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Category: Staffing Management

Posted on December 3, 2012August 6, 2018

How Do We Determine Employees Who Exceed Expectations? (Revised January 15, 2013)

Dear Taking Stock:

Typically, only a small percentage of employees are top performers. To overlook even one star, or to lavish time and money on someone who comes across as a star but really isn’t could be a critical mistake.

Identifying your top performers involves a blend of well-written job descriptions, a commitment to ongoing performance management, and a talent-overview process that gives insight into candidates whose potential deserves future development.

Job Descriptions

You can’t determine a star performer until you clearly define your expectations. The best job description details the specific tasks to be performed, how long each should take and the measurements used to help the employee and supervisor gauge true accomplishment.

Performance Management

Performance management flows from good job description—measurements are compiled and discussed with employees, their successes and developmental needs are noted, and future plans are made. The best method is to instruct managers to keep a record of day-to-day performance.

Have managers keep a simple “plus and minus” sheet on each employee. Each day, the manager will take five minutes to record the plus (above expectations) or minus (below expectations) performance of each employee. (This is not five minutes per employee, but five minutes a day.) Normally, there are only a few notes that need to be made each day in work groups of 10 or fewer.

These contemporaneous notes help ground performance management in fact. Many of the errors normally found in performance management are avoided; evaluations are more objective, more compliant with applicable law and more effective in communicating actual performance results.

Talent Overview Program

Even with good job descriptions and evaluations, stars may still be overlooked. Some managers are better promoters of their employees than others. Some locations or departments may be less in the spotlight than others.

Unless there is a coordinated process that shares performance information companywide, there is a chance some star performers will go unrecognized. Create a talent overview in which your HR function dedicates staff to compile performance information about all employees. This information is used to develop performance profiles on top performers in each area of the business, including an inventory of their skills and professional interests.

Your senior management should review this information as part of its planning for business development and succession. Each candidate should be discussed, including avenues for future assignment and career growth.

Your organization’s available talent becomes a known quantity as a result of these processes. Existing resources are used wisely, with talent shortages noted and efforts launched to fill them.

One final word: In your push to seek out high performers, don’t neglect average employees who may benefit from additional training and performance feedback. You just might discover an unexpected diamond in the rough.

SOURCE: Rick Galbreath, Performance Growth Partners Inc., Bloomington, Illinois

LEARN MORE: Despite their widespread uses, job descriptions are not always helpful.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Posted on November 26, 2012August 6, 2018

400 Laid Off at Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty

When Superstorm Sandy swept through Liberty and Ellis Islands last month, the damage it caused not only closed the attractions to the public through the end of the year—but about 400 people lost their jobs.

The concessionaire that runs the cafés and gift shops there, Evelyn Hill Inc., laid off 170 people, while the ferry company that brings visitors to the monuments, Statue Cruises, laid off 130 employees. The rest of the employees who lost their jobs provide security services or work for an audio firm that allows visitors to listen to the history of both islands while they take in the sights.

The National Park Service, which operates both islands, is assessing damage, which includes destroyed electrical systems, walkways and docks.

“We are putting together a stabilization plan to move forward in the short term, then we will move into the second phase of further recovery,” said a Park Service spokesman.

While the federal agency has not said when it expects the islands to reopen, some people close to the situation believe it will be many months.

“My guess is that they will be fully operational by April 1,” said Bradford Hill, president of Evelyn Hill, which has been the concessionaire at Liberty Island, its primary business, for 81 years.

While Evelyn Hill has laid off all but three employees, Statue Cruises has been able to retain some workers. It continues to offer harbor cruises that get visitors as close as possible to the Statue of Liberty without setting foot on the island. Both companies have sustained severe financial losses.

Hill estimates that his firm will lose $6.8 million in revenues from November through March, while Statue Cruises’ revenues are off by 80 percent. In fact, Statue Cruises was displaced from its offices at Liberty State Park, which was flooded, and is operating on one of its ferries in the marina.

“We don’t have landlines, but we are generating our own electricity and using cell phones,” said Michel Burke, vice president of Statue Cruises, which won the exclusive contract a few years ago to ferry visitors to both islands.

