Michael Bouton | Viatech Global

Wow, the buzz today is all about “Ghosting” – not showing up for an interview or even for work. Quitting without notification. Some blame the tight labor market giving talent many choices, some blame no job loyalty, others just say bad manners due to unethical behavior.

Part of this is the chickens coming home to roost. For many decades companies have forgone what was present in the 50’s and 60’s (anybody remember those?) when parental guidance supported loyalty and companies provided some security. Then pensions went away, job protections disappeared, attention to workers well-being and happiness abated all to the effect of “why should I care about the company I work for, they could give a s*** about me.”

Some of the advice to employers is to realize it is the new normal and just keep recruiting when, in fact, they have some culpability. To some extent, they have created the problem by not nurturing a culture that embraces people, helping them to develop along a path that satisfies both sides, selecting and training managers to be less autocratic and more open, being clear about company values and mission plus living them. These practices are embraced by companies like Google and Google does not seem to have a ghosting problem. If they do have a ghosting problem in some areas, I’ll venture it is because the principles laid out in the Book How Google Works are not effectively applied.

As an assessment provider we promote the use of these very insightful tools to not only guide the selection and hiring process, but continued use to integrate new employees into an organization, understand and implement development paths that serve both interests, even if that means helping them find a more suitable position in the organization or helping them find a position in another company.

Changing a company culture is very difficult. It requires great leadership, great managers, a clear promotion path and living the values and mission. The pinnacle of this effort is in the selection and mentoring of great leadership and management. For both of those positions it is not entirely about training and development. It is just as important to determine the innate desire to rise above all others. Understanding the personality; the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors is critical to promoting the highest talent to those levels.

Let’s start a conversation

Have you ever wondered about your brain at work? For many of us, how our brains work isn’t something we think about but we should, especially if we’re managers. How our brains function at work can impact our performance. Understanding how brains function, and how our employees’ brains function, we can grow successful teams.

Quick (and admittedly oversimplified) Guide to Brain Function:

Hippocampus is also known as the limbic system or our caveman brain. Its function is automatic emotional responses to situations, the fight or flight part of our brain. In days past, we ran away from threats like large animals rather than toward them, for example.
Prefrontal Cortex or logic center, regulates other centers of the brain, choosing the actions we take. When this part is well developed, we have overall improved brain function
Left brain is known for linear thinking, taking into account details, conscious actions, verbal communication, and language.
Right brain is known for processing the big picture, creativity, comprehension, and non-verbal communication.

Your employees have brains that are developed in different areas. These differences impact how each of them performs.

The Solution

At Viatech Global, we provide tools to help our clients gain a greater understanding of individuals, be it employees or associates. . Utilizing three reports, we help managers find solutions to employee performance issues, and prevent future challenges. This involves an understanding of how your employees’ brains process information.

Neuroscientists say 95% of the time our brains are in response mode, which means we often go through our daily routines without thinking about our thinking or our actions. The only way to make changes to our regular routine is to become aware of it. The reports create a non-biased way to understand and become aware of the routine responses. This alone can be very liberating and can become a catalyst for profound change and improvement.

Motivation Report measures passion. When we do things we are passionate about our brain operates on a much more fluid level, much like the brain of a person in-love.

Behavior Report this report not only gives a person’s responses to problems, people, pace of life, and procedures, it also addresses their natural emotional responses. The foundations of behavior are driven by our innate emotional responses to what goes on around us, do we want to fight back, or avoid situations? Are we prone to such emotions as anger, fear, love or rejection? If we understand an individual’s emotional responses and emotional potential, we understand performance under stress.

Judgment Report captures the natural tendencies in the processing of information in the three dimensions of regarding people, tasks, and systems. It is perhaps the most powerful of our reports as it assesses not only brain function but the employee’s understanding of the world around them as well as themselves. Understanding self is key to capturing the natural talent residing inside each of us.

The assessment reports Viatech Global provide to clients give a glimpse into how our brains are responding to situations and interactions in the workplace. Working together, we can provide employee engagement and retention solutions.

