Author: Site Staff

Have you ever wanted to use the Web to find the phone number for a company? What about researching public opinion about the firm, or finding annual report or other financial information?

Here’s a link to a Web site for researching companies online. The site will link you to dozens of online company research sites, from Hoover’s to Yahoo to Deja News.

Source: Debbie Flanagan, Link Staffing Services, December 17, 1998.

You probably know that employees may be eligible for family or medical leave because of their own serious health condition, or that of an immediate family member.

But what is a serious health condition?

A “serious health condition,” while still being defined a bit by the courts, generally means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves:

• Any period of incapacity or treatment connected with inpatient care (i.e. an overnight stay) in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility; or
• A period of incapacity requiring absence of more than three calendar days from work, school, or other regular daily activities that also involves continuing treatment by (or under the supervision of) a health care provider; or
• Any period of incapacity due to pregnancy, or for prenatal care; or
• Any period of incapacity (or treatment therefor) due to a chronic serious health condition (e.g. asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.); or
• A period of incapacity that is permanent or long-term due to a condition for which treatment may not be effective (e.g. Alzheimer’s, stroke, terminal diseases, etc.); or
• Any absences to receive multiple treatments (including any period of recovery therefrom) by, or on referral by, a health care provider for a condition that would likely would result in incapacity of more than three consecutive days if left untreated (e.g. chemotherapy, physical therapy, dialysis, etc.).

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division, FMLA Compliance Guide, December 1998.

If you think back to what you’ve most disliked about some of the performance appraisals you’ve been subjected to yourself, you can help make sure to avoid the errors of those who have gone before you. Some common mistakes that supervisors make when giving performance reviews are:

A patronizing attitude.
Supervisors who come across as if they know exactly what is best for the employee in terms of career growth and development without asking the employee’s personal goals will generally be tuned out. In fact, the employee is apt to feel resentful and take the opposite of any advice given.

Stressing the negative.
Some supervisors believe that it is their responsibility to point out everything the employee is doing wrong. The performance review is the appropriate time to discuss real problems, but it is also imperative that you talk about what the employee is doing right. And think about your complaints before you speak. Are they really significant? Remember that anything negative you say during a performance appraisal will have a lasting effect. Make sure it’s worth it.

Lack of information.
Supervisors who don’t know what their employees are working on or what problems they are having are actually caught off guard at performance appraisals.

SOURCE: Written with permission from Productive Performance Appraisals, Randi Toler Sachs, Amacon, 1992.

Here are 12 explanations that employees might say when they’re caught sleeping at their desks:

• “They told me at the blood bank this might happen.”

 

• “This is just a 15-minute power nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to.”

 

• “Whew! Guess I left the top off the liquid paper. You probably got here just in time.”

 

• “This is in exchange for the six hours last night when I dreamed about work.”

 

• “It’s okay … I’m still billing the client.”

 

• “I wasn’t sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement.”

 

• “I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance.”

 

• “I was doing a yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress.”

 

• “Rats! Why did you interrupt me? I almost had figured out a solution to our biggest company problem.”

 

• “The coffee machine’s broken.”

 

• “Someone must have put decaf in the wrong pot.”

 

• “Amen.”

SOURCE: Superkids

Workforce, January 1999, Vol. 78, No. 1, p. 26.

Many employees are overwhelmed with multiple tasks. This often leads to procrastination.

Procrastination is a problem that faces teenagers and adults, males and females, regardless of social group or background. Its affects range from a minor slowdown to major catastrophe, and it is probably the single most common time management problem.

Everyone in the world has felt the urge to put off assignments or jobs until later, and each person has a varying degree of procrastination. Regardless of the severity of your habit of procrastination, the following suggestions will help you to “put an end to putting it off.” Use these specific, concrete steps to confront and shift your own tendencies to procrastinate. Choose several suggestions from among the five lists, put them into practice, and use a coach or friend for support:

Identify underlying issues or causes of procrastination.

Take a close look at your own procrastination—do you put off similar tasks every month (paying your bills late, even though you have the money to pay them) or do you postpone every task, no matter how small? Discover your pattern of procrastination, and note when and where you use procrastination as a crutch: Take a look at some possible sources of procrastination, along with hints and tips to resolve them:

• Fear
  Some procrastinators actually fear doing the task or project at hand. The task or project requires them to move out of their comfort zone, and the thought of doing that seizes them into immobility. You often see this occur when people procrastinate making phone calls to others when they fear that the other party may not like what they have to say, or will somehow reject them.
  
  To eliminate fear, become aware of it. Then acknowledge your strengths and skills. Recall previous successes, and write them down. Be aware of—and acknowledge—your weaknesses, and leverage them into strengths. (Yes, it can be done! A coach or therapist can help you identify weaknesses that are really hidden strengths.) Get an accurate perspective of what your success will mean for you, and focus on your own needs and expectations rather than those of others.
• Perfectionism
  Perfectionism is probably one of the more common reasons for procrastinating. The perfectionist avoids starting a task because they worry that they might fall short of their own high standards. A perfectionist will become absorbed in the details, attempting to control every aspect of the task and ignore moving a project along until the very last minute. They don’t have to face their fear of imperfection if the task isn’t done.
  
  Closely examine your standards and values. Are they really yours, or someone else’s? Are they set so high that they are causing you distress? If so, shift your thinking about standards and values, and set realistic goals.
• Crisis Maker
  If you have spent many years feeling thrilled (or rewarded) by being under the pressure of time deadlines, you’re probably a crisis maker, living on adrenaline.
  
