Job Descriptions a Must!

Human resources (HR) has begun receiving recognition for being an integral component for organizational success. Businesses realize to stay competitive they need to ensure their employees are well-organized and effectively managed. HR provides some of the necessary tools enabling a company to achieve competence. A key tool in HR is a properly formatted job description. Job descriptions (JD’s) provide information critical for managing employees, for complying with a number of legal obligations, and allowing employees to understand their duties and responsibilities.

Often organizations lack formal JD’s. Some reasons may include believing they are unnecessary, or not knowing how to initiate the process. In order to develop a job description, it is critical to start by researching the position and gaining an understanding of the essential components required to perform the job. A properly structured JD includes the following elements:

Do You Act or React To Your Business?

If you are a reactive manager you can adjust your tactics when new situations, complications, and issues arise. However, being reactive means taking action only after the event has happened, while being proactive means being responsive before the event. Proactive and reactive are both valid responses, however when a person is in a reactive state they are forever defensive and anticipating.

A reactive strategy follows the old maxim, “if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it!” whereas the proactive strategy takes the line that “prevention is better than cure!” Both arguments have merit and both arguments have their followers and their detractors.

Succession Planning Is Crucial to Company Survival

If you run a successful business you may have wondered what you are going to do when the time comes for you to voluntarily or involuntarily retire – thus ensuring your business survives and flourishes. Succession planning is important if you want your business to continue after you are gone.

There are a few steps you can take to make the process easier:

Strengthening Business Relationships – What’s Your Likeability Factor?

In the business world you are required to interact with many different people from customers to employees through to business contacts. The relationships you form will directly affect your business’s success so it is crucial for you to form strong and effective business relationships.

Your employees are the cornerstone of your business and without them your business would not succeed. The best way to strengthen your relationship with your employees, and any other person you interact with, is to learn as much about them as possible and show genuine concern. The more you know about a person the better you can relate to them, and the stronger your relationship will become. They’ll notice and appreciate that you took the time to remember and care about them as individuals – you’re actually a human (people person) not just their boss.

Business Email Etiquette

Email is an important communication tool for today’s business, but sadly many employees lack basic email etiquette and this reflects poorly on the company. Employees who send unprofessional emails to clients, or worse still – personal emails from company accounts, can easily make your business look bad. It is important your employees know how to write a professional email and what types of emails should and should not be sent from company email accounts.

Email etiquette, sometimes referred to as netiquette in broad terms, is a complicated thing. It’s certainly not appropriate to ignore email, especially from individuals, but we all get busy at times and may be able to do no more than to acknowledge the receipt of emails and promise to write in more detail at a later point.

Concentrate on Success: Outsourcing your human resources lets you focus on the big picture.

Containing costs is of prime importance for any business. Keeping the cash from flowing out the door can mean the difference between outstanding success and abject failure, whether the business is an enormous multi-national conglomerate or a small family shop.

There are many ways to go about this, but one of the more popular ones is to outsource some functions. Although many people think of this as solely the province of large corporations, it can serve a purpose in small business as well. For example, most smaller firms do not have full-time accountancy staff. Instead, that function is contracted out to either an individual accountant or accounting firm. This situation is so common that most of us don’t even think of it as outsourcing, but that’s precisely what it is.

Soft… Real Soft: Managers need a full skill set, not just hard skills.

“People don’t quit their companies, they quit their bosses.” How many times have you heard that phrase? It’s rare that a corporate entity of any size upsets an employee so much that they feel quitting is the only option. One bad manager, however, can empty out an entire department within weeks.

It’s all too easy to imagine a scenario where a manager doesn’t have the skills to motivate his staff or help them feel engaged. In fact, we’ve heard of many situations where one manager brought employee morale down so low it essentially shut down the organization!

Top Performers: You can keep them on your staff with the right incentives.

There are more important things in life than money, at least when it comes to how people rate job satisfaction. Research shows that most workers don’t put money as their number one concern. Things like flexibility,  challenging work and recognition are very often rated higher.

These and other non-monetary perks can have a big return for individual employees. Having a range of options such as flex hours or the ability to work (at least part of the time) from home can mean the difference between a highly-skilled staff member staying with an employer or searching for a new job.An employee recognition program is incredibly easy to establish, doesn’t have to cost much (if anything) and lets high-achieving staff know that they are appreciated. It can also urge other employees to try harder. The program could use different levels of recognition, including a personal note of thanks from the owner/manager, an Employee of the Month Award, an Employee of the Year Award, and team recognition. Going further, why not present an annual community service award? If one of your staff gives of their time to support a charity or a kids’ sports team, acknowledge it!

The Right Price: In today’s market, salary has to be competitive.

Value is a slippery concept. A pound of gold isn’t of any value to a man starving to death in the woods, but a chocolate bar is a treasure beyond price.

The old saying goes “The value of a thing is what that thing will bring.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement. Resources that are rare and highly desired by many people will fetch a much higher price than those that are common as dirt and desired by no one. This applies as much to human resources as anything else.

Summer Solution: Keeping productivity high during vacation season

The summer months present unique challenges from a productivity perspective, especially for management. Coming in to work in the morning, it might seem that half the staff is on vacation, and the other half is making great mental headway in joining them.

It is often suggested that employers should use incentives to encourage more employees to take vacations during the winter. This makes a certain amount of sense. In many parts of the world, winter weather means an almost inevitable drop in productivity due to delays in public transit, weather related car and traffic problems, and staff calling in sick.