10 HR Lessons we can learn from the Olympics


Posted Under Employers, Human Resources, Leadership - Tags: , , , , , ;

While watching the Winter Olympics, it occurred to me that there are several parallels between the Olympics and the workplace.

 

1.      Coaching – Most of the competitors at the Olympics have at least one coach.  Someone to monitor their performance and give them feedback on how they might improve, or to provide suggestions on how they might change their style or approach.  I believe everyone in the workforce could use a coach who is dedicated to giving feedback on how to improve performance.  Further, great performers often become coaches.  Do you have a coach or are you coaching a future star?

 

2.      Perseverance and persistence – If you fall down, get up and keep trying.  In the figure skating competition, many of the competitors fell down, but got up and completed their routine and received a score.  In other events – snowboarding, for example – if you fall, you receive no score for that event.  However, there are several examples in these Olympic games where competitors fell down four years ago, but came back this time to win a medal.   If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on.

 

3.      Play to the strengths – There are numerous Olympic events with similarities.  For example, in skiing you have alpine, freestyle moguls, cross country, jumping, etc.  Based on skills, competencies and passion, athletes compete in the event that takes best advantage of their strengths, and doesn’t promote areas of weakness.  How can we design jobs in the workplace that allow employees to focus on their strengths?  Too frequently, we spend too much time trying to turn an employee’s weaknesses into strengths rather than playing up the strengths and designing the job to allow the employee to be successful.

4.      Everyone has a story to tell – NBC has done a commendable job trying to highlight the human element of these incredible athletes.  The boy who was abandoned on the streets as a baby, the young man raised by a single immigrant father, or the figure skater who lost her mother that week and still went on to compete.  Too often we try to keep the personal element out of the workplace.  It’s just a job, get it done.  We have very diverse workplaces, with people of different backgrounds and cultures, which all comes together to create a variety of expectations and values.  Treat everyone fairly, but treat them as individuals.  Do not paint everyone with the same brush.  Frequently, when an employer has an employee who is a poor performer, or who shows up late or not at all, the employer may create a blanket policy dictating, for example, that any employee who shows up late will be terminated.  You owe it to yourself and your employees to hear their stories.

 5.      Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is very small – There are several Olympic events that the difference between a medal and no medal is a hundredth of a second or fraction of a point.  Not everyone can win a medal.  However, this does not diminish the effort, skills or abilities of those who tried and came up short.  In addition, there are numerous examples of athletes who came up short in the last Olympics, only to win a medal this year.  Often employers create a narrow definition of what it means to successfully complete a job, with no allowance for a bad day or a mishap.  I will be the first to tell you that many employers wait too long to terminate a problem employee.  However, what do we do to help those who are close to succeed in the future?  We need to be sure we have a positive performance appraisal process in place, with plans for improvement by the next appraisal.  Or create a mentorship program to help those who want to reach the next level. 

 

6.      Potential for an award inspires performance – Much has been written on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  However, the potential for an Olympic medal can certainly cause the competitors to go beyond their personal best.  Do we create opportunities for our employees to want to perform beyond their personal best?  Do we know what motivates our employees?  Do we reward performance?

7.      Where you start does not determine where you end – I watched competitors in several events come from last place only to win in the end.  In fact, it seemed some athletes used it as a strategy.  They allowed their competitors to set the pace, only to cruise by them in the final lap or stretch.  Just because an employee starts his or her career on the loading dock, he or she is not precluded from someday becoming the CEO.  Do we have systems that allow and even encourage our employees to grow within our organizations?  I’ve seen too many organizations with barriers or roadblocks that prevent and even discourage employees from growing.

 

8.      Competition makes us try harder – Many athletes achieved beyond what they thought was possible because a competitor earned a higher score or set a faster pace.  Competition at work can be good, but it can also be destructive.  If you pit employees against each other it will certainly eliminate any potential teamwork.  Focus their competitiveness against the company’s competition: it is us against XYZ Company, we need to have better quality, products, customer service, or price than they have.