  Crisis makers truly believe that they cannot get motivated until the very last minute. As much as they complain about having no time, they get a charge out of running late for appointments, barely getting to the airport on time for a flight, and rushing from one unfinished project or task to another.
  
  Crisis makers often make others mad because they manufacture a crisis and then solve it at the last minute, making themselves look good in the process—or worse, they totally blow it—infuriating their friends and colleagues—and look bad in the process.
  
  If you are a crisis maker, work to bring balance to your life. Learn how to develop a rewarding life outside of work, don’t try to get love or personal needs met at work, learn how to increase your productivity and quality of work while eliminating the adrenaline rush. The result will be a more peaceful life, without crises.
• Anxiety over the expectations of others
  This is a tough one. If you stop trying to become a “better person” for other people, you’ll realize that the person you are is just right. When you learn that your faults are rich and wonderful teachers, that mistakes are golden, and that your weaknesses are usually just hidden strengths, you begin to accept yourself. Once you accept yourself, you realize that you always do your best—and then the expectations of others become less important. Work with a coach or therapist to get past this one.
• Overextended, trying to do too much
  Overdoers have the most difficult time recognizing themselves as over-doers because everything is important to them. Prioritizing, delegating and saying “no” aren’t the overdoers’ strong points.
  
  If you’re an overdoer, identify what’s necessary to accomplish a task in a given amount of time. Get a sense of the entire project and then do what’s required to complete it.
  
  Set what and when goals are to be accomplished, and break those goals into smaller sub-goals (e.g., concentrate on one section of a report at a time). Most of all, underpromise and overdeliver.

Now that you have an idea of the source of your procrastination, make a plan to diminish and control it:

Schedule tasks for your project.

• Write down a list of the tasks you must undertake to complete your project. Set priorities among these. Mark each one off as you complete it, and reward yourself.
• Start with the most unpleasant task—to get it over with (eat your spinach!)—and work through your list until you get to the easier ones.
• Do something daily on your project, adding new tasks and projects as they appear, even if it is only for five minutes. Write down two or three things you can do toward task completion that you can accomplish in five minutes and then do one of them, and reward yourself.
• Schedule work on one of your avoided tasks so that it is contingent upon something you already normally do and enjoy. For example, “I’ll work on my monthly report for half an hour before going to play racquetball.”

Take action.

• When it comes time to do your task and you are tempted to procrastinate, make yourself sit down for five minutes and think about what you are about to do. Envision the emotional and physical consequences of procrastinating, and of following through on your plan to work. After you think this over, go ahead and do what you decide is best… with no apologies or second thoughts!
• Imagine how you would behave in the next hour or day if you were not a procrastinator. Get a clear picture in your mind, and then act out that role. Pretend for the next hour or day that you are not a procrastinator. When you are done, evaluate your “acting”: Did you do a good job? How did it feel?
• When you feel an impulse to work on your project, follow up on it. Do it at the moment you think of it and keep at it until you don’t feel like it anymore.
• Decide on a specific reward to give yourself for the successful completion of your project on time. Make it realistic and follow through.
• Watch for mental self-seductions into behavioral diversions, such as: “I’ll do it tomorrow,” “I deserve some time for myself,” or “I can’t do it.” Dispute mental diversions, like “I really don’t have that much time left, and other things are sure to come up later,” “If I get this done, I’ll be better able to enjoy my time,” or “Once I get started, it won’t be that bad.”
• If getting started is a challenge for you, create a “10-minute plan”: Work on a dreaded task for 10 minutes, then decide whether to continue.
• If you become stuck in the middle of a task, change location or position, take a break, or switch subjects or tasks.

Use your friends or a coach.

• Make a contract with a friend or coach to get a specific task done.
• Make an appointment with a mentor, coach, peer or friend—someone who can consult with you on your project. Ask for help and advice about proceeding.
• Make a lunch or dinner date with a friend, or call your coach. Tell your them that you want his or her support, that you want to talk about your feelings about your project, and that you want him or her to encourage you.
• If you have something frightening to do—making an important presentation, for example—ask a friend or your coach to listen to you rehearse what you have to say so that you can face and cope with your fear.

Keep a journal.
Write in your journal every day to give yourself credit for what you have accomplished, to genuinely forgive yourself for backsliding, and to plan your next antiprocrastination activity.

• In your journal, identify rationalizations, confront yourself, and redirect yourself to your task.
• Recognize negative attitudes and write out positive, encouraging attitudes.
• If you get mad, write out all your frustrations and anger in your journal.
• If you make a mistake, write out the interesting, beneficial things you learned from it.

If these suggestions don’t work, try, try again.
If these activities work for you, continue them. If they don’t, try different ones. Procrastination may be a racket that we run to avoid or resist something about ourselves that we’re reluctant to admit. Work toward the elimination of procrastination and watch how much more enjoyable your life is—without stress, without crises and without fear.

SOURCE: Linda R. Dominguez is a performance coach and owner of Executive Coaching and Resource Network. She has over 25 years of corporate, consulting and coaching experience.

Mr. Wert is Senior Vice President and National Practice Leader for the Human Resources Organization Consulting Practice of The Segal Company. In this capacity, he has responsibility for business development, practice operations and account management, and he serves as the senior strategy consultant and project manager for a variety of client organizations. Mr. Wert has extensive experience in designing HR business plans, realigning HR structures, work processes, and service roles, integrating new HR technologies (e.g. PeopleSoft), and identifying outsourcing capabilities and best practices. He facilitates executive teams to define the vision for their “human capital” and helps them clarify how a differentiated human capability will build competitive advantage and organizational performance.

