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Celebrate Valentine's Day by Valuing Coworkers

Tuesday February 14, 2012

A young colleague who was divorcing after a romance and marriage that lasted from high school until her mid-twenties made a statement so profound that I am not sure she realizes how profound it is. She said to me, "He only had one note and, after all of these years, I just got tired of listening to it."

Just as an emotional range is important in a marriage, an emotional range in dealing with coworkers and reporting staff is critical. I have learned the most significant factor in people wanting to team with coworkers and follow their manager. It is the ability of the manager, as an example, to demonstrate that he or she values the employees who report to him or her. Respect for and valuing people trumps just about everything else.

So, conflict over ideas is okay. Conflict that devalues people is not. Making thoughtful mistakes should be okay and used as learning experiences in a good company. Whether the team member or reporting staff member is perfect is not the question; value is not measured by perfection. Value is fundamentally deserved by people in a work place. It is the emotional perception that is the most important. If people feel respected and valued, just about everything good follows at work.

So, happy Valentine's Day. Use it as an opportunity to value and respect your family, friends, and coworkers and allow your value for people to overflow into the weeks and years to come.

_{Image © Donna Rae Moratelli}

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Getting Through to the Boss

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.

_{Image Copyright Bloom Productions / Getty Images}

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Interviewing Prospective HR Employees?

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.

_{Image Copyright Carlos Davila / Getty Images}

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Search for the Guilty and Empowerment

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?

_{Image Copyright Supernova / Getty Images}

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Develop Your Company Code of Conduct

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.

_{Image Copyright Jeffrey Smith}

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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Use Nonverbal Communication to Enhance Meaning

Saturday February 11, 2012

Are you interested in communicating more effectively at work? Nonverbal communication is key to communication that will enhance your career and help you more effectively lead other employees. Nonverbal communication is practiced both consciously and unconsciously.

As a useful tool, you can consciously use nonverbal communication to communicate your intended message as effectively as possible. It emphasizes and punctuates your verbal communication.

Shared meaning is your desired outcome in any communication and nonverbal communication helps you create shared meaning. Find out more.

_{Image Copyright Michael Blann / Getty Images}

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Superheroes and Employees Online

Saturday February 11, 2012

Many of us who work in Human Resources, or even management, are helpers, at heart. So, when I encountered this quiz online, my first thought was to share it with you for a (gasp) weekend work break.

After all, I received a press release in email the other day that said that 80% of all employees who play games online during the work day, say that the game playing relieves stress and makes them more productive. This press release was - obviously? - from an online game producing company.

It followed on the heels of a press release that stated that the average employee spends 80 minutes a day surfing the Internet doing non-work-related activities. And, the employees doing the surfing are often your best employees who don't need a whole work day to get all of their work done. The sender? A company specializing in employee monitoring software that guarantees their software snooping will create a 90% decline in the time your employees spend surfing the Web during work hours.

_{Image Copyright KMITU}

However, before considering such monitoring software, you need to ask yourself what kind of company you want to be. Tie your answer to the results you want to create in this world and to the relationship you want to create with your employees. Trust or no trust?

Take the Superhero Quiz

Okay, I used to be Superman. Now I score in as the Iron Man, so obviously, I have been working on myself - or changing over the past couple of years? Following are the results of my personal answers to an online quiz. Why don't you take the quiz for fun this weekend. (After all, taking the quiz will reduce your stress and make you more productive. Grin.)

You Need Allies at Work

Friday February 10, 2012

Do you want to effectively accomplish your work mission and vision? If so, you need allies, people who support your ideas at work.

Forming these alliances takes time and energy, but they are worth the investment for the payback they provide. A positive, successful alliance is a collaboration that accomplishes great good for you and for your organization. Learn more about how and why to establish alliances at work.

Recognize the importance of alliances? Your most important alliance, to accomplish your work mission and achieve your goals, is the relationship you develop with your boss. A successful boss relationship is worth its weight in gold. You can take these steps to interact even more successfully with the person you fondly - or not - call boss.

Furthermore, alliances are no longer limited to fellow employees and your boss in your workplace. Strong alliances are developing, for people who take the time, through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

If you want to remain relevant, the time you invest in social networking informs you, provides a network of people for collaboration and communication, enhances your professional reputation or brand, gives you alliances that last your entire career, and provides a safety net in the event of layoffs, career changes, and unemployment.

_{Image © Getty Images / Rob Melnychuk}

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Featured Policy

Looking for the advantages and disadvantage of a Paid Time Off Policy (PTO)? Here's a quick summary of the PTO system of employee time off. You may find the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in employee PTO. See a sample PTO policy.

Manager "Gets" Performance Appraisal

Friday February 10, 2012

Have you applied a concept from this website to your every day job with success? I love to hear how readers applied a concept from this website to their every day job. I love these emails because they help me understand how my colleagues are using the advice I offer. And, I've decided you might like to read them occasionally, too. So, here is a reader email about applying performance management.