 

9.      Alliances can change quickly – In men’s hockey, teammates on the same NHL teams are now competitors in the Olympics.  The teammate an athlete would normally assist and celebrate with in scoring will now do everything in his power to prevent that goal.  Check this out: Sabres coach Lindy Ruff is on the coaching staff for the Canadian Olympic team, and Sabres goalie Ryan Miller is starting goalie for the US team.  Most commentators believe Ruff would provide insight to the Canadian players regarding Miller’s weaknesses to help them beat Team USA, even though it could be detrimental when those same players go back to their NHL team and play against Miller.  Likewise, if an employee goes to our competitor, he or she will quickly become part of that new organization, and will do what it takes to help the new employer succeed, even if it is detrimental to your company.

10.    Vision and Focus – Just about every medal winner has talked about vision.  I often describe vision as a dream with an action plan.  Are we providing an organizational vision for our employees?  Are we helping employees create and successfully accomplish their personal vision?  How do we help them stay focused on shared goals?

 I’m certain there are many more parallels between the Olympics and the workplace, and would enjoy hearing your observations.

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Published By admin on Feb 24 - Comments (0)

What if Leadership could be more like twitter?


Posted Under Human Resource Professionals, Human Resources, Leadership, Social Media - Tags: , , , , , , , ;

Hello there – I’m following you. 

Hi back at you – thanks for following me. 

I have been a student of leadership for decades, and I’m still learning.  I teach graduate leadership courses at Daemen College and Medaille College.  I can be very opinionated when it comes to leadership and my opinions don’t always follow the mainstream opinion.  For example, I generally believe there is no difference between Leaders and Managers, but I’ll discuss this more in a future blog.

Back to my point.  I find it very interesting that on twitter there is no hierarchy – no one is designated as a leader of someone else.  Most organizations tend to have defined hierarchy: We are the “Leadership Team” and you must follow us.  Or I’m a leader and you are a follower.  Or I’m the boss and you are the subordinate.  Organizations often don’t find ways or even encourage people throughout the organization to step up to a leadership role.

On twitter, no one is designated as a leader, you are either following or being followed (hopefully not the same as being stalked).  You can choose to follow anyone you think might benefit you in some way.  That person can choose to allow you to follow them, or block you, or follow you back.  It kind of works this way in the real world.  I can choose to follow any boss, manager, or supervisor, or I can move on and find a different boss, supervisor or manager to follow.  This point is made frequently in surveys, that employees frequently leave their organization because of the relationship (or lack of) with their supervisor.  Ultimately in a work environment the follower has a choice.  Do I want to continue to follow this person, or block them and follow someone else?

The bottom line is that everyone is following someone and being followed by someone else.  I think it would take a lot of pressure off people in a work world if we eliminated the use of the term “leader.”  Instead we might say, “I have 10 employees who choose to follow me, and I choose to follow Mary.”  This changes the perspective entirely – who am I following (and why) and who is following me (and why)?  I certainly realize that this isn’t very practical in most organizations, but it sure is an interesting idea.  Instead of having someone anointed as a leader, we get to choose to follow.

So I would be honored if you choose to follow me at HRBuffaloBob.  I may even choose to follow you in return.  Happy following!

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Published By admin on Feb 15 - Comments (0)

My Top Ten Pet Peeves: Things Interviewees do during an Interview


Posted Under Human Resource Professionals, Human Resources, Interview, Management - Tags: , , , , , ;

bad interview10.  Showing up late. This is worse than not showing up at all, which results in some free time.

9.   Not having any questions to ask of me, or asking superficial questions.

8.   Answering a cell phone.  This annoyance includes the cell phone ringing, or even vibrating.

7.   Knowing nothing about the company with which they are interviewing.

6.   Using foul language or telling inappropriate jokes.

5.   Dropping names, especially of people I don’t respect.

4.   Chewing gum or eating anything.

3.   Telling an obvious lie.

2.   Answering a question before I’ve finished asking the question.

1.   Taking over the interview or giving an answer so long that I forget what question I asked.

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Published By admin on Feb 08 - Comments (0)

The Top 10 reasons why you became a Human Resource Professional


Posted Under Human Resource Professionals, Human Resources, Management, Uncategorized - Tags: , , , , , , ;

guy

10.  You enjoy being screamed at by everyone.

9.   You liked the idea of dealing with “people issues” (we’re out of toilet paper, you parked in the wrong slot, and supervisors asking you – what do you mean I have to evaluate their performance?)

