Employee Engagement: 9 Tips to Help

By Timothy R. Clark
Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer conducted an interesting study that looked at what employees are thinking and feeling as they go about their work, and how leaders can use this information to help job performance.
Their research concluded:

The most important managerial behaviors don’t involve giving people daily pats on the back or attempting to inject lighthearted fun into the workplace. Rather, they involve two fundamental things: enabling people to move forward in their work, and treating them decently as human beings.”

Tips to help leaders enable employees

Leaders can have a big impact in helping others achieve by taking those principles to heart. Listed below are tips to help leaders do that very thing and enable their employees to achieve more.

• Ask yourself the following questions about how your employees achieve:
• Do I know the goals my employees are working on in their achieving cycles (personal and professional)?
• What are the roadblocks getting in the way of their progress? What am I doing to remove those roadblocks?
• Is there a clear connection between their professional work and the important work of the team? How can I strengthen that connection and help them understand it clearly?
• Are they overloaded with minutiae or busywork? What can I do to eliminate this type of work?
• Do I know how each employee is motivated? What actions can I take to enhance their motivation?
• Set clear goals with employees. People make more progress when leaders are clear about the link between what they do and what matters to the organization. And successful teams are those that have clear goals, and where people know how their work affects those goals. Help your people gain lineof- sight visibility from their work to the team’s goals.
• Help employees break projects, goals, and work assignments into small victories. Small victories tap into motivation. Achieving is fueled by making small amounts of progress, such as accomplishing a task or solving a problem. Help those that work with you jump into an achievement cycle and experience the benefi ts and rewards of moving through all five steps.
• Teach people how to manage time and energy wisely. Coach employees to fully engage in the task at hand, focus on the important rather than the urgent, avoid distractions, and create balance and renewal in the achievement of the goal. Help them learn to say no to urgent requests or terrifi c ideas that aren’t aligned with the important work of the team.
• Commit resources and remove roadblocks. Enable people to move forward in their work by committing appropriate resources, removing obstacles, helping them work across boundaries, and aligning processes, structure, and systems.
• Help employees engage others. Encourage those you work with to reach out and engage others with similar goals. Remind them that goals can be created independently, but achieving them almost always requires help and support from others.
• Identify specific motivators and adjust accordingly. Discuss with employees their extrinsic motivators, and identify opportunities and implications to bolster the achieving cycle. If they are motivated by recognition, identify ways to give meaningful praise, show approval for their work and team behaviors, or commend them for achievements along the way. Find ways to acknowledge them in front of their peers and express appreciation. If they are motivated by rewards, identify both economic and noneconomic rewards that you can give as a consequence of achievement.
• Discuss achieving opportunities outside of work. Have conversations with employees about what they want to achieve in their careers and in their personal lives. Highly engaged individuals fi nd sources of motivation inside and outside of work. Talk about all aspects of achieving, knowing that the organization still benefi ts whether an employee becomes more engaged from working with an outside volunteer organization or from working on a project to solve one of your biggest customer complaints. Genuine interest and a little fl exibility on your part can go a long way toward increasing motivation, achievement, and ultimately engagement.
• Adjust motivators over time. Stay connected with your employees. Remember that people’s motivations can, and often do, change over time. Have achieving conversations with employees regularly, preferably outside of the annual performance review process. Adjust as they adjust.

Excerpted from The Employee Engagement Mindset, by Timothy Clark. © 2012, McGraw-Hill Professional.

Timothy R. Clark is founding partner and CEO of TRClark . He is considered an international authority in the areas of leadership development and large-scale organizational change. He advises leaders and organizations around the world. A former two-time CEO, he writes the weekly column “On Leadership” for the Salt Lake City Deseret News. He' s also the author of the critically claimed book, "Epic Change: How to Lead Change in the Global Age." You can follow him on Twitter, or contact him directly at trclark@trclark.net..