Q: I work in a regulated government environment where additional staff is not an option due to legislative indifference. I’m also bound by FLSA requirements and a limited budget. What happens when people get overloaded, I can’t hire more, and they aren’t allowed to work overtime due to budget issues?
A: Your issues are not atypical in many organizations today. Although some time commitment is involved, two avenues of exploration might be:

Review and prioritize work: Review the duties and tasks of each staff member. Quite possibly there might be duties performed that should be performed in another functional area or do not need to be performed at all. Then identify which tasks/duties have priority over the others.

Review the work processes: Look at how work is being performed. Are any unnecessary steps being taken? Should and could technology be better utilized? Remember, you want to work smarter, not harder.

 

Q: How can we motivate people when our company’s numbers are so low, we are forced to layoff? Key, cadre employees now carry twice to three times their normal load and we’re afraid they will burn out before our numbers rise again and we can hire back to relieve the burden. How can we keep our golden team players energized? (We’ve been in this slump for two years, no quick end in sight.)
A: Some possibilities include: 1) Give them a stake in the business, if they don’t already have one. Personal ties to company profitability may shift focus off of increased workload and onto increasing productivity. 2) Honestly communicate the financial status of the company and highlights of the plan to turn it around. 3) Implement non-financial recognition awards. Through this you can tell employees “we know you have more work, and we thank you for your extra efforts during this time.”

Q: What are some of the most effective “retention” incentives being offered today?
A: The effectiveness of retention incentives is going to be influenced by other factors, such as culture and company history. Popular incentives being offered today include greater flexibility and alternative work schedules, career development, job rotation, public recognition for contributions, and increased opportunity to work closer to the top or on projects with increased bottom line responsibility.

Q: We are an employee-owned company of 250 employees. We do not have an HR person. Many of us feel this would be valuable to the company; however, the President does not. How do we build a case for one?
A: Why do you think an HR person would be valuable? What’s the business reason? Is there low productivity due to morale? Is there potential litigation due to workplace issues? You need to quantify for your President the “value” that this role would bring to the company. Describe the role that the individual would play in the organization. Essentially, write the job description. Identify how this role would aid the President in reaching company profitability goals. Consider citing benefits of such a role in competitors or similar size organizations. Show the President what other companies are doing and the positive impact on the organization.

An alternative you can explore which can bring the value of a HR person without the increased headcount is to contract the services of a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). PEOs provide a variety of outsourced HR services targeted to small businesses, most of which have no HR representation. The types of services provided can range from payroll and taxes to recruiting and orientation.

Q: One more question: how to build a case for a new vacation policy. We now get 5 days after 1 year; 10 days after 2 years; 15 days after 10 years. Any good web sites that would validate that this benefit is outdated?
A: Our experience has been that most companies offer a slightly more generous benefit, but your business conditions may necessitate the “constraint.”

A simple way to obtain information would be to informally call some companies in the area and ask them what they offer, as a local benchmark. Or, you can ask a consulting company to design a policy for this and other matters that would be competitive with companies of similar demographics. You can also look at the reasons why employees leave the company and see if vacation is cited. If vacation can be tied as one reason employees leave, this would make a stronger case.

Q: How to reduce STRESS for a department of 12 who acts as a sales support group for a consumer products manufacturer that sells to retail stores across the country. They are involved in account planning and replenishment orders. They get it (stress) from all sides: customer (timing and completeness of order), sales force (more and timely information), manufacturing (meeting production schedules), and distribution (making planned shipments).
A: One alternative is to restructure and organize work by work process and then by customer group, instead of the existing functional structure. Another alternative is to hold internal customer supplier meetings to talk about service requirements and establish service level agreements that you monitor for each other.

Q: How do you get someone who clearly recognizes that he has a work overload problem to take the time out to identify the responsibilities that could be and need to be passed on to someone else?
A: Try the “velvet hammer” approach. Be empathetic that they are overloaded, but clear that if they don’t step out of it, it will never get done. Also, ask if the reason they’re not doing it is because they mistrust others or because the work activities add to their perceived power and influence in the organization.

Q: How exactly would you identify “overload” as opposed to poor time/workload management by employees with self management responsibilities?
A: Try a fishbone diagram to discover the root causes of being overloaded. Brainstorm concerns around individual causes, system causes, structural causes, technology causes, etc. If the drivers appear to be more in one category, then that’s probably the area you need spend time improving. We use fishbone diagrams at our company to address the same question and it’s very helpful.

Q: There are only two HR people for 185 employees and my boss is going on medical leave for cancer. I am already swamped and thinking of running away. What can I say or do to get my boss to realize I can’t handle my current workload, much less hers as well?
A: Unfortunately, your two HR people to 185 employees ratio is aligned with industry average, so be careful if citing statistics. What you may want to look at are ways to eliminate work, make better use of technology, or outsource administration such as payroll and benefits administration. Employee self service is helping many HR groups add more value to their organizations.

Advertisers can provide “Web ready” artwork according to the following specifications. Materials not meeting the specifications below will be converted and billed to the advertiser.

AD SPECIFICATIONS

Banner Ad:
File Size: 6-8K
Pixels: 234 x 60
Resolution: 72 dpi

Double Banner Ad:
File Size: 12-16K
Pixels: 468 x 60
Resolution: 72 dpi

Button:
File Size: 6-8k
Pixels: 120 x 90
Resolution: 72 dpi

Interstitial:
File Size: 12-16k
Pixels: 250 x 250
Resolution: 72 dpi
Window duration: 5 seconds
Animation: Limit three rotations. Must comply with file size and window duration.

