Author: HRwisdom (Page 8 of 11)

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Do You Agree That Australia’s Employment System Needs This Change?

January 3, 2013 / HRwisdom

A recent edition of The Australian newspaper led with a strong call for change to Australia’s employment system.

The editorial was up-front and very clear in its argument that the workplace relations system was unwieldy, complex, and very costly in a variety of ways.

As part of its case, the newspaper quoted a study which found that four out of five employers felt the current labour laws had made business more difficult.

Here’s a brief extract of the editorial – we wonder what you think?

Here’s something for politicians to think about on the beach. Who is benefiting from Australia’s inflexible industrial relations system? Not the young workers and other casual staff missing out on shifts in shops, hot bread kitchens and cafes across the suburbs and even in tourist areas. Not their employers who find it more economical to close over the holiday season than pay the prescribed $40, $50 or more an hour. And not the customers paying more in the outlets that are open.

For five years, Julia Gillard’s Fair Work system has unwound 20 years of hard-won industrial relations reforms achieved primarily by the Howard government, but also by the Hawke-Keating governments, that encouraged decentralisation and insisted on workplace efficiencies in return for wage rises.

For the sake of prosperity over the next 20 years, especially in the slower sectors of the two-speed economy such as retail, tourism and manufacturing, both sides of politics must focus in the new year on more productive workplace relations.

The editorial then moved on to describe the expected consequences of not making changes to the national industrial relations system:

Youth unemployment in parts of Australia is already close to 20 per cent and will worsen as the economy slows. Tweet this statistic

As reported yesterday, a survey of 562 small and medium-sized businesses in NSW, Victoria and Queensland found that four out of five employers said the current labour laws had made business more difficult because of the compliance costs and complexity associated with the Fair Work Act (tweet this statistic) and the modern award system. One respondent to the survey, Mudgee-based earthmoving business Kodiak, spent $30,000 on legal fees to negotiate the intricacies of the act to strike an enterprise bargaining agreement with drivers and equipment operators. Tweet this statistic

Nor has Fair Work ushered in the harmony promised by Labor. Strikes in the construction industry, as well as in state public services, pushed the number of working days lost in the September quarter to their highest level in eight years. Tweet this statistic

The newspaper editorial continued with further such arguments and there was no sitting on the fence. It’s worth a read.

In an election year, we can be sure that Australia’s employment system will be up for a lot more intense scrutiny and debate.

We’ll keep you posted . . .

HRwisdom

Written Warning Template for Australian Employers

Warning Letter Template For Australian Employers

December 17, 2012 / HRwisdom

If you are looking for a warning letter template for Australian employers to help manage an underperforming employee in your organisation, HRwisdom has one for you to download for free now.

You can buy HR documents here.

Whilst there is no legal requirement to provide formal written warnings, it is good business practice to do so. It will also strengthen your case should you ever be faced with a claim of unfair dismissal.

If it does go from underperforming or poor behaviour in the workplace through to termination and an unfair dismissal claim, the industrial commission will examine whether you warned the employee and provided a reasonable opportunity to improve their performance and conduct.

You should always seek expert advice in disciplinary matters because warnings may not be deemed appropriate in some cases of serious misconduct.

When disciplining an employee, the Australian Government recommends:

Clearly identifying the performance or conduct issue. This involves looking at how serious the problem is, how long it has existed and what actions you are going to take to address it.
Meet with the employee to identify and resolve issues before the situation becomes worse, clarify your expectations of the employee, and agree on solutions to improve the situation. During these discussions, it is very important that you do not set requirements or targets that are discriminatory, unlawful or otherwise unreasonable. Again, this is where professional legal advice is highly recommended.
Your disciplinary letter should include the details of the performance or conduct issue of concern, what has been discussed with the employee about the issue, what the employer will do to assist, an action plan of what steps the employee needs to take, and a reasonable time frame in which the changes or improvements need to occur.
Employees are not required by law to sign a copy of the letter.

Of course, regardless of how well your conduct your performance management process, the employee may still make an unfair dismissal or discrimination complaint or claim against you.

However, the better prepared you are and the more thorough you are in your processes, the better the chance of defeating the claim.

Warning Letter Template

If you would like to download a Government template for written warnings, click here:

Download Written Warning Notice Template

Good Interview Question 10

Q10. Why do you want to work in our Business?