Reader's Note: Hi Susan, I just had to write performance reviews for the first time in my career. We are a nonprofit organization whose performance review process mirrored what you mentioned in this article (staff feedback and then full blown reviews). While I found the process painstaking, I did not delay the process as the reviews were a benchmark for retention and termination. (Not knowing any better...), I also replicated the format in which our previous supervisor processed the evaluations (she is no longer here), one that was technocratic and judging in tone.

My director reviewed the first drafts of the evaluations and advised exactly what was mentioned in the article: the negative will take preponderance over the positive. I thankfully have an integrated and performing team and did not want to demoralize them by mentioning too many negative remarks. My director gave me some counsel that I truly believe works: If a remark is negative, make sure it is relevant to the vision for your team.

While they (like we all do) have some weaknesses, I believe that we can more than accommodate those weaknesses as we are already applying some sort of systems approach in our workflow (ie: putting people where they are strong and having them execute tasks that they like) and most of the weaknesses became almost irrelevant.

Thinking about this approach has inclined me to be more liberal on the evaluation as well, and therefore, has made the process a lot less difficult. I am tasked to get the final draft by the end of the week and am not dreading it as I did before because of the aforementioned reasons.

So, thank you for publishing this (and other wonderful) articles. They are appreciated.

Any thoughts to share with this writer and other readers who participate in performance appraisal, performance reviews, or a performance management system? Thank you.

_{Image Copyright Andres Rodriguez}

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Causes of Negativity?

Thursday February 9, 2012

Are you experiencing employee negativity in your workplace? Recently, I made a podcast about employee negativity and I am reminded that a large percentage of my reader email, the posts in "comments" on the site, and the questions people ask in the Forum are related to negative experiences at work. And, while I know they exist, negative workplaces are hard to understand in 2012.

The typical workplace has its ups and downs in terms of employee negativity. Many workplaces are trying to be employee oriented. But, even the most employee oriented workplace can shudder under the weight of negative thinking. When employers understand the causes of employee negativity and put in place measures to prevent employee negativity, negativity fails to gain a foothold in the work environment.

A couple of years ago, Towers Perrin and researchers Gang & Gang interviewed employees and discovered the five main causes of employee negativity:

An excessive workload;

Concerns about management's ability to lead the company forward successfully;

Anxiety about the future, particular longer-term job, income and retirement security;

Lack of challenge in their work, with boredom intensifying existing frustration about workload; and

Insufficient recognition for the level of contribution and effort provided, and concerns that pay isn't commensurate with performance.

What causes negativity in your workplace?

_{Image Copyright Creativo Photography}

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Resume Red Flags for Employers

Thursday February 9, 2012

Do you know how to eliminate fraudulent candidates early in your application review process? Writing about background checking recently, my research showed that resume and credential fraud is escalating. For example, in a recent SHRM study, 64% of HR professionals did not extend a job offer to a potential employee because their background reference check showed inaccurate dates of previous employment. Falsified education credentials are increasing, too.

With the research I did for these articles and the statistics I found about credential fraud, I was reminded about how seriously employers need to approach background checking. In earlier days, only a small percentage of firms did a comprehensive background check on potential employees. Last I saw, that percentage is now in the 90s.

But, a background check is late in your hiring and employee selection process. By the time you check backgrounds, you have invested considerable staff time in reviewing, interviewing, and thinking about a candidate. So, my goal was to consider how to eliminate potentially fraudulent candidates earlier in your employee selection process.

With this in mind, I wrote about five resume red flags for employers in hopes that your initial review of job applications would result in the elimination of unqualified applicants earlier in the selection process. So, I wrote, and I kept writing and writing because it turns out that in a careful resume review, there are many more red flags to consider.

Other than an obvious lie, none of these red flags should automatically eliminate a candidate who looks qualified for your job on paper. But, they pinpoint areas that you need to seriously consider and question the candidate about in an interview. It seems that this topic really captured your interest, too. So much so that I followed up my first article with a second: Five More Resume Red Flags for employers.

With all ten of these red flags in mind, your early detection of a candidate who is not quite what he makes himself out to be is assured - early in your employee selection process. Before your whole team is infatuated with a candidate is the best time to eliminate her candidacy.

_{Image Copyright Jacob Wackerhausen}

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Want to Speed Up Your Hiring Process?

Wednesday February 8, 2012

Are you interested in ways to speed up your hiring process? When an employee gives his or her two weeks' notice, an employer rarely has a new employee waiting in the wings. With most recruitment processes, a new employee almost never starts before the former employee is gone.