Would you like to learn more about Viatech Global Reports? Contact us at Support@ViatechGlobal.com

At Viatech Global we take a science-based approach to employee productivity which is why we have been looking at how multi-tasking is killing productivity. From the invention of the T.V. dinner to Tupperware to social media, Americans are constantly looking for better, faster ways to meet their goals. Books have been written about increasing productivity and the secret to success and we’ve all read our fair share of business books.

The ironic part is there is no secret. Scientific studies have proven focus is the key to getting more done.

Which Decreases Your IQ More? Sending an email while on the phone or smoking pot?

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London conducted a study of 1,100 workers and determined that multitasking caused a greater decrease in IQ than smoking pot or losing a night of sleep.

Multi-tasking and Brain Function

Multi-tasking makes your brain move fast from task to task without processing the information to the extent it could if you did one task at a time.

Researchers call this “spotlighting”. By tracking brain function of single-taskers versus multi-taskers, it has been consistently found that multi-taskers are not only the worse at filtering information, they are worse at switching between tasks than single-taskers.

Impact on the Workplace

While multi-tasking employees may seem to get more completed, it is actually the single-tasking employees who are producing more for the company. Single-tasking means using the brain optimally, without distraction, which means a better product at the end of the project or task.

How can we help employees learn the value of single tasking?

Teaching managers about the value of single-tasking, and gaining their support, are keys to being a single-focus production team. That’s not to say everyone focuses on one project at a time. Rather it means removing the culture of multi-tasking to a culture of project-focused employees.
Create an Environment where single-tasking is encouraged. Rather than one team working on multiple projects, create teams that focus on one project. Each single focus team can provide ideas and feedback to other teams to keep ideas and energy fresh on the teams.
Teach employees the value of single tasking and create areas of the office where they can focus solely on phone calls, for example. This eliminates the distraction of checking email while on the phone as well as the distraction of other employees while focused on a call.
Change work location at least once a day. This is important especially with a work-from-home team. Leaving the house to work at a coffee shop or getting up from workspace to take a walk are two ways to encourage focus and single-tasking.

Identifying the key players in this new culture of single-tasking can be challenging and we can help.

At Viatech Global, http://www.viatechglobal.com/ we provide value science tools to help employers identify, engage, and retain employees who support the workplace culture of increasing productivity and employee engagement.

Contact Michael@viatechglobal.com to see how we can assist your organization today!

Recent trends indicate American workers are increasingly leaving or looking to leave their current places of employment. Maybe you’re seeing this at your company and are wondering who and why. Who is going to do the work of the key players who have left? Why are employees leaving?

To understand why employees leave a company, let’s look at why they accepted a position at your company:

Salary
Culture
Training
Development
Mission
Vision
Values
Opportunity

When these things cease to exist employees are left with a JOB. They want a CULTURE. They want to be appreciated, trusted, supported and engaged in their work and the company. As their colleagues and friends are laid off or forced into positions they don’t want just to keep a job, employees start looking for work elsewhere.

Here are the top four reasons employees are leaving the company:

Dis-engagement: In an economy of nine percent employment your workforce is concerned with the bottom line second to surviving the next round of cutbacks. Cutbacks can include layoffs or reorganization wherein employees and managers are forced into roles they would otherwise not have chosen. They are working in positions that don’t fit their personality, behaviors and skills creating an environment of dis-engagement.

Workplace Culture: Have you created a culture that meets the needs of employees? Whether it’s money, fun, time off, career training and development, your managers and employees want a work/life balance. They want to know you care about and listen to their ideas. Demonstrating you understand and care about them is key to a culture where employees are engaged.

Lack of understanding: Companies around the globe are concerned with the survival of the company without understanding the employees are a huge part of the survival. You may be laying off someone who can benefit the business in a different role. That quiet guy in the corner? He might want to teach what he knows to his colleagues. The marketing specialist may be better suited to project management. Understanding what makes your employees unique will (or should) drive their role in the company.

Communication: Understanding your employees beyond their resume and current position is key to retaining them in your organization. Hiring the right employees includes hiring managers who have a clear understanding of the mission, vision and values of your organzation – and the ability to implement this culture on their teams.

At Viatech Global we’re helping employers identify, engage and retain the right employees. We accomplish this through our value science tools combined with ongoing training, coaching, and team development. We help your business gain the greatest value from your human resources investment.