Animated ads: Three rotations maximum and limit file size to 10K.

File Formats: Finished art should be saved in GIF or JPEG format.

URL: Direct users to the appropriate place on your Web site when they click on your banner ad. The most appropriate URL (Web address, such as http://www.workforceonline.com) may not be the home page, depending upon your offer. Link to the page that helps generate a lead for you.

Alt-Text: Sometimes online users do not want to see the graphics – they just want the information. They press stop before the graphics are downloaded or set their browser preferences to “turn off images”. By providing the Alt-Text for your banner ad, the viewer will still see your banner ad – only in text form. For example: “Click here to see the latest HR developments in Your Company.”

Materials Deadline: All materials are due on the 15^th of the month prior to the month the ad is to appear (e.g., April 15^th materials due date for a May 1^st live date). Send disks with Web-ready artwork to: Workforce Online, 245 Fischer Avenue B-2, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; or e-mail Web-ready artwork to bannerad@workforceonline.com.

 Web Graphic Design Tips:

• In Photoshop, work in Red-Green-Blue mode.
• Graphics lose quality when they are saved in a GIF or JPEG format. Make sure graphic is perfect before saving.
• Keep one copy of your graphic file in Photoshop format with layers intact in case revisions are required.
• Test graphics by viewing them with your monitor set at 256 colors.
• You ll get better results if you convert your flat-color, illustration-based images to 8-bit.
• It s best to leave photographs, or continuous tone-type images, in 24-bit if you can.

Most companies that fail at customer service fail at the first hurdle: They don’t recruit people that their customers like. The resulting problems often go undetected for long periods. The penalties are severe in terms of customers defecting and lost revenue.

When selecting front-line people who deal with customers, the most important criterion must be the likeability of the chosen candidate. Skills, knowledge and experience are important, but must take second place to the personal attributes of the person to be appointed. To quote James Dyson: “Anyone can become an expert in six months.” In other words, with personal drive and company support, any employee can acquire the requisite skills and experience to do any front-line job effectively over a short period. The skills and experience of employees are not the main issue when it comes to serving customers. What is more at issue is their own emotional drives and their ability to connect emotionally with customers.

Conventional methods of selection are limited when it comes to this. Too often, the priority is technical skills and experience rather than ability to relate to customers. The worst type of selection is one that’s made by default, where the pay is so low and the applicants so few that a company hires the only person who applies.

Here are 14 guidelines for adding emotional value to your recruitment process and selecting people your customers will like. Some of these guidelines may be surprising.

Eliminate person specifications and job descriptions.
Written person specifications and job descriptions are extremely limited when it comes to this process. They tend to be two-dimensional and essentially devoid of emotion as they strive for objectivity. They are frequently boring and border on being meaningless. The essential requirements of color, vibrancy, bright personality, esprit, positive emotion and energy are squeezed out of these uninspired documents. They provide little effective guidance to the type of person who will do a great job at the front line.

Be subjective in making selection decisions.
It might be heresy to say this, but subjectivity is essential when selecting the right candidate. Reliance on objective selection measures will frequently lead to the wrong person being appointed. Mercifully, most decisions are made for subjective reasons. Recruiters just delude themselves that they are being objective!

Many personnel experts and their internal customers—line managers—have fallen into the trap of equating fairness in selection with objectivity. Can you imagine selecting a future spouse on the basis of objective selection criteria?

The best selection decisions are made when you use a combination of heart and mind to judge a candidate. Eliminate the heart from this process and you will only select two-dimensional candidates who’ll have no feel for customers and thus will not be liked by them.

The objective criteria for selecting a candidate must be complemented by the subjective and personal likes of the manager making that appointment. If a manager does not like the person they are hiring, then there’s no hope of service excellence.

To quote Denille Girardat, a store manager for Seattle, Washington based Nordstrom Inc.: “We like to recruit the friends of our staff. We think Frank Pizzano, for example, on our customer service desk is wonderful, and we feel his friends will be wonderful, too. So we recruit them if we can.”

Increase the pool of available candidates.
To ensure that a likeable candidate is selected, it’s essential that a company create as large a pool of available candidates as possible. This becomes increasingly difficult in a tight marketplace, but is relatively easy when there’s widespread unemployment in the locality.

The pool can be increased by ensuring that pay levels (and associated conditions) are in the upper quartile of the marketplace for this particular type of job. Pay is a reflection of emotional value. To be motivated, employees need to feel that their pay levels are fair and equitable.

Anton Najjar, for example, says that he is accused by other employers in Dubai of “spoiling” his people. The terms and conditions for people working at the J.W. Marriott hotel are definitely far better than those provided by most other employers for similar jobs.

Also ensure that the company has an excellent reputation as an employer. To deliver customer care, it’s essential that a company deliver staff care. How can an employee care for a customer when the company doesn’t care for its employees?

Furthermore, a company that regularly indulges in a “hire and fire” approach to people will find its reputation will be damaged, and the best candidates will avoid it.

Each employee should receive effective and adequate training. Employees are attracted to companies that provide them with training and development opportunities because it enhances their sense of worth and provides a necessary stimulus for further improvement. Lack of training invariably reflects through poor service and creates problems that make both employees and customers feel awful in the end.

