By Antonia Montes

Mergers and acquisitions between companies have turned into a business strategy for increasing profitability and competiveness in difficult times. Although we use these terms interchangeably as synonyms, there are substantial differences between them.

A merger occurs when two or more companies join together to convert into a single one. If one of the intervening entities absorbs the assets of another, this is called a statutory merger. The term “cold fusion”, now in vogue among savings banks (Cajas de Ahorros) in Spain consists of creating a holding company by incorporating a percentage of the assets with the possibility of maintaining the different brands in each region of influence.

In contrast, when an acquisition occurs, a company is bought out by another. All assets of the company bought out, or the controlling stock package become the property of the buyer.

Marriages between companies

To understand this properly, we can talk of a merger as something based on mutual agreement, rather like a “Western” marriage. Anthropologically, this kind of marriage is an institution which legitimizes descendents and creates ties between groups of family relations.

Alternatively, we can talk of hostile actions launched by one of the parties, comparable to arranged marriages or ones of convenience.

“Arranged marriages” very common in countries like India, China or Afghanistan emerge after months of negotiations between the families, where the couple never get to see one another. It’s not just a contract between two people; it is a contract between families generally of the same social strata and which become larger and more powerful. And this puts pressure on the couple to make sure that this union works.

In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, marriages of convenience were common in Europe, uniting aristocratic and noble families in marriages with the purpose of increasing fortunes and creating bonds of power and influence.

Last are forced marriages, the most “hostile” of all, where one of the parties is married against will out of physical or psychological pressure.

Why do companies “marry”?

The value sought in this strategic decision differs in each case; it can be anything from attaining economies of scale through to reducing competitors, including access to a broader geographical market. Something similar happens with marriages, where we can find unions seeking to legitimize descendents, take advantage of tax benefits, increase fortunes or gain greater power and influence.

With companies, such unions make it possible to cut operating and services costs, and thus increase the cash flow, market share and subsequently profits.

Loveless marriage?

In mergers, independently of decisions directly related to economic and financial objectives and the business, often the difficulties in integrating people from both parties have been underestimated.

As with marriages of convenience, arranged or enforced ones, the couple does not expect to start their marriage with love; instead they accept the norms imposed by their social environment. The love of companionship (the kind a person has for another after spending much time together) may emerge over time in the union, but it lacks the emotional component of romantic love.

A merger process poses an important challenge for the Personnel Administration and Human Resources departments to resolve.

As a result of the merger, the HR department frequently comes up against a rather complex process for change management which is usually quite precipitated. Ideally this companionship should emerge more or less naturally. Above all when the company acquired passes from a familiar present to an unknown and uncertain future. In this scenario, there are employees who leave the organization and those who remain must adapt to change, be these minimal changes or ones that imply an overhaul of the objectives for business units, dependency relationships, planning and more.

Just like marriages of convenience, these crises can bring to light numerous scandals of lovers who unseated the royal wife or husband. For instance, the marriage between Napoleon I with Maria Luisa, the Austrian archduchess not so long ago sealed a peace treaty.

Human resources as a marriage broker

The challenge is to know how to make the most of this change process and embrace it as an opportunity for improving all processes related to managing people, or as I mentioned before, to sow the seed to let “companionship” blossom.

The main keys for rising to this challenge successfully are:

• Detect synergies between management processes in the different companies
• Proposals and decision making for unifying criteria: compensation policies and HR strategies
• Proposals for solutions and improvements: at technical and organizational levels as well as in management processes
• Consolidated information extraction and management: reporting, indicators, dashboards, cost analyses, etc.
• Risk analysis and management
• Actions for change management

Under these circumstances, being the good marriage broker that it has to be, HR needs to undertake tasks for managing change, performance reviews and organizational climate. All without omitting the communication and information phase, as well as paying special attention to detecting demotivation in the workforce and possible knowledge drain.

Or as in any marriage desirous of a healthy and lasting union, the spark of love must be “nurtured” while being ever watchful of any indication that either party is losing interest and enthusiasm.

