Have employees compile a list of clients, suppliers, and anyone else who may need to be contacted in case of an emergency:  This list is useful year-round, and the summer holiday is a great incentive for the employee to put it together.

Cross train employees to take over duties of others:  Have employees prepare a list of their major duties and step-by-step instructions on how to fulfill these. But put on hold those tasks that can wait a week.  It’s not helpful to to overburden  colleagues left behind.

Consider hiring temporary staff or contract workers:  This ensures continued smooth operation, and allows the other employees to focus on their work.  Also, it helps the vacationing employee who can suffer a bad case of post-holiday blues if returning to work that has piled up.

Look for opportunities to celebrate summer:  After our long winter, we do need to make the most of summer.  Consider holding one-on-one meetings at a patio or allowing Bermuda short and sandal days.

“My employer just doesn’t get me.” Sounds more like something one says about a mate rather than a company. But hiring authorities may be taken aback to learn that this is a frequent lament that we hear from many of our A-calibre candidates. And it’s a woe that is echoed across Canada and elsewhere, according to studies.

When you consider, as we do, that employees and employers are in a relationship together, it’s not surprising. In every good relationship, people need to talk and to help each other move successfully into the future. When that doesn’t happen, there are inevitably feelings of resentment and in the case of the employee, a desire for divorce from the company.

Too often, employers are missing an opportunity to talk and listen to employee’s long-term aspirations. In a poll of 3,401 employees across Canada, only 6% said their direct boss, or employer, works with them on managing their career path.

Another 12% said they turn to family and friends for guidance. But 82% said they feel as if they’re on own their own when it comes to figuring out their professional advancement, according to a recent report in the Globe and Mail.

In the US, the situation is similar. The Society for Human Resource Management took a poll of 800 HR professionals, managers, and executives and discovered that 35% want to leave their employers because they are dissatisfied by the lack of career planning.

There’s no need for a good relationship to end this way. Here are three tips from the staffing solution experts at The Bagg Group that are used by top employers in the GTA to retain talent:

1. When interviewing candidates, hiring authorities are advised to discuss their company’s approach to career advancement. It’s a good idea to outline typical promotion patterns. People are eager for a sense of what the road ahead may look like for them.

But a word of caution: Don’t over-promise to win over a great candidate. The consensus among recruitment companies is that if you fail to manage expectations, you could be on the divorce track with your employee.

2. Review career plans regularly with your staff. Employees welcome the chance to talk over ways they might strengthen their competencies to prepare for eventual advancement.

3. Think beyond the department. Many core skills are transferable and the challenge of working in a new department and learning a new function can re-energize a valuable employee.

The top employers in the GTA allow and encourage their best talent to move between departments. Interestingly, a recent survey within the British accounting and finance industry showed that 83% of respondents feel that non-finance related experience is key to becoming a senior executive or CEO.

At The Bagg Group, we talk to our clients about their staffing issues today, and tomorrow. And in that conversation, we remind them that at some point, a valued employee, in whom you’ve invested training and knowledge, will look around the office and wonder, “What’s next for me?” That’s a fair question, and it’s one that committed relationships are founded on.

There’s a lingering misconception that finding top talent in a recession is as easy as fishing in a barrel. Yet, that was disproved in the 90s recession when employers found that they were overwhelmed with resumes, but very few applicants met their criteria.

At The Bagg Group, we receive hundreds of resumes for every available position. Typically, only three out of 100 responses are potentially suitable for the job opportunity. Our recruiters meet face-to-face with every prospective candidate. And on average, we recommend less than 30% of all those we interview to our clients.

Quantity is not the issue, quality is. When it comes to staffing in times of economic turmoil, there are two golden rules. These practices will carry you through this recession, as they’ve carried top employers through past ones.

Why invest now in top talent? A-level people are more than high producers. They’re innovative thinkers who can problem-solve with you.

And companies which involve employees in finding ways to operate more cost-effectively report excellent results, according to surveys of The Great Place To Work Institute Inc., a global research agency.

These are qualities that can’t be bought, so they won’t eat in to your budget. And you can measure your return on effort in increased loyalty and productivity.

Here are some suggestions that top employers in the GTA have implemented, with great success.

Help employees decompress: Recognize that today’s overburdened employees need ways to de-stress. It’s money well spent  to subsidize gym memberships. And bringing a massage therapist on-site for 15-minute treatments can help employees get the knots out of their neck and out of their thinking.

Holding regular trivia and other types of contests and celebrations builds camaraderie in tough times, and injects some levity into the workplace.

A time-out for fun is proven to reduce stress hormones and increase a sense of wellbeing, which in turns sharpens creative thinking and increases productivity.

(For why and how some companies are bringing humour into the workplace, see the article Making Work Fun by Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.)

Even small gestures can make a difference. Human resource professionals at one company reported that employees were delighted when the company replaced regular coffee with top premium blends.

Consider creative perks: Post-cuts, many employees are doing the job of two, and could use a perk or two to stay motivated. They know best what could make a difference to their worklife. Ask and you may be surprised by the answers.

More and more, over-stretched employees are putting in requests for a temporary or contract worker who can take some tasks off their overloaded plates. At The Bagg Group, we are regularly fulfilling demands from all sizes of corporations for efficient, knowledgeable temps who can step in and take over time-consuming activities to allow full-time staff to focus on their primary work.

Talk about the elephant in the room: Open, transparent communications between executives and employees is key for building trust and collaboration.

During this recession, many executives hold relaxed, regular get-togethers with employees to report candidly on progress and challenges, and address questions and anxieties. The result is a company-wide appreciation that everyone is in this together. And that fuels the motivation to work on solutions.

Nothing attracts and retains top talent more than company leadership which actively demonstrates that its people are its best asset. And that’s a fact that hasn’t changed with the times.