The 7 Hidden Reasons Your Employees Leave You:

1) Job not as expected. This is a prime reason for early departures. Branham’s answer: “Give
a realistic job preview to every candidate.”

2) Job doesn’t fit talents and interests. Branham attributes this to hasty hiring, and advises
employers to “hire for fit. Match their talents to your needs.”

3) Little or no feedback/coaching. Today’s employees, and especially the younger workers,

want “feedback whenever I want it, at the touch of a button.” Give it honestly and often, says
Branham, and you’ll get job commitment, not just compliance.

4) No hope for career growth. The antidote: Provide talent self-management tools and
training.

5) Feel devalued and unrecognized. Money issues appear here, says Branham, but the
category also includes even more employees who complained that no one ever said ‘thanks’
on the job or listened to what they had to say. Address the compensation issue with a system
that’s fair and understandable, says Branham. Then listen – and respond – to employee input.
“Also, ask yourself ‘how many of my employees get too much recognition?’”

6) Feel overworked and stressed out. Branham says this comes from insufficient respect in
the organization for the life/work balance of employees. Recommended: Institute a “culture
of giving” that meets employees’ total needs.

7) Lack of trust or confidence in leaders. Leaders have to understand that they’re there to
serve employees’ needs, says Branham, not the other way around. Develop leaders who care
about and nurture their workers, and trust and confidence will develop as well.

How large is the payoff for companies that follow these guidelines? Branham looks to
Fortune’s “Great Places to Work” list, where, he says, companies hew to these principles.
“While the average S&P 500 company grew 25 percent,” he reports, “these companies grew
an average of 133 percent. It pays to treat people right.

The 9 Essential Skills of Human Resources Management - How Many Do

You Have?

Human Resources Management Key Skill #1: Organization

Human Resources management requires an orderly approach. Organized files, strong time
management skills and personal efficiency are key to the Human Resources function. You’re
dealing with people’s lives and careers here, and when a manager requests a personnel file or
a compensation recommendation that lines up with both the organization and the industry, it
won’t do to say, “Hold on. I’ll see if I can find it.”
Human Resources Management Key Skill #2: Multitasking

On any day, an HR professional will deal with an employee’s personal issue one minute, a
benefit claim the next and a recruiting strategy for a hard-to-fill job the minute after.
Priorities and business needs move fast and change fast, and colleague A who needs
something doesn’t much care if you’re already helping colleague B. You need to be able to
handle it all, all at once.
Human Resources Management Key Skill #3: Discretion and Business Ethics

Human Resources professionals are the conscience of the company, as well as the keepers of
confidential information. As you serve the needs of top management, you also monitor
officers’ approaches to employees to ensure proper ethics are observed. You need to be able
to push back when they aren’t, to keep the firm on the straight and narrow. Not an easy
responsibility! Of course, you always handle appropriately, and never divulge to any
unauthorized person, confidential information about anyone in the organization.
Human Resources Management Key Skill #4: Dual Focus

HR professionals need to consider the needs of both employees and management. There are
times you must make decisions to protect the individual, and other times when you protect
the organization, its culture, and values. These decisions may be misunderstood by some, and
you may catch flak because of it, but you know that explaining your choices might
compromise confidential information. That’s something you would never do.
Human Resources Management Key Skill #5: Employee Trust

Employees expect Human Resources professionals to advocate for their concerns, yet you
must also enforce top management’s policies. The HR professional who can pull off this
delicate balancing act wins trust from all concerned.
Human Resources Management Key Skill #6: Fairness

Successful HR professionals demonstrate fairness. This means that communication is clear,

that peoples’ voices are heard, that laws and policies are followed, and that privacy and
respect is maintained.
Human Resources Management Key Skill #7: Dedication to Continuous Improvement

HR professionals need to help managers coach and develop their employees. The goal is
continued improvement and innovation as well as remediation. And looking to their own
houses, the HR professional also uses technology and other means to continuously improve
the HR function itself.
Human Resources Management Key Skill #8: Strategic Orientation

Forward-thinking HR professionals take a leadership role and influence management’s

strategic path. In gauging and filling the labor needs of the company, devising compensation
schemes, and bringing on board new skill sets leading to business growth, they provide the
proof for the often-heard management comment, “People are our most important asset.”
Human Resources Management Key Skill #9: Team Orientation

Workplace Negativity: Ways to Beat It

As Thomas Edison developed the light bulb, he went through hundreds of designs that didn’t
work. At one point a reporter asked him, “Mr. Edison, aren’t you tired of failing?” “Failing?”
Edison roared back. “Why I’ve succeeded! I’ve discovered hundreds of ways to not make a
light bulb!”

What if Edison had replied, “Nah, you’re right. This will never work.” We then would have
an example of negativity in the workplace. We also would all be sitting in the dark.