Statue Cruises has been speaking to Park Service officials, hoping that the islands will reopen even before all the repairs are completed.

Ideally, Burke says, the islands could reopen while some of the longer term recovery takes place.

“We just went for a whole year when the Statue of Liberty was not open to the public [a yearlong restoration project was completed in October], and yet it didn’t severely curtail visitation to the island.”

The Statue had reopened for just one day before the storm hit.

While the peak season for visiting both islands is in the spring and summer, when Liberty Island can attract up to 15,000 people a day, there is still significant demand during the holiday season, Hill said.

About 700,000 people visit Liberty Island between November and March and about 500,000 go to Ellis Island during that time, according to Hill. He is hoping that insurance will cover some of his losses over the next five months.

Lisa Fickenscher writes for Crain’s New York Business, a sister publication of Workforce Management. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

Stay informed and connected. Get human resources news and HR features via Workforce Management’s Twitter feed or RSS feeds for mobile devices and news readers.

Posted on October 31, 2012August 6, 2018

Top Performers vs. Critical Performers: Semantics or Meaningful Distinction?

Dear Taking Stock:

Top performer status is conferred on employees whose quantity and quality results significantly exceed expectations. Critical performer status is a designation of a job, not the person in it, and is based upon the relative importance of a position to the organization’s success.

All organizations have critical performer positions that must function effectively if the company is to attain its desired results. Executive positions are critical to the overall performance of a business. Business organizations rarely outperform their leaders.

Any job that could powerfully impact a company qualifies for this designation, however. Example: I know of a small local factory that has only one shipper and receiver because its dock is tiny. This position is a pinch point in the factory’s operations. Anything less than acceptable performance by the shipper shuts the factory down or delays outbound shipments.

A job that is critical to performance today may not be in the future. The opposite is also true. The factory above is in the process of increasing the size of its dock and adding staff to reduce dependence on the single position.

Organizations should identify not only their top individual performers but also their critical performer positions. Both require special treatment.

Top performers should be recognized and rewarded for their excellence. Review critical performer positions to ensure that retention, performance development and related strategies properly align with the needs of the organization. Underpay them or neglect training and the employee may bolt, leaving you with a real mess on your hands.

SOURCE: Rick Galbreath, Performance Growth Partners Inc., Bloomington, Illinois

LEARN MORE: Although companies usually can name their star employees, many have trouble hanging onto them.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Posted on October 22, 2012August 6, 2018

The Promise of Big Data in Workforce Management

Almost everyone in the human resources software world is talking about big data, and how having access to workforce analytics will change the way companies make decisions about human capital.

“The companies that leverage workforce analytics effectively will win the war for talent,” says Michael Capone, chief information officer at software giant Automatic Data Processing Inc.

And every software provider in the industry wants to be the one to help them do it.

At Taleo Corp.’s September conference, Jason Blessing, the company’s executive vice president of product development, touted the company’s commitment to Big Data and predictive analytics for recruiting; SucessFactors Inc. is eagerly promoting its new talent analytics capabilities, and pre-packaged best practice talent metrics; and ADP is spending millions of dollars on research and development to provide clients with real-time employee and industry analytics.

HR executives have been clamoring for this kind of information for years, says Laurie Bassi, CEO of McBassi & Co., a consulting firm that specializes in human capital analytics. “Good analytics help firms to stop wasting money on programs that don’t help them achieve their business goals, and focuses them on those that do.”

Xerox Corp., for example, used Big Data to cut attrition at its call centers by 20 percent in six months, according to the Wall Street Journal. Workforce analytics proved that creativity—not experience—was the best indicator of a successful customer service rep.

Understanding and reacting to these kinds of talent trends is how HR creates value for the business, yet few companies today look beyond basic hiring data because they have neither the tools nor the skills to perform the analysis.

“It’s not that companies don’t have the data, it’s that they need ways to make it more useful,” says Mark Smith, CEO and chief research officer for Ventana Research in San Ramon, California.

In most organizations, workforce data are stored in so many different systems, that if HR wants to make comparisons, they have to pull information out of multiple databases and cobble it together manually.

