Tag: HR Advice (Page 3 of 9)

How To Motivate Staff [Excellent Video Presentation]

February 27, 2013 / HRwisdom

This excellent video presentation will help you answer the question:

How To Motivate Staff?

Dan Pink gave this insightful talk on TED on the topic of work motivation.

By the way, in case you don’t know, TED is an inspiring ongoing conference which allows the world’s top thinkers and doers of all stripes such as Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and Jamie Oliver to share their ideas and experiences with the rest of the world.

This one TED video clip has reached more than 5 million views. It provides a very refreshing perspective on how to understand the role of incentives in work motivation.

Have you accessed your free employer resources yet? Use the form over to the right-hand side now.

Here’s the official introduction to the talk:

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories – and maybe, a way forward. Bidding adieu to his last “real job” as Al Gore’s speechwriter, Dan Pink went freelance to spark a right-brain revolution in the career marketplace.’

How To Motivate Staff

Take a look at the presentation now.

If you think there are some interesting ideas raised in the talk, Like It or share it with friends and colleagues by using the social media sharing buttons below.

Feel free to Like or share this presentation with friends and colleagues (just use the social media sharing buttons below).

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Human Resource Strategy For Greater Business Influence

February 11, 2013 / HRwisdom

In today’s HRwisdom Blog post, we look at an issue that faces many HR professionals: How to have a bigger impact on the business?

In order to come up with a Human Resources strategy for greater business influence, we have turned to an expert HR practicioner, Deb Graham (more about Deb at the end of this article).

Human Resource Strategy For Greater Business Influence

Let’s hand it over to Deb . . .

Want To Be More Influential?

Ever felt like no one cares what you think?

We all do from time to time.

Over the years, I’ve worked with all kinds of HR leaders. Those who are influential have this in common: they understand the business, speak the language of business leaders and are skilled at sharing their opinions and insights. This makes them credible and business leaders seek their opinions.

So how do they do it?

1. They know the business. And because they understand how the business works, they can talk about the things that matter to business leaders. Business leaders don’t get excited because it’s ‘time to do our succession plan’. They are interested when ‘succession planning’ means they have the people they need to lead the latest strategic change.

Do you know your business?

Ask yourself:

How does my business make money?
What metrics does my organization use to determine success and what do these metrics and acronyms mean?
What challenges does my organization face in the short-term and long-term?
What do customers love about us?
And of course, Who are the people we can not afford to lose?

2. They build strong relationships with the business leaders they support. As a true partner and not a ‘rule enforcer’, these HR leaders discuss how business problems can be solved. But neither does the HR leader simply do what the business leader requests. The business leader might insist that a new hire be paid more than others already doing the job. The HR leader’s role is to help him or her understand how this will be viewed when it is discovered by current employees (and of course, it always is). In the zeal to get the job done, the business leader may forget to consider the future implications of his or her decisions.

Are you a strong business partner? Ask yourself:

Do the leaders I support believe that I desire and am actively working to make them successful?
Do I go along with the opinions of the crowd or do I speak up when my opinion differs?
Do I provide feedback and coaching so that the leader can understand how s/he is viewed and thus is able to increase his or her effectiveness?
Do I help leaders to understand the implications of their actions?

You may be wondering how to build these skills.

I’ve had good results by simply asking questions.

For example, I worked in an organization where EBITDA was the most watched metric. Uncertain what it meant, I asked the CFO, who walked me through the steps to calculate it. Turns out it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected.

Books can also be useful. Two I highly recommend are:

What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan
Flawless Consulting by Peter Block

Learn the business, build relationships, add insight and value and you’ll find yourself included in important business discussions.

Deb Graham is the founder of ACTstrategic.com, a place where HR leaders from across the globe can connect, ask questions and find practical solutions to manage business change.

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Change In Organisational Culture – Here’s Where It’s Needed Most

February 8, 2013 / HRwisdom

Today, HRwisdom is sharing an interesting article on a place that is in desperate need of change in organisational culture.

