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Employee Retention: How to Avoid Overworking Your Employees

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As an expansion stage company you should get the most out of your employees so you can be successful, but are your management teams rewarding employees for overworking?

Based on a study by the New York-based Families and Work Institute, overworked employees are a lot more likely to show anxiety, make errors on the job, harbor angry emotions toward their employers for expecting them to work long hours, and despise co-workers who don’t pull the same load they do.

The study also found that virtually half of employees who feel overworked also noted they were in bad health, and practically one-quarter (21 percent) of those overworked experience depression symptoms compared to 8 percent of the people who are not overworked.  I came across a great article on HR Executives Online which outlines guidelines on how managers can help their employees feel less overworked, and at the same time see them finish their tasks on a daily basis.  Part of your startup employee retention strategy should contain making sure your employees are not overworked.

In order to help your employees feel less overwhelmed on the job:

1. Offer training for time-management principles. Everyone can benefit from a refresher course in time management skills!
2. Insist employees use up their vacation time. Ending the year without using a vacation day, or only taking a few, is not something to reward. You want your employees to come to work refreshed and not stressed which is what will happen if they take the appropriate time off work.
3. Allow flexible work hours when appropriate.
4. Discourage the practice of eating at desks and working through lunch.
5. Encourage non-interrupt zones during the day so your employees can better concentrate on their work.
6. Help them to become more effective.

In order to be efficient, you must first be effective.

In order to encourage efficiency and effectiveness, managers can:

1. Establish clear goals with built-in deadlines.
2. Insist employees compile a daily “to do” list.
3. Make certain employees alert them or IT if their resources or equipment does not work.
4. Supply what is necessary for them to finish the job.
5. Train employees on software packages that enable more efficient work.

If you want more info on how to more effectively manage your expansion stage company teams for high efficiency, check out the Scrum Alliance and the Lean Enterprise Institute.

Diana Winings Martz is a Recruiting Analyst at OpenView Labs, where she is responsible for recruitment for the firm and its portfolio companies.

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Tags: Business, Education and Training, employee retention, Employment, expansion stage, Human resources, Management, management teams, Time management, Work

What Exactly You Must Know About A Strategy Consulting Business

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When the CEO of a global firm struggles to sleep because of chaos in the firm, or the local butcher just cannot seem to grow passed this stagnant phase of his business, the apparent answer lays with a Business Strategy Consulting to help solve the problems or getting the obstacles out of the way of success.

This assessment is basically a snap shot of the health status of the organization and the consultant highlights risks, compiles a progress measure and forms recommendations, their acute business grasp and available resources proven in the field. It is their job to assist the management or owner of a business to solve the problems that are hindering optimum success or productivity.

The key to a successful strategic initiative will assess and revise or remove, is collaboration between the organization and the consultant that will manage this assessment. The change that is required, recommended and optional, will be set out along a strategic outlay with implementation and actionable plans, whilst the consultant has a strong business sense with exceptional skills and support at their disposal.

Using a step-by-step approach, the consultant will begin with a strategic outlay of actionable plans, approaching three basic aspects of any business. The people, the processes and the technology utilized in the business. The methodologies are applied on all fronts and seen through by the Strategic Consulting Business, taking a hands on approach in working with the organization.

In dealing with the staff complement, strategies like ongoing training and education of management level as well as incentives, seminars and operations assessment or team building events, can dynamically change the production levels of the employees. The processes being set in place, commonly simple and effective including, the employment procedures and staff liaising. The upgrade so to speak, will come to the fore once the technology has been streamlined for cost efficiency.

Along with the organizations collaboration, the strategic consulting business will essentially alter some business processes, depending on the assessment and the strategic plans for action. Focusing their efforts on some or all of the company aspects, it will be up to the company on what it aims to achieve. One needs to keep in mind that what worked twenty year ago, might not as effective today with the advancement of technology and multiple additional resources.

Quite often, it may seem the plans and advice of a Strategic Consulting Business is too obvious and logical, and it usually is, but that is the point. Their expertise being the process of highlighting problems, potential risk as well as placing systems in order to tidy up the business, quiet often just not thought of or seen from a clear, questioning and informal position as the strategic consulting business. Educational programs, staff pattern analysis as well as revenue management cycles but a handful of the specialized information they are equipped with.

The business of strategic consulting has a firm sense of promoting strong leadership, productive employee contracts and intelligent application of technology within the business processes. Usually taking form as a series of implementations and actionable plans and systematically set in motion. It is no wonder they are geared for success as they help others to succeed, through the Strategy Consulting Business.

Business and Management Consulting Austin

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Is Your Team’s Culture Coming In The Way Of Their Productivity?

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Many organizations have come up to downsizing and lay-offs to balance the rough economic atmosphere in today’s world.  They keep searching for measures that can boost their organizational ability to provide high quality products and services. They have been looking out for ways which can help the employees feel being a more valued member of the company and more willing to work for its growth. Organizational culture change expert and business keynote speaker Jerry Haney knows this perfectly

Most of the corporate organizations are adopting and initiating various programs and principal for organizing and re-structuring their workplace. They study the human relations and its effects on discipline and integration of corporate organizational culture.  However organizational culture has come out of age and gives us the perfect ways to enhance employee productivity. Having a team culture among the employees has proven to be a positive measure to change and amplify their productivity.

