EVERY ORGANIZATION SHOULD HAVE HR POLICIES

To obtain a NO COST, NO OBLIGATION list of Trinity’s suggested policies, simply e mail Trinity at info@TrinityHR.net.

Human Resource policies are the formal rules and guidelines by which businesses operate. When organized and disseminated in an easily used form, these policies can serve to help:

  • Prevent (or at least reduce) misunderstandings between employees and employers about their rights and obligations in the work place.
  • Protect the company from monetary awards stemming from costly, time consuming and energy sapping litigation or administrative rulings

When issues concerning employee rights and company policies come before federal and state courts or regulatory agencies, these bodies:

  • Commonly consider that the company’s Human Resources policies, whether written or verbal, are a part of an employment agreement between the employee and the company
  • Typically look to ensure that employees have been treated in a fair and consistent manner– which the existence and uniform application of written policies can help to establish

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arrow-bullet WITHOUT CLEARLY WRITTEN POLICIES, YOUR COMPANY IS AT A DISTINCT DISADVANTAGE!

It is easy, especially for a small or new business owner, to focus on the other important business issues and thus fail to recognize the value of having written Human Resources policies in place.

  • In some cases, HR policies are not in place because the organization lacks the in-house expertise to properly prepare them.

If your organization needs help in developing HR policies, Trinity’s consultants can create customized or generic policies for you quickly and economically.

Posted in HR Management

360 Degree Assessments: Part 2-Why and How Do These Assessments Work?

As pointed out in Part 1 of the 360 degree (also known as a multi-rater assessment or feedback) blog, these assessments have rightfully gained popularity. The increase in their use has been especially significant during the past years. Numerous studies point to their effectiveness in:

  • Improving performance of assessed individuals
  • Boosting employee satisfaction – on the part of individuals assessed and as well as those in their work circle
  • Decreasing turnover among the subordinates of managers who have undergone assessment

Why and How Does 360 Degree Feedback Work? Psychologists point out that goal achievement is central to our positive self-concept and to our level of self-esteem. In general, 360s work because individuals see a gap between their feedback ratings and the desired goal. As a result, they are generally motivated to work to reduce the gap as a way of maintaining a positive sense of self-esteem. Clearly, not to all individuals will improve their performance simply because they have received feedback, and certainly not all feedback is effective in improving performance. The reality is that some employees are more predisposed to performance improvement than others. Improvements in performance are most likely to occur when the following occurs:

1. The feedback given clearly indicates that change is necessary. 2. The person receiving the feedback has receptivity and thus recognizes the need for change. 3. The organization and the person create an appropriate action plan for behavioral change. 4. The assessed person believes the action plan is achievable and she/he has the support of the organization. 5. The organization regularly provides constructive feedback, which should include both identification of areas of improvement and of areas still needing improvement. 6. The organization consistently demonstrates its support—often by engaging an experienced coach from outside the organization. There are several attributes of the feedback that have the impact on the degree to which individuals listen to and act upon the feedback they receive. I refer to these attributes by the acronym “C-STAR”:

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  • Clarity—the data is presented in an easy to understand manner and format (typically, in text and graphical form)
  • Specificity—the data is specific enough to be acted upon
  • Timeliness—the data is provided within a reasonable time frame after it was collected
  • Authenticity—the data is perceived as being an authentic and this accurate set of perceptions by others
      Authenticity can be greatly enhanced when the assessment is performed by and the results presented an independent party from outside the organization.
  • Relevancy—the data is tied to behavioral factors that are important to the individual’s success in their role

Posted in Organizational & People Development

360 Degree (Multi-Rater) Assessments: Part 1- What Are They and How Widely Are They Used?

360-degree assessments, also known as a multi-rater feedback or assessment is feedback that comes from members of an employee’s immediate work circle. Almost always 360-degree feedback will include direct feedback from four perspectives:

1. Subordinates
2. Peers (colleagues)
3. Immediate supervisor
4. self-evaluation.

The results from a 360-degree evaluation are most effective when used by the organization to work with the person receiving the feedback to plan and map specific paths in their development. In some instances, results are also used by organizations in making administrative decisions related to pay and promotions, rather than merely for development purposes.