And, the time to recruit a new employee drags on and on. Just gathering a pool of potentially qualified candidates can take several weeks. The first round interviews, especially when hiring is team based and involves many employees, can add weeks to the hiring process.

Whether initial qualifications screens are done by the hiring manager or the Human Resources staff, they add unexpected work load to an already full day. So, what's an employer to do to make this convoluted process speedier? After all, an unfilled job is costing the employer daily in unsolved problems and needed contributions.

Joyce Russell (pictured), the EVP and President of Adecco Staffing, offers advice to employers about how to speed up the hiring process. These six tips about speeding up hiring should help you remove time from your recruitment process.

_{Image Copyright Joyce Russell}

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Offer Perks for Retention?

Wednesday February 8, 2012

Want to know what will help you stay competitive when you recruit as an employer of choice? Perks and benefits can help you attract and retain superior employees, even when a pay raise is not possible.

Accountemps, a provider of staffing services for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals, conducted a recent survey that zeroed in on perks employees want. Conducted by an independent research firm, the survey about perks includes responses from more than 1,400 CFOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with 20 or more employees.

Results From Survey About Perks

The CFOs were asked, "What perks, if any, is your company offering or planning to offer in an effort to attract and retain employees?" Their responses included:

Subsidized training/education - 29%
Flexible work hours or telecommuting - 24%
Mentoring programs - 24%
Matching gift programs - 13%
Free or subsidized lunch or snacks - 11%
Onsite perks such as childcare, dry cleaning, fitness center, cafeteria - 11%
Subsidized transportation -10%
Subsidized gym memberships - 9%
Sabbaticals - 8%
Housing or relocation assistance 7%

You may want to take a look at whether your benefits and perks are staying comprehensive and competitive to retain and attract superior employees.

_{Image Copyright Chris Botha}

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Become a Sage

Tuesday February 7, 2012

I find myself dwelling on success this week and information that talks about what it takes to succeed is drawing my attention. Successful people practice life-long self-development. Studies show that successful people have similar characteristics.

First, they are self-confident without being arrogant. This comes from being self-aware and more.

Second, they are willing to grow by challenging their limits of knowledge and experience.

And third, they are willing to reflect and learn from experience.

Find out how to continue your life-long self-development in Becoming a Sage: The Keys to Life-long Self-development. Written by Susan McKeone of Sage Management Consulting, this article is worth your reading time.

More about how to provide ongoing training and development for you and for your employees.

Find out how you can become a learning organization.

_{Image Copyright Bobbieo}

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Mental Prep for an Internal Job Interview

Tuesday February 7, 2012

Lots of reader questions lately have grabbed my attention. I want to share them for the common good. Perhaps other readers have found themselves in similar situations and positions. As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome and encouraged.

Reader Question: I have a question for you which I would appreciate your thoughts on. I have a presentation to make to an interview board followed by a job interview tomorrow for a position which I am afraid I will not be seriously considered for. I am not being defeatist; it is just that I am fully aware who is earmarked for the job. I have in fact been told as much. I do, however, want to give a good account of myself, but I am finding it difficult to motivate myself. What do you recommend?

My Response: Here's the most important thing you need to remember. Even if the position has someone else's name written all over it, organizations use internal job interviews in multiple ways - ways that you can take advantage of to further your career aspirations. Find more of my job interview purposes response for this reader.

_{Image Copyright Dean Sanderson}

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Employee Motivation: Off-Topic

Monday February 6, 2012

It's a perfectly gorgeous, warm winter day where I am. Employees are planning vacations and selling available tickets to winter and spring sporting events. The soccer team needs a new organizer since the current guy is relocated to Europe as a company evangelist and needs to pass the torch. People are looking for colleagues to go in on purchases of sides of beef.

One employee needs a recommendation for a good deck builder. Another couple offer articles to read that are sort of related to our industry - but not quite. A few hilarious emails on company-specific topics such as bacon and pies (you'd have to work here) fly by. And, oh, wow, the events in the local community for families for this weekend is out early for planning this week. New baby pictures are frequent these days with our young staff.

How do I know all of this? Our company has an email list that is labeled "off-topic." It deals with all employee issues, insights, and interests that have little, and sometimes nothing, to do with work. Selling Girl Scout cookies for your kids? Have extra food left over from a department celebration or birthday? Passing out food related to your nationality on a national remembrance day (thank you Walter, for the paczkis every year)? Here's the place to let all staff know.

When the idea of an off-topic email list to all employees was first suggested, some of the executives groaned with concern. They added up the hours of all employees accessing such a list and the potential for abuse - sexual harassment suit, here I come. And, they made a novel decision. They decided to trust their employees to use such a list wisely.

And, the employees have, and the executives use the email list, too. Employees can opt out of receiving the emails, but it's a useful tool, and it's a marvelous peek into and preserver of the company culture. Try one.

