Employee Relations Articles

Anyone who’s seen the hit TV show “The Office” knows that jokes about bad managers have always been good fun. While most managers couldn’t be as bad as the TV versions if they tried, the truth is there are a lot of managers out there that could do a much better job.

In a shaky economy, shoring up the optimism of your workforce may seem like a monumental task. This is especially true when there is simply no room in your company’s budget for monetary incentives and rewards. However, there are a number of ways to increase employee motivation with minimal funding. These low cost methods require a serious commitment at the highest levels of your organization.

In today’s business world, success requires more than simply providing a defect-free product to a waiting consumer. To stay competitive, a company must have an in-depth understanding of performance management. This includes evaluating each employee and department to find areas ripe for improvement. Productivity and quality are measured based on more than just net profit. The financial aspect of a business strategy is often the easiest to measure, but other underlying factors can play just as big a role in a company’s viability.

Retention problems during downsizing can ambush a company if it is not prepared. Many businesses use hiring freezes to streamline their organization. Such a strategy reduces workforce size without the need for unpleasant layoffs. Of course, this can work a little too well if your best employees start quitting along with everyone else.  The goal of a reduction in force should be to trim the less productive areas and leave the core intact. However, when smart people sense that a company is having trouble, they are likely to start looking for other employment options.

Small businesses face a number of compliance challenges that can result in errors and legal liability. Becoming aware of these potential problems and taking steps to address them is important. Although some corrective measures may be taken immediately, others are ongoing processes that will take time to fully develop. Here are some areas to review in HR so that future difficulties will be minimized.

The last decade has generated incredible improvements in technology and all of us have seen, first hand, how these improvements can impact our customers and corporations alike. What many HR managers have learned lately, though, is that technology can also greatly improve employee morale, communication and data integrity through the use of employee self service utilities or ESS.

The health and well being of your workforce is a major factor in overall morale. People who are stressed out, in poor physical shape, and nutritionally deprived are not going to be able to do their best at any job. Employers may think that lifestyle is about personal choices that have nothing to do with the workplace. However, full time employees often spend about half of their waking hours on the clock. This means that what they do at work is their lifestyle to a large extent. Wellness initiatives that boost physical and mental health aren’t a waste of resources.

Employee engagement may seem like a fuzzy concept until you start looking at how it actually affects your organization. Today’s video takes a close look at the scale of the problem and the danger of ignoring this trend. A shockingly high percentage of your workforce may be burnt out, dissatisfied, or looking for another job right now. Compare this with your image of an ideal worker who is committed to your company’s goals. You can guess which type of person is going to be more productive.

Utilizing technology to its fullest capacity can save lots of time. However, investing in the newest system isn’t always the best decision. This is especially true when upgrading would entail significant costs for hardware, software, licensing, maintenance, and administration. In such circumstances it is a good idea to look at the benefits of staying with what you have. Small companies can sometimes get by using less modern techniques for getting things done.

Ensuring compliance can be one of the most thankless responsibilities of an HR professional. First, you have to learn what all the rules are. Then you have to stay up to date with the never ending stream of changes and updates. Next, you have to translate all the legalese into terms your workforce can understand (while still retaining the original meaning). After this, you have to set up the system of consequences. Then you have to hand it all off to department managers to implement and hope they don’t mess it up.