**TOOL BOX**
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America’s Workforce Is Coming of Age, by
TRAINING SYSTEMS,
INC. own Cathy Fyock |
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UnRetirement, also by Cathy Fyock |
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 Have
a recruitment, inspiration, training, or retention idea or question? Ask by
clicking the question mark, and we’ll post your idea or question (and the
answer) in Answers & Ideas
on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining Great Employees at
http://www.trainingsys.com. |
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WHO'S
WEARING FUN METERS? |
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Participants in a
TRAINING SYSTEMS,
INC. session on “maintaining positivity”
at the Florida Association of Public Procurement Officers Conference. |
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Participants in a
TRAINING SYSTEMS,
INC. session on HR Basics at The Christian
Management Association Conference. |
Jokes & Goofiness in the Workplace — A How-To Guide
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Age-Old Secret
A woman walking down a residential street noticed a little old
many rocking in a chair on his porch.
She called out to him as she passed, “Hello there! I couldn’t
help but notice how happy you look. What’s your secret for a
long, happy life?”
“I smoke 3 packs of cigarettes a day,” he replied. “I also drink
a case of whiskey a week, eat nothing but fast food, and never
exercise.”
“Wow!” said the woman. “How old are you?”
“26," he replied.
From The Chaka, the bulletin of the Rotary Club of
Calcutta, India1. Give out silly jokes (clean, non-harassing!)
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1.Give out silly jokes (clean, non-harassing!)
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don’t disguise your voice.
3. At lunch time, sit in your parked care and point a hair dryer at passing
cars to see if they slow down.
4. Skip rather than walk.
5. Put a sticker next to the “6” button in the elevator that reads, “6th
floor button broker; push 3rd floor button twice.”
6. Or put a sticker by any button that reads, “For faster service push
button 5 times.”
Thanks to Brad Montgomery for these ideas from
The Association For Applied & Therapeutic Humor Conference.
Humor Scout Pledge
I promise to do my best
To promote laughter and happiness.
To help myself, my family, my friends, and all associates.
To look for humor everywhere.
To belly laugh everyday,
To lighten up by laughing at myself,
To daily practice one comic ritual,
And to allow my inner clown to emerge.
Ruth Hamilton
**TOOL
BOX**
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PowerPoint screen show that features
40 humorous posters that are pre-set to work on “auto-pilot”.
Makes a great “WELCOME” message or enhancement to your session
break. Runs about 5 minutes, and is set to automatically
recycle. You can add in your own slides. (a great place to slip
in your objectives!)
Get your PowerPoint screen show here! |
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Love those COLORFUL QUOTE POSTERS you
see in
TRAINING SYSTEMS'
group training and conference bookstores?
Email or call 800-469-3560 to find out how to get packs of
the topics you need. |
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Timothy J. McCormally,
Tax Executive Institute, sent this referral to a colleague: “Tax
Executives Institute recently used
TRAINING
SYSTEMS, INC.
(based in Chicago, but with some staff here in the Washington area)
to design and conduct a staff customer service training program. Our
objective sounds a lot like yours...a desire to help everyone on our
staff learn the importance of having a customer-service philosophy
AND to provide some practical tips for dealing with common (problem)
areas.
Overall I thought the program was excellent. The
training/facilitator met with us for 2 half-day sessions, which
featured role-playing exercises and a lot of humor and
interactivity. Tax Executives Institute has an eclectic staff of
16...4 attorneys, 2 meeting planners, 2 website/communications
people, an IT professional, membership coordinator, a director of
admin/human resources, and 4 support staff (plus myself). We all
participated...and I think we all got a lot out of the sessions.
(By the way, we also used
TRAINING
SYSTEMS, INC.
to help us design the roll out strategy for our new
website, including developing several online tutorials.)”
Thanks, Timothy – we are really enjoying our work with your
staff!