According to a recent survey from the Human Capital Institute, 43 percent of companies still rely on spread sheets or other manual reporting systems to capture and analyze human capital management, or HCM, data, and less than 20 percent strongly agree that HR possesses the ability to collect, aggregate and derive insight from HCM data.

“The problem,” Bassi says, “is that HCM systems weren’t designed for Big Data analytics.”

Several years ago, when many HCM tools were being built, it was inconceivable that a company might cost-effectively store a terabyte of workforce data. Now storage isn’t a problem, but accessibility is.

Every time a company adds another recruiting, talent management or performance evaluation tool, the data become more fragmented, Smith says. They don’t set aside the time or money to integrate them, which leads to more isolated workforce data that can’t be easily analyzed.

Some companies minimize the impact of disconnected systems by choosing a suite of tools from a single vendor. But even then, there are conflicts. “There will always be external data—from industry reports or social media—that won’t come from your vendor,” Smith says. “You need integrated data streams to solve these issues.”

So while software vendors are busy building Big Data tools to help companies make better, faster and cheaper workforce decisions, HR leaders need to think about how they will make the most of these tools and the data they promise to analyze.

That means hiring staff who understand workforce analytics, and investing in technology that will enable data to flow more freely between systems, Smith says. “If you want to make the most of analytics, you need integrated systems that provide a common view of the data.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

Posted on October 4, 2012August 6, 2018

Podcast: The 2012 Good Company Index Shows the High Road Pays Off

Posted on October 2, 2012March 10, 2022

Does Employee Involvement Equate to Engagement?

Dear Stuck on Semantics:

To understand the difference between employee engagement and employee involvement, let’s start by defining each one. Employee engagement is defined generally as a strong desire to be part of the value an organization creates. Engaged employees exhibit three key characteristics. Namely, they:

1) Exhibit a strong emotional and intellectual bond with their organization.

2) Exert discretionary effort that helps the organization realize better outcomes for their organization.

3) Take co-ownership of their own engagement and commit to improve.

In contrast, employee involvement is defined as an environment in which workers are encouraged to, and can directly impact, the decisions and activities in their work environment. Yet not all items on an employee engagement survey measure involvement. For instance, a question probing whether the employee has considered resigning during the previous six months tells you nothing about involvement, whereas the following question does provide great insight: “I have an opportunity to participate in decisions made by my supervisor that affect my work environment.”

Essentially, employee involvement entails involving workers in decision-making, continuous improvement and change-initiative activities. You could encourage employees to volunteer for extra assignments or to serve on key task forces, or you could assign them to take on such duties. On the flip side, engaged employees will volunteer for duty without much (or any) encouragement.

Some of employee involvement is the flip side of engagement. The reverse of that is engaged.

Your managers should regularly solicit, and deeply value, each employee’s involvement. Organizations around the world must regularly demonstrate their concern for staff, monitor engagement levels and make changes that increase employee involvement. An annual employee engagement survey is one place to start.

SOURCE: Kevin A. Sheridan, Avatar HR Solutions, Chicago

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Posted on September 24, 2012June 29, 2023

Firing an Employee? Tell Them! (Don’t ‘Milton’ the Termination)

Jon Hyman The Practical Employer

Office Space is one of the great movies about the modern workplace.

One of its key plot lines involves sad sack employee Milton Waddams, who mumbles through the movie about his missing stapler and ever-moving desk. Amazingly, the company had laid off Milton years earlier without anyone telling him. When the company fixed a computer glitch that had accidentally kept him on the payroll, Milton finally cracked and burned down the office.

Lawrence v. Youngstown (9/21/12) [pdf], decided last week by the Ohio Supreme Court, gives employers a reason other than arson-avoidance to tell employees that they’ve been fired.

Ohio’s workers’ compensation retaliation statute (Revised Code 4123.90, for those counting) is an odd-duck. It has a two-part statute of limitations. First, the aggrieved employee must provide the employer “written notice of a claimed violation … within the 90 days immediately following the discharge, demotion, reassignment, or punitive action taken.” If the employee sends that written notice, he or she then has up to 180 days from the adverse action to file suit. The 90-day notice requirement is “mandatory and jurisdictional,” and no employee is permitted to file a workers’ compensation retaliation claim without sending the written notice.