Why do you want to work in our business is a deceptively simple question, but the answers that candidates give you will tell you something about their attitude towards learning in particular.

The better candidates are the ones who are curious about the world and try to dig out information and research things.

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

When you ask the question “Why do you want to work in our business?” most people will probably give you an answer which guesses what your products or perhaps they do know what your products are.

A better answer would be something where the candidate might reveal a bit about the history of your company or how many sites you’ve got around the country or where you’re located or head office or something like that.

It’s only a little thing but my estimate is that about one in ten candidates will do that research and if they’re already researching and finding out information about your company before they’re employed with you, chances are that after you employ them, they will always be on the look out for information about how they fit in to the business and what opportunities are out there for them and if you invite them to come along to some training, they’ll invariably say yes because they have this thirst for knowledge.

So always listen behind the question to the underlying attitude.

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Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers You Want To Hear

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Leading People Without Saying A Word

December 14, 2012 / HRwisdom

With some big name companies like BHP Billiton and Leighton Contractors being singled out in the media recently for their overly prescriptive practices relating to micro-management, we thought we’d share a more positive approach to leading people.

Today’s HRwisdom Blog post comes from Carlo Pandian – a keen observer all things related organisational behaviour, leadership and human resources.

Over to Carlo . . .

Leading without Saying a Word – Why Non-Verbal Cues are Important

A leader doesn’t always have to use words to communicate meaning. In fact, more of what he or she really means comes across in gestures, facial expressions and other non-verbal cues than any of the words that they could say. Research has suggested that between 60 and 70 percent of all communication between humans is derived from non-verbal cues. We pick up on every smile, every sigh, every eyebrow raise, every glance at the watch, whether we want to or not.

Sometimes your non-verbal communication can even betray what your words are saying. You can be trying to be polite in your speech, but your words will give away your distrust, disregard or distraction. As a leader, you must be careful not only with what you say but with how your body language comes across.

Don’t Forget to Smile

Are you one of those bosses who walks around all day with a frown on? Perhaps you are deep in concentration over a specific problem that you are trying to solve, or perhaps you just haven’t had your coffee yet. Either way, having an unsmiling expression on your face can actually have a detrimental impact on your business.

Why? Because you are giving out non-verbal signals to your employees telling them not to approach you! Your lack of a smile makes people assume that you are in a bad mood or that you would react badly if they were to bring you their problems, feedback or ideas.

This is a bad thing, because you want and desperately need your employees to find you approachable. Their ideas and suggestions can be incredibly valuable for you as they will help you to realise how the company can improve. Practice giving your employees a friendly nod and a smile whenever you see them and keeping your facial expression positive so that they will feel comfortable when approaching you.

Be Aware of Your Meeting Habits

It can be incredibly boring to sit in meetings for hours, but if you are not careful your body language will be telling everyone just how bored you actually are. This can be insulting to prospective clients, discouraging to employees and can make you look unprofessional.

Ask yourself if you have a habit of slumping in your seat during meetings and conferences, or staring out the window. Do you take out your phone and fiddle with it, or work on other documents? Do you tap your feet, jiggle your leg or play with your hair? Become more aware of all of these habits, because whether you want to or not you are sending everyone else in the meeting the message that you don’t want to be there.

Instead, turn of all distractions and face forward with your feet on the floor. Make eye contact with the person who is speaking and make sure that you are actively listening. Not only will you get a lot more out of the meeting, people will know that you care what they have to say.

Acknowledge People on a Personal Level

Employee recognition is somewhat about the words that you say, but it is also about the non-verbal cues that you give to your staff every day. People want to be acknowledged, encouraged and appreciated. You can do this by giving them positive feedback on the things that they do right, but also make sure that your non-verbal communication with them is positive.

One thing that you can do is to greet every member of staff, from the vice president to the cleaning staff, with a friendly smile, a nod and maybe a little wave (whatever suits your style) whenever you see them. When you walk through the office, make eye contact with people and give them a look that shows them that you are happy to see them and that they are doing well. You’ll be amazed by how much you can convey with these encouraging looks.

Leaders need not only pay attention to their words, but also instead to the fact that they can convey so much more without saying a thing.

About Carlo

Carlo Pandian is a management graduate at the University of London specialised in organisational behaviour, leadership and human resources. He writes tutorials on Intuit Payroll software and is interested in how employees collaborate and interact in corporations to pursue organisational goals and ensure growth.

