Think the promise of promotion into management would motivate most employees? Not so, according to a survey by staffing firm The Creative Group, which found 71 percent of workers surveyed would not want their manager’s job. “A manager needs to get to know his or her employees,” says Carol E. Gilson, vice president of human resources and client services for EMPO, a human resources services firm. “By being genuinely concerned about each employee, the manager will learn what motivates each individual.”

Some workers respond to private compliments on their work, while others thrive on formal recognition, Gilson explains. Still others — particularly salespeople — work hardest when a generous commission program is offered. And some want to work on special projects.

Study these guiding principles to become a more effective motivator.

Six Big Motivators to Remember

Sharon Jordan-Evans of Jordan Evans Group and coauthor of Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay cites a revealing job-satisfaction survey of more than 15,000 people. All of them named at least one of the first three of these six big motivators:

• Exciting work and challenge.
• Career growth.
• Learning and development.
• Working with great people.
• Fair pay.
• Supportive management/good boss.

“So while fun matters most to one talented employee, another is motivated more by autonomy and yet another by flexibility,” Jordan-Evans says. “Motivation — engagement and retention too — is therefore largely an individual activity between the boss and employee.”

Individual Attention Pays Dividends

Jordan-Evans recommends going to lunch with team members individually to help understand them better. What does each one enjoy most and least about his job? What does he want to learn next, and how would he like to learn it? Ask what you can do as a boss to make their jobs more enjoyable or satisfying.

If Sally would be pumped by learning desktop publishing and taking a crack at the company newsletter, send her to a class. If Jose wants exposure to the senior team, invite him to the next staff meeting. Watch their performance soar as workers get involved in what they really want to do.

Gilson says effective managers all seem to have one thing in common: They invest in their employees psychologically. They truly believe in them and spend quality time finding ways to raise their level of personal and professional self-esteem. Most employees will spare no effort to achieve recognition from someone who truly appreciates their work.

Motivate Every Day

Managers should remember to practice motivational tactics on a regular basis, not just once a year at a team-building seminar, Jordan-Evans advises.

Tracey Turner, executive director of The Creative Group, says, “It’s especially crucial to keep motivation high during times of change, such as when a company is expanding or downsizing. Businesses that wait until morale is tangibly lagging to address motivation suffer the costly consequences of reduced productivity and increased turnover. It’s much easier to maintain high motivation than rescue a demoralized or unhappy team.”

Copyright 2006 – Monster Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved.  This article first appeared on Monster.

If you still end up with an open position, an Angott Search Group recruiter can help you find the perfect candidate to fill it.

You may feel that two short interviews and a three page resume are not sufficient for you to make an important hiring decision. Perhaps you should consider the kinds of questions you are asking the candidate in your interviews. Behavioral interviewing is a very good technique to help you identify the right person.

What is behavioral interviewing?

It is a style of interview that forces candidates to answer questions which demonstrate their competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) by giving specific examples from their past experiences. The focus on the interview is less about what they can or could do (ie, hypothetical situations), and more about what they have done in specific situations in the past.

Behavioral interviewing is based on the assumption that a person’s past performance (in previous roles) is an excellent predicator of their future performance.

How to prepare for a behavioral interview

To prepare for a behavioral interview, take the following steps:

• Make sure you have clearly defined the competencies for the role. General competencies include:
• Enthusiasm
• Knowledge/skills
• Problem solving
• Team building
• Personal attributes
• Leadership
• Communication
• Flexibility
• Decision making
• Develop a series of questions which will enable you to find out if the candidate has these competencies.
• Questions might take the form of:
• Give me an example of how you have .
• Tell me about a situation where you .
• In the past, how did you deal with a situation where .
• Given your past experience, how would you best deal with .

What should you look to evaluate in a behavioral interview?

There are three types of competencies you should look for:

• Content competencies – which are work/role specific.
• Functional/transferable skills – which are used generally with people, information or things, regardless of the specific environment.
• Adaptive or self-management skills – which are personal characteristics.

