July 26, 2010
Experts all agree a healthy workplace means workplace wellness and workplace wellness equals happier employees. As a jobseeker – that’s where you want to be in the “happy employee” pool. So what should you know about finding and identifying a healthy workplace to make your very own job Shangri-La?
According to Lynda Monk, the founder of Creative Wellness, an arts-based life and health coaching consultancy, a healthy workplace will possess these three qualities:
1) A proactive approach to mitigating occupational stress
2) Core values that nurture and support leadership.
3) A culture where employees are thanked often, are acknowledged for their contributions and the good work of the team is celebrated.
When seeking a new employer – think about how well you will be a fit there at the company – as much as whether you fit the job description. Ask yourself:
Does the company value work-life balance and make tools available to nurture that? Are there programs and policies that can promote work-life balance?
- Flexible work arrangements, such as flextime and telecommuting
- Assistance with childcare
- Eldercare benefits
- Resources to help employees manage personal financial issues
- Availability of benefits for family members and domestic partners
- Flexible leave options beyond those required by the Family and Medical Leave Act
- EAP programs
- Health & Wellness programs
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Posted by HR Diva
July 22, 2010
IRS Releases First Round of Health Care Reform Guidance
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued the first installment of what is expected to be an avalanche of guidance on the new health care reform law. The guidance confirms that an employer-sponsored health plan may provide coverage free from federal income tax to an employee’s children up to age 27.
If you’re a SHRM member, you can receive additional resources on this topic. Visit SHRM’s Express Request web site and select key term ADULT CHILDREN: COVERAGE VS TAX EXCLUSION in the Health Care Reform section.
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Posted by Biz Dev
July 15, 2010
Ultimately, the challenge of attracting, hiring and retaining employees is all about relationship building. The main reason most employees leave a job is not the pay or the line of business, it’s their manager. This conclusion has been reached by many on-the-job HR professionals and is clearly supported by extensive research.
For more than a decade, The Gallup Organization has been assessing employee engagement at tens of thousands of worksites worldwide. The Gallup Q12 process, which has been completed by nearly two million employees, is based on a survey that asks respondents to rate 12 statements on a scale from one to five:
1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
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Posted by Biz Dev
July 8, 2010
Exit interviews are an invaluable tool in learning how to retain the best talent for your organization. This type of interview—which can be done in person, via questionnaire, or both—is best conducted by a trained human resources (HR) professional, but it’s worth doing even if you are a small organization. Not only will exit interviews help to uncover areas that need attention, the documentation it produces can help prevent costly litigation should a disgruntled former employee file a formal complaint.
If you are unable to conduct an interview with an exiting employee, try asking the person’s co-workers; they usually have a pretty good idea why their team member quit or how she felt about her job.
To make exit interviewing useful to your organization, it must be applied consistently—with the same questions— so that trends can be indentified and acted upon. Exit interviews are only worth doing if your organization is prepared to make changes based on whatever data is gathered.
Sample Exit Interview Questions
- What are your primary reasons for leaving?
- What did you find most satisfying about your job?
- What did you find most frustrating about your job?
- What improvements could you recommend about your job, the working conditions, management support, etc.?
- Would you consider returning to this company in the future?
- Would you recommend this company to friends or family?
- Is there anything the company could have done to prevent you from leaving?
- What do you think it takes to succeed at this company?
- What does your new employer offer that’s different from this company?
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Posted by HR Diva
July 1, 2010
A certain amount of employee turnover is normal (and healthy) in most organizations. Yet, high turnover rates can severely reduce a company’s productivity or even put a small business out of business. Although you probably worry more about payroll, supplies and equipment, understanding the true cost of turnover is essential—and it’s probably higher than you think.
Turnover costs vary according to position and industry.* Estimates range from 25 percent of an employee’s annual salary, for a minimum-wage worker, to 400 percent for a top executive. Even if we assume a conservative, average turnover cost to be equal to 100 percent of someone’s salary, can you afford to give away 12 months’ worth of pay just to replace an employee? Most small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofits can’t—they struggle to make payroll as it is.
