In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low w turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money. If it has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people.

Reason 6  Stress from Overwork and Work-Life Imbalance

For generations in the past, people had support systems in their surrounding towns then as we all became more mobile and spread out, one of the consequences is our support systems narrowed. When in was reasonably possible for one member of the household to support the household, the stress was in the household. Now we have everyone trying to make a living, the stress is both in the home and the workplace. Given the do more for less, the hours became longer and the results for people questionable.

Possible solutions

Initiate a culture of giving before getting. If you are going to do this the CEO has to have a sincere passion for taking care of their employees as people.

Ask questions such as what benefits and services can we afford to give that will allow us to attract and keep the talent we need while allowing our employees to lead a fuller and healthier life outside work?

Tailor the culture of giving to the needs of the key talent. Know Your Workforce! Understanding the needs of the workforce for example SAS saves $67 million per year in avoided turnover costs because it maintains a 3% rate in an industry that averages 20% turnover.

Build a culture that values spontaneous acts of caring

Build social connectedness among coworkers

Encourage fun in the workplace

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the key thing to learn is if the company is saving money on turnover costs then it must be doing something right. If they are doing it right, then profits continue to be made.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions

In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low w turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money. If it has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people

Reason # 5   Feeling Devalued and Unrecognized

Everyone wants to feel important. So how do so many organizations manage to make so many people feel so unimportant? There are many variables to this answer, part of the answer is: our economy is a service economy and everyone thought we would be paid more and have more leisure time. The reality is something different. Wages have decreased or stagnated; expectations of a long career at one place are reduced and there are many opportunities and challenges in the workplace and people are willing to do more for a less for a limited time frame.

Possible solutions

Offer competitive base pay linked to value creation

Reward results with variable pay aligned with business goals

Reward employees at a high enough level to motivate higher performance

Use cash payouts for on-the-spot recognition

Involve employees, and encourage 2 way communications with designing new pay systems

Monitor the pay system to ensure fairness, efficiency, consistency and accuracy

Create a culture of informal recognition founded on sincere appreciation

Make new hires feel welcome and important

Ask for employee input, then listen and respond

Keep employees in the loop

Give employees the right tools and resources

Keep the physical environment fit to work in

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as long as the company is profitable and can pay a dividend, all the pay issues are the company’s concern, except for the top executives salary which are released in the management report or the annual report. There is no one solution, however if during the coaching sessions, the manager can tailor to the employee, assuming the base pay is reasonable.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

 

 

 

In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money.If it has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people.

Reason # 4    Too few growth and advancement opportunities.

Depending on the size of the company this maybe true; however in a large organization that has potentially more opportunities there may be some validity in this. People tend to be hired for a particular position which they do well and the company has no real interest in moving them because similar to most organizations when you were hired the company knew everything about you. If you have worked for a few years, what do they know? What do you do outside work? If the company is not paying for training, how do they know? In every large company do people actively have to request transfers or does the company encourage them?

Possible solutions

Provide self-assessment tools and career self-management training for all employees.

Offer career-coaching tools and training for all managers – the written or unwritten rule is if you have not done the training, managers do not get promoted.

Provide readily accessible information on career paths and competency requirements. Most people take reasonably general courses to fit into a company, once involved in the company then they can take courses in that field. Most industries have professional or ideally professional qualifications.

Create alternatives to traditional career ladders

Keep employees informed about the company’s strategy, direction and talent-need forecasts.

Build and maintain a fair and efficient internal job-posting process.

Show a clear preference for hiring from within

Eliminate HR policies and management practices that block internal movement

Create a strong mentoring culture

Keep the career-development performance and performance-appraisal processes separate

Build an effective talent-review and succession-management process

Maintain a strong commitment to employee training and learning

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one expects these companies would have the ability to look at all of these possible solutions. Some they will do, some they will not be good at; however once a person has come into the company, in invests in that person. As long as there is something to keep them performing, that is the main concern of the investor.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

 

 

In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money. If it has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people.

Reason # 3 Too Little Coaching and Feedback

When you think of the shift of organization’s from a hierarchal society or pyramid to a flatter one or step up; the technology came first the people came second. When there was a hierarchal organization coaching was little considered at until you reached the executive ranks, and ideas only came from executives (until the company lost money then asked all employees for ideas). As companies became flatter and ideas mattered from all, coaching and feedback become more important. Anyone can have an idea, how to implement it needs coaching and feedback.

Why Coaching and feedback are important: Where are we going as a company? 2. How are we getting there? 3. How do you expect me to contribute? 4 How am I doing?

Giving good feedback and coaching is about more than a series of meetings – it is about managers and employees building an open and trusting relationship. It takes time and both have to trust each other that they are working for the best of the each other. This makes it complex and having the “right” manager for the employee.

Possible solutions

Provide intensive feedback and coaching to new hires. Not just the first day, but ensure there is a program for all the first week.

Create a culture of continuous feedback and coaching. Feedback not does only occur on the yearly performance – do it every day. Employees can ask for feedback.

