Press

Enhance your Talent Management on HotelExecutive.com  – Increase Retention with an Employee Engagement Survey

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the hospitality industry turnover rate topped 70 percent for the second year in a row. When morale is low, there is something called the contagion effect. This is when the culture gets so bad and the turnover rate is so high that is impossible to continue to ignore the problem. You concede you are losing the talent war. But don’t give up yet, an employee engagement survey can help you turn the tables on the talent war. It’s not just conducting the survey that will help you maximize your talent management system. Read More >>

The Only Negotiating Guide You’ll Ever Need – featured on CNBC  – These 3 tips will help you win more negotiations

To negotiate well, you have to understand your counterpart’s side of the argument. Know what they want, know what they’ll agree to and, if possible, know it better than they do. This isn’t easy, but Peter B. Stark and Jane Flaherty describe the steps you can take to achieve and convey such an understanding in their recently revised book, “The Only Negotiating Guide You’ll Ever Need: 101 Ways to Win Every Time in Any Situation.” Read More >>

Peter Barron Stark Companies Rated as one of the Top 50 Best Management Consulting Blogs by Feedspot.com

Peter Barron Stark Companies is award as one of the Top 50 Best Management Consulting blogs from thousands. Index using search and social metrics along with Google Rank, post quality and consistency, as well as editorial team and expert review. Read More >>

4 Ways to Create a Positive Work Environment on EHSToday.com

Americans are working longer hours and producing more than ever before. Because they are spending more time on the job site and in the office, a positive environment is key to morale, increased productivity and employee wellbeing.  Read More >>

How Can Oil, Gas Firms Manage Talent Better? on RigZone.com

Following an industry downturn that – by at least one account – led to a 400,000-plus reduction in the global oil and gas headcount, there are signs of a hiring rebound in some corners of the industry. The phrase “talent squeeze ” has even crept up on Rigzone in recent weeks. For many who have left the oil and gas industry involuntarily during the past 2 to 3 years, such reports will likely amplify hopes of rejoining it. But what about those with transferable skills reluctant to return to an industry known for its volatility? Is there anything that oil and gas employers could do to keep more talent on the payroll through the next bust? Read More >>

Employee Engagement Trends: 4 Tips to Prevent Burned-Out Workers on Yahoo! Finance

Technology is supposed to make us more productive and efficient but people are working harder and for longer hours than ever before. Some employees don’t even take a vacation. Everyone can work longer and harder for a duration of time but when there is no end in sight, it leads to burnout. Read More >>

Why Leaders Fail and the Seven Prescriptions for Success on hotelexecutive.com

Good people work hard to secure good jobs, and then they work hard to get promoted into increased positions of authority and responsibility. Sadly, once in those leadership positions, good people often fail. Why? Read More >>

What NOT to Do When You Work for a Jerk on FastCompany.com

At some point, every working person has to deal with it: having a jerk for a boss. Whether it’s the micromanager who continually targets his minions when something isn’t being done exactly to specifications or the moody, know-it-all who lashes out in unprofessional ways, most of us can point to a time in our careers when we were forced to swallow a huge slice of humble pie in exchange for a paycheck… Read More >>

Employees Should Meet Millennial Demand for Development, Feedback on Monster.com

An aptitude for technology and a hunger for development are some of the traits Millennials bring to the workplace, according to a report released recently by PayScale and Millennial Branding, Generations at Work. These traits have implications for all employers as this dynamic generation makes its mark on the workforce.. Read More >>

The Top 5 Myths About Leadership on USNews.com

The concept of great leadership is one of the most often discussed – and least understood – workplace topics. We may recognize certain people as exceptional leaders when we see them in action, yet have a difficult time pinpointing what it is that they do differently or better. Adding to the confusion about what separates leaders from the pack are a number of prevailing misconceptions about which traits add to leadership prowess and which detract from it. Here are 10 myths about what it takes to truly lead… Read More >>

20 Leadership Experts Share Their Single Best Tip on Inc.com

Good leaders all have one thing in common: They know how to seek advice. It’s a bit like parenting. No one who raises a child for the first time understands the job perfectly. You have to keep learning and growing. These experts know the drill. They’ve written about their experiences in leadership, spoken in front of mass audiences, and honed their skills over many years. Here are their single best tips, exclusive just to this list.  Read More >>

