Employees Management - All Posts - Ze'ev Ronen - Business Excellence

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How to become a transparent business?

A company gave its employees a quarterly bonus. The bonuses were granted to employees who met their personal targets, which were determined according to an agreed scale. The employees were used to receiving the quarterly bonus and eagerly anticipated it at the end of each quarter.

55 Views

Why do managers leave work and what can be done to prevent it?

In one of the trainings sessions, I recently conducted for leading improvement teams, Tamir, one of the trainees, said that in his opinion, employees don’t leave the jobs, they leave their managers. In other words, they left their jobs because of their direct managers.  “That is the main reason employees leave or stay on in the job”, he claimed.

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What can be achieved in four-day workweek and what can we learn from it?

Do you remember the days when we worked six days a week? Has moving to five days had a bad effect on employers or employees? Has efficiency decreased? Have we been achieving less?

141 Views

When should CEOs appear on site and when should they stay away?

A CEO I once met, who well understood the importance of measuring but could not maintain systematic, continuous measuring performance, excused himself by saying that he had strong intuition and knew his company well without measuring. Intuition and gut feelings are valuable and important when making decisions. However, they do not replace measuring.

567 Views

The best way to manage employees during wartime

This article focuses on the principles of managing employees during wartime.

859 Views

How to run a business during wartime?

This article was written during wartime. Life continues and businesses continue to operate. I have recently been asked many important questions regarding the correct way to operate a business in the face of the current difficulties and obstacles.

526 Views

How does courtesy contribute to business?

Dan was rushing to a meeting. He could not find parking space in the car park of the tower building. Suddenly he spotted a free parking slot. He accelerated towards the slot only to realize that a female driver was maneuvering her car into that slot. She drove backwards and forwards trying to steer her way between the lines. That was all Dan needed. He quickly pushed in front and parked his car, leaving the lady driver bewildered.

684 Views

How to create winning teams?

A management board of a retail chain outlets decided to set a prize-winning competition between the outlets. The competition aimed at providing an incentive to increase sales. The prize was a medal for the winning team and an invitation for two to a fancy dinner for the team members.

618 Views

For and Against Pay Transparency in Businesses

Does everyone know what other people earn in your company? If the answer is “yes”, is it official information or is it spread by word of mouth? What effect does knowing what other people earn have on gender pay? How does it affect employee’s motivation?

614 Views

Is the CEO connected to the shop floor?

A few days ago, I went shopping at a D.I.Y store Upon entering, I was directed to the department I was looking for, but no staff member was present. It took me a few minutes to locate someone who was able to tell me the name of the employee responsible and a few more minutes to find the employee who answered my questions about the product I wanted to buy.

596 Views

How to generate commitment to perform

This article is about the challenges managers face when trying to implement decisions and assignments reached during these meetings.

605 Views

Five most common mistakes shared by CEOs

This article is not about momentary misjudgments or wrong decisions made on the spur of the moment. It is about mistakes which are made by CEOs who are driven by approaches that, in my opinion, are incorrect and can cause substantial negative impact on business results.

515 Views

How to fire employees the right way?

A separation won’t stop a couple from thinking about each other. In the same way, termination of employment doesn't stop employers and fired employees from talking about one another. Managers and employees continue to mention previous employees’ names, and dismissed individuals continue to talk about their former place of work.

645 Views

Interpersonal communication in a fast and busy world

I was on my way to a meeting with Ilan, Dovi and a few other people when I received a message from Yigal asking me to check something for him. Before joining the meeting, a few minutes too late, I opened my messages for a brief glance. I then entered the meeting noting to myself to get back to Yigal right after the meeting.

985 Views

What Is Important for Workers in Israel in 2022 And How Does It Affect the Labor Market?

Every year, CofaceBDI conducts a survey in collaboration with The Marker magazine, on the question "Who are the 100 companies that are most worth working for in Israel?" The survey was conducted among about 300,000 employees and is also based on internal surveys of the companies.

782 Views

Should You Recruit Star Employees, and How and When to Recruit "Hungry" Young People?

Rafi was a successful young CEO who wanted to achieve the ambitious goal of accelerated growth within five years. He built a strategy with the help of our team's "Plan for Tomorrow" and got stuck on a significant obstacle: he needed to recruit a sales associate, or even two.

686 Views

Why Do We Like to Volunteer?

At one of the NGOs I am a member of, there is a mentoring program. The graduates mentor younger peers. The mentoring last for six months, for a few dozen participants. The mentoring is voluntarily, and each year we have more mentors than we require. The organization has other social activities, involving young adults who live in Israel's periphery, and we don't lack volunteers.