_{Image Copyright David Lees / Getty Images}

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You Want My Social Security Number?

Monday February 6, 2012

Readers increasingly ask questions that pertain to the privacy of their personal information both on online job applications and paper job applications filled out and retained by the potential employer. Please share your thoughts in today's poll. You may select as many answers as apply in your organization. You are not restricted to just one response.

Question: "I have applied for a job and the hiring organization wants my social security number on the application. Is this legal?"

Answer: I am not an attorney, so keep that in mind. Asking for the social security number on an application is legal in most states, but it is an extremely bad practice. (Some states prohibit private employers from collecting this information for fear of identity theft.) Depending upon the state in which you reside, laws are different regarding supplying this information, and I cannot keep up with all of them.

I would not provide this information on a job application. Keep in mind, though, that on many job applications, you are signing to provide permission to check references, do background checks, allow criminal record checks, and affirming that everything you have provided on the application is the truth. If you do not supply the social security number on the application, you will likely have to make another trip to the company to fill it in, if the employer wants to offer you a job.

With all of the new laws about guarding employee and applicant information security, no client with whom I work, asks for this information until the person is hired any more. No one wants to be responsible for guarding this information for the year that it would be accessible in a file.

It might cost you the employment opportunity, but I would write "SSN available upon job offer" in that space. They will need the SSN if they do background checks, so you will need to provide it for the background checks if they make an offer. I would prefer to keep that number safe until hired, but it is not always possible.

Especially in online applications, you may need to provide your social security number, but I would avoid offering my social security number if possible. Why are employers asking for social security numbers from every applicant? Seems like such a bad idea.

_{Image Copyright James Lauritz / Getty Images}

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What Makes a Manager a Bad Boss? Vote in Poll

Sunday February 5, 2012

Bad bosses are a perennially popular topic on this site. I think that the topic of a bad boss resonates with everyone because we have all had a bad boss at one time or another during our working lives.

I ran a poll in the past that asked what you would do if you had a bad boss. The majority of readers said they would talk with their boss. I lauded everyone's courage, but your responses also made me think. Here are my thoughts about how to deal with a bad boss.

Polling Center: See how site readers voted on recent polls.

Poll: What Makes a Manager a Bad Boss?

You may only vote for one, so you might want to start by reviewing the list.

Readers share more thoughts about what makes a boss - bad. What makes a manager or supervisor a bad boss, in your opinion?

Related to Bad Boss

Dear Readers: Comments that defame an individual by name and company name will be deleted. We're just looking for the characteristics of a bad boss and your experiences with bad bosses, not names. Also, please no more submissions in all CAPS. I won't be publishing them in the future because readers tell me that they are too hard to read. Thank you for your participation and cooperation. Susan

_{Image Copyright John Foxx / Getty Images}

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Does Your Recognition Program Work?

Sunday February 5, 2012

A reader, working in a successful business, wrote to ask how to make his monthly employee recognition program more effective. The recognition program essentially asked coworkers to nominate each other for a monthly recognition that only one person received. And, no employees nominated anyone for the recognition program.

I responded that I am not a fan of a monthly recognition program, because I have only rarely found that such a recognition program works. Employers are attempting to provide the motivation and recognition that employees need and want, but recognizing one employee a month, with no criteria established, doesn't work well. Even if the criteria have been established, for an appropriate, appreciated recognition program, every employee who meets the criteria should then be recognized.

Whether employees will nominate each other in a recognition program is also dependent on the company culture that has been established over time. If recognition has only rarely occurred and if criteria for recognition are not communicated and understood, employees will resist getting involved in a recognition program.

Here are the criteria that a recognition program needs to meet for success. For a successful recognition program, you are best going with regular, even daily, recognition that rewards people for specific contributions, and that rewards all employees who accomplish what you specify.

In an environment in which recognition is common and widespread, it is much easier to involve employees in a recognition program or process. You may also want to ask employees how they'd like to be involved. Their answers may surprise you.

_{Image Copyright Lisa Gagne}

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Human Resources Forum

Interesting conversations are happening in the HR Forum including this one from a whistle-blowing employee. Did she do the right thing - the right way? And, was HR's response appropriate? Forum members state their views in Whistle-blowing Protocal.

Is an Office Romance Okay?

Saturday February 4, 2012

Love is in the air around Valentine's Day each year. So, it's also the time of year when readers ask me about non-fraternization policies that forbid dating coworkers or bosses at work. My response? In most cases, go for the love.

I'm a huge believer in prohibiting employees from dating their boss or any person who reports to them or who has any impact on their pay, performance rating, or promotions. In fact, if an employee has any impact on the working conditions or rewards of an employee, the two should not be dating. Period.

