Author: HRwisdom (Page 7 of 11)

HRwisdom is a free website sharing staff management resources information site for employers.

The Attributes of the Best Employees

January 16, 2013 / HRwisdom

What are the attributes of the best employees within organisations?

Today’s HRwisdom posting comes from HRwisdom expert contributor, Drew Davies.

For over sixteen years Drew has been involved in business training, coaching and mentoring programs to leaders at all levels across all industry sectors.

HRwisdom asked Drew about his thoughts on what attributes should be considered when promoting employees within the organisation.

Over to Drew to explain the attributes of the best employees . . .

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] number of years ago I was working with a large timber company on a Quality Assurance project. I found myself having a meal with the Human Resources Manager and the Production Manager and over a fine bottle of red wine we had a discussion about what criteria we use when looking to promote people within an organisation.

Management over the years have looked to the old tried (but not necessarily true) indicators when promoting people from within and organisation, ie:

Length of service
Can they do the job
Level of expertise.

While these may be important, I would like to argue that they are not necessarily particularly accurate indicators of a person’s suitability to take on a supervisory, team leader or management role.

This article is the first in a series that will explore the myths and realities of this exercise which can at times be both frustrating and rewarding…

I believe that the first attribute that should be considered when looking at promoting a person in any organisation is their ATTITUDE.

It was Tom Blandi a French literary theorist and author who in 1907 wrote “Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day, for good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control this great force”.

A person’s attitude to work, life, family, friends, the world and others gives those around them an insight into why they do the things they do, and ultimately their character. How they treat their workmates, how they treat you (if you are their boss), and how they respond to their customers and clients. What do they say about your organisation? What sort of words do they use when describing the business?…is it “I”, “they” and “them” or “we” and “us”.

I am not saying that what we should look for is the “Yes” woman or man… someone who agrees out of fear, or some misguided “warm and fuzzy” response. Rather there is a respect and genuineness that sets them apart from their colleagues. They think through the issues and offer balanced and well thought out responses. What I am saying is that by watching a persons attitude will give you a rare insight into what is really important to this individual…and as we all know…attitude rubs off. If this person is going to lead a team, then they need to be someone whose attitude is not changed and blown around by the circumstances they find themselves in. Rather they exhibit one that in spite of what is going on around them they continue moving forward. Their attitude acts as a stabilizer in the “cut and thrust” of modern business practice.

Zig Ziglar well known author and motivational speaker writes “Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.” Interesting and thought provoking words.

If the candidate has the right attitude, then a lot of the other qualities we will be talking about over the next issues will fall into place. The wrong attitude will block them.

Words like humility, self control, gratitude, stickability come to mind. Perhaps a useful exercise for you would be to write down what sort of attitudes would you look for in person who will take a supervisory, team leader or management role… Once you have done that think about what that person would look like if they did not exhibit those qualities. What does the opposite behaviour look like? Could you work with someone who exhibited that opposite behaviour?

To close let me leave with you this quote from Harry F Banks (I cannot find anything about him, but the quote makes sense) “For success, attitude is equally as important as ability.”

Drew Davies

Drew’s passion is to encourage and challenge people to discover and reach for their potential, not just in business but in their whole lives.

For over sixteen years Drew has been involved in business training, coaching and mentoring programs to leaders at all levels across all industry sectors.

You can contact Drew via HRwisdom or by visiting: www.drewdavies.com.au.

HRwisdom

Managing Generation Y In The Workplace

January 15, 2013 / HRwisdom

Managing Generation Y In The Workplace

Today’s HRwisdom Blog looks at managing Gen Y staff and comes thanks to HRwisdom expert contributor, Robert Watson.

Over to Robert . . .

Weekend papers regularly feature stories about “Generation Y” – the group of people born between about 1979 and 1999.

Once a group attains a label, it follows that writers compile the quirkiest features of that group and turn it into literary entertainment.

However, being a business manager you have probably seen some of these people applying for jobs and perhaps you have even employed some and noticed that they are somehow “different” to your regular workers.

So, it will help employers if they can have an understanding of the characteristics of Gen Y.

