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Linking With the economic recovery underway, are you ready for all the new year will bring? Experts believe that as the economy recovers, skilled workers will quickly increase in demand, leading to a focus on recruiting and retention as early as the second quarter of 2010. That’s why now is the time to put the challenges of 2009 behind you and start focusing on creating an engaged, passionate workforce.

Global speaker and consultant Jay Larson travels around the world sharing simple advice about how business leaders can develop employee engagement levels that boost business and help create world-famous companies.

Dubbed the “FISH! Philosophy” this four-step solution to employee engagement is a winning way to motivate and retain your best employees: Play, Make Their Day, Be There, and Choose Your Attitude. These sound simple enough, but the question is, do they really work?

Becoming World Famous
Ever heard of Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington? Well, over the last few decades, this small business has become a world-famous attraction because of its world-class employee engagement. In fact, this market is the case study that the FISH! Philosophy is built around. Each of the FISH! principles comes straight from looking at what has made this small team of dedicated people into a world-known destination business. This team’s energetic, inspirational attitude about working long, hard, smelly hours is enough to inspire any business owner to ask – how can I get that to happen in my workplace?

Though these concepts are easy to understand, they’re not always easy to put into practice. So, Express interviewed Larson to get his take on how small business leaders can begin focusing on employee engagement to produce world-class results.

“As a small business owner, you have so few employees, you need them to come to work every day, guns ablazing,” Larson said. “You can’t just ask for that. You have to deserve it, earn it. This all begins with one simple thing: Trust.”

The Trust Test
So, how can you tell if employees trust you? There’s a simple test, according to Larson. “If your employees do trust you, they will tell you. If they won’t tell you, you don’t know if they trust you or not.” But no matter what trust level you have with employees, there’s always room for improvement. That’s why developing trust with your workforce is the foundation of employee engagement. And to begin the trust-building process, employers must come to terms with a little thing called control.

“The thing about control is, you never had it and you will never have it. No matter how well you’ve built or developed the company, you rely on other people every single day. And your employees get to choose whether they will stay with your company or leave it at any time. They choose to work for you; they are in control of that decision. So you need to ask yourself, what am I offering to people that will make them want to work here?” Larson said.

Managing v. Leading
“You get the employees you deserve. So, if you’re looking at your team and your lineup isn’t world class, the leader needs to think about what that means about your organization and what that means about you.”

Larson recommends asking yourself: Are you being a manager or being a leader? How can you tell what the answer is? It isn’t in your job title or how you think of yourself. “Being a leader means you go first. It’s that simple.” Not to be confused with coming first, leaders must put the interest of the organization and the team at heart, being the first to take action, setting the standard for the team. Are you living the principles you want to see in your workforce? If not, you’re not leading, Larson says. If you have a position of authority in an organization, people will follow your patterns. If you walk into work every day sighing and complaining about circumstances you face, expect that same attitude and response from your team.

“If you’re not going first, you’re not leading the organizational change you want to see. Think of the famous quote from Ghandi about being the change you want to see in the world. It’s an over-used quote, but really, it’s true. What are you complaining about? What bugs you about work? Go look in the mirror and make sure you’re not leading that.”

So, how does all this relate to the four FISH! principles and trust? When people are being treated right, you build strong relationships that foster trust. “You can’t just say you’re putting people first. You have to actually put them first. This is a big chasm right now in the real world of work. Many places say they do it, but look at the world-class companies, and they’re the ones that actually do it.”

What You Can Do Today
It all starts from the top, so before the new year starts, Larson recommends taking some time to think about what you want to see in your business and workforce next year. Create a simple vision, a mantra, like becoming world famous. Ask yourself what you can do to lead that change – from your actions to your words to your leadership style. Then, take this vision to your team. Share your commitment to this vision and what you will do personally get there. Ask them to share their commitment to the vision, and listen to their ideas for making it happen. “You have to get really vulnerable in this process and let go of your need to be right,” Larson notes. But this process is exactly what Pike’s Place did years ago and continues to do today – and now they truly are world famous.

And that makes a big difference to the bottom line, Larson says. When there are stronger relationships, engagement goes up. When engagement goes up, research shows that earnings go up. There’s a correlation there that you can’t ignore, according to Larson. “Performance and profits are linked, and it all starts with leadership. I like to say that leadership leads to relationships that leads to engagement that leads to profits.”

But there’s another reason to focus on creating an engaged workforce. “Seventy percent of your waking hours in the average adult lifespan is spent at work,” Larson noted. That’s a huge opportunity for employers: The privilege to improve the quality of people’s lives by helping them enjoy the majority of their waking life – at work.

Workforce ROI

5 Tips for Boosting Employee Engagement

In order to stay afloat, a compulsory effect of the recession for many companies has been a concentrated and immediate focus on the bottom line. As a result, employers and their employees have felt the inevitable strain of extensive layoffs, chaotic restructurings, and difficult cuts and freezes in pay and benefits. But, as hopes of a recovering economy increase, and the anticipation and promises of a new year approach, executives are turning their focus on the engagement and commitment of their employees.

With the sudden changes and uncertainty employees have anxiously weathered this year, employee commitment has taken a hard hit; especially among top performers, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide. Employees have become dissatisfied as they are asked to do more with less, worry about instability, and often mistrust their employers.

