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Employee Recognition and Communication – over the next few weeks I will be posting on Effective Communications in the workplace!
I hear it at least once a week, “Why should I do anything special for my employee for doing the job they are supposed to do to receive their paycheck?”
How well your employees perform is based mostly on how well you communicate your expectations. We all like to firmly believe we are great communicators, but the truth is that very few actually communicate effectively.
Despite the age old statement of “no news is good news” is exactly what you do not want to have happen in your organization. Employees want to be acknowledged verbally – at least- when they are meeting your expectations.
Is one of your employees doing an exceptional job of meeting your expectations? Acknowledge them publicly! You will be amazed at how many of your employees will start doing the same thing so they get recognized.
Note this does not need to be monetary awards….the power of words are priceless. Something as simple as “wow, great job on that Ramsey project” or “Bob, I really appreciate the extra hours on meeting the deadline and coming in under budgeted hours”
Remember, you are not rewarding them for doing their job….you are acknowledging your employees for doing their job well!
Do you feel like your organization could use some help with communication? Give us a call for an assessment.
Employees will separate from your employment for a number of reasons: Resignation, Termination and Lay-off. If it is a termination and they attempt to get you to pay them more to stay, I’m not a fan of considering this option. If they are not happy….let them go. All the money in the world is not going to change their happiness level.
You should have a plan for exiting your employees. Here are a few thoughts to consider:
When the exit of an employee is unexpected….do you have a plan?
How will you immediately take back company property; i.e. keys, laptops, cell phones, building swipe cards, and very importantly removing their access to computer files. etc. Who is responsible for these items?
If an employee quits and provides one or two-weeks notice- what are the pros and cons of letting them work that time?
Pros – If needed, gives you the chance to ensure you have pulled any critical data that is either in their head, to understand their files, either paper or computer and to allow you to transition any open-ended projects.
Cons –
An employee that is quitting can cause disruption in the workplace. Often times they are spending more time discussing with co-workers “how wonderful their new employer is and perhaps those employees should considering applying with that company” or worse they are talking about the new employer while bad-mouthing your organization.
Are you concerned the employee is in a position to steal critical data or inventory?
Are they physically there, but mentally already checked out?
Sometimes is it in the best interest of everyone, to pay the employee through the week and immediately escort them out the door.
Do you have concerns that you are not prepared for these events? HR Solutions, LLC is just a phone call away and we can either come in to assist or advise you over the phone.
Are you feeling the pinch from having the wrong employees in the right job?
Did you hire someone into a position to help in an emergency and now you don’t know what to do with them since the emergency is over?
Did you know HRSolutions, LLC can help with an audit of your employee(s) skills sets, assess and write a performance management plan for an employee, or evaluate a termination need?
Picture this: You have an employee who has been with you since the beginning of your business. He/she, has always been a solid employee; dependable, loyal, a good manager and a solid worker.
Now your business is growing. You are introducing different lines/type of work, new technology and larger staff to manage and this employee is starting to struggle. Struggling with all of these changes and is just not being successful. What to do now?
There are a couple of important steps to consider when re-evaluating employee performance:
Document and be specific? Document the specific needs and how they are and aren’t being met.
Set up structured and specific coaching so both you and the employee understand if this person has the potential for being successful.
Be sure to encourage conversations with the employee about what they think. It is not unusual in this situation to find out the employee is very unhappy in the position but has been loyal to you for so long they don’t want to “abandon” you and the business.
Schedule regular follow-up meetings to discuss progress or decisions by either you or the employee. It may (and I use that word cautiously) feasible to move the employee into a lower-level position. I say cautiously because this option is not always successful; the employee may struggle with not being “in charge” or the employees, previous subordinates, may not be accepting.
At least once a week we receive a call that goes like this “Moral is really bad – what should I do?”
Let me start my assuring you there is not one single answer to a moral issue. Typically, we like to start by coming in and casually talking to the employees. Slowly, we can start to piece together what is REALLY going on in the workplace. Often times it comes down to one or two employees who are unhappy and want to bring everyone down to their level but constantly complaining. Other things to consider and work on changing:
Have you changed the way you interact with your employees? Are you terser, short with your conversation or maybe just not interacting with them as much.
Communications consistently show up in HR surveys as the number one issue making employees unhappy. We consistently see both positive and negative information being passed to employees in a counter-productive manner. You may think you are putting a positive spin on an announcement but unfortunately, we typically see the opposite happens.
Have you recently terminated an employee with no explanation to the rest of the staff?
Has there been less work and they don’t know why?