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Good Interview Question 9

Q9. Tell us about a time when a customer’s deadline couldn’t be met. How did you break the news to the customer?

Delivering bad news to a customer is a very difficult thing to do. So listen carefully to the applicant’s answer to this question. It will give you insight into their attitude towards customers.

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

A good answer would be if they said that they had to deliver this bad news and they decided to drive out and tell the customer face to face. That’s obviously a better way to deliver bad news than just send an email for instance.

So listen behind the question to the attitude that the applicant has towards the customer and also, see if the were able to come up with some creative ways of delivering the bad news.

For instance, did they look for the previous ten orders and see that they’ve delivered nine orders ahead of schedule and this was the first one that was going to be behind schedule or something like that.

If they’ve got some sense of being able to balance the bad news with some good news, something like that.

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Good Interview Question 9

Q9. Tell us about a time when a customer’s deadline couldn’t be met. How did you break the news to the customer?

Delivering bad news to a customer is a very difficult thing to do.

So listen carefully to the applicant’s answer to this question. It will give you insight into their attitude towards customers.

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

For instance, a good answer would be if they said that they had to deliver this bad news and they decided to drive out and tell the customer face to face. That’s obviously a better way to deliver bad news than just send an email for instance.

So listen behind the question to the attitude that the applicant has towards the customer and also, see if the were able to come up with some creative ways of delivering the bad news.

If they’ve got some sense of being able to balance the bad news with some good news, something like that.

Want More Good Interview Questions Right Now?

Stay tuned for the last question in our Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers series.

Can’t wait to see the rest of the questions and answers?
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You can download the full document right now.

[sociallocker id=”4428″]Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers You Want To Hear[/sociallocker]

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Delegating To Staff – The Four Fatal Flaws

December 11, 2012 / HRwisdom

In today’s HRwisdom Blog update we examine an issue that is crucial to optimal management performance yet is often handled in a very sub-optimal way: delegating to staff.

We are very fortunate to be able to bring your insights of special guest expert, Dave Clemens.

Dave Clemens has served as deputy financial editor of the International Herald Tribune, editor and bureau chief for Bloomberg News, and deputy bureau chief for the French News Agency.

Currently, Dave is the editor of Rapid Learning Institute’s The HR Café, an informative, entertaining blog for Human Resources Leaders.

Over to Dave . . .

Delegation: The Four Fatal Flaws That Cause New Managers to Struggle In Their New Role

Why did you get promoted to a leadership role?

When asked that question, most managers say something about deep experience in leadership or a proven track record developing people. The likelihood is that neither of these answers is true. In reality, most employees get promoted because they excel in a specific technical skill.

In promoting you to a leadership role, your organization essentially made a bet. Knowing that you can perform at a high level, it bets that given a higher salary and more responsibility, you can replicate that performance in other people.

Normally, this is a losing bet, but when it does pay off, organizations reach the Holy Grail of Delegation: The Multiplier Effect.

When leaders successfully replicate the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors that made them successful – a process known as “Knowledge Transfer” – the organization gets an entire team of individuals performing at high levels. The organization also gets a leader who has the time to take on higher-level strategic activities, and make an even greater impact on organizational performance.

Now, why is this normally a losing bet? Because delegating effectively is a difficult skill to master. Many managers end up committing one of the Four Fatal Flaws of Delegation. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Misunderstanding your role.

Sometimes managers don’t understand the power of the Multiplier Effect. They think their promotion to leadership is a reward for exceptional performance. Furthermore, they think the people who now report to that manager are there to do the manager’s work and nothing else. Granted, that’s part of what delegation is about, but it isn’t the most important part.

Solution: Understand that delegation isn’t about you, but rather about your employees. Remember, the goal is to replicate your skills in other people.

2. Micromanaging

Too many managers won’t let their reports find their own path to success, and instead watch over every move employees make. The problem with this is twofold: It leaves your employees feeling disempowered and unable to take ownership of the tasks assigned to them. Second, micromanaged employees perpetually drain managers’ time, keeping them from the activities related to their new strategic role.

Solution: Recognize that good people find their own way, even if that means making mistakes along the way. As a leader, it’s your job to empower your reports to find their own solutions, not hand those solutions to them on a silver platter.

3. Lacking a plan for development.

When managers take a “sink or swim” approach to their employees, it creates a recipe for failure for both the manager and the employee.