The use of 360 degree assessments/feedback has steadily increased in popularity. Today, studies suggest that over one-third of U.S. companies use some type of this tool. Some sources claim that close to 90% of all Fortune 500 firms use this tool, which further supports the belief that this is an effective way to achieve employee development, typically at the manager or executive level.

Several studies indicate that a primary factor as to why the use of 360-degree feedback helps to improve employee performance is because it helps the evaluated see different perspectives of their performance. Studies show that 360 degree assessments have proven to be helpful by virtue of being predictive of future performance.

Do 360 Degree (also known as Multi-Rater) Assessments Really Work?

360 degree or multi-rater assessments have rightfully gained popularity during the past decade. Numerous studies point to their effectiveness in:

  • improving performance
  • boosting employee satisfaction
  • creating engagement at work, and
  • decreasing subordinate turnover.

Used appropriately, they can provide individuals with insights about their performance and behavior from the viewpoints of their colleagues, subordinates, and leader

Why 360s Work
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Goal achievement is central to our positive self-concept and self-esteem. In general, a 360 works because when individuals see a gap between their feedback ratings and the desired goal, they generally work to reduce the gap as a way of maintaining a positive sense of self-esteem.

How 360 Assessments Work
It’s important to consider under what circumstances it does work and how to make its deployment as effective as possible. Not all individuals will improve their performance simply because they have received feedback, and not all feedback is effective in improving performance. But generally speaking, when an individual is faced with a gap between the goal and the current reality they will seek to narrow the gap by working harder or trying to renegotiate the goal. The truth is that some employees are more predisposed to performance improvement than others. Improvements in performance are most likely to occur when

  • The feedback given clearly indicates that change is necessary
  • The person receiving the feedback has a positive feedback orientation
  • Individuals perceive the need to change the behavior
  • Individuals believe the change is doable
  • Individuals set appropriate goals to change the behavior
  • The individual takes actions that lead to performance improvement

There are several characteristics that can influence the degree to which individuals listen to and act upon the feedback they receive.These include

  • Relevancy—the data is tied to factors that are important to the individual’s and their role
  • Accuracy—the data is presented without apparent mistakes
  • Timeliness—the data is provided within a reasonable time frame after it was collected
  • Clarity—the data is presented in plain and clear terms
  • Specificity—the data is specific enough to be acted upon

Feedback must be relevant to the individual and the goal, accurate in order to build trust and support behavior improvement, timely in order to influence behavior change in a meaningful way, specific enough to guide behavior change, and easy to understand so that it can be acted upon.

Posted in Organizational & People Development

1-ON-1 MEETINGS WITH YOUR DIRECT REPORT STAFF

How often are you meeting individually with your direct report staff? Are you discussing the right topics?

In a survey conducted by Training magazine and The Ken Blanchard Companies®, more than 700 subscribers of Training magazine were polled to learn about their experiences having one-on-one meetings with their managers.

  •  Readers were asked what they wanted out of their meetings and how that compared to what was really happening.

This research gives you an important insight how effective into your meetings with your direct staff are in aligning with the needs of your staff.

The survey results show the following:

1. How often do managers & employees actually meet?

    • Only 34% meet once a week
    • Only 73% meet once a month

2. How often do employees want to meet with their manager?

    • 44% want to do so at least once per week
    • 89% want to meet at least monthly

3. Does gender impact how often do employees want to meet with their manager?
Not surprising, gender does matter. What is surprising is which gender wants to meet more frequently—males!

    • Weekly – 40% of women, while 52% of men want to meet at least weekly.
    • Monthly – 89% of women, while 92% of men want to meet at least monthly

4. How long do employees want the meeting to be?

    • 65% say the meeting should be for 30 to 60 minutes.

5. What do employees want the agenda to include?

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Topic Desire to Discuss Actually Discuss Rarely or Never Discuss
Goal Setting 70% 36% 28%
Goal Review 73% 47% 26%
Performance Feedback 67% 29% 36%
Colleague Problems 64% 8% N/A
Problem Solving 64% 57% 19%
Ask for Support 63% 49% 18%

 

Posted in Organizational & People Development

Basics of an HR Audit

How sure are you that your company is in compliance with the myriad of complex HR laws & regulations with which it has to comply? The question is an important one given three facts:

  • The government continues to extend its reach into business activities.
  • The number of employee administrative agency complaints and employment related lawsuits continues to increase.
  • The fines and penalties to which youThe energy buy cheap cialis could be good, or it could also be a stand-alone disorder. could be subjected can be financially burdening.