This place has the ability to drive us all a little crazy at times.

The article is from one of the most influential business thinkers of this era, Seth Godin.

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Seth shares powerful observations of the modern airport which he suggests is an organisation we should try to avoid when it comes to developing our own company culture.

Change In Organisational Culture

Here are some of Seth Godin’s observations of an airport and how these blunders can positively help your organisation when you apply the lessons:

You never see the CEO or whoever is the person in charge of the airport. If the person at the top seems not to care, it will reflect down to the lowest level of the organization and it will definitely show on the service.
Problems persist because organizations defend their territories instead of finding ways to solve the problem. Someone blames someone and the blaming goes on and on. Things change only when the user’s problem is the driver of behavior.
Airports see customers as fleeting people. They are here today and gone tomorrow. New customers will come everyday.
An anxiety-filled system is what airports create. They assume customers care more of their money than their anxiety. They try to make as many flights as they can to increase profit thereby spares, downtime, or resilience are neglected.
There are mostly bad surprises, never heard of any good one yet.
There seems to be no connections whatever in airports. No one feels particularly welcome.
Airport system seems to be so industrialized that personal expression seems to be taboo.”

By carefully considering these observations, you will surely find a way to improve your company culture.

To read the full article by Seth Godin and see more of his interesting observations, go to: Eleven Things Organisations Can Learn From Airports

Remember, you can always share this article to your colleagues.

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Staff Turnover Strategy – Top 100 Employers Part 1

February 5, 2013 / HRwisdom

Staff Turnover Strategy – Top 100 Employers Part 1

Avoiding unnecessary staff turnover is a deliberate strategy used by the top companies in the world. They do this to keep their skills, knowledge and expertise in-house without having to constantly slow down to bring new people up to speed.

The Fortune Magazine’s list of the 100 Best Companies To Work For In America makes for very interesting reading.

NOTE: You’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice.

For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

In this HRwisdom post we’re bringing you the rankings 91 – 100 of the Fortune Magazine 100 Best Companies to Work in America.

91 DONNELLY Holland, Mich. The glass company, not the printing company. Celebrated for Scanlon Plan, which rewards employees for productivity gains. Also has unique equity structure, which has employees electing representatives to equity committees with the power to address issues of policy and practice–even pay.
92 W.W. GRAINGER Lincolnshire, Ill. Sells hardware supplies through a network of 350 retail stores and a huge catalogue operation. Their 1.3 million business customers range from small building contractors to General Motors. Boasts of a “Cadillac profit-sharing plan,” in which company puts into your account the equivalent of 15% to 20% of your annual pay.
93 ALAGASCO Birmingham, Ala. Only utility on our list–largest unit of publicly traded Energen Corp.– supplies natural gas to more than 400,000 homes and businesses in central and northern Alabama. Company recently offered $500 prize to employees for an idea to address a diversity problem in their area. Turnover less than 5%. No layoffs in 25 years.
94 APOGEE Minneapolis They make windows, replace windshields, and put up curtain walls for buildings. It’s a company populated, as one employee put it, by “good, small-town, Midwestern people.” Employees get profit-sharing checks every quarter. Great feeling of camaraderie. Employees encouraged to think of new ways to do things.
95 SHELL OIL Houston U.S. wing of world’s largest oil company initiated in the mid-1990s a process it called transformation. Goal: Move responsibility down to lower levels. Shell has rich benefits capped by company-paid pensions, plus a pretax savings plan under which company kicks in 10% of your pay annually no matter what you contribute.
96 ALLIEDSIGNAL Morristown, N.J. Since taking helm in 1991, Lawrence A. Bossidy has infused a sense of purpose. Mandated 40 hours of training a year for every employee. Headquarters has on-site child care, fitness center, and other amenities. One of best 401(k) plans around: After five years company matches employee contributions 100% up to 8% of pay.
97 TENNANT Minneapolis Biggest U.S. maker of industrial floor sweepers and scrubbers believes in the old-fashioned pat on the back. That-a-way stickers plastered on everybody’s work station. Strong support network for women managers has paid off: No. 2 in the company is a woman, a rarity in manufacturing.
98 MERRILL LYNCH New York Wall Street’s biggest employer added 6,000 jobs in the past two years. Great training programs; tuition reimbursement up to $8,000 a year. Merrill is a Boy Scout company, scandal-free. One employee put it this way: “When times are good, Merrill Lynch is a great place to work; when times are bad, it is the only place to work.”
99 ACIPCO Birmingham, Ala. Makes cast-iron pipe for water and sewer systems. Founder willed company to workers when he died in 1924, and it still operates as an employee trust with four of 12 members of board of directors elected by employees. Superb, fully accredited, on-site medical clinic with eight full-time doctors and five full-time dentists.
100 GLAXO WELLCOME Research Triangle Park, N.C. British drug company–ranked No. 1 in world, based on sales–lures talent to its North Carolina facilities with glittering array of benefits: two on-site child-care centers plus support for five other centers, seven on-site fitness centers, six medical clinics, 13 paid holidays, 100% match up to 6% of pay in 401(k) plan.