Gen Y are commonly described as:

Very confident of themselves
Impatient
Quick to learn
Positive about the future, and
Spending significant amounts of time socialising using computers and mobile phones (and you thought they were wasting time!).

What if you are recruiting Gen Y people?

Unlike their parents, Gen Y don’t look in the newspaper waiting for job vacancies to appear each Saturday. No, they actively use search engines on the internet to spot advertisements and have them automatically sent by RSS feed to their mobile phones. Gen Y can literally send in their CV one minute after the job ad has been posted.

As an employer, you should be using the internet as your primary method of advertising vacancies.

Having said that, it can be smart to use a two-pronged approach.

First, place a small newspaper ad which shows your company name (brand), the job title, a reference to the more comprehensive internet ad and just enough words to excite Mum and Dad into telling their son or daughter.

Second, your internet ad (or website) should contain details to excite the potential Gen Y applicant:

Use fresh and bright colour so that your vacancy looks different from the bland text-only ads
Show photos or a video of your existing employees smiling at work (an informal but free method of recognising your best employees!)
Talk about growth and exciting future developments because Gen Ys want to see that your business is not stagnant
Mention technology where appropriate, and
You still need a basic description of what the work entails, remembering, however, Gen Y will be wanting to see if your workplace looks like an interesting and fun place to be. As an example, do school kids join fast food outlets because they want to cook 1000 burger patties in a shift? No! They join because they want to be part of a fun-loving team of young people.

What if your business already has Gen Ys?

With Gen Y, be aware that their loyalty to anything is often fragile. If they don’t like your workplace, they will leave and then start looking for other work (although we’ll wait and see what impact the global financial downturn has upon this characteristic). In contrast, the older generations would hang on in a lousy job until they had secured another job.

To a large extent, you need to entertain the Gen Ys, and there is a way to do this which will tap into their impatience and their need for fast-paced learning.

Consider setting up a Learning Log which is a plan of all the topics needed to be mastered before a person can be considered for the next position. Although the topics might be broad, the individual sub-topics will be small and very quick to learn. Training policies help plan for such learning.

An Example: A Supermarket Business

Level 1 Check-Out Operation

Opening the register
Greeting the customer
Operating the conveyor, scanning and packing bags
Transactions – Cash, Credit cards, EFT, Cheque
Failed scans and Sale items
Shutdown and Balancing the till

Level 2 Front End Supervision

All aspects of Check-Out Operation, plus
Accessing the safe
Handling returns
Responsible sale of cigarettes
Dealing with abusive customers
Confronting suspected shoplifters
Emergency evacuation drill coordination
Rostering of staff.

In the past, a business might train all of these things in a single four hour session of mostly theory.

However, with Gen Y you would use a staged approach, with separate lessons over a period of time. Each mini-lesson would have a small amount of theory, then a walk-through of the appropriate Standard Operating Procedure and, finally, an appropriate number of hours doing the activity under the watchful eye of your most experienced supervisor.

Short, sharp lessons building up towards the end point makes for a program which engages the Gen Y employee.

The Bottom Line:

Rather than shaking your head in frustration at Gen Ys, your challenge is to tap into their many strengths so that your business can ride the fast wave into the future.

HRwisdom

Free Information On Workplace Law For Employers

Free Information Sessions On Workplace Law For Employers

January 15, 2013 / HRwisdom

HRwisdom will soon be rolling out free information sessions on workplace law for employers on a variety of employment law topics. Click to tweet this to your colleagues.

Update On Workplace Law For Employers

UPDATE: The webinars are now here: Free Employment Law Webinars

For a short time only, you will be able to tell us which topics you would like our guest experts to discuss.

To request a particular topic or vote on the broad topics below, please click here.

When the free employer briefings are ready, we will let you know by email.

So, make sure you have used the form over on the right to keep informed.

Unfair Dismissal
Managing Redundancies
Adverse Actions Claims
Enterprise Agreements
Contracts of Employment
Organisational Restructuring
Divestments. & Acquisitions
Workplace Health & Safety
Workers Compensation
Trade Unions
Managing Underperformers
Modern Awards
Employment Law For Small Business
Employment Law For The Public Sector

Employment Law Advice Video

HRwsidom

Just For Fun – How To Welcome New Staff From Overseas

January 14, 2013 / HRwisdom

At HRwisdom, we talk a lot about being proactive and taking positive steps to ensure a motivated and high-performing workforce.

