Employee success plays a crucial role in business growth and success. For your business to thrive, your staff should be motivated and happy at the workplace. Employee success also means that your workers attain their goals and enjoy a satisfactory working experience.

It is in your best interests to ensure that your employees do their jobs the best way they can as it drives company growth and boosts retention of top talent. Below are a few tips you can use to ensure employee success for your business.

1. Listen to Employee Needs and Concerns
One of the first steps in supporting your employees at the workplace understands their needs. Doing so allows you to effectively address their concerns and give them the support they require to perform optimally at work. If, for example, your employees are unhappy with some policies, you need to listen to them and find ways of eliminating these roadblocks.

You can access employee needs through surveys that seek to establish employee satisfaction, experience, and engagement at work. The feedback you get can help you create the best environment for your employees to thrive. You also get to understand their motivators. By listening to your employees, you show that you care about their wellbeing and value their input in your business.

2. Maintain Good Communication
Employee failure may occur due to poor communication or unavailability of information, leading to negative employee experience and mismatched expectations. To enable employee success, clearly communicate with your staff using effective channels and on time.

Communication is especially crucial for important information such as changes in company policies, local authority updates, and safety tips in a pandemic. Similarly, clearly outline employee responsibilities and rights, as well as company expectations. Doing so ensures that everyone understands their roles and what they are entitled to and prevents conflicts.

To ensure proper communication at the workplace, working communication channels should be available for both management and employees. Without proper communication, your employees will feel lied to or left out of critical business information, which leads to discouragement and uncertainty.

3. Employee Recognition
Usually, rewards and consequences are necessary for excellent performance. Employees are more likely to do better when they know that their efforts don't go unnoticed. As such, they are more likely to repeat whatever actions or performance gave them praise and reward and avoid those that result in the opposite.

Instead of always focusing on the negatives, also offer praise and recognition when your employees produce commendable results. Avoid punishing your employees for their exceptional performance by loading them with work. Doing is not only unfair but may hurt employee productivity and motivation.

While promoting employee recognition for work well done, you shouldn’t forget constructive criticism when your employees fall short or make mistakes. Always provide regular feedback, both positive and negative. Your employees shouldn’t be surprised by the results of their performance evaluation. However, keep in mind that positive feedback, encouragements, and motivation will bring better results and enable employee success.

4. Facilitate Employee Development and Growth
Employees are happier in working environments that offer opportunities for development and growth. What’s more, the more equipped and skilled your employees are, the better they can perform their duties and drive business success. With this in mind, consider offering employee development and growth opportunities by facilitating employee training programs.

You can facilitate periodic training programs in the office or organize webinars and conferences that your employees can attend to boost their professional development and growth. Once you train your employees, you should also ensure they have time to practice their skills.

While career-related training such as training on new technologies and cybersecurity education are excellent ideas, also consider training on soft skills such as problem solving and teamwork. The skills you equip your employees with will not only be helpful when working, but they can also use them in other aspects of their lives.

5. Promote Teamwork
Working as a team allows employees to accomplish a task faster and more efficiently. It also improves workplace interactions and encourages employees to form valuable connections with colleagues. It is also a great way to foster empathy and assertiveness in your workers and creates healthy competitiveness.

With a great team spirit as part of your company culture, your employees can focus on the bigger picture and company goals instead of worrying about small selfish benefits. You can encourage employee teamwork and collaboration by using software that tracks interdependent or collaborative work. Collaboration tools can also ease the onboarding of new hires, allow better management of team projects, and promote better planning and organization.

While teamwork comes with numerous benefits, you should also encourage employees to own their work and be accountable. The autonomy provides less room for micromanagement as every team member understands their roles and takes responsibility for their actions.

​When dealing with employees, ensure that the measures you take do not violate employment and labor laws. To be on the safe side, consider hiring an employment lawyer for consultation purposes, as well as help with legal issues that may jeopardize employee success.

Sometimes Project Management Offices (PMO) are created without the proper experience or foundation. I have built and helped build build good ones and I've seen what makes the bad ones fall apart. If you want help examining what's wrong with your PMO, contact me or email me. I can help... I will help.