Want More Ideas?

Remember, you’ll pick up many great ideas to help you become on of the Best Companies To Work For in the new HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide. The Guide has sixteen employee management expert practitioners from all areas of the human resources field offering their best employee attraction & retention advice.

For instant download of the comprehensive free “HRwisdom Community Employee Attraction & Retention Guide,” click on Reduce Staff Turnover now.

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Workplace Law Explained (For Free)

February 5, 2013 / HRwisdom

Did you know these workplace law facts . . . ?

Last year there were over 14,000 claims of unfair dismissal.
On average, unfair dismissal claims take over 150 days to resolve.
Compensation for an employee who suffers from ‘Adverse Action’ is uncapped.
In Adverse Action, the onus of proof is against you, the employer.
The process of making employees redundant is always a challenging one.

Attend a free ‘Workplace Law Explained’ online briefing with leading Australian employment lawyers.

Webinars Now Closed

Sorry, the webinars have now finished.

Instead, click here: employment law advice.

Workplace Law Explained

The highly experienced Australian workplace lawyers will talk you through:

Unfair Dismissal: What are the risks and what you should do.
Adverse Action: What are the risks and what you should do.
Redundancies: What are the risks and what you should do.

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Controversial Presentation On A New Employment Model – Microworking

February 1, 2013 / HRwisdom

In today’s HRwisdom Blog, we are sharing a controversial video presentation which deals with a proposed new employment model – microworking.

Plenty of people need jobs with very flexible hours — but it’s difficult for those people to connect with the employers who need them. Wingham Rowan is working on that. He explains how the same technology that powers modern financial markets can help employers book workers for slivers of time.

Wingham Rowan is the founder of social business Slivers-of-Time, which runs online markets for microworking and micro-volunteering.

There has been heated discussion around this presentation.

New Employment Model – Microworking

Here is the original presentation.

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Building A Resilient Workforce

January 30, 2013 / HRwisdom

In today’s HRwisdom post we are delving into building a resilient workforce.

It is important to do this because many business managers and human resources professionals focus on finding the right type of people to bring in to the organisation but then run out of time to find ways and keeping these great people.

We are bringing this issue to your attention by sourcing an excellent article on team building which we feel will be of great use to you . . .

Building a Resilient Workforce

By David Athony Lee

The more resilient your workforce, the greater your ability to:

Adapt nimbly to marketplace changes.
Provide friendly, alert, loyalty-generating customer service.
Implement change rapidly, with minimal resistance.
Get maximum productivity from your employees without burning them out.
Enjoy organizational effectiveness because teams and departments work well together, rather than have an “us” versus “them” mentality that festers in a stressed out environment.
Foster a “can do” spirit or what Southwest Airlines calls a “Warrior Spirit.”

So How Do You Do Create A Stress Resistant, Resilient Workforce?