In short, we mustn’t ever forget that the human factor is vital for the union to be successful. In mergers and acquisitions, just as in marriages, we are talking of people at the end of the day. And when we talk about people, things work out if the parties want it and pull their weight. That’s why the HR department is there. As good marriage broker, it must make sure that the general feeling throughout the organization is that things flow and work out as smoothly as possible without ever losing enthusiasm or the conviction that they are where they want to be.

By Pedro Dávila, Training Director at Meta4

Not so long ago I read a very interesting article trying to give advice to students on what careers, studies and languages to pursue to ensure them a professional future in the workplace.

The conclusion the article drew was clear; in the new labour framework, neither university or post-grad qualifications, nor language skills guarantee a safe job. What previously gave competitive edge is now necessary baggage, but not enough.

Euprepio Padula, Managing Director of Padula & Partners states that “right now we cannot afford the luxury of not being creative. Something more is asked of all of us, and this extra something has to do with the spirit of adapting to the client or to the market.” He also commented, without becoming entrenched in the issue of emotional intelligence, we must discover this facet and note the fact that there are “basic values for the career on how we contribute to the team, the boss, colleagues, and subordinates…. Previously it wasn’t so important for someone to use the emotional angle for success. Today it isn’t like that, and in difficult times we become aware that either we develop these areas or there will be no development in teamwork. This is far more important than choosing a career over another.”

Andrés Fontenla, Managing Director at Futurestep insists on the relevance on the capacity to learn which makes people adaptable. He also highlights the importance of possessing “the capacity to maintain calm and unfazed in the face of changes.”

From his perspective, Federico de Vicente, Manager of the Finance, Consultancy and Strategy department at Michael Page said that “there is a call for profiles that can innovate and covert a difficulty into a milestone or a possibility,” adding that specialization would be another value for the professionals of the future, “profiles who know something specific in depth and can contribute value quickly will be prized more and more.”

The partner of Neumann International, Alberto Bochieri pointed out some values and attitudes in this new labour adventure, mentioning that “a high capacity to relate at all levels is vital—with open mindedness and cultural awareness

right from the start. This includes a relevant international facet, where it’s necessary to learn how to handle different cultures in a broad sense (corporate, social and political).” In this, Krista Walochik, president and CEO at Norman Broadbent in Spain also concurs, when she advocates what will be valued in future professionals, more than the ability to dominate a language, is their “capacity to move around in foreign cultures with the same impact—to be efficient in different cultures.”

The conclusion I reach after reading this article is that present and future companies give and will give a much higher weighting to skills, capacities and attitudes of an individual when selecting a candidate, independently of the knowledge and experience accrued.

Perhaps now your heads are buzzing with questions like: Are these capacities innate or can they be learnt and developed? Are the outcomes from learning satisfactory? Can these results be measured and quantified? My experience tells me that it is possible to learn and cultivate new skills and capacities as well as enhance the ones we already possess innately and which we do not use the way we should.

Over the last few years at Meta4 we have been carrying out an extensive personal development programme. The purpose of which is to enrich the individual personally, detecting and strengthening the skills and capacities already in place, and teaching new skills to be applied afterwards professionally and in day-to-day life.

By Gemma Romero, Project Manager

Every time I read a financial paper, I come across press that continues to remind us all of the productivity gap between Spain and our neighbours, not to mention absenteeism which is much higher than the European average.

Given this information, it’s not surprising we’d tie one thing in with the other. If we do, we can deduce that managing the two main forms of absenteeism, physical and mental non-attendance should help increase productivity perceptibly in our organizations.

Wake up Fernandez! We are the laughing stock of European productivity!

What is absenteeism?

Traditionally absenteeism we refer to as physical non-attendance is defined as a person’s total physical unavailability during working hours within the legally stipulated work day. Real measurement of absenteeism is a relation between the number of hours lost and the number of possible working hours for a given period of reference.

In contrast, the kind of absenteeism which has been called mental non-attendance or “presenteeism” we can define as the functional absence of the employee while performing tasks, because although he is physically present, he is dedicated to other tasks or none.