Negativity is one of the most destructive forces that can be unleashed on an organization.
Allowed to germinate and spread, it oozes into every crevice, eating away at morale,
teamwork, and initiative and, in the end, often creating the failure it predicted. And it’s no
small problem. HR publisher B21 conducted a poll of the effect of negativity on 150
employers. Nearly half called it a “significant problem.” And 1 in 20 called it “downright
poisonous.”
The Causes of Negativity

Why does workplace negativity develop? A study by international consultant Towers Perrin
and behavioral researchers Gang & Gang, reported by the HR columnist Susan M.
Heathfield, found these five reasons:

1) Excessive workload
2) Concerns about management ability
3) Worry about job and retirement security
4) Lack of challenge or outright boredom on the job
5) Perceived lack of recognition, both in pay and other forms.

Some of these are immediately addressable; others require long-term solutions beyond the
reach of the typical HR department. However, Heathfield and others have suggested ways to
defuse negativity on a day-to-day basis: Here’s a summary of those suggestions:

--Practice Positive Management: How you look at things will dictate how your staff sees
them. While being realistic, point out the positive in all situations. And save any critical
comments for a separate occasion.
--Don’t Ignore Negativity. It will become stronger unless you acknowledge it exists and ask
for ways to make things better. Be prepared to respond honestly to any suggestions you
receive. While you may not win over the chronic complainers, others will appreciate your
willingness to listen and provide answers.

--Offer recognition, and lots of it! Focus on the small successes as well as the large, and keep
the praise and any critiques well separated. Don’t expect to change attitudes overnight.
Positive perceptions are built over time.

--Counsel the complainers about the effect they’re having. Often workers with a negative
attitude don’t realize how much their behavior influences others. Once they find out, they
moderate their attitudes.

Finally, realize that you can’t please everyone. There are some people whose negativity
derives from reasons far beyond the workplace. No matter what you do, you won’t be able to
convert them. “Negativity mongers need a new job, a new company, a new career, a new
outlook or counseling,” says Heathfield. “They don’t need you.”
Once, companies were organized into hierarchies of workers headed by supervisors. Today,
the team is king. HR managers must consequently understand team dynamics and find ways
to bring disparate personalities together and make the team work.
Nine Skills, But Also One Caveat

As we listed these skills, one thing we didn’t do was try to prioritize them. Because no
general list of skills can take into account the business strategy at your particular
organization.

Which leads to the caveat we mentioned, as expressed by Bob Brady.

“HR is a creature of, and serves the business strategy,” Brady says. “It’s important for HR
people to know what that strategy is and what makes the business tick so the approach to HR
can be tailored accordingly.

“Never think of HR in isolation,” he advises. “Because if Human Resources professionals

think of themselves as ‘just HR,’ that’s what the rest of the organization will think too.”

20 Top Job Interview Questions

Education:

1) What aspects of your training and education have most helped you on the job?

2) What skills or knowledge do you have not evident from your school records?

Work background/preferences:

3) What about your last job prepared you for this job?

4) What did you like most and least about your previous jobs?

5) What would your previous supervisor say if we asked him or her about what you are like
as an employee?

6) What are your two greatest accomplishments on your previous jobs?

7) What are your two greatest disappointments on your previous jobs?

8) If you could design the ideal job for you, what would it be like?

9) Tell me what you know about our company and its competitors.

Workplace interaction

10) How do you resolve personal confrontations?

11) What have you done when you’ve received instructions with which you’ve disagreed?

12) What constructive criticism have you received, and what did you do about it?

13) Tell me about your experiences working on a team.

Leadership potential
14) What do you feel are the qualities required for good leadership?

15) tell me about a group you had to lead that was difficult and how you got the members to
achieve a goal.

Behavior under stress

16) What do you do when you have too much work for a given period of time?

17) Tell me about the toughest decision you ever had to make.

Future Behaviors/Retention Possibilities

18) Where would you like to be career wise in 5 years? In 10 years?

19) What are three things you will NOT do on your next job?

20) Are you lucky?

‘The Perfect Performance Appraisal Form’

List the Tasks

One factor we had to reckon with: very few jobs involve only a single skill or have just a
single output measurement. A marketing manager, for example, hires staff, sets strategy,
prepares budgets, and oversees advertising, and so on. How do you evaluate someone who is
good at advertising but makes a mess of budgets? The answer is simple. Start with a job
description that lists the tasks of the job. Then use the description to evaluate each task,
individually and specifically.

“Four E’s and a P”

It’s at this point that the second part of the form kicks in. In Jack Welch’s first book, he said
that he evaluates people on the basis of “the 4 e’s and a p.” The four e’s are, “energy,
energize, edge, and execution.” The p is “passion.” We experimented with evaluating each
task against these criteria and found that it works. Not only does it provide an efficient
framework for assessing performance, but it also communicates to employees in a way that
helps them improve, which is the whole purpose of the appraisal.
Here is how the concept plays out:

—Energy is pretty obvious. If a person hangs out at the water cooler or surfs the Internet, he
or she isn’t bringing energy to the job.