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Joe Rice, Mike’s Carwashes,
called TRAINING
SYSTEMS, INC.
to tell what’s been happening since their coaching session
to enhance their employee training program:
“We tried deleting the words, ‘Follow Up’ from all our training
discussions/materials. Like you said, the words, ‘follow up’ had been making
the managers think it was something ‘after’ the training so if they didn’t
do it, no big deal. Of course, we know that it’s crucial to the learning and
therefore is part of the training. But the simplest wording change made a
huge difference — from ‘the follow up is to observe your employee’s
behavior...’ to ‘on March 3 complete the training by using the Observer
Checklist to write all the behaviors you see changed since the Feb 3 day
your staff worked with the trainer...’
Managers are now jumping on their part of the learning (previously and
detrimentally labeled ‘follow up’). Now we’re off to eliminate some other
words detrimental to learning like ‘workshop’.”
We’re thrilled, Joe, that you saw such immediate results. Those words are
pretty important! |
Instead of Banning Religious Activities, Try A New Approach to Faith @ Work
When Muslim employees at Ford Motor Co. needed a place to perform ablution, a
ceremonial washing before prayer, they knew who would help. The Ford Interfaith
Network, a company-funded religious employee group, played the role of ombudsman
and had certain restroom sinks designated for ablution.
The 3-year-old employee resource group also sends a monthly electronic
newsletter to 6,700 Ford employees, observes the National Day of Prayer with
readings from eight religions, and hosts lunchtime presentations. "We’re
particularly trying to make sure people feel that they don’t have to leave their
faith or personal beliefs at the door when they show up for work in the
morning," says Daniel Dunnigan, a finance manager at Ford and chairman of the
Interfaith Network. "The company acknowledges that is part of who they are."
Ford isn’t the only company to grapple with the contentious issue of religion in
the workplace. American Airlines, Texas Instruments and Intel Corp. all support
religious employee networks, adding those groups to the roster of constituency
networks based on race, ethnicity, gender or other shared characteristics.
Though companies could completely divorce themselves from anything to do with
religion, many say that the faith-based employee resource groups complement
their workforce-diversity goals and contribute to the bottom line through
employee recruitment, development and retention. In addition, at least one
company believes that its willingness to confront thorny issues impresses its
customers, enhancing the company’s position in the marketplace.
"The old conventional wisdom was just don’t talk about religion or spirituality
in the workplace at all," says the Rev. Thomas Sullivan, director of spiritual
life and professor of business ethics at Babson College in Wellesley,
Massachusetts. "The new conventional wisdom is that we still don’t want
proselytizing pressure in the workplace and we don’t want people to feel
unwelcome, but we know that folks who feel like they can bring their spiritual
values to work are happier, are more productive, stay longer and help the
company more than people who don’t feel like they can bring their values to
work. The challenge is finding a way to do that, that still respects the
wisdom of seeing to it that people don’t feel pressured or proselytized in any
way."
How Ford Does It
At Ford, several separate religious groups petitioned the company, each
seeking designation as an employee resource group. The official status gives
groups a senior-management "champion," corporate funding and an intranet site.
The company denied the requests, saying that it did not want to appear as if it
were favoring one religious group. But Ford said it would consider a proposal
for an interfaith employee resource group, one with representatives from a
variety of religions.
Work began in 2000 on bylaws that would provide a seat on the interfaith
network’s board for any religion with 350 million adherents worldwide or 1% of
the U.S. population. By 2001 the Ford Interfaith Network had assembled a board
composed of representatives from eight religions—Buddhism, Catholicism,
Evangelical Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism and Orthodox
Christianity. There’s also a non-voting chairman who facilitates meetings.
"Requiring it to be an interfaith employee resource group drove acceptance and
diversity," says Ford’s Dunnigan, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. "People really have learned to work together."