Both types of absenteeism are clearly and directly related to a drop in productivity in organizations.

How can we manage absenteeism?

On the one hand, to manage this we need to have upfront all the information with as much detail as possible. For this, it is important to measure the absenteeism rates in our organization based on all the criteria that help us to analyse the root of the associated problem. It is vital to record this information, segment it by absence type and cross it against criteria such as organizational (work centre, job) and personal (gender, age) factors, calendar distribution (month of year, day of week), family dependencies (ascendants and descendants), etc.

Indicators giving us this information ease diagnosis and monitoring on absenteeism issues in our organization. The conclusions derived from these will consequently pave the way for taking steps to reduce absenteeism.

On the other hand, to make “adjustments”, analysis by absence type and the capacity to zero into specific problems are crucial.

In this phase, it is important to distinguish between manageable and non manageable absenteeism (non-manageable would be, for example, leave due to maternity or severe illness). The main areas we can work on are basically in labour risk, demotivation and suspicions of fraud. Based on the cases detected in each area, prevention measures, HR management policies and legal steps will be applied as deemed appropriate. Let’s not forget that this only produces positive results when the initiatives adopted don’t just enforce or sanction, but also include motivational steps to increase the employee’s commitment to work.

Among best practices in absenteeism management, what’s worth mentioning is the relevance of decentralizing some tasks in the Human Resources department and passing them on to middle management, including monitoring absenteeism rates in each of their areas of mandate. This way each problem can be individually tackled in each business unit close up as needed. For instance, to find out how an employee’s health is, it is more effective to call the immediate boss, rather than handle through Human Resources.

Spanish monkey business

Just as with analyses on low productivity in Spain, in the domain of absenteeism we find similar cultural factors come into play together with the typical Spanish monkeying about.

These factors drive certain employees to put much effort into seemingly working lots rather than making the day productive. Why is nobody scandalized when hearing someone talk of taking a “sickie”? Such incidences occurring daily in our organizations make companies only look out for today and into the rear mirror of the past, instead of investing in mid-term improvements.It is crucial to reinforce corporate culture to counter this legacy; again middle management should take on this effort to reach out to those under their charge. The actions they need to undertake should include two key aspects as well as implementing specific improvements in absenteeism management. One is evaluation and compensation for productive results based on hours worked. And the other is to transmit the vision of the cathedral under construction to whoever is polishing the stone, that is to say, to ensure all workers feel engaged in the daily construction of the global mission of the company.

After months of reading articles, posts, opinions and whatever over the net on how to avoid talent brain drain, I am going to try and put into a nutshell the ideas I have been gathering. Before I start though, I must say that all that is being said on the matter is quite vague, and it’s almost impossible to find real and applicable “solutions”.

For the most part, allegations HR managers make are well known to all. There’s nothing new there…and nothing surprising. What’s obvious is that these professionals are deeply worried by this talent “brain drain” and are desperate for answers, even though solutions are late coming…

And that’s not surprising as the latest international studies have put forward figures that would make any personnel manager tremble.

First of all, 33% of employees are deemed “high risk”. That’s that same as saying they are not committed to their company and do not plan to stay beyond two years. Some 39% feel “trapped”; they too are not committed, but do intend to continue in the company over the next two years. And finally, the remaining 24% are loyal to the company.

Now we need to delve and find out where our talented employees are, and unless they are one of the 24% who are loyal, we should worry and develop really effective plans of action.

PROBLEMS FACED BY THE TALENTED

Although it’s no easy task, defining the profile of our talented employee can help us understand the problems faced daily. We can then identify the benefits to offer the employee, particularly the ones that represent a real advantage for him over any company in the competition

Although each company is different, I think there are common elements shared between all talented people we must bear in mind.

One of the ideas often repeated is that talented people wind up doing the work of others who aren’t so talented, and end up overloaded with extra responsibilities outside their own, because their colleagues expect more of them. The challenge for the talented is to generate positive synergy in the entire group and not the other way round, and also to “level out” downwards.

Another common issue is that these people “stagnate” or feel blocked. If they feel they will be in the same job for the rest of their lives, they feel imprisoned and end up “escaping”.

