Happy Employees

Geoff Johansing

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BUSINESS

Employees that enjoy their job have a huge impact on the bottom line of a company… and so do employees that are not happy. There are many things an employer can do to increase the morale of employees. Our Happy Employees videos are now available in Podcast format. Enjoy the whole series on our website: https://riskadvisorteam.com/category/happyemployees/

10/04/2018

How Security and Safety Contribute to Employee Happiness and Productivity in the Workplace ~ with Nadine Anderson

An interview with Nadine Anderson on how security and safety contribute to employee happiness. Nadine Anderson (RAS Consulting & Investigations) speaks with Geoff Johansing about how security and safety contribute to employee happiness and productivity in the workplace. Since technology is advancing every day, so should a company's security, as in physical security as well as from an operations standpoint, This can be achieved by having the best policies and procedures in place. The top factors that affect employee happiness, are actually the intangible ones such as interpersonal relationships, culture, and work environment. Employers should want their employees to feel as though they can respond to a situation, that they know what to do, and also have the confidence that an employer has already considered what to do if a dangerous situation should occur. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Nadine Anderson Business Development Manager RAS Consulting & Investigations Hermosa Beach, CA Website: RAS Consulting & Investigations FULL TRANSCRIPTION: GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Geoff Johansing. I run the Risk Advisor team here in Pasadena, with Insurance Office of America. I'm a property and casualty insurance agent with a focus on having my clients have happy employees, and how do we get there? I'm here today with Nadine Anderson. She's with RAS consulting and investigations. Welcome, Nadine. NADINE ANDERSON: Thank you for having me. GJ: Would you like to talk to us a little bit... or tell us please, a little bit about your company? What do you do? NA: Yes, yes. RAS is a physical security consulting and investigations firm. Ultimately what we do is we take an approach to physical security from a technology and an operations standpoint. So what does that mean? Technology is advancing every day. And as technology advances, so should your security. I'm talking about the cameras, the access control, and all of the other layers that come into play, with physical security. From an operations standpoint, we work with clients to make sure that they have the best policies and procedures in place. GJ: Ok. NA: To make sure that they are covered from a legal standpoint. But also, that they have a standardized solution, both from a technology standpoint, but that their policies or procedures are aligned with that. GJ: Okay, so in having a good security system, a good security program, how does that help the culture of the company? What does that do for the employer and employees? NA: Well, we found that the top factors that affect employee happiness, are actually the intangible ones. So interpersonal relationships, culture, and work environment. And studies have actually shown that employees who don't feel safe within their work environment are not as productive. Now, if you have an entire workforce that feels that lack of safety, your company's never going to reach its full potential because they're just not going to have the productive employees you'd hope to have. And, unfortunately, and this isn't, you know, this isn't a scare tactic but it's the truth. Bad things are happening in the news every day and people are more aware of situations that are occurring; active-shooter, disgruntled employees and the first thing an employee thinks is “well, what would I do in that situation?” or “could that happen to us?

11 min
08/28/2018

Brand Strategy and Its Importance in Keeping Employees Happy ~ with Kevin Walker

An interview with Kevin Walker on Brand Strategy and its role in keeping employees happy. Kevin Walker (Boardwalk) speaks with Geoff Johansing about the importance of a brand and how managing your brand effectively will be as attractive to your best employee as it is to your best customer. A good brand strategy will be pointing to a healthy corporate culture, meaningful work, high-quality co-workers; and attract the very best candidates, and keep them happy. Everybody wants to work for a good brand. If a company differentiates its brand assets in a meaningful way they will find their true competitive advantage, tell their story, and grow their business. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Kevin Walker Principal and Senior Brand Strategist Boardwalk Los Angeles, CA, Paris, France Website: Boardwalk FULL TRANSCRIPTION: GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Geoff Johansing. I run the Pasadena office of Insurance Office of America. I am a property and casualty insurance agent working on companies in the middle market arena from a hundred plus employees with ten million plus in revenue and my focus is to have all of my clients have happy employees. I'm here today with Kevin Walker, who runs Boardwalks Branding, and he's in the Los Angeles area. Welcome, Kevin. KEVIN WALKER: Thank you. GJ: You want to tell us a little bit about your company? KW: Ah, sure. Boardwalk is brand strategy consultancy. We are here in Los Angeles, and have been in business since 1990. We work in all different industries; technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer products, sports, entertainment, municipalities, nonprofits, pretty much everything... and what we do with our clients is we help them differentiate their brand assets and in a meaningful way, find their true competitive advantage, tell their story and grow their business. GJ: Wonderful. So Kevin, my first question; how does having a strong brand create happy employees? KW: Well studies show that the top concern of middle market companies is talent. How does an organization attract the best, most capable and most productive employees and then keep the competition from poaching them? In the past, they've only had to worry themselves about two different things; base pay salary structure and benefits package. GJ: Right. KW: But now, every job offer has that. And top talent, in fact, will expect offers at the high end of that scale. So if every job offer is, if there's parody in all the job offers, how does a candidate make a decision? And they look at four different things; they look at the purpose and the mission at the prospective company; they look at the meaningfulness of the work there; they look at the quality of the co-workers; and they look at the corporate culture. And if you notice, all those things are branding issues. And in fact, 50% of job candidates who turn down a job offer... do it because they don't like the offering company's brand. GJ: Okay. KW: But if you've been managing your brand effectively it will already be as attractive to your best employee as it is to your best customer. A good brand strategy will be pointing to healthy corporate culture, meaningful work, high-quality co-workers; and you'll be in good shape to attract the very best candidates, and keep them happy. Everybody wants to work for a good brand.

