MENTOR - NOT A TEACHER, BUT AN AWAKENER !

'Seek' Rather Than 'Tell'

The modern usage of mentor – trusted friend, counsellor or teacher – first appeared in François Fénelon’s Les Aventures de Telemaque in 1699, Wikipedia (2009).  Dictionary.com has a similar definition for a mentor, “Wise and trusted counsellor or teacher, an influential senior sponsor or supporter.”  And Wikipedia notes that “Mentors provide their expertise to less-experienced individuals to help them advance their careers, enhance their education.”

Today the word mentoring with respect to the corporate world could mean anything from performance monitoring to life counseling and everything in between, with little standard process or measurement. The role of a mentor is to catalyze skills, talents or behaviors in a person to help him/her be more effective on the job. It contributes to business productivity by enhancing engagement and efficacy for the person being mentored  as well as for the team/peers of the mentee.  

An important prerequisite in mentoring is the the presence of chemistry between the mentor and the mentee to build the required trust. The mentee must volunteer and see the benefits of having a mentor. Further, a good mentor does not give a set prescription but helps the mentee write his/her own prescription and helps the mentee evolve as a better person. Executive mentoring has resulted in a profound transformational experience in senior leaders which, in turn, has contributed to organizational effectiveness. An important aspect of professional success involves participating in mentoring programs. And now more than ever, during these challenging economic times, employees need mentors to guide and advise them as they navigate flattened corporate structures.

Mentoring really helps and is not a fad. Mentoring should be mandatory whenever an individual requires support. Whether it is a leadership role or customer service clerk, we should honor the new person entering the job by providing a mentor for them. By providing them with a mentor, we are setting up the new person for success versus failure.

There are four types of mentoring situations, which could take place at the workplace: 

1. Advice: Here, the manager simply gives advice to his/her employees whenever the employee requires it; 
2. Role/job transition: The person leaving (the mentor) hires someone to replace him/her and the new person (the mentee) ‘shadows' the mentor for a period of time in order to ‘learn the ropes' of his/her new job;
3. Outside help: In this situation, an outside consultant is called in to mentor the new person in their new role;
4. Assistance: There could be a new employee who needs support to learn the job quickly or an existing one who is valuable to the organisation but needs grooming.

BALANCE IS THE KEY.... !!

“Happiness Is Not A Matter Of Intensity But Of Balance, Order, Rhythm And Harmony.” ~ Thomas Merton

One of the crucial areas of balance is work-life balance - the balance between a career, with its satisfaction of creativity and financial reward, and family life with its reward of love and service. Today, work is widely viewed as a source of personal satisfaction. A good balance in work and life can play a phenomenal role in the attainment of personal and professional goals.

Ryana Malhotra has a husband, three kids and a public relations business in New Delhi. Her hectic life speaks volumes about what time management means to her. As she puts it: "I'm running all the time." In the 3G fast-paced life, there are many pressures that new-age couples have to deal with - running a home, managing daily chores like cooking/cleaning, raising children and handling the tough deadlines at work! Originally, work was a matter of necessity and survival. Throughout the years, the role of ‘work' has evolved and the composition of the workforce has changed.

Today, work is widely viewed as a source of personal satisfaction. A good balance in work and life can play a phenomenal role in the attainment of personal and professional goals.

There are five principles you can use to get more done in less time and get back to a healthy balance between time spent at work and home:

• Set specific goals: Set them with actions and incremental milestones that you can track. Define your goals in terms that create a vivid mental picture of your desired end-state;
• Focus on what's important: Don't let the urgent, the convenient and the immediate distract you from the important. Stay focused on reaching the milestones that support your goals;
• Be proactive: Create the habit of working intentionally. Minimise your distractions. Make a ‘not to-do' list and adhere to it;
• Set your own standards: Don't mindlessly follow social and cultural norms. Instead, follow your own values. Establish your own principles of operations;
• Delegate: Outsource activities that others can do as well as or better than you. Delegate responsibilities to people that have more bandwidth than you.

The concept of work-life balance is becoming more and more relevant in an ever-dynamic work environment. The role played by the individual is as important as that of the organisation in managing this tumultuous see-saw.

Balance activity with serenity, wealth with simplicity, persistence with innovation, community with solitude, familiarity with adventure, constancy with change, leading with following.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie.

TRAINING IS EVERYBODY'S RESPONSIBILITY

Training = Workplace Learning + Performance Professionals

Today, the training has become increasingly complex as the available training options expand to meet the growing and divergent needs of organizations. Traditionally, training was something done to you or by you to increase your knowledge, skills and abilities. When people talked about training, they pictured some form of classroom setting with a "trainer" working with a group of participants, or alternatively, someone receiving skills training "on-the-job" from an "instructor".

