Does anyone talk with each other anymore - anyone under age 30, that is? We have employees who sit in adjacent cubicles who IM and email each other all day long. Sending an email is so easy compared to picking up a phone. After all, if you call, the person has to be available and you have no record of the call or the response. I learn about pregnant nieces and engaged nephews on Facebook. Sure, the news would have eventually found its way through the family, but Facebook is so immediate - and convenient - and they are all chatting with their friends there anyway.

I watched a few minutes of Martha Stewart Living the other day, because I wondered what on earth she would do with a show about social media and technology. Mainstream, right? Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder talked with Martha - he looked about 16. But, then, so do many of our employees these days. And, 40 is the new old when you listen to unemployed adults.

Where am I going with all of this? I think it's the age thing that is on my mind more than ever when I read the unemployment stories and the age discrimination stories at Alison Doyle's job searching site. If you are an adult in the workplace over 40, age discrimination is a real possibility. There are so many new things you need to keep up with to stay relevant in your workplace. If you're unemployed, it's even more difficult - yes, that person interviewing you is younger than your daughter, and just as smart.

Sure, workplaces accord some respect to white hair - men's white hair more than women's, unfortunately, but appearance, as linked by my colleague, John Reh, still rules. According to a recent Newsweek poll, beauty is worth a lot when 84% of people surveyed think others are hesitant to hire a person who looks a lot older than their coworkers. The same poll says we dislike fat people and that women, especially, need to work on their appearance to look relevant and promotable.

Tips for Older Workers to Make Age Irrelevant

About.com's Dana Anspach suggests that a youthful appearance can add years to your career and thousands of dollars to your income. I agree. Here are thoughts on maintaining relevance no matter your age.

• Maintain a youthful appearance - not too young - but youthful, with modern clothes and a current hairstyle. (No salon-administered, tiny, tight blue curls allowed.) About.com's Julyne Derrick tells women how to look younger in six easy steps. Men, too, can look younger with ten ways to take years off your appearance by About.com's Daniel Billett. It's for men who don't want to look like they care - but they do...
  
  Our admin always flagged me about her first impressions of our candidates. Whispering to me, one day, she said, "Gosh, Susan, this one's really old." When I saw the candidate, I caught her meaning right away and it had nothing to do with age.
  
  The better word was dated. Everything about the candidate was dated: long hair cut straight across halfway down her back; scuffed accessories; skirted, pinstriped suit with a polyester bow tied around the neck that screamed 1980s; and a sad, slouched posture which made her look and seem forgettable. Dated.


• Accessories matter. You need to look pulled together with attractive shoes, handbag, portfolio, and jewelry. No scuffed, torn, broken, or oudated accessories allowed. That "grandma catch all" you call a purse dates you. Observe what the younger women are carrying. Trust me, they notice. At an HR conference, I carried my new handbag. At least three younger HR people approached me during the meetings to say, "Oh, you have an xxx." They thought it was pretty cool. I didn't know it was "cool." I just liked the bag. But, the bag made me "cool" by association - and approachable. Something in common?


• Stay current on new communication tools and technology advances. Technology skills make you appear savvy and contemporary. Social media is here to stay. Participate. I learned from a tweet on Twitter that one of our employees is celebrating her eighth anniversary with the company today. Get comfortable sending IMs (Instant Messages), texting, and posting on Facebook. IM that youthful coworker in the next cubicle. Text your meeting leader if you'll be late.


• Don't be a stereotype. You do not have trouble learning new technology. You embrace change and welcome the opportunity to gain new skills. Try something different? Why not? Change makes the world go round. If it's not broke, break it, or at least, poke at it, punch it or color it. Continuous improvement rules.


• Don't let your language date you. You don't remember what happened in '86. You didn't earn every grey hair you have. Remember when reminiscing is only interesting and relevant if coworkers were born before that date, or perhaps had graduated from kindergarten. That's the way we've always done things, as a reason to stay the same, is unattractive at any age. It's nice that you have grandchildren. But, your younger colleagues who are parents, get very tired, very quickly of hearing that you're happy that you can enjoy your grandchildren - but then, they go home.


• Keep abreast of your field. Read, attend conferences, converse regularly with thought leaders and colleagues. Be the first to introduce a new work process or a forward thinking idea. Don't be like the person I interviewed for an HR Director position who brought a portfolio of his work to the interview. Old work. Work that looked 20 years old - you know that yellow color paper used to get when it aged? Old ideas, too. A performance appraisal form with a checklist to grade each worker characteristic such as "reliable" and "energetic."
  
  Some of the saddest stories I hear from Alison's job searchers are from out-of-work administrative assistants and secretaries. That world is over. Those old, usually male bosses have retired, or are retiring. Younger managers cannot imagine writing something out and then passing it to an office worker to type and format.

_{Image Copyright Jack Hollingsworth / Getty Images}

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A company Code of Conduct is a written collection of the rules, principles, values, and employee expectations, behavior, and relationships that an organization considers significant and believes are fundamental to their successful operation. A company Code of Conduct enumerates those standards and values that make an organization remarkable and that enable it to stand out from similar organizations.