The available pool can also be increased by excellent PR and by word of mouth from employees, friends and people in the local community. Every opportunity needs to be seized to promote any positive news the company has. Creating job opportunities is excellent news in most places and local managers need to exploit this as far as possible.

Clarify accountability for the selection decision.
The person who is finally accountable for making a selection must be the manager who will be accountable for the work of that person. The only thing the personnel experts are accountable for is the supply of a steady stream of first-class candidates, together with meaningful information and advice about them.

This was a lesson that was taught to me in my first management position at Mars Inc., a chocolate manufacturer based in McLean, Virginia, where the company’s production managers were totally accountable for the people in each team. At Mars and other progressive companies, there’s no way that other people who do the recruitment and selection can impose a candidate on a manager.

In a number of the companies that I’ve studied, the accountability for selection was very unclear. In one case, at a company in the Middle East, people in central personnel undertook recruitment and selection. The successful candidates were then assigned to one of the company’s branches. The branch manager had absolutely no say in the process. Regardless, having taken no part in the selection process, he or she would have to work with the new hire.

In another company in the UK, a recruitment agency supplied people to work at the front line on a temporary six-month contract. Managers had no say about who would come in on these contracts. If these people proved themselves after six months, managers could give them permanent appointments. However, many of the complaints made by customers related to the service provided by these new people during their first six months while on temporary contracts.

Create a mental model of the successful candidate.
Before you embark on a recruitment and selection process, create a colorful and dynamic mental picture of the ideal candidate. Try to envisage them operating effectively at the front line, providing a “dream” service that customers love. The more you can create this picture and bring it into focus, the more likely you are to select the successful candidate.

The best way to develop this picture or model is to invite your existing team to produce it for you.

Do not rely on résumés.
Résumés yield relatively little useful information. I’ve seen thousands of résumés, and most of them leave me cold, telling me very little about the people writing them. Most of them only give hard facts about the person’s background, and there’s scant indication of the person’s capabilities and personality.

There are exceptions. If the candidate is a skilled writer, then he or she might be able to convey the essence of their spirit, emotions and energies on a blank sheet of paper. Even this, however, is impossible if you force an applicant to fill in an application form. Application forms squeeze out essential information while distorting the rest. Worst of all, you learn virtually nothing from most completed application forms about how a candidate interacts with customers.

Devote a lot of time to the selection process.
Selection cannot be done in a hurry. If you rush an interview you’ll miss vital signals. A hurried decision is more likely to be a wrong decision as opposed to a well-considered decision made after a lengthy and in-depth selection process. One interview can never be sufficient. At least two meetings are required before committing to a chosen candidate.

Call the applicant back for an appointment at least once more. Spend at least 45 minutes at each session. While you’re with the candidate, try to imagine that you are a customer and how you might feel about this person.

The more time you spend with candidates, the more likely you are to discover things about them that aren’t evident from their paperwork. If you confine the selection process to a half-hour interview, the impression you gain from them will only be skin deep. With subsequent meetings, you’ll find candidates increasingly reveal more about themselves. Don’t miss the opportunity to obtain such critical information.

Furthermore, you need time in a relaxed environment after the selection interviews to reflect on the decision to be made. With relaxation and reflection, the mind allows other factors to come to the surface. Gradually, the correct decision will appear to you. Retrospectively, you will be able to justify this decision with specific logic that explains your feelings.

Use a team approach to selection.
The biggest selection mistakes are made when one person alone undertakes the interview and makes the selection decision. No matter how wise that person may be, they’re always vulnerable to misjudging a candidate.

A senior personnel person from Hewlett Packard once told me that in his company, they “interview people to death.” Often a candidate might be subjected to interviews with nine different people, any one of whom could veto the appointment of that candidate.

Likeable leaders always involve their existing team members in choosing candidates to join that team. A bad apple in the barrel can rot the others. Team members are in the best position to judge whether a candidate has all the essential attributes for helping the team provide excellent service. If team members don’t like the new recruit, you’re going to have immense problems with motivation and the delivery of customer service.

Prioritize your selection criteria.
When it comes to selecting people for jobs at the customer front line, it’s important to prioritize the criteria as follows:

First Priority—Personal attributes

• Customer-oriented approach
• Positive attitude
• Prepared to take initiatives
• Warm and friendly
• Kind and compassionate
• Has an inquiring mind
• Good listener
• Articulate
• Decisive
• Open, honest, trustworthy, sincere
• Genuinely interested in people
• Genuinely loves people
• Genuinely wants to help people
• Emotional intelligence
• Rational intelligence
• High degree of self-awareness
• Desperate desire to learn
• Energy
• Creative with a degree of flair
• Clearly articulated principles, beliefs and values that align with your own
• Bright, positive personality.

Second Priority—Skills and knowledge

• Potential competency in using the systems required to undertake the job effectively
• Able to write a good letter
• Can do figure work efficiently
• Can read, assimilate and comprehend complex text quickly
• Speaks a second language (if necessary)
• Able to acquire knowledge of the product and organization quickly
• Good memory (e.g. for past customers and their names).

Third Priority—Experience

• Has a varied and interesting background.

Be creative in your approach to recruitment and selection.
One company was opening a new store in New York. Its sole criterion for selecting people was “performance.” It wanted good performers in the theatrical sense of the word, people who could make customers happy, who could entertain them as part of their total shopping experience. It even wanted people who could be a little outrageous at times.

The company discarded all the conventions of selecting new hires. It placed an advertisement in a newspaper and invited people to call. Many applicants thought they were calling to request an application form. What they didn’t realize was that they were being screened on the telephone.