Nevada State Bank Recognized for Workplace Excellence

Nevada State Bank, the largest state-chartered bank in Nevada, has received the Peter Barron Stark Companies Award for Workplace Excellence™. The prestigious award recognizes companies that achieve an overall favorable response exceeding 80.0 percent on their Colleague Opinion Surveys. Nevada State Bank joins other exceptional companies, including WD-40 Company, Powder River Energy Corporation, and Arizona State Credit Union in receiving this honor.  Read More >>

Congratulations to Arizona State Credit Union

PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE)–For the fourth time, Arizona State Credit Union has received the Peter Barron Stark Companies’ Award for Workplace Excellence. The award is especially significant this year as Arizona State Credit Union received an overall favorable response rating from its associates despite the difficult times facing the financial services industry and the down economy. The Credit Union maintained current associate programs and added several more allowing its already positive corporate culture to improve, a requirement for winning the Award for Workplace Excellence. “It is with pride that we award Arizona State Credit Union with the 2010 Peter Barron Stark Companies’ Award for Workplace Excellence,” said Peter Stark, President of Peter Barron Stark Companies. “When compared to over 250 other organizations in our benchmarks, Arizona State Credit Union demonstrates their strong leadership and commitment to employee engagement and satisfaction. Many organizations talk about their desire to be a great employer. Arizona State Credit Union has put vision into action and their 2010 survey results are the proof.” Read More >>

How to Get Employees Excited About Your Business Vision on Inc.com

It’s no secret that, as a business owner, your venture is your baby. It’s needy, it’s frightening, and you’re completely devoted to it. If only you could make your employees feel the same way. Well, at least the devotion part. The first step to getting employees pumped about the company’s direction is to examine what employee engagement is. Peter Stark, a management consultant and the author of Engaged! How Leaders Build Organizations Where Employees Love to Come to Work, defines it as a state in which, “employees are connected both at the head and the heart and they are willing to give what I call discretionary effort, meaning willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.” A lack of employee engagement can manifest in the form of poor customer service, low morale, and missed business opportunities. Read More >>

Synopsis of Peter Stark’s “Engaged!” Presentation at SHRM10

The text below is taken from SHRM’s blog entry, Employee Engagement Marathon – Monday Recap, written by David Bowles A San Diego local, Peter has an impressive resume and clearly lots of experience. He is also a talented and funny speaker who had a full house in the palm of his hands. His speech was based on what appears to be his proprietary database of 250 companies employing 100,000 people, and which he leverages to make statements about the top 10 factors which bring about employee engagement. He does this by analyzing the top 25% of his database to see what secrets he can wring out of the data. He started out by looking at the leader vs. manager question, something which our Wednesday speaker, Marcus Buckingham, has also done. Peter doesn’t take the Buckingham approach of splitting these jobs into quite different categories, he sees leaders as a higher level of manager whose qualities lead people to follow them, that being the crucial difference. His database yielded a list of engagement factors which is very familiar to those of us who have worked in this business but worth repeating:

• Creating a vision with clear goals. One that comes form the heart, is unique to the organization and is radical and competitive.
• Communication (especially the hard things like goals)
• Seeking the right people for the right jobs
• Cross-department teamwork (not just within department, that’s too easy)
• Recognizing and rewarding excellence
• Making accountability and performance count (the need for honest reviews)
• Making sure every employee can learn and grow
• Problems are no problem! (an attitude that says “we can handle things”)
• Making it “all about the customer”

It’s a good list…and he had an interesting saying from John Maxwell: “if you think your job’s purpose is to make you happy, you should be a clown”. Not sure all the “happiness at work” fans would agree! Peter was solid in his findings, though, and well worth the time spent.

Make Your Workplace A Happy Place, Even Now on Forbes.com

These days it feels like we should be grateful just to be employed. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to go into the office–especially in the aftermath of layoffs and the midst of uncertainty. Peter Barron Stark and Jane Flaherty, the authors of several books about corporate leadership, have just written Engaged: How Leaders Build Organizations Where Employees Love to Come to Work. In it, they offer advice on how managers can get their staffers enthusiastic about being on the the job–and doing their best work… Read More >>