An Unexpected Point of View

November 15, 2011 By 2 Comments

Summary: While attending a workshop put on by Employment Security (unemployment office), I came to realize the misconceptions about the office. What misconceptions exist about us and our business.

Last week I attended a workshop on protesting unemployment claims put on by the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). When you have been in Human Resources for a long time, it’s hard to believe you can learn something new about unemployment. After all like you, we have the same preconceived ideas about IDES. They are:

  • They favor the employees
  • They believe employees are always right
  • They always grant unemployment, regardless of the circumstance
pespective 226x320 An Unexpected Point of View
I have to say, after a three hour workshop, I have a new respect for IDES and learned a few things that will help me and my clients with them in the future.
What did I learn?
  • They are not determining whether or not someone should be dismissed
  • They are making determinations based on “unemployment laws”
  • Employers as a general rule either provide not enough information or the wrong type of information
  • They make a determination based on the last incident
While this is what is done in Illinois, I would suggest you talk to your state office to determine if they follow the same rules. Better yet, attend a workshop in your city.
This also got me thinking about what other things do I have preconceived ideas about that may be wrong (in whole or part)? We typically only see or experience one side of a situation – do those around us also have misconceptions of our actions?
Just like IDES what we need to do is – communicate.  Show others what you see, hear and experience to get their understanding.
Share misconceptions of you or your business that you have encountered and how you overcame it.
Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Benefits, Employee Communication, Leadership, Legalities Tagged With: , , , , ,

Value of Vacation

July 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Vacation is usually a benefit we reserve for our employees – we encourage them to take it, use it either a week at a time or to take off for a long weekend.  We have been fantastic at explaining the value of taking time off – the rejuvenating effects, getting the creative juices flowing, and general re-energizing. However, with all of our good intentions, we don’t do the same for ourselves.

That’s right – we are guilty of “Do as I say, not as I Do”.

vacation e1309916608161 320x119 Value of Vacation

Allow me to reiterate the benefits of taking a vacation.

Re-energize. Only by taking time away and checking in every once in a while (I know you will check in – just don’t do it every hour) – can you gain your energy.  The day-to-day without break, no matter how much coffee you drink, will drain your energy. You may find yourself hitting the snooze button a little more often or postponing ideas for tomorrow – all signs you need to get away.

Creativity. Similar to the above – your creativity will decrease and be less consistent.  Getting away for a week and visiting a new place can spark the creativity inside you.

Re-juventation.  Remember the feeling when you first started your business – the possibilities, the wonders, and your new future… Want that back again? Go on vacation, get away, explore a new city, relax on a beach, etc. Enjoy the fruits of your labor, hard work, and relax.

How often do you get away?

 

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Benefits, Goals Tagged With: , ,

Show Me the Money

December 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Do you remember that line from Jerry McGuire? Cuba Gooding’s character was motivating Tom Cruise to get him more money for playing football with his current team. Cuba had Tom Cruise screaming into the phone “SHOW ME THE MONEY” among other things.

Photoxpress 4738949 e1292364070150 320x130 Show Me the Money

Have you heard this from your employees? Well, maybe not yet but more than likely they are whispering “show me the money” when you aren’t looking.  Many businesses have had wage freezes for the last two years, however during this time living expenses have increased – in essence – your employees are earning less since their paycheck doesn’t buy as much as it used to.

It’s not your fault – the economy is down and possibly your business is as well. However, when business turns around and you have returned to previous sales level (or even better – surpasses them) – your employees won’t be whispering any more. In fact they will start screaming “SHOW ME THE MONEY”.

Don’t be caught off guard, prepare yourself now and put a plan in place. Here are a few steps to keep you on the right track:

  • Determine your pay strategy (should line up with your market strategy)  - do you want to be below market, at market or above market levels
  • Decide if you want to compensate for the wage freezes or not
  • Decide when you will implement
  • Can you also reinstate some benefits?

Determine your pay strategy: This is also a good opportunity to determine your overall compensation strategy if you have not done so in the past.  As mentioned before your pay strategy needs to match your market strategy. If your marketing strategy is to be the high-end provider of a product or service – your compensation plan should also be above market.  If you are the low-cost alternative – your compensation plan will also be cost effective. There will be a disconnect with your employees if you offer a premier product/service but pay your employees below market average.

To Compensate or Not for the wage freeze: This is a tough question only you can answer.  You will need to take into consideration how many years of wage freeze there is to compensate for, what was the cost of living increase for those years, and can you afford it. To tell the truth most companies do not make up for it and start giving increases again based when they are able to.

Decide when you will implement: If you are planning your increase ahead of time before you are actually able to give the increase – you need to determine your triggering events. In other words what needs to happen in the business in order for you to be able to give increases.  The events can range from a 10% increase in sales, a 5% increase in EBITDA or a decrease of 10% in expenses. These events will be specific to your business and once you have determined what they are – share with your employees. They will be more than happy to help you reach the goal in order to get an increase!

Reinstate benefits:  In some companies, benefits were also a casualty of these economic times. Are there any benefits you can either reinstate totally or at least partially? Maybe you can provide an extra day off with pay as a “Thank You” for sticking with us this year.

Want further assistance in determining a compensation plan? Contact us at info@focushr.biz

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Benefits, Employee Satisfaction, Healthcare, Leadership, Policies & Procedures Tagged With: , , , ,

HR Basic: Coaching

November 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When you think of coaching – what image comes to mind? Is it the sports coach who is giving you direction from the sidelines? Is it a person who spend one-on-one time with to improve – either personally or professionally? Maybe it’s the career coach who helped you find a job? Or the business coach who helped you increase your business?

HR Basic: Coaching

All of these are great examples of coaches. An educated guess would say that you have probably experiences several coaches during your life so far. Knowing this – would you consider yourself a coach?