Those who made it to the next stage were observed as they entered the room. Did they talk to the other candidates? Did they sit at an empty table or next to other people? Did they offer to pour the coffee (which was on tap) for other people entering the room? How did they hand the coffee cup to the person? When they were asked to undertake some practical work (simulating the front line job for which they were being selected), they thought that they were being tested for their proficiency in handling simple tools and materials. In fact, they were being assessed for the way they interacted with customers (simulated in turn by other candidates).

This company didn’t carry out any interviews, but merely observed how groups of candidates conducted themselves during a one-hour session. The company had no preconceived ideas about the past experience of successful candidates. All it wanted was performers.

The key to selection isn’t to get into a routine. The recruitment and selection process for each new job should be a creative challenge. Be creative in the way you advertise a job. Why not set a simple 50-word job-related task in the advertisement and invite people to write in with the answers? You can then take it from there.

Be creative in choosing the type of people you wish to invite to help you with selecting employees. Have you ever thought about asking your customers to take part in the decision?

Be creative in designing the techniques you will use for the selection process. Have you ever thought about visiting a candidate at home to undertake an interview? (Ideally, an employee should treat your premises as their home, giving a warm welcome to any visitor who comes in the front door.)

Treat all candidates as potential customers.
When I was appointed director of personnel at British Caledonian Airways, one of the first things to hit me was a series of written complaints from people who had applied for jobs but not received replies over a period of months.

The airline business is a “glamour” business and attracts many unsolicited applications from people who want to fly around the world as cabin crew.

When I visited our recruitment section at British Caledonian, I was staggered to find that we had a backlog of over 4,000 unsolicited applications to which we had not replied. Our team there was just overwhelmed and only contacted the applicants who had been screened and selected for first interview. The rest, the large majority of unsolicited applications, were ignored.

Our recruitment team had failed to realize that each applicant was a human being and a potential customer. Instead, the recruiters just saw another piece of paper, a job application, which had to wait for eventual processing (if ever). Our challenge as managers was to get the recruitment team to see applicants as real people and even potential customers, and treat them with the care and deference they deserved.

What customer’s like about you is that you treat them as human beings. The word “customer” is a mere label. You can’t differentiate between human beings. They should all be treated equally, whether they’re customers or job applicants.

Rely on your intuition.
Collect as many relevant facts as possible about the people you are considering selecting, together with opinions of that person from other people. The more information you have about the person in relation to the job vacancy, the better placed you’ll be to make a considered decision. However, that decision must still take into account your gut feelings about this person. Your choice must take into account whether or not you genuinely like the candidate. Failure to do so will lead to immense relationship problems in the future.

Therefore, you shouldn’t simply rely on objective selection criteria as a basis for making your final choice. It’s a delusion that you can evaluate a person solely by using quantitative scores, analytical ratings and objective rationales. Psychometric and aptitude tests, while yielding helpful information, have their limits in the selection process.

No matter how much objectivity and rationality you attempt to inject into the selection process, your ultimate decision will always be subjective. You’ll always choose the candidate who “feels right.” You will then subsequently attempt to justify your selection decision using the objective data and rational analyses you have at hand. In other words, your rational mind will attempt to provide an objective reason for your subjective, intuitive feelings about a chosen candidate.

Remember the basic binary code of behavioral choice: People move towards what makes them feel good and away from what makes them feel bad. This definitely applies to selection. You will not appoint a candidate who makes you feel bad, whatever the reason.

The objective data you gather about a person will always be too simplistic and too limited. It will always tell you only part of the story. Everyone has a complex psychology and as a result a unique set of behaviors. Everyone thinks differently and has a different way of doing things. Mechanical selection processes rarely detect the minutiae of this. Yet it’s this minutiae that have a substantial impact on the relationship with a customer. For example, the way a person shakes hands, speaks or what they do with their eyes will have a substantial effect on a relationship. But these fine points of behavior go undetected in the relatively clumsy formal selection procedures that are available.

You’ll intuitively be sensitive to the details of this behavior, often without realizing it. Deeply embedded in your subconscious is a software program that senses the character and capability of another person and relates them to your past experience of successful and unsuccessful people.

It is important that you raise this program to a conscious level to develop a rationale for your assessment. However, this rationale is limited to those facts you can consciously acquire. These facts themselves are subject to interpretation based on subconscious prejudices. Other key attributes will escape this conscious process, even though they will be detected by your “sixth sense” and relayed to your subconscious.

Therefore, what you must do when approaching a selection decision is to assess all the available facts and then allow your subconscious, intuitive mind to take over. Both your emotional and rational intelligence will come to the fore at this point as you analyze your own feelings about each candidate together with the assembled facts.

There’s a great deal of evidence that the application of logic is severely limited in attempts to resolve intractable problems. Resolution always comes when someone applies a high degree of intuition (a combination of emotional and rational intelligence) to a problem. The same applies to a selection decision. When two or more candidates appear to be “equal on paper,” you must use your intuition to guide you.

Move fast to appoint the chosen candidate.
As soon as you’ve made a selection, move fast to appoint the person, treating them like your best customer. You must remember that the best candidates will have greater choice of who they should be employed with. An excellent candidate won’t automatically accept your offer. When you like a candidate and wish to offer them the position, impress on them how much you want them to join your team.