How American Airlines Does It
At American Airlines, employees wishing to form a new employee group submit
an application to the company’s Diversity Advisory Council, composed of
representatives from the 14 existing resource groups, a wide spectrum that
includes constituents from working parents to employees with disabilities. The
council approved American’s Christian Employee Resource Group in 1995, followed
in 1997 by Jewish and Muslim groups. "Our employees have not had any difficulty
accepting the religious-based employee resource groups," says Sharyn Holley,
managing director of diversity strategies and corporate citizenship at American
Airlines. American’s Diversity Advisory Council is responsible for keeping the
yearly objectives of employee groups aligned with corporate goals. To support
American’s objective of community involvement, for example, the Christian
Employee Resource Group coordinated a program that collected and shipped 729
contemporary Christian music CDs to U.S. troops in Iraq.
How Proctor & Gamble Does It
Some companies don’t sanction any employee religious groups. For example,
Procter & Gamble allows employees to use small conference rooms for praying, but
spokeswoman Vicky Mayer says that "no organized religious activities" are
allowed on P&G property. Companies must be cautious because such
religion-related community-service projects could cause employees outside the
group to feel ostracized, says Michelle Bligh, assistant professor of
organizational behavior at Claremont Graduate University.
Whatever the policy, employers should treat religions and religious groups
evenhandedly in order to get the benefits and avoid the potential problems.
Excerpted from Workforce Management magazine,
10/04
**TOOL BOX**
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Faith
@ Work, by Os Hillman |
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Business Through the Eyes of Faith, by
Richard C. Chewning |
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Toys for Training/Toys For Meetings
I love my listservs! This past week in the MIMlist we had wonderful
ideas on using toys to focus learning:
Trisha Pollock started it off by asking the list:
I am looking for items to place on workshop/breakout tables that
attendees can play with during the meeting. I have seen tiny containers of
play dough, stress balls, the pens with the games attached (Operation,
Connect 4, etc.) Does anyone know a source for these products?
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Pegine had 2 comments:
1. Toys and activities that engage the audience, encourage interaction
and take people away from their norm are great for meetings and sessions. My
training and continued education in the fields of adult education, group and
organizational development, children's theatre, comedy and improvisation all
have proven research that the use of facilitation techniques including
engagement, interaction (including small and large group techniques, hands
on activities) and participation raises the ability to retain concepts and
create memorable experiences that enable content to be recalled immediately
during times of need. My programs, including my keynotes, incorporate all of
these because they work. I work with diverse audiences from college students
to rocket scientists, engineers and the military. They LOVE that the
programs are different and engage them. Most importantly they have high ROI
because they can remember and USE the material. Isn't the point of our work
to give audiences the tools, skills and knowledge that they can use at work
and in their lives? Using toys and
activities creates a physical, emotional and intellectual connection with
the material taught so that they can easily recall the information when they
need it.
2. The key to the inclusion of toys and activities is that everyone has
something he/she can share with their teammates and have a memorable
experience. Activities where only one person participates in (i.e.;
crocheting, knitting, PDA playing) breaks down the team atmosphere and
hinders the experience. Additionally the individual activity can create
distractions for participants and the presenter. Have you ever been in a
presentation, movie or event where someone was participating in a solo
activity (i.e.; crocheting, knitting, PDA playing) and your mind drifted and
focused on their activity rather than the presentation, movie or event? If
everyone was taught how to crochet or yarn and needles where distributed to
each table that would be a different scenario.
Of course when the presenter is boring everyone should break out the
crocheting, knitting, and PDA playing - rather than waste your time you
might as well be productive.
Speakers beware...if people are bringing out their crocheting, knitting, and
PDA's know that you are boring.
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Joan–the queen of toys @ meetings–Eisenstodt responded:
YEA that you are going to do this! Help those in attendance know that
"when your hands are engaged, your brain is more engaged" and help them feel
comfortable playing. I recommend:
Wikki Stix (www.wikkistix.com)
Crayola products: Model Magic, Crayola "dough", SillyPutty, crayons and
markers of all sorts (www.crayola.com)
Legos - just the regular ones, not the sets to specifically build. (www.legos.com)
Pens w/ games attached - and other wonderful items such as traveling hula
hoops, Magic 8 Balls and more -
www.playthingspast.com
Other cool stuff at
www.officeplayground.com and Oriental Trading Co. (www.orientaltrading.com)
for squishy stress balls, bubbles, and so much more.