If you want to see results then take your employees as a person rather than just an employee. Team culture surely increases the willingness to put in the necessary extra efforts and time to make the company successful as everyone feel they are valued in the organization. Being a part of the team magnifies an employee’s energy and enthusiasm towards the organization. The benefit of building a team and having the team culture in your organization is priceless and will surely make the path to survive in this tough economic time easier.

If you look back when you were a kid you must have noticed that when a group of teenagers came together, made a team, created a fun and played a game with the team spirit they proved to be better players than before. Kids participating in the summer camps are found to be more willing to put in efforts and time at places where they find more fun and camaraderie ship. The same rule of thumb applies even in the corporate world. To maximize the productivity level of an organization keeping a highly spirited and motivated team of employees is very important. The team culture gets the employee basic belief about his role in the organization and creates his organizational identity. This culture acts as map which gives the employee norm and values through which he enacts the events. The team work helps him to adapt to any change of mission or direction and teaches him on how to succeed in the case of changing responsibilities.

The data drawn from an analysis of team culture practices has shown a better role discipline, productivity, integration and control among the employees even being placed at large multinational corporations. The team culture study has even shown that people working together have performed well compared with their performance when working alone. Most employees have shown growing interest in team work which finally increases the organizational effectiveness.

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HR Consulting Services Can Help Any Company Overcome Human Resources Challenges

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Establishing a successful business is one thing, but with growth comes a slew of challenges outside of operations, where HR consulting firms can make all the difference between continued success or stalling.  A small operation with a small, dedicated production team can pull together and make all sorts of things happen, but as a company grows and expands its workforce, human resources issues begin to come into play.  The days of the owner cutting a check are long gone.  There are issues like payroll, benefits, workers’ compensation, regulatory compliance, training, recruitment and employee retention to worry about.  But establishing a full Human Resources department is time consuming, diverts energy from operations and may be overkill until a company becomes much larger.  PEO services helps bridge the gap, providing the necessary HR functions for small to medium sized businesses.

While a small business might get away with noncompliance with some labor laws during its startup phase, as it grows the likelihood of regulation violations being caught increase.  HR Consulting firms such as National PEO can provide a labor law audit of a company’s operations to identify potential infractions and make the recommendations needed to address them.  Most small businesses don’t have access to an experienced HR team with a full understanding of the relevant legal issues, but National PEO’s Human Resources team has decades of expertise and experience.

Another area where many companies would benefit from the experience of HR consulting firms like National PEO is job descriptions.  On the surface, a job description sounds straightforward, but small businesses often have nothing more than a title for positions.  A poorly written job description can impact everything from employee morale and recruitment to operations (for example, when two employees’ job descriptions overlap, creating friction).  In fact, writing accurate job descriptions can often identify overlaps and holes in a company’s operations, helping them to increase productivity.  The HR team at National PEO services specializes in crafting job descriptions that are complete, succinct and leave no room for interpretation or confusion.  They can also write employee handbooks, a proven method for making certain all staff understand different job descriptions, company policies and guidelines.

Recruitment is often necessary as a company grows and this is another area where HR consulting firms like National PEO provide a big boost.  National PEO’s HR team offers experienced search and placement services, interviewing, negotiating, pre-employment testing and even background checks and screening.  Taking advantage of PEO services instead of going it alone ensures that new employees fit in to your company’s culture and represent a solid investment instead of a gamble.

About the Author:

Ben Cowan is Director of Human Resources with National PEO, one of the nation’s leading HR consulting firms.  Mr. Cowan holds a BA, Human Resources Certification (through HRCI) and has been a member of the National PEO team since 2005.  To contact Ben with your HR or PEO services questions, please call (480) 429-8098, or write 4800 North Scottsdale Road, Suite 2000, Scottsdale, AZ 85251.

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Managing Time and Attendance and Job Costing

Job Costing is a very useful component of employee time and attendance systems. Job costing is the process of  capturing not just the employee attendance times but also the specific task the employee was engaged in at the time. This allows you to track the labor cost associated with vary activities in your business .

While job costing is the generic term used this is not the only area of employee activity which is measured. In some cases employee labour is typically more macro managed and in still others it is more micro managed. Every business for example measures the cost of employees labor on the macro scale; The company P&L will almost certainly show a line for wages, salaries and on-costs. Companies may split these further into departments such as Management, Sales and Operations. Some may measure this even further and separate  staff into various functions with each cost centre.

Certainly the best examples of job costing can be found in many service industries . When you take your motor vehicle  to the dealership for service for routine maintenance the activities of the service staff are logged against your car either for the basis of recharging that labour or to measure the performance of the mechanic against a benchmark.