1184 Views

How to Communicate Effectively

While bike riding with a group of friends, A. and H. began a heated argument. As I got closer to them I heard it was about a bike riding event that took place many years ago, and they each had a different memory of. Each was convinced their memory was more accurate, and as often happens in such cases, they only listened to each other in order to quickly contradict each other. This wasn’t a dialogue, but two monologues.

905 Views

What Was Most Important to Employees in the Workplace Over the Years 2017-2021, and What Changed as a Result of the Coronavirus

Every year, CofaceBDI and The Marker magazine conduct a survey, on the topic "the 100 best companies to work at in Israel". The survey had about 150 thousand participants, and also uses internal surveys by the above companies. The survey then asked 2,000 participants to rank the parameters according to their importance.

1310 Views

Why Meetings Are a Waste of Time, and How We Can Change That

Work meetings take up time, and it's often wasted time. But there are also efficient meetings, that give a sense of purpose and a drive for change. I assume many of you are among those whose experience with meetings is that they're a waste of time. You leave every meeting frustrated, and have learned to stay quiet to make the meeting go faster.

776 Views

How to Be a Better Negotiator

I once met with a CEO of a big organization we very much wanted to work with. From the beginning I looked at him with an encouraging smile. He answered in the same optimistic spirit. We grabbed a cup of coffee and settled in the meeting room, opening with some small talk. He mentioned he likes to listen to a certain radio program, of which I am also a frequent listener, and shared his opinions of it, with which I agreed.

1647 Views

Why Some Managers Don’t Delegate, and How to Create Change?

One of the questions I routinely ask managers is, how much of their time they spend doing their employees’ jobs (putting out fires, problem solving, answering questions). Most, almost all, say they spend 70% to 95% of their time at the operational level. A level which includes mostly activities which could be delegated, or have officially been delegated.

820 Views

Why Are There More Unemployed Women?

Statistics show that 70% of all unemployed people in Israel during the third Coronavirus quarantine were women. The lack of symmetry between men and women in unemployment statistics has gotten worse over the pandemic.

897 Views

Do You Know What Your Goals Are?

When you get into a cab, the first question the driver asks you is - where are you going? You probably always have an answer to that. After all, you wouldn't get in a cab without a destination in mind. Yet I meet people, and even businesses, with no goals. And without goals, you can’t have purposeful progress.

986 Views

How Much Are You Willing to Pay for Good Service, or How to Improve Your Customer Service

While hiking the Israel Trail near Dimona, we often use Patrick’s services, to drive us to the starting point, and from the end point. We found Patrick a year ago, when we were looking for a driver and compared prices. But now we don’t compare the prices Patrick quotes us with other offers. Patrick has excellent customer service. Comes anywhere, always a few minutes early, and is flexible enough to change the time if we’re early or late.

1178 Views

What’s the First Expense You Cut When Sales Are Down?

I don’t know about your specific company, but usually the first step is layoffs. Most often, labor costs aren’t the biggest expense, but it always seems simplest, fastest, and easiest to fire employees - and if and when sales are back up, recruit new ones. Furthermore, we know there is always latent redundancy, so we assume any reduction in the workforce will lead to greater efficiency.

1276 Views

Why Do Many Managers Resist Improvement Teams and the Information they Provide?

In the past, when I managed Osem-Nestle’s factory in Yokne’am, we often had improvement teams working with internal leaders. For four years, we had a yearly workshop teaching employees how to lead improvements teams. The woman leading these workshops then led and managed the improvement teams, and coached the leaders. After four years, we transitioned to doing that internally as well.

1632 Views

How to Promote Engagement and Get Employees Invested in Company Goals

At 6:15 I started riding my bicycle towards Ramat Ha'Nadiv and we started making our way up to Mansur el-Aqeb. We were supposed to meet Uri there. When we reached the top, there was no sign of Uri. We waited. Uri didn’t arrive, nor call. We tried calling him, and there was no answer. After about fifteen minutes, we started riding again, heading north. A short while later, Uri came riding towards us, smiling.

1503 Views

The Cost of Work-From-Home and Zoom Meetings

Covid-19 changed many things in one fell swoop. One of those is the prohibition on face-to-face meetings. With the meetings we were used to no longer possible, we started using Zoom or similar softwares. School and university lectures, management meetings, consultations, workshops, coaching sessions.

1257 Views

How Managers Can Use Personal Goals to Achieve Company Goals

A medical start-up I worked with in the past faced a considerable schedule delay. I suggested the CEO display the company's goals and schedules in a prominent location, breakdown company goals to personal ones assigned to each managers, and thus delegate responsibility to them.

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