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

WANT TO SUCCEED AS A YOUNG MANAGER ?

Respect Your Roles And Theirs !!

The idea of being a young manager can be an absolutely amazing thing. Yet in reality being a manager is not all about telling everyone what to do and always getting our way. First off, no matter how many people we have working under us, we always have a boss too. Even when you are CEO you have a boss i.e. The Board of Directors. 

Regardless of the hassles, managing others can be a rewarding experience.  Moreover, as a young professional it can be a very valuable experience that will reap endless benefits as our career develops. According to me,  your ultimate success in business is not what you do but what you can get others to do, so managing people early in your career will put you leaps and bounds ahead of others as your climb the corporate ladder. " Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." Henry Ford.

To succeed as a young manager, we should keep the following in our mind:

Learning is for Life: If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.

Keep it Simple: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler. Out of intense complexities intense simplicity emerges. To arrive at the simplest truth requires years of contemplation.

Learning is Exploring: Learning is something which stretches us, to explore and seek new experiences. Life is not only about achievement, it's about learning and growth, and developing qualities like compassion, patience, perseverance, love, and joy, and so forth. And so if that is the case, then I think our goals should include something which stretches us.

Seek to Understand: Crucial to effective learning is the need to first understand. Just like for teachers to be effective, they first need to understand those they would wish to teach, same goes for young professionals who want to succeed as a young manager. Instruction begins when you put yourself in your subordinates place.

Keep Questioning: It’s the question that drives us. According to Albert Einstein, "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

Don’t mention your age: It is not a good idea to go around broadcasting that you are young and inexperienced, especially when you are managing people. Once someone knows your age, it tends to create resentment.  Employees older than you will think you don’t deserve to be a manager and those the same age will think that they can be your friend, eventually taking advantage of you to get special treatment. In fact, once you have proven yourself and have a track record of doing amazing work, telling your age can be a good thing. Once you are accomplished people are impressed and admire you for getting so far at a young age.

Don’t talk about college all the time: Avoid talking about your college all the time. This is great to do when you are amongst other recent grads but it can lead co-workers older than you to look down on you or focus on your lack of experience.

Help your people, don’t command them: As a young manager the most important thing to keep in mind is that being boss does not mean your first job is to tell people what to do an expert. The basic thing is to support your people and help them do their job better. If you view your role from the point of view of a servant then you will motivate your people to listen to you and support your vision.

It can be great to be the boss, especially when you are young because it forces you to teach others how to be successful in their jobs (and the old saying says that you retain the highest % of something when you are teaching someone else how to do it), i.e. teaching makes you learn.  But remember to “teach” in the right way without committing any of the blunders above that will create a wall between you and your employees.

EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION

When People Feel Appreciated, They Are Happier, Engaged And More Productive !!

Employee Recognition is a communication tool that reinforces and rewards the most important outcomes people create for your business. It is more critical than ever to make your staff feel recognized for their contributions.  When you recognize people effectively, you reinforce, with your chosen means of recognition, the actions and behaviors you most want to see people repeat. An effective employee recognition system is simple, immediate, and powerfully reinforcing.

What is so important about informal, manager-initiated recognition?

Recognition is all about feeling special, and more times than not, it is hard to feel special from a corporate program where everyone gets the same thing, like a five-year pin. To be effective, recognition needs to come from those we hold in high esteem, such as one's manager. The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.

What is necessary for delivering effective informal recognition?

Timing is the most important factor in delivering an effective recognition. The sooner you acknowledge employees' performance, the clearer they get the message, the more likely they are to repeat the desired performance. 

Recognition is most powerful when it's contingent. Companies will bring in doughnuts on Friday and give people cards on their birthday, and all of a sudden you've got an entitlement culture. If you do stuff just to be nice, people end up expecting more. So make recognition contingent upon desired behavior and performance; they'll value the recognition more and you'll get better results. Keep it fresh, relevant, and sincere. Any incentive has less punch with repeated use.

What kinds of recognition and rewards do employees want most?

According to an internet survey, that gave people choices of 52 items. The most desired factor they valued was "Managerial Support and Involvement"-- asking employees their opinions, involving them in decisions, giving them authority to do their jobs, supporting them when they make a mistake, and so forth. Also important were flexible working hours, learning and development opportunities, manager availability, and time.