Train managers in performance coaching. The reality is managers need training and it to get a promotion a person needs to be a good coach as well as manager.

Make the performance-management process less controlling and more of a partnership

Terminate nonperformers when best efforts to coach or reassign do not pay off. Coaching involves the manager’s time; at some point given the partnership will fail and the person should be let go. It is up each company to figure where the point is; a past view was the bottom 10%. However if an effort has been made to do coaching and the results are not showing,

Hold managers accountable for coaching and giving feedback. If 60% of the manager’s time is spent fixing people problems or coaching, then how they are doing should be part of their performance evaluation. The ideal is from Jack Welch: 4 types of managers 1 – treats employees with respect and makes their numbers are keepers; 2- treats employees with respect and does not make the numbers (keep and coach); 3- does not treat people with respect and does not make the numbers (fire); and 4- makes numbers and does not treat people with respect. Do not promote and try coaching, if still does not treat people with respect let go. The reason is they drive people out of the door.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the coaching and feedback for organizations take years to build up because changing to coaching takes time. However if the employee turnover is very low, then the company is saving money by not spending on the revolving door. If people are treated with respect they will be more productive and that is a good thing for the continuing profit.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money. If it has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people.

Reason 2 – The Mismatch between Job and Person

The job the person does not bring them fulfillment and it is estimated 20% of the working population does get to use their strengths every day or 80% does not. It is reminder of how rare and special it is to have a manager who cares about matching talent to the job and does it well.

It is difficult to be a manager and rare to be a good one. It is sad, but true because managers seem to believe employees are interchangeable parts to be moved into whatever slots most need to be filled. The reality everyone does something better than others and prefer to use a handful of talents more than others. The trick of management is to find what talents your people have and use them in the best job possible. Remember while job content skills and knowledge are important as basic job requirements, they are much less important than natural talent for long-term success on the job.

Many large organizations are good at the basic qualifications, however they are terrible at being in a position for longer than one year.

Possible Steps to Follow:

1. Have a strong commitment to the continuous upgrade of talent. Learning starts with the new job, does not end.
2. Your hiring managers are the most important part of the process, they should be well trained and follow a consistent and thorough talent forecasting and success-factor analysis process
3. Cast a wide recruiting net to expand the universe of best-fit candidates (think of money ball in recruiting baseball players)
4. Follow a purposeful and rigorous interview process
5. Track measures of hiring success

Linking to dividend paying stocks, while the end results matter, the process is equally important and examining how long people stay in the company is equally important for you to consider keeping or looking for alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

 

In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money. If it has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people.

Reason One   The Job or Workplace was not as Expected

When a person is hired to do a job, they will be expectations between what the employee expects to receive and what the organization expects to give as well as what the employee expects to give and what the organization expects to receive.

At the most basic level, a new employee enters at an entry level and expects to advance within a year; after a year is up did they advance yes or no and why? If yes there is a good match, if no then there is a question – was there no opportunity or was the person never going to advance? Unmet expectations is the main reason 4% of employees walk off the first day; the number one reason 50% quit in the first 6 months; and a key factor in the failure rate of 40% of new executives to last more than 18 months in their new position. The cost is considered one times annual salary.

This is a preventable solution by management and evolves the trust segment.

Possible solutions:

1. Conduct realistic job previews with every job candidate – outline the company’s expectations and ask do you fit?
2. Hire from temp agencies or consultants – they will know what to expect
3. Increase hiring from employee referrals
4. Create a realistic job description
5. Allow co workers to participate in the interviewing process
6. Increase hiring from within
7. Conduct the interview or selection process that provides a sample of on-the-job experiences
8. Have new hires complete post-hire questionnaires

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the first part of the new hire is establishing trust with the company. The trust goes between employees and between paying customers, as investors we expect the company will be forthright and ensuring the accounts are accurate and we do not have to take them with a grain of a salt. The expectations of the analyst are meant.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

When you buy shares you are a part owner of a company and similar to most things in life, sometimes it is good to be an owner, sometimes it is not. At your work, you may be the owner or you may work for someone who wants to think like the owner to bring in and keep profitable business. In every work force people leave and there are many reasons for people leaving ,but they can be put into 7 categories. The reason why as an investor you need to pay attention to employees leaving is two fold: one to replace an employee cost about the amount of salary they receive (if fewer people leave, the company saves money) and two the baby boom generation is retiring – over the next 5 years 75 million will have retired to be replaced by 45 million. The good news for the next generation is soon there will be a jobs shortage and keeping and retaining employees is going to be and is very important.

In the book The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave by Leigh Branham published by the American Management Association, NY, 2012, Mr. Branham outlines the reasons why people leave. based on what over 20,000 people who were asked by their companies said. In terms of management, by having better management or good management which translate into low turnover, no matter the industry and sector, the company saves money. If a company has a high turnover, it wastes both money and people. The first thing to remember similar to most decisions people make, the decision to leave your workplace typically involves numerous reasons and the decision is the law straw that breaks the employer employee bond. The key is over 2/3’s of the employees would have stayed if  changes made or managers matter.