Love is in the air at work these days, though, as work expands to fill the majority of the hours in a day. Speaking realistically, where else do people meet others who share so many common characteristics? They have similar incomes, similar interests, and similar ages. They live within dating proximity and have their common interest in the company. Where else will any employee meet a person with whom love is more likely to bloom?

Consequently, I do support office romances between unmarried employees who are discreet. If the romance overflows into the office and causes tension, conflict, or impacts work in negative ways, then I have to intervene.

But, the dating couple needs to be aware of potential fallout in the future and factor the fallout into their dating decisions. When loves fades at work, the parties still need to be able to work together. And, the possibility always exists that one will report to the other or have to work closely together in the same department. As an employer, my advice to the person in this situation is, get over it. This potential existed when you dated, and it is not up to me to affect careers, responsibilities, and promotions because of your dating decisions.

What's Love Got to Do With an Office Romance?

Quite a lot, actually. To answer Tina Turner's proverbial question, I checked out current research on workplace romance. If the office romance is just about sex, if the romance is an extramarital affair, or if the relationship's goal is personal gain at work, coworkers and companies frown on love relationships in the office.

In our offices, we have experienced a number of serious love relationships. Several couples have married and those marriages have spawned additional relationships that have also ended up in marriage.

Several earlier marriages are working and couples have added children to our extended work family. In the research I highlight in a related article, Human Resources managers said that the most likely outcome of office romances that they have experienced is marriage.

So, if a couple is genuinely serious about dating and building a relationship, popular opinion is more favorable. And, these days, with the number of hours employees spend on work-related activities, they are likely to meet their friends and eventual spouses at work - even, if this can cause problems for employers.

If one employee is managing another employee and they are dating, one employee's job needs to change. What if performance problems arise later with one person in a married couple? I once worked with a client who opened a branch in another state and sent twenty married couples to staff the new location.

As you can imagine, when one partner was angry, two people were unhappy. The life and work balance was hurt also, because couples went to work together, worked together, went home from work together, and talked about work - together, all the time.

Learn more about dating, sex, and romance in the office. I've provided advice for both the dating couple and for HR staff and managers who are occasionally, and unfortunately, called upon to deal with problems that result from an office romance - gone good - or bad.

_{Image Copyright Susan Stewart}

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Rocking, Rolling Ice Breaker Questions

Friday February 3, 2012

Need a quick, easy ice breaker that requires almost no preparation yet is versatile enough to use for just about any occasion? This ice breaker is a direct result of notes I received from two readers. They both wrote to tell me how well the ice breaker had worked in their meetings.

I was, of course, thrilled to get the feedback, but both writers really caught my funny bone. They had not used the one-word ice breaker that I had tested in the field for them. They both took part of the blog post I wrote to tell my readers about the ice breaker and used it as an ice breaker. I asked, in my blog post, "What's rocking your world this month?"

Turns out that it made a great ice breaker. How fun. Had to share that with you. So, I wrote another ice breaker, Rocking, Rolling Ice Breaker Questions, using many more examples of ice breaker questions that you can use in meetings.

I hope that you tuck these away because they sure come in handy when you lead a meeting. I hear regularly, too, from readers who use these ice breakers in civic groups, teen activities, church groups and more.

More Ice Breakers

_{Image Copyright Digital Vision / Getty Images}

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Merit Pay Is a Powerful Motivator - Sometimes

Friday February 3, 2012

Looking into merit pay and what I find is that - bottom line - it is difficult, if not impossible, to remove the manager's opinion from the performance mix. (See the advantages and disadvantages of merit pay.)

I've had the opportunity to look at the merit pay systems of several companies in the process. One company (with 60-70,000 employees) had invested about five years in creating their merit pay system and had systematically created metrics for most components of most jobs, including specific deliverables.

Each of the systems that I've looked at do what I do not recommend that employers do. Their merit pay systems rate employees with grades of A-E or they rate employees from 1-5. Some of the companies, then, determine and establish an artificial percentage of employees who can receive each rating. Ugh and yuck!

Merit Pay Rewards Performance

Yet, I am a fan of merit pay. There is nothing so demotivating to your best employees than receiving the same pay increase or profit sharing check as the under-performing employee in the next cubicle.

From an employer perspective, when employers assign percentages of employees to the ratings categories, I always wonder why they still employ any employee who is performing in a way that earns the lowest two ratings. I have also seen employers invest hundreds of hours into designing systems that claim to objectively rate employee performance in a merit pay system.

Once they have these objective merit pay systems in place, then the managers decide, objectively, of course, how well the employee is performing within the rating system. And, assign a rating - and recommend a ranking. Ha.

I'd love to hear from you if you have designed, or are aware of, a merit pay system that works without demotivating half of your employees. Won't you please share it? I won't publish the merit pay approach, without your permission, but I am here to learn, too. I have written about numeric rating in the past and it's time to update my thinking. Merit pay, here we come.