—Energize speaks to such things as teamwork and the impact that the person has on the
morale of others. It allows you to let an employee know that (in most jobs) their individual
work product is not the be-all and end-all. If they aren’t good “people-people,” it can drag
down the organization.

—Edge has to do with judgment; the quality of the employee’s decisions.

—Execution is the quality of the work.

—Passion is similar to “energy.” The difference is that it focuses on the commitment of the
employee to getting the job done.

When we look at each task and evaluate against these criteria, we can document problems
and communicate opportunities. But first we have to take into account how important each
element is to the job in question, at the risk of “losing the forest for the trees.”

We address this, again, through the job description, which weights each job task, and then
weights each “Welch factor.” In a managerial job, the weighting goes heavily to “energize”
and “edge.” In a lower level job, “execution” and “energy” are more important. Thus the
employee gets a sense of both what the job’s more important tasks are, then also which
factors are most important to each of those tasks.

So, to implement this system, simply follow these three steps:

1. Review the job description, make sure all tasks are there, and that they’re weighted for
importance.

2. Weight each major task for “the 4 e’s and a p.”

3. Evaluate each cell of the matrix, using a simple 1-5 high-to-low scoring, with appropriate
comments.

6 Tips for Dealing with New HR Laws, Regs, and Court Decisions

OK, take time to groan, but only a little. Shift that energy toward getting your organization
geared up to comply. No matter what changes the law brings, there are some general
principles and techniques to follow in dealing with them. You may want to follow this step-
by-step approach:

1. To get a sense of what the new challenge is all about, ask:

Does the new law or reg apply to my organization?
When does the law or reg take effect?
What are the penalties for noncompliance?
What is the intent of the new law or reg?
What does the new law or reg require us to do?

2. Determine what changes the new law or reg will require:

What budget allocations will be necessary?
How will policies change?
What procedures need to be revised?
What existing plans need to be altered?
What departments will be affected?
What individuals will be affected?

3. Make an implementation plan for management’s approval. Include:

The name of the person in charge of implementation
Goals and outcomes
Schedule and deadlines
Milestones and intermediate steps, if it’s a complex implementation
Specific policy and procedure changes
Associated paperwork, online forms, or recordkeeping

4. Follow and complete the plan.

5. Perform dry-run testing if necessary.

6. Implement.

Not Sure You Know All the New Rules for 2008?

In 2008, you’ll be facing challenges in the family and medical leave arena, continuing
confusion with employee benefits such as health savings accounts and retirement plans, a
completely redesigned I-9 immigration form, and more aggressive attempts by federal
authorities to root out misclassified employees, to name but a few.

We’ll be reporting on these issues in detail in coming weeks and months, but there’s a way to
get a complete briefing right now. Attend BLR’s special 90-minute audio conference, 2008
Legislative Update: The Laws, Regulations, and Court Cases Employers Need to Know
about No.

6 Tips to Improve Workplace Communication

--Communication begins before conversation. As the program’s authors note, studies show
that some 40% of what’s communicated comes through body language and tone of voice.
Both must match the message being imparted. When you tell a subordinate that a mistake he
or she has made is “no big deal,” don’t roll your eyes and wince. On the phone, voice tone is
paramount; never compete with the conversation by eating or allowing loud background
noise as you talk.

--Name your counterpart. Nothing establishes rapport better than acknowledging others by
name. But in today’s transient world, names are easy to forget or confuse. “Connect the
person’s name with someone famous,” the program advises. “If you meet George, mentally
connect him to George Washington.”

--Start with small talk. Chatting amiably opens the door to more substantial messages but,
advises the author, gauge your counterpart’s reaction so as to not go on too long … and never
chat about workplace confidences or gossip.

--Tailor your conversation to your audience. Talks with a boss, co-worker, or customer each
require a different style. With bosses, pick the right time and ask honestly for what you need
and what they can reasonably deliver. For colleagues, be humble, reliable, and discreet. And
if customers call with problems, listen, apologize, and offer a solution. However, a natural
smile when it’s appropriate, and even on the phone, applies in all cases.

--In writing, match your format to your audience. A short e-mail is fine for inviting a
colleague to lunch, but use a more formal letter to ask an important customer to dinner. Also,
remember that others beyond your intended recipient and far into the future may read written
words. Never write what you wouldn’t want openly read.

--Meet when it makes sense to meet. Nothing irritates colleagues so much as useless
meetings, the authors say. Their advice: Meet only when you need to, with only who you
need, and always with a formal agenda. End the meeting by praising participants for
something done previous to the meeting. That sends everyone off on a positive note.

The program goes on to address the communications aspects of negotiation, reporting bad
news and resolving conflicts, all of which build on the strategies above, and all of which are
evidence that good communication skills can be learned when the training program is right.