Employees also want basic praise: personal praise, written praise, public praise, and electronic praise. These are the most demanding ones for people, and none of them costs a dime!

How do you choose what type of praise to use in a given situation?

To choose the most efficient type of praise to use in a given situation, weigh the below factors:

• Availability of the medium: How often do you actually see the individual -- do you manage him from a distance or does he telecommute? Do you have occasion for public praise such as periodic staff meetings?
• Employee preference: Do you know how the employee prefers to be praised -- have you ever discussed it with her? For example, an introvert employee would likely prefer a written or electronic note versus public recognition.
• Manager comfort zone: What forms of praise are you comfortable giving? If you feel awkward giving face to- face praise, go for a written or an electronic praise. If you are uncomfortable speaking publicly, it might be better to skip public praise for something that is more personal and sincere.

Are there special considerations to delivering recognition in tough economic conditions?

The times like recession, when we need to do it the most, we tend to do it least. Say you give a team award that used to come with 15,000 Rupees but because you can't afford the 15,000 Rupees, you stop giving the team award anymore. I say still give the team award. Say something like, "We've had to drop the financial aspect to hunker down, but it doesn't diminish the value of the job that this team did, especially at this time." When we are up against it, just a word of support, a team lunch, can go a very long way.

Rewards and recognition that help both the employer and the employee get what they need from work are a win-win situation. Make this the year you plan a recognition process that will "Wow" your staff and "Wow" you with its positive outcomes. 

Source: Harvard Business Review 

INTERVIEW CALLING

Confidence Has A Lot To Do With Interviewing - That, And Timing !!

Putting skills aside, what are the top 5 reasons why candidates fail at interviews? Here is what recruiters think ! [** Source: LinkedIn ( The Recruiter Network) ]

1. Lack of confidence.  
2. Lack of proper knowledge about the business, market, job 
3. The hurry to get hired 
4. Not clear about the Job Description candidates are applying for 
5. Lack of skills to sell yourself 

What does it take to be a successful interviewee ?

• Identify Yourself: Think about who you are as a person and where do you want to be. What are your strengths, what makes you unique? This is the time period to dig deep and follow your passions. This is the time for self-discovery. Write down your goals and create a vision, and a mission statement which simply encompasses what you do and who you serve. For example: “I am a human resource professional that help young graduates with career advice and job seeking techniques.”
• Concentrate on Job Description: Pay attention to every details of the job description which you are applying for. Not matching with the job description as posted is the biggest constraint for a successful interview.
• Know about the company: The candidate should know about the company they are interviewing with. Don’t expect the person conducting the interview to tell you everything about their company. This shows that you have not done your homework.  
• Avoid Desperation: It is very important to properly and advisedly select the career; Do not be hurried to be hired. Desperation to get hired leads to either underselling or overselling your abilities. 
• Dressing for Success: Dress your best and appropriately for the interview regardless of the dress code at the organization. If you're in doubt about how to dress for an interview, it is best to err on the side of conservatism. If you're not sure, check with the person who scheduled the interview and ask. Avoid wearing jeans, spike heels or sneakers for the interview. There were applicants who weren't afraid to show pierced body parts and spiked hair. Still others chewed gum or showed up in rumpled clothes or with their pants falling down. There was an instance where a recruiter told a candidate  to "Pull your pants up." 
• Profession Passion: One should have the ability to differentiate between desperation and profession passion. A recruiter / interviewer wants to see that you are excited about the job description, and even more excited about the possibility of filling the position. However, many candidates view excitement as being unprofessional, therefore they keep their arms folded on their laps, rarely smile, look in one direction the entire time that they are being interviewed. Professional Passion takes a candidate out of their comfort zone and thus separates them from the bunch.
• Body gestures are watched for in an interview: Warm smile, firm handshake, consistent and appropriate eye contact are the important body gestures watched for in an interview. Slouch, yawn, or checking the watch shows your disinterest in the job.

From the moment you walk into an employer's office for an interview, you are being observed. Your posture, look, voice, and presence are all important, and you want to watch your every move to leave a great impression. 

If you take the above points seriously, I am sure you will be the one, the recruiters are looking for. All the best! 