_{Image Copyright Phil Date}

Do You Use Phone Interviews to Screen?

Thursday February 2, 2012

Companies that are growing quickly invest a lot of staff time in interviewing and selecting the right candidates for their jobs. Participative companies like to hold small group interviews in which four or five employees meet with each candidate in the first round interview.

While I support their interaction and believe that this is an effective method for assessing the candidate's ability to fit within their culture, it is a heavy investment of staff time. If you invest staff resources in interviewing, you may want to adopt the phone interview as an initial screen. The phone interview is a method for making sure that only the most qualified candidates receive a first round, time consuming interview on site.

The telephone interview allows the employer to determine if the candidate's qualifications, experience, workplace preferences and salary needs are congruent with the position and the organization. The phone interview saves management time and eliminates unlikely candidates.

Review my suggested format for a phone interview.

_{Image Copyright Marili Forastieri / Getty Images}

More About Recruiting and Hiring

What Comprises Successful Communication?

Thursday February 2, 2012

Want to know more about effective communication in the workplace? It's been a couple of years since I spent a lot of time writing about communication, but some consulting work I am doing now is bringing home its importance - one more time.

I put together some phrases and approaches to use in performance review and other difficult conversations in January. This work brought to my attention some serious missing pieces of content about workplace communication, so you'll see me fix that this month.

Communication is so complex because of the number of components that have to be understood and managed when you attempt to communicate with another person. The message sender, the context, the medium, the message, and the receiver and his or her context all play a role in whether communication is received.

Add to this already complex mix, the culture or environment of the workplace, organizational past practices, and whether the communicator is trusted. It's a wonder that anything gets communicated sometimes.

Take a look at the factors that comprise communication and vie to make communication ineffective in your workplace. I'd appreciate your feedback about what else you'd like to see.

More Related to Effective Workplace Communication

_{Image Copyright peepo}

Celebrate Black History

Wednesday February 1, 2012

February is National Black History Month, a month during which we recognize the achievements and contributions of black Americans.

In my classic piece, Search for Similarities, about diversity in the workplace, you'll find my preferred approach.

For others, quite a controversy exists as to whether Black History Month remains relevant. About.com's Race Relations writer, Nadra Kareem believes it is, but quotes Morgan Freeman, who feels differently, in her discussion of the controversy.

"Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman has taken to task the fact that the U.S. still celebrates Black History Month. In a 2005 60 Minutes interview, Freeman called Black History Month ridiculous. 'You're going to relegate my history to a month?' he asked. 'I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.'"

No matter your take on the controversy, February is Black History Month, a time when you can explore the resources available about Black History from the many expert writers at About.com.

And, if you agree with Morgan Freeman, March is Black History Month, too.

_{Image Copyright Tom Fullum / Getty Images}

More About Black History

Black History Month from The African American History site.
Mary Bellis, the About.com Inventors writer, provides the history of Black History Month and highlights the achievements of black inventors.
Black American history from abolition to current events is the focus of About.com's Martin Kelly in the American History section.
Black women in black history and notable black women are highlighted by Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com's Women's History writer.
Diana Rattray explores African American food and recipes at About.com's Southern Food.

Avoid the Feedback Sandwich to Promote Employee Performance

Wednesday February 1, 2012

Interested in knowing whether to use the feedback sandwich approach when you provide feedback about performance to employees? I wouldn't go there. The feedback sandwich is insulting, ineffective, and misleading. It muddies the waters when you want to make performance problems transparent.

Long touted as a way to minimize defensiveness and unhappiness about feedback from the employee's boss, the feedback sandwich is taught by consultants, trainers, and Human Resources specialists. I think that they're dead wrong. If you want to spare the manager's feelings and discombobulate the employee, use the feedback sandwich.

Otherwise, here are my recommendations about how you can provide effective performance feedback when you ban the feedback sandwich.

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_{Image Copyright Jacob Wackerhausen}

See a New Twist on Job Descriptions

Tuesday January 31, 2012

Readers ask frequently whether employees need job descriptions or if they have become such a legal mine field that we are best off forgetting about them. I am a firm believer in the necessity of providing clear direction to employees.

Don't micromanage employee work by any definition, but do make sure employees are clear about your expectations and the parameters within which they may make decisions - whatever they are, however broad or narrow they may be, in your organization.

The process of developing a job description helps you articulate the most important outcomes you need from an employee performing a particular job. A job description is also a communication tool that tells coworkers where their job leaves off and the job of another starts.

A well-written job description tells an employee where their job fits within the overall department and the overall company. Well-written job descriptions help employees from other departments, who must work with the person hired, understand the boundaries of the person's responsibilities. Finally, the job description is an integral piece of the performance development planning process.

