What I have learned in this class

This course has taught me that employees are the greatest asset of a company. It is employees that give companies competitive advantage, especially nowadays when products and services can be relatively easily copied by competitors.  Therefore, if a company wants to grow and be innovative, employee development is extremely important.  Giving employees a large number of training and learning opportunities will not only help employees develop new skills, but also will create an exciting, and at the same time challenging, environment, which in turn will help increase employee retention levels. There is nothing more motivating than to see that the company values you and believes in your abilities.

      I have also learned that though compensation is, without a question, an important aspect of employment, employee benefits play a big role in job satisfaction as well. In addition, as a workforce becomes more and more diverse, a one-size-fits-all approach to benefits is no longer effective. It is important to offer employees benefits that will meet their needs at their present stages of life.

     It was great to learn about the legal aspect of Human Resources. Before the class I had a very limited knowledge of the laws pertaining to work environment and now I can definitively say that I have a better understanding of them and have learned about some laws that I had not even heard of before (for example, ERISA and COBRA).

     I feel that the information that I learned in this class will definitely help me in my work life.  

Improving employee-management relations

     Conflicts between employees and management are not uncommon in the workplace; in fact, they are quite frequent.  Managers often complain about poor performance and bad attitudes of employees and employees, in their turn, blame all problems on bad management. It looks like both of the parties might be right because problems are rarely caused only by a single party. Though it is true that lazy and difficult employees do indeed exist and can cause a lot of trouble, managers often fail to acknowledge their role in the problem.  Managers frequently put the entire responsibility for this or that issue on employees and forget or don’t want to assess their own actions and how they might have contributed to the situation. A research conducted by National Bureau of Economic Research shows that management does matter and can have both positive and negative effects on employees’ attitudes and performance.  The research found that companies where employees feel that they are treated fairly, respected, adequately compensated, empowered, and that their opinions are valued had better productivity and lower turnover than companies with unhappy employees.  Ensuring a happy and trusting work environment for employees will help the company reduce the number of conflicts, complaints and grievances.  In order to improve the relationship with employees, management might take the following steps:

-accept responsibility for your part in the problem instead of trying to find a scapegoat.

-assess company’s culture by surveying employees to determine employees’ attitudes to various aspect of their work. Compare the results of a survey to organizational values and see if there are any gaps that need to be bridged.

-Lead by example. It is important to show employees that people of authority have to adhere to the same standards and rules, that rules are the same for everybody and that there are no exceptions.

-Implementing open-door policy. It will give employees access to more information, as well as the opportunity to share their ideas and concerns with management.

     These steps will help to create a happier and more trusting work environment, which will help to improve employee-management relations.

 Articles used: What's with the attitude? Improving employee-manager relations; How to improve employee & management relations?; Improve your manager-employee relations.

Employee Wellness Programs

     Employee wellness programs can provide great benefits to both employees and employers. Wellness programs show employees that a company cares about their health and the health of their families, which can result in increased morale, lower turnover and improved productivity. By encouraging employees to become healthier, employers can reduce the cost of health care and diminish the number of health-related absences. Unfortunately, employers are often unwilling to implement any additional employee benefit programs because of the high costs associated with them. However, wellness programs don’t have to be very expensive. There are many small effective steps an employer can take to promote wellness at the workplace: providing healthy snacks for meetings; offering on-site flu shots; starting a pedometer challenge and offering prizes to the winners; giving bonuses to employees who quit smoking; reminding employees to have regular check-ups for cancer and other diseases.

      In order to spend the limited money wisely, it is important to assess what needs of employees are the most critical and therefore should be addressed first. Need assessment can be done by asking employees to fill out a Health Risk Appraisal form or by conducting a survey asking employees what kinds of health initiatives will be the most valuable to them.  It is also important to ensure that employees buy into the program and are willing to participate in it. As with any initiative, the best way to do that is to lead by example. The management should show that it is serious about the initiative and is committed to it.

     After the wellness program is designed and implemented, it is important to evaluate how successful it is. The obvious indicator of success is the level of participation of employees.   An employer can also conduct a survey on how satisfied employees are with the program.  Additionally, measuring productivity levels and absenteeism rates can also provide valuable information about the overall success of the program. 

Articles used: How to build a wellness program; 8 ways to promote wellness at the workplace .

Picture from: http://h2ksports.com/corporatewellness

Performance-based incentives

     Annual raises that are not based on performance usually breed the feeling of entitlement in employees. Employees don’t feel motivated to be more productive because they know that they will get their raises no matter what.  However, many employers grow increasingly unwilling to give raises based on the number of years served, as they want to see that an employee actually contributes to the growth and profitability of an organization. As a result, the concept of “pay for performance” becomes more and more popular among employers nowadays.  According to research, employees usually have positive attitudes toward performance-based programs because they are frequently perceived as being fair. If implemented correctly, this program can significantly increase productivity and give employees a feeling of shared responsibility. In addition, merit pay programs help to differentiate between high and low performers and reward those who really earned it. This approach will help the company to retain top-notch employees and ensure that they will continue their extraordinary performance.  Knowing that average or below- average employees have received the same pay increase has a profound negative effect on the motivation of top performers. The merit pay should also be of a significant value to employees in order for it to have any motivational effect. Some studies show that an effective merit increase should be at least 7 percent.

     However, performance-based pay programs do not always produce positive results.  Sometimes the performance of employees may suffer because of factors that are out of their control, for example delivery of necessary parts. Additionally, merit-based incentives may motivate employees to focus on achieving rewards by any means possible, rather than on what is good for a company. That is exactly what happened at Hewlett-Packard. When its pay for performance program was established, teams often refused to admit employees who were perceived as less knowledgeable and qualified. This led to bigger and bigger differences among the teams, and the transfer of knowledge and learning across the teams was significantly reduced.