In Lawrence, the Court answered a question of timing — does that 90-day period begin to run on the effective date of the discharge or when the employee receives notice of the discharge?

The facts of Lawrence illustrate the potential problem. On January 7, 2007, Youngstown suspended Lawrence without pay from his position with the city. Two days later, the city converted the suspension to a termination, and mailed, via regular mail a letter notifying him of the termination. Lawrence claimed he did not learn of his discharge until February 19, 2007. On April 17, 2007, Lawrence’s attorney sent the city a letter stating that Lawrence intended to bring a lawsuit claiming unlawful workers’ compensation retaliation. When he filed his lawsuit a few months later, the city sought, and obtained its dismissal on the basis that Lawrence’s letter was untimely based on his termination date.

The Ohio Supreme Court reversed. It held that normally the start of the 90-day period triggers from the actual discharge date. It also created an exception when the employee both did not know of the discharge and could not reasonably have learned of it:

A limited exception to the general rule that the 90-day period for employer notice … runs from the employee’s actual discharge…. The prerequisites for this exception are that an employee does not become aware of the fact of his discharge within a reasonable time after the discharge occurs and could not have learned of the discharge within a reasonable time in the exercise of due diligence. When those prerequisites are met, the 90-day time period for the employer to receive written notice … commences on the earlier of the date that the employee becomes aware of the discharge or the date the employee should have become aware of the discharge.

As the Court reminded us in the Lawrence opinion, “Usually, an employer will make a good-faith effort to communicate the fact of the employee’s discharge to the employee when it occurs…. The employer commonly will use a method like personal notification, hand delivery of notice, or a certified letter.” In other words, if you are going to fire an employee, don’t you owe it to him as a human being to at least tell him?

Written by Jon Hyman, a partner in the Labor & Employment group of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. For more information, contact Jon at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.

Posted on September 5, 2012August 6, 2018

What’s the Best Method for Assessing Sales Incentives?

Dear Not Getting It:

Motivating a sales force can be a tricky task, and measuring how rewards and recognition influence that motivation can be even more elusive. There is no one set measurement that will alert you to the success or failure of recognition programs; however, by looking at several metrics you can obtain a comprehensive view into the effects these investments can bring.

It’s important to first understand what you are measuring. Employee rewards and recognition programs are not just corporate niceties, but tools to drive sustainable motivation.

Monetary and time-off awards can be effective in providing short-term bursts of motivation and ambition in employees. However, the effects are rarely sustainable. Be mindful that compensation based-rewards have a way of encouraging competition as well as stress among employees, especially salespeople. This can be dangerous for the sales force as competiveness affects morale and can cause salespeople to focus on their rewards instead of the client.

Recognition investments should work to drive intrinsic motivation. Sustainable motivation is derived from the satisfaction of three psychological needs shared by all—competence, relatedness and autonomy. By creating reward and recognition initiatives that address these needs, managers can achieve a long-term productive and fulfilled workforce.

To fully understand the motivational effect of your programs, you should measure the short-term and long-term effects of these talent investments. Think about the activity input you intend to drive from the program; then evaluate the activity output. For example, are employees closing more calls, winning larger deals or producing more actionable leads? This is one way of measuring the short-term effect of a program: Ask, “Did it help spur the immediate change we sought?”

Although short-term wins are important, they don’t tell the whole story. Rewards and recognition programs should help shape the morale of the sales force, instilling a culture that is marked by highly motivated and engaged employees. One way to measure the long-term return on investment is by looking at employee turnover rates, absenteeism and productivity. An effective recognition program will not only produce immediate changes in activity, but will also instill an environment in which employees sense that their motivational needs are met, thus often leading to greater morale and productivity.

Lastly, although the formal measurement of ROI is important, don’t underestimate the importance of informal ROI. Take time to talk with your salespeople about their motivational needs and the effect of rewards programs. Instituting programs based on the feedback you receive reinforces your commitment to helping the sales force satisfy their intrinsic needs.