Are you a new project manager by choice or by force? Either way you certainly have questions. Being a PM is not easy and it's not easy to succeed without best practices and some guidance. Contact me to discuss or for mentoring. 25+ years of very successful experience... I can help you in just an hour or two. Contact me or email me.

I am available for 1 on 1 mentoring, team discussions, analyzing and fixing your PMO, or coming onboard as your newest Project Manager. Contact me or email me and tell me what you need.

I  can be available immediately if needed. I bring over 20 years of successful tech project management experience and a deep knowledge base in best practices. Private and public sector experience. High level security clearance obtainable - have held FBI level security clearance and Nevada Gaming Card. Contact me or email me.

• Named #1 in the "100 Most Inspiring People in Project Management"
• Named the #1 Provider of Project Management Content in the World
• Named #1 on the Best Project Management Blogs to Follow in 2022

Do you need long term or one-off expert project management help right now? I am a very experienced tech project manager with more than 20 years of successful project management experience. I can be available immediately and I can do remote or onsite, full-time or part-time, W2 or 1099. Contact me by email or through my contact form here. Let's discus. Thanks!

My motto is:

"You're only as successful as your last customer thinks you are..."

What does your organization look for in a project management leader?  A 'yes' man? Do you want someone who will listen to you and do exactly what you ask them to do? Hopefully not.  My clients are intelligent and experienced, but they don't always know exactly what they need.  They often don't even know for sure exactly what they want - though they may think that they do.

That might be the case for you as well.

If you decide to seek out my services, what you will get is an experienced professional who is more interested in actually understanding your true needs, how you got to where you are now, and what will satisfy you in the end.

It's not about 'phoning it in' on a project.  It's not always about getting it done in 'x' amount of time, either.  But it IS always about customer satisfaction.  It's about giving you - the customer - something you can live with and be happy with and that your end users can actually use.

View my resume

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Highlights:

• Led enterprise implementations for a growing healthcare organization offering health management systems
• Led enterprise IWMS (TRIRIGA) implementations for Fortune 500 companies and large government entities
• Authored 7,000+ expert PM, cybersecurity, consulting, business strategy, & best practices articles for clients worldwide
• Authored dozens of eBooks & white papers on project management, VDI, consulting and biz strategy topics
• Managed projects and programs in excess of $50 million
• Directed all remote corporate operations and staff for a $300 million global IT services organization
• Managed all activities and relationship with technology company's largest gaming & hospitality customer
• Led corporate technical staff supporting all casino & hospitality and lodging data systems
• Managed all financial activities for $50 million federal contract including pricing, forecasting and reporting
• Forecasted, planned and managed staff budgets more than $500,000
• Pioneered and implemented project management practices for a $2 billion corporation
• Led teams on successful proposal efforts for over $100 million in federal contracts

​
My Noteworthy accomplishments:​​

• Named the #1 Provider of Project Management Content in the World
• 2021 MVP Award winning article on Project Management Update - 7 Key Considerations for Building the Perfect PMO
• Named #1 on the Best Project Management Blogs to Follow in 2022
• Named the #1 Project Management Blog to Follow in 2021
• Year-end 2021 Named one of the Top 11 Blogs to Follow
• Project Management Roundup: The Best of 2021
• ​Named #1 of the Top Eight Blogs to Follow Right Now
• Named #1 Project Management Blog to Follow in 2020
• Named #1 in the "100 Most Inspiring People in Project Management"
• Named #9 on the 130 Top Project Management Influencers of 2020
• Named #6 on the 25 Project Management Blogs You Should be Reading​

Every project has the obvious costs associated with it. The project manager or creative director, the resources charging time to it, materials that will be expended. Meetings. Did I mention meetings? Third party vendors. Those project stakeholders that need things and provide things. More meetings. Probably even some post-project support.


But what about the hidden costs? Those costs that are usually associated with risks that are realized and the unplanned issues that come up and knock a project off its budget and timeline. Work that you may have to give away for free to satisfy a frustrated client. It happens...it's part of the negotiation and give and take process.


