Engaged For Success

There is a trend in the war for talent – with the rise in tuition fees, some employers have taken to attracting candidates by offering to sponsor their university fees.

Most recent cases of organisations adopting this practice are KPMG and Morrisons. They share this is practice with organisations such as GlaxoSmithKlime, Barclays, Logica, Experian, PWC and Ernest & Young.

Students studying under this schemes are often likely to work part time with their sponsoring organisations whilst studying

Such schemes can be a win win for both employers and students. Employers not only have access to a pool of talent they additionally have an input into their development. Students on the other hand are not only rid of the worries of debts from tuition fees, they are often able to work whilst studying with the assurance of a job when they complete their qualifications.

Those that are set to loose out are organisations that sit by and watch see organisations zap up the talent.

References:
The Future Market by Hashi Syedain. People Management. August 2011
Morrisons offers fee lifeline to 1,000 students, Personnel Today, 15 August 2011

Copyright 2011. This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated

Believing in People until they’re forced to believe in themselves

I have a coach. He’s probably unaware of this but while he was determining whether or not to take me on there’s certain criteria that I used to determine whether he’s the right person to work with me. Critically, i needed to know that he really and truly believed in me and what I stand for with the confidence that I have the ability to achieve my goals. Secondly I needed to know that he would hold me to account.

You see whether it’s articulated or not no one is truly successful without the help and support of at least one other person who believes in them and spurs them on. – even against the odds.

I saw this in action a number of years ago when I watched a reality television programme whereby politicians lived the career lives of everyday people for a week. Clare Short was one of the politicians and she worked as a primary school teacher for a week. For the first day or so, she shadowed the class teacher, then she took over the class, observed by the class teacher. I clearly remember there was a young boy in the class who habitually got into trouble for coming late to class. On the second day or so he came late but not as late as usually. To the consternation of the class teacher, Clare praised him for getting in earlier than usually. (The teacher didn’t like this because from her perspective, late was later) However, her perspective began to change when she notice that under the praise and Encouragement of Clare the young boy was making a concerted effort to get to school in time and hard started coming earlier and earlier (regardless of, if I remember correctly his lack of support from home). Not only did the young boy’s time keeping improve, but with the encouragement of teacher Clare his whole attitude towards school began to improve and he even became a bit of a teacher’s pet.

The message was reiterated earlier this year when I watched an NBC ‘Making a Difference’ report about the singer, Usher’s community mentoring programme. A young man interviewed stated that his whole life had been changed by the fact that Usher had believed him to the point that he was forced to believe in himself.

I believe as individuals we can achieve way more than we imagine if we have the support of people that see the potential in us and are ready to take the time to spur as on. The reality is that everyone has someting special to offer.

Copyright 2011. This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated

On the Saturday evening after the London riots, I went to Lewisham to catch up with friends. I guess it was inevitable that we got into a debate about the riots – not only is it one of the most topical issues at this point in time, we were in one of the areas most effect by the looting.

It’s also unsurprising that we very rapidly got onto the topic of parental responsibility. We debated on the need for parents to take responsibility for their children; the capability of some parents to effectively bring up their children; the criticality of parenting in a child’s formative years in order to form a firm foundation; the concept of community and the role of community in the upbringing of children.

Although we all started of from divergent view points we ultimately came to the conclusion that there is a need for effective parenting, but as with the African proverb which says that “it takes a whole village to raise a child” it is a community responsibility. We further agreed that we all needed to do more if young people feel alienated from the rest of their communities and society as a whole. It’s unacceptable for people to feel so alienated from their communities that they are read to destroy it.

We then moved on to other subjects until it was time for us to all go our separate ways.

As we were in a tower block, we had to use the lift to get downstairs. As we exited the lift a young boy of about 14 entered the building. I watched as he walked past us not uttering a word. At the same time none of us said anything to him even though the person who’s flat we were coming from had lived there for years so would have probably seen the boy before.

Reflecting on this, as we all walked towards our cars, I pointed this out. I noted that there is a common expectation that younger people have the responsibility to first acknowledge older people, but what really stops us from doing so and subsequently build up relationships.

We all went our separate ways, acknowledging that although there is a need for wisdom in our approach, there are little things that we can all begin to do immediately.

Selah

Copyright 2011. This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated

I recently spent a day in meetings in London inclusive of meetings at a multi-national bank and a very small publishing company. During the discussions that ensued, both organisations made reference to the interns that were working with them.

The use of interns is nothing new to me. I was, however, fascinated by the demonstration of the extent to which they are being used within different sizes and types of businesses.

Based on the conversations that I had, I can confidentially say that both of the organisations that I spoke to treat their interns well ensuring that their interns gain real experience from the process. Additionally they pay them a salary or at the very least expenses.

I believe this is right and proper. Unfortunately, however some organisations use interns as cheap labour and don’t even pay expenses. Even if this is not actually illegal due to minimum wage legislation it is unfair. I further believe that organisations treating people this way should be prepared for the fact that their reputations may ultimately be damaged by this.

Copyright 2011. This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated

I once received a testimonial that stated amongst other things “Susan is a delight to listen to and debate with. She questions anything and doubts everything.”

I didn’t like this at first because while I’ve come to realise that I do analyse everything by default but at the same time I trust people, expecting the best of them unless I find that their story just doesn’t add up or they do something directly to me or someone else that betrays that trust.

Then there are those people that I just connect with at some level due to common interests, values, visions, experiences or something less tangible that just can’t be defined. I trust them more because there is that connection.