AUSTIN, Texas, June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- iKey®, the world's premier innovator of rugged computer peripherals, is proud to present the industry's first rechargeable wireless keyboard designed for infection control. To date, the SBW-97-TP™ is iKey's most innovative and flexible user-friendly design.


The SBW-97-TP is the first fully sealed, rechargeable, wireless keyboard on the market using QuickPair™ technology. QuickPair is the unique ability to pair to a USB dongle over a 802.11G wireless frequency without interacting with the host PC. Unlike traditional wireless keyboards, iKey's latest product does not require the user to press any buttons on the dongle or interact with the computer's operating system.

"Pairing the keyboard is only a two-keystroke procedure with any PC that has the USB dongle installed," Dave Huddleston, iKey Operations Manager, said. "This is an exclusive feature that allows the keyboard to be moved across various computers or workstations with ease."

Powered by a lithium ion battery, the keyboard has superior battery life of two weeks with regular use, and is easily recharged with its included micro USB cable. The keyboard only takes five hours to fully charge, and maintains full functionality while charging.

As with all of iKey's medical peripherals, the SBW-97-TP is engineered with infection control in mind. Ideal for use in operating rooms, nurses' stations, medical carts, and patient rooms, its case and silicone rubber keys are fully sealed, washable and compatible with hospital-grade disinfectants. Featuring a CleanLock™ key, the SBW-97-TP can be quickly and easily disabled during cleaning procedures.

"iKey's products are built to withstand difficult environments where standard keyboards will fail," Huddleston said. "A keyboard is one of the most commonly touched objects in any environment. As awareness of hospital-acquired infections grows, so has the need for washable input devices."

Measuring only 14.96" x 5.91" x 0.84" (w-h-d), the SBW-97-TP includes an integrated touchpad and 10-key numeric pad. Designed to be user-friendly, it also has three LED indicators for battery life, pairing and charging.

The SBW-97-TP's case is built from rugged, ABS polycarbonate plastic, and has an integrated VESA mounting pattern on the back. Perfect for use on carts and trays, the unit is also available with an optional magnetic mount, providing a hygienic alternative to Velcro, which may accumulate germs.

For more information on the SBW-97-TP, visit iKey online at www.iKey.com or iKey's YouTube Channel for product demos and features About iKey, LP.: iKey designs and manufactures rugged, sealed keyboards, displays, pointing devices for industrial, public safety, medical and military applications. A pioneer in its industry since 1989, iKey is known as an innovator of industrial computer peripherals. For more information, visit www.iKey.com.

SOURCE iKey

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So, whether your application is simple or complex, standard to custom... High Tech Connections has the technical expertise and maufacturing capabilities to help. To get the ball rolling, just email us at: sales@hightechcords.com.

Electronic Changes Means a Mightier Medicare

By JARED SHELLY, senior editor/web editor of Risk & Insurance®

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- In the old days of workers' comp and liability, Medicare-eligible workers hurt on the job would go to the doctor, then let Medicare pick up the bill. Many times, the employer or another entity would be ultimately found to be responsible for the bill -- however Medicare didn't seem to have an effective way to get its money back.

Those days are now over...

With electronic medical reporting, Medicare now has a terrific weapon that informs the agency if it's owed the money from conditional payments. While Medicare has been around since 1965, the recent developments are quite a change for the industry, according to experts who spoke at Gould & Lamb's Medicare Secondary Payer Educational Conference in Atlantic City, N.J. on June 18 and 19.

"Before 2009, they relied on the insurer to tell them there are owed funds," said Russell Whittle, senior staff counsel at Gould & Lamb in Bradenton Fla. who was reached by Risk & Insurance® a few days after the conference, "Now the law has been given teeth and they can find out whether there is money that they're owed."

And the penalties can be stiff -- $1,000 per claim per day for non-reporting, said Whittle.
But it's no secret that Medicare eligible people (who are either over 65 or have a chronic condition like renal disease) will likely have medical issues going on at the time of an accident or claim. That means that Medicare may actually be responsible for some or all of the payment, even if it contests it.