Today, just for fun, we’re sharing one option you may wish to consider.

No doubt about it – this method is guaranteed to ensure you have sky high employee engagement levels – it just might take a little more planning (and rehearsing) than usual.

If you do any international recruitment and you’re worried about employee turnover and the associated costs . . .

This is one fun example of how to welcome new staff from overseas.

Remember to share it with friends and colleagues.

Video On How To Welcome New Staff From Overseas

Feel free to share this.

HRwisdom

Watch This Powerful HR Video Presentation On How Great Leaders Inspire Others To Take Action

January 13, 2013 / HRwisdom

Today the HRwisdom Blog is sharing with you a powerful HR video that should serve to inspire you and any person leading people in any type of organisation.

When describing how great leaders inspire others to take action, the speaker shares such legendary examples as Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers.

By the way, we have a lot more excellent management information to share with you.

Make sure you are part of the HRwisdom Community (it’s free).

Just use the form over on the right below to get started.

Then watch the video presentation.

Remember to share this on Twitter and Facebook.

HRwisdom

Download End Of Probation Letter (Unsuccessful) Template

January 11, 2013 / HRwisdom

At HRwisdom, we always recommend being proactive and having standard employment contracts, employee letters and Human Resources policies and procedures ready so that you can manage your staff properly in the eyes of the law.

We also know that managing staff can take up so much of your time.

So, HRwisdom has made things a little easier for you:

We have found for you a free download of an End of Probation Letter template to be used for an unsatisfactory employee.

You can download this unsatisfactory employment probation letter template for free. (Click here to Tweet this free download) More on this below.

We have also discovered a paid service which gives you all the staff management policy and procedure templates you need. To learn more, click here.

Due to the complexity and ever-changing nature of workplace law in Australia, HRwisdom often draws upon legal experts to provide high quality workplace relations advice through the HRwisdom Blog and through other methods.

You are encouraged to take good advantage of the resources shared on this site and to always be proactive when it comes to staff-management in general.

End of Probation Letter Template For Unsuccessful Employees

Just download the template, just login using your normal email address (no password required).

HRwisdom

Measuring Staff Performance – Take Out The Hassle

January 10, 2013 / HRwisdom

There is often a lot of discussion within businesses about the best methods of measuring staff performance.

The ability to develop and maintain a high-performing workforce is key to success, or even survival during economic hard times.

Today, we turn to expert HRwisdom contributor Leon Noone for some excellent advice on staff motivation.

Leon established his management consulting business in 1978. His core business is helping managers in small-medium business to improve the day to day job performance of their staff.

Leon offers you his usual straight-talking advice on how to take the hassle out of measuring staff performance.

Over to Leon . . .

Practical Performance Appraisal: Measuring Staff Performance Successfully Without Filling Out Forms

The term “performance appraisal” usually means filling out forms, reviewing employees’ work, a formal interview and planning development or remedial activities. And it’s often a hassle. It shouldn’t mean any of that.

Performance not Politeness

Formal performance appraisal systems often ask managers to comment or rate all sorts of things.

Some of these are not only difficult to judge, but have little or nothing to do with performance: demeanour, presentation, co-operation, initiative, attitude, to mention a few.

Make sure your performance appraisal is about performance – the results that the employee achieves on the job.

Performance and Behaviour

I’ve read lots of definitions of these words. The best I’ve found is this: “Performance is what you leave behind. Behaviour is what you take with you.” (Tweet this quote now)

Managers often allow employee behaviour to interfere with evaluation of their performance. When this happens, “good” behaviour often masks poor performance and “poor” behaviour overrides good performance.

A large international company once sought my advice about the behaviour of their leading salesperson.

This person had averaged more than 30% over sales budget for 3 years. But his paperwork was poor.

The company was seriously considering “letting him go” due to the poor paperwork.