This vision has been significantly extended through the impact of new approaches such as e-learning. People are searching for a word or phrase that better describes the techniques, methods and technology now available. Training and Development is now better described as an association of workplace learning and performance professionals. Over the years, we have progressed from training to learning and development, in much the same way as "personnel" changed to "human resources" and now "human capital".

If an organization needs to take their place in the world, the providers of learning, education and training should agree to some common themes. Training is not just about work. Yes it is an essential and key activity in the workplace, but learning and development applies to all aspects of human development. Lifelong learning should apply to all. Importantly, everyone has a training role.

Part of our mindset should be that everyone is responsible for training, just as many are now seeing that safety is everyone's responsibility. We need to learn from the recent trends in the health and safety industry. Too much emphasis was placed on the responsibilities of employers and managers. Not enough emphasis was placed on employees to observe safe work practices. The emphasis now is on all three parties. In the same way, training should be everyone's responsibility.

Technology has significantly expanded the learning delivery methods available. To meet the changed and changing operating environment, organizations need to learn and adapt quickly. This means that training needs to be available easily and quickly. "Just-in-time" not only applies to manufacturing and quality processes - it has become a viable model for learning and training as well. This means that a lot of learning is and can be in small chunks. Training is changing as a result of the need to be "just-in-time". 

Our organizations are leaner, and some would say, meaner. Many organizations expect employees to be fully trained before they are employed. Once employed, knowledge and skills need to be constantly updated. This can be done through structured courses and additional qualifications and/or unstructured methods. Both individuals and organizations can play their part.

A wealth of material is available to assist, particularly now the internet is so widely available. Organisations need to encourage self-help. The resources need to be available. Skilled workers, at all levels, should be encouraged and equipped to pass on their knowledge and experience to others. These workers need to learn the appropriate techniques and methods to do this. This doesn't mean that everyone should undertake the Certificate  in Assessment and Workplace Training. Some people only need basic "on-the-job" training techniques.

On the other hand, organisations need to ensure that their planning and human resources systems are monitoring the "big picture". This means effective performance management systems identifying individual development needs as well as systems providing organisation wide training where required, for example, with the introduction of new systems or ways of operating.

Individuals have responsibilities. Organisations have responsibilities. Training providers (formal, informal) have responsibilities. Management of these interrelationships is a complex task.

GET FIT TO MAXIMISE PERFORMANCE & PROFIT

Healthy Body ! Healthy Profits !

To succeed at business, you need skills, but you will not perform to full potential if you’re unfit. Fitness is where the motivation, focus and energy comes from. We can all be terrible at allowing work, targets and pressure to take over our lives but without a healthy brain can you really work at your true potential and enhance your staff's motivation levels? Probably not... 


For most business owners and managers it is easy to forget exercise, grabbing ANOTHER black coffee, eating late and forgetting breakfast, however the risk factors of this are not only dangerous but can demodulate your team. Your business and team are only as healthy as you are. 

Rather than purely putting the employees through just various training courses, it is also important to promote  new Brown Bag lunches, arrange for a number of external people to come and do talks on things such as Yoga, Mediation and Healthy Eating.

Top Tips for all of those who are Workaholics - 


You would never forget an important meeting with a customer so don't forget an important meeting with the rowing machine! You can not work to your best ability if you are unfit.


Ensure your staff have breakouts! - Why not create a break out zone in your office?


Promote breaks and lunch breaks - We are all human - The brain works threefold AFTER a short break.


Break the mould - why not give it a go?


Encourage wellness programmes - why not set a team competition?


Stop feeling overwhelmed and stop overwhelming your team. Pressure equals low productivity. Fun, fresh and innovative ideas increases team morale, productivity and enjoy!

Look after your health & the outcome will be richer! You will be able to enjoy it more so as you would’ve built up a strong fit body! 

HR SPECIALIZED LANGUAGE..

A Positive Approach !

We come across many HR specialized language, and we try to understand things in a negative way. The ultimate aim of sharing the below terms is to create a positive environment around us. Positive Attitude is the key to Corporate Success

COMPETITIVE SALARY -- 

You work you take.

JOIN OUR FAST-PACED COMPANY -- 

You can implement your knowledge right from today.

CASUAL WORK ATMOSPHERE --

Be happy you have a family atmosphere people are warm, friendly.

MUST BE DEADLINE-ORIENTED -- 

Plan and perform you will be perfect

SOME OVERTIME REQUIRED -- 

To earn more name and money.