1. Remove Unnecessary Sources of Stress – Smart employers ask employees “What do we do that drives you crazy?” “What do we do that gets in the way of your doing your job?” Employee energy squandered dealing with bureaucratic hassles and other obstacles to performance is employee energy not available for innovation and productivity. It’s also energy that could make the difference between employees facing challenge with a “Bring it on!” attitude rather than an “I can’t handle another thing on my plate!” attitude. Find out which rules, red tape, need to go. Ferret out and remove any and all unnecessary obstacles. Doing so will recover a massive amount of employee energy that can be channeled to productive use.

2. Remove as Much Ambiguity As Possible – While everyone knows it is important to keep employees in the loop, few employers do a good job at this. If you’re serious about keeping employee morale high and building organizational resilience, you need to shift this idea from “know it” to “act on it.” The more employees know what’s going on, the less time and energy they spend wondering-and worrying-about what they don’t know. Research on stress and control shows that when we know what is going to happen-even if it’s bad-we feel less stressed than when we are faced with the unknown. Find out from employees where they feel left in the dark and how best to keep them in the know.

3. Keep the Dream Alive – Having employees who are inspired and engaged is even more important-and difficult to accomplish-during challenging times. When employees are animated by a compelling vision of a better future or how they can make a difference in the world, they bring their Higher Selves to work, rather than their Lower, It’s-All-About-Me Selves.

Keep the dream alive by sharing stories of the great things you’re doing, stories of employees making a difference, and customer letters of appreciation. Make this a regular part of meetings, company newsletters, and any communication.

4. Make Sure You Set Your People Up For the Thrill of Victory and Not the Agony of Defeat – If employees’ daily experience is one of frustration and failure, they will bring that mindset and emotional state to everything they do-including their response to major changes you ask them to make. By making sure employees have the tools, training, and resources to excel at their jobs, you not only get greater productivity and work quality, you also get employees who feel like-and act like-“Can do” winners.

5. Celebrate Wins – Celebrating both company and individual victories doesn’t just create a positive “vibe”. It also helps workers see themselves as part of a winning team and themselves as effective. This mindset obviously fosters a more “Can do” attitude and courageous response to challenges than if employees see themselves as “losers” and part of a hapless, beleaguered team.

Furthermore, when difficult times brings a steady stream of negative news, it’s easy to see oneself as a victim of circumstances. By consciously calling attention to accomplishments and successes, you offset the doom and gloom with genuine positivity. By sharing stories of employees doing great things, you also strengthen the belief that you are a team of winners who can accomplish great things. Because emotions affect perception, shifting the ambient emotional state of your workforce to a more upbeat, hopeful state, means employees are more apt to look at challenges as something they can overcome, rather than insurmountable obstacles.

6. Balance “We need to move on” with “I feel your pain.” – When people don’t feel their distress is heard or respected, they stay stuck in “broadcast mode.” They can’t hear-nor do they care about-what you have to say. Make sure you verbally acknowledge your employees’ distress over major changes and difficulties. Don’t just launch into an “It is what it is. Get over it” speech and expect that to work. Great leaders acknowledge the emotions and perceptions of their followers during difficult times, and then shift into their vision of the future and how each person has a role in making that vision a reality. Doing so not only inspires your employees-because they know what they can do to make a difference-it also builds stronger relationships between employees and management.

David Lee is the founder of HumanNatureAtWork.com and the author of over 60 articles and book chapters on optimizing employee performance. To download more of his articles, along with “61 Questions That Can Transform Your Workforce”, go to: http://www.HumanNatureAtWork.com]HumanNatureAtWork.com.

Article Source: Building a Resilient Workforce

We hope you have enjoyed this thought-provoking article from David Lee.

As mentioned earlier, at HRwisdom we feel this discussion on team building is an important part of our overall focus on employee attraction and retention. This is because one of our guiding principals in staff management is: “Nothing operates in isolation.”

There is no point in inventing weird or wonderful ways of finding more job candidates and bringing them on board only to destroy shareholder value by pushing staff through a broken system.