But, employee engagement is imperative to any and every organization no matter the size of the company or the product sold. Results from a recent Gallup study involving nearly 32,400 business units showed those who had high employee engagement had 18 percent higher productivity rate and 16 percent higher profitability compared to those with lower engagement. Those with higher engagement also had 49 percent fewer safety incidents.

The level of employee commitment directly affects a company’s bottom line, and executives fear that disenchanted top performers will be wooed away when the economy and hiring recovers. So, what can you do to help increase engagement in your employees? Start with these five tips.

1 - Increase communication. Communicating with employees on important issues like company financial standings and decisions is an important part of building trust and renewing commitment. Communicating clearly will prevent misunderstanding and lessen employee anxiety, stress, and mistrust. It is also important to communicate the direction, goals and vision of your company. Employees want and need a clear understanding of the company’s goals in order to see and fulfill their purpose and role within the company.

2 - Empower employees. By offering training opportunities and creating an environment of growth, creativity, recognition, and autonomy, you will motivate and empower your employees to become leaders and experts in their field. The more involved an employee is in processes and decisions, the more committed they are to the success of your business.

3 - Restore base pay and merit increases. Experts advise that if your company cut or froze pay and merit increases in 2008 or 2009, you should restore them to pre-recession levels as soon as possible. While pay freezes and cuts have been necessary, they do not come without consequences and have been directly linked to employee dissatisfaction and the current lapse in commitment.

4 - Treat employees like customers. Employees need to know that they – like your customers – are valued. Use recognition to communicate how much you appreciate employee efforts and commitment. Consider using an anonymous company survey to determine the needs, attitudes, and overall satisfaction of your workforce to understand employee perceptions and make adjustments when necessary.

5 - Get everyone in the game. Gone are the days when an employee’s work satisfaction rested solely on their feeling of stability. With new generations entering the workforce, employees want purpose and growth, so get them in the game by sharing your vision for the company and how it relates to the work they do. Help them understand the company vision, its importance, and purpose, and how its achievement will benefit them. Once they’re on board, provide them with the tools, focus, and direction they need to succeed.

Employees are a vital part of an organization and typically its largest investment. They can make or break a company’s reputation and success. When you invest in your employees, you invest in the future of your company. If you’re worried about the commitment of some of your top performers and need to re-engage your employees, start with these steps to build trust and renew the relationship between company and employee.

Understanding SUTA

Why It’s Important & What You Can Do

SUTA The recession has brought many challenges which may determine how quickly the economy recovers. Challenges like high unemployment rates and continued layoffs plague optimism, resulting in lower consumer spending and a slow economic rebound. With fewer people working, more individuals filing unemployment claims, and the recent federal extension of unemployment benefits offered to employees who have lost their jobs, State Unemployment Tax Authority (SUTA) rates are on the rise across the nation.

SUTA rates are a percentage of payroll tax that all businesses within each state are required to pay for every employee. These taxes are in addition to any federal unemployment taxes owed. The SUTA program is designed to provide employees who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, such as from a layoff, with compensation while looking for other employment opportunities.

Employees who lose their job under “no fault” circumstances are generally entitled to 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. However, unemployment benefits have recently been extended to almost two years in some states. Depending on the state, SUTA tax rates and length of benefits vary.

The SUTA tax provides temporary economic relief to individuals who find themselves without a job and can also benefit employers by keeping experienced workers in local markets, available to return to work when the economy recovers. The tax also helps the local community because money from unemployment benefits is spent locally. If there wasn’t a SUTA program for eligible claimants, experts say the economy would stand still. Essentially, unemployed individuals would have to draw money from other government subsidy programs like welfare, causing higher taxes for employers, fewer employment opportunities for job seekers, and lower economic growth.

In each state, employers pay a certain percentage for each employee’s salary. This percentage is capped at a certain annual pay level. For example, SUTA tax rates in the state of Michigan started at 2.7% for most businesses, and Michigan charged SUTA tax on the first $9,000 of every employee’s wage in 2009. Employers usually replenish these funds over time by hiring more people, but because employers are not yet ramping up permanent hiring, less SUTA tax is coming in.

Employers pay into this program or fund to help ease unemployment claims. SUTA tax is unemployment insurance; however, the premiums a business pays are in the form of tax and are not optional. Determining factors of SUTA tax rates for businesses include state unemployment rate, the employer’s layoff frequency, and the benefit ratio – how much money the program is paying out versus how much money is coming in from the employer.

Businesses can keep their SUTA tax rates low by paying attention to claims filed by past employees, combating false claims filed by employees who were fired or voluntarily resigned, and by keeping accurate documentation on all employees to help refute claims. Another way businesses can keep SUTA tax rates low is by hiring temporary employees through staffing agencies. Employers can pass some of the burden of paying SUTA tax on to the staffing provider, having flexibility to retain employees without paying taxes on permanent workers.

With the current economic conditions, millions of people without jobs, and continuing layoffs, unemployment claims are increasing and lasting longer, which is affecting SUTA rates. It’s important to understand why SUTA tax rates rise and the affects it has on your business and the economy. For most states, SUTA rates will increase on Jan. 1, 2010, and depending on the economy, will not decline until there are more employees working and fewer unemployed individuals filing claims. Understanding how SUTA rates can affect your business can be extremely beneficial in the success of your business. To learn more about SUTA tax rates in your state, check with your local state agencies.

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Exchange is a publication of Express Services, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2009.