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November 2009 Archives
Happy Thanksgiving!
I've heard varying stories of people having to work today to prepare for holidays sales, or stores that are open for part of the day to better serve their customers.
Some things to consider around every holiday -
Is there sufficient enough business to warrant being open on the holiday?
Do I have people who are willing and able to do the work on the holiday (and even so, is it worth taking them away from family/down time to open up on a holiday?
How can we make everyone feel included even if the holiday isn't one that certain people celebrate?
From a labor standpoint, every holiday requires some type of policy around time off and operating hours. I heard from one reader that on Friday's business is best, but on New Year's Day this year it happens to be a Friday, and New Year's Day is always dead, and they never open.
However, the boss decided to open up on New Year's Day and mandate the staff work both New Year's Day and New Year's Eve this year. This seems to be a poor business decision that only focuses on short-term goals.
I look forward to hearing if the New Year's Day opening is a success for this business. In experiences I have had, employes either worked New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, and not both.
Have a great holiday weekend, and I hope like me you have the opportunity to have a long, extended weekend away from the office!
The more you have to explain things to people, the less "plain" it becomes. This applies to training situations, dealing with your employer who wants a reason you aren't performing, and a variety of situations that require limited explanation.
The better you design your training manuals, the less you have to explain their contents to others.
The more forthright you are with your employer, the less you have to explain the reasons you aren't performing like you should.
Remember - the better you develop your relationship with others, the less complex your relationships will be, and the more confident and strong they will become.
The hot stove league is my favorite part of the winter break between baseball seasons. This is the time where general managers for all teams meet to work out trades, free agents negotiate contracts with their own team (and then, after a certain date, with other team), and salaries (in some instances) are negotiated between teams and players through a form of salary arbitration.
Likewise, those new to organizations are tendered or non-tendered contracts, offered extensions, or released.
The offseason for business is also a good time to engage in your own "hot stove league". If you are a company with a season based business, or one with peaks and valleys, finding the right time of year to look at your staff and its divisions can be critical to seamless organizational transition.
By having dedicated times or seasons of the year to move around critical players in your organization, you can make all of your "teams" stronger while minimizing organizational stress.
Something I claim to have invented was the left turn on red in a left turn only lane. There was a stretch of road near Sea World in Orlando where no traffic ever would be coming and I'd sit there waiting for the left turn lane to go green. After about 4 or 5 times waiting and waiting, I decided to make my own rules and turn left on red when there was no oncoming traffic.
Today, in fact, I also did the same thing in Saratoga!
What does this have to do with HR? Sometimes we face rules that are meant to be broken that won't hurt anyone else. For example, if there is a candidate we really feel should be considered for an opportunity but they don't necessarily meet the qualifications, we may want to sell the candidate to our superiors or to the hiring manager based on other qualities they possess.
Or, we may do a schedule change for someone who was late one time in 6 months who had a legitimate reason for being late, rather than punishing them with a late on their attendance card.
Another example of a "left turn on red" in the workplace can be doing something outside of your responsibilities that may require supervisor approval, but by waiting until a supervisor arrives would cause a customer more stress and the business possible loss in revenue.
Using flexible work schedules can enable a team to develop a stronger, more energetic workforce both short-term and long-term.
On a short-term basis, using 3 employees each working 5 hour shifts to cover a work day can save on break time and improve productivity. In most areas, a 5 hour shift only requires a 15 minute unpaid workbreak. An 8 hour shift requires a 30 minute paid break and 2 15 minute unpaid breaks.
If you business is open 7am-10pm and you schedule employees from 7-3 and 2-10, you'd need to find 2 hours of time in which to run your operation short a person. If you schedule employees from 7-12, 12-5, and 5-10, you only need to find coverage for 45 minutes of that same block of time.
Over-reliance or under-reliance on full-time staff can affect any business, but finding ways to cover your operation without running a traditional 8 hour work day can lend to better productivity and options for your employees.
Many teams have a player run court they call the Kangaroo Court to hand out "fines" for infractions like missing a sign, making an error, and so on.