A Different Approach to Job Descriptions

My best solutions to share come from readers. Julie Ryan, Director of Human Resources at Primary PhysicianCare, sent in her company's approach to job descriptions. Julie writes:

"I work for a company that has never used job descriptions but because of growth, we are now a mid-size company, and we have run into problems by not having them. Now, we call our job descriptions, Employee Profiles, and they are maintained by the employees with collaboration from their managers.

"We use the profiles along with self evaluations when we are looking at compensation increases. They are very helpful for many reasons:

"reassigning duties due to promotion or demotion,
"dealing with the transition of a resignation or termination, and
"educating executives on the role that our employees play within the company.

"Our employees update their profiles regularly and are proud of their employee profiles as they demonstrate the work that they do for the company."

More About Job Descriptions

Need Phrases for Performance Reviews and Other Difficult Conversations?

Tuesday January 31, 2012

Does it seem sometimes that you need a whole different language for talking with employees during a less-than-outstanding performance review? The myriad conversations that you participate in during the course of your day-to-day work are not always positive and often require tactful suggestions for improvement, too.

If you are like many of us, you seek effective ways to approach difficult conversations. I've written before about how to approach difficult conversations and how to tackle annoying employee habits and issues, but talking about performance and the need for improvement is the most challenging.

The way a manager approaches performance appraisal and the words that he or she uses to describe performance, are critical to effective performance improvement. Find out more about how to approach performance reviews and other difficult conversations.

You can speak so that employees listen, comprehend and improve. Here are ten approaches.

_{Image Copyright Pinnacle Pictures / Getty Images}

How to Welcome New Employees With a Letter

Monday January 30, 2012

After an applicant accepts your job offer and before the new employee starts at your company, you have an opportunity to enhance the relationship before the new employee even starts work.

The opportunity is called a new employee welcome letter. A new employee welcome letter can take many forms and serve many purposes, but the bottom line is that the letter makes the new employee feel warmly welcomed, wanted, and informed.

The new employee welcome letter serves a variety of purposes. You can use it to give the employee his or her first day schedule. You can send Human Resources forms and information. You can simply welcome the new employee onboard. Whatever purpose you choose for your new employee welcome letter, it will make the new employee feel important to your organization.

My sample employee welcome letter schedules a meeting to begin onboarding the new employee before his or her official start date. My newest sample welcome letter greets a new employee with his first day schedule.

_{Image Copyright Jacob Wackerhausen}

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How to Resign From Your Job

Monday January 30, 2012

Think resigning from your job is easy? Just drop that resignation letter off on the boss's desk, and you're home free. Sure, you can resign from your job that way, but why not use your resignation as an opportunity to cement your relationship with a former employer?

You never know in your professional career when that positive professional relationship will help you. Or, it can haunt you if you leave your former employer feeling negatively about your exit. You don't control all factors when you resign from your job, but you can make an effort to position yourself as the consummate professional. Barring some petty wishes you may have to yank some chains and leave melodrama in your wake, don't do it. Flawless professional is your best exit strategy.

You can resign from your job in a way that reinforces your professional image and keeps current employer relationships positive. You can resign and keep doors open for future opportunities by building, not destroying, relationships with colleagues and customers. Use a professional resignation letter when you resign from your job.

Professional Resignation Letters

Use these tips to effectively resign from your job.

_{Image Copyright Martin Novak}

Ready to Resign From Your Job?

Are You Hiring Superior Employees?

Sunday January 29, 2012

Probably not. And, if not, why not? You win some, you lose some, and some days, it rains, or snows, as the case may be. Most organizations are not hiring superior talent and it is likely your hiring process that is letting you down. Do you know that organizations are still hiring employees after one manager interviews several candidates?

No potential coworkers meet the candidate and no assessment is made of the candidate's cultural fit. What? Culture? What's that? Oh my goodness. While some organizations have made progress in hiring superior employees, others have not - to their severe detriment.

Hiring superior employees ensures that your organization has the talent onboard that it needs to succeed in accomplishing your mission and vision, and attaining long term profitability. Hiring fundamentals that include a systematic process for hiring and consistent execution of the hiring process result in superior employee wins for your organization.

Dan Erling (pictured), author of the book, MATCH: A Systematic, Sane Process for Hiring the Right Person Every Time (Wiley) (compare prices) asks, "Why is it that so many companies accept mediocre hiring results as the norm? The answer is simple. It doesn't occur to them that, in fact, there is a process that virtually guarantees hiring the right person every time."

You and your organization can do better than this. I promise. If you develop a systematic hiring process and execute the process faithfully, your proportion of superior employees will skyrocket. Take a look at my interview with Dan about hiring to find out how to implement a process for hiring superior employees.

Then, check out these additional hiring resources for more ideas and support.

