7 step process for staff remuneration

In the effort to achieve total quality management in an industry, striving towards constant improvement is a must. A proper recognition and reward process of an organisation motivates the staff of an organisation to achieve its objectives.

Many companies are presently addressing the issue of reward and recognition for their as part of quality and continuous improvement programmes, but there remains no general guidelines or descriptions of such programmes which are readily available. These companies have made several attempts to create a process of employee reward and recognition for quality activities as part of its process of continuous improvement. All such attempts have had little success, resulting in the various systems losing their prestige among employees.

In Australia, a new process for employee reward and recognition was developed through a company’s quality committee. It consists of 7 steps which can be used generically for any firm wishing to implement a system for staff recognition and reward.

The steps are:

1) Categories for awards - The emphasis of the reward and recognition process is to stimulate employee involvement in the culture change towards continuous improvement and aims to recognise those individuals that provide an example of desirable behaviour towards the company goals. Successful nominees are expected to have not only performed their defined roles but also to have contributed additional dimensions beyond their defined roles in the area of culture improvement.

2) Nominations - Nominations for each of the categories are received on a quarterly basis. They
are received from any individual in the company. The only prerequisite for a nomination is that it must be handed to the quality systems manager by the due date and on a formal nomination
form, thus providing some degree of consistency.

3) Review of nominations - Each nomination is accepted on the basis of the quality committee review at a meeting within the first week after the close of nominations for the quarter. The quality committee consists of eight representatives (not necessarily
senior managers) of each area of the business and includes the general manager as its chairperson, at least two executives and the quality systems manager. Each nomination is reviewed for acceptance on the basis of the criteria described above, whether there is any
disciplinary action pending for the nominee, together with an assessment of the most
suitable category for the nomination.

4) Recognition of successful nominations - Successful nominations are formally recognised at a company meeting, which all employees are invited to attend. The nominee, nature of the nomination and category to which the nomination has been assigned is also acknowledged. Each successful nominee receives a certificate from the quality committee, endorsed by the chairperson of the committee, congratulating and thanking them for
their contribution.

5) Review of successful nominations - Successful nominations are assigned to one of the members of the committee for follow-up review to decide the eventual quarterly award winner of the category. Committee members are not permitted to review applications for employees within their own department or area of business.

6) Awards - Each category winner is given an award consisting three components. One is that of a monetary component, consisting of either a getaway weekend package at a prestigious hotel or a money order to a leading retail store. Another is a framed certificate from the company and an accompanying certificate of endorsement from the Western Australian office of the Australian Quality Council. Also there will be an individual and group photograph photos used for publication in the company newsletter and are placed on a notice board in the company canteen. Each category winner also receives an individual copy of the photo. All winners are announced at a second company meeting which is attended by a representative of the Australian Quality Council who awards the successful nominees with their award of endorsement.

7) Annual quality award - Quarterly winners of each category also qualify for the Annual Quality Award. The categories used for quarterly award winners do not apply in the annual award; all 12 quarterly winners are compared with one another. Scores for the annual award represent an average of the sum of the quarterly review (performed during the year) and a repeat review (specifically for the annual award) utilizing different fellow workers and customers. Thus the annual award winner is decided on the highest score from six fellow workers, four customers and two separate assessments by the direct manager.

Any company wishing to implement a reward and recognition process can consider this 7 step process. This process can also be modified to individual company needs by varying the minimum score required for qualification (however, it is not recommended to remove a minimum score) and the rewards could also be changed accordingly.

Importance of cross-cultural training

With globalisation on the rise, more international educational exchange and cross-cultural interacions are being encouraged. This has led to cross-cultural training to become a discipline in recent times. Traditionally, multinational corporations used to concentrate their training efforts solely on expatriate managers. This resulted in assumptions of how business should be carried out internationally.

For an instance, multinational corporations felt that replicating the exsiting staff in foreign lands, including the same perspectives and technical knowledge would keep the company going smoothly. That business culture had a typical top-down management structure whereby major decisions were made at headquarters level. Line-managers were supposed to manage the daily operations by abiding with the rules of the firm without involving in matters pertaining to cross-cultural issues.

That was then. Today, the international business environment is different. With aggressive competition going all around, multinational corporations around the globe has identified the increasing need for international managers to be equipped with skills on working hand in hand with people from various cultural backgrounds. It is also becoming of increasing importance to train all possible employees so that highly proficient staff are available upon demand.

Many industries fear that investing resources in training staff in cross-cultural training might go to waste if it ends up in expatriate failure. As it is such, there is more demand for specialised training programs to cut costs and also provide the relevant skills needed for employees. They believe that training can be a substitute for actual living experience in a foreign country. It is better that way rather then to be transferred into another culture and pose the risk of causing damage through cultural shock and misunderstanding. Furthermore, the cost of cross-cultural training is not much compared to the danger of sending inexperienced staff for international assignments.

An important aspect in cross-cultural training is the need to have ethics and to create policies to help employees make decisions that have moral consequences. Without them, expatriates may perform poorly in foreign lands and end up reflecting badly on the image of their companies.

