Monday February 13, 2012
Managers can learn a lot by watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. Recently, I noticed that he had, once again, identified that the problem with the failing restaurant's success was the owner or manager.
It's not that these owners or managers are not deeply committed to their restaurant's success. They are. They just go about achieving success in all the wrong ways. And, since they are deep in denial, it is likely that, without Ramsey's help, their restaurant would fail.
Always eager to blame lousy staff, poor local food, and rotten customers, the blame for the problems, Ramsey discovers, usually rest squarely on the shoulders of the unknowing, self-unaware, unconvinced owner.
How often does this echo problems in your workplace? An ineffective leader, the person with the most power, can have a deadly impact on a workplace. Rarely open to feedback from staff, even Gordon's advice, at the beginning, falls on deaf ears as the owner / manager denies their culpability. Owners who later succeed with staff and customers eventually hear the feedback and change.
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Monday February 13, 2012
When you interview prospective Human Resources employees, you need interview questions that identify the unique skills and experience needed by HR staff. Especially to identify employees who have experience in the three areas that expand current HR roles, these sample interview questions will help.
You want to assess your candidate's experience as a strategic partner, an employee advocate and as a change champion. This assessment is in addition to asking questions about their basic interpersonal and management skills and other areas of HR.
These are the HR specific interview questions to ask your candidates for HR jobs and for people who want to transition into a career in HR.
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More Related to Employer Interview Questions
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Sunday February 12, 2012
After years of writing this website and covering just about every imaginable topic in HR - okay, so I'm still missing a few - certain articles stand out for their value contribution. This is one of them.
Employee empowerment is a business strategy that brings organization decision making closest in your organization to where employees have knowledge of the details of the situation and the need to make a decision. Employee empowerment differs from top down decision making in that the employees who need the decision generally make the decision.
This freaks out managers who have a need to command and control - please examine that need if you are one of them. But, there are ways to maintain control of employee empowerment. Control - wrong word. Channel employee empowerment by knowing how and when to empower employees and using effective delegation as your leadership style.
Organizations that empower employees benefit from increased employee commitment and engagement. Most importantly, they promote responsibility and accountability in their employees, two of the significant foundations for business success. They do this by following the ten key recommendations that I make in the Top 10 Principles of Employee Empowerment.
One of these guidelines I often cite has to do with solving problems not identifying problem people. How many times in your organization have you seen a manager go on a search to identify the guilty employee when a problem occurs? It's not pretty, is it? And, unfortunately or predictably, employees hide out, lie, point fingers blaming each other, make up excuses, and duck responsibility. They exhibit totally CYA behavior. And, honestly, who can blame them?
This is exactly the opposite of the behavior you seek to elicit and develop by empowering employees. So, change your response to problems. When a problem occurs, ask what is wrong with the work system that caused the people to fail, not what is wrong with the people. Worst case response to problems? Seek to identify and punish the guilty. That'll team 'em. Right. (Thank you, Dr. Deming.)
Are your employees empowered? If not, why not?
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More About Empowered Employees
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Sunday February 12, 2012
Need a way to articulate your values and beliefs? A company Code of Conduct is a written collection of the rules, principles, values, and employee expectations, behavior, and relationships that an organization considers significant and believes are fundamental to their successful operation.
A company Code of Conduct enumerates those standards and values that make an organization remarkable and that enable it to stand out from similar organizations.
Employees are attracted to companies that espouse a company Code of Conduct that reflects their beliefs and values. The Code of Conduct is a significant website company attraction tool for the recruiting section of your corporate website. Along with your values, ethics, policies, and company culture, a prospective employee can assess whether he or she will "fit" in your company.
The act of creating these company principles and values helps current employees understand and appreciate their organization. The discussion that eventually creates these documents is powerful. The articulation of what employees believe enables your company to consciously reinforce the components of your culture most important to your employees, partners, and customers.
The development of a company Code of Conduct starts with your executive team, led by the owner or president. That powerful leader's vision, ethics and values are what formulated the vision and the culture that you have currently, so his or her voice remains the most significant. Involving as many other employees as possible in fleshing out the details of the company Code of Conduct will help all employees integrate its principles and own it.
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Company Code of Conduct Development
Here are two guides to processes you can use to develop your company Code of Conduct:
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