In another example, ABC Engineering  quote a client to manufacture and install a number of steel walkways and steps in a clients production facility. The estimation of the steel, based on the engineering plans, is costed into the job as is an estimation of the labour required.  When the job commences on site a portable job costing time clock is used on site to record the attendance times of the labourers, the welders and the steel fixers while, previous to this the preparatory work on this project was also logged in the workshop with a similar time clock. The client is aware that any unquoted work (variations) to the quoted work will be recorded separately and billed accordingly. In keeping with this employees use a different job code when they are working on variations.

Following the completion of the job the engineering company has detailed records on the labour for every aspect of the job. Management can use this information to check for overruns in their quoting and revise their operations or estimation process. If the job is not as profitable as estimated the management staff will know why and they can make adjustments on subsequent projects. Additionally, there is an accurate account of all of the variations which need to be charged for

It is not difficult to find a time and attendance system which incorporates a job costing component but there can be be some serious shortcomings and inadequacies in many of the products available. An adequate job costing module should be able able to cope with multiple activities within each job. It should offer ease of use for the employees when they need to change activities at the time clock. The job costing data should be live to facilitate effective job management. The job hours should be award interpreted hours: i.e they are not just the quantity of hours but the actual cost of those hours taking into consideration overtime and penalty rates.

When performed manually job costing is a painstaking process but if it can be automated in your business the benefits will be significant as it will add a new dimension to your labour management that will almost certainly translate into cost savings and improved profitability.

James Bell

Time and Attendance Consultant

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: Accounting, Business, Employment, Human resources, Time and attendance, Time clock, Wage

The Employee engagement checklist

With no more funding available , and the hiring freeze being lifted at a slow pace , there’s only one way to improve the results of your team .  Each person has the capacity to work at a certain speed , with results that match the percentage of productiveness their working at.  Most employees consistently work at somewhere between 50 – 70% capacity.  At certain parts of your employees career they will become engaged in a certain project , or a job and their productivity will move up  to the 80 – 90 % range.  You can probably think of people in your division  right now who are working at a  massive  productivity rate, and they probably put a big grin on your face.  Most workplace populations  have about 8% of their workforce who work at this high pace consistently, those that are highly engaged in their  work  .   Now the goal of most Leaders is to get the most productivity out of their  employees, so let’s break down why people are engaged, and what you can do to get more engagement without making a dent in the budget.

What engages your Employees:

Simply put, the more a persons job fits  what they had and do hope for out of their life, the more engaged they will be in the work.  If a person grew up wanting to be a fireman, and then got the job, and it matched what they dreamed it would be, (like saving lives, climbing buildings , riding on the side of the big red truck) then they will be highly engaged.  They would work hard to keep their job, to do the job well, and to fulfill their own fantasy about what their job is because they are capable of doing so.  Now let’s take another scenario, where someone dreams of being a fireman, and becomes a  computer programmer .  You can imagine all of the gaps in the experience that would lead to them not wanting to be where they are and actively disengaging from their workplace  ( 68% of the workforce nowadays according to a TowersWatson study).  The problem is they don’t see themselves in the job , and are still either consciously or unconsciously looking for that ideal scenario .  See the multitude of problems here, any ideas crop up about how to prevent this engagement, and light a fire under these employees.  Here’s a few you may not have considered, a sort of checklist for Employee Engagement.

1) Show them how they matter:

Most employees simply don’t see how what they do matters to the company  , or to their lives besides the paycheck  they receive.  If you can show them how their work is important to company goals and values, then they will be more likely to see the value in their own work.   People love to make a difference, and sometimes when they don’t see it in themselves they get lost, disengaged.  Make a very clear path for them to see between what they do, and their companies success.

2) Help them achieve their dreams:

If a person can see how their personal goals in life are achievable through what they are doing in their work they are more likely to engage in their work activities.  Simply ask them what their life goals are, what do they truly want, and then work with them to find how doing their work for the company helps them on their way.  If there is no correlation,  then they are in the wrong job.  No one will stay engaged only for a paycheck.

3) Coach them to success:

Once you have them aligned to work and personal goals, they still may hit a rut or dip.  Wondering what they are doing, or having a challenging situation that they can’t see a way around.  If you, and the leaders in your organization learn the skills of successful coaches, you will effectively be able to help people recover to full capacity earlier.  Effective coaching helps employees see choices instead of only one solution, see the possibilities instead of limitations.  A quick recovery to forward momentum is one of the key factors to continued, long term engagement.

4) Challenge them:

One of the intrinsic motivators of all human beings is problem solving.  If you can keep problem solving as a consistent part of the employee role, then you will be involving the person in one of humanities most powerful drivers.  Make sure you always give people the opportunity to create something by problem solving.

5) Use Employee Assessments:

Simply put, some people just aren’t made for some jobs, and often you can’t tell until it’s too late.  A person in the wrong job, or poor job fit will end up with behavioral issues, and disrupting the workplace.  Effectively using employee assessments will help you determine before the person starts whether they are a good fit for the job, and help you communicate with them effectively.  Good Employee assessments can be tailored to the specific workplace, and be a consistent driver for employee engagement and productivity.

By following this simple checklist, you can improve productivity by over 30% in your company, or division.  Imagine a 30% increase in productivity,  how engaging would that be!

Popularity: 12% [?]

Tags: Employment, Human resources, Productivity