8.   You want to be perceived as a “miracle worker.” Recruit the best, keep them forever, and pay them peanuts – works well since all of the applicants are monkeys.

7.   You thought that by being responsible for “Compensation and Benefits” that you’d have some input into “Compensation and Benefits.”  Especially your own.

6.   You love the idea of being able to inform employees that they now have a new source of income – it’s called unemployment.

5.   By the time you got to the front of the career selection line – all the good careers were already taken.

4.   You felt if you were in the department that did all the “Hiring and Firing” you’d have job security.

3.   You absolutely love stress.

2.   You wanted to learn how to resolve conflict between supervisors and employees – without getting them involved.

1.    Someone told you that in HR you always have a seat at the table and you thought they were talking about food.

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Published By admin on Jan 29 - Comments (0)

All Human Resource Professionals are………


Posted Under Employers, Human Resource Professionals, Human Resources, Uncategorized - Tags: , , , , , , , ;

How many stereotypes are there about HR professionals? 

 

  • They are touchy feely – what does that mean anyway? Are we all supposed to go around touching and feeling everyone?  I don’t think so!  Or does it refer to our vast understanding of the soft skills? Yeah right! This also brings into play the “I’m a people person,” but that is the subject for another blog.
  • They aren’t very good with numbers.  I don’t know about anyone else – but I love numbers.  Especially when they are big ones and they are in my paycheck.  I got straight A’s in math and would much rather use a spreadsheet than a word processor.
  • It’s a women’s profession – this probably stems from another stereotype that women are more touchy feely than men.
  • I was recently at a social gathering with some HR practitioners as well as some other folks. (I was about to say normal folk)  Then the jokes started.  The non HR person looked at one of the HR people and said I probably shouldn’t be telling these in mixed company (sexual jokes). The HR person without asking blurted out – oh no – we are HR people we can take it.

 My point is stereotypes may be a way for humans to simplify complex things by grouping similar people into the same mold.  However, if there is one thing all HR people should know is that this can be a very dangerous practice.

 I believe we need to continue to work on developing the positive image of the Human Resource profession and start eliminating some of these stereotypes.  We also need to be cognizant of this bad habit when we refer to other professions or groups of people.

 Fill in the blanks – all engineers are____________, all computer people are ___________, all accountants are____________, all lawyers are___________, or all bosses are____________.  This may make for funny jokes or laughs in conversations – but are at the expense of a person.  It certainly doesn’t take a great leap to go to all Blacks are_________, all Hispanics are__________, and all Blondes are__________.  Not!!!!!

 We really need to be careful with that thought combination All (fill in the blank)___________  are__________.

 

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Published By admin on Jan 22 - Comments (0)

Managers often attract exactly what they manage for


Posted Under Employees, Employers, Human Resources, Management - Tags: , , , , , , ;

interviewJust as moths are attracted to a light bulb, employees are equally attracted to the management style that best suits them.

I frequently find managers who lament that their employees show no initiative, do not pay attention to details, or won’t solve problems.  Sadly, in almost every case, the manager has caused this problem.  Peter Drucker said: “The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.”

Here are several ways managers often cause their own problems.

 They recruit them: 

I had a conversation today with a manager (it was this conversation that prompted me to write this) and I asked her what her greatest joy was as a manager.  She told me she really enjoyed finding people she could help grow and develop.  On the surface this sounds okay.  However, I happen to know that the last four people she hired left the company within four months.  She is a fixer.  She sees opportunities in candidates to help them turn their lives around, and although this is admirable, it is also time consuming and has a low success rate.  Because of the low success rate, successes are that much sweeter, yet we still complain about how much time it took to get there.  There are numerous variations on this theme.  Here’s another one: I need someone right now, and I don’t have time to go through an extensive selection process, so I end up with a candidate that wastes more of my time.  I think you get the picture.

