Monday, June 20, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Are Your Highschool Days Earning You More?
Were you nerdy enough in highschool to be on the debate club, chess club or school paper? Well, if so, your payback to the jocks and cool kids is that you now likely earn quite a bit more. According to a new study by an economics professor at Cleveland State University, you're probably bringing home a significantly higher pay cheque than kids who were literally too cool for school.
Extracurricular activities are certainly great for developing social skills, but who could know that there's a financial benefit later in life as the study suggests. The study followed 5,000 Americans who were involved in after-school projects, teams and clubs. As adults, they ended up earning salaries 11.8 per cent higher than people who didn't take part in extra activities. The study also discovered that these people are more likely to end up in supervisory roles in their careers, probably because students who engage in extracurricular activities learn to manage tasks and people, in an organized setting.
When you look at hiring new managers for your hotel or restaurant, or want to see who's viable for moving up the ladder, make sure to ask them what activities they were involved in during highschool.
Extracurricular activities are certainly great for developing social skills, but who could know that there's a financial benefit later in life as the study suggests. The study followed 5,000 Americans who were involved in after-school projects, teams and clubs. As adults, they ended up earning salaries 11.8 per cent higher than people who didn't take part in extra activities. The study also discovered that these people are more likely to end up in supervisory roles in their careers, probably because students who engage in extracurricular activities learn to manage tasks and people, in an organized setting.
When you look at hiring new managers for your hotel or restaurant, or want to see who's viable for moving up the ladder, make sure to ask them what activities they were involved in during highschool.
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Hospitality Staff Turn-Over and Finger Pointing
If you're particular hotel, restaurant, or region is having high turn-over, you might want to think twice before blaming your in-house HR team or friendly neighbourhood recruiter! According to workplace management expert; Tony Wilson, 90% of staff leave because of poor managers, not their jobs.
“When an employee resigns, many managers point their finger at the reasons beyond their immediate control. In most cases they should point it straight at themselves”, he said. According to Wilson, the single biggest issue which drives an employee to resign is not the job, salary, workplace environment or the company. Instead it is the quality of their relationship between employees and their direct managers.
In Wilson's book, "Jack and the Team that Couldn’t See", he suggests that most mangers spend too much time on operations, systems, strategy, products and services. “While these are important pieces in the performance puzzle, they spend relatively little time developing their people - their greatest competitive advantage”, he said.
In the largest survey of its kind, global research organization Gallup surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers to examine why employees stay or leave. The research found the immediate boss is the primary reason people stay and thrive in an organization, and is also the main reason people leave. Recent research from Indian University also examined employees across different work sectors and found that a worker’s relationship with their boss is nearly equal in importance to their relationship with their spouse when it comes to overall well-being.
How workers feel about their managers even affects physical health. A study of hospital workers conducted by Chilterns University College in the UK found that nurses working for hospital supervisors with poor management styles had significantly higher blood pressure than nurses working for bosses judged as understanding and considerate. As a result, the nurses with bad bosses had a roughly 20% higher risk of heart disease.
Being a good manager may seem a simple concept, but it poses a challenge when we recognize that most managers are promoted according to their ability to do a job well, not on how well they can build a team and get the best out of people.
“This probably wasn’t a consideration in any job prior to being a leader. Almost always, a manager is expected to easily transition without the necessary support and skill development”, said Wilson. “Despite the challenges, every manager needs to face the truth about how vital their relationship with their staff is. They must spend time developing their ability to lead and engage people. Get it wrong and staff will walk”, he added.
To avoid staff walking, better to drop the finger pointing game and tap into all your resources; HR, recruiter, managers, to face the challenge of proactively managing staff.
[Source: article by Lesley Horsburg, Recruitment Extra, October 2010]
“When an employee resigns, many managers point their finger at the reasons beyond their immediate control. In most cases they should point it straight at themselves”, he said. According to Wilson, the single biggest issue which drives an employee to resign is not the job, salary, workplace environment or the company. Instead it is the quality of their relationship between employees and their direct managers.
In Wilson's book, "Jack and the Team that Couldn’t See", he suggests that most mangers spend too much time on operations, systems, strategy, products and services. “While these are important pieces in the performance puzzle, they spend relatively little time developing their people - their greatest competitive advantage”, he said.
In the largest survey of its kind, global research organization Gallup surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers to examine why employees stay or leave. The research found the immediate boss is the primary reason people stay and thrive in an organization, and is also the main reason people leave. Recent research from Indian University also examined employees across different work sectors and found that a worker’s relationship with their boss is nearly equal in importance to their relationship with their spouse when it comes to overall well-being.
How workers feel about their managers even affects physical health. A study of hospital workers conducted by Chilterns University College in the UK found that nurses working for hospital supervisors with poor management styles had significantly higher blood pressure than nurses working for bosses judged as understanding and considerate. As a result, the nurses with bad bosses had a roughly 20% higher risk of heart disease.
Being a good manager may seem a simple concept, but it poses a challenge when we recognize that most managers are promoted according to their ability to do a job well, not on how well they can build a team and get the best out of people.
“This probably wasn’t a consideration in any job prior to being a leader. Almost always, a manager is expected to easily transition without the necessary support and skill development”, said Wilson. “Despite the challenges, every manager needs to face the truth about how vital their relationship with their staff is. They must spend time developing their ability to lead and engage people. Get it wrong and staff will walk”, he added.
To avoid staff walking, better to drop the finger pointing game and tap into all your resources; HR, recruiter, managers, to face the challenge of proactively managing staff.
[Source: article by Lesley Horsburg, Recruitment Extra, October 2010]
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