Employees are often the best sources of ideas because they are closest to the daily details of the organization. But too often, employees are sitting on great cost-saving, business-generating ideas because they’ve never been specifically asked. Here are five strategies to help encourage input from employees.
Employees are often the best sources of ideas because they are closest to the daily details of the organization. But too often, employees are sitting on great cost-saving, business-generating ideas because they’ve never been specifically asked. Here are five strategies to help encourage input from employees.
As the person closest to your work, you’re also the best one to identify ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with your job—which is exactly what most C-suite executives and business owners focus on. Just because they don’t ask for your innovative ideas doesn’t mean they’re not interested. Get your creative juices flowing with these five questions:
The business editor of our local daily newspaper e-mailed me about a story on marketing during a recession. Economists
are divided as to whether we are officially in a recession, but most
agree the economy is in a troubled state, to put it mildly. My
advice was that, during a recession, companies should be more flexible
and accommodating in matters of price, terms, delivery, service, and
sales.
Tried Twitter but find the deluge of information-sharing too much to manage? If that sounds like you, these web sites and services can help you manage the chatter and enrich your communication:
Over the years, a number of advancements have helped sales
professionals become more successful, but the
manner of selling will surely change. Here are four trends to keep in mind,
courtesy of Drew J. Stevens, Ph.D., founder of Drew Stevens Consulting:
Studies show that most growing businesses plan to maintain or increase
spending on marketing and business development in the months ahead as
the economy recovers. Here are five small business development tips to help you become more competitive in 2010:
Employees who are disabled after an injury on the job often apply for workers’ compensation. Receiving those benefits, however, isn’t a bar to asserting ADA and state disability claims, as a federal court hearing a New York case recently concluded.
Talk about timing. Ellen Kullman, long on the short list of possible chiefs at DuPont, became president on Oct. 1, 2008, and CEO on Jan. 1. As the economy tanked and the chemical company’s sales fell, Kullman almost immediately had to decide what should and shouldn’t change. Organizing the company to respond to these trends, Kullman decided on four principles:
You may be using Twitter.com already. If not, it’s worth taking a second look. Why? Because savvy businesses are using the tool to do some of what you do already—smooth out the information flow between leadership and everyone else. Here's how Twitter can help you on the job:
Customer acquisition is an
investment, but profitability is built on customer retention. With the
economy floundering, it’s more important than ever to keep the
customers you have and build customer loyalty. Guy Maser offers these five tips:
Getting an irate customer or prospect to listen is a source of
frustration experienced by everyone in business. Often logic, flattery,
forcefulness, and even pleading lead nowhere. Author Mark Goulston offers these techniques to improve your customer service standards:
According to authors Chip Bell and John Patterson, satisfactory isn’t good enough these days — customer service has to blow away the competition. Here are three ways
to build a legion of clamoring fans:
When Jan Carlzon, former CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, wanted to give customer service representatives more autonomy, he feared the board of directors would balk. Even if the board members initially approved it, they might reverse course when faced with any backlash ...
Few people would dispute that treating customers well is essential
to business success. “The customer is the reason you have a job,”
asserts Renee Evenson, author of Award Winning Customer Service. Evenson offers these tips for
good customer service:
Instead of networking with potential customers, consider networking
with other businesses that can help you succeed, suggests Alan Bayham,
president of Bayham Consulting, LLC.
With this approach, the companies within your circle of influence refer
customers to each other and also share skills and expertise to enhance
their own business. Bayham offers these tips to make your sales lead generation endeavors with other businesses succeed:
Some employees think that any disability that periodically acts up entitles them to unlimited time off. Sometimes, courts view extra time off as a reasonable accommodation, but there are limits.
Web sites don’t last forever. Some changes can be accomplished with simple maintenance, but patching can take you only so far. Here are five signs that it’s time to revamp your site.
Movers who work for All My Sons Moving & Storage can check online to learn if they need to make the trip to headquarters to pick up a truck. CFO Ormando Gomez is recruiting more Internet-savvy movers—by using the Internet to recruit them.
Susan Orr, senior director of strategic marketing at ThomasNet,
which helps industrial suppliers create Web sites to grow their sales
revenues, offers these two steps to boost the success of your Web
site:
Retaliation claims brought by unhappy employees—or really, really unhappy former employees—continue to trouble employers nationwide. There are numerous laws under which employees can raise such claims, and the circumstances that can give rise to liability are almost limitless and frequently complex.
In the business-to-business world, coming up with interesting topics that will keep your audience interested can be difficult to do with each and every mailing. Training Marketer offers these seven great ideas for turning a dull b-to-b newsletter into a must-read:
With the diminishing time and attention you have to communicate, it’s a good idea to tighten your communications and say everything that needs to be said in half the words. With thought and discipline, you can do great things in small spaces. Here are some tips from Brady Dennis, who as a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times wrote a series of profiles in just 300 words apiece.
Give those URLs a trim ... Show your e-mail skills by avoiding supersize attachments ... Use the subject line to identify different categories of e-mail ... Feel more rejuvenated after a summer vacation by coming home on a Saturday ...
According to marketing
expert Rick Segel, “maximizing” your customers at every opportunity
can spur increased sales and aid in the delivery of good customer service.