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Candace Mingo said – It's all about fun!!!
I have always professed that fun doesn't have to be about clowns,
balloons or remote control fart machines ... it's simply making something --
anything -- more palatable!
Years ago I was in charge of putting together an annual
"revenue enhancement and budget review meeting" for the hotel I worked for.
Corporate was going to attend, along with all of the executives and
department heads. This was a meeting that was usually dreaded, and I knew it
would be a challenge to make this type of meeting take on any aspect of fun!
Well ... by the end of the day, they literally hated that they had to quit!
I took play money and superimposed our GM's face in the center oval, with a
bubble that read "MO' MONEY!" I placed stacks of these bills around the
table, and when someone came up with a really great idea that would be
implemented, the GM signed one of the bills, and it was later redeemed for
$10 real cash.
Instead of writing ideas on a flip chart, there were large bouquets of
helium balloons and Sharpies, and attendees wrote their ideas on these, and
"floated" the idea before the rest of the group.
For the morning segment, I put out large bowls of "creative" foods that
included colorful fruit loops and other "fun" cereals, milk with chocolate
and strawberry Qwik, fresh fruit with chocolate dip, coffee with a bezillion
condiments, etc. Then in the afternoon, just when things usually start to
drag, SUGAR saved the day! Large handfuls of "vintage" candies (lipstick,
licorice, teeth, pop rocks, etc.) along with the coolest stuff in the normal
"junk food" line I could find on the shelves kept everyone "engaged" AND
energetic through the entire (usually painful) process.
The brainstorming
was above average, and everyone was still in a good mood when we finished!
Upon completion, the consensus was that the sugar and colorful foods and
toys were the heroes! Try it ... you'll be surprised what people will do (or
eat) when given permission or encouragement (or peer pressure!). They're
just waiting to let that inner child out for a little fun!
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Joy Hall Bryant said:
I agree with what the others have already mentioned. Unfortunately I
don't run the type of meetings where having toys is feasible, but I love
when ones I attend use them.
Be prepared that some of your toys will disappear with the attendees. One of
my favorite trainers plans for that and openly invites each attendee to keep
any ONE toy when the class is over.
Good sources include:
Rhode Island Novelty,
http://www.rinovelty.com/
They carry similar stock to Oriental Trading
Sav-On-Closeouts.com,
http://www.sav-on-closeouts.com/
This is a discount liquidator, so stock varies (but it's cheap!)
**TOOL BOX**
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301 Ways to Have Fun at Work, by Dave Hemsath & Leslie Yerkes |
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Joy At Work, by Dennis Bakke |
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Buy by emailing books@trainingsys.com or calling 800-469-3560. 10% off for RIR
readers. |
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What GREAT Supervisors Do Differently
Great supervisors come in a variety of shapes and sizes and colors and
genders and ages and everything else. It's how they act that makes them
great. Here are several behaviors that set great supervisors apart.
 Great
supervisors understand that as a boss you have very little power. Your
staff decide for themselves how to act and their performance affects your
evaluation.
Great
supervisors understand that they have tons of influence. Your people pay
attention to what you do. What you spend time on, comment on and emphasize
becomes important to them.
Great
supervisors pay a lot of attention to their supervisory performance.
They keep notes about what works and what doesn't. They pay attention to
accomplishing the mission and caring for people. They understand that
supervision is hard, but rewarding work.
Great
supervisors show up a lot. You can't learn about your folks and they
can't learn about you unless you're around each other frequently. Not only
that, if you're a regular part of the landscape, your folks won't
automatically become defensive when you show up.
