Be Successful Here

Those who’ve worked with me as a coach, or have been in one my workshops, know that I tend to think in terms of “family systems theory.” What this theory suggests is that individuals can’t really be understood in isolation from one another, and that whether we’re talking about families of origin–or groups of people who work together–our behaviors can be understood in relation to the whole system.

There’s a ton that can be said about all of this, but let me just deal briefly with one aspect of how this looks.

The P.C.

Often, a workplace system has someone in it that is identified as the “problem child” (the “P.C.”); the person whose personality or behavior takes an extra measure of patience, tolerance, tooth-gritting on the parts of the other employees. Maybe you’re one of those other employees, and you dread interactions with this person, avoid them during breaks, or are secretly hoping they are looking for a job elsewhere. Maybe you don’t trust them, and you are suspicious of their motives.

You might hear people saying things like, “If P.C. weren’t here, this would be such a great place to work!” Or, “Unless P.C. gets fired, or moved, I’m outta here!”

And hey…let’s be honest…P.C. might really be an incredibly annoying, difficult, seditious, or high maintenance person, and the thought of “promoting them to customer” might feel really good! This can be the stuff of fantasies!

Systemic support

Here’s where family systems theory comes in. Systems theory says that the P.C.’s behavior can’t really be understood as continuing on its own momentum. Systems theory suggests that the only reason it continues is because it is being supported in some way by the system around them (of which you are a part, and in which you may be complicit).

“What?! There’s no way in the world I support P.C.’s behavior,” you might be wanting to retort. I hear you. That’s most likely what I’d say, too, and…by the way…have said several times in years past. However…

The responsibility thing

Every time we talk to someone else about P.C., we participate in supporting their behavior. Every time we blame P.C. for our own unhappiness, we support their behavior. Every time we ask HR, our boss, a co-worker to talk to them for us, we support their behavior. In a very real sense, firing the P.C. without having worked at more personally responsible solutions may give us temporary relief, but is a disservice to the P.C.

Job interviews are your only chance to meet an applicant and find out if they have the personality, character, and skills to make a great employee. But the job interview is only as useful as the questions you ask. When you conduct interviews, it’s important that you ask tough questions that will bring out a person’s true nature. If your questions are too easy, an intelligent but not necessarily qualified candidate is going to coast through them with platitudes and clichés, making it difficult to find out any meaningful information.

Questions for Applicants

· “What are your three greatest weaknesses?”

The greatest weakness question has become cliché, and most candidates are already prepared to answer it with some meaningless answer that they researched online. If you want to really challenge them, up the ante. Force them to continue to think about what their weaknesses might be and see how they conduct themselves while they’re flustered.

· “… That’s great! Do you mind showing me right now?”

Often at the interview you’ll ask if the person is familiar with various software tools or other skills that they need to complete the job adequately. Candidates also lie – or at least they exaggerate the truth. When you conduct interviews, you need to make sure that your applicants are being honest, and there’s an easy way to do this – once you’ve asked if the person has a particular skill, ask them to prove it to you right then and there.

You don’t need to actually have them prove it. All you need to do is see their reaction. Candidates that do not truly know how to do what they claimed will give some excuse such as “well, it’s been a while, so I may be rusty.” Candidates that truly have the skill will confidently say yes.

· “Pouvons-nous continuer l’entrevue d’emploi en français?”

When you conduct interviews, it’s not uncommon to look for candidates that are multilingual. Candidates, however, are much more likely to claim they know a language that they have only a cursory knowledge of – such as taking a few classes in college. Do they truly know the language? You can find out by asking them in the language they claim to be familiar with whether or not they are willing to continue the interview in that language.

It’s FREE!

‘Free? Nothing’s free. What kind of scam is this? Free? No way it can be free!”

Well firstly, you’re right, nothing’s free because there is always exchange – tangible or intangible – and energy is neither created nor destroyed; therefore, again, yes, you’re right, nothing is free and there is always exchange and gain.

So I know you must be itching to know, to know the truth, the real truth and now here it is – you are offering voluntary employee benefits at no direct cost to your company.

What this means is that you are offering the voluntary benefits and your employees choose what they want and how much they want and they make their own investment. Therefore, for every bit of coverage your employees get, all you have to cover is setting up the payroll deduction and the pretax savings on that coverage pays for this payroll setup multiple times over – so offering these voluntary employee benefits actually results in immediate net profit.

Wait a Second, Explain this A Bit More, Because I’m No Fool

Now, if you so choose, you can cover a portion or all of your employees coverage, as some of our clients do – covering $50, $100, or $200 of coverage per month for example. And if you are like most businesses, then you simply allow your employees to choose what they want and make their own investment, which is essentially and quickly done because the benefits are simple and affordable.

At the end of the day, all you have done is set up the payroll processing, provided for your employees in a big way, and collected the tax savings.

Other than being able to cater to your employees specifically and personally with your custom-fit employee benefits, offering benefits for free is definitely the most important reason why you need to offer voluntary employee benefits right now.

A Free Solution… Ahh What a Relief

Think of the relief this is bringing, bringing right now – relief from the suffocating squeeze of budget constraints, cutting off the air that was once cashflowing through your company and your brain and many of us have heard that money is about as important as oxygen, and these budget cuts are leaving you short of breath, short of funds, high on job loss, high on shame, high on disappointment, short on pride, short on growth, and short on success.

Employees Want Them and More Employers are Offering Them – The Competition is Heating Up

According to benefit trends surveys by MetLife, The Hartford, Colonial Life, and LIMRA, as well as research executives within companies such as Transamerica, there are surprising numbers reflecting the building trends in our voluntary employee benefits market, see here:

• 5 in 10 employees believe voluntary benefits are “very” or “extremely” important
• 7 in 10 employers believe their employees don’t even want voluntary benefits at all
• Less than 1 in 10 employees will say they want voluntary benefits when asked by their employer, yet more than 6 in 10 employees get the voluntary benefits when just offered them by their employer
• More than 9 in 10 Americans would be forced to change their lifestyle if they lost a portion of their income for 3-6 months
• More than 1 in 2 employees say they are very worried about the gaps in medical insurance
• More than 6 in 10 Gen Y, Gen X, younger and older baby boomers understand they get a better deal, better education, a nd easier management of their voluntary coverage as a benefit than individually outside of the workplace
• More than 4 in 10 of younger to middle aged employees say a choice of benefits that meets their need is extremely important for creating loyalty
• Nearly 1 in 2 HR Managers and Benefits Administrators plan to add voluntary benefits
• 1 in 2 employers plan on increasing employees’ health insurance premiums, deductibles and/or copays
• Over 99 in 100 employers agree employees need guidance for benefits decisions
• 1 in 2 companies with at least 1,000 employees are interested in transitioning their existing benefits to voluntary benefits
• More than 1 in 2 US employers offer voluntary benefits right now
• Uncertainty in the economy, shoestring budgets, living paycheck to paycheck, bankruptcies, foreclosures, and debt problems are causing even voluntary legal services and voluntary tax services to skyrocket in popularity, with a combined influence of being offered in over 3 in 10 Fortune 500 companies thus far

How Long Do I Have?

The obviousness of the truth is here – voluntary employee benefits are leading the trend and the new question is, “How soon before I am losing top talent to my competitors because of their voluntary benefits?”

Extremely Affordable…Extremely