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Posts Tagged ‘Managing Employees’

Is Telecommuting a Good Option For Your Employees?

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

screening employees, employee background checkMany employees like the idea of telecommuting. Avoiding the crowded freeway sounds like a great idea. Gas prices are high, so commuting can eat into a paycheck. And keeping an eye on the kids while getting a daily to-do list accomplished is a winning combination for parents who work from home (in their pajamas?).

But is telecommuting as productive as working in the office? Employees say so. In fact, 86% said they were even more productive during telecommuting, according to a recent survey of telecommuting employees by Staples, the office supply retailer.

In addition, 76% of employees who are allowed to avoid the daily commute to the office (an average 75-mile round trip among those surveyed) said they are more willing to work extra hours and feel greater loyalty to the company.

What more could telecommuting employees want? A better chair. Nearly half said they need a more comfortable chair and that clutter in their home office affects their productivity. Of course, since Staples was conducting the survey, this finding is not all that surprising.

Other interesting tidbits from the employee telecommuting survey:

  • Telecommuters are succeeding on their own, not because of support from their employers. 87% said their company supplied no furniture and about 60% said they received no equipment or supplies from their employers.
  • Employees who telecommute report they eat healthier and are less stressed. The average reported drop in stress level was 25%.
  • 80% of telecommuters say they have a better work/life balance.
  • To stay in touch with the office, 96% of telecommuters say they rely on email, while 68% use instant messaging and 44% videoconferencing.
  • 40% of respondents said they’d rather take a pay cut than stop telecommuting.

Keep Employees and Your Company Safe: Write and Enforce a Cell Phone Policy

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

employee background check, pre employment screeningRecently a cell-phone monitoring firm, ZoomSafer, conducted a survey of 500 business executives. The results are in, and one notable finding is that nearly one-third (32%) of companies have knowledge or evidence of on-the-job automobile accidents resulting from employees using cell phones while driving.

It’s no secret that distracted driving is one of today’s top driving hazards:

  • Distracted driving is a factor in 25% of police reported crashes, according to a report by Nationwide Insurance.
  • Driving while using a cell phone actually reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%, according to a Carnegie Mellon study.
  • Drivers that use cell phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety).
  • The number one source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device (Virginia Tech).
  • Distraction from cell phone use while driving—hand held or hands free—extends the time it takes a driver to react as much as having a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent—the legal limit, according to a report by the University of Utah.

It’s clear that simply replacing a hand-held phone with a hands-free device is not going to solve the problem of diverting a driver’s attention when it belongs on the road and other vehicles.

When a business supplies employees with cell phones, the liability of possible litigation shifts to the company. Nearly eight percent of companies surveyed by ZoomSafer have faced litigation resulting from employee cell phone use while driving. For companies with more than 5,000 drivers, the statistic is 37%.

Only 62% of the companies surveyed have implemented a written cell phone use policy. Surprisingly, utilities/telecommunications/cable companies were least likely to have one—and least likely to enforce it. Most (62%) of policy enforcement is reportedly done “post incident.” Even more surprising is that 25% of respondents declined to answer this question.

Survey answers regarding a company’s culture toward employee driving were also interesting, with nearly one-third of respondents reporting some degree of apathy regarding safe driving, monitoring employee driving, and concern about employee use of mobile phones.

It seems that companies are telling employees not to use cell phones while driving, but are not doing much to enforce the rule or change employee behavior. To reduce potential liability from damages caused by employee cell phone driving, a clear and well-communicated policy, as well as strict enforcement, is absolutely necessary. The risk of damage to a company’s reputation and finances are enormous—as is the possibility for loss of life.

Is March Madness Good or Bad for Productivity?

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

employee screening, employee background checkNow that March Madness is over, some business owners are reconsidering their policies on the activity surrounding the tournament in the workplace. The innocent office basketball pool can become a dangerous game. And if money is changing hands, it could be even more so–because gambling is not legal everywhere!

A recent survey by CareerBuider indicated that 20 percent of workers have participated in March Madness pools at work. Other reports mention the billions of dollars in lost productivity to business that the March Madness Tournament “inspires.” Maybe your employees are included in those 20 percent and you see a loss in productivity. And maybe you’re fine with that. On the other hand, maybe your office has a more formal atmosphere and you prefer to keep it that way.

So what should your answer be when your employees come to you and ask for permission to start a March Madness office pool next year? Here are some points to consider:

  • Will it harm your company to have a once-a-year office pool? If the only thing in the way is you, maybe it’s time to rethink your reasons for saying, “no.”
  • Can trust your staff to keep the party to a minimum and still get the job done?
  • Avoid online activity, as online betting laws can easily be broken.
  • As the business owner, it might be a good idea for you to avoid any involvement in the pool.
  • Think about the boost in morale that a March Madness pool could create. Sometimes, hard-working teams need a way to blow off steam and just enjoy their co-workers and the time they spend at work.
  • Focus on the amount of work your staff is producing—not necessarily the amount of time they’re spending on their tasks.
  • Remember, it’s been a tough couple of years, and your employees might just need a fun break.

