Happy New Year

Since publication date of this blog is right at the end of the year, I simply want to wish everyone a productive new year. During the holidays, I am sure you have been reflecting on your goals for 2023 and how you may achieve them.  Without goals you simply cannot be successful. With goals , but no plan to achieve them, you will be frustrated.

Success doesn’t just happen - even with dedication and hard work. Your parents were wrong.  Your work has to be in the right direction, moving you (sometimes very slowly) towards your goals.  Each action you take should be part of your master plan. 

Of course you need some luck -but people tend to make their own luck by recognising and exploiting opportunities as they arise.

You might need to take a risk or two  - but if your goal is important enough, it should be worth it.  However, take only controlled risks - where you have assessed the potential consequences and thought about mitigation if things do go wrong.  You will become safer and more resilient.

Recognise those who can help you - snd those who cannot or will not. Engage with the former.

2023 could be your best year yet.  Try and make it so. I wish you well.

Monitoring Employee Work Habits

With Working from Home still being a a large factor for many organisations, monitoring of employee work habits has become more common.

When did they send the email?

When did they access the latest briefing note?

Questions like these ,and many more, are becoming easier to answer with messaging snd team-based software becoming prevalent.

Such monitoring is often seen as an infringement of employee privacy and considered inappropriate for ‘well-managed’ firms.

However, the same data that can be used to ’spy on’ workers and hold them to account for their lack of presence or  engagement can also be used to check on their well-being.

Instead of the questions above, we could ask:

Why are they sending work-related emails at 2 am? Or ...

Why have they been online for seven straight hours?

A few days or perhaps weeks of out-of-hours working will start to lower their focus and their productivity.

Management means making sure you have all the right resources in place, operating at optimum performance.  You need your employees fit, engaged and alert not tired/exhausted.

What's on your 'Don't Do' list

Most of us have some form of ToDo list.

This might be very simple  - a list of things in our head that we want to do today or this week - or we might use a sophisticated task manager.  However there are often things on the list that shouldn’t be there - either their relevance (or their due date) has passed, or they are simply not important enough - they don’t make a large enough contribution to our strategic goals.

These items should be moved to a (real or imaginary) Don’t Do list to clear the Todo list and refocus our efforts on what is really important.

Not doing something saves time, effort and money - a real productivity earner.  Moving it to a Don’t Do list secures the win.

 

Limited Success

The UK is successful in many areas - it has a large, successful renewable energy sector, a whopping great financial services sector and a large tech startup sector.  Yet UK productivity does not reflect these advantages.

Skills seem to hold back UK industry - many firms are finding it impossible to recruit the skilled or experienced workers they need.

This ends in a bidding war for the available talent - and this reduces productivity by putting up costs.

Traditionally, if labour is expensive or scarce - or both - firms have used technology to fill the gaps.

This might be what they have to do now - to meet the current skills shortage.

They should investigate where technology solutions can transform processes .and where it can help improve the information flows that will enable the executive team to better manage those processes.

All of that will only work, however, if the firms have the necessary skills and expertise to manage the resulting transformation projects.  Technology can unlock growth and improve productivity.  But it can place a noose around the neck of the organisation if technology solutions are badly designed or poorly implemented.