Every generation has been grumbling about the same thing for eons: The younger generation. Here’s a sampling of what some of the complaints in the workplace might sound like these days:

• “Used to be that when I needed something done, I’d ask someone face-to-face.”
• “I remember the days when people started a conversation, they finished the conversation.”
• “Once upon a time, people would come talk to me rather than shoot me an instant message.”

Frustration with Younger Coworkers

Many professionals feel there is acute tension between generations. “I hired a recruiter who is 28 years old,” explains one 45-year-old senior HR generalist from the Pacific Northwest. “Since arriving, my colleagues and I have noticed that he frequently bypasses the chain of command to do what he thinks needs to be done. Although we meet with him to discuss the importance of communicating regularly through the proper channels, it’s as if he just doesn’t get it…. Oftentimes, he’ll up and leave right in the middle of a discussion after coming to me for information. It’s like he’s got what he needed out of the meeting and leaves, because he doesn’t see a need to be there anymore. What he doesn’t see is how insulted I feel by him leaving like that.”

Indeed, those in their 30s and older can find their younger counterparts frustrating to deal with. These more seasoned workers often lament younger workers’ tendency to be curt, blunt, irreverent and impersonal.

Too Much Information

But the tension between generations goes both ways. David Chermak is a 31 year-old cost accountant. Working in the manufacturing industry, he reports that his team, comprised of Baby Boomers, has a tendency to “overexplain” concepts when troubleshooting issues.

“Even very specific questions seem to require long, drawn-out answers,” laments Chermak. “It is like asking a cook if there is rosemary in the chicken, and the answer not only encompasses the entire recipe but also what store has the best price on chicken, why white meat is better than dark, and explains how buying locally produced food saves fossil fuels — oh and yes, there is rosemary.”

Our workplaces are changing. Technology has revolutionized the workplace. The younger generation, particularly Generation Y (born 1977 to 1989), thrives in a fast-paced technological world. They grew up with nanny cams, cell phones, video games, voice mail, PCs and the Internet. Their constant exposure to technology has even caused some to speculate that their brains have developed differently. The familiarity of so many different technological media has enabled them to process a huge amount of information in a short amount of time. Sometimes referred to as the “CNN Generation,” this group of workers often only want bits and pieces of information — the parts important to them — to accomplish their tasks. In some circumstances, these individuals may never have learned effective face-to-face interpersonal communication skills, due to the fact that so much of their social interaction has been over instant/text messaging, cell phones and email.

Adapting to a Project-Based Workplace

As technology continues to be integrated into the workplace, outside factors also are impacting the way generations communicate. In the “Generational Shift, What We Saw at the Workplace Revolution” whitepaper released by Rainmakerthinking in 2003, one of the primary findings was that the employer-employee relationship has become more project-based, as opposed to the traditional chain-of-command structure. This phenomenon resulted from the mass layoffs, downsizings and offshoring that occurred in the 1990s. As businesses stepped into a more volatile global economy, they adopted the do-more-with-less mantra and began using a more short-term approach to managing business. Effective communication is imperative as businesses shift to this new fast-paced paradigm. Striking a balance with both generations can be difficult. Younger generations are geared to working in a fast-paced environment and getting information on a whim. Short, abrupt communication may occur and leave out important details that others may need to know in order to provide adequate responses. Older generations may overinform, causing confusion or extra work in sifting out pertinent information.

There is no doubt that words, actions and sometimes behavior can be misconstrued in the workplace and even across generations. Business and human resources professionals need to be able to recognize how these changes are impacting the work environment and the relationships within them. Understanding what makes each generation unique is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to managing employees.

Copyright 2006 – Monster Worldwide, Inc. All Rights Reserved. You may not copy, reproduce or distribute this article without the prior written permission of Monster worldwide. This article first appeared on Monster.

If you still end up with an open position, an Angott Search Group recruiter can help you find the perfect candidate to fill it.