Your employees are your most important resource. Think carefully before you take away their March Madness pool!

An Alternative to Performance Reviews

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

employeescreeningblog.comClaims for unemployment benefits are dropping; the economy seems to be on the upswing again. And employers will be adding jobs each month, according to economists. Along with hiring new employees come the standard procedures like orientation, IRS forms and 30-day, 60-day and 90-day performance reviews.

But some experts say the initial and annual employee performance review is dead. Everyone dreads it, managers and employees alike. But human resources managers often think they are must-dos for legal reasons. After all, how can an employee be terminated without a paper trail?

It’s not the paper that’s the problem. Most people just think the reviews are not productive. They’re more about meeting a requirement with a process, and not about getting results. In short, they have little credibility—and everyone knows it. In fact, back in 2005, Psychology Today reported on a national survey by People IQ, which stated that a whopping 87 percent of managers and employees felt performance reviews were not useful or effective.

4 Ways to Improve on Annual Reviews

  1. Coach your employees every day. Setting objectives and goals together lets both employee and manager know what is expected. Weekly check-ins can help the employee keep on track toward reaching the goals, or switch things around as company needs change.
  2. Offer immediate feedback. Gen Y workers are used to hearing feedback. They were raised with it and don’t always thrive when kept in the dark about their performance.
  3. Eliminate the “annual” part. Monthly or quarterly one-on-one meetings with each staff member—without the “fill in the blank” forms—give both sides the opportunity to review performance, make plans for improvement and celebrate accomplishments.
  4. Give specifics. Instead of noting that an employee isn’t getting the job done, or seems distracted, offer specific examples of behavior that impacted the company negatively. Allow the employee to offer an explanation, then move on.

Employees are motivated to work hard, keep good jobs and contribute to a cause or company they believe in. Replacing annual reviews with setting goals and coaching employees to meet them, along with more frequent feedback might just be winning strategy for your company!

Survey Shows Workers On Time More Often

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

employee credit check, pre employment backgound checkA survey of nearly 3900 employers and 2500 employees by the job site, CareerBuilder.com, shows that employees are improving in one area: showing up for work on time. Over the last two years, the number of workers who said they arrived late to work at least once a week declined from 20 percent to 15 percent.

At a time when employers are asking for more productivity out of their employees, it’s a bit surprising that tardiness is actually going down—unless those same workers are realizing how valuable their jobs really are. A quick check of unemployment figures, or seeing friends and family lose jobs and struggle with finding work, could be inspiring employees to do what’s expected, like being on time for work.

CareerBuilder does not ask respondents to explain why they are increasingly making it to work on time; however, they are asked why they’re late. Among the reasons given:

  • Traffic (listed by 30% of respondents)
  • Lack of sleep (listed by 19%
  • Bad weather
  • Delays in getting kids to school

Some of the more creative reasons employees gave for coming to work late were wardrobe issues, dealing with pets and public transportation issues.

But those common reasons for being late to work pale in comparison with these, supplied by hiring managers:

  • I was attacked by a cat
  • My karma was out of sync
  • I injured myself with a fork
  • My car is infested with bees
  • My hair is hurting my head
  • I’m not late: the clock is wrong
  • I knew I was going to be late, so I stopped to buy donuts for everyone

While these inventive excuses are entertaining, tardiness is nothing to laugh about. In fact, nearly a third of employers said they have terminated an employee for being late.

5 Extreme Weather Tips for Employers

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

employment background check, pre-employment screening, credit checkWinter is a tough time for businesses in many parts of the country. Extreme weather causes shutdowns, customers stay home and employees can’t always get to work—all of which contributes to losses in productivity, revenue and profits.

Should Employees Be Penalized For Staying Home in the Snow?
What should employers do when employees can’t get to work? Should they be lenient, knowing that safety comes first? Or should they require employees to work, no matter what the weather is doing? And what about employees with kids, who have to stay home when schools are out for bad weather?

Creating and implementing an extreme weather policy makes things easier for everyone. Employees know exactly what they should do, and you don’t have to come up with solutions while the snow is still piling up.

