Blog
Employee Burnout? That Could Be a Sign of Undermanagement
Burnout was first formally recognized by the WHO in 2019, before the rapid transformations of 2020 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, burnout has only increased in organizations, and it is again coming to employers’ attentions in the midst of the Great Resignation. The WHO defines three symptoms of burnout: Feelings of energy depletion…
Is the Work Getting Done? Five Ways to Monitor Employee Performance
There are a number of myths that prevent managers from being strong, but one of the most common questions we hear at RainmakerThinking is, “How can I possibly keep track of my employees’ work on a regular basis?” So many managers feel there is simply not enough time for them to effectively monitor each employee’s…
The proven basics that will make you a better manager
If you’re trying to be a better manager, it’s likely you’re one of the nearly 90% of leaders who are undermanaging. That’s not a judgment, that’s just math. Undermanagement is not a sign of laziness, apathy, or ineptitude. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Most undermanagement is the result of bad advice, the constant churn of…
Defining careers in today’s workplace
Flexible schedules. Remote positions. Temp and contract work. Careers today, especially in the case of Millennials, are a patchwork of short-term and transactional employment situations. Resumes are less likely to feature one or two long tenures at established organizations and far more likely to feature an array of positions, often concurrent with one another, of…
Post-pandemic work: What each generation needs for success
If ever there was a generation-defining ‘accident of history’, the Covid-19 pandemic is it. Compared to other recent accidents of history—the 2008 recession, 9/11, ongoing war—Covid-19 has directly impacted far more people, of all ages, on a global scale. Quite literally, everyone is going through this together. We are currently experiencing a classic example of…
Employers: Beware the consequences of the overcommitment cycle
If you want to stop turnover and prevent people from quitting, as an employer, you must fight overcommitment syndrome within your ranks. This is the toxic cycle: When an organization is understaffed, the extra work inevitably must fall to someone. Everything is urgent and important. People overextend themselves, committing to too many projects with too…
This is what makes a high-retention manager
Smart employers who want to take control of the resignation wave are dialing into their employer value proposition. What do you have to offer employees in exchange for the great work they do? Are great bosses a benefit of working for you? By now, it’s a cliché to say that people leave bad bosses, but…
It’s true: people are rethinking their priorities when it comes to work
Much has been said about the potential causes of the talent shortages employers are facing in 2021. But what I haven’t seen many people saying is what seems obvious to us and many of our clients at RainmakerThinking: priorities are changing. In the wake of a global pandemic, everyone, including the most dedicated and hard-working…
Finding fit when hiring or promoting from within
If you want to improve your hiring, retention, and talent development efforts, you’ve got to think about fit. The number one cause of success or failure in a new hire or promotion is NOT skills, not work ethic, and not attitude; it is ‘fit.’ Peter Drucker famously said, “culture eats strategy for lunch.” Fit is…
3 tools to help identify hidden talent in your organization
Employers everywhere are scrambling to adjust to the talent shortages they are facing in 2021. Some are realizing the solution to filling open positions is to tap the incredible amount of hidden talent already working for them. When we identify hidden talent in organizations—whether that means at the lower-level, among mid-level managers, or at the…