DUTIES WILL VARY -- 

You should be king of one and jack of many.

MUST HAVE AN EYE FOR DETAIL -- 

You will become perfect.

CAREER-MINDED --

Female Applicants must be focused both officially and personally.

APPLY IN PERSON -- 

If you are high-flyer job is immediate.

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE -- 

Your quality will speak, only when you meet us in person.

SEEKING CANDIDATES WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF EXPERIENCE --

You will have lot of interesting assignment.

PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS A MUST --

Every problem has a solution.

REQUIRES TEAM LEADERSHIP SKILLS --

Move with group, but be a leader.

GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS --

A hall mark quality of a Manager.

MANAGE IN STYLE

Analyse And Apply !!

Today’s manager needs to vary his Style of Management to bring out the Best in each Employee. 

The demands of the workforce today are not the same as they were yesterday. The corporate world is changing at the speed of light and there is no escaping the pressure to create a new profile of what a manager should be. New demands from customers, employees and society drive the corporation and the manager to be different. This means that as a manager, you need to assess and evaluate what type of leader you need to be. It also requires you to be ready, willing and able to change. 

The successful manager of the 21st century is regularly evaluating himself and constantly asking: "How can I do this better?"  They are flexible, learns fast, thinks and acts globally and creates value for all stakeholders involved such as colleagues and customers. They take full responsibility for his own behaviour and drive their team to achieve exceptional results.

You will need to use different styles for different people and different situations in order to get your people to perform at peak levels. You should therefore analyze what type of support your subordinates need in their various tasks and responsibilities and then manage and lead them accordingly. 

What you need to do is to evaluate your subordinates’ ability and motivation to perform their tasks in order to choose the correct management style. And it’s a different style for each task, depending on their ability and performance. To make it simple, you can divide your team members into three categories. 

The Low Performer

This person has little or some ability and is often new to the job or specific task. His performance is low and he doesn't deliver significant results. The reason for the low performance can be a lack of ability for and understanding of the job or task. 

However, the person can also be de-motivated, that is, not being committed to the work or having a negative work attitude. If a person is categorised as a low performer, you need to provide him with a clear direction, clarification and training, then supervise closely and follow-up accordingly. Basically, you tell him what he needs to do. The management style for a low performer is Directing. 

The Average Performer

This person has a good understanding of the job or specific task and moderate or even high ability. His performance varies throughout the year. Sometimes, the individual's willingness to perform is reduced due to a lack of self-confidence, low motivation or difficulties faced in performing the task. If a person is categorised as an average performer, you need to encourage, support, motivate and give some direction and clarification. The management style for an average performer is Coaching. 

The Peak Performer

This person has an excellent understanding and ability of what needs to be done. He achieves beyond expectations or even produces superior results. The motivation is high and he seldom needs Encouragement. 

He is a self-starter and needs very little or even no direction and supervision. But he will expect a facilitating management style and a manager who is more a colleague and mentor than a boss. Make sure you delegate responsibility, give him authority to decide and challenge him to take additional responsibilities. The management style for a peak performer is Empowerment. 

To be a manager in the 21st century is definitely a challenge. But if one follows the above guidelines you will take a big step forward as a manager. Remember to: 

• Analyse your subordinates’ performance levels, motivation and general needs' .
• Apply the “correct” leadership style accordingly; Develop each person’s ability and influence to achieve self-responsibility; Give your vision of where you want to be as a company, division and team; and Lead them towards your vision and encourage peak performance at all levels and all times. 

Source: http://www.123oye.com/

AVOIDING PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL MISTAKES

If You Think Employee Satisfaction, Productivity And Performance Are Important!

Mentioning "Performance Appraisal" gets such mixed responses because people have such mixed experiences. If your respondents aren't hostile, or scornful, then they're clearly not impressed.

Why are performance appraisals seen to be negative experiences? Isn't a performance appraisal simply a meeting between a manager and a member of his or her staff, where together they appraise the staff member's performance during the year (or other time period) and agree on goals for the coming year?

Well, that's the theory.

In reality, many managers handle performance appraisals quite poorly. And the result is not only an unpleasant meeting, but one where the manager and his or her staff member never quite understand each other, never quite appreciate the other's point of view, and never quite settle on appropriate goals for the coming year. It's almost inevitable that the staff member will end up less happy and less productive than he or she was before! 

Below are few big mistakes that managers often make in conducting performance appraisals. Fortunately, these mistakes are easily avoided once you make a conscious effort to avoid them.

