{"id":111,"date":"2016-10-07T10:34:13","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T14:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.steelray.com\/blog\/?p=111"},"modified":"2016-10-07T10:34:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T14:34:13","slug":"seven-business-practices-that-need-second-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/?p=111","title":{"rendered":"Seven Business Practices that Need a Second Look"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/nautil.us\/issue\/40\/learning\/cursive-handwriting-and-other-education-myths\" target=\"_blank\">this recent article<\/a> on Nautilus, there&#8217;s a long-held belief in educational systems around the world:<\/p>\n<p><em>Cursive handwriting is an important and valuable skill that should be learned by all children at an early age.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The thinking is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s faster than manuscript<\/li>\n<li>It helps with spelling<\/li>\n<li>It helps with dyslexia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, cursive is taught early and heavily promoted over manuscript (the simple, unconnected method we learn first).<\/p>\n<p>But, according to research, <em>there is no real benefit to cursive<\/em>. On the contrary, manuscript may be?superior in most respects.<\/p>\n<p>And, in today&#8217;s device-driven world where almost nothing is written by hand,?we hardly even <em>read<\/em> anything in cursive.<\/p>\n<p>It seems like the notion to continue using it is, well, dumb ? a classic case of tradition trumping evidence.<\/p>\n<p>This got me thinking about parallels in the business world. About?initiatives, programs and policies we continue to embrace that have little merit. Here&#8217;s a short list:<\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-122 size-full\" style=\"vertical-align: text-bottom;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.steelray.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/business.png\" alt=\"business\" width=\"120\" height=\"34\" \/>?Practices that Need a Second Look<\/h3>\n<h5>1. Rewards programs to boost performance<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanexpress.com\/us\/small-business\/openforum\/articles\/10-myths-about-employee-incentive-programs-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">Performance programs<\/a> are thought to boost morale and incentivize employees, but they often benefit only a few while disenfranchising those who don?t make it to the top.<\/p>\n<h5>2. Yearly and quarterly employee performance reviews<\/h5>\n<p>Ongoing checkins, properly done, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/employee-relations\/pages\/performance-reviews-are-dead.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">can be much more effective<\/a> at giving employees?and management?the insight they need to be more effective at their jobs day-to-day.<\/p>\n<h5>3. ?No meetings? policies, because meetings are boring and unproductive.<\/h5>\n<p>Meetings are critical for strategic planning and communication, so perhaps the solution is not to ditch them, but to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/victorlipman\/2013\/03\/01\/5-simple-steps-to-more-efficient-effective-meetings\/#554a8cc6521c\" target=\"_blank\">learn how to have better meetings<\/a>. Conversely, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Read-This-Before-Next-Meeting\/dp\/1936719169\" target=\"_blank\">not all meetings are created equal<\/a>. Are you swamped with ?status? meetings that are better served by reports and emails? Is the meeting actually serving a goal?<\/p>\n<h5>4. Corporate communication and knowledge sharing via an intranet.<\/h5>\n<p>Do people use it? Does it integrate into daily workflow? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/6-reasons-why-corporate-intranets-fail-deepa-devi\" target=\"_blank\">Intranets are hard to do<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h5>5. Hiring people we ?like&#8221; during the interview<\/h5>\n<p>Research shows that the interview process is laden with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessnewsdaily.com\/5847-avoid-hiring-bias.html\" target=\"_blank\">personal, subconscious bias<\/a>. Many interviews are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/forbesleadershipforum\/2012\/02\/07\/stop-being-deceived-by-interviews-when-youre-hiring\/#51645ade63fe\">highly unstructured and ineffective<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h5>6. 360? feedback programs<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/ericjackson\/2012\/08\/17\/the-7-reasons-why-360-degree-feedback-programs-fail\/#d380f244b986\" target=\"_blank\">Employee feedback initiatives easily fail<\/a>, unless they&#8217;re ongoing, driven from the top, and result in tangible responses by management.<\/p>\n<h5>7. Customer-first policies<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.inc.com\/oscar-raymundo\/richard-branson-companies-should-put-employees-first.html\" target=\"_blank\">According to Richard Branson<\/a>, putting your employees first results in the best customer experience possible (which, in a way, actually puts your customers first).<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s on your list?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to this recent article on Nautilus, there&#8217;s a long-held belief in educational systems around the world: Cursive handwriting is an important and valuable skill that should be learned by all children at an early age. The thinking is: It&#8217;s faster than manuscript It helps with spelling It helps with dyslexia So, cursive is taught [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6,9,10],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","tag-performance","tag-policies","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelray.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}