For the employee, these scenarios can create stress, disenchantment, fatigue—elements that can be the last straw.Other reasons may be, for example, disagreement with decisions taken by company leaders which make them feel uncomfortable with those steering the company, or stressful and difficult relationships with superiors.

It’s time to find solutions… What makes talented people decide to stay on in our company rather than go to the competition? Here are some examples.

BENEFITS TO OFFER IN ORDER TO AVOID TALENT DRAIN

1. Value and respect people, showing interest in them.
2. Make them feel useful and satisfied with their work.
3. Offer “space” to allow them to develop their talent.
4. Give them the freedom to contribute with new ideas in such a way they can see the results of their own creativity and initiative.
5. Make space for their professional development: offer them a well-defined career plan within the organization which is for REAL.
6. Offer challenges.
7. Financial compensation: competitive salaries, benefits, intangible benefits (training, etc…).
8. Align the individual’s objectives with the global corporate objectives. Offer them free hours, flexible hours, teleworking, etc.
9. Allow them to advance within the company to decision-making levels.
10. Enable participation in the company, through shares, etc. It is vital that the employee feels part of the organization, as if it were his own, even if it were a just a tiny percentage. The goal is to make the individual “fall in love” with the corporate project.

BENEFITS HARDER TO OFFER, BUT ONES THAT MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

1. A fun corporate culture
2. Flexible dress code
3. Experienced and imaginative leaders
4. A sense of organizational pride
5. Good working climate among colleagues
6. Doing stimulating work
7. Fluid and real communication with superiors
8. Team spirit, encouraging events which let employees build personal relationships and have fun
9. Identify whether an individual begins to lose interest in the current work and try to relocate him in an area where he feels more motivated
10. A leader who identifies and answers to the personal needs of each of his team members

HOW DO WE DO IT?

Based on a survey conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers, only 10% of their clients have a programme for retaining personnel. And even then, these programmes have not proved to be effective enough. The reason for this failure seems to be poor identification of the personal needs of each talented individual.  This impresses the need for developing specific programmes for each one.

How? A solution might be to offer a wide range of possibilities and let the employee prepare his own personal benefits plan within some pre-established parameters. Let’s not forget that it is also vital to execute a competitive salary plan as well as involve key people in the development of their career path.

And now… what are you waiting for to implement a talent retention plan?

Is there happiness at work? I think that for the majority of people this is more of a utopia than a “possible reality”. But companies will have to start to worry about the people working under their roof, not just them but also their happiness—unless they want to lose their talented employees, or if they don’t intend to capture new talent. Why? What makes a potential employee choose us over the competition? The answer to this increasingly has to do with the “good working environment” we are offering.

Well, that’s what came out of the event “How to enjoy work and evolve” (“Como disfrutar y evolucionar en el trabajo”) held by Unique and AEDIPE (The Spanish Association for Personnel Development and Management) with the purpose of studying and personal satisfaction on the job and boosting it to the maximum.

The first step towards achieving this happiness at the workplace, as Juan Hunt, Director General of the International Labour Organization said, “To have a dignified job that allows us to work under safe conditions with protected rights, health, and the right training. Having none of that is indeed far from happiness.”

Although this seems obvious, it reminds me more of the first steps of the Maslow pyramid, where the basic needs are satisfied and not those that lead to motivation and happiness in the work environment.

Javier Ayuso, Managing Director of Unique, comes closer to the reasons why we do not attain this happiness. Or better said why companies don’t get it right when offering their employees conditions that will make them happy. Just as he stated, “It is really important HR policies take into account the most common human behaviours and attitudes. Often a part of the slip ups or dissatisfactions at work emerge from not tackling a situation as called for or even misinterpreting and exaggerating inane one-off comments.”

From my angle, I think that achieving this “smile at work”, although it can be boosted by the company, depends on each person in the majority of cases. As Carlos Hernández, an expert in training and development pointed out, “the people must decide where they are going, what their future will be, build their destiny.” This is something that often triggers our professional dissatisfaction.