Waiting For The Performance Appraisal To Give Feedback:

This is the biggest mistake and the most common one. It's where a manager fails to give someone adequate feedback on their performance during the year, and then dumps it on them in the performance appraisal meeting. Unfortunately, the feedback is almost always negative, so the employee ends up sitting there in shock -- at best, wondering why his or her manager didn't say something sooner; at worst, feeling unjustly victimized. And you have to wonder -- how can a manager expect an employee to do the right things, the right way, if the manager hasn't provided any guidance or feedback all year?

The Solution: Managers should make it a habit to tell their employees if they've done a good or poor job, and if it's a poor job, explain how they can do things better in the future. There should be no surprises in the performance appraisal!

Over emphasizing Recent Performances:

It's all too human to remember, and give greater weight, to recent events rather than earlier events. However, this can lead to an inaccurate and unfair assessment when it comes to reviewing an employee's performance.

The Solution: Take note -- and ideally take notes -- of the employee's work throughout the year.

Being Too Positive Or Negative:

Some managers feel uncomfortable giving negative feedback and consequently, can omit to give employees the constructive criticism they need to improve. And then there are other managers who are instinctively too negative, leaving the employee wondering if they can do anything right! While, as a manager appraising someone's performance you should give your honest opinion, you also want your employee to understand and appreciate what you're saying.

The Solution: Instead of being too positive or negative -- which can result in the employee not believing what you say -- think about the impact on the employee you want, and communicate your feedback accordingly.

Being Critical Without Being Constructive:

Some managers can be too critical and neglect to provide any constructive advice on how an employee can improve. This doesn't help the employee or the manager. Even if your criticisms all have merit, if you don't explain how the employee can improve, he or she is likely to miss the validity of what's being said and simply think he or she is being victimized. Not to mention the fact that his or her performance won't actually improve.

The Solution: If you need to be critical, be constructive too!

Talking Not Listening:

The final big mistake that managers make in performance appraisals is doing too much talking and not enough listening. These meetings are supposed to be interactive -- where the manager doesn't simply relay his or her own appraisal of the employee's performance during the year, but also listens to the employee's viewpoint. 

The Solution: If you have criticized the individual's performance, it's not only fair, but important, to get the employee's response as to why he or she may have underperformed.

Moreover, a key objective of the performance appraisal is to agree on goals for the following year. How can there be true agreement and commitment to such goals, if you don't learn the employee's point of view? One can avoid the above mistakes -- it just takes a little effort. It's certainly worth it, if you think employee satisfaction, productivity and performance are important!

HOW DIFFICULT IS MANAGEMENT ?

Practice Where Art, Science And Craft Meet

A manager's most important, and most difficult job is to manage people. You must lead, motivate, inspire, and encourage them. Sometimes you will have to hire, fire, discipline or evaluate employees.

Management is nothing but making things to be done by the people. Now how difficult is the management? Well there is a common proverb in most of the languages that "One can take the horse to the pond but you cannot make her to drink water" but in management this principle is not accepted, you have to make that horse to drink water under any circumstances with in the given time limit. 

In order to make the horse drink the water, we have two options:

• Get some carrots and put into her mouth. After eating the carrots the horse will drink water, but what if the horse refuses to drink water after having the carrot.
• Then, we need to go for the second and final option by getting some red hot chillies and put it into her mouth.and then the horse will definitely drink water.

So what is the difference between the first method and the second method. 

The first method is the motivation and the second method is compulsion. The motivation is the best method but not an easy one, because motivating a person is not that easy. where as the second method compulsion is the final alternative when you have left out with no options. 

Management is a difficult task but one can make it easy if the Management Person possess enough management skills like motivational skills, negotiation skills, Timely decision making etc.

HR BRANDING

Best Company To Work For

We start our day with a morning jog in Reebok athletic shoes, we go to work dressed in a Blackberry suit in a new Volkswagen car, and stop along the way for having a cup of coffee at Cafe Coffee Day.

These aren't mere shoes, clothes, cars and coffee we are talking about. These are brands, and chances are you have to choose them not only because they meet your basic requirements of clothing, transportation and sustenance, but also because the brands promise a certain quality and style that you've come to rely upon. Great brands provide a source of identification and assurance of quality. These brands simplify decision-making and communicate the value they create for their customers. And great brands make and keep their promises. These characteristics differentiate great brands and cement their leadership credentials.

Branding in HR has traditionally been limited to the employment function. The HR branding has become a topic of great interest. The success of an organization relies upon excellence in execution. Historically, corporate leaders have looked to other functions, such as product development, marketing and sales, to drive corporate success, today more and more eyes are looking towards HR as the call for need. Success of the brand depends upon of awareness and relevance. If target audiences are not aware of the brand, if their internal and external customers don't notice your effort in the cacophony of messages they receive each day, then we will never have a chance to be relevant. And if they become aware of you, if you capture their attention and fail to deliver relevance, then they will learn to ignore you.