 They do it for them: 

I have watched too many managers do this.  An employee comes to the manager with a problem, any problem.  The manager then solves the problem for the employee.  Then the manager complains that the employees are not able to solve problems.  Can you see the self-defeating cycle here?  Instead of taking the time to coach the employees and instruct them to come up with potential solutions to problems, it is quicker and easier to provide the solution.  (It also allows the managers to show how smart they are!)  

 Managers have to learn how to let go.  Delegation is always a struggle – we all believe no one can do it as well as we can do it ourselves.  However, the reason the manager has a job managing others is that the job is now too big for just one person to handle.  As a manager, you need to let your employees learn to do for themselves, and in some cases they will make mistakes, which are also learning experiences.  If you want employees to show initiative, give them the opportunity to take the lead and in some cases fail.

 They Micromanage them: 

This is closely linked to the previous subject – a primary reason manager’s micromanage is they do not trust their employees to do it right.  Unfortunately, managers who micromanage will attract employees who like to be micromanaged – those are the employees who need close supervision and interaction to complete tasks.  Some employees like this because they are told exactly what to do and when to do it and do not have to accept any responsibility.  Successful managers train, coach and put systems in place so that employees learn how to do it right, and then trust their employees and let go. 

Summary

If you are having problems with the employees you manage, you might want to see if your management style is attracting a certain type of employee.  The flip side of this is looking at what type of employee you might be pushing away.  I do a lot of exit interviews and a large percentage of employees cite their manager as their reason for leaving.  I can often evaluate a company’s health by reviewing the caliber of employees that have left in the past six months.  The good employees are the ones leaving – they have the skills, confidence, and résumé to find work elsewhere.

And so if you find you are attracting moths, don’t look at the moths, check out the light bulb.

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Published By admin on Jan 15 - Comments (0)

How will you compete for employees?


Posted Under Employees, Employers, Human Resources - Tags: , , , , , ;

EmployeesBenefits are a primary tool employers use to attract and retain employees.  However, current legislation passing through congress may take some of that competitive advantage away.  If this happens, what will employers do and how will they compete?

The first concern is health care reform

The various versions of the bills (as they are currently written) will mandate to some degree that all employers provide health insurance and dictates how much employers must contribute toward that health insurance.  Another bill being considered is seven days of mandatory sick leave per year for all employees.

I’m not making a judgment about either of these bills, and we certainly don’t know what the final language will look like.  I do think that employers should be considering what their compensation and benefit strategy will be if they lose the ability to use these benefits as recruiting and retention tools.

On first blush it would seem this would put more pressure on using wages to compete, likely resulting in bidding wars.  So what other things can an employer use to gain competitive advantage with recruiting and retaining employees?

Reputation

The employer’s reputation is probably the biggest tool to consider.  Reputations are rarely ever in sync with reality, and it takes a long time and a lot of effort to turn around a bad reputation.  Boost your reputation by treating your employees, applicants and candidates better than the competition.  Strive to become recognized as one of the best places to work.

Another opportunity to improve your competitiveness is to have career development plans for all employees, including a formal mentorship program.

Finally, something that is mandatory, especially for retention of employees, is the development of your supervisory/management team.  Surveys continually indicate that one of the primary reasons employees’ leave an organization is because of their supervisor.  So if we want to retain more employees, we need to get our supervisors and managers involved in the solution.

Summary

All of these would be good things to do regardless of what happens in congress with the mandating of benefits.  These are also great strategies to employ if you are currently non-union and want to stay that way.  Once the final version of the Employee Free Choice Act (otherwise known as the Card Check Act) passes, you can be assured there will a lot of union organizing activity.  What is your strategy to deal with that?

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Published By admin on Jan 08 - Comments (0)

Part 2 of 2 – Questions Employers Should be Asking Regarding Social Media


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There are many issues that employers should be watching out for regarding social media and the Internet – here is the second in the series of Q&A:

How do we define the use of social media for employees and monitor productivity – or loss of productivity – based on its use?