"We find that about 80 percent [of medical bills] are not related to the accident," said Whittle.
But with its new-found way of gathering data, (Whittle said that cases are now "delivered into their laps"), Medicare has gotten aggressive in its collection process.
"It's easy pickin's [for Medicare]," said Whittle.

Chatting between sessions at the conference, Brian J. Fillion, associate at Ringler Associates, a settlement annuity company based in Aliso Viejo, Calif. said that "Medicare is looking for all the reimbursement they can get their hands on."

While Medicare has been a hot topic in workers' comp for years, it's sure to be a hot topic in the liability arena as well, Fillion said, since many claimants are on Medicare and accumulating liens for their medical coverage.

"How to control the size of the liens and who controls the size of the liens are huge issues because the last thing the insurance companies and the self-insured companies need is to overpay on these conditional payments because the right analysis wasnt applied during the negotiations and settlement of the case," he said.

Medicare is also concerned with future payments. If a claimant wins money in a lawsuit, then gets all the money right away -- rather than a structured settlement -- they may spend it rather than saving it for medical bills. While companies have been setting up Medicare set-aside programs for years, Medicare is "on the verge" of creating new requirements, Fillion said.

"This is not one of those issues that is easy to understand. Insurance companies, TPAs and consulting firms absolutely need to understand this stuff cold before the law comes in, because the learning curve for their employees is huge," he said.
Fillion said several large insurance companies are dedicating staff to work exclusively on this issue -- and he said it's paying off.

"Because the law is still in transition," said Fillion, "because they haven't fully defined everything ... to have one person focused on the issue, talking to Medicare and getting the answers directly from them, it gives you an expert resource within your company to go to."

How to Create a Financial Portfolio

No matter the amount of money that you wish to make from financial investments, the time to start is always now. Financial portfolios can help throughout your life, whether it is during a rough financial spot or to make your retirement plan have a better future. Financial portfolios are important, and luckily with a little bit of effort you can start building yours immediately.

1. First: Set your goals

   The first step is to consider your short-term and long-term goals as this helps to determine how the money is invested. Short term goals include building an emergency fund, purchasing a new car or paying the down payment for a new home. Long-term goals are more than five years away and include events such as retirement or children attending college.

2. Second: Start to save

   To start investing, you need money. Look over your budget and try to cut back to save that money to invest. Anyone can find some extra money, no matter how tight your budget seems.

3. Third: Speak to your employer

   Check in with your human resources department. Your company might have 401(k) or 403(b) plans available, or it may have company stock plans that you can utilize. These simple investments are great because they are taken directly from your paycheck, eliminating the need to set money aside.

4. Fourth: Meet with an investor

   If you cannot invest through your employer or would like to invest in alternate ways, it is best to speak with an investor. The investor can help you find a variety of ways to invest your money and build a diverse portfolio.

5. Fifth: Start investing

   The final step is to set up an automatic monthly transfer of money that is invested. These investments are done through a program worked out with your investor and are based upon the current state of the market.

Tiny Raspberry Pi Computer Causes Big Stir on Launch Day!

(CNN) -- The debut of the tiny $35 Raspberry Pi computer crashed its distributors' websites on the way to selling out within hours of launch. Looking like little more than a credit card-sized chip of circuit board, the powerful, fully-programmable PC can plug into any TV and can power 3D graphics and Blu-ray video playback.

Its British-based designers at the Raspberry Pi Foundation hope the computer, which has been in the works for six years, will spark new interest in programming among children. "The primary goal was to build a low cost computer that every child could own, and one where programming was the natural thing to do with it," said co-founder Robert Mullins.

The computer's miniature uncased circuit board is crowded with an Ethernet connection for the internet, two USB ports and an SD card port for memory and is powered by a standard USB mobile charger.
The low-cost computer runs a free, open-source Linux operating system and does not include a monitor or keyboard.