CORPORATE TRAINING

Where Pebbles Are Polished And Diamonds Are Dimmed 

Progressive organisations have realised that training their employees on a continuous basis is the only real way to stay ahead of the competition. Corporate trainers typically find themselves teaching topics that people don't learn in their formal education, such as communication skills, business writing etiquette, public speaking, presentation skills and other job-specific functional and technical skills. Every organization is making sure that all its employees perform well to the best of their abilities focusing on Corporate Training Programs. 

Depending on a number of factors, such as the corporate environment, the audience, and the subject matter, a number of skills might be required to be considered for a corporate trainer, include and covers these critical success factors. If you thought that anyone armed with above average public speaking skills and a funny icebreaker could become a Corporate Trainer, think again, because there is more to it than what meets the eye.

All Corporate Trainers Are Teachers, But All Teachers Are Not Corporate Trainers !

There is a difference between conventional teaching and training. The former is simply conveying information, which can be accomplished with a Power Point presentation or a classroom lecture. Professional training, however, provides people with the tools and skills they need either to change their behaviour or develop new skill sets they never had before.

In order to teach other people new behaviours, a trainer should develop these abilities beforehand. Also, most importantly, corporate trainers have to deal with mature adult audiences who have their own experiences and perceptions. Teachers have a certain position of authority because of which students have a natural tendency to follow their instructions, trainers enjoy no such luxury and have to build strong relationships with their learners to get the message across.

Skills Required ?

• Subject Matter Expertise: A corporate trainer needs to establish credibility by having relevant subject matter expertise. Nothing is worse than a room full of students who feel their time is being wasted because their instructor doesn't know what he or she is talking about.
• Watch Yourself In Action: The presentation skill ability is critical. If you are a corporate trainer, consider taking regular public speaking or presentation skills training programs. In addition to training classes, if you are a corporate trainer you should consider having yourself videotaped periodically. You can learn a lot by watching yourself in action
• Good Facilitator: Besides imparting wisdom, trainers are called on to facilitate a session with the class. The style and skills used when facilitating are quite different than training skills, so learn facilitation techniques, too. 
• Mind Reading - (Body Language): A trainer should be able to "read" his or her students, beyond what they say. Being a student of body language can be helpful in interpretation of the moods, needs, and challenges of your students.
• Be humorous: Using humor can add punch to your training programs and really engage your students. If you’re not naturally funny, hone your skills by taking a comedy class. Just remember to keep humor non-offensive.
• Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the ability that some people have to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of themselves and others, whether individuals or groups. It's useful for a trainer to have their own emotional intelligence levels assessed and analyzed, and then work on strengthening areas of weakness. This helps a trainer better understand the needs of his or her students.
• Legible Writing: This one sounds simple, but so many trainers write illegibly and it causes a distraction at best. At worst, it can be an impediment to learning. Then, practice until you can write more neatly.
• Audio/Visual Skills: It's very helpful for a trainer to be knowledgeable about audio-visual equipment, including how to set it up, how to use it, and how to fix problems that may emerge. It's a luxury to have a technician on hand when you need one.

Training Certifications:

Training certifications typically verify that their holder has an adequate grasp of essential fundamentals, at a certain acceptable level. A certification programme will equip you with the basic knowledge of how to make presentations effectively, design training courses, how to conduct a training needs analysis, how to set objectives for a training programme, how to deliver training effectively and evaluate the effectiveness of training. It is, however, a great 'starting point' for those relatively new to the field.

In the words of the famous author, Mark Twain, "There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift men to angelship". Corporate training is an elusive art. There is no checklist to follow in order to excel in this profession. You not only need tremendous confidence in your level of expertise, but also in your ability to entertain and educate an audience.

WHAT MAKES EMPLOYEES DISTRUST HR ?

Let's hear the bitter truth from their experiences !

" Where is the human face of the human resource department?" says an employee who has worked in three organizations so far.  

" It's a mechanical function. I don't even know what HR department can do for me, besides the annual birthday wishes they send," says a woman executive.  

" The most common employee gripe? HR speaks a language other employees don't understand. I get traumatized by words such as competency, change management, paradigm, bell curve, KRA," says a marketing executive in a Gurgaon-based firm. 

