You’re halfway through another long workday. But you’ve still got some work to do before you can clock off for the night. A co-worker is talking to you. And you start to feel yourself getting tenser and tenser the more they distract you. You’re unable to make eye contact and feel yourself emotionally closing off to
Edgar Schein is considered as one of the forefathers of modern organizational psychology. He was the mind behind the “Career Anchors” framework. This framework hypothesizes that an individual’s workplace inclinations adhere to eight specific categories. The attributes of these proverbial anchors dictate how they perform at work. If your people end up in positions that don’t
Employee burnout is a very real problem in today’s workforce. According to a recent survey of HR leaders, up to 50% of attrition can be attributed to burnout. Rather than any other factors. Burnout at work can be a result of many different things. But there are definitely ways to prevent it from happening. And if someone is already
Team members often dread the very idea of performance reviews. In fact, studies show that vast majority of the workforce not only loathes these evaluations but think they’d be better off without them. This negative connotation of performance reviews held by employees is more or less, because of how they’re conducted. And thankfully, that can be changed for
For many people, work can be a stressful environment for many reasons. From nagging bosses to frustrating rules and everything in between. You could find yourself burdened by so much stress that it will negatively impact you. Here are the eight ways to manage stress at your workplace, so it does not consume your life. These are the most common
As a manager, before reviewing performance of your direct reports you’ve prepared yourself. There is no doubt in your mind as to what you want to say & how you want to say it, to convey the right message & in the right tone. But as an employee, you go into the review prepared with
Setting goals is an integral part of an organization. It helps the organization determine where it wants to reach and how does it plan to get there. One of the most common goal setting techniques is SMART goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound. This technique is intended to simplify the overwhelming
Millennials hate performance reviews. Yet reviews continue to be a part of many organizations where every employee has to go through with the process. Not everyone is thrilled due to some of the negative aspects attached to it. It is natural for employees to get nervous and inadvertently say things they normally wouldn’t. We have compiled
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” -Harry Truman As a manager, you may feel like you don’t have time to read outside of a busy work schedule. However, with so much valuable information available, reading a little bit every day can go a long way in improving your leadership skills. Here
One of the many qualities that make a good manager is delegation. However, what makes a great manager is that she also knows when to delegate and when not to. It does happen that while empowering your subordinates, you give away too much at one time. There are many problems that arise when you have no control over
True, genuine connection is the fundamental key to a successful business relationship. Both, within the office & outside of it. Fail to connect with your team members, and suffer the consequences. That even exposes the company to many risks – attrition, disengagement, dissatisfaction etc. Thus creating a connection with employees is crucial to success across the board. Here are
Getting the team to gel together is a daunting task. But that is definitely a prerequisite to achieve great things, as an organisation. Everywhere the management & HR teams tend to search for that magical team building idea. And the simplest ways are often ignored. One such low hanging fruit is an online company directory.
Employees at the start of their career are known to take extra efforts. They are learning the ropes of corporate world & at the same time trying to become competent in their roles. These employees continuously strive to go the extra mile & achieve goals. For themselves, for their teams & for their company. Intent
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years? This used to be (and still is) one of the most common questions asked in job interviews. Very few have clarity about what they will achieve in the next 5 years. Most make up hypothetical scenarios that they hope will impress their interviewers enough to
Silicon Valley companies lead the way for coming up with innovative practices for attracting top notch talent. Soon companies the world over started adopting these unique practices to get their own share of talented individuals. All in all, there have been tremendous changes the way recruitment is being done. But what about employee retention? Shouldn’t
A company’s work culture is an intangible ecosystem that determines whether its employees will be engaged or disengaged in their work. In a way, this culture reflects the company’s ideologies and beliefs. To increase productivity, it is necessary to create a positive work culture where employees can thrive and be happy. But the term ‘positive’ is subjective
Learning is an integral part of development and growth. Individuals who value learning and adopt it as part of their routine outperform those who do not. It is this trait that enables them to meaningfully contribute towards their organization’s growth. However, is the desire to learn a trait that an individual is born with? Or