Another aspect is that of alliances and partnerships for organisations. When firms of different nationalities work together on a joint enterprise, that would provide a form of training provided both firms recognise the need to be aware of each other's culture.

The ability to have effective communication with people of different cultural backgrounds has become a necessity in attempts to shrink the business world. Shrink in terms of unifying the business world through economical and social means. This unification is vital in order to make the most out of limited resources available in the world. For this to happen, cultural interdependence is needed. Hence, resulting in the importance of cross-cultural training.

Living for the moment is what we need

Over time, our body as a whole starts degenerating. Muscles start losing power and shape. Wrinkles start appearing on our face. The neurons in our brain start becoming less active. They are all beyond our control because that is nature. What remains in our control then? It is none other than our mind. What we think is well within our control. We feel positive or negative according to what happens around or to us. What we are today is a total sum of thought patterns which we have allowed throughout our life from the first day we started thinking. This is why it does not really matter what happens to us in life. What really matters is how we respond to each and every situation. Probably a perfect situation does not exist. We cannot get anything in full. That is why we have to make full use of what we have in hand. We have to learn to live fully each moment of our lives to the best of our abilities. Living for the moment is what we need.

The mind is so unpredictable. Our emotions and thoughts are unpredictable. This is why it is said that not even God can judge us till the last day. This is why He controls the entire universe but He does not control the human mind because He wants to give us the freedom to make our own choices. Such is the unlimited amount of freedom the human mind has. Such is the power of the human mind. Thus, it comes to no surprise as to why the human brain is scientifically proven to be the most complex matter in the universe. Living for the moment is what we need.

As pointed out above, God created everything and has total control over them. Nature is created for us too. For us to enjoy and immerse ourselves in appreciation of it. This oneness and sense of belonging comes from living for the moment. Living for the moment includes observing the blossoming of a flower while walking past our neighbour's house. Living for the moment includes taking time to watch the sunrise while going to school, work or the like. Living for the moment includes listening to the sound of crickets at night while relaxing. Living for the moment is what we need.

We know that yesterday has become history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is our story. That is why we get to write it the way we want it to be. Sometimes we are so preoccupied with thoughts on what happened yesterday and plans for what is going to happen tomorrow that we do not even realise that the present day has slipped by without our notice. We basically go through the day then to get something out from the day. More than often, we are judgmental of what we see or hear and do not see or hear things the way they are. We restrict ourselves of daily actions mostly out of fear and lack of belief. These fear and lack of belief derive from the past and our mind projects them to the future. We allow our mind to tell us that we will experience in future what we experienced in the past. Until we choose to live in the present moment, accept things as they come and respond appropriately, we cannot master the art of happiness. Living for the moment is what we need.

Creativity for home business

Belief, knowledge and passion may be enough to do any business but not enough to sustain it. Creativity is the one that does the magic. Without it, we might still be able to run the business but will be unable to bring it to newer heights.

As it is that change is the law of life, having a business will require it to constantly change to suit its customers' needs. Creativity is needed to keep this change constant. To have the creativity flowing, having a freedom of thought patterns might not be enough. Instead, having freedom to do the business in the first place will maximise our potential of creative energy. For this to happen, having a home business will be ideal.

Successful home businesses are said to be owned by largely creative people. With the never-seem-to-be-ending outbursts of new technologies and methods of doing home business, more opportunities have been created. It may not be necessary to make use of new technologies, however we can get ideas from them to better our home business. For an instance, when the act of article submissions was known to be the most effective way to market online, tons of software on automated article submissions were developed. We may not need to use them but who knows what ideas we can come up with from them.

Since two heads are better than one, we can tap creativity our from friends and relatives. Gathering constructive feedback from them proves to be very useful. Even if their ideas may not be the best ones, at least we can use them to improve or spark off new exciting ideas of our own.

A good way to start our creativity energy going will be to follow the following steps. They can aid us in focusing on problems that need to be solved and opportunities that need to be grabbed. Of course, there is no hard and fast way to get our creative thought flow because if there is, then it would defeat the purpose of wanting creativity in the first place wouldn't it?

1) Think of the current situation and what it takes to achieve the desired situation.
2) Identify the problems and ensure that they are genuine ones.
3) Analyse the problems.
4) Decide on what can be changed or improved to achieve what is desired.
5) Try making these changes or improvements and see how they work.
6) Use ideas and skills to make them work even better.
7) Review the solutions and see if they are feasible to implement.
8) Put them into action and see if the desired situation is achieved.

If this does not work, try repeating steps 2 to 8 again.

A good tip will be to think of paradoxical possibilities since we are living in a world filled with paradoxes.

Some thoughts on services marketing

Most firms realise the importance of service quality and customer satisfaction. However, it is often unclear on how to achieve these goals.

During the service encounters, when disagreements arise from problems and solutions, customer satisfaction is compromised. This highlights the importance of understanding behaviours and the types of events leading to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Hence, it is vital to comprehend service encounters from various perspectives to assist firms in better educating both employees and customers. 100% service quality can then be better achieved.