Solution: Develop an effective development plan. That means setting a training agenda, clearly defining desired goals and outcomes for employees, and then coaching employees to help them meet those goals.

4. Assuming that delegation will lead to automatic success.

This happens when managers believe that if they were free from the low-level tasks they’re now delegating to their reports, their career will take off. In reality, the transition is rarely smooth. When that automatic success doesn’t happen, frustrated managers return to their comfort zone – operational work that other employees were taking care of. On top of demoralizing the manager, this harms reports as well, as they feel they don’t own their job anymore.

Solution: Hopefully your boss isn’t putting you into a sink or swim scenario, but if they are, seek out training. There’s no shame in admitting that management is difficult, and your boss should understand and be willing to help you transition into your new role.

About Dave Clemens

Dave Clemens has served as deputy financial editor of the International Herald Tribune, editor and bureau chief for Bloomberg News, and deputy bureau chief for the French News Agency.

Currently, Dave is the editor of Rapid Learning Institute’s The HR Café, an informative, entertaining blog for Human Resources Leaders.

Connect with Dave via Twitter @TheHRCafe

Good Interview Question 8

Q8. Customers can be very demanding. Tell us about a time when you went the extra mile to satisfy a customer.

People who are in customer service roles go home at the end of the day absolutely exhausted because they spent the whole day trying to be nice to people and it’s a demanding job.

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

When people give you an answer to this question about going the extra mile, some people will talk about it with a smile on their face about how they stamped the back of a child’s hand or they offered a seat to an elderly customer or helped someone out with a large package to their car, something like that and they’ll tell you automatically how they went the extra mile.

But a lot of people in customer service won’t do that and they don’t do that.

So if you employ someone that can’t give you some stories about how they went the extra mile, when you’ll employ them, you’ll going to have to send them along to courses about how to be pleasant to customers, how to be nice on the telephone and things like that so they become an expense to your business.

So given a choice between two candidates, always go for the one who can tell you how they went the extra mile and they tell you that cheerfully and it’s just naturally.

It’s something they do that it comes from the heart.

Want More Good Interview Questions Right Now?

Stay tuned for the next question in our Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers series.

Can’t wait to see the rest of the questions and answers?
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How To Motivate Staff – A Five Step System

December 7, 2012 / HRwisdom

How To Motivate Staff – A Five Step System

A common issue in industry that we hear a lot about at HRwisdom is the issue of staff motivation.

The ability to develop and maintain a high-performing and highly motivated 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 five steps to creating a highly motivated workforce.

What’s different though, is that Leon doesn’t actually mention Motivation in any of the five steps.

Over to Leon . . .

Staff Motivation: A 5 Step System To Ensure Success

Staff motivation: is there anything left to be said? Has any employee management issue been analyzed so much? All the analysis and examination is misleading. Only 5 steps are involved.

1. Sort Out Your Marketing

There are two absolute essentials for good marketing: a clear, specific business focus and a narrow specific target market. These two factors must be in place. They are the foundations that support the whole business, including employee performance.

You must know exactly what your business exists to achieve and who your ideal customer is. You cannot expect staff to give you what you want if you are not clear on exactly what it is you’re in business to do and who with.

2. Exact Performance Expectations

Your staff need to know exactly what you expect of them in clear, unambiguous, measurable performance terms.

Don’t bother with generalities about “attitude”, “application” and “co-operation”. If you want 13 widgets a day for the cost of 9.4 cents a widget, you must tell your employees. If you don’t say exactly what you want, you won’t get it.

3. Exact Method Of Measurement

Tell employees precisely the performance you expect. Then tell them exactly how you’ll measure that performance. How will the widgets be counted? How will the production costs be assessed? Must each operator produce 13 widgets or will be the total number be acceptable? Employees need to know this.

4 Put Effective Performance Systems In Place

It’s an old saying but true: “If your systems are poor, your people will fail.” Another is “Put systems in place that make it impossible for employees to fail.” I myself have said and written this hundreds of times. Finally, keep in mind that “a poor system will beat a good performer every time”.

You can have the keenest, most enthusiastic, most skilled and hardest working employees on the planet. Poor systems will stop them dead in their tracks faster than anything else.

5. Establish Measurable Performance Standards

You’ve probably always been told that performance goals are very important. They are. But performance standards are more important than goals. Performance standards tell you precisely whether the goals have been achieved. And they measure progress towards goals too. No performance standards; no goal achievement.