Here is a summary of what a basic HR audit should include:

  1. 1. Company policies
  2.  Recruitment and selection practices
  3. Compensation and payroll practices to determine compliance with the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act:
    • Especially the provisions related to exempt and non-exempt employee classification and the implications for overtime payment
  4. Benefit plans, including:
    • ERISA
    • COBRA
    • FMLA
  5. Record keeping requirements
  6. Posting of required notices

Posted in HR Legal & Compliance

The Importance of Humility

Be confident, but have an attitude of humility. The key is to maintain the proper balance between the two.

In my corporate HR career, I had the privilege of being a client of Ken Blanchard Consulting. Ken is a renowned management guru and a best-selling author of many books, including “The One Minute Manager”. One of the words of wisdom I learned from this experience is “None of us is as smart as all of us”.

On the subject of humility, noted author Jim Collins included the following poignant story in his best-selling book “Good to Great”:

A leader’s mezzanine office contained both a nice size window overlooking the factory floor and a large mirror. Whenever a guest would praise the leader for a business accomplishment, he would direct the admirer’s attention to the window stating, “I can’t take the credit; see all those great people down there; they’re the ones who made this happen.” On the other hand, whenever things weren’t going so well, he would look in the mirror.

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Blanchard’s and Collins’ words provide us with a healthy dose of reality when we get too puffed up and start to think more highly of ourselves than we should.

 

Posted in Strategy, Management & Leadership

IMPROVING ACCOUNTABILITY

In a typical meeting, people share several ideas, goals and plans, but we’re all too familiar with what often happens next: nothing.

  • Days, even weeks go by, and no one brings their concepts to life.
  • Virtually no progress is made toward achieving the meeting’s goals.

When you follow up to ask everyone for an update, you often start to hear an array of responses that noticeably fit into one or more of the following excuses:

  1. Denial
  2. Blame
  3. Excuses

There are several ways to improve the accountability of your organization, and one of the quickest and easiest comes in the form of a simple two-part question that you should ask at the end of every meeting: “What are you personally going to achieve and by when?”

If you adhere to the following 6 steps carefully, more often than not you will bypass excuses for failing to take accountability (denial, blame, excuses) and employees will be left with only one choice: complete accountability.

  1. Ask the question atHere are some key reasons as to why a couple-married online cialis opacc.cv or unmarried fights over. the end of every meeting to summarize the actions required to move forward.
  2. Make sure every attendee in the meeting answers the question in front of the group.
  3. Make sure a specific date is given to the “by when?” part of your question.
    o “Next week” and “next month” are unacceptable because they are not specific enough.
  4. As each person answers their question, make note of their goals and deadlines
    o Draw a three column grid on a white board
    o Along the vertical axis, write everyone’s names. Along the horizontal axis, write “Goals” and “Deadlines.”
    o As people answer their questions, add their answers to the grid while everyone watches.)
  5. End the meeting by stating you will be emailing the summary of what everyone has agreed to.
  6. After the meeting ends, send an email (or assign someone to do so on your behalf) to the group with a summary of everyone’s goals and deadlines.

 

Posted in Organizational & People Development

How to Criticize With Tact and Diplomacy

As leaders we may choose not to use the word “criticize” and instead to substitute the word “coach” or “feedback”. However, regardless of semantics, a role that leaders cannot avoid is to point out to those who work for you when their actions, behavior, decisions, results or performance fall short.