Keeping this in mind, it is important to note that from the employee’s viewpoint, customer satisfaction largely depends on moments of truth (the interaction between customer and the employee).

The acknowledgement of existence of wrong customers and move away from the philosophy that “customer is king”. The reason is because organisations have been going on with the philosophy that customers are right all the time and as a result they had to suit their services in order to satisfy their customers. Organisations could have been right with their services initially but had to change for their customers without realising that the customer could have been wrong. For an instance, a guest in a hotel was informed of the policy that if they want a change of any facility, they should call before a certain time in order to have it changed. If the guest finds something not satisfactory and complains about it after the required time and the organisation accommodates to the guest even though he/she is in the wrong, that organisation is going by the policy of “customer is king”. Organisations should be more aware of the customers’ attribution theory when dealing with customers.

Attribution theory refers to situations whereby people point fingers at others when faced with a disagreement rather than realising that the fault could have been theirs possibly.

Creative thinking about customer roles and management of customer expectations can be done. By having this, service personnel would be more prepared to respond in various situations. They can be more sensitive to different cultural backgrounds of customers. For an instance, sales persons in a retail store must attend to different customers accordingly since different customers have different personalities. Creative thinking should be successful to the extent that there should be role congruence for both customers and employees.

These are some critical issues for organisations to consider in order to better their services in satisfying their customers.

Getting through life

We encounter problems in our lives on a daily basis. Most of the time we face them or just run away from them but do we ever ask ourselves whether they are really problems? Are they really problems or do we just perceive them to be. We have to ask ourselves whether problems really exist. More than often, we choose to believe that they are and that is where the problem starts, in believing that they are really problems (No puns intended). Sometimes they can be genuine problems but we do have an option in believing that they do not exist. Of course, that does not mean that we should take them to be invisible because that is not going to solve the problems since the problems really exist. We can simply take them as they come and not take them too seriously. Don't take life seriously because you can't come out of it alive. ~ Warren Miller If we see a problem as our own, we start feeling negative energy. We would not be able to think straight. We start worrying and worrying takes way too much energy. A lot of unnecessary energy goes to waste. On the other hand, it helps to take a step back and look at the problem from an external perspective. It will help even more if we do not treat the problem as our own. It works because when we imagine that the problem is not ours, we do not feel the pressure of it. Hence, we are able to find solutions with a clear mind. Speaking of imagination, there is an Italian movie which goes by the title of "Life is beautiful". It conveys a wonderful message on how a man makes use of his imagination to help his young son get through life as prisoners of war (POW) in a Nazi camp. By making him believe that everything happening around them is a huge interactive point-based game, the man succeeds in ensuring that his boy is comfortable with the place and the situation. Such is the power of imagination. It does not help us to avoid the problem, it instead guides us through the problem without letting its pain take effect. Life is not really life without problems. Being human beings, problems happen to us all the time. We should learn to accept them as part of life. It's just that we should not give them a chair to sit on.

The truth about habits

Habits are very dynamic tools. Our daily habits have the power to control the direction of our lives. It is in them that decide what we deserve.

Habits thrive well in a condition known as comfort zone. This is probably the main, if not the only, reason why people become slaves to old habits and refuse to change for the better. This is why old habits die hard. The simplest of habits are embedded in our minds subconciously. They are so much a part of our lives that we do not stop to think whether it is right or not. Yet, changing it would make us feel awkward and strange. We basically perform our daily actions the same way every single day. It starts from the time we wake up. The way we squeeze the toothpaste onto our toothbrush, the way we brush our teeth, the way we take our shower, every trivial action is done the same way subconciously that we do not even have to remember. The lack of need to remember; that is the reason for habits to exist in the first place.

The same goes for our emotional and thought patterns. By changing habits, we change our lifestyle and possibly perceptions. This will lead to success if carried out in the proper way. Most people are only willing to change temporarily but not permanently. So how do we make it a permanent change in order to better ourselves? Of course we need discipline but before discipline we need to have a clear objective. We need to keep in mind on what are we going to achieve. Without a clear objective, having discipline will seem like a tasteless military regime.

Belief goes hand in hand with habits. For an example if we want to become a millionaire, we should first believe that we are one. We should be like one but that does not mean we can start spending like one because that is not going to help much. Be like one means to do what it takes to become a millionaire because once we start believing in ourselves, we start thinking positively. We think of ways to become a millionaire and with the right mindset, we will find ways to become a millionaire. Then with our belief, as a form of support, we start taking actions. Actions start with the right habits. Going back to our above-mentioned point that in order for us to have discipline to keep performing our new habits, I had mentioned that we need to have a clear objective. In our millionaire example, when we have a clear objective aiding our new habits, we will become a millionaire eventually. Its as simple as that and there is no rocket science being explained here. That means anyone can become a millionaire, seriously.

It all starts with the right thought, supported by a positive attitude, followed by actions, which influences our habits and the clear objective which provides the discipline to sustain our new habits. Also, we should remember that it is not a question of "can we do it?" but it is actually "will we do it?"