     Performance based incentives can lead to increased productivity and motivation of employees; however, they should be implemented very carefully in order to avoid potentially negative situations.

Articles used: Performance-based salaries don't always pay off; The right way to pay; Using merit pay to motivate employees; Merit pay rewards performance

Motivating employees without spending a lot of money

     With economic recession in place the companies are forced to reduce their expenses as much as possible.  Labor costs typically comprise a significant portion of a company’s expenses, and therefore it is no surprise that employees are usually the first ones to be affected by budgetary cuts.  Bonuses, raises and other financial compensations dissipate quickly in times of financial distress.  As a result many companies face a challenge of how to reward and motivate their employees while having a very limited or nonexistent budget.  Research shows that money is not the only motivator, and that non-monetary rewards are also of great value to employees. They can increase the loyalty, commitment, productivity, morale and motivation of the employees at little or no cost to the employer. Giving employees an opportunity to grow, learn and develop their skills is a great way to show employees that the company appreciates them.  Recognition is probably the most sought after non-monetary reward in the workplace.  There is no better way to motivate an employee to sustain quality work than to praise him/her.  Sometimes even simply saying “thank you” can go a long way.  Giving an employee more responsibilities or more challenging tasks can be very flattering.  As more and more people struggle with work-life balance, flexible schedules and additional days off can make it easier for employees to find the proper mix.   

     Some companies come up with even more creative ways to make their workforce happy.  The Coaching Institute decided to make work more fun and asked employees to bring in a baby picture, post it on a wall and then have everyone guess who is who.  According to the president of the company, productivity increased by 20 percent that week.  Some companies reserve the best parking spot for employees who have done an outstanding job.  Echo Media Group implemented a no-shoe policy to make their employees feel at home.

     As we can see, motivating employees does not always require spending a lot of money, just a little bit of creativity. 

Articles used: How to reward employees on a budget; 25 ways to reward employees

How would you move mount Fuji?

 

     Innovation and creativity are probably the most important determinants of a company’s success or failure in today’s increasingly competitive business world. In order for a company to stay on the cutting edge, it has to continuously come up with new ideas, products and services that none of its competitors can offer to the customers. It is especially true of technology companies, because of the frequency of technological breakthroughs and the speed with which technology becomes outdated. Because of the significance creativity plays in the success of today’s organizations, more and more companies are looking for new ways to identify and select the most innovative employees that will help the company stay competitive.  

     Increasingly, employers turn their attention to unusual interview questions as a way to assess how well the candidate acts when faced with an unexpected situation (for example, Why are manhole covers round?). These interview questions give an employer an opportunity to reveal important characteristics of a candidate: creativity, sense of humor, the ability to think on one's feet and remain poised in times of stress. The candidates usually come prepared for traditional interviews with questions about strengths and weaknesses, how their supervisor would describe them and so forth. Thanks to the Internet and the plethora of information that it provides to job-seekers about job interviews, the candidates can easily learn and rehearse the best answers.  When it comes to the unusual interview questions, there is no way a candidate can prepare for them and as a result an employer gets an invaluable opportunity to assess the candidate’s analytical skills. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions; it is the thought process that matters. The employers believe that these types of questions predict the future performance better than questions about goals and accomplishments. One of the potential problems that I see with that approach is that the candidates are usually very nervous and tense during the interviews, and asking tough unexpected questions will only increase the stress level for them. If the candidate was not able to answer the question in a creative manner because the nerves got the best of him/her, it does not necessarily mean that the person is not creative or innovative in general.  As a result the company may pass on a potentially talented employee. 

  

Questions that Microsoft, Google and Yahoo used in their interview process:

-How do they make M&Ms?

-How would you weigh an airplane without a scale?

-How many golf balls can you fit into a school bus?

-How many times a day do a clock’s hands overlap?

-How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

-You are shrunk to a height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

-You need to check that your friend, Bob, has your correct phone number, but you cannot ask him directly. You must write a question on a card and give it to Eve who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?

Articles used: How would you design Bill Gate's Bathroom?;  Unusual Job Interview Questions Help Select the Best

Orientations don't have to be boring

Traditional new employee orientations are usually characterized by seemingly endless paperwork and overwhelming amount of information about policies and benefits. Unfortunately, this approach lacks personal touch and does little to socialize a new hire into the company’s culture and make him/her feel welcomed.

     It is important to make new hires productive as fast as possible and the best way to do it is to speed up the assimilation process by engaging new employees in activities that reflect the company’s culture and create an instant connection between them and their new employer. Some companies prefer to send an employee handbook ahead of time in order to avoid an information overload on the first day of work. They also send all the legal paperwork in advance to make the first day less about filling out the papers and more about making a new employee a part of the organization. More and more companies find increasingly creative approaches to orientations. For example, in CityMax.com new employees always start on Fridays, when the pace of work slows down and everyone has the chance to get to know a new employee. New employees are welcomed with balloons, streamers and a welcome card from the whole staff. New hires of Gentle Giant Moving Company are required to run the stairs of a Boston stadium.  This helps the company not only test their stamina, but also show new hires that they are expected "to push themselves". After that the runners enjoy a meal while listening to the orientation speech of the CEO. All new employees of Foot Levelers have to watch a movie “Rudy” as a part of their orientation. After a movie there is a detailed discussion about what made Rudy successful and how these practices can be applied at everyday work.  From the early start employees learn that they need to stay focused on the task at hand, never give up and do everything in their power to solve problems.

     The creative approaches to orientation, like above mentioned, can make the process of assimilation of new employees much faster and much more effective compared to traditional orientations. 

Gentle Giant Moving Company Challenge:

Articles used: Bizarre Hiring Rituals; How to build an onboarding plan for a new hire