I suggested that they employ someone to keep his paperwork up to date and give him more time in the field where his performance showed that he clearly excelled.

Clear Performance Standards

To measure performance you must have clear measurable performance standards.

If you don’t tell your employees exactly what performance you expect, how can you measure whether they provides it? That’s the purpose of performance standards.

You Get What You Expect

Expect the best.

Explain to employees exactly what you mean by “best” and how you’ll measure it.

Create systems to enable them to attain “best”. Do that and you’ll probably get “best” or close to it.

Fail to do it and you’ll be lucky to get third best. That’s what employees will believe you expect.

The best thing a manager can do for employees is to put systems in place that make it impossible for them to fail.

Appraisal Daily

You should be measuring employee performance at least weekly and preferably daily.

This is simple, precise and fast when you have clear, measurable performance standards.

If your standards are clear enough and your systems are sound enough, your employees will know how well they’re doing long before you do. They will measure their own performance through the system. And you’ll know too.

Stay Informed and Prepared

Good systems and clear performance standards are the cornerstones of superior staff performance.

With these in place, you’ll have ready access to the information you need to decide “how well they’re doing”.

And so will employees.

If you want to have a formal interview with an employee, you’ll have plenty of time and be well prepared.

Abandon The Appraisal Form

Filling out an elaborate form once every six or twelve months is nothing more than a bureaucratic construct created by HR specialists more interested in bureaucracy niceties than measuring performance. (Tweet this quote now)

It also requires managers to review work over an almost impossibly long time.

There’s no need for it. Stop doing it.

Use Performance Standards and Systems Instead

Today’s technology means both manager and employee can tell how well the employee is performing monthly, weekly, even daily.

Make employees responsible for measuring their own performance.

You shouldn’t have to wait six or twelve months to find out.

Conclusion

There’s no need to complete a form in order to undertake a successful performance appraisal.

In fact, filling in elaborate appraisal forms is likely to hinder rather than help successful appraisal.

Make employee performance a daily concern.

And expect the best.

How To Measure Staff Performance

Thanks to Leon for his excellent advice on how to get the best out of your employees. Such advice is well-timed as businesses face trying times as the economy continues to suffer.

We encourage you take action on Leon’s advice.

Remember, you can learn more about Leon and his excellent HR services by visiting his website here: Leon Noone.

Finally, as always, we welcome you to share this HRwisdom Blog post with your friends and colleagues.

HRwisdom

New HR Infographic - How To Create Employment Contracts

New HR Infographic On The Right Way To Create Employment Contracts

January 8, 2013 / HRwisdom

Recently, here on the HRwisdom Facebook Page, we shared a new HR infographic explaining the right way to create employment contracts.

The new HR infographic explains the key elements to ensuring that you have a good employment contract development process in place. Tweet This Infographic

The picture quickly outlines aspects such as:

Drafting your employment contract.
Understanding minimum entitlements.
Legal advice on social media and other tricky areas.
How to explain the contract to your new employee.
The employee contract review process.
Documenting the agreement.

The diagram is a very handy guide for any organisation trying to ensure that there are no hiring contract issues down the track.

Interested? Jump over to the HRwisdom Facebook Page now to see the new HR infographic.

For more workforce management information, watch the following HR video:

Local Workplace Law Advice For Employers

HRwisdom

The Main Workforce Management Mistake Made During A Slowdown

January 7, 2013 / HRwisdom

When times get tough, there’s one big workforce management mistake that tends to get made by many businesses . . .

Employee engagement falls off the radar.

The Forgotten Case For Employee Engagement

It depends on who you talk to, of course, but most HR-minded folk would agree that there is a fairly strong business case in favour of increasing employee engagement.

After all, here’s what the hugely influential Gallup organisation had to say about employee engagement as part of their ongoing assessment in which they interviewed more than 3 million employees since 1997:

“Engaged employees are clearly more valuable to your company than disenchanted ones. Great managers and leaders know this instinctively, and The Gallup Organization’s latest research into employee engagement levels among the U.S. workforce confirms it. In fact, according to Gallup’s calculations, actively disengaged employees – the least productive – cost the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity.”