Hiring Superior Employees

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Try Learning at a Brown Bag Lunch

Saturday January 28, 2012

Do you take advantage of inexpensive, team building and morale boosting opportunities to help your employees adopt a continuous learning mindset? One of the hallmarks of learning organizations, employers can use brown bag lunches to enhance continuous learning.

A brown bag lunch is an informal opportunity for employees to learn at work. A brown bag lunch is used to convey work information occasionally, but mostly serves to enhance employee knowledge about non-work or job specific issues and ideas.

Brown bag lunches or lunch and learns provide an opportunity to develop employees' knowledge, pique their interest about opportunities, and demonstrate the company's commitment to providing a healthy, value-based, motivational work environment.

Topics for a brown bag lunch range from viewing slides of a coworker's vacation trip to a visit from a local banker to discuss maximizing the potential return that employees can earn by saving.

Here's more about why you might want to offer brown bag lunches or lunch and learns in your workplace. Suggested topics, too...

More About Continuous Learning and Learning Organizations

_{Image Copyright Aleksandar Petrovic}

Create Value With Human Resource Measures

Saturday January 28, 2012

Are you interested in how to measure the impact of Human Resources leadership, management, actions, policies, and assistance in your organization? You should be so that your organization understands your value. A significant component of your Human Resource business planning is identifying what Human Resources measures to collect. One of the topics I'd like to spend more time on this year is Human Resource measures.

Once upon a time, standing in my kitchen - yes, I work from home - four vice presidents called me, out of the clear blue, from a client company. They were meeting to assess the effectiveness of my training and consulting activities and they made the age old mistake of measuring actions, not results.

They proposed that my accountability would be the number of training sessions I presented, the number of employees who attended the training sessions, and the number of improvements employees made in their work areas. I told them I could begin to work with them on the last one, but the first two had nothing to do with the results we wanted to achieve.

What Impacts Human Resource Measures?

This story has played out in workplaces perpetually, it seems. And, part of the problem is that HR staff members get so busy just providing services, that collecting data and measuring success and contribution, in addition, is a stretch. At least in the small and mid-sized companies where I have spent much of my time, this is true.

One of the measurements that HR has collected data on is cost-per-hire. The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) has spearheaded an effort to develop a human resources standard for measuring cost-per-hire. Here are their cost-per-hire benchmarking results for 2011-2012.

Additionally, find out more about what Human Resource measures might work in your organization and why.

What do you currently measure in HR?

_{Image Copyright Jeffrey Smith}

Want Powerful On-the-Job Training?

Friday January 27, 2012

Explore the power of on-the-job training to enhance employee development in your organization. Use job shadowing as a significant component in on-the-job training, too.

Probably because I was a jointly-appointed training coordinator and OD consultant for a GM plant earlier in my career, both training and OD have always remained dear to my heart. An early memory that has always stayed close, too, is the day that the tool and die guys invited me to their training meeting and asked me to be their training coordinator.

In those days, you could be assigned a job, but you couldn't do the job, if the employees didn't accept or seek your services. As I write this, I find myself laughing. In those days, I say, but isn't it still the way - in all coordinating or managing roles? Someone has to decide to follow you. Hence my sense of pride and accomplishment when first, the skilled trades employees, then the tool and die guys, invited me to their party.

As a result of these experiences, I learned that on-the-job training is the most powerful form of job training. Employees who aspired to these skilled positions attended classes and apprenticeship programs, but the bulk of their training was working side-by-side with experienced employees in a job shadowing situation. And, the power of job shadowing should not be limited to hands-on skilled trades either.

Job shadowing is significant for employee development in any on-the-job training approach. Even employees who aspire to management roles benefit from on-the-job training in job shadowing opportunities. Learning to lead a meeting, taking responsibility for a team's product development results, and participating in coaching and mentoring for a management role is just as significant for an employee who aspires to an office job.

Do take a look at my 12 possibilities for on-the-job successful training: Provide Job Training - On the Job.

_{Image Copyright Catherine Yeulet}

Interview Questions for Employers to Ask

Thursday January 26, 2012

Have you ever wanted sample job interview questions that you can ask prospective employees? These sample interview questions for employers to ask candidates focus on various skills and attributes that you want to identify in your potential employees.

I've continued to add additional interview questions to these samples and seek feedback about what other topics I should cover. I'd like to continue to write sample interview questions, but I can use some feedback about the topics you need.

On each group of questions, I have also made suggestions about what you are looking for in your job candidate's answers. It is difficult to give you an exact set of criteria because, as in all other things in Human Resources, the candidate's favorable answers are situational. The best responses depend on your job requirements, your organization's culture, and your knowledge about what kind of person successfully performs the job in your company.

I have begun to flesh out positive and desirable responses from prospective employees for you. So far, I've covered motivation, cultural fit, and management. Stay tuned for more tips about interpreting your candidates' answers to interview questions.

_{Image Copyright Steve Cole}

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