For me, there are 5 key areas where hidden costs can rise up and knock a smooth running project off the rails for an unsuspecting team calmly carrying out their project duties. These are...


Vendor acquisition and management. Not all projects require outside vendors but when they do you may not have considered the risks of vendors who can't offer what they intended to offer or take extra time delivering the goods. If either of these potential risks. Exonerated a reality you will end up with additional costs associated with waiting on the vendor to deliver or finding a new vendor to provide these services.


Client engagement. You plan the project as if the customer will be available whenever you need them. Sadly this is often not the case. And you may have no control over the situation. This can result in costs associated with delayed timeframes and delayed decisions.


Resource management. When you plan the project you are usually anticipating complete availability and compliance from your project time. However, there may end up being team member conflicts, resources who are suddenly tied up on another project or resources who leave the company altogether. Replacing resources or waiting on them can be costly.


Senior management involvement. Senior management can be a food thing. They can help breed customer satisfaction by getting involved and making clients feel more important orb helping knock down project roadblocks. They can also sometimes hinder progress by needlessly getting involved for their own informational purposes by calling extra meetings and requesting new reporting during critical times of work and progress on the engagement.


The issues. Oh yes...the issues that come up and must be resolved. You never really plan for these but they do happen on nearly every project. You can bury done in the costs. However, when they start to pile up, that's when you will really start to notice the project


Summary / call for inputs


The obvious costs can be counted on and managed fairly easily. Well, maybe not easily, but at least you know what to expect...what you're looking out for. Those hidden costs – the ones that are often associated with sudden issues or risks that creep up on you and become real – those are the ones that are the scariest and can quickly doom any smoothly running, well planned and well managed project. Surprise! The best thing we can do on these projects is plan for risks, and put enough up front planning time in so we are ready to handle as much of this as possible without letting it kill the project budget. Easier said than done, and you'll never catch everything. But the better you plan, the more successful your project will likely be.


Thoughts? Readers...do you have any hidden cost ideas to add to this list...any scary stories of your own that come to mind and have changed the way you manage your projects? Please share and discuss.

Are you an experienced PM? Do you understand how projects work in the real world? What it takes to deliver a successful project to the project customer repeatedly, consistently and logically? Show it with Real World PM Certification (RWPM). One time fee to test, training is all free, test is a revolving 50 questions - 90% correct to pass. Retake for free. First 50 signups and all August signup are 50% off. Full price $250. More info coming... Questions? Contact me or email me. Thanks.

The wireless carrier suffered a massive data breach in the summer of 2021, the fifth publicly acknowledged incident of its type in three years.




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• T-Mobile agreed to pay $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from a 2021 cyberattack that exposed personal data on at least 76.6 million people.
• The settlement reached on Friday, which still requires final court approval, includes a $350 million payment to members of the class action and its related legal costs. T-Mobile also agreed to invest an additional $150 million in data security and cybersecurity technology in 2022 and 2023.
• The massive data breach, widely regarded as the largest carrier breach on record, marked the fifth publicly acknowledged security incident for T-Mobile in three years. The company assumed no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility as part of the settlement. 

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​Dive Insight:The settlement amounts to a one-time payment of about $6.50 for each individual whose personal information was compromised in the attack. T-Mobile gets to invest 30% of that directly back into its own cybersecurity practice.

The lingering damage done by the latest attack could cost T-Mobile more in missed business opportunities.

The company is known for having poor security and “attackers take advantage of that. They are an easier target because of it,” Allie Mellen, senior analyst at Forrester, said in a phone interview prior to the settlement agreement.

“Ultimately it’s going to take them even longer to really build up their defensive strategies because of all these continued breaches, and they’re also a much bigger target because of it,” she said. 

The company previously told investors it expected to record a $400 million charge during the second quarter of 2022 in connection with legal settlements related to the August 2021 cyberattack.

T-Mobile said it expects the class-action lawsuit settlement to receive final court approval in December 2022, but that could be delayed by appeals or additional proceedings.