Employees are attracted to companies that espouse a company Code of Conduct that reflects their beliefs and values. The Code of Conduct is a significant website company attraction tool for the recruiting section of your corporate website. Along with your values, ethics, policies, and company culture, a prospective employee can assess whether he or she will "fit" in your company.

The act of creating these company principles and values helps current employees understand and appreciate their organization. The discussion that eventually creates these documents is powerful. The articulation of what employees believe enables your company to consciously reinforce the components of your culture most important to your employees, partners, and customers.

The development of a company Code of Conduct starts with your executive team, led by the owner or president. That powerful leader's vision, ethics and values are what formulated the vision and the culture that you have currently, so his or her voice remains the most significant. Involving as many other employees as possible in fleshing out the details of the company Code of Conduct will help all employees integrate its principles and own it.

_{Image Copyright Jeffrey Smith}

Company Code of Conduct Development

Here are two guides to processes you can use to develop your company Code of Conduct:

• Make Values Live in Your Organization
• How to Implement Your Strategic Plan

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Do you have an employee gift acceptance policy? I struggled writing my new sample employee gift policy because I have such mixed emotions about gifts to employees.

Some employee gifts such as pens, key chains, notebooks, calendars, mugs, t-shirts, and other tschotskes are harmless in my mind. I have trouble imagining an employee buying decision swayed by a coffee mug, no matter how useful. Most of these tschotskes sit around in offices and cubicles until employees get tired of looking at them, and then, they throw them away.

But, especially with more expensive gifts, my employee gift policy states: "To avoid a conflict of interest, the appearance of a conflict of interest, or the need for our employees to examine the ethics of acceptance, our company and its employees do not accept gifts from vendors, suppliers, customers, potential employees, potential vendors or suppliers, or any other individual or organization, under any circumstances.

Employee Gift Stories Are Legion - and Legend

More expensive articles are a problem, however. A manager at a client company received a steak and lobster gift that would feed eight people during the winter holidays every year. No matter how nicely he asked the supplier company to stop sending them, the gift kept coming.

The gift became, in fact, an annual embarrassment for him. (I mean, what is your problem that you can't get these people to stop?) And, annually the activity committee auctioned the employee gift with the proceeds going to charity. (The employees anticipated the auction every December.)

In another client company, the employee gift policy said that individual employees could not accept gifts. One intrepid supplier worked around that policy by supplying a gift to every person in the department. Okay, the policy was rewritten - again.

I'm not sure about when companies started cracking down on, especially, employee gifts from vendors. Maybe employee gift policies always existed, but were just unenforced. Working at a Fortune 100 company in the mid-to-late eighties, gossip about the gifts many buyers / purchasing agents accepted were legend. In fact, employee reports about the nature of the expensive gifts and the wining and dining going on were the stuff of winter gossip each year. Maybe, an employee gift policy existed. If an employee gift policy existed, it was not well-known or enforced.

You Need an Employee Gift Policy

The bottom line is that you need an employee gift policy. Employees like knowing what to do and that their behavior meets company standards. Employees respect fairness. What is good for one employee is good for all employees. Employees also appreciate equal treatment. If a supplier provides discounts on entertainment tickets, for example, every employee must be eligible.

I'm curious about your employee gift policy. Tougher than mine? What did I miss? See my sample employee gift policy.

_{Image Copyright Lise Gagne}

Related to Employee Gift Policy

• How to Develop a Policy
• Find Sample Human Resources Policies
• Sample Employee Handbook Contents

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If your goal is superior, high performance employees who are focused on contribution and continuous improvement (and I sincerely hope it is), you need to manage people within a performance management and development framework. When you implement each of the components recommended, you'll ensure the development of the superior workforce, the high performance employees, you seek.

This is one of my most important articles ever on my recommended total framework for your relationship with your employees. It takes into consideration the fact that no one component of your employee relationship will help you help employees become high performance employees and contribute successfully in your organization.

The total package means a lot in developing high performance employees. Employees need goals and to understand the big picture; your delegation must provide a decision making framework. Without enough information, employees are making decisions in a vacuum; decisions made with limited overall understanding or the lack of appropriate information, are often wrong decisions.

Persistently, on this website, one of the significant behaviors (or lack thereof) of an individual whom people label as a bad boss is that they provide little direction.

It's hard to board a ship and have a successful voyage when you don't know where it's going. (Can you tell that I spent some time last evening researching Alaskan cruises via small ships? Today, water metaphors pervade my thoughts.)

Developing High Performance Employees

These areas are critical to develop high performance employees.

• A systematic hiring process that identifies people who have the potential to become high performance employees.


• Clear direction within a strategic framework to align employee goals with those of the organization.


• Quarterly performance development planning to set goals, seriously consider employee development, provide feedback, assess progress, and check alignment. Quarterly discussions keep employees on track, pumped with motivation, and focused like a laser beam on needed high performance.


• Regular, even daily, communication and feedback so employees have information necessary to make reasonably thoughtful, yet risky, decisions.


• On target, personalized, desired developmental opportunities.


• Appropriate rewards and recognition so you are communicating what the organization most values and also making the employee feel recognized for their contribution. Positive reinforcement bolsters employee self-esteem, positive self image, and the employee's belief that he or she is capable of high performance.

_{Image Copyright Digital Vision / Getty Images}

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