As always in managing your workforce, there is a balanced approach. Efficient and effective team development goes a long way to maintaining the right balance.

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Workplace Law Employer Briefings

January 29, 2013 / HRwisdom

Workplace Law Employer Briefings

HRwisdom recently undertook a survey of Australian employers to find out what were the key issues in the area of workplace law.

The following issues were the clear leaders:

Unfair Dismissal
Adverse Action
Managing Redundancies
Managing Underperformers

We have now begun a series of free online employer briefings to help you with these topics.

Update On Workplace Law For Employers

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

Leading Thinkers Predict Demographic & HR Problems

January 28, 2013 / HRwisdom

Two books released in recent times trigger interesting questions for business owners and Human Resources professionals across Australia.

These questions can lead to major HR problems for employers.

The first, a book released by Australian entrepreneur and eco-billionaire, Dick Smith argues strongly for a sustainable population level for Australia. The book, called ‘Dick Smith’s Population Crisis,’ is described in its own summary as follows:

“In 2011 the world’s population exceeded 7 billion. Each year we add nearly 80 million people and by mid-century we will require twice as much food and double the energy we use today. Australia will be deeply affected by these trends – we have the fastest growing population of any developed nation.

These are the staggering facts that confronted Dick Smith. They set him on his crusade to alert us to the dangers of unsustainable growth. They are the facts that have convinced him that if we are to ensure the survival of our civilisation and the health of the planet then we must put a stop to population growth, now.

As our cities continue their unrestrained growth, as we battle daily on crowded public transport and clogged freeways, and as we confront the reality of water and power shortages, Dick challenges the long-held myth that growth is good for us. But more importantly he offers ways for us to re-invent our economy, to reassess the way we live and to at least slow down that ticking clock. This is a provocative, powerful and urgent call to arms.”

Smith’s call for a sustainable population is made all the more interesting for HR strategy when considered in the context of the other major book released in recent times by the eminent and very entertaining sociologist and KPMG partner, Bernard Salt.

Salt’s new book called ‘The Big Tilt’ outlines the challenges faced by Australia (and probably also by many other developed economies) due to the imminent mass exodus from the workforce of the Baby Boomer generation.

Salt scopes the big questions of where Australian society might be headed in the decade ahead.

One of the most pressing social and demographic issues will be the baby bust according to Salt.

In 2011 baby boomers born in 1946 turn 65 and are eligible for an age pension. This sets up an invisible faultline (or tilt point) where boomers exit the workforce at a faster rate than Gen Y enters the workforce.

This faultline or Big Tilt as Salt calls it will change consumer spending (greater emphasis on ‘value’ through, say, internet retailing), create new social behaviours (downshifting where boomers extract equity from big city property) and present challenges to the skills and tax base of the nation since there are not enough workers to replace the boomers and not enough tax to fund the retirement that boomers have come to expect.

These two fascinating characters within the Australian business environment have highlighted some major challenges for any organisation planning to operate within Australia over the coming decade.

Many questions will abound about the management of skills shortages, labour supply, the sources and logistics of recruitment and more.

Smart organisations are keeping abreast of these developments and noting the very real challenges as they apply to staff management.

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HR Infographic - How To Create Employment Contracts

The Employment Contract Process Explained (HR Infographic)

January 23, 2013 / HRwisdom

In today’s HRwisdom Blog post, we are sharing our HR infographic on the employment contract process.

Whilst we share many document templates to use in your organisation, it is important to remember the process that supports the use of the employment documents.

Getting the hiring process correct means fewer problems down the track should things take a turn for the worse.

A proper hiring contract process also enhances your standing as an efficient, effective and professional employer.

The diagram called ‘The Right Way To Create Employment Contracts’ explains:

What to cover
When to get legal advice
How to discuss the contract with the prospective employee.
The review and general administration process.

To view a large version of the management infographic, just click on the picture on the left.

As always, feel free to share this with colleagues and friends.

Employment Contract Assistance Video

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