Customers differentiate firms by their products. Marketers have traditionally used "The 4 Ps" (product, price, position and promotion) to set the products of their firm apart from those of the competitor in the market place. Employees now differentiate their jobs by HR branding . The 4 Ps of HR are People, Pay, Position and Prospects. As the functions of HR started spreading across the organization, the services rendered by the HR department to the employees can be treated as the same thing as selling services to the external customer. Hence, the HR department should care about its brand identity.

For a company to be successful, it has to attract, motivate and retain the best and brightest, making it competitive in the race. As organizations are complex, open systems, single interventions are not enough. The best organizations have compelling people strategies that are perfectly aligned with the organization's business strategy. Once the people strategy is aligned with the business strategy, you can begin creating a great place to work. The HR brand has to be aligned congruently with what the company delivers to the employee, customer, public and shareholder.



In today's knowledge driven economy, HR plays a strategic role in bringing in the right kind of people into the organization. In a sense, HR is the first face of an organization for a new prospective employee. Market research has revealed that strong brands contribute to strong competitive presence. In this way, the HR in its new avatar, the importance of branding HR follows quite as a corollary.


The challenge faced while structuring the brand is to establish new deliverables to sustain strong partnerships with both internal and external customers. The ability to see the big picture and to deploy the resources to address to this big picture will be more important than ever, based on the interactions of HR department with both internal and external customers.


Brand as a System
We can consider brand as a system. The brand system has four components which are inextricably tied and interdependent.


Offer: It is the service or a group of services that the brand renders to its customers, and if the offer is complex or it is difficult to explain, then it would be very difficult to communicate the offer to the target segment. Hence, the offer should be clearly described for a brand to be successful. Example: Compensation packages, Training programs, Employee assistance programs, a good working environment, etc.

Identity: Identity is defined as every thing that assists in attracting attention, setting expectations and making an impression. Names, logos, slogans, advertising, packaging, vision and mission statement of the HR department make up the brand identity. This provides information to employees to determine an impression on the HR department.


Experience: Brand experience is the aggregate of all the perceptions that result from the interactions with a brand. But all the experiences are not equal. Employees assign different levels of importance to different facets of their experience.

Image: Brand Image is what people think of the brand. This is primarily based on the interactions with the HR department.

Why do we go for brands? The answer is simple -.reliability. It’s the popular brands which provide this reliability. Attracting knowledge workers has become a Herculean task for the HR department. Only the best practices and the best environment can assure their interest in working for your organization. The practices and policies of the HR department and its outlook create a certain brand for the HR. The better the brand, better are the chances that you attract the best talent. The focus in our paper outlines all that are required to make HR the best brand.

INDUCTION / ORIENTATION PROGRAMMES

What You Should? What You Should Not Be Doing?

Orientation or Induction is the first important step in the process of Human Resource Management. It involves familiarization of the newly appointed employees to the work environment of the organisation as well as to the fellow employees. Induction is a socializing process by which the organisation seeks to make an individual its agent for the achievement of its objectives. The new employees should be oriented to the organisation and to its policies, rules and regulations.

Does Induction & Orientation mean the same?

Induction means introduction of the company as in the overall preview of company.

Orientation includes introducing new employees to the other employees of the organisation making them more familiar with everyone so that they get the idea of the kind of company they will be working for and generating a level of comfort within the organisation.

What is the need for an HR in this communication?

The HR is involved in the formulation of the policy and guidelines for the company. So the interaction about the culture of the company can be better told by HR. Induction is like an opportunity for the new employee and the HR as well. The new joinee is in more receptive state during the induction, and they will carry the information all along their working tenure. It becomes hard for an employee to know who are the people they can get in touch with hence it’s imperative that HR form a part of the induction program not only as a presenter but as a convener!

As a new hire / new employee what are their expectations out of this session?

The expectations can be divided into 3P’s Person, Premises, and Process.

• PERSON: The concerned persons, The Reporting Manager, who’s who of the company.
• PREMISES: Canteen, Conference room, work station etc.
• PROCESS: Leaves, Appraisal, Training, compensation, other benefits, other polices, compensations, employee discounts, employee engagement practices

What are the new trends (apart from PPT, Word docs, Manuals) in this communication?

• Something handy to read out for the new employees can be given. 
• Have a good brochure designed.
• Place important information on the desktop wallpapers.
• create a ready to use flash presentation that is self readable.

What kind of an experience are they expecting to go through during this induction?

