CORE COMPETENCY

CORE COMPETENCIES
5 CASE SCENARIOS

1st Scenario
“Diversity Problem”
Presenting Situation:
One organization understands the need to have their employees is representative of its customer base in order to stay competitive, but they don't know how to integrate diversity into the overall business strategy. They hire more people of color and women, but don't address systems and processes for recruitment, and retention, promotion, mentoring and leadership. They had hard time to integrate diversity into their business strategy.

Issues:
• Diversity

Solution:
Core Competency #5 Ethico-Moral Responsibility;
Core Competency #10 Communication;
For companies to be successful and move ahead of their competition they need to know how to create environments where all people can be accepted, respected and utilized for the differences they bring to the workplace. Knowing how to do that can enhance productivity and increase profit. It's not enough to talk about diversity, or have a few training sessions without creating a change in the culture of the organization from the top down.

Diversity initiatives need to begin with an assessment of the organization, no matter how big or small, to identify how employees perceive things. Its more than just race, and gender, but includes differences like age, ethnic background, work function, education, sexual orientation and religion. You have to address the diversity of the customer base and determine how well you meet their needs. If your business is located in an area where there is a large Spanish speaking population, it only makes good business sense to have some employees that are bilingual.

It's important that employees are representative of their client base so they can understand their needs and know how to serve them. It does not mean that people of one culture, gender, age, etc, only work with those respective populations. It means that the organization as a whole is better able to relate to a larger population. This creates better working relationships, and helps avoid miscommunication based on cultural differences and ignorance about other groups. It saves time and money and having to do things over.

As industries compete for qualified employees at all levels, in a shrinking labor pool at all levels, no one should be disqualified because of their differences. In order to develop a diversity initiative that can improve productivity and profit, people at all levels need to be educated. It means a commitment to change, not only how the company looks but also how people treat each other personally and professionally.

It's important that employees are representative of their client base so they can understand their needs and know how to serve them. It does not mean that people of one culture, gender, age, etc, only work with those respective populations. It means that the organization as a whole is better able to relate to a larger population. This creates better working relationships, and helps avoid miscommunication based on cultural differences and ignorance about other groups. It saves time and money and having to do things over.

2nd Scenario
“Technology, Oh Technology”

Presenting Situation:
Mr. X put up a library in his new school. The good thing in his library is he placed 30 computers to be used which donated by the different officials in their province. His library staffs were hired from their province. His librarians have problems in terms of technological skills in computers specially the new upgraded skills using the computers.

Issues:
• Limited knowledge of New Technology
Solution:
Core Competency #3 Education and Training;
Core Competency #6 Personal and Professional Development;

The library staffs need to have personal and professional development by involving in different formal and non-formal education and to apply the new knowledge and skills for the improvement of their performance. The need for library staff to adapt to a changing environment is well known. The use of electronic information and related technologies has become indispensable in the delivery of quality library services. Continuous technological changes in public libraries over the past decade have resulted in library staff needing to maintain and upgrade their technological skills as they provide service to library patrons. In addition, public libraries have experienced turnover of staff members which means that the basic technology training (how to use productivity software, knowledge of the Internet and email) is never truly completed. It is generally accepted that today, local library staff members need basic technology competencies that exceed knowledge and use of the automated library system.

3rd Scenario
“Let me Help”

Presenting Situation:
In a recent conversation with a management team of a small business, one of the executives asked me, “How do we get our employees more involved? Our business is way down and people are scared.”

Issues:
• Better Utilization of Workforce

Solution:
Core Competency #2 Management of Resources and environment;
Core Competency #10 Communication;
Core Competency #11Collaboration and Team Work;

When a company needs to find a problem’s solution, it is important to consider a comprehensive perspective of the system in question prior to problem solving. Not only must the system boundaries be considered, but also a historic analysis of the decisions that have led to the current predicament. This approach provides a comprehensive framework upon which to base decisions concerning what problem to solve. A powerful technique for achieving these objectives is to create a problem-solution decomposition. The problem solution model is simple to construct and provides a diagrammatic perspective of a system’s problem-solution history.

I told them about a strategy used by a similar company who won a Wisconsin Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award in 2005. Lakeland Supply holds quarterly employee meetings, and for employees to attend they must bring at least one positive idea that will improve the work they do. If they have no positive suggestions, they cannot attend!

In tough economic times like these, when employees are afraid of losing their jobs and companies are struggling to survive, asking workers for input can risk unleashing a torrent of pent-up negative emotion, complaints, and anger. This causes executives to be cautious about asking for input. Managers become quiet about the directions of the company and so employees feel less connected to the workplace.

Lakeland Supply addresses these problems directly by carefully defining the expectations before each meeting. Employees respond by talking with each other about ways to improve the success of the company and offering each other positive suggestions. This happens all year long, not just at the quarterly meetings. Negative discussions around the water cooler can spur more negative talk. Apparently positive discussions also increase the focus on the positive!

The management team ends up with more good suggestions than they can address at once, and they must engage in the task of prioritizing the items after each quarterly meeting. The priorities are then shared with the employees so there is an opportunity for more dialogue and more engagement. Lakeland Supply both values and fosters a positive environment in the workplace.

Although these efforts have originated in small companies, the same approach can be used within defined divisions or departments in larger organizations.