Most people don’t face this challenge out of fear of change. It’s logical up to a point. Facing our future is not always easy, and as Hernández indicated, “We don’t like change, it scares us.” But it offers us many advantages, “it stimulates, it favours innovation, it allows us to advance, it’s positive and generates opportunities. The key is within ourselves, we have to be capable of creating our own opportunities.”

Or as mentioned by Marcos Urarte, a consultant who likes to believe that happiness at the workplace exists even if it be temporary, “There comes a time when the individual himself may have changed his values, interests… In that case it is better to look for another job.”

Urate claims that it’s possible to favour an environment compatible with “smiling on the job”. Not only is it doable, but it’s also a must because if we don’t do it some of our employees fall prey to emotional absenteeism. “There will come a day when they disengage, lose drive and the impetus they had to merely limit themselves to turning up at the company, doing a grey job and returning home each day with the satisfaction that this month they can pay the mortgage. And this happens to the best of them, because it doesn’t to mediocre workers or lazy ones who never had such dreams or expectations while performing their tasks. Companies cannot lose all this talent.”

If it is so crucial, how come companies are so disoriented in this respect? According to Urarte, “At times financial resources are wasted to provide employees certain services or goods which they couldn’t care less about. With far less effort, they can be given what they really want or need. What is the point of having a gym or parking space if what they want is some freedom with working hours? Or even offering more salary if they want more time?

What should we do then? According to Joan Elias, author of Lovework (Empresa Activa), the employee must leave home motivated. “A company cannot motivate their employees, but it can create a motivating environment where each one can find his path. Companies do not have soul and happiness is something each one has to pursue himself.” Let’s not forget that, “To be happy at work, people want to feel useful and unique, be masters of their time and have fun.”

How can companies take first steps towards this new policy for happiness at work? Easy, we can start with the “AEDIPE Decalogue for implementing a labour happiness strategy” (In Spanish, “Decálogo de AEDIPE para implantar una estrategia de felicidad laboral”):

1. Listen to the diversity within each employee.
2. Encourage each person to evaluate his own potential.
3. Empower personal and professional talent.
4. Offer autonomy and responsibility in professional performance.
5. Ensure tolerance and collaboration in all professional teams.
6. Settle individual and collective flexibility.
7. Promote dignified work and social protection.
8. Link productivity to measurable objectives that add competitiveness.
9. Compensate management committed to happiness on the job.
10. In short, create happiness on the job to increase productivity.

During times of crisis like now where the financial outlook impacts all business decisions, managing our main capital, the people themselves has become vital for breezing through this complicated situation. During bonanzas, all our efforts focus on retaining talent, adapting our salary policies in a bullish market, defining compensation policies… However, in down times everything revolves around reorganizations, layoffs and so on. Clearly in times like these, HR policies will depend largely on the situation each company finds itself in, where it needs to find the right balance.

Yes, certainly we are looking for ways to close the circle. That is to say, improve our results, increase motivation, create a good working atmosphere, and provide exceptional customer services—and all that while reducing costs. It is vital that HR professionals play a strategic role within the organization. Not in vain are they facing the most difficult challenges of their careers. And to achieve success, they need the management team to throw themselves into this difficult mission.

From my point of view, the cornerstone for people management in times like now is commitment. What I am referring to is the commitment of all the people in the company translated into some common objectives shared by all. But how are we going to achieve this ambitious goal?

First of all, we must improve communication. We need to clearly transmit the business strategy, the reasons why we take certain decisions. And at the same time explain the successes and failures frankly and honestly, so that the entire workforce feels part of it all. I think it is essential that all people with responsibilities in the company be able to transmit these messages articulately and ensure they have reached each person forming part of their teams.

Next, we should orient our actions to motivating our workforce to the maximum, above all the key people of our organization. The ones who are most committed will “infect” the rest. And achieve that everything moves around these three core competencies: innovation, continual learning and focus on the client.

To start off with, we need to identify who is who within the organization, to pinpoint these key people. And having the right evaluation tools will be vital for moving in this direction. Afterwards we will have to identify what motivates this group to develop the right training, development, salary and compensation plans among others.