16 min
06/21/2018

How Safety Programs can Enhance Employee Job Satisfaction ~ with Joe Stevens

An Interview with Joe Stevens on how safety programs can enhance employee job satisfaction. Today I’m here with Joe Stevens (Bridge Consultants) discussing how safety programs can enhance employee job satisfaction. The happier an employee is, the more likely he is to do his job. To look out for others, one of the big parts of safety is not just that an individual’s doing his job, but being aware of others too. The more positive a worker feels about his job and his company, the more likely he is to make a greater contribution. Sometimes we see that productivity goals are met on a more regular basis when the workforce is truly engaged. The whole company thrives when the workforce is happier and feeling better about things. Working with people that are in a better frame of mind, feeling more positive about the company, the company benefits from that. Culture is at the heart of a successful organization of any type. The more positive you make that culture, the happier the employees and the greater the productivity. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Joe Stevens HR Consultant Bridge Consultants Rancho Palos Verdes, CA Website: Bridge Consultants FULL TRANSCRIPTION: GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Geoff Johansing. I run the Pasadena office for Insurance Office of America and I am here today for another video for employee happiness. It is my belief that if you have, as an employer, happy employees, you will succeed. And I'm here today with Joe Stevens. Joe Stevens runs Bridge Safety Consultants. It's his company. JOE STEVENS: Good Morning, Joe. JS: Good morning, Geoff. GJ: Would you like to tell us a little bit about your company? JS: I started the business 15 years ago because I saw a connection between employee happiness and culture. And a safety record. The company I was with had had a terrible safety record and I thought, “I could put in a couple of things that would work well.” They did work well; then the company was acquired, and I had the not exactly “Sophie's Choice” of taking an 18 months severance, or staying with the business... but it did mean relocating to Detroit. GJ: ok JS: You can guess how long I wrestled with that decision. GJ: laughing... JS: So 15 years ago I started the consulting practice to advise companies on ways that they can affect the safety culture, reducing injuries, and saving a great deal of money. GJ: And you have kind of a different twist. I've attended some of your presentations. I think that “laughter factor” is great. So I'm going to ask a couple of questions. JS: Great. GJ: And umm first we all know that culture... that culture of a company is important to the happiness factor. But you often say that safety culture is the most important. Why do you believe that? JS: I think that employers overlook the unspoken concerns that a new employee has. He wants to know about the job, and the job requirements, and he wants to make sure he's trained. But in his mind he also wants to know is this safe? Is there a danger here? Is there a chance that I can get hurt? He doesn't verbalize that, but it is the absolute basic foundation of his evaluation of the company. So I think that the better job a company does at addressing those safety concerns and reassuring the employee or the future employee that this is a company ...

10 min
04/19/2018

Keeping Employees Engaged is a Key Tool for a Happy Work Environment ~ with Rodney Bolton