Notice that I wrote “WHEN”…they fall short. That’s because even our best performers will occasionally fall short of our expectations. This role is uncomfortable for many leaders, so here is an approach to consider in approaching this role. Hopefully, it will not only may help you be more comfortable, but also help you to be more effective in this role:

  • What? Ask “what happened?” Don’t tell people, ask instead. Telling gives the impression that you are pre-judging without necessarily having all of the facts/information.
  • When? the best time to have this conversation is usually as soon as possible. However, if you are upset, perhaps a “cooling off” period is in order.
  • Who? Take into account what you know about the person being criticized. As individuals, each of us has a different “tolerance and acceptance” level. As Leaders, we need to know our people well enough to know who responds better to a proverbial “verbal kick in the pants” and who responds better to a proverbial “verbal arm around their shoulder”.
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  • Where? Obviuosly, where should be someplace private. If you feel the need to assert your authority, use your office. Other times you may choose to do so in a neutral place rather than it being a “home game” for you.
  • How? Make sure that you interject praise into your comments—but it must be genuine as all employees have “bull crap” radar. If possible (meaning if truthful), express your confidence in the individual to do better in the future.

 

Posted in Compensation & Performance Management

Retention of Key Talent

Due to gloomy economic conditions in recent years, many employees have decided to “nest” in their current organization—regardless of their level of satisfaction. “Nesters” typically fall into two main categories: (1) the “stayers”, who are committed to remain with their current company for more than  two years even though opportunities to leave become available and (2) the “leavers”, who plan to leave as soon as a good opportunity presents itself.

I see five differentiators between the “stayers” and the “leavers”. These factors are what tend to make employees “stayers”:

  1. Confidence & trust in company leadership – This is when employees feel they work for a well led organization that is heading in the right direction.  It also is when company leaders have created a culture of trust among employees.
  2. Empowerment – Employees that feel trusted by leaders (this is the other part of the “circle of trust”). This trust is demonstrated by leaders empowering employees to take independent actions and decisions within a defined set of parameters.
  3. Environment for success – This means people in jobs for which they are capable and are given the necessary tools (equipment, training, direction, etc.) to be successful.
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  5. Professional growth – Very few employees do not have a desire to develop and grow professionally. The employer’s role in this factor is to create an environment of continuous learning and provide opportunities to for employees to advance their careers both in terms of professional satisfaction and financial rewards.
  6. A fair exchange – For this to be exist, employees must feel that what they give to the company and what they receive in return is fair. Employees evaluate every aspect of the employment arrangement, including but not just rewards and recognition).

Often the most effective way for an organization to assess where employees stand on these five key factors is to periodically conduct confidential employee surveys conducted by an outside third party. The confidentiality and outside party features help to cause employees to feel that they can express their opinions in a completely candid way with no concern about negative consequences.

Posted in Talent Acquisition, Executive Search, Employment & Employee Retention

THREE COMMON WAYS TO DE-MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES

Sure, as employers we wish that all of our employees would be self-motivated. I am sure you agree that this is simply not the case.

The case is, although we can create an environment that fosters motivation, we have to rely upon individuals to embrace such an environment as a means to become motivated. Unfortunately, we do indeed have the potential to de-motivate employees.

Here are three ways (in no particular order) by which as employers we can either knowingly or unknowingly de-motivate our people:

1. Public criticism

At some point, every employee (as well as we ourselves) is going to perform our role in a manner that is less ideal. However, pointing out someone’s mistake in front of others is clearly not the proper way to address the matter.

Instead, do so one on one in private, with the objectives of the discussions being for her/him to:

  • Be presented in a positive, non-deflating manner that her/his actions/performance did not meet your expectations
  • Be given instruction or coaching as to the right way
  • Accept your criticism
  • Act upon your instruction and/or coaching in order to improve her/his performance

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2. Lack of praise

When an employee has done something worthy of praise capitalize on it. Your failing to acknowledge a job well done (especially if you routinely fail to praise exceptional work) can lead employees to feel that you only recognize their failures.

In turn, this can lead to their questioning the value of making the extra effort, and thus de-motivate their pursuit of excellence.

  • Whereas criticism should always be done in private, public praise can be very powerful.

3. Failing to keep a commitment

It is vitally important for our employees to trust us and our words. Trust can be difficult to attain, but is very easy to be lost—with re-gaining it being even more difficult.

The loss of trust in us by our failing to keep a commitment or fulfill a promise is a surefire way to cause de-motivation.

 

Posted in Employee & Labor Relations