Great
supervisors make a bridge from noticing to documenting and let staff
know about it. That way nobody's surprised.
Great
supervisors do great documentation when they need to. They record time,
place, and behavior. Behavior is what people say and what people do.
Great
supervisors understand that you can't "motivate" people They motivate
themselves.
Great
supervisors understand that saying someone has a "bad attitude" doesn't
help anyone. You have to identify what they DO (behavior) that makes you
think they have a bad attitude and then work on influencing their behavior.
Great
supervisors know that you can't win them all. Some folks won't do the
right thing no matter what you do. Some folks will have off-the-job problems
that sabotage their performance. Accidents happen.
Thanks to Wally Bock, who writes a fantastic
newsletter,
www.agreatsupervisor.com/newsletter.htm
Buy
The Leadership
Genius of George W. Bush: 10 Common Sense Lessons from the
Commander-in-Chief
from our
online
TRAINING SYSTEMS,
INC. catalog
or by
E-mailing or calling 800-469-3560.
WWW.TRAININGSYS.COM
Get FREE access to great recruiting, inspiring, training & retaining tips,
ideas & resources where you can:
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Download articles for your newsletter!!
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Use free online assessments!
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Purchase books, tapes & fun
incentives to help you & your employees be the best!
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Get new tips each month on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining
great employees!
-
Click on links to great managing and training websites!
-
Purchase our famous inspirational quote posters!
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Get answers to your employee recruiting, inspiring, retaining, & training
questions from our experts!
|
 Have
a recruitment, inspiration, training, or retention idea or question? Ask by
clicking the question mark, and we’ll post your idea or question (and the
answer) in Answers & Ideas
on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining Great Employees at
http://www.trainingsys.com. |
MAY HOLIDAYS
Family Support Month
Flower Month
Better Sleep Month
National Hamburger Month
Get Caught Reading Month
International Business Image Improvement Month
International Internal Audit Awareness Month
National Book Month
National Correct Posture Month
Older Americans Month
May 8-14
National Hospital Week
Flexible Work Arrangements Week
National Pet Week
May 15-21
Raisin Week
National Bike Week
May 22-28 – National Frozen Yogurt Week
May 10 – Human Kindness Day
May 11 – Clergy Day
May 12 – Nonsense Day
May 13 – National Apple Pie Day
May 16 – Receptionist Day
May 17 – Pack Rat Day
May 18 – Peace Day
May 19 – Plant Something Day
May 20 – Pick Strawberries Day
May 21 – Waitstaff Day
May 26 – National Blueberry Cheesecake Day
May 17-18, 2005
Getting Results from Evaluation and Assessment Technologies, San
Antonio, TX,
http://www.questionmark.com
May 17-19, 2005
HR Generalist Certificate Program, New York, NY,
http://www.shrm.org/conferences
May 21-25, 2005
CCL: Leadership Development for Human Resource Professionals,
Colorado Springs, CO,
http://www.shrm.org/conferences
May 24, 2005
Best Year Yet Individual Success Program, Personal Planning Session,
Chicago, IL, eruske@clearspace.net
May 24-26, 2005
SHRM Workplace Diversity Conference & Exposition, Las Vegas, NV,
http://www.shrm.org/conferences
June 9-12, 2005
SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition, San Diego, CA,
http://www.shrm.org
June 13-17, 2005
CCL: Leadership Development for Human Resource Professionals,
Colorado Springs, CO, http://www.ccl.org
June 19-22, 2005
SHRM Annual Conference & Expo, San Diego, CA,
http://www.shrm.org/conferences/annual
June 20-24, 2005
eLearning Instructional Design Conference, Boston, MA,
http://www.elearningguild.com
July 5-8, 2005
5th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies,
Koahsiung, Taiwan,
http://lttf.ieee.org/icalt2005/
July 22-23, 2005
THE PATH Training, La Jolla, CA,
http://www.lauribethjones.com
July 31-August 4,2005
SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Conference, Los
Angeles, CA, http://www.siggraph.org
August 15-17, 2005
HR Generalist Certificate Program, Seattle, WA,
http://www.shrm.org/conferences
August 15-18, 2005
CCL: Leadership Development for Human Resource Professionals,
Colorado Springs, CO, http://www.shrm.org/conferences
September 23-25, 2005
National Christian Leadership Coaching Summit, Sheraton Capital
Center, Raleigh, NC,
http://www.valwoodcoaching.org
September 25-27, 2005
HR.com Employers of Excellence Conference 2005, Phoenix, AZ,
http://www.hr.com/events
VOLUNTEERING & GIVING
Five Wishes At Work
Five Wishes At Work is an easy-to-use legal document that helps people plan
for serious illness. It can be offered to employees along with other
benefits like life & health insurance, pension planning, etc.