An interview with Rodney Bolton on how keeping employees engaged is a key tool for a happy work environment. Geoff Johansing is speaking with Rodney Bolton (HR Bizz). HR Bizz' services are designed to make a company function more efficiently and effectively. He works with a vast array of clientele ranging from local, national and international companies providing them with human resource strategies to propel them to the next level. His focus on employee satisfaction and getting the right people in the right positions has allowed his clients to achieve their desired results. By using tools such as evaluating the climate or tone of a company, surveys, attendance, how well employees work together, how well management and employees interact together and encouraging team-building exercises you promote an environment where employees are happy and engaged. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Rodney Bolton Chief Executive Officer HR Bizz Los Angeles, CA Website: HR Bizz FULL TRANSCRIPTION: GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I am Geoff Johansing, here again with another video for my happy employees. I work with Insurance Office of America, serving middle market industries. Those 100-plus employees and million-plus in revenue are the clients that I'm looking for. And I'm here today with Rodney Bolton. Rodney Bolton owns HR Biz, and thank You, Rodney. Would you like to introduce yourself? RODNEY BOLTON: Thanks for having me Geoff. I'm Rodney Bolton, from HR Biz. HR Biz is a human resource consulting firm located in Los Angeles, California. We're a broad-based consulting company, and our core function is human resource management, strategic analysis, and creating an environment for happy employees. GJ: All right, Rodney, well... RB: Thank you. GJ: Hey, I've got a few questions I'd like to talk to you about and I'll ask you and see how you can align. RB: Great. GJ: How do you define and measure employee engagement? RB: So, when you're looking at employee engagement, Geoff, what we like to look at is how well do the employees work together? How well do employees work together in different channels? Are they coordinating well or is there any turmoil in the workforce? We also like to know exactly where is that medium between workers and management? It's a critical junction where work always intersects with people. Our goal is to make sure when the two meet, management and employees, that there's a happy medium. GJ: Okay RB: So the definition is always, right, are workers happy? GJ: Alright, and then, what should employers do to make sure that their employees are engaged? How do you see yourself handling that? RB: Well, I think the first thing you do, you have to really engage the climate. Take climate surveys. You can use, there's a lot of tools out there now that you can use to really measure employees to see if they're happy. You can also look at attendance. Attendance is a very good barometer. You know, you'll find that employees that are engaged readily come to work. You also can look at turnover. Turnover is a tremendous tool in evaluating how successful your company is. We know that there is a triangle, and that triangle at the top is turnover, and the bottom is retention, and on the left is engagement. So you need to always align turnover, engagement, and attendance. And you'll always be able to measure how well your employees are doing. GJ: Now, when you refer to climate what exactly does that mean? RB: So climate tells me, just like it would in any other situation, warm or cold.

9 min
03/07/2018

How Defining a Clear Direction For Your Company Creates Happy Employees ~ with Tom Reynolds

An interview with Tom Reynolds on how defining a clear direction for your company creates happy employees. A key to happy employees is defining a clear direction for your company. When you have a company, you need to have a plan. A big strategic plan. What you need to do is carve it down to a 90 day period that people can really digest. A couple of pages, easily read and simply written. It gets everybody on the team all rowing in the same direction. It starts with the simplest piece of business. What is your mission? What is your vision? And what are your values? A mission needs to be very simple. Your mission is a clear statement about what you do. You start with the mission, vision, and values. The mission tells briefly what you do. The vision is, what we need right now. It gives people a direction. Here's where we're going. Let's get there. Having that common focus and everyone knowing where we're going is key to everyone being on the same page and expectations are clear. The third thing, which is super important, is the values of the company. These are how we act in this company. Communication is one of the most important parts of these values. Everybody's going to be very happy because they're clear about where they're going, they're clear about how they're supposed to do it; and they're clear about where it's going to take them. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Tom Reynolds President The Reynolds Group La Cañada, CA Website: The Reynolds Group FULL TRANSCRIPTION: GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Geoff Johansing with Insurance Office of America. I’m a property and casualty insurance agent focusing on happy employees. Today I have with me Tom Reynolds, of the Reynolds Group. Hello Tom. TOM REYNOLDS: Hey Geoff, how are you? GJ: Fine. You want to introduce yourself? Kind of talk about the company and what you do? TR: Absolutely. Thank you very much. My name is Tom Reynolds, and I'm a salesman in marketer’s clothing. And what that means is that I love to sell stuff, and help companies increase their revenue, increase their sales. A typical story would be a client I just finished with had only closed 2 new clients in 12 months and decided that they needed some help. So we came in and in 6 months we were able to get them 8 new clients and 7 hot prospects and really help them with their growing their revenue. So it was a blast. GJ: Right on… and what's your background? TR: Well it's a good question. You know I'm a fourth generation salesman. Aren't you a fourth generation insurance guy? GJ: Yes, I am. TR: Well you know that puts it in our DNA, what we do. I mean we would like... we might want to do something different, but we can't! GJ: Laughing... TR: Because we're passionate about it. And we feel it. I mean it's... we're not your typical consultants. And so, I believe firmly, that to sell is to serve. And the trick is to work with clients and get their whole organization selling. And get them enthusiastic because selling's fun, you know, and you had a saying once about what you hear on a phone. GJ: Yeah. You can hear a smile through the phone. TR: You bet. You know, and so if you can have happy employees and also employees that believe in what you do, you can you can achieve great things. GR: I completely agree.