• The new hires should find it as involving as possible. Have a walkabout arranged, showing the facilities, cabins, exits, cafeteria, library, may be also introducing them to people along the way.
• They should be made to believe that they have made the right decision by choosing your organization.
• They should feel that they are aware of the culture and hence can easily blend in.
• As the employee is new to that specific environment, so he/she must be looking for someone who can clarify the doubts. You can may be add another badge to their I-card which may read "I am new, so were you! So please help me" or "I am willing to learn, Are you willing to teach" or "I have joined here to help our organization grow" or " I am the newest member of the family". You can take the badge from them after 1 month.
• The new employees should be introduced to their Reporting Managers.

How / What is the best way of communicating to the new hires?

• By way of a flash presentation.
• By face to face program, which is always great. Make it more like a facilitated training program with a lot of activities like energizers, introduction sessions etc!
• HR should make the new employees feel as he / she is a part of the organization and is always welcomed for any support.
• Have a corporate video made and presented, that contains the job that you do, welcome note from the board and the heads, testimonials by employees. This has a really good impact since many times the management may not be available!

Who is the best person to communicate?

The HR Assistant Manager, HR Manager, HR executive! However make sure that if there is a group or even a single person induction, then the head honcho viz President, CEO, CFO get to meet the new employees!


When designing an Induction / Orientation Program, you should ask what the employee needs to know and what the organisation needs them to know in the first 24 hours, the first week, the first month and the first year.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Give Your Stress Wings And Let It Fly Away !!

Stress in the workplace can make people dread walking in to the office every morning and, make them worry about their jobs at night. When staff is unhappy, they are less efficient, less effective and more likely to squander work hours or quit. Stress affects not just morale, but a company's bottom line.

The HR department is often charged with creating and promoting corporate culture. Yet in the day-to-day scramble of running a business, it is employees and management themselves who create the climate — of stress or calm, discontent or satisfaction. Even so, Human Resources can step in and play a critical role in managing workplace attitudes and behaviors. By maintaining open lines of communication between the HR division and other departments, policies can be enforced and early action can be taken to prevent critical issues from arising.

HR should regularly assess the attitudes and practices of an organization's managers and identify areas of concern. HR should be the friendly, helpful, go-to division that can provide diplomacy and guidance to help managers effectively guide and support their staff. HR can also implement programs that encourage positive attitudes, relationship building and a generally healthy lifestyle. Not all stress is bad; good stress can motivate workers to stretch themselves and meet a new challenge. Not all stress comes from the workplace. Financial difficulties, marital problems and other stressors originate in employees’ personal lives—and there’s not much that HR professionals can do to change those issues.

Stress Management @ PricewaterhouseCoopers:

• Two years ago, PwC restructured work teams to promote employee work/life balance. Instead of having one employee per client account, the company created teams of employees who manage a group of clients. If an employee is out of the office, other team members can cover for him. With the new structure, “personal obligations—attending my son’s baseball game that afternoon—are factored into the plan. Staffing options are greater when you draw upon a team.
• At PwC, managers get reports on whether employees are taking vacation time. Posters with pictures of beaches pose the question: Have you taken your vacation? The firm’s campaign “raises awareness. People need to disconnect from work, spending time with their families or following a passion, not chained to e-mail or the phone every day.”
• If a PwC employee sends an e-mail on a weekend, a pop-up screen reminds the individual, “It is the weekend and important to disconnect and allow others to do the same. Please send your e-mail at the beginning of the workweek.”
• PwC offers a two-hour elective stress survival training course. “It helps participants understand root causes, how you react to stress and an individual strategy for managing stress.

Stress Management @ HomeBanc Mortgage Corporation:

• HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. in Atlanta gives employees an extra 24 hours, in addition to holidays and vacation time, that it calls “being there” time. Employees can use the time “whenever they need a couple of hours during the year to attend a school play or go to a teacher conference without using up vacation time,” says Barbara Aiken, vice president of associate satisfaction.
• HomeBanc contracts with Corporate Chaplains of America (http://www.chaplain.org/) to provide counseling services to its employees. “The chaplains visit each office once a week and are available 24/7 via pager and cell phone for employees in need,” says Aiken. “It is appreciated by associates of every faith, and even those who have no religious affiliations.” 

Research by one client, showed poor teamwork and ineffective supervision were the two most important factors leading to employee stress. It’s stressful trying to manage people, even if you have received training. It’s stressful being managed by someone who doesn’t know how to manage, and perhaps compensates for their insecurity by being controlling.

Providing training to help employees do their jobs better can be an important way to reduce stress and improve performance & efficiency. Equally important is providing training to managers, especially those whose deficient supervisory skills may be causing stress for subordinates.