Lastly, we must not overlook the important constraints we face each day. These are mostly of a financial nature, which are affecting all companies regardless of sector and size. At this level, I recommend optimizing our salary plans. We need to increase the variable part of our pay package to align ourselves with the global objectives of the company. Without forgetting to add a new factor to this equation, prioritize the long term objectives over the short term ones.

By Arantxa Gonzalez, Meta4 Project Manager

The first time I heard of emotional salary, I thought “They don’t know what else to invent for raises. Instead of a salary raise, let’s raise morale!”

As if it were a constraining, negative and an oversimplified thought, I started to research what this emotional salary was all about and I found an interview with Carmen Povedano of a few years ago. Three statements gave me a pretty good idea, “Compensation is important for anybody, but what is also important is that more and more people (including executives when their basic needs covered) prefer to renounce salary raises (and even promotions) for life work balance between their professional and family lives, and there are companies who are losing talent simply because they do not recognize this.”

Our culture is changing. Of course salary is vital. I know very few people who are privileged to work for fun.

Despite the undeniable importance of this “monetary” salary, society is talking of the work environment, compensation measures, equality, flexibility, teleworking, professional career development, recognition and rewards plans—unthinkable things 15 years ago. Given society is changing, it is also necessary to modify our ideas on work compensation, and that is where the latest buzzword emotional salary comes in. With the purpose of coming to grips with this concept, I jotted down on a piece of paper a list of salary compensation items that go beyond the usual ones, and once I identified (over 100!) and classified them, I had a good bird’s eye view of all the ones companies could use to better reward their employees.

In this scheme, I divided the items into four categories that could possibly be applied in organizations.

Standard compensation: all those items that form part of our salary package over and above the gross salary. These are variable benefits, or some specific ones that companies offer under certain circumstances such as birth, marriage, etc., flexible benefits with fiscal perks…

Social benefits organizations offer their employees: these are direct benefits for them and have either an associated direct/indirect cost for the organization. Typical ones are health, insurance, child education or professional training benefits.

Quality of life benefits: these cover issues around work-life balance. These do not appear in our pay check at the end of the month, but the demand for these are undoubtedly on the rise and valued by employees, often this figures as a “salary increase” even though it is “emotional”. This category includes the benefits the organization offers the employee for work-life balance issues with childcare or dependencies. Flexible hours, reduced hours or teleworking are some of the star attractions of this set.

Lastly, I identified another set of items tied to emotional compensation. Here we can find perks organizations offer their employees. Although in many cases these are rather difficult to quantify, these have an enormous impact on the value of emotional salary. Motivation, work atmosphere, management relations are just a few of these. Much emotional compensation has a total or partial direct cost associated for the organization (free transport, gym, day care, parking, etc.). Unfortunately although employees enjoy these perks, these are not considered as part of emotional salary.

Not all of these are applicable to all organizations, neither can all organizations apply these to their workforces, as each one has their own needs, priorities and even means for implementing them. Some organizations, even if they had many possibilities for improving the emotional benefits for their employees, do not have any kind of emotional salary.

But the organizations that do, it would be a huge step forward if their employees were aware of what emotional salary is and what they are enjoying. I noticed many companies made significant investments in employees that have been undeniably wasted because employees didn’t know that they have these benefits, nor did they value them… until they went to another company that didn’t offer them….

To draw focus on this within our organization, measuring the pulse of the “wellbeing” of our employees and their needs will be vital for choosing the steps to take. And also a suitable communications campaign will make a difference either incorporating or increasing emotional salary successfully.

It is well-established that having more employees “emotionally” compensated translates into organizational advantage—helping to retain talent and increase motivation as well as commitment among employees, leads to improved efficiency and productivity.

Many of the measures discussed do not imply great costs for organizations but certainly cause a huge impact in the balance sheet for employees. Being generous in these difficult times, by incorporating these kinds of measures in our organizations may be the key to successfully overcoming the economic difficulties today.

How do you see the future of employee engagement over the next 10 years? How will this idea change in the decade to come?