No “Motivation”

Notice that this 5 step method doesn’t mention “motivation”. That’s because motivation is a consequence. When this 5 step System works for you, the consequence will be highly motivated employees. That’s why much of the literature about “motivation” is misplaced.

Two Crucial Realities

The basic human unit in the workplace is the team not the individual. We recruit individuals it’s true. But we expect them to be successful and effective in teams. We construct the workplace with teams. That’s the first reality. Here’s the second.

Employees do not need to “get on well” in order to work effectively together. Don’t spend time trying to “improve interpersonal relations”. Good interpersonal relations are a “consequence of” successful team performance not a “prerequisite for” it.

“Pep” Talks, Counselling And All That

These activities may have some short term value. But they’re no substitute for performance standards and performance systems. Put your time into designing success and achievement for employees to aspire to.

Remember The Business

It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that employees are part of the resource you use to run a successful business. The manager’s job is to use all resources as well as possible. As famous performance expert Geary Rummler says, “An organization is only as effective as its processes”. Concentrate on getting the processes right. Let me repeat: if your systems are poor, your people will fail.

Conclusion

Keeping staff enthusiastic and committed isn’t child’s play. But it’s not rocket science either. Some gurus would like you to think that it is. You’re not responsible for the total emotional wellbeing of employees. Ricardo Semler, CEO of the very successful Semco, sums it up this way: “My job is to motivate them so that they go home each day proud of their work”. Notice that he accepts that responsibility.

How To Motivate Staff – The Five Step System

Thanks to Leon for his excellent advice on how to motivate staff. Such advice is well-timed as businesses face trying times as the economy continues to suffer.

We encourage you take action on Leon’s five step system.

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

HRwisdom

The ‘Colourful’ HR Video We Were Too Scared To Show You

December 5, 2012 / HRwisdom

Recently, the HRwisdom Blog post examined an unusual publicity campaign called: Nothing HR Can’t Sort Out In The Morning.

Since posting the article, we have been contacted by the company involved and they have provided us with a copy of a ‘colourful’ HR video on the theme of Nothing HR Can’t Sort Out In The Morning.

We admit it. As an HR website, we are too scared to share this HR video with you here on the HRwisdom Blog (but we’ll show you where to see it).

The company behind the video (Strike) began by asking its fans for their worst experiences of an office Christmas party.

According to the company: “Almost all responses from people who had a Christmas party in their workplace, reported that the party had been pretty bad, and listed so many things that were absolutely cringe-worthy, things like the CEO’s wrestling with staff, songs running off an iPod on repeat all night, terrible food, warm beers. The responses kept coming in.”

Using these replies, the company and their agency Loud&Clear have recreated the most common or ridiculous responses, in a quick walk-through of a truly terrible Christmas party.

Think, The Office.

Due to the ‘colorful’ nature of the video (though probably still rated G), we were too scared to share the video with you here on the HRwisdom Blog.

However, we have posted the video straight onto the HRwisdom Facebook Page (just note this as our ‘Viewer Beware’ disclaimer).

Watch the video if you dare (we’ve also included details of the company’s giveaway of a party for one viewer and 25 of their colleagues to experience a Christmas party with a difference).

Don’t forget to Like the HRwisdom Facebook page.

Watch the video and hopefully you’ll see that it was nothing that H.R couldn’t sort out in the morning.

HRwisdom

Author: HRwisdom (Page 8 of 11)

Do You Agree That Australia’s Employment System Needs This Change?

Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers – Q10

Good Interview Question 10

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

Want More Good Interview Questions Right Now?

Leading People Without Saying A Word

Leading without Saying a Word – Why Non-Verbal Cues are Important

Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers – Q9 – 2

Good Interview Question 9

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

Want More Good Interview Questions Right Now?

Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers – Q9

Good Interview Question 9

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

Want More Good Interview Questions Right Now?

Delegating To Staff – The Four Fatal Flaws

Delegation: The Four Fatal Flaws That Cause New Managers to Struggle In Their New Role

About Dave Clemens

Top 10 Interview Questions With Answers – Q8

Good Interview Question 8

Preferred Interview Answer – What You Want To Hear

Want More Good Interview Questions Right Now?

How To Motivate Staff – A Five Step System

How To Motivate Staff – A Five Step System

Staff Motivation: A 5 Step System To Ensure Success

How To Motivate Staff – The Five Step System