Restructuring work teams. Staffing options are greater when you draw upon a team.

Encouraging employees to take vacations and weekends off. 

Offering flextime. “One of the biggest stressors is balancing work and home life. Creative scheduling helps employees. It works well for single people who are active and families trying to juggle child care,” says Von Madsen, SPHR, assistant vice president and HR manager at ARUP Laboratories, a clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory owned by the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Forty percent of its 1,800 employees take advantage of flextime schedules. Many employees work seven 10-hour days in a row and then have seven days off.

It is also very important to give employees more personal time. Help workers cope reducing the causes of stress is important, but many workers also may need a hand learning how to better cope with stress, even positive stress, in the workplace. Offer a variety of employee assistance. According to the 2006 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Benefits Survey Report, 71 percent of companies surveyed offer employee assistance programs (EAPs)—or provide help once a problem has been identified. EAPs provide both counseling and help resolving problems, such as with legal and elder care issues.

Some programs take a unique approach to giving employees someone to talk to like HomeBanc contracts with Corporate Chaplains of America.

Invest in stress reduction training. Stress management training courses are a useful component of a larger stress reduction strategy because the courses build awareness. The company also includes stress management modules in other training courses, such as supervisory training, which reach more employees than stand-alone courses.

WHAT IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS AND EMPLOYEES ?

Change Corporate Culture

Moms aren’t the only ones asking for more flexibility in the workplace these days. Men, Gen Y, and Baby Boomers are making the same demand. But what works for one doesn’t work all and what works for the business matters, too. We need to redesign the way business works, and you’d think women would be at the forefront of such a movement. After all, who better understands the challenges of juggling work and life outside work?

From the business side, flexible employee schedules mean global customers can be better served across time zones; bad weather doesn’t close down the whole operation; and real estate, technology, healthcare, and environmental costs can be reduced. In other words, building a flexible workplace is a strategic business decision that is good for the business and good for the employee.

If we make flexibility a “woman’s” issue, businesses and employees will lose out, according to Cali Williams Yost, founder and CEO of  founder of the Flex+Strategy Group / Work+Life Fit, Inc. Note that her company isn’t “work+life balance.” Balance, she says, conjures up visions of a benefit, a cost to the company, of employees working less. And it implies one right answer. Flexibility isn’t a benefit, it’s a strategic business plan that can lead to a leaner, more productive workplace that responds to changes in markets, client needs, and external factors while reducing healthcare (less stress means better health) and some fixed costs (if not everyone works at the same time, fewer desks are needed.) In fact, the process of fitting work and life together starts with the needs of the business: What problems can flexible work schedules solve? To put flexibility in place, “Start with a clear vision of why the organization is being flexible,” Yost says.

The second step is a conversation, in each work unit and among units. Managers and employees brainstorm and negotiate solutions that meet business goals and “fit” with employee’s lives. The manager doesn’t come up with the solution nor does the company come up with a policy: Thou shalt telecommute two days per week. It’s a collaborative effort, the results of which will differ for each unit. For employees, it’s not balance that matters anyway; it’s fit. Some people may need reduced hours; others may thrive on 80-hour weeks. Some like telecommuting, some hate it. In the course of the conversation, people tend to re-evaluate the way jobs are done, streamline processes, and make better use of technology, Yost says. This is an ongoing conversation, revisited regularly, so everyone knows that if an idea isn’t working out, it can and will be changed.

A critical element of these conversations is setting clear goals with measurable outcomes. Training is the third element of work/life fit. Employees need training to come up with workable plans that are good for the business and for them. Managers need training in managing remote teams, articulating goals, and monitoring performance.

With increased globalization; the entry of Gen Ys into the workplace; new technology; and the reluctance of Baby Boomers to go gently into that good night, the momentum for change is growing, Yost says. In fact, we may be reaching critical mass, when business as usual just isn’t good business.

Source: Forbes

DRIVE CANDIDATES TO YOUR COMPANY

Perception Is Reality When It Comes To Your Employment Brand !

Is your recruitment process based on what you know about job seekers OR what you think you know about job seekers? It is experience that matters when it comes to the ability to drive quality candidates to apply for your open positions.

A recent CareerBuilder study revealed that top talent wants to engage with prospective employers and experience what it’s like to work for their company before they decide to apply to a position – and they’re increasingly utilizing emerging technology to do it.

How do job seekers really see you? 

It's time to take a step back to consider the experience you offer candidates – from their perspectives. Below are three forms of emerging media candidates utilize today to find opportunities and research potential employers. In effect, they also provide employers the opportunity to interact with and engage with job seekers on their terms. 