9 min
01/24/2018

Embracing New Technology, and the Benefits to Employee Happiness ~ with Marissa Marquez

An interview with Marissa Marquez embracing new technology, and the benefits to employee happiness. Embracing New Technology and the Benefits to Employee Happiness was today's topic with my guest Marissa Marquez (AMC Solutions). When your employees don't have issues; when everything is just running the way it should; when they can get out of the office on time because they're not held up with a system that's not running properly, they're happier. It helps build on culture and allows us to really push the business forward and help them grow. Usually, the feedback is that increased productivity not only results in a more motivated workforce but now they also find that the one or two additional employees that they thought they needed to hire, they no longer need, because their efficiency has improved. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Marissa Marquez AMC Solutions (Advanced Microcomputing Concepts) Solutions San Dimas, CA Website: AMC Solutions GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. Geoff Johansing here. I run the Pasadena office for Insurance Office of America. We’re as a property and casualty provider. My focus is to have my clients have happy employees. I believe with happy employees you're just going to do extremely well as a company, profitability etc. And I have here today, Marissa Marquez. And Marissa works with AMC solutions. Hello Marissa. MARISSA MARQUEZ: Hey Geoff - thanks for having me. GJ: My pleasure. Would you like to give me a little comment on your company? On what you guys do and your role? MM: Sure. AMC Solutions has been around for about 15 years. We are a managed service provider, which means for some of our clients we are their entire IT department; and for others we work with their in-house IT. We have a proactive approach, much like your proactive approach to insurance, which means that we have a very integrated relationship with all of our clients. My role, specifically, is managing all of our operations. So, in addition to all of our processes, which we are an extremely process based company, I manage our staff. And that is something that's probably my favorite thing that I do, because I do believe having happy employees not only excels an organization, but that spreads out to your client base as well. When your staff is happy, they're able to happily serve your client base. GJ: Well, great. I'm glad you're here. Today we've got a couple of questions I'd like to ask you. So how does your process help employers, with technology, create employee satisfaction or satisfaction with their position? MM: Absolutely. So first, we have to really get to know our clients. So when we are in the process of just meeting a prospect, we are really getting to know everything about the business...Where they've been, where they're at currently, where they want to get to. But also, understanding who is their workforce? And Is that workforce going to grow? What's the average age of their workforce? What's the technology they're currently using? Because, just because there's a great technology out there, if their workforce can't adapt to it, it doesn't make sense to just throw this process in. If we also help them, since we're so focused on processes, we build those... help our clients build those processes within their own companies. So we look at IT as, how do we make their employees as productive as possible? Help them increase their profitability? But also in the long run, that equates to employee happiness. When your employees don't have issues. When everything is just running the way it should.

10 min
12/08/2017

Protecting Your Company’s IP from Being Used by Your Ex-employees ~ with Dan Cotman

An interview with Dan Cotman on how to protect your company’s proprietary information from being used by your ex-employees. In this Happy Employees Video, Geoff Johansing is speaking with Dan Cotman, founder of Cotman IP, a law firm in Pasadena that specializes in intellectual property. As we all strive to have happy employees, sometimes things don’t work out. In this video, he addresses how to protect your company’s proprietary information from being used by your ex-employees. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Dan Cotman Founder & Managing Partner Cotman IP Law Group, PLC Pasadena, CA Website: www.cotmanip.com FULL TRANSCRIPTION: GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Geoff Johansing. I’m here today with Dan Cotman. Dan runs an intellectual property law firm here in Pasadena, Cottman IP. I’ve talked to him about our “Happy Employees” theme, and he’s shared with me, “It’s great! It’s a wonderful idea”, but sometimes there are just our bad seeds out there or employees that aren’t happy and then they leave. He's gonna help me converse with you with regards to what to do in the instance that you have intellectual property or trademarks that you do not want to have leave. DAN COTMAN: Yes thank you Geoff! GJ: Absolutely! DC: Yeah the Geoff’s ideal of happy employees is certainly the dream. I have advised many businesses of the understanding that that doesn't always happen. Sometimes people leave and try to take things that are proprietary and so the mechanism we use to stop that as intellectual property lawyers is typically a nondisclosure agreement. What those non-disclosure agreements contain is a trade secrets provision where it says “Hey you unhappy person, you can't take a protective trade secrets out the door and use it with my competitors or with other people”. They are enforceable, but they are only enforceable in situations where adequate measures have been taken to protect the trade secret. The mistake I see often made is that either there is no non-disclosure paperwork with all the employees or there is the paperwork but the company has not taken the adequate measures to really protect the information. So in your own business think about something like customer information which may be very critical to the success of your business. But if it's open and available to everybody at the company those who sign non-disclosure agreements, those that haven't, then it's not really a trade secret no matter whether you have agreements that say it's a trade secret or not. So if Mr. Unhappy leaves and you need to then try to stop them from using that information, if you haven't taken the right internal adequate measures to protect the information, you're gonna have a tough time. So, the recommendation in terms of a best practice is certainly to have those agreements in place and to have the adequate measures in place as well. JG: So, for example making sure all the files are locked and put away, etc? DC: Yep, it's basic things. It's locked doors, locked cabinets where information is really sensitive, access control where certain types of files might exist in either electronic form or in physical form. GJ: We went through a lot of that as the HIPAA laws came out, and were new, where we had to make sure that all of our files were locked and everything. Now we're much more, work 100% online and everything is locked. DC: Yeah,