Organizations cannot afford to rest on their past laurels. They need to constantly reach for newer horizons once they reach their goals. Employees play a major role in this success as they leverage their skills and expertise to deliver results efficiently. However, today technological advancements come at a rapid rate. A majority of employee skills
One of the common mistakes while doing OKRs is turning tasks into key results. Jira is a project management platform that tracks day-to-day tasks of users. Since UpRaise for Employee Success is an OKR tool developed for Jira, we often hear a question. That is, how Jira issues relate to OKRs? Below we try to address
Organisations are complex systems. Their degree of success or failure is probabilistic. It is the result of how different internal parts interact with each other. ‘How different parts interact with each other’ is essence of an organisation’s strategy. Adding corporate jargon does not change that fact. Adaptive, what? The upside for organisations is that they are complex
Traditional goal setting has always been secretive. The goals, invariably, would be set by the manager. Besides manager, only the relevant team member would know what those goals are. And may be the HR team. Objectives & Key Results do not fit this mold. Recommendation is to share them with the entire organisation. This aspect serves two
Performance reviews have been around for a long time. Yet they are only said to be effective if both parties are comfortable with the assessment that is presented. On the face of it, it may appear that employee performance reviews take up a lot of the manager’s time and efforts. However the resulting payoff of
We’ve been developing apps for Atlassian Marketplace for about 4 years now. Initially they were called plugins or add-ons. Not just that, much has changed since we started. The ecosystem has evolved at a rapid pace & is getting mature every day. We are happy to announce our upcoming app – UpRaise People, for Jira. It is focused
In the past, we have written at length about performance appraisals or reviews, as they are sometimes called. This article addresses some of the most common misconceptions around the performance appraisals. Misconceptions of the performance appraisal process: 1. Winging appraisals on the spot: Performance appraisals cannot and should not be done on the spot. Managers need
Performance reviews are meant to be unique and tailored for each individual. That is how they can be most effective. Generic (& meaningless) rhetoric does not lead to any performance improvements. Having said that, the competencies for which the individuals are measured tend to be similar to an extent. Mind you though, the similarities are
Performance reviews, appraisals or evaluations – there are many variants for the term. But the perception all of them trigger is almost the same. Managers meeting their direct reports secretively. Pointing out team members’ achievements or failures or both. It isn’t a stretch if we said, team members are the listeners most of the time in
Experts predict that by 2020, millennials will make up 35% of the global workforce with Gen Z making up 24%. That would be more than half the working population! According to some studies, millennials are perceived as someone who feels entitled, impatient and seek quick validation. Unlike the previous generations which appear patient, committed and more
A fair bit of theoretical material exists around Objectives & Key Results. But implementing OKRs is hard. Especially if you are doing it for the first time. UpRaise for Employee Success is a Jira app that we develop & support for managing OKRs. More often than not we come across the question – ‘Do Jira issues
In today’s digital age, Human resources department is an outlier. Not in good sense, though. Just look at other departments & observe how data driven they are. Right from sales to products, finance to marketing. Each function has its own set of metrics, surfaced by the data from relevant sources. But HR metrics, in majority of the cases,
Have you noticed that even with best of intentions, it can be easy to stray off track. You ambitiously set out on a journey and yet when it comes to reaching the destination, manage to get lost. It could be that you weren’t clear where you were headed. Maybe you were working on too many
Startups are amazing for a number of reasons. Just to name a few – thrill of working on something exciting anticipation of sky-rocketing growth rewarding work culture bean bags, unlimited leaves 🙂 The last bullet point, isn’t one of those ‘real reasons’. But there lies the perception. People think bean bags & unlimited leave policy is the work culture. Clearly,
The trend of open workspaces began in the early 21st Century with an aim to increase collaboration among employees and reduce hierarchical barriers in the organization. The idea was to replace closed cabins and cubicles where employees felt the management was unapproachable and inaccessible, with open areas. A large number of Silicon Valley companies specially
We’ve been consistently writing about the theory behind OKRs. Its benefits, advantages over traditional goal setting etc. Often, we’ve been getting requests for practical guidance in implementing OKRs. This article reflects on our experience of implementing OKRs the first time. To put it on record, we faced almost the same set of challenges as many other