Many of my clients have expressed concern that employees are spending too much time on their cell phones, on the internet, texting, or emailing for personal (not business related) reasons. Since the employer is paying the wages of the employee they have the right to be concerned about the loss of productivity. Many employers have now established policies that clarify their expectations, including controls such as prohibiting cell phones in the workplace, and randomly checking internet and email activity. My personal preference is to let employees know your expectations, then treat them as adults, and if you find them not complying with your expectations, take immediate and appropriate corrective action.

How will we monitor social media for employees and ex-employees that may be saying negative things about the employer/management/products/services/clients, or revealing confidential company information?

There seem to be several approaches to this question. A recent survey indicates 54% of employers prohibit the use of social media – see the results at http://webmarketingblips.dailyradar.com/article/how-should-employees-use-social-media/. Some employers assign someone to monitor internet activity, or at a minimum, randomly audit social media activity. Then if something negative is discovered, the employer takes aggressive action such as discipline, termination or in some cases a lawsuit, to eliminate the offensive activity. Employers should then make an effort to learn the cause of the employee’s dissatisfaction – there could be a valid issue but the employee just used an inappropriate public venue to air their concern. Again, it makes a lot of sense to have a policy and tell employees your expectations and the consequences.

How do we minimize or prevent the use of social media for harassment?

Employers need to review their policies to ensure they include language against harassment through the use of any social media. A whole new area for concern is “textual harassment” – using texting or other media to threaten physical harm, communicate obscenities, or other inappropriate communication. According to a study by the U.S. Justice Department, 23-percent of harassment victims in 2006 reported being accosted via electronic communications such as text messages or e-mails, and attorneys say that text messaging in the workplace is turning into a growing liability for employers. Once you’ve updated your policies to include information and guidelines on this type of harassment, you need to train your employees and supervisors regarding the new policies.

How do we control time (especially away from work) that employees spend on work related social networking with regard to pay, overtime, and benefit purposes?

I have written a previous blog on this topic “Time spent on facebook, LinkedIn, or twitter are hours worked.” Be sure to read that blog for all the details, but the bottom line is that employers need to know and control the time spent on work related efforts, especially by non-exempt employees and pay for those hours when it’s appropriate.

To sum up, social media is not going away, so I believe employers need to consider these questions and develop solutions and policies that work for their company. There are many sample social media policies already circulating, including this one: “10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy” by Sharlyn Lauby (http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts). As with all policies, it is not advisable to use someone else’s policy and force it to fit your situation. Policies need to be tailored to your specific company and industry and seek professional assistance if needed.

What kind of concerns do you have regarding social media? Please feel free to leave your concerns and thoughts in the comments section. For more info about what we do in the Buffalo area and beyond feel free to contact us.

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Published By admin on Nov 25 - Comments (0)

Part 1 of 2 – Questions Employers Should be Asking Regarding Social Media


Posted Under Human Resources, Social Media - Tags: , , , , , ;

Picture 23There are so many different issues associated with social media for employers to consider, that I’ve divided these questions into two blogs. Stay tuned for more on this topic coming soon. For now, consider these questions:

How can we use social media to establish our brand? How can our employees use social media to establish their brand? How can we use social media to position our products and services?

What is a Brand? “Our Collected Definitions” by Derrick Daye (http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/brand_definitions/) has several definitions you can review. Regardless of the definition you use, social media can be a vehicle to help establish or build a personal or organizational brand. The best way to ensure success is to have a strategy for how you intend to use (or not use) the various components of social media to accomplish your goals.

How can we use social media to recruit candidates?

Social media can be used to communicate with many people very quickly, so it can be a great tool to get the word out when recruiting. However, you must recognize that this approach is not very targeted. Your appeal could go to many people who are not viable candidates, either based on lack of required skills or geographic location, possibly resulting in an overwhelming response that increases the administrative burden of sifting through the deluge to find qualified applicants. At the other end of the spectrum, this approach may be too targeted and result in a disparate impact on certain protected classes. For example, there may be fewer seniors using twitter (I don’t know if this is true), therefore, if all the recruiting for one position is done using twitter you may be unintentionally excluding seniors, which would be discriminatory.

How should we use social media for reference checking?