In the workplace, such a program could encourage fellow employees to contribute donations to a fund that would benefit an employee incentive program or a raffle. Something that may work in lieu of money may be entering people's names in a drawing for a prize at the end of the period. You could get one entry for every time you do something very well, and lose one entry when you make a mistake. You can also enter entries when you see someone succeed and reward them for their honor.
In March, I explored a reader's question on Hiring Inexperienced vs Experienced Workers. Today, I'd like to talk with you about this a bit further. Many employers seek to bring new ideas and new perspective to their organizations. This sometimes means there are two experienced seasoned executives or professionals applying for the same job, but from different industries. Much like I explained with Southwest's hiring strategies, often the job will go to the candidate with experience outside the field to get new perspective; this doesn't mean that the experience someone has isn't relevant or is outdated, it just means that sometimes companies want to bring in a personality type, not the experience. For example, bringing in someone with a strong retail background into a hospitality business (or vice versa) may bring the leadership experience and perspective in a different background. Always consider the choice which is not the most convenient, and you may find a better fit.
Do you have an employee who likes playing managers against one another? Do you someone who tries to get the answer they want to hear by asking people the same question over and over?
To stop people from playing this "Manager Game", a good sit-down to go over expectations with the employee may not work. Employees of this type should be discussed in a forum by the management team to ensure that everyone is aware of what this person is trying to do.
Once it is out in the open what this employee is doing, developing a consistent game plan ahead of time to deal with questions by this employee may be the best approach.
I just finished reading Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman, which shared some excellent points on many Human Resources related issues. Here are a sample of quotes and passages from the book and some comments.
"As difficult as it can be to admit defeat, staying the course simply because of a past commitment hurts us in the long run" (Brafman) - sometimes we stick with a job or a role just because it is comfortable. It may take great courage to move on to something else.
The book talks about LBJ's leadership strategy - calling people in the middle of the night, or taking visitors off guard by calling a swimming break and jumping in the pool. (Brafman) - being an effective leader means not always following the same pattern all the time. Mixing up how you communicate and how you conduct yourself can keep people on their toes and keep you always on top of your business.
The book also discusses how a new professor was introduced to a class, and half the class was given one intro, and half another, with the only words changed in the passage being "very warm person" and "rather cold person". The perception of this teacher was totally different between the first group and the second group.
This book was a great read that took me a while to get through because there were so many amazing bits of information to absorb. I'll share a few more in a future post.
On Tuesday December 8th at 1pm, my students at SUNY Delhi at SCCC in Schenectady will be debating hot issues in human resources.
If you are interested in attending this free event, please contact me at braathrj@delhi.edu.
Five debates will take place, and each will be followed up by questions and answers from the audience and students.
A question I often get asked is "How do I show experience with (insert software here) without actually having a job using that software?" Often, candidates will disqualify themselves prior to applying for a job just because they don't feel they can compete with those who have the experience already.
However, in many cases, this is not a reason not to apply for a position with a company. There are so many tools out there in any field (whether it be HR, accounting, presentation tools) that allow you to download a free-trial or low-cost version to test out and try out for yourself. For example, Time Forge, which is a tool I use in my classes for HR, allows a multi-day trial with full-functionality to manage your labor schedule force, payroll and attendance. Zoho.com gives free versions of its products on everything from presentation software to HR systems and project management tools.
So, if next time you go into an interview you don't think you have the qualifications, or get asked "What experience do you have with (insert software here)", have a good back story like "while I don't have experience in an office setting, I have been using a trial version of (insert software here) for 6 months to prepare myself for entering a role using it, and have found it has several advantages and uses which are X, Y and Z." You'll be able to land a role by being creative in your ability to grow into new roles and opportunities.
One of my favorite presenters shared with us on day one of training that "Email is forever." The startling thing I have seen since that day back in 2004 has been that while email has grown in popularity and use, email ettiquette has not.
To avoid "writing the wrong", don't put anything in email that you don't want people to read over and over again.
Another way to avoid "writing the wrong" is sending a return receipt with your messages to ensure that people take the time to write back rather than immediately responding. This can help you keep people on track with the messages you send, and also ensure that you and your employees aren't responding without thinking first.
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