If you believe the primary reason people leave is money, then you are wrong. The reality is most people make lateral transfers in the hope of moving upwards, it is not very often a person moves from a $10 a hour job to a $20 a hour. The money is closer to the first, but  the working conditions and work expectations change.

The 7 hidden reasons are:

1. the job or workplace was not as promised.
2. there was a mismatch between job and person
3. there was too little coaching and feedback
4. there were too few growth and advancement opportunities
5. workers felt devalued and unrecognized
6. there was stress from overwork, conflict and work-life imbalances
7. workers lost trust and confidence in senior leaders

 

Mr. Branham does not present the 7 reasons as their importance or frequency but the first two are listed because they tend to occur early in the person’s tenure. However, one can see the 7 hidden reasons – money is not the most important aspect. The best issue is picking and keeping good managers is the key.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as investors we expect the company to make profits to pay dividends and in some cases they have monopoly like structures that should enable them to do that. From an investor viewpoint you want to know the people (every company’s most valuable asset) contribute and have a low turnover. A low turnover rate means people want to stay and contribute and the company saves money which allows them to make more.

There are more questions than answers, till next time – to raising questions

 

 

 

Early in March Peter Ashton of Recognia Inc examined stocks offering the potential for long-term earnings growth while providing reasonable valuations and efficient operations today.

His criteria was:

minimum market capitalization of $1o billion which should focus on large and stable companies.

companies with price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios) of less than 15

5 year historical annualized Earnings per Share (EPS) of 15% or more

dividend yield of 2.5% or more

companies with operating margins of 10% or greater. Operating margin is a measure of the profit a company makes on each dollar of revenue.

Company                                     Mkt Cap              P/E               EPS Growth     Div        Operating

($ Bil)                   Ratio            (5 year)              Yield      Margin

Blackstone Group                   19.1                        14.4                104.8                 5.1            44.3

Gilead Science                         92.9                         6.0                  75.6                 2.6            61.3

Verizon Commun                  202.3                      12.8                228.3                 4.6             21.5

AbbVie                                          98.6                    13.0                    34.8               3.7              38.1

AT&T                                          256.7                     14.8                    56.7               4.6              15.6

Lyondell Bassell Ind                36.7                     10.0                     20.5              3.6              17.4

Principal Financial                   18.0                     14.5                     16.0               2.5             13.5

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all these companies pay dividends and are profitable. If you focus on the margins, each of the companies have competition but still the margins are very good. Even if the company did very little, they would likely make money. If we expect the companies to innovate and execute, then they would have to screw up badly not to make money. Note all stock prices go up and down however if you buy these types of companies you should have little to worry about and gain a good night’s sleep.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.

 

 

In this world  professionals accumulate knowledge and to gain a higher income they present themselves as experts, because what they do can be complicated or complex. It is true, there are parts of every profession that are complex, but in all professions keeping the end goal simple is a key. If you can, you should always try to do the easy stuff and leave complex and complicated things for others. Tom Bradley of Steadyhand Investment Funds recently wrote about keeping it simple in the complex world of finance.

Diversification is a good thing because the only true knowledge of the market is after it has happened. No one really knows what asset class is going to perform the best. If you are diversified ideally you want to avoid the asset classes that go down. One method is to sell asset classes. the hard part is to know when to go back into the asset class as it rises in value. One example was oil stocks when down, then they bounced back to make great gains were you in or out? did you miss the gains?

If you listen to Warren Buffett which has been a good thing to do, he tries to buy good companies at reasonable prices. If you can buy a good company and catch a macro trend you will make lots of money. An example is for a number of years, China was the biggest buyer of natural resources and pushed prices up. Then things slowed in China, prices went down and now they have gone up again. When should you have bought? when did you buy?

Everyone who invests money has ideas of where the market is going, the general rule is when people who are at the margins, get really excited about the market it is time to sell. If everyone is selling, then it is a great time to be a buyer. There are many methods to gauge institutional investors (the insurance companies and pension funds receive monthly income which needs to be invested). In addition, firms try to measure investor sentiments and it works till it does not.

If you buy a stock and build a large position in it or the industry, knowing markets go up and down, you will want to hedge yourself against the downside. In general simple hedges or vanilla hedges are the best method, although the world of hedging can become very complicated quickly. It works till it does not.

Mr. Bradley says we all have our skills and preferences and you need to think about what you are good at. If you think you have an edge, continue, but if not keep your investments reasonably simple to understand and do besides to make money.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, given the low-interest rate environment these companies have been a simple solution. The idea is to buy companies which make a profit and can afford to pay dividends and ideally that increases over time. The stock price will move up and down, but generally profitable companies traded at high multiples than non profitable ones. Over time the stock price rises and you have received dividends along the way – nice a simple method to become wealthier.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.