5 Extreme Weather Tips for Employers:

  1. Realize that employers must assume some level of care for employees. Forcing them to come to work in dangerous conditions could subject your company to liability if someone is injured or causes injury to others. Besides, do you want to be the type of employer that makes an employee feel they have no alternative other than traveling to work or risking termination?
  2. Be the leader your staff wants you to be. They will likely be looking to you for direction, so keep an eye on the weather, and communicate. Keep your cell phone on and be available to employees with questions.
  3. Make things flexible. If an employee needs extra time to get to work safely, or would prefer to work at home and stay off the roads, try to accommodate their needs. If snow is piling up during the work day, allow employees extra time to get home before dark, when possible. Add a provision in your policy for employees who can work at home to do so. Productivity could suffer, but it’s better than getting none at all.
  4. Be consistent. It’s not easy to make different accommodations for different employees; to allow some, but not others, to work from home; and to decide who gets paid and who does not. Try to be fair and consistent in your policies to avoid any legal battles with employees.
  5. If you pay employees who aren’t able to get to work, it’s reasonable to ask them to make up the time. Otherwise, you can offer that they take vacation time or unpaid leave and not worry about making up the hours they miss.

Even when snow and ice lead to driving problems, it is up to your employees to get to work or communicate their difficulty in doing so. But everyone appreciates a boss who tries to help and makes reasonable accommodations.

Dealing with Four Tricky Employee Personalities

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

employeescreeningblog, pre employment screeningPeople come in all shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. Some are easier to work with and manage than others. Personality quirks should not get in the way of hiring a new employee, but knowing how to deal with unusual personalities can save headaches later.

  1. The Toxic Worker: This category includes insensitive and bullying personalities. This employee can suck the life out of a work environment with petty comments, inappropriate behavior and rude actions. Keep your ears open to cues of such behavior in the job interview. If the employee only starts acting like a jerk after they’re hired, stay on top of it, issue warnings and if necessary, let them go sooner rather than later. Frame the discipline around the fact that he or she—not an “overly sensitive” group of co-workers—is the problem.
  2. The Gossip: Ignoring boundaries, this employee enjoys knowing what’s going on in every other staff member’s life—and repeating it to anyone who will listen. Gossipers can be destructive, contributing to an unpleasant or even hostile work environment. Encourage gossips to bring concerns about other employees directly to management.
  3. The Chronic Cell Phone User: Depending on your business, you may or not allow cell phone conversations or texting during work hours. But everyone knows a Chronic Cell Phone User, who ignores any rules and seems unaware of how often they text or how loud they talk. The problem is not only lost productivity, but sometimes co-workers will know more than they should about the employee’s personal life. Establishing rules such as no cell phone use except for break time can help. You might spot a Chronic Cell Phone User if their phone buzzes or actually rings during the interview. People who are aware of cell phone etiquette will always turn off the phone for something as important as a job interview.
  4. The Odorous One: Whether it’s perfume, cigarettes, bad breath or even alcohol exuding from their pores, a worker who smells offensive can distract or even sicken others. Many of these issues will be revealed during a job interview—but can you strike the applicant because of the way they smell? Chemical and cigarette insensitivity is a real issue in workplaces, and can even result in legal action. Protecting your staff from illness is an employer’s responsibility. But what about a worker’s private conduct, such as smoking or drinking too much alcohol after work? Speaking directly to the employee is usually necessary, and framing the issue around a business problem—not a personal problem—is the way to go. Let the employee know how their behavior, whether it’s smoking, not bathing, or wearing too much perfume or after shave, is affecting their career, their fellow employees, and the business.

Increase Productivity through Better Employee Communication

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Even as the economy shows signs of strengthening, many companies haven’t yet seen business rebound. They still need to do more with fewer employees. Perhaps you’re a hiring manager or business owner who is not able to begin hiring—but needs to keep existing employees motivated and more productive.

You might be thinking, “Haven’t I analyzed productivity enough over the last couple of years?” Perhaps you think there is no way to ask for more efficiency from overworked employees. What if you want to give them a break without affecting productivity? And you know you can’t hire more staff just yet. What to do?

Analyze Again

One answer is the one you might not want to hear: start at the top and analyze your business again. Look at your processes and procedures with a fresh eye—not an easy task, id it? So, why not get some help from the people on the front line? Seek input through an employee survey. Solicit their ideas for increased efficiency.

Fewer Steps, More Efficiency

If yours is a production-based business, efficiency can make or break it. Again, start with your front-line employees—like Mike, your shipping clerk. Look at Mike’s flow and setup. How many steps does each task take? Which can be eliminated or streamlined? How can Mike reduce travel time required for his job requirements? The higher the number of steps his feet take, the more time and energy he’s wasting. Encourage Mike to work with you to redesign his work station, eliminate wasted time and materials, or redistribute his tasks to others, if that makes more sense.

Decrease the Layers of Authority

If your business is sales-related, listen to your phone operators. How can they better balance customer service with efficiency? Are they wasting time waiting for approvals for services they are not authorized to give? Can you empower customer service staff to take care of issues on their own level, decreasing the layers required to handle a problem?

Be an Undercover Boss

Not sure if these areas are problems in your company? Your employees do! So ask them. Spend time with them. Get out of the office and shadow a few employees for a day. Take a cue from the new reality show “Undercover Boss,” where CEOs go undercover in their own companies, working alongside the lowest-level employees—and learning how their businesses really work.