The writer, educator, coach and consultant, David Zinger, forewarning us of the risk of making such predictions, tells us what he thinks will occur in the next few years.

You can read it up in his blog “Employee Engagement“.

Lots, in fact heaps, has been written about using social networking for work. Wading through what’s been written on the subject, two articles drew my attention. And more than the actual pieces, it’s the combination of these that I think can change the way we relate in the office.

Yesterday in his blog, Mario Belmonte published the results of a study conducted by Watson Wyatt which stated that 65% of management plan to increase the use of social networking in 2010 as part of their strategy for improving communication with their employees.

I don’t know if this is spurred by a lack of communication with employees or because they have realized that these “communicate” better through social networks.

And that is where the second article comes in. According to the Annual Report from the Information Society in Spain (Informe Anual de la Sociedad de la Información en España), when it comes to the percentage of users who participate in social networks we are the top country in Europe and second in the world.

Reading through the report, we can confirm that Spaniards have a very strong presence in the network, especially those between 10 and 34 years old, way ahead of the European Union. Rather surprising, even though it’s the country most affected by the financial downturn, Spanish homes have most heavily invested in technology services, particularly in mobile phones.

With these figures on the table, I’m not surprised that managers have decided to jump on to the “social networking” bandwagon to communicate with their employees. There are interesting conclusions to be had from the report, like 48% of managers have reduced their printed communication and 78% increased electronic communication. And face to face communication increased by 55%—not bad at all.

Clearly companies are still experimenting with the possibility of using social networking as a new communications channel, not just with their employees but also with clients, partners and others. Despite this growing interest, it hasn’t drawn investment in personnel nor resources. Some 36% of the managers indicated that the main reason for not using social networking in employee communications was due to a lack of IT support or technical capacity. A further 40% said they had limited knowledge on the subject and another 45% blamed the dearth of qualified personnel for not taking up social networking.

What do you think? Will social networking in the office improve internal communication?

It’s a good question, and as always, the answer always filters to Spain late. It seems that competencies management is finally leaving the stage to make room for such a pioneering notion, for which we still have no offical translation in Spanish. Gurus like Carlos Alemany, president of Korn Ferry International, have heralded learning ability as the future for business management.

To figure out what this is all about, we need to cross the pond and wade through the articles that may shed some light on the nature of “learning agility”.

John R. Ryan, president of the Center for Creative Leadership states that learning agility is the best way to face new challenges and recieve feedback we need to evolve in our organization. “ If you need to think quickly, adapt and react very, very quickly—what you need is learning agility”.

Agile learners think with greater clarity and speed in difficult situations. They are the ones who  know themselves best, and who like to experiment and expose themselves to new and bigger challenges. They like to learn, and are capable of applying new knowledge acquired on the spot. Most importantly, agile learners are capable of delivering results even in entirely new situations.

Although it might seem easy, it isn’t. Developing this talent requires strong iron will while learning; facing challenging situations however difficult they may seem; and relentlessly seeking out all the feedback and acceptance we can on our performance.

The first requirement is far harder than it seems. Just the mere fact that finding time to study and keep ourselves up to date is already complicated. Even more so for leaders who are always busy and  tight for time. But this is a non-negotiable requirement, particularly for agile learners who must always be hungry for knowledge.

The search for continual challenges isn’t easy either. It is unusual to find people who are ready to leave their comfort zone and risk their careers for possible failure. This is accentuated even more among those who are accustomed to success. What is the secret to success for agile learners? Knowing themselves, recognizing their abilities and being aware of the ones they need to develop, and of course, when and how to do it.

Lastly, lets get to the most complicated requirement, at least in my eyes—to be capable of positively accepting and absorbing feedback. In Spanish companies we are not accustomed to accept or even request feedback on our work. Perhaps it is something we need to learn from scratch—accept constructive criticisms and apply them in our day to day activities.

Even if in Spain we are late in importing this idea, looking towards the US which is always at the forefront of the latest management trends, we can see that those people who are able to develop this learning agility will be the ones to deliver the best results, leaving behind the average performers.