"Information Overload"

Every employee wants to be performing above and beyond their call of duty to sustain in this tough competition they face daily at their work sites. And hence multitasking.

Due to this juggling tasks has become an inescapable element of work as revealed by a new field recognized as "Interruption Science" (Source: HR Magazine; August 2008). Information Overload often challenges the innovative and creativity aspects of workers when they have to constantly multitask or shift from one task to another or tackling two cognitive tasks simultaneously.

"A study showed that workers on average spend just 11 minutes on a project and, within that time frame, typically change tasks every three minutes" (Source: HR Magazine; August 2008; "Quelling Distraction: Help employees overcome 'information overload'.")

Companies/Organizations are starting to realize the importance of need to allocate some time for employees to be creative and thinking.

So companies are dealing with this new challenge by carving out "Creative Spaces". Some call it "White space" or Creative room or Work-Out sessions or even "Think Fridays". All these efforts try to provide a physical place or a specific time or day for employees to focus on creative thoughts or agenda-free reflection without any interruptions.

For more information read the complete article HR Magazine; August 2008; "Quelling Distraction: Help employees overcome 'information overload'."

Is aging an issue or an advantage?

According to an article in the HR magazine "Keep pace with older workers"; older workers bring experience and research shows they are equally productive as young employees. Older workers have much lower turnover because of increased loyalty and stability and would be satisfied in their jobs.

Interesting statistics of a store suggests that turnover was six times less for workers over 50 than for those under 30. Further research shows no correlation between age and job performance.
Thus employers could make the work environment more pleasant to the aging workers by understanding their needs, providing them with essential training and helping them adapt to change.
By understanding aging, employers can make mature workers even more productive as well as simultaneously leverage upon their experience to build a legacy of their own.

Understanding employee behavior - Back to the basics of Neuroscience

"The Brain at Work" article (SHRM, March 2008 edition) explains that science is deeply rooted in explaining why people behave the way they do and also on how to better manage them. The article points out that workplace behavior is not always motivated the way many people think (giving incentives). Though it may work for short-term, not in the long run because of the way our brain is wired, when targeted change is in an employee's intrinsic behavior.

Some important lessons from Neuroscience highlighted in the article that can have implications for HR professionals, trainers include

1. People need enough sleep to integrate learning into long-term memory.
2. Learning should be broken down into "bite-size nuggets" to make it effective.
3. Social fairness and respect gives brain a chemical boost.
4. Stress can cause people to think unclearly.
5. Uncertainty arouses fear circuits and can decrease ability to make decisions. However, employees’ ability to think clearly can be hindered when employers fail to meet expectations or create uncertainty (in a healthy way with some direction) in the workplace.
6. Employees need some ownership over situations to better accept changes. Even a little choice helps.
7. Engaging people in more active learning techniques improves retention.

Having knowledge of how our brain functions and things that people are sensitive to will enable better training decisions, and facilitate managers to better manage their teams.

The complete article can be accessed at the following link.
http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0308/0308fox.asp

Developing leaders from within

The IBM Global Human Capital Study 2008 suggests that company leaders emphasize on building leaders from within the company. The survey reflects that it is the leading challenge faced by the organization.

So what are they doing to assess and develop leaders from within the organization? The top executives reported using of initiatives such as Action Learning; Mentoring; and Job Rotation.

Action Learning and Job Rotation are methods where the future leaders gain hands on experience in different projects. Whereas mentoring is one of the most widely used training method to develop future leaders by providing guidance and feedback on one's performance through a one-to one mentor-mentee relationship.