Employees often follow procedures they are trained in, whether or not they are the most efficient use of their time. They do what is expected. But when given the chance to change things, many will jump at the opportunity to contribute to an improved workflow.

Give Mike a Promotion

Perhaps your frontline employees, like Mike, are capable of taking on some management duties. If you’ve downsized your management team, it may be that they already are—and if that’s the case, recognize them for it. Sometimes a change in title helps employees shine in ways you didn’t expect—and it can be real morale booster, too. So make Mike the Shipping Manager if he deserves it!

Talk to Your Staff

As with most management challenges, the key to increasing productivity lies in staff communication. Talk to your workers, learn how they do their jobs every day, and solicit their ideas for improvement. If they are willing to take on more responsibility, start on a plan to make that happen. And if they are at the point where another task will send them out the door—you need to know before it happens.

Employment Update

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

For the third month in a row, the private sector added jobs in April, according to a report from ADP. Jobs increased by 32,000 from March. March’s number was revised as well—and the news is even better: rather than a loss of 23,000 jobs, there was an increase of 19,000.

With employment from January 2010 to February 2010 increasing by 3,000, April’s numbers seal three straight months of increases. And this Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its jobs report for April; analysts predict total job growth (pubic and private sectors) will be between 180,000 and 189,000. (March’s increase was reported at 162,000, which will be adjusted on Friday’s report.)

April’s expected increase will include the temporary jobs added by the U.S. Census Bureau. Still, the manufacturing sector is expected to add about 29,000, and service sector about 50,000 in Friday’s report.

Another bit of good news is that the Consumer Confidence Index increased to 57.9, 18 points higher than April 2009, and 5 points higher than just a week prior. The Conference Boar Consumer Research Center, which issues the Index, reports the reading is higher than it’s been since September of 2008 because consumers’ concerns about business and job markets are easing. The Conference Board also reports that online job openings advertised in April jumped to 4.15 million, an increase of 222,700 over March.

So hiring freezes may be starting to thaw. What about the employees who managed to keep their jobs throughout the economic downturn? How are they faring?

There are indications that wage freezes are starting to hit the road, too. The Wall Street Journal reports that large employers like BASF, the chemical company, and Rockwell Collins, an aviation electronics firm, are distributing raises to their employees. Retaining key employees, rather than cutting staff, has become the priority.

BASF was scheduled to pay out raises in April, but decided to do it a month earlier—and employee morale was instantly improved. Even the buzz surrounding the early raise announcement helped loyalty and allowed employees to recommit to the company.

And employers might soon need that commitment from their people. A January survey by Towers Watson showed that 15% of respondents were having difficulty keeping their best talent. Employers are seeing more poaching and defections of key employees. One way to keep them from going is to increase salary—and that’s what is happening. AT&T gave 100,000 managers significant raises in November of 2009—four months ahead of the rest of their employees.

We will report on Friday’s job numbers as soon as they are announced, so check back!

Effective Leaders know that People Come Before Profit

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

When you’re an owner or in charge of a company, there are so many individual issues to worry about—sometimes it’s a wonder you can think at all. Is it true that the most important thing to worry about is profit—for without it, you don’t have a business at all?

Focusing on profits blinds some managers and business owners to the real purpose of business, which is people. After all, no matter what business you are in, it exists to sell a product or service to people; it needs great people to keep it running smoothly, and having happy people as employees and customers makes it all worth doing.

A good team makes a manager’s job easier—but leading them effectively takes time and effort. And good leaders know that putting profits before employees is a recipe for disaster. No matter what size business you’re running, from a team of three to three hundred, you can’t reach goals and become a successful company by yourself. But how does a manger create a tight, efficient and effective team of employees?

Find the people who work best for you and with your other team members. Hire for skills, sure, but skills alone won’t make up for a lousy attitude. Passion and drive can’t be taught, so look for those attributes along with a stellar set of skills. Personality differences help make a stronger, more diverse team. But it’s not a good idea to bring polar opposite strong personalities into the same team. Knowing your team members well and hiring for compatibility will help ensure a winning team.

Don’t be afraid of conflict. Conflict helps employees sort out leadership roles, and move toward a tighter-fitting, focused group dynamic. But conflicts must be worked out or your teams will be completely ineffective.

Watch the rule-makers. Let your team leaders set the rules for the group—to a certain extent. Nobody wants a bully at work, but employees with natural leadership qualities will find ways to make the team work most efficiently. Working together pleasantly is a nice by-product of great leadership. If you start hearing complaints about rules that aren’t working for everyone, address them right away to avoid losing productivity.

When you have passionate, driven individuals, clear and focused leadership, and healthy doses of well-managed conflict, you have the beginnings of a great team of employees—and the potential for great profits, too!