The best way to do this is to call the chosen candidate at home during the evening, immediately after the final interview. Demonstrate your enthusiasm and excitement about having this person come on board. Demonstrate your relief at having found such a high-caliber person to contribute to the excellent service that you aim to provide all your customers. You must make the person feel wanted. You must make them feel that they are of exceptionally high value to you and your team. In other words, it’s critically important that you inject a high degree of emotion into communicating your decision to the chosen candidate.

What you must not do is merely inform your personnel staff of your decision and leave it to them to communicate with the chosen candidate. All they’ll do is write a standard letter that might take days to arrive. Such standard letters are a complete turn-off and can undermine all the hard work you have put in.

Give little weight to references.
Everyone plays the reference game. We all know people who will write good things about us. We all know that it’s only in the most extreme circumstances that a previous boss will put into writing anything bad about a person.

References have one useful purpose—to corroborate facts. There are one or two deceitful people around who deliberately misstate facts on their applications, for example, that they received a degree at the University of California in 1995 or that they were employed with XYZ Co. between 1991 and 1994. All critical facts on an application should therefore be corroborated by way of written references.

However, references are of relatively little value when it comes to eliciting opinions on a candidate’s character and capability. If there’s an element of doubt, pick up the phone and call the candidate’s previous boss (you can’t call the current boss if the person has yet to resign). Have a quiet word with the previous employer and find out over the phone what the boss really thought about the candidate.

In relatively small industries, a network of executives and personnel professionals will already exist and be quite powerful. Use these contacts to elicit opinion and then judge that the weight the information deserves.

SOURCE: Excerpted from “What Customers Like About You,” by David Freemantle, available from Nicholas Brealey Publishing at 888/273-2539.

Business books of the 1990s range from one profiling visionary companies for emulating to one that pokes fun at Corporate America. Some of the books actually started trends, while others have helped develop them. At any rate, the ’90s have provided a wealth of business acumen. Some of the most popular books are listed below, in no particular order.

Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution
by Michael Hammer and James Champy (Harperbusiness)
This New York Times best seller started the reengineering revolution in the mid-1990s.

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen Covey (Fireside)
Although this was published in 1989, it became one of the self-help books of the decade.

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras (Harperbusiness)
An inquiry into corporate longevity that seems to be a mandatory footnote in every business book since.

The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge (Doubleday)
This book introduced the emergence of the learning organization.

In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies
by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman (Warner Books)
An American business management “bible” that presents eight specific management principles common to successful companies.

The One Minute Manager
by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (Berkley Publishing Group)
This book has been hailed a practical business guide for managers wanting to get the most from their employees.

The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions
by Scott Adams (Harperbusiness)
This book provides all too familiar portraits of the lunacy of the contemporary workplace.

Competing on the Edge : Strategy as Structured Chaos
by Shona L. Brown, and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt (Harvard Business School Press)
This book discusses how companies like Microsoft and Nike succeed because they’ve found a medium between structure and adaptability to market changes.

SOURCE: Charles Decker, president and publisher of Berrett-Koehler Communications, San Francisco; Theodore Kinni, editor of The Business Reader, a free online newsletter of business publications, Williamsburg, Virginia(bizbooks@gte.net); and Amazon.com.

Workforce, January 1999, Vol. 78, No. 1, p. 51.

Here are answers to questions employees may ask about the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a 1993 law that allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year.

How much leave am I entitled to under FMLA?
If you are an eligible employee, you are entitled to 12 weeks of leave for certain family and medical reasons during a 12-month period.

How is the 12-month period calculated under FMLA?
Employers select one of four options for determining the 12-month period:

• The calendar year
• Any fixed 12-month “leave year” such as a fiscal year, a year required by state law, or a year starting on the employee’s “anniversary” date
• The 12-month period measured forward from the date any employee’s first FMLA leave begins
• A “rolling” 12-month period measured backward from the date an employee uses FMLA leave.

Does the law guarantee paid time off?
No, FMLA only requires unpaid leave. However, the law permits an employee to elect—or the employer to require—use of accrued paid leave, such as sick leave, for some or all of the FMLA leave period. When paid leave is substituted for unpaid FMLA leave, it may be counted against the 12-week FMLA leave entitlement if the employee is properly notified of the designation when the leave begins.

Does workers’ compensation leave count against an employee’s FMLA entitlement?
It can. FMLA leave and workers’ compensation leave can run together, provided the reason for the absence is due to a qualifying serious illness or injury and the employer properly notifies the employee in writing that the leave will be counted as FMLA leave.

Can an employer count leave taken due to pregnancy complications against the 12 weeks of FMLA leave for the birth and care of my child?
Yes. An eligible employee is entitled to a total of 12 weeks of FMLA leave in a 12-month period. If the employee has to use some of that leave for another reason, including a difficult pregnancy, it may be counted as part of the 12-week FMLA leave entitlement.

Can an employer count time on maternity leave as FMLA leave?
Yes. Pregnancy disability leave or maternity leave for the birth of a child would be considered qualifying FMLA leave for a serious health condition, and may be counted in the 12 weeks of leave so long as the employer properly notifies the employee in writing of the designation.

If an employer fails to tell employees that the leave is FMLA leave, can it count the time they’ve already been off against the 12 weeks of FMLA leave?
In most situations, the employer cannot count leave as FMLA leave retroactively. Remember, the employee must be notified in writing that an absence is being designated as FMLA leave. If the employer wasn’t aware of the reason for the leave, leave may be designated as FMLA leave retroactively only while the leave is in progress or within two business days of the employee’s return to work.