There are also the people that I would virtually trust with my life or at least aspects of it. They are people that I’m confident have my best interest at heart even though they might make mistakes and get things wrong from time to time. (I recognise that without a doubt so do I)

Now moving on from there, I know we are supposed to do our own due diligence, but when people I really trust introduce me to someone they know or make a referral, the person that has been introduced has more credibility with me then if I’d just me them on the street. I suspect most people operate on these bases.

As a result of this, I’ve been feeling somewhat concerned following a few conversations I’ve had with friends whereby feedback not provided on experiences could potentially lead to the heightened risk of further problems in the future.

I first started really thinking about this when I met up with a friend for drinks a few weeks back. Sally was feeling fed up with people taking her for granted as she had just terminated a business relationship with someone who was good at what he did but never delivered to agreed timeframes. She had found it difficult to terminate the relationship with James, because a close associate had introduced him to her. What, however, made things worse was that when she spoke to her associate about the situation he admitted that he knew the problems with James, but thought she could manage things. What her associate failed to realise is that by not giving Sally a true assessment of James he had virtually set her up to fail.

It was against this backdrop that I subsequently met with Peter for lunch. The last time I met with him he had been raving non-stop about Simon who had done some work for him. Noticing that Peter didn’t once mention Simon during the course of the conversation, I asked him how Simon. To my surprise he virtually started spitting venom speaking about how Simon had duped him and how he was lucky to of got of lightly.

Knowing that a mutual friend had introduced Simon to Peter, I asked him whether he had let the introducer know. He responded he hadn’t provided any real feedback because he didn’t want to cause any upset. What he forgot is that without the feedback the introducer could very easily introduce Peter to more people that he knows.

The lack of feedback also extends into employment situation when we don’t tell an employee that he or she is not doing well because we don’t want to cause upset. The only problem is that by not providing feedback we rob the individual of the opportunity to improve, to gain promotion and possibly get good bonuses.

So maybe it’s time that though with sensitivity we all start providing feedback where necessary.

Copyright 2011. This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated

I don’t typically watch Action category movies, but years back I watched the Rambo movies and although I can’t remember much of the story lines there is a particular scene from Rambo II that I have never forgotten.  It’s a scene where Sylvester Stallone a.k.a. Rambo is in a boat with a young Vietnamese lady.

The lady asked Rambo why he was sent on the mission that he was on.  He replied – “because I’m expendable.”  The lady not understanding asked him what expendable means to which he responded – “it’s like someone invites you to a party and you don’t show up, but it doesn’t really matter”.  During a later stage in the film, Rambo was about to embark on a dangerous part of his mission.  As he sets of the lady called out to him and told him “Rambo, you’re not expendable”

The truth is no one should be seen as expendable as every human being is of intrinsic value.  Whether at work, home or play there is a need to understand what individuals unique talents are in order to tap into them.  However, there is additional a more general value that everyone offers that can be tapped into with minimal effort.
I was reminded of this recently when I bumped into an old friend that I hadn’t seen for quite some time.  She told me that she hadn’t been very well and had therefore been compelled to take some time off work.  On the first day that she went back to work she still felt quite drained and so her manager sent her off to see the organisation’s Occupational Psychologist.  It was agreed  that in order to accommodate her, that she should leave work  a couple of hours early over the subsequent few weeks (with full pay) in order to enable her to fully recover.

I also had a conversation with a manager in a school who had an employee in a similar situation.  He allowed her to work from home one day a week in order to prevent her from relapsing.  In many ways these employers were making pragmatic decisions to prevent a situation whereby they ended up with employees who were not able to work to full capacity over extended periods. After all an employee whose health is not 100% is unlikely to be able to work to 100% capacity anyway.  Besides if an employee under such circumstances is to push himself/herself to hard, he/she could end up going of sick again.   Some employers in a similar situations would however, not want to provide their employees with such support for fear that things would be taken for granted.

The truth, however is that for most people just as for my friend, such actions by employers make people feel valued and when they feel that they are valuable to their employers they tend to want to work that much harder to add value to the organisations. Besides which they become the biggest advocates for the organisation.

Susan Popoola
Conning Towers
HR Transformation & Talent Management
Leveraging the Power of People

Copyright 2011 This document is the specific intellectual property of the Conning Towers Consultancy. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated from content obtained from other sources and such content is referenced as appropriate.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend Countec Education and Business Partnership ‘s Investors in Education Awards at the Ramada Encore Hotel in Central Milton Keynes.

It was an event that celebrated employers that provide secondary school pupils with an opportunity to experience the work place and pupils that had been on a work placement and had a positive impact in the work place.

In the current climate where there is so much negative talk about young people, I was amazed at how many positive words and phrases employers had used to describe the young people that had been with them on work placements.

I found myself jotting some of them down as follows: Motivated; Enthusiastic; Consistent; Hard Working; Always Smiling; Grew in Confidence; Lovely Boy; Wanted to do Well; Steady & Reliable; ‘Can Do’ Attitude; a Delight; Upbeat; Polite; Perfect Attendance; Dealt with Issues …..
and the list goes on and on.

These employers are people who have had a direct experience of these young people, but somehow they see something different from the image of young people that is constantly portrayed in the media. I’m not denying the problems that do exist with young people, but I believe that the young people that were honoured at Wednesday’s event are more representative of the typical teenager than those portrayed in the media.

It makes me wonder what the typical young person trying to make the most of his/her life (who does not carry a weapon or belong to a gang) must think or feel about the image we are portraying of them.

Selah

Susan Popoola

Copyright 2008 This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated from content obtained from other sources and such content is referenced as appropriate.