At an individual employee level, Gallup calculated that each disengaged employee costs businesses approximately $3,400 for every $10,000 paid in salary. Click to tweet

In contrast, Gallup suggested that engaged employees were far more productive and profitable due to their very strong customer focus and heightened sense of self-accountability. These types of employees were also noted as being stayers – their average tenure within organisations is longer and so they continue to contribute to economic grow over the long term.

In an economic downturn, this sort of real data and positive reviews would reasonably be expected to lead all organisations to eke out maximum business performance by further encouraging employee engagement efforts.

However, we continue to see industry surveys and reports that show that many employees are either dissatisfied or actively disengaged in their work.

In Australia, a recent large-scale workforce survey conduct by Insync found that just over half of all people voluntarily leaving their employers were doing so due to disengagement. Click to tweet

A Focus On Survival

The most likely reason for a company’s loss of focus in this vital area is the simple need for survival.

In tough economic times, many organisations will focus all their energy on purely operational matters.

Some short-sighted companies have seen the economic downturn as an opportunity to get rid of the ‘dead wood’ but such an approach is rarely done with longer term consequences in mind.

Jack Welch became known for his tough approach to performance management and firing but he was careful to combine this with a very strong focus on employee engagement for those who remained.

Organisations that lose sight of the needs and expectations of their workforce at any time place the future in jeopardy.

This is especially true in hard times.

Indeed, our friends over in the UK recognised this fact with a report commissioned by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills arguing that: “wider delivery of employee engagement could have a positive impact on UK competitiveness and performance both during the downturn and in powering through to recovery.”

How To Benefit From A Recession

A time of recession or low growth is exactly the right time to be maximising the performance and discretionary efforts of the workforce.

Any person who thinks that an economic downturn is no time for achieving businesses management excellence should keep in mind the findings from the well-known Kauffman Foundation study of a few years ago. The study revealed that just under half of Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing Companies and 57% of the Fortune 500 companies had been founded during a recession or bear market. Click to tweet This included many companies that value and encourage discretionary effort and staff motivation such as Sears, General Electric, 3M, Ford, Boeing, State Farm Insurance, and Delta Air Lines.

Tough trading conditions are no excuse to drop the ball by not seeking maximum levels of staff motivation. In fact, they offer proactive businesses a competitive advantage.

HRwisdom

HR Video On The Benefits Of Building A Diverse Workforce

January 4, 2013 / HRwisdom

Today HRwisdom is sharing an HR video on the benefits of building a diverse workforce.

With an ageing population, skills shortages of the past will return but with greater intensity.

Many business managers and human resources professionals will recall the great difficulties involved in recruiting during the last economic boom.

Small business owners regularly complained about being squeezed out of the labour market by a shortage of suitable staff that they could reasonably afford to hire.

One of the ways that the Federal Government is trying to address this issue is to encourage employers to become more open in their recruitment search and to take on a more varied work group.

One particular video highlights the fact that there are significant productivity and cost benefits involved with hiring a more diverse workforce. Tweet this fact

The video is a case study which looks at the advantages that hiring a diverse labour force can bring for Australian businesses. David Miao from Woolworths and Dominic Calabro from Catholic Homes discuss the topc and share their experiences.

Some of the discussion you’ll hear includes:

“Some employers think that people with disability and older workers will be less productive than co-workers but in fact, they take less sick days and have been rated higher in productivity, flexibility and attendance.”

“Some employers think that diversity won’t fit into their workplace with their customers, but in fact, diverse workforces have a positive influence on workplace culture and can increase customer loyalty.”

“Some employers think that people with disability and mature age workers will be more prone to accidents. In fact, the opposite is true.”

“In effect, the numbers don’t stack up. We’ve got an ageing workforce. We’re employing a more diverse workforce, yet our incidents WorkCover claims have continued to decrease.”

“Employers can be concerned that they don’t have the time or money to diversify their workforce, but in fact, employers may be eligible for a range of support from the Australian Government.”

Let’s hear some of the thoughts shared on the video . . .

HR Video on Building A Diverse Workforce

As always, feel free to share this with your colleagues.

HRwisdom