I’m sure this is a controversial area – whether a potential employer has the right to explore your personal life when deciding if you are the best candidate for a position. Employers have been doing this forever through reference checking, however, social media has made it so much easier now. Making good hiring decisions is not easy. If I want to make sure I hire the best candidate, I would be remiss if I didn’t do my due diligence. This would include reviewing all readily available information. My concern, from the employer’s perspective, is what you do if during your research you discover information regarding a protected class. What do you do with that information, and how do you prevent this from not becoming a potential discrimination lawsuit?

How can we use social media to improve communication in the workplace?

Many workplace surveys indicate that there is an opportunity to improve communication within the workplace. There are many ways employers could utilize social media as a form of communication to keep employees connected and informed. For example, it could be used to send information regarding new benefits, schedule events, roll out new products or services, or share employee’s personal milestones – a marriage, a new baby, or completing a degree. I think the employers who utilize social media to create competitive advantages – including with their employees – will lead the way in their industry.

Be sure to watch for my next blog for even more answers to questions about social media and its impact on the workplace and employees.

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Published By admin on Nov 20 - Comments (0)

What employers should be doing right now before the Employee Free Choice Act is passed.


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Picture 9Since it seems the passage of health care reform is imminent, you can be assured congress will start focusing on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) (AKA Card Check Act) next. President Obama promised the unions during his campaign that he would get EFCA passed. Therefore, if you believe its passage is inevitable, what can employers do to prepare?

The basic premise of EFCA dictates that if your employees notify you that 51% of the employees have signed cards; they are deemed a union and must be recognized. There will be no secret ballot, or a time period for you to take action between when you are notified and the actual secret ballot, because there will be no secret vote. The time to take action is now before EFCA is passed.

Review policies now.

Make sure your policies are written in a way that they do not become ammunition for unions to use against you.

Review your compensation and benefit strategy now.

Frequently unions will promise better wages and benefits. As the employer, you cannot promise anything once you’ve been notified that your employees want a union. Therefore, make sure your wages and benefits are competitive, and not a source of dissatisfaction.

Train your supervisors now.

Many employees select a union because their supervisor or management in general won’t listen to them individually, so they get a union to speak on their behalf. Give your employees a vehicle to express their concerns, and an opportunity to have them addressed.

Terminate all employees that should be terminated now.

If you have malcontents or poor performing employees, get rid of them while you still can. Once you’ve been notified it will be much harder, if not impossible, to get rid of them. Often it is these employees who feel they need the protection of a union and are the major force behind an organizing effort. All too frequently employers roll along with the intention of letting certain employees go, and then suddenly it is too late – they have filed a workers comp claim, or a harassment complaint. If they need to be gone, do it now!

Let your representatives know your opinion of EFCA now.

It is not yet a law, which means there is still an opportunity to influence your elected representatives. The longer they wait to take action on this bill the closer it gets to the next election. Unions certainly influence their representatives. Employers need to do likewise.

These next two actions should be considered with caution.

Let employees know where you stand on unions.

This tactic is often used if you are already notified that there has been a card signing and you are waiting for the secret ballot. You can always present facts, and you are entitled to have your opinions about unions, however you cannot make threats or promises. Again, if EFCA is passed as proposed, you will not have the opportunity to give your point of view on the pros and cons of unions – it will already be too late and your company will be unionized. The flip side to this action is if you start talking about unions now, it will bring attention to unions and may cause some employees to think about organizing who may not have done so on their own.

Encourage your employees to become a union now.

This should only be considered as a last resort. The current language in the bill provides that if an employer and a union are unable to reach agreement within 90 days, either party may refer the dispute to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation (FMCS) for mediation. If the FMCS is unable to reach an agreement after 30 days of mediation, the dispute will be referred to arbitration, and the result shall be binding on the parties for two years.Therefore, if you really believe your workforce will try to organize when EFCA is passed, you could avoid EFCA by negotiating now and not be held to the 90-day deadline or the binding arbitration.

Of course there is one more option – you could do nothing. Just wait for the EFCA’s passage and deal with the fallout. I believe that the first four points are things employers should do anyway, whether you are faced with unionization or not. They will ultimately make you a better employer.

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Published By admin on Nov 09 - Comments (1)

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