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Siebel said the compensation committee of its board has approved the adoption of an employee retention benefit program. The program, which involves separate plans for employees at various levels, comes amid speculation the company might be sold.
"Recent rumors concerning potential acquisitions or takeovers of the company have created a great deal of uncertainty among the company's employees and executives, which could negatively impact employee productivity and company performance," Siebel said in its filing.
Under the plans, eligible employees will receive certain severance benefits during the period that begins three months before a change of control and ends one year following a change of control. The plans cover involuntary terminations "without cause" and voluntary resignations "for good reason," according to the filing.
Profits and sales have declined in recent years at Siebel, which provides software for helping companies with customer relationship management, or CRM. The company has had to contend with competition from enterprise software giant SAP and the rise of Salesforce.com, which made its mark by offering CRM as a hosted service over the Internet.
In its filing Thursday, Siebel said the compensation committee approved the adoption of the employee retention benefit program on May 20. Siebel also said it "remains entirely focused on growing its business, generating profit, adding customer value and serving the long-term interests of its customers, employees and stockholders."
The company is under increasing pressure as it heads toward its annual shareholder meeting June 8. A number of investors are calling for the company to take some action to maximize their investments--from selling the company to taking it private. Some have mentioned the possibility of a proxy fight.
"I'd like to see the company sold," said Barry Rosenstein, chief investment officer of Jana Partners, a vocal critic and a recent investor in the company. "I think Siebel would get the highest value if it were acquired by a strategic buyer."
The best way to ensure a retained workforce is what we call "five pillar leadership." Five-pillar leadership is a sustained focus on people, service, quality, finance, and growth. These five pillars support an organization's journey to enduring service and operational excellence, and a key part of that excellence is a loyal, productive staff. By setting metrics under goals for each of the pillars, and by measuring progress toward the goals, healthcare leaders get results. Results in the first three pillars people, service, and quality--drive results in the last two pillars finance and growth. Following are key prescriptive practices that five pillar leaders can use to drive employee retention, examples of the kinds of results these practices can achieve, and tools that leaders use to "hardwire" strategic direction. communication, and accountability across all five pillars. The result: a culture of service and operational excellence, and a great place for employees to work. physicians to practice, and patients to receive care.
Perhaps more importantly, the tools that follow will help leaders "re-recruit" their best employees every day. By using these tools, leaders can engage in authentic dialogue with workers to remove barriers to performance: in turn, employees will feel valued and know they are making a difference.
A Domino Effect
Finance professionals quickly grasp the relationship between the five pillars of leadership and employee retention because they know what the cost of turnover means to bottom-line results. However, when I was moving up the ranks of hospital leadership, it took me some time to understand the cause and effect relationship between cost cutting and employee retention. When a nurse manager quit my first thought was not "How can we fill that position?" but rather "How can we consolidate that position to save $84.000 in salary and benefits?" So when Jane Smith left, we put nurse manager Tina Jones in charge of two units. But since Tina was managing 70 employees on two floors, the nurses she supervised didn't have the same personal relationship with her that they had enjoyed with Jane. They didn't even know when she was on the unit.
Employees typically cite an unsatisfying relationship with their boss as one of the top reasons they leave their job. It's no surprise then that turnover went up. Agency costs soon soared, and quality clinical outcomes began to decrease with greater reliance on temporary caregivers, who had a "renter" versus "owner" mentality. The result was more frequent readmissions of patients and unhappy physicians who began to refer their patients elsewhere. So my effort to reduce expenses actually cost our organization quite a bit of money.
Fortunately, this domino effect also works in reverse. As a focus on people encourages employees to become more engaged and satisfaction rises, retention then increases and drives substantial gains in each of the other pillars. As an example, consider St. Alexius Medical Center, a 321-bed community hospital in Hoffman Estates, III. By creating a culture of service and operational excellence. Christine Budzinsky, the hospital's CNO. reduced nurse turnover from 20 percent in 2000 to just 8.5 percent in September 2003 and nearly eliminated agency costs. The average sayings that has resulted is nearly $200,000 per month. It's no coincidence that Gallup ranks St. Alexius in the 90th percentile for employee satisfaction among hospitals nationwide.