The following exercises will help you see the experience you’re providing candidates – from their point of view.

Are You Mobile Friendly? Try searching for jobs at your company from your mobile device. Is your company’s career site “mobile-friendly” and easy to navigate? Are the pages easy to view and read? Can you easily search for and retrieve opportunities and information about your company? The rate at which people are using mobile devices to exchange information is growing exponentially – and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. If you don’t have a ‘mobile-friendly’ website that enables easy navigation and viewing, you’re missing out on a crucial opportunity to reach the growing number of job seekers who search for – and share – opportunities and information on their mobile devices.

Do You Engage on Video? Enter the term “work at [name of your company]” on YouTube. Then do the same for your competitors. If you were a candidate, which company would capture your attention more? As the fastest-growing medium for consuming content, videos have an ability to engage candidates and tell a more complete story that is unmatched by any other medium. Video gives companies an edge in offering job seekers a peek into the experience of what it’s really like to work for an organization.

Are You Social? Enter the term “work at [name of your company]” on Google. If you were a candidate, would you be impressed by what comes up? Now do the same for your competitors. How does your company stand out in the social space? (Or does it stand out at all?) Social media is where all of the above come together. Social networking is now the number one reason people go on the Internet, providing employers the opportunity to reach job seekers where they are truly engaged. What’s more, they can utilize social media to reach job seekers on their mobile devices and share video content with them as well (as discussed earlier).

Perception is reality when it comes to your employment brand. Only when you take a step back and truly evaluate the experience you’re offering candidates the way they see it – especially as it compares to your competitors – can you then move forward and create a more compelling reason to drive candidates to your company.

HIRING IN THE INTERNET AGE

Journey Of A Thousand Sites Begins With A Single Click !

Darryl Ohrt, the founder of VIA and the chief contributor to BrandFlakesForBreakfast.com says, " We just completed a new hire at our firm, and we haven't even met the new employee yet. "

There's a lot of press out there about the dangers of the internet as it relates to employees. "What if your employer finds your Facebook profile / MySpace page?" But what about the employer side? As it turns out, using new internet tools for hiring employees can be amazingly productive. Surveys show that employers have increasingly turned to sites such as Facebook, MySpace, blogs, and other sources to take a peek at candidates “under the hood” before making a hiring decision.

The potential employee pool is now International. As a small business owner, it's a great feeling to get a resume from different countries. By placing an ad online, you'll increase your potential market a thousand fold. In the old days, the local classifieds were your only tool. Maybe you'd spring for a more expensive ad in a bigger paper, like The Economic Times. With ads online, you're reaching a worldwide audience in one fell swoop. 

Results are immediate. In the old days, resumes (on paper) would begin to roll into the mailbox about five days after the first ad hit. Today, resumes begin hitting the inbox seconds after the ad is published. This has cut the timeline for screening potential candidates dramatically. With the Internet age here, for a position, hundreds of resumes are received from across the globe within no time.  

Interviews are not just for the boardroom anymore. The interview area is not only restricted to the office boardroom or building. Darryl Ohrt, the founder of VIA and the chief contributor to BrandFlakesForBreakfast.com just completed a new hire for their firm. Darryl states, " The candidate was sitting at home in front of his computer, and I in front of my laptop. We used the popular iChat feature now standard on the new Mac products. Our first interview was done through a video chat window. When the candidate became a finalist for the position, we interviewed him again, this time with a larger group of people on our side. With an iChat camera, the candidate was interviewed twice at our firm, and never left his house. I've even heard of firms using Second Life in the same way - but you lose the non-verbal part of the interview, which of course, is extremely important to the process. "

Learn more. With the help of internet, one can gather a lot of information about their candidate through social sites. The photo collections can also be a fantastic way to learn more about a potential employee, or for the employee to learn about the company. Candidates gets the idea of what life is like being a member of the company's team. You learn a lot about a person (or a company) when looking through their photos. Certainly, this isn't something that every employee would be comfortable with. There are instances where people know their co-workers better than some of their family members.

Save the details for email. When it is time to make an offer, you can lay out all of the details in an email. No potential mis-understandings. Everything in black and white. Both parties know exactly what was on the table. Email is awesome for detailing the basic specifications of money, benefits, and company policies. 

The use of the Internet and social networking sites for recruitng and background checks can be a ticking time bomb for employers. The way to defuse the potential for future lawsuits is to have in place a well-considered Internet use policy and procedures that are implemented and followed to ensure that hiring practices do not invade privacy or produce a discriminatory impact. 

Source: smartbiz.com