The result is a company that finds a competitive edge in this difficult economy because employees are pulling together to find solutions and overcome problems. Everyone is invested and engaged in making their business a success.

4th Scenario
“Motivating During the Most Unmotivating Times”

Presenting Situation:
The uncertainties of business is taking a toll on all of us. Pay raises will be minimal or non-existent this year and some organizations are even cutting pay or hours to avoid layoffs. Employees are asked to do more with less, and face threats of job loss. Through it all, employers struggle to keep their employees motivated during the most un-motivating times in recent memory.

Solution:
Core Competency #11Collaboration and Team Work;

Although employers play a primary role in leading the company through difficult times, employees share some responsibility. Accepting a paycheck carries with it the obligation to consistently work hard, remain flexible, and do what's necessary to get the job done. A shared commitment motivates everyone to work through these difficult times toward a much brighter future.

What motivates one employee through the recession, may not motivate another, so it's important to know what motivates individuals within your organization. In my experience, some cost effective motivators are:

• Promotional and learning opportunities: Ironically, layoffs and the resulting consolidation of work often creates learning opportunities that didn't exist before. New work assignments can turn a negative experience into a positive one for employees who view the situation as an opportunity to learn new job skills or promote career growth.

• Merit pay: Better performing employees often value merit pay as a way to financially differentiate themselves for their efforts. Less motivated employees tend to prefer the security of automatic across-the-board increases. When faced with limited payroll dollars, consider funneling raises to only the few who most deserve it. This strategy requires making tough decisions, but it makes sense to reward key people who've remain committed through good times and bad, and have continually stepped up to the plate. Rewarding your stars when times are difficult sends a valuable message, and helps assure that your most valuable people are retained.

• Being engaged with work: Give employees important objectives aligned with helping the company work through the recession. Engaging employees in meeting the company's challenges helps them to more fully understand the company's needs and perspective.

• Flexible scheduling and telecommuting: These strategies are currently popular for cutting business expenses, and are often valued by employees. Flexible scheduling and telecommuting may work well for some organizations, but aren't feasible for everyone. Before blindly jumping on the bandwagon, carefully consider the pros and cons. Don't start these type of benefits unless you're sure they will work. It's always easier to not give a benefit in the first place, than to end up taking it away.

• Time off for community causes: Being active in social service causes is an often overlooked benefit that's valued by employees, as well as the community. Companies enhance their reputation and bottom line when it makes a commitment to the community it serves. Because of the recession, there is a great need for private, public, educational, and religious organizations to work collaboratively toward solving shared problems.

• Sincere appreciation: A sincere thank you, or recognition for a job well done, costs nothing. Employees are motivated by a show of respect and sincere appreciation.

• Acknowledgment of fears and concerns. Employees want to work for management who sincerely empathize with the victims of layoff, and the problems caused by pay cuts and increased workloads. Employees will long remember how their management handled the crisis, and how they were treated during these stressful times.

5th Scenario
“Managers who deliver bad news are stressed, too”

Presenting Situation:
One personnel manager wakes in despair at 4 a.m., worried about the employees in her company. Another boss has to remind himself to eat right and exercise so that he can handle the stress. A third says he has had tears in his eyes for months.

They are the bearers of bad news, the Grim Reapers, the corporate executioners, the office hatchet men. They're the ones whose job is to tell employees they have been laid off. And these days, they're miserable, too.

"It takes a huge amount of energy to ensure I don't get emotional," said Wendy Mahle, the human resources manager at Sunrise-based Perfumania, which just laid off 95 employees because it is moving its headquarters to New York's Long Island. "If I started crying, that wouldn't help anybody."

American employers slashed 651,000 jobs in February, even more than analysts expected. When the monthly numbers come out, the focus is on the newly unemployed. Less attention is paid to the stress levels of those delivering the news. And they want it known they aren't all cold-hearted, script-reading drones who don't care about the people they are cutting loose.

His company, which makes forklifts, has gone from 330 employees six months ago to 79 now. Flaska has personally given pink slips to each laid-off employee, often to people whose children he has seen grow from toddlers to teens.

Issues:
• Economic crisis, lay-offs and budget cuts
• Stressful events

Solution:
Core Competency #6 Personal And Professional Development

People who are in very stressful job really benefit from stress management and communication skills training. Managers learn skills that can make their work and personal life easier and less stressful.

In this difficult economy, you may find it harder than ever to cope with challenges on the job. Both the stress we take with us when we go to work and the stress that awaits us on the job are on the rise – managers, and other employees or workers all feel the added pressure. While some stress is a normal part of life, excessive stress interferes with your productivity and reduces your physical and emotional health, so it’s important to find ways to keep it under control. Fortunately, there is a lot that you can do to manage and reduce stress at work.

For managers, the troubled economy may feel like an emotional roller coaster. "Layoffs" and "budget cuts" have become bywords in the workplace, and the result is increased fear, uncertainty, and higher levels of stress. Since job and workplace stress grow in times of economic crisis, it’s important to learn new and better ways of coping with the pressure. The ability to manage stress in the workplace can make the difference between success or failure on the job. Your emotions are contagious, and stress has an impact on the quality of your interactions with others. The better you are at managing your own stress, the more you'll positively affect those around you and the less other people's stress will negatively affect you.