http://www.agingwithdignity.org/5wishwork.html
Be a Pen-Pal to a Soldier
Got to the Manhattanville web site,
http://www.mville.edu, sign up to correspond with a soldier, and receive
a red wristband stamped with MY SOLDIER (like the Lance Armstrong “LIVE
STRONG” bands).
RECYCLING
Responsibly Dispose of Your Old Electronics
Donate PCs to National Cristina Foundation,
http://www.cristina.org
Recycle PCs and other computer products at Hewlett Packard and Dell. See
their websites for details.
Find local Electronics recyclers at
http://www.earth911.org
and http://www.ebay.com/rethink
WWW.TRAININGSYS.COM
Get FREE access to great recruiting, inspiring, training & retaining tips,
ideas & resources where you can::
* Download articles for your newsletter!
* Use free online assessments!
* Purchase books, tapes & fun incentives to help you & your employees be the
best!
http://store.fastcommerce.com/trainingsys/
* Get new tips each month on Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining
great employees!
*Have a recruitment, inspiration, training, or retention idea or question?
Send e-mail to TSI@trainingsys.com
and we’ll post your idea or question (and the answer) in Answers & Ideas on
Recruiting, Inspiring, Training, & Retaining Great Employees at
http://www.trainingsys.com
* Click on links to great managing and training websites!
* Purchase our famous inspirational quote posters!
* Get answers to your employee recruiting, inspiring, retaining, & training
questions from our experts!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Copyright 2005
TRAINING
SYSTEMS,
INC.
All rights reserved.
**FORWARD RECRUIT, INSPIRE & RETAIN TO OTHERS
Remember, you can get issues you missed at our Website
http://www.trainingsys.com/rir/index.htm. For older (pre-1997) issues,
call 800-469-3560 or send an e-mail to
rir@trainingsys.com.
**ARTICLE REPRINTS FOR RECRUIT, INSPIRE & RETAIN
An ideal way to introduce new ideas or stimulate learning with the employees
in your organization.
Article reprints can also serve as a powerful promotional or sales tool -
include them with your
brochures, newsletters & media kits. For complete information on article
reprints or copyright
permission, call 1-800-469-3560 or e-mail to
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**YOU HAVE UNIQUE, VALUABLE KNOWLEDGE FOR OTHERS
We’d love to print your articles on recruiting, inspiring, training and
retaining employees. E-mail
your article to mail to
rir@trainingsys.com.
**We’ll be back next month with more great tips, ideas, success stories, and
information to help you recruit, inspire, train, & retain great employees!
RECRUIT, INSPIRE & RETAIN contains links to websites operated by
organizations other than
TRAINING SYSTEMS, INC.
These links are for your convenience and we assume
no responsibility for the content or operations of those sites.
RECRUIT, INSPIRE & RETAIN is a free e-zine of
TRAINING SYSTEMS, INC.,
published 12 times/year. Editor: Carolyn B. Thompson, Data Entry:
Patti Lowczyk (Lowczyk Secretarial), HTML: Debbie Daw (www.HelpQuest.com). Visit
us at http://www.trainingsys.com
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