Who is considered an “immediate family member” for purposes of taking FMLA leave?
An employee’s spouse, parents, and son or daughter are immediate family members for purposes of FMLA. The term “parent” does not include a parent “in-law.” The term “son or daughter” does not include individuals age 18 or over unless they’re “incapable of self-care” because of a mental or physical disability that limits one or more “major life activities,” as defined in regulations issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

May I take FMLA leave for visits to a therapist if my doctor prescribes the therapy?
Yes. FMLA permits you to take leave to receive “continuing treatment by a health care provider,” which can include recurring absences for therapy treatments such as those ordered by a doctor for physical therapy after a hospital stay, or for treatment of severe arthritis.

Which employees are eligible to take FMLA leave?
Employees are eligible to take FMLA leave if they’ve worked for their employer for at least 12 months, and have worked for at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months, and work at a location where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles.

Do the 12 months of service with the employer have to be continuous or consecutive?
No. The 12 months don’t have to be continuous or consecutive; all time worked for the employer is counted.

Do the 1,250 hours include paid leave time from work?
No. The 1,250 hours include only those hours actually worked for the employer. Paid leave and unpaid leave, including FMLA leave, are not included.

How do I determine if I have worked 1,250 hours in a 12-month period?
Your individual record of hours worked would be used to determine whether 1,250 hours had been worked in the 12 months prior to the commencement of FMLA leave. As a rule of thumb, the following may be helpful for estimating whether this test for eligibility has been met:

• 24 hours worked in each of the 52 weeks of the year
• Over 104 hours worked in each of the 12 months of the year
• 40 hours worked per week for more than 31 weeks (or more than seven months) of the year.

Do I have to give my employer medical records for leave due to a serious health condition?
No, you don’t have to provide medical records. The employer may, however, request that, for any leave taken due to a serious health condition, you provide a medical certification confirming that a serious health condition exists.

Can my employer require me to return to work before I exhaust my leave?
Subject to certain limitations, your employer may deny the continuation of FMLA leave due to a serious health condition if you fail to fulfill any obligations to provide supporting medical certification. The employer may not, however, require you to return to work early by offering you a light duty assignment.

Are there restrictions on how I spend my time while on leave?
Employers with established policies regarding outside employment while on paid or unpaid leave may uniformly apply those policies to employees on FMLA leave. Otherwise, the employer may not restrict your activities. The protections of FMLA will not, however, cover situations where the reason for leave no longer exists, where the employee has not provided required notices or certifications, or where the employee has misrepresented the reason for leave.

Can my employer make inquiries about my leave during my absence?
Yes, but only to you. Your employer may ask you questions to confirm whether the leave qualifies for FMLA purposes, and may require periodic reports on your status and intent to return to work after leave. Also, if the employer wishes to obtain another opinion, you may be required to obtain additional medical certification at the employer’s expense, or recertification during a period of FMLA leave. The employer may have a health care provider representing the employer contact your health care provider, with your permission, to clarify information in the medical certification or to confirm that it was provided by the health care provider. The inquiry may not seek additional information regarding your health condition or that of a family member.

Can my employer refuse to grant me FMLA leave?
If you are an eligible employee who has met FMLA’s notice and certification requirements (and you have not exhausted your FMLA leave entitlement for the year), you can’t be denied FMLA leave.

Will I lose my job if I take FMLA leave?
Generally, no. It is unlawful for any employer to interfere with or restrain or deny the exercise of any right provided under this law. Employers cannot use the taking of FMLA leave as a negative factor in employment actions—such as hiring, promotions or disciplinary actions—nor can FMLA leave be counted under “no fault” attendance policies. Under limited circumstances, an employer may deny reinstatement to work—but not the use of FMLA leave—to certain highly paid, salaried, “key” employees.

Are there other circumstances in which my employer can deny me FMLA leave or reinstatement to my job?
In addition to denying reinstatement in certain circumstances to key employees, employers are not required to continue FMLA benefits or reinstate employees who would have been laid off or otherwise had their employment terminated had they continued to work during the FMLA leave period as, for example, due to a general layoff.

Employees who give unequivocal notice that they do not intend to return to work lose their entitlement to FMLA leave. Employees who are unable to return to work and have exhausted their 12 weeks of FMLA leave in the designated 12-month period no longer have FMLA protections of leave or job restoration.

Under certain circumstances, employers who advise employees experiencing a serious health condition that they will require a medical certificate of fitness for duty to return to work may deny reinstatement to an employee who fails to provide the certification, or may delay reinstatement until the certification is submitted.

Can my employer fire me for complaining about a violation of FMLA?
No. And the employer can’t take any other adverse employment action on this basis. It’s unlawful for any employer to discharge or discriminate against an employee for opposing a practice made unlawful under FMLA.

Does an employer have to pay bonuses to employees who have been on FMLA leave?
The FMLA requires that employees be restored to the same or an equivalent position. If an employee was eligible for a bonus before taking FMLA leave, the employee would be eligible for the bonus upon returning to work.

The FMLA leave may not be counted against the employee. For example, if an employer offers a perfect attendance bonus and the employee hasn’t missed any time prior to taking FMLA leave, the employee would still be eligible for the bonus upon his or her return.

On the other hand, FMLA does not require that employees on FMLA leave be allowed to accrue benefits or seniority. For example, an employee on FMLA leave might not have sufficient sales to qualify for a bonus. The employer is not required to make any special accommodation for this employee because of FMLA. The employer must, of course, treat an employee who has used FMLA leave at least as well as other employees on paid and unpaid leave are treated.

SOURCE: The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration.