HR Administration

One of the main functions of HR is to protect the company from unnecessary litigation. Any company is exposed to threats from employees who want to bring claims against the company for either valid or spurious reasons. A Chief Executive wants peace of mind that the foundation of the company is solid and that spurious claims have no chance and the valid claims against the company don’t happen because HR and management makes sure all policies are sound and that management and HR adhere to them. 

There is a need for companies to organise the administration of the human resources well. This doesn’t always happen, very often it is neglected, especially in Small and Medium Enterprises. What does it mean to organise the HR administration well? Make sure every employee has a valid signed Contract of Employment, has received an Employee Handbook, that employees understand and follow the HR policies and other policies of the company, that employees are made aware of the company pension arrangements and receive a company induction at the start of their tenure with the company.

It is a deliverable of human resources to ensure that companies do not get unnecessarily exposed to risks in the field of HR administration. However during my visits to small and medium enterprises I very often encounter situations where the company has contracts but unfortunately not every employee got one. This is a shame if you have good contracts and policies they should be distributed to all employees and you should be able to prove that the employees received them.

For human resources this is a basic requirement. There isn’t much glory in those tasks, but they are essential to achieving good HR management. Often when I audit big companies and ask to see the personnel files of a number of employees I notice that many files are not complete and that important forms and papers are missing. It is important to keep these files complete.

When visiting small and medium companies I am very often told all is well. However, for a reason I insist on seeing the Employee Handbooks because from experience I know that sometimes the unexpected happens. I once read an Employee handbook, which I was assured was ok only to notice Vietnam veterans and other issues mentioned which were not required under Irish law. This was an Irish SME and someone had just copied a US Employee Handbook from the internet and nobody had realised that it didn’t apply to their situation.

Sound HR Administration is a basic deliverable of HR but when it isn’t done right it can cause serious issues for your company and undermines HR. Executives want peace of mind and expect their HR people to get this right from the start.      

Effective Employees

Recently a manager said to me in passing, ‘You say you create effective employees don’t you?’ I replied, ‘Yes I do’. ‘Well’, he said, ‘I need a few of them. Where can I get them?’ I wish that life was only that easy, that I could create effective employees with a stroke of my wand and a spell out the world of Harry Potter. Unfortunately it isn’t that easy, you need to find and nurture effective employees. But effective and efficient employees are worth their weight in gold.

To explain both concepts simply:  ‘Efficiency is doing things right, while effectiveness is doing the right things.’

I would consider that creating effective employees is one of the important deliverables of human resources. Creating effective and efficient employees adds value to the human resource function.

It starts with the search and recruitment of good employees. By this I mean having a clear description of what kind of people you need, what knowledge they require for their position and what competencies are necessary to be successful. Then of course you need to look in the rights direction when you are searching for employees. You will be more successful if you look for certain employees in different ways. Then you have to select employees by using a competence based interview technique.  Through using the right recruitment techniques you will hire better employees.

This doesn’t end our quest for effective employees’ it is only the start of it. Next the manager needs to induce and train the employee into the company to ensure that the new employee understands what is expected of him, how the company operates and its culture of the company. Furthermore the employee needs to understand how the teams work in the company, how he fits into his team and what his team expects from him. After the induction and training the new employee needs to be regularly reviewed and helped to meet the company standards. However if after several attempts the new employee fails to meet the company standards it is better to end the employment in the probation period. This is a difficult decision for both manager and employee. Difficult for the employee because he would have lost a job which he hoped would be there for life. It is difficult for the manager because their investment in the new employee is lost.

After a successful start to the employment the company needs to ensure that the employee is regularly trained regarding the requirements of the job and the company. Again any changes in the organisation and position need to be discussed and understood to become effective. The company will have regular reviews with the employee and he will receive constructive feedback on how he is doing. High achievers need to be rewarded and underachievers need to be tackled.

To really create effective employees, the manager needs to engage with the employees. This means to keep talking with the employee and find out how the employee gets on in his job and where he needs support. There needs to be regular communication about what both sides expect from each other what the employee expects from the company and his colleagues and what his colleagues and company expect from him. There needs to be a balance between employee remuneration and the capacity of the company to pay. Any misunderstandings between employee and manager need to be resolved as quickly as possible.

As you can see it is difficult to create effective and efficient employees but the reward of creating a cohort of them is extremely valuable for any company.

Your Human Resources department should be able to deliver the required instruments and outcomes in order for your company to be able to create effective employees. Your HR people should be able to deliver excellent recruitment tools, ways to objectively review people, induce and train staff members, knowledge on how to engage staff members, how to handle company communication, advise managers and employees on how to perform their jobs and how to handle underperformers and find solutions for them.    

What Motivates Us?

Managers in these difficult times ask what motivates staff members. Of course having and keeping a job is most important nowadays but fear is a difficult motivator.  What motivates employees is a big question in all organisations. HR is interested in engaging employees and how could we do more as an organisation? The traditional answer to motivation was if you wanted something special done pay out bonuses. It worked when people were doing heavy mechanical work if you paid something extra you got more output. However in the modern knowledge based society this is no longer true. For instance we paid bankers huge bonuses as they had to secure safe investments and create more money. We all know now that didn’t happen. Well how is this possible if bonuses are the answer to motivate people? 

Modern knowledge employees are not really motivated by money. Yes, they are interested in getting enough money to live comfortably, but once that is secure they will look for other things to motivate them.  

What will motivate employees in this modern society? There are three things staff will be motivated by in the modern knowledge based industries: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

Autonomy – People want the option to be able to be self-directive and have some influence on what they are doing at work. Management has a need to direct everything and leave too little room for self development. This is great for a controlled production environment but it leaves little room for thinking in a knowledge based industry.

Mastery – People want to get better at what they are doing and increase their knowledge and skills and are willing to improve themselves. Most people want to become experts in what they do and are willing to go the extra mile to achieve this.

Purpose – A company that has a clear purpose which makes sense to people will give an extra incentive to work. People want to make a difference in the world. If their company offers a purpose in life then this can be a great incentive to work. That’s why Skype wants to be ‘Disruptive in the cause of making the world a better place’ and that why Steve Jobs wanted to put ‘A ding in the universe’. These things are different and make you want to go the extra mile and perform and are more effective than just the single goal of making a profit. 

There is a very interesting video on YouTube which explains how motivating employees works. I suggest having a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Engaged Employees

What surprised me after my seminar for Small and Medium Business owners and managers was the interest of managers in engaged employees. I highlighted the difference between engaged and non engaged employees and I could see the reaction of managers in the room to engaged employees. How can we get them, how can we create them? Let me explain first what engaged employees are.

An engaged employee is one who is fully involved in and enthusiastic about their work and thus will act in a way that furthers their organisations interest. Engaged employees are likely to have less sick days and come to work energised and focused. 84% of engaged employees believe they can positively impact the quality of the organisation’s products. However on average only 29% of the workforce are engaged with their work. 54% of the employees are not engaged with their work. Of course these figures can be influenced by companies through their manager’s behaviour and their company policies.  But remember if you create a workforce of which 50% is engaged then you are doing extremely well as a company.

This brings us back to the question managers had in the seminar how do we create engaged employees? There are several things managers can do to create engaged employees. First of all give staff members clarity of job expectation, what exactly do you expect workers to do if they want to do their jobs well. How does their job slot into other jobs in the company and if they do something incorrect how will this affect other employees in their jobs and what support do they need from colleagues to do their job correctly. Employees need to understand what makes their job crucial for the company in order to be able to deliver an optimum performance.

Good communication between employees, supervisors and managers is essential. Managers need to be able to give constructive feedback to their employees. Tell them what they are doing well, what they have to keep doing and coach them how to do things better. Communication between employees needs to be good. Staff members needs to be able to talk amongst each other and discuss what they expect from each other. It is essential that there are good relationships between employees, supervisors and managers.

Employees need to be focused on how to improve their work. To consistently have employees focused on how to improve their work; to do it better, to do it faster. Workers need to be told that this is expected from them then conditions have to be created so that employees come up with suggestions on what could be improved and how. Manager and supervisors need to listen carefully to what staff members have to say and keep them motivated to keep coming up with new suggestions. 

To earn the respect of employees a company needs to have a clear ethos and a clear set of values which it is prepared to follow through even when business get tough. The ethos and values need to be clearly communicated to staff and employees need to understand them and realise the reason for the ethos and values. That doesn’t mean that management has to be soft it means management needs to be clear and employees (including managers) who consistently defy the ethos and values will be dealt with to ensure this will not happen again.

These are ways to ensure you will get employee engagement. This is not easy and even more difficult to keep doing over a period of time but the reward of having a large part of your workforce to be engaged is something special and will help you to outperform your competition.