For a business function that's supposed to make the lives of employees better, HR isn't likely to win any inter-departmental popularity contests. What makes employees distrust HR? And what can be done to make HR popular? 

Bimal Rath, former HR head of Nokia and founder of leadership and talent consulting firm Think Talent Services says HR does need to look inwards to see why it is so "criticized". Does it have real empathy or has it got caught in the processes and paperwork? " Indians grow up in a caring environment and expect somewhat similar treatment at work. HR is expected to be a torchbearer of employee issues and has perhaps neglected this aspect by becoming a bit too mechanical," Rath reasons. 

Another senior executive asserts that HR itself is not clear about its role. HR is a bridge between the management and employees. The problem starts when HR either becomes management-driven and the employees do not trust it. Or when HR becomes too employee-centric and management begins to distrust it? " he suggests. 

At MphasiS, HR head Elango R acknowledges that HR needs a little of spit and polish job. He is working at it. Some time ago, Elango realised that some employees really did not easily comprehend the "competency skill matrix" part of their hiring, training, appraisals. He then came up with an alternative that was easy for everyone to understand. "We now call it 'what does it take to get the job done chart'," 

It's all about keeping it simple and relevant. That's probably the first step for HR if it wants employees to love it a little more.

NEED A HIRING SYSTEM IN PLACE

Consistently Choose "The Perfect 10" Candidate ! 

The hiring process, is all about creating consistent and predictable results. Whether its a two-person business, or a company with three hundred employees, a hiring process will have to take the guesswork out of finding the right person for the job.

Don't you think an organization needs a hiring system? What if you had to hire 30 people at a time? What if you had to have somebody else in your organization do the hiring for you? How can you be sure that you'll end up with the best possible person for the position?

For example: Olympic judges have pre-defined scoring criteria that they all adhere to as they judge each event. You can watch an athlete perform what you think is the most amazingly perfect display of athleticism, and the judges will end up giving them a poor score because of a detail you missed. Why? 

This is because the judges have consistent criteria to judge with; they're all on the same page and they can choose the winner based on those criteria. It's the same thing for your hiring process. You need a system in place that allows you to consistently choose the candidate who scores a perfect 10!

Common Mistakes to Avoid While Hiring a Candidate:

Is a new hire always the answer?
If you're considering hiring a new employee the first thing to ask yourself is: "Can we achieve our desired results without hiring anyone?" In other words, force yourself to consider all of the options you have at your disposal (besides adding people) to produce the result you want. Only move forward with your recruiting and hiring systems when you've determined that a new employee is absolutely necessary.

Are you recruiting or hiring? Confused ??
In an E-Myth'd business, hiring and recruiting are separate things. Recruiting involves defining the position and the ideal candidate and then communicating that recruiting message so that you attract the right candidate. The hiring process is about choosing the right candidate. By keeping these two processes clearly defined, you'll maximize the impact of both and end up with the best qualified candidate for the job.

Do you believe that hiring decisions are made in the first seven seconds of an interview? Really??
There's an old saying that hiring decisions are made in the first seven seconds of an interview. Seven seconds? This means that most hiring decisions are made from an emotional perspective. The candidate just "feels right," and while trusting your instinct is good; it must be tempered with objectivity. We sometimes tell clients, "When you feel the urge to hire, don't." Your hiring decisions are some of the most consequential decisions you can make in your business — it's essential to have a hiring system in place that allows you to consider all the pertinent data.

Do you feel the need to convince a candidate to work in your company?
If you've done your recruiting process right, there's no need for you to sell the company to your candidate because they already know exactly what you are about. By the time the candidate has gotten to the interview stage with you, you should be in hiring mode, focused on choosing the right candidate instead of them choosing you. If you feel like you need to convince a candidate that your company is "so great that you really should come work for us" then you've got a problem and it's time to re-evaluate your recruiting process.

Should hiring be based purely on skill?
Don't hire based only on the candidate's skill set. You should be looking for skill and attitude. Look for the right attitude because you can always train the right candidate in the skills of the job, but you can't change anybody.


We should keep the above list of common hiring mistakes in mind as we build our hiring process. It is never too late to build systems into a business. Even if you're not hiring right now, by creating a hiring system, you'll be prepared when the time comes.