SOURCE: Chris Blauth, AchieveGlobal, Tampa, Florida

LEARN MORE: Read The Golden Egg of Incentive Pay Policies Is an Elusive Bird.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Posted on September 5, 2012August 6, 2018

How Do We Help People Adapt to Dynamic Situations?

Dear Stuck in a Rut:

This situation likely requires an approach from two directions: 1) formal and informal training to help employees adapt more readily to change and embrace new behaviors and 2) an overall change-management framework that will drive broader impact.

We recommend you incorporate several necessary tools to help employees adapt to change and develop flexibility and resilience in dynamic environments.

  • Self-reflection: How do people perceive change that would affect them directly? What are they gaining? What are they losing? It is common that employees tend to see gains from change as longer term, corporate-driven and less desirable, and see immediate losses from change as personal and potentially threatening. Are they clear (and you) about the reality?
  • A clear vision for what is possible: Creative problem-solving skills can be developed in a learning environment through use of experiential, hands-on activities that help employees see the results they can achieve by using more creative solutions.
  • Stress-management techniques: Change drives stress and disruption, frequently taking people out of their comfort zone. An effective program acknowledges that stress is expected in a changing environment and will offer simple tips and techniques to effectively manage change-related stress.
  • Informal support mechanisms: Application of learning on the job is enhanced by providing job aids, providing coaching tools and guidance for supervisors, encouraging team problem-solving and providing informal networks in which learners can share successes.

Designing a change-management framework is essential to drive lasting change. This necessitates:

Sponsorship and communication. Managers must demonstrate clear support for training and related activities and provide ongoing communication about expectations for behavior change.

Experiences. It is important to provide people with access to experiences that will reinforce desired behaviors.

Reinforcement. The performance-assessment process must be adapted to reinforce new behaviors and expectations.

Recognition and rewards. They must be aligned with new behaviors and expected results.

Change leadership. Fundamentally, leaders are catalysts for change. Among other competencies, key leadership competencies for a dynamic, changing environment should be cultivated in the workplace. These include fostering involvement, developing consensus and commitment, managing dissent, encouraging innovation and risk-taking, and aligning individual and business goals.

SOURCE: Patricia Kunkel, Xerox Learning Services, Dallas

LEARN MORE: Read Changing Hearts and (Anxious) Minds.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Posted on August 16, 2012August 6, 2018

Memphis Opens Health Clinic for City Employees, Retirees, Dependents

Memphis, Tennessee, officials on August 15 celebrated the opening of a new on-site health and wellness clinic for city employees, dependents and retirees.

Open three days a week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the clinic offers diagnostic services and non-emergency care for a range of conditions, including sinus, urinary tract and upper respiratory infections, cold and flu symptoms, muscle sprains and minor cuts and burns.

The clinic will be staffed by Memphis-based Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. Its operating expenses will be supported through a partnership with Bloomfield, Connecticut-based Cigna Corp., which insures the city’s employee health care plan.

“With the city’s renewed emphasis on health and wellness, we wanted to provide a convenient way for our employees to be seen and treated by a medical professional,” Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said in a joint statement released August 15. “Too often, we put off going to the doctor because we have other things to do.”

Patients will be charged a flat rate of $15 for clinic visits, according to the statement.

“(Memphis) employees will have easy access to high quality care at a very affordable cost,” said David Cummings, administrator of Methodist Healthcare’s community care division. “This increased access will allow them to be seen earlier by a medical professional, which should allow them to return to work quicker or mitigate any absence from work at all.”

The city began exploring the idea of opening an on-site health clinic during its renewal discussions with Cigna earlier this year, the statement said.

“The clinic will help promote prevention and enhance employee productivity,” said Mary Tate-Smith, Cigna vice president in Memphis, in the statement. “We are excited to be a part of the city’s efforts and to help support the health and well-being of our customers.”

The Memphis clinic was one of several publicly sponsored employee health and wellness centers to open in August, as clinics in Rome, Georgia, Lake County, Florida, and Cass County, Indiana, also began treating their eligible employees this month.

Matt Dunning writes for Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

Stay informed and connected. Get human resources news and HR features via Workforce Management’s Twitter feed or RSS feeds for mobile devices and news readers.

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