Newsletter February 2013

What do you do when you're running around and don't have time to reply to an important message? How about: "Thanks for this, just wanted to let you know I received it…I'll reply in full in the next 48 hours."

This allows you to:

1. Figure out if you can just as easily reply in full in the time it's taken you to ask for more time.

2. (For things that will actually take real time to reply) Let the person on the other end know their message has been received and that you're working on it.

Like it or not, radio silence doesn't build relationships.

Emmanuel Henrard
Managing Partner

“All companies want to keep their rock stars. So when everyone takes part in recognising them, everyone wins. They're more committed. Productivity increases.” 

That’s how YouEarnedit justifies its concept: reward the people you work with, including your boss, for the quality of their work. How? By awarding them virtual points that they can redeem for an iPad, a television, holidays, eating out in award-winning restaurants, etc. It works, says this CEO. You can even find out which department or employee is doing best so that you can adopt their attributes and enable other people to benefit from them, too. Wal-Mart and Young & Rubicam are reported to be testing YouEarnedit on the productivity of their staff.

Source: Influencia

According to HR specialists, there are four skills that you need to stand out from the crowd at work to for landing that new job:

> Being able to express yourself impeccably. Having the ability to say what you’re thinking, verbally express a point of view clearly. These are skills that are tending to become lost since the advent of online conversations.

> Handling your personal branding. Especially on social networks. The hunt for talented people is beginning more and more on Twitter and the like.

> Being flexible. In other words being able to get out of your comfort zone, re-assessing yourself, learning and responding quickly to needs.

> Boosting your productivity. Yours and hence the company’s. Target: + 20%.

Find out more

Source: Wall Street Journal

At the age of 37, Murielle Machiels runs a publishing house employing
90 people. But for her there's no question of sacrificing her family and personal life in the broad sense. Nor that of her staff for that matter.

It's something you rarely hear a General Manager say. But Murielle Machiels tells it like it is. Being flexible is not an empty word for her: at Plantyn, part-time working, teleworking, increased days of leave, flexible working hours, working at home because your child's sick, transport strikes or bad weather are not stigmatised, but encouraged.

The young General Manager, who herself has worked part-time for a long time (working a 90% week), can see nothing but advantages in the system. The level of commitment is increased tenfold and staff are motivated. And all that without people working any less than they would in another company. She also firmly believes that the attitude in companies will end up changing under the pressure of Generation Y.

But if Murielle Machiels is so attached to a better work-life balance, her time at Procter & Gamble and a large pharmaceuticals company may have something to do with it…

Interview

In the United States and Great Britain, 30% of companies now use the services of a specialist responsible for rethinking their mobility is organised. And of the other 70%, one in three is thinking about hiring one. Over here as well, the mobile strategist could soon be putting in an appearance.

The various mobile media and devices have brought about fundamental changes to the way we work. And we’re still only in the early stages. The social and economic impact of being mobile and everything it brings should not be ignored. In fact companies are becoming more and more aware of it. So much so that some of them are thinking about mobility as a real strategy.

As a result, according to a survey conducted by Antenna Software among human resources managers in 600 companies in the United States and Great Britain, 51% have already created jobs dedicated to mobile issues and 74% currently have mobile jobs to fill. However, of those companies needing to hire staff dedicated to mobility, 25% are encountering difficulties in finding the right sort of people. For 93% of them, it’s not due to a lack of applicants, but has more to do with the absence of the right skills for the job. These results underline the importance of clearly defining the skills and qualities required. This applies in particular to the mobile strategist who will show companies the way forward and ensure the long-term success of the strategy they adopt in this area.

But what exactly does the mobile strategist’s job consist of? Find out about the profile required here

These days, more and more fathers are expressing a desire to arrange their working hours to spend more time with their family. But the world of work seems to be lagging behind these new requirements. Although...

While men are not yet totally prepared purely and simply to put their career on hold to raise their children, it is no longer unusual to hear testimonials from fathers wanting to adjust their working hours, opt for teleworking or even to think about going part-time. But despite this and just like women, these “modern” or “working” dads are encountering obstacles to their wish to reconcile their working life and home life better, as demonstrated by this study by Boston College.

But these obstacles don’t seem to be putting them off. For example, in Great Britain, 57% of fathers would like to cut back on their working hours. These growing wishes have been heard by the government, too, which from 2015 will allow fathers and mothers to share the 52 weeks of maternity leave between them. In France, fathers also want to spend more time with their children. According to a survey conducted by CSA for Terra Femina, 63% of them do, even though almost one working father in two thinks that going part-time would be viewed poorly by their employers and the people they work with (45%).

So, what could businesses do to accommodate the needs of working dads (and working mums!) better?

Read More