There are so many reasons why moral could be down in your organization. Not sure where to begin on fixing the problem? Give us a call, we have many years of experience with this problem and can offer guidance.
Employment law is a constantly changing field and your policies and practices must stay current to be compliant with those legal changes. Although a complete HR Audit is critical to all of your polices and practices, many lawsuits can be traced to four key practices in employment areas:
Do performance evaluators receive proper training?
Does your organization ensure performance evaluation changes have proper documentation?
Employee Discipline
As part of your Employee Handbook, is there a standardized disciplinary system? What do you do to ensure it is followed consistently?
Prior to an employee discipline action, how do you ensure the violation has been properly investigated?
Terminations
Has the termination decision been compared to other terminations?
Can you assure the termination is not a retaliation?
Are you comfortable that you have proper termination documentation?
The best way to avoid potential employee lawsuits is to conduct a regular audit – HR Solutions, suggests at least every 2 years an audit of all of your policies and practices should be conducted.
Give us a call at 443-356-4352 if you are concerned that you might need a Human Resource Audit.
The topic of conversation this week seems to be “Employee Smoke Breaks”.We are consistently hearing any of the following:
My employees walk in the front door, sign in and immediately go out the back door for a smoke break.
Employees are taking 6 and 7 smoke breaks a day.
Employees who don’t take smoke breaks are questioning why the smokers get so many breaks.
How many breaks do I have to give employees?
On all of the above, you have to ask yourself the questions, “What is the message I am sending to the rest of the employees?”In the state of Maryland, employers do not have to provide any breaks.Yes, I will say that again, “in the state of Maryland, employers do not have to provide any breaks.”On the other hand, we think it is important to productivity to allow your employees a few minutes away from their work area to refresh.
If your employees are coming in the front door, signing in, getting their coffee and/or heating up their breakfast and then walking out the door again to have a smoke, you need to bring this to a screeching halt.You either need to re-enforce your attendance and punctuality policy or you need to establish one.This is also considering that you have a meal and break policy and are re-enforcing that one too.
Having the conversation with a Gossiping Employee.First and foremost, it is important to note:If you don’t address these workers, your best people will leave. Gossipers are poison to an environment and will scare other employees with their falsehoods.
Manager hate having these conversation themost, I’m not sure why, as these are the employees most likely have the worst impact on morale and productivity.
Gossipers – Be sure to have a policy that states this behavior will not be tolerated and treat it as a disciplinary issue.
Be sure to reinforce this policy in groups, so everyone hears the same message – give examples of how disruptive and hurtful gossip can be to co-workers.
Ensure you're giving solid, clear communications about the work place. Gossip starts because employees are not given enough information to make clear decisions. If your organization is going through a rough financial patch, have open group conversations; ask the employees what ideas they have to cut costs.
Today I thought we would talk about the Conversation of Performance Reviews!They come around every year and if you have a plan for the discussion, it should be a positive interaction.Here are some key points:
Make this conversation useful – it is an opportunity for your employee to grow
Be honest, but kind – remember, if you are not being honest with the employee you are not helping anyone. Remind them that the honesty is to help them grow.
Be specific!
Example:Don’t say “you are not meeting production goals”, instead say “our production goals are 130 units per day, you are doing 98 – What do you think you could do to improve that number?”
Make sure you discuss how you will help the employee improve and specifically how often you will meet to discuss progress.
Be sure to have the above specific conversations about the whole year, not just what they need to improve from the past few weeks or months.
Focus on behavior and results.
Give the employee time to absorb your comments and then to comment.
Don’t allow the employee to bring other employee’s into the conversation, remind them you are there to discuss their specific performance.
Be sure to end the conversation with positive re-enforcement on the things they are doing well.
Set up a specific time and date within 30 days to review the progress.
Things to avoid:
Hostile Questions “Why did you do that?” Ask behavioral type questions.
Doing all the talking.Allow the employee time to talk about specific points.
Over the next couple of weeks I want to focus on the “Employee Performance or Termination Conversations” for which every manager seems to struggle.
This week we start with the basics… Solid Employee Communcations!
Unless you are laying employees off, there is a way to put a positive spin on almost every employee conversation. This is a critical aspect of these meetings.
No matter if you are discussing performance, attendance, attitude, lateness complaints etc.,
Always bring the employee away from the work area to have the discussion privately.
Be sure your emotions are not running high! If so, come back to this later in the day or the next morning.
Speak calmly and with thought. Do not rant. Do not under any circumstances raise your voice. Remember, the minute you start yelling you have lost control of the meeting.
State the issue and give your employee the chance to speak.
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