As a business owner, manager, director, supervisor – you need to be a coach. I would go so far to say that it is a basic requirement if you have people working for you. This statement can make some people cringe because they have images of scheduled one-on-one time with each employee to have a discussion of the week or month. While something this formal can work, the suggestion here is to be more informal.

Let’s give coaching a broader definition: all aspects of one-on-one communication with your employee, subordinate, peer, associate or whatever term you use. Therefore this would include training, development, performance expectations, on-the-spot and long-term. Before your head starts spinning out of control let me explain.

Think of coaching as a step beyond communication. Most communication can be one way – me giving directions to you. If you open it up to be more two-way communication, incorporating the above is a lot easier.

Imagine if you took time to have employees come up with their own solutions instead of giving them the answers? Imagine an employee coming up to you and telling you about how they want to learn more? Imagine not having to do formal performance reviews because everyone is already aware of what’s working and what’s not? Imagine a conversation about long-term goals without a requirement to have one?

Doesn’t that sound great! That is what being a coach to your employees is all about. You passing along your knowledge, expectations, and teaching in a manner that appears natural and easy.

This usually leads to the next question – HOW?

Start with on-the-spot coaching. This is using everyday questions to coach. The next time one of your employees comes to you and asks a question – don’t answer. Instead as them what they think? What do they want to do? How would they resolve it? Ask them to explain their thought process and make corrections as needed.

One word of warning – the first time you do this, you will be catching people of guard. They will not know what to think and may need a few minutes to gather their thoughts. Be patient. They will get used to it. You will also need to make sure you don’t slip back into “I’ll just tell you what to do” mode, this will be a step backwards.

From there you can more onto long-term, training, development etc. All these conversations require tact and diplomacy. It’s ok to tell people you want to be more of a coach and ask them how you can do that.

Need guidance on how to be more of a coach? Contact us – we are more than happy to help you.

Filed Under: Authentic Leadership, Benefits Tagged With: , , ,

HR Basics: Benefits

October 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Most people when they think of benefits what comes to mind is health care insurance. While this is a big one, it is not the only one. Benefits like employees come in all shapes and sizes. Depending on the size of your business, the competition you face for employees, and the product/service you provide – you may only have to offer a few or you may have to offer many.

One thing that surprises  most people is that at the Federal level, benefits are NOT a requirement – that’s right they are optional. However, and it’s a big HOWEVER there are laws on what needs to be done if you DO offer benefits.  Since states can vary widely on the treatment of benefits, we will only be referring to the Federal level for this article.  Questions about your particular state can searched on your states Department of Labor website.

HR Basics: Benefits

Let start with some of the more obvious benefits and those that come to mind first:

  • Health/Dental/Vision Insurance
  • Vacation/Sick/Personal Days/PTO

Let’s review these one at a time:

Health/Dental/Vision Insurance

The most common of the benefits and in 2014 most companies will have to offer Health Insurance. We won’t go into detail on this as with each day we are learning more about the Acts requirements.  It is currently not required to have health insurance – however if you do provide it, you are subject to several laws. For the overall managing of the plans you are subject to ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) and HIPPA (Health Insurance Privacy & Portability Act) guidelines. If you have more than 20 employees, you will be required to offer COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) to all employees who leave you employ regardless of the reason. Don’t be intimidated by all the acronyms, your carrier and/or broker can help make sure you are complaint with all these laws.

Vacation/Sick/Personal Days/PTO

This is one of the easiest benefits to give, one of the easiest to be abused, and one of the most competitive to provide. It is the easiest to give since you only need to determine how many days you want to give employees (usually based on length of employment) and give them or better yet – have employees accrue them on each paycheck. Sick days in particular are the easiest to abuse since we are all aware of the “uh uh I’m not feeling good day” call usually on a sunny Friday morning. Which is why personally I like PTO days – doesn’t matter why you are not at work – you are not here – no faking, no lying, no treating employees like children.  You may not be able to offer lots of benefits but by being generous, even if its a little more than your competitor - you will win over people.  People value their time away from work.

There are other benefits you can offer:

401(k) or other retirement plan

Retirement plans are heavily regulated so before you take this step do your research! Plan participants are going after plans who charge high fees. Review various plans and options before you make a decision. Also consider if you will do a match, profit sharing or safe habor.

Special days off

Offer employees their birthday off or their anniversary date with the company or any other fun date. Like above – people value their time off.

Comp time

This would be mostly for salaried employees as a way to show your appreciation for the extra effort and time they contribute to the company. If you want to do this for hourly employees, it has to be done in the same week they work – unless you are a state that pays Over-Time based on 8 hours a day.

Life/Short-Term Disability/Long-Term Disability

These are benefits that you may want to offer and at the same time you hope your employees never take advantage of. You can purchase the coverage for the group  and reasonable rates. For instance the life insurance policy would be for a flat amount per employee. STD and LTD would be dependent on an employees earnings – of the two long-term is usually more cost effective.

Bonus Plans

Bonus plans are very individualized based on your business, budget goals, performance goals, etc. This will take a little more effort as you want to be sure you are rewarding the correct behavior. Or if you have a good year you may decide to distribute an equal amount to everyone to thank them for their efforts. You decide, you plan and then you  implement.

Etc.

Listed here are some of the average/typical benefits one thinks of – but they are not the only ones.  Here are some unusual benefits you may want to consider:

  • Game Room
  • Nap-time
  • Concierge
  • Discount movie tickets
  • Bagel/donut breakfasts, Ice Cream Fridays, Anything with food

Need help in putting your benefits in action or determining what you should offer.  Contact us today at info@focushr.biz

Filed Under: Benefits, Employee Communication, Employee Satisfaction Tagged With: , ,
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