It is often difficult to be specific, when asked what management or personal effectiveness training we would like. Often we don’t know, what we don’t know or can sometimes be a bit blind to our weaker areas! It’s sometimes easier to instead ask yourself a number of questions as these can help identify skills gaps.
How are you doing with the following questions? Read the rest of this entry »
I was interested to read recently that research shows the useful transfer of learning back to the workplace could be as low as 10%. This is down to the fact that a lot of training addresses knowledge and skill but not attitude! This to me highlights two things:
1. The need to include in the training itself the role of attitude and how it enables the participant to change their behaviour and use the skills being taught
2. Making sure those in the room are bought into the training in the first place!
This otherwise leads to the trainer having to ‘sell’ to the people in the room who don’t want to be there or do not see the value, which not only wastes time but takes the attention from those who want to be there.
The Government is proposing to introduce fines for employers found by an employment tribunal to have breached employment rights. In addition to any compensation awarded to the successful claimant an employer would have to pay a penalty to the Govt of 50% of the value of the compensation. There are some other proposals that prove to be more of a comfort to employers but this particular one is going to bump the costs to business up if the company doesn’t have its house in order.
Rather than wait for new legislation that tightens things further, I would always advise to adopt the belt and braces, preventative track now. Not only does this put your paperwork in order but it also points both managers and employees in the right direction in terms of best practice and keeping things legal.
So where is the exposure? Well, you should regularly review the following six questions to give you a good head start: Read the rest of this entry »
The age of the internet means that we can all know a little about a lot! Combined with that, the rise of job boards and the growth of LinkedIn has specifically challenged how recruiters can remain relevant in the future.
Never a better time than now then to develop narrow and deep expertise that encourages clients to talk to you whilst dissuading them from alternative sources.
Employment/recruitment law can be a dry subject but it is knowing your stuff here that really makes that point of difference in a conversation with a client or candidate – it’s that ‘value add’ thing. You are saving them time by keeping them up to date around the latest legislation or legal developments and this in turn boosts your credibility and develops relationships. Read the rest of this entry »
The article Ethical Energy (Pete Roythorne) in the spring edition of Recruitment Matters makes the persuasive case that, post recession, clients are expecting a higher standard of ethics and compliance from their recruiters if they are to build solid, lasting relationships. It seems to me that this is another consequence of the global financial crisis which has bred a new kind of cynicism against those looking to make a quick buck and put ‘bums on seats’ at the expense of quality.
One of the biggest areas of this is around how we apply the law to our recruitment practices. As an employment law specialist who trains recruiters it has always worried me that a cavalier approach is often taken with this. For example, an investment bank asks for a blonde 18 year old to start on Monday in a temporary assignment (yes, this happens!). What is often missing here is the educational piece that is a recruiters obligation to convey to the client. The consultant is the ‘expert’ who is pointing out the legal and ethical risks of such a course, rather than working under the table with the client to get them what they want. I know at this point I will be accused of not being commercial or rooted in reality. However, this should be about giving ALL information to the client and then accepting that they will take the action they want to, but at least they now have all the facts ie: Read the rest of this entry »
Key performance indicators (KPIs), targets, goals – call it what you want. All of these are present in sales roles and exist to motivate, track, foster healthy competition but above all MAKE MONEY. Those who don’t like to work in sharp end, targeted environments have thousands of other job roles to choose from and many prefer a less public way of carrying out their day to day activities, free from the exposure and accountability that hard targeting can bring.
Which brings me to the HR dept. I have rarely worked with HR people who love targeting/KPIs and it could be said that the business of HR should not have such cold measures applied to it. It’s a bit like the NHS and the argument over whether it should work doggedly to targets or recognise the human, variable, unpredictable elements of healthcare and prioritise activities based on day to day need.
But for HR what this misses is the opportunity to deploy great targets around people activity that drive performance in and unnecessary cost out of organisations. Consider a couple of examples: Read the rest of this entry »
Speaking on organisational change the BBC’s director of people, Lucy Adams pointed out that performance management is a key issue in challenging times. She said: “We can’t afford to avoid performance issues any more. We don’t have the time or money to allow people to perform at mediocre levels. When an employee spends 10 years just being ‘okay’, that’s immoral. But we shouldn’t use redundancy as a performance management tool, we need to reward the really great people and help the people who aren’t succeeding for us to go and succeed somewhere else.”
I agree and have always hated the expression ‘performance management’ as it always implies a negative that will end in dismissal for the employee! Mediocrity creates a lot of apathy and avoidance by managers in organisations as managers are happy to accept what their best people do but only confront the terrible performers at the last minute – often with legal consequences. The middle ground, the mediocre people just survive without any conversations around performance.
I have always trained and applied these principles: Read the rest of this entry »
There was a time when an email/internet policy at work would just set out simple instructions around what was and wasn’t acceptable use. But that was before social networking and particularly the rise and rise of LinkedIn.
The argument around whether LinkedIn contact info belongs to you or the company you work for rages on and there is very little case law to help determine true ownership.
So instead we are asked to consider a few guiding principles that may help: Read the rest of this entry »
The HR profession can often be its own worst enemy. If you pick up a copy of any HR trade journal on any given week of the year, the same typical headlines will scream out at you:
‘HR still struggling for a seat at the board table’
‘Increase in HR outsourcing feared as the profession fails to add value’
Over the years, HR has rightly carved itself out as a standalone profession but with it has unintentionally mystified what was once relatively simple to comprehend. Words and subjects such as ‘Competencies’, ‘Talent Management’, ‘Engagement’, ‘Human Capital Measurement’ – even ‘Human Resources’ where once we had ‘Personnel’. It’s almost as if cloaking HR in intelligence will lead it closer to the top table! I can sort of understand why this has happened as HR does come in for a lot of ‘stick’ from the people around it: Read the rest of this entry »