4 min
10/27/2017

Happy Employees in the Workplace ~ with Cindy Flynn

An interview with Cindy Flynn on happy employees in the workplace. Cindy Flynn (Hackler, Flynn & Associates) speaks with Geoff Johansing about how happy employees in the workplace can be obtained. Ensuring an employee is a good fit for a company helps create a happier employee in the workplace. It's very valuable to put a lot of time and energy and education into your employees and ensure that they're a good fit for the company in the company culture. Come up with a 10 step process in hiring and set clear expectations in your job posting. Have a clear way that the candidate can contact you, and envision what that looks like. As you're going through the process, you're screening them and making sure that it's a good fit. In addition to having that person's boss interview, perhaps, the people that they're going to be working with as well. It's good to come up with five or six other people in the office who will be working closely with that person to buy-in on the interview process. That way you ensure everyone works well together, creating a happier work environment. For more "Happy Employees" insights, join our LinkedIn Group! About Cynthia Flynn Founder & Managing Partner Hackler Flynn & Associates, APC Monterey Park, California Website: hacklerflynnlaw.com FULL TRANSCRIPTION: GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. GEOFF JOHANSING: Hello everyone. I'm Jeff Johansen. I run the Risk Advisor Team and also the branch office in Pasadena for Insurance Office of America. And I'm here to further dive into my theory of happy employees, and what they do for your company. I have here today, Cindy Flynn. She is a founding partner of Hagler, Flynn and Associates. They are a law firm with an office in Los Angeles and Orange County, focusing on employment practice issues representing the employer. Hello, Cindy. CYNTHIA FLYNN: Hi Geoff. Thank you so much for having me. GJ: My pleasure. So I’ve got a few questions I'd like to run through with you, and the first one is, for a company, what would you define as a company's greatest asset? CF: It's really their employees, but, on the contrary, employees can also be a company's worst nightmare. And so I think it's very valuable to put a lot of time and energy and education into your employees and ensure that they're a good fit for the company in the company culture. GJ: Can you give some examples of where you think, you know, how do you tell if an employee is a good fit? Or is it the hiring practice for example? Let’s go into that. I think that's an area where a lot of employers could enhance what they're doing or learn new tricks. CF: Sure. GJ: Where... What are your thoughts with regards to hiring practices? And how do you get the right people on board? CF: So, my motto with hiring is, hire slow and fire fast. GJ: I love that motto. CF: Yes. and come up with a 10 step process in hiring and set clear expectations in your job posting. Have a clear way that the candidate can contact you. And envision what that looks like. And as you're going through the process, you're screening them and making sure that it's a good fit. how they work under pressure; whether there are typos, things like that. You may, or may not need to pay them for that. GJ: Ok. CF: Umm, and in having your entire staff, I mean,

7 min

8 Episodes

Creator

Geoff Johansing
Episodes

8
Rating

Clean
Show Website

Happy Employees

Happy Employees

Episodes

How Security and Safety Contribute to Employee Happiness and Productivity in the Workplace ~ with Nadine Anderson

Brand Strategy and Its Importance in Keeping Employees Happy ~ with Kevin Walker

How Safety Programs can Enhance Employee Job Satisfaction ~ with Joe Stevens

Keeping Employees Engaged is a Key Tool for a Happy Work Environment ~ with Rodney Bolton

How Defining a Clear Direction For Your Company Creates Happy Employees ~ with Tom Reynolds

Embracing New Technology, and the Benefits to Employee Happiness ~ with Marissa Marquez

Protecting Your Company’s IP from Being Used by Your Ex-employees ~ with Dan Cotman

Happy Employees in the Workplace ~ with Cindy Flynn

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