CNET provides product reviews and prices, software downloads, and tech news. The editor in chief is Scott Ard.
Siebel said the compensation committee of its board has approved the adoption of an employee retention benefit program. The program, which involves separate plans for employees at various levels, comes amid speculation the company might be sold.
"Recent rumors concerning potential acquisitions or takeovers of the company have created a great deal of uncertainty among the company's employees and executives, which could negatively impact employee productivity and company performance," Siebel said in its filing.
Under the plans, eligible employees will receive certain severance benefits during the period that begins three months before a change of control and ends one year following a change of control. The plans cover involuntary terminations "without cause" and voluntary resignations "for good reason," according to the filing.
Profits and sales have declined in recent years at Siebel, which provides software for helping companies with customer relationship management, or CRM. The company has had to contend with competition from enterprise software giant SAP and the rise of Salesforce.com, which made its mark by offering CRM as a hosted service over the Internet.
In its filing Thursday, Siebel said the compensation committee approved the adoption of the employee retention benefit program on May 20. Siebel also said it "remains entirely focused on growing its business, generating profit, adding customer value and serving the long-term interests of its customers, employees and stockholders."
The company is under increasing pressure as it heads toward its annual shareholder meeting June 8. A number of investors are calling for the company to take some action to maximize their investments--from selling the company to taking it private. Some have mentioned the possibility of a proxy fight.
"I'd like to see the company sold," said Barry Rosenstein, chief investment officer of Jana Partners, a vocal critic and a recent investor in the company. "I think Siebel would get the highest value if it were acquired by a strategic buyer."
The best way to ensure a retained workforce is what we call "five pillar leadership." Five-pillar leadership is a sustained focus on people, service, quality, finance, and growth. These five pillars support an organization's journey to enduring service and operational excellence, and a key part of that excellence is a loyal, productive staff. By setting metrics under goals for each of the pillars, and by measuring progress toward the goals, healthcare leaders get results. Results in the first three pillars people, service, and quality--drive results in the last two pillars finance and growth. Following are key prescriptive practices that five pillar leaders can use to drive employee retention, examples of the kinds of results these practices can achieve, and tools that leaders use to "hardwire" strategic direction. communication, and accountability across all five pillars. The result: a culture of service and operational excellence, and a great place for employees to work. physicians to practice, and patients to receive care.
Perhaps more importantly, the tools that follow will help leaders "re-recruit" their best employees every day. By using these tools, leaders can engage in authentic dialogue with workers to remove barriers to performance: in turn, employees will feel valued and know they are making a difference.
A Domino Effect
Finance professionals quickly grasp the relationship between the five pillars of leadership and employee retention because they know what the cost of turnover means to bottom-line results. However, when I was moving up the ranks of hospital leadership, it took me some time to understand the cause and effect relationship between cost cutting and employee retention. When a nurse manager quit my first thought was not "How can we fill that position?" but rather "How can we consolidate that position to save $84.000 in salary and benefits?" So when Jane Smith left, we put nurse manager Tina Jones in charge of two units. But since Tina was managing 70 employees on two floors, the nurses she supervised didn't have the same personal relationship with her that they had enjoyed with Jane. They didn't even know when she was on the unit.
Employees typically cite an unsatisfying relationship with their boss as one of the top reasons they leave their job. It's no surprise then that turnover went up. Agency costs soon soared, and quality clinical outcomes began to decrease with greater reliance on temporary caregivers, who had a "renter" versus "owner" mentality. The result was more frequent readmissions of patients and unhappy physicians who began to refer their patients elsewhere. So my effort to reduce expenses actually cost our organization quite a bit of money.
Fortunately, this domino effect also works in reverse. As a focus on people encourages employees to become more engaged and satisfaction rises, retention then increases and drives substantial gains in each of the other pillars. As an example, consider St. Alexius Medical Center, a 321-bed community hospital in Hoffman Estates, III. By creating a culture of service and operational excellence. Christine Budzinsky, the hospital's CNO. reduced nurse turnover from 20 percent in 2000 to just 8.5 percent in September 2003 and nearly eliminated agency costs. The average sayings that has resulted is nearly $200,000 per month. It's no coincidence that Gallup ranks St. Alexius in the 90th percentile for employee satisfaction among hospitals nationwide.
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