The average turnover rate in Hawai‘i is 21 percent. So, let’s take a typical local business with 25 employees and an average salary of $40,000. If the company’s annual turnover rate is 20 percent, or five employees per year, the estimated effective cost of that turnover is five times $40,000 for a total cost of $200,000. That’s a hefty price tag for most small businesses.
However, you can do something about turnover—starting with the first three secrets presented in this blog. Keeping turnover low helps increase your business’s chances of success. Also, reducing turnover has been shown to improve both team productivity and the customer experience.
*Studies have been conducted nationally and globally by organizations such as Watson Wyatt, the Saratoga Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
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Posted by Biz Dev
June 24, 2010
If you’re striving to get the right people on the bus and hiring them based more on fit than skills, then it only makes sense to exercise patience during the recruiting and hiring process. Yes, it can be painful to leave a position unfilled for longer than you’d like, but the cost of a bad hire is usually not worth the misstep. Similarly, the longer you wait to let a bad hire go, the harder and more costly it becomes.
When in doubt, keep recruiting and interviewing. The true cost of a bad hire and its impact on an organization can be excessive. For instance, the overall cost of replacing a knowledge-worker after only 90 days on the job is typically estimated to be equal to 150% that employee’s annual salary.
Download the ALTRES white paper “HR Secrets for Hawaii Employers” for strategies on successfully hiring the right person.
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Posted by Biz Dev
June 21, 2010
When searching for a job, don’t overlook a vital resource: local staffing companies — organizations who specialize in helping businesses and jobseekers find one another. Their services are usually paid for by the business client, so jobseekers never have to pay a fee. In turn, staffing companies save businesses time and money by delivering prescreened and prequalified job seekers.
Staffing companies also receive job orders from hundreds of different companies, so one interview with a staffing company means you’re considered for hundreds of jobs.
They assess your skills and match you to the perfect opportunities, but they do so much more. They also offer training, plus provide help with resumes, cover letters and interview techniques.
If you’ve recently graduated from trade school or college, consider working temporary assignments with a staffing company. Why? You could get your foot in the door of companies who may not be hiring.
Accelerate your experience and work skills by working temporary assignments with various companies and industries. Try out many companies to see what you like without tarnishing your resume.
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Posted by HR Diva
June 17, 2010
One proven method is to start with behavior-based interviewing techniques. Résumés can be very misleading, especially if you’re not trained in candidate screening and interviewing. Rather than asking a job candidate to describe her skills and experience, behavior-based interview questions get the candidate to explain a real situation in which she demonstrated her skills and problem-solving abilities. Compare these two questions:
Standard question: “How would you describe your people skills?”
Behavior-based inquiry: “Tell me about a situation in which your supervisor asked you to complete a project that you believed was headed in the wrong direction. How did you deal with it?”
Another valuable hiring tool is a personality assessment. This type of evaluation, which uses various methods to describe personality types, can go a long way to helping you evaluate a candidate’s fit for a particular job function or team, or for your organization in general. Popular assessment tools include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and the Rembrandt Portrait.®
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Posted by Social Maven
June 10, 2010
HR Secret #1: Get the right people on the right seats on the bus
In his influential book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, Kim Collins used the analogy of riding a bus. Business leaders are the bus drivers, the bus is their organization, and the passengers on the bus are their team members.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but according to Collins, the first thing a leader needs to decide is not where the bus is going, but rather, who will be riding on the bus. Making sure that every rider on the bus is dedicated to the other riders on the bus and to doing their best to reach the destination is of utmost importance. Sometimes that means people will opt to get off the bus. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The right people on the bus will be nimble and able to adapt to changing circumstances—even a change in direction. They are also self-motivated. Keeping disengaged people on the bus, however, will prevent a good company from ever becoming great.
Download the ALTRES white paper “HR Secrets for Hawaii Employers” for strategies on successfully hiring the right person.
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Posted by Biz Dev
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