The first version of the Raspberry Pi will ship soon to developers, and the hope is that they will design software that will enable children to design their own computer programs. The project came about when a group of Cambridge-based computer programmers noticed that fewer and less-qualified students were applying for computer science courses at Cambridge University.

Inspired by computers like the BBC Micro and the Commodore 64 in the 1980s, the group of engineers set out to build a new programmable machine for a new generation. "Each year we had fewer and fewer students applying, and most of them hadn't really done much more than write a web page," Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton told CNN. "So we kind of set out to recreate that feeling of the BBC Micro in the hopes it would spark a new wave of kids knowing how to program."

Upton told CNN that an even cheaper version of the computer, which will retail for just $25, is going into production within the next several weeks. In the long term, he hopes the computer will generate an additional 1,000 engineers in the UK each year -- an "industry-changing development", according to Upton.

"Anyone who expresses a desire to get into designing software should have a platform to do it," he said.

Big Sales for Small Cars in February!

 

 

DETROIT (AP) — Many automakers reported strong sales for February as Americans snapped up smaller cars to offset high gas prices. Companies from Ford to Volkswagen reported double-digit increases in U.S. sales last month. Even General Motors, which pulled back on big discounts, eked out a slight gain.

 

The results show that industry is on pace for a third straight year of improving sales after bottoming in 2009 during the financial crisis. Carmakers see several encouraging trends. The average car on U.S. roads is now a record 10.8 years, so there is an increasing need to replace older vehicles.

Credit availability is improving, bringing more people back into the market. Japanese automakers have largely recovered from last year's earthquake and now have more cars to sell. And consumer confidence rose dramatically in February, making people more likely to consider a big-ticket purchase.

Sales were strong in January, and February is looking equally good. After all major car companies report their results Thursday, analysts expect sales of 1.1 million cars and trucks for the month.

Based on those strong results, the consulting firm LMC Automotive predicts sales of 14 million this year, up from an earlier forecast of 13.8 million. Last year's sales reached 12.8 million.

Chrysler's February sales rose 40 percent from a year earlier as it sold nearly 134,000 new cars and trucks. All of its brands showed at least double-digit increases. Chrysler was helped by an easy comparison with last February, when sales were relatively low because many of its revamped models were just arriving in showrooms.

Chrysler's tiny Fiat 500 had its best sales month ever, thanks in part to rising demand for more fuel-efficient cars. But the Ram pickup also saw sales climb 21 percent. Sales of the Chrysler 200 midsize sedan more than quadrupled from a year earlier, while sales of its 300 full-size sedans rose more than five times.

Ford sales rose 14 percent, mostly on demand for the Focus compact car. Focus sales more than doubled to 23,350, making it the best February for the Focus in 12 years. Most of Ford's other cars saw sales declines, in part because the newer Focus pulled sales from them. Ford also saw a 26-percent increase in sales of the F-Series pickup, helped by cash-back deals and other incentives.

Volkswagen sales rose 42 percent, led by the redesigned Passat midsize sedan. And Nissan sales were up 15.5 percent.

Gas prices — which are up 45 cents since Jan. 1 and now average $3.73 per gallon — are causing a pronounced shift to smaller cars.

At GM, sales of the Chevrolet Cruze compact rose 10 percent to top 20,000 for the month, while the new Chevy Sonic subcompact saw its best sales month ever at almost 8,000. The strength of those sales helped General Motors, which was expected to see sales drop, report a 1 percent increase.

Erich Merkle, Ford's top U.S. sales analyst, says small cars made up around 19 percent of industry sales in December. That rose to 21 percent in January and could go as high as 24 percent in February, he said.
Consumers continued to pay higher prices for cars in February, mainly because they're buying well-equipped small cars, according to the TrueCar.com automotive website.

Vehicles sold for an average of $30,605 last month, up almost 7 percent from a year earlier, TrueCar said