Here’s how to go about
it:
Researchers
continue to explore the impact of customer service training on customer loyalty,
as measured by customer retention, and a company’s customer service
standards. The research showed that,
compared with other customers, long-term loyal customers act in the following ways:
Employees who do a good job for Fun Bike Center Motorsports in Lakeland, Fla., reap rewards like Caribbean cruises and grocery store shopping sprees. “They’re great morale boosters,” notes Jenny Brown, assistant to the president. “We have a leader who truly believes in investing in his people.”
Do any of these statements sound familiar? “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done correctly.” “I can do it better (or faster) than anyone on my staff.” “My employees are already so busy.”All of them indicate that a manager is struggling to overcome roadblocks to becoming an effective delegator. (To find out whether you’re an effective delegator, take the quiz below.)
Employers that “regard” people as disabled and then discriminate by firing them or refusing to hire them in the first place will face lawsuits—even if it turns out those applicants and employees aren’t actually disabled. That’s a key part of the ADA.
Question: “I manage the gift shop at a beautiful, historic winery. Although this is a wonderful place to work, we do encounter customers with a variety of challenging personalities. I have several employees who complain about how stupid customers are and what dumb questions they ask. Since we don't work in a bubble, I'm sure customers sometimes overhear these comments. I’ve tried asking everyone to be more positive, but negativity spreads like a disease. How do I stop this catty chatter?” — Frustrated in Wisconsin
In many businesses, the sales staff is also responsible for customer service. While that is sometimes unavoidable in small organizations, it creates problems in larger organizations.
The two biggest comp and benefits myths about Generation Y employees—your youngest workers—are that they don’t care about money … and that they care only about money. They want more than that. In fact, they want way more. Use their demands as a negotiating tool, and watch the productivity of these young, tech-savvy go-getters soar in response.
If your customers aren’t head-over-heels gaga about you, then
you’ve got to work on your relationship marketing efforts, says author Jeanne Bliss. She offers these quick tips for customer relationship building:
As competition stiffens and
consumers’ belts tighten in these turbulent economic times, we offer some tips for building brand equity with customers and prospects:
Everyone talks about getting good customers to give you a referral, but few businesses actually pursue them. Earning referral business can be a fantastic way to grow your business. The best part: All of the calls are warm leads. Here's a step-by-step plan for asking for (and reeling in) those referrals.
Any niche
marketing effort should focus to some degree on what sets your business
apart from the competition, according to Scott McKain, author of Collapse of Distinction. He offers these niche marketing tips to get the ball rolling:
Here, in no particular order, are the five companies that have
consistently failed to deliver quality customer service — along with
examples of smaller businesses that do it right.
Online shoe retailer Zappos has gotten a lot of attention lately for its knockout customer service. But Tony Hsieh, founder of the billion-dollar company, says his secret of success is really about his employees. “Our belief is that if you get the company culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service, will just happen,” he says.
In our business, which is a truck and automobile service center, we are continuously developing and assessing the right metrics to monitor each department’s performance.
Employees who are having work troubles sometimes think they can prevent being fired by asking for FMLA leave. Their ace in the hole if they are fired: They can always sue for retaliation under the FMLA. That only works if those responsible for the termination decision actually know that the employee has asked for FMLA leave ...
To be effective, customer service training must be presented in ways
that match employees’ learning styles. A wealth of research in this
area shows that most people fall within one of three specific learning
styles:
Employers that design online job applications to minimize the possibility that decision-makers will know about an applicant’s protected status can substantially cut their litigation risk.
We know that effective communication is a critical component of leadership. But how often do we need to reiterate our expectations of our employees’ daily responsibilities and their interaction with customers?
We developed a skit as a visual way of indicating how credit, sales, delivery and service flowed. It clarified our processes and gave everyone involved a mental boost.
RightNow Technologies and Harris Interactive polled more
than 2,100 Americans to pinpoint what
consumers find frustrating about customer service, and how these experiences affect attitudes and behavior. Based on the findings, here are three tips for better customer service:
If you want to master the skill of dealing with complaining customers
and raise your customer service standards, John Tschohl, founder and president of
the Service Quality Institute in Minneapolis, Minn., recommends following
these six steps:
Having a
credible Web site reassures customers that your company is legit. Here
are five ways to create a more trustworthy site as part of a niche marketing strategy:
Most business-to-business advertisers have smaller ad budgets than their counterparts in consumer marketing. Here are 10 ways to get more out of your advertising dollars — without detracting from the quality and quantity of your ads and promotions.
Are there certain industries whose business model is dependent on not helping customers — businesses designed to actually be more profitable when not giving customers the best advice, products, and service? Here are some that have been suggested to me.
James Andrews is a stealth force in sports, making (or saving) teams billions by mending their players, including 62 Hall of Famers. Aside from his skills as an orthopedic surgeon, Andrews has made his own fortune by pressing an extreme form of customer service.
“Penny Pincher’s Almanac” columnist Gene Marks tells BusinessWeek that for many small businesses, a web page can work just fine: that is, a page with basic, important information, such as contact information and maybe a photo or two.
Demand for highly skilled administrative professionals will remain steady this year, predicts the 2009 Salary Guides from Robert Half International. While starting salaries for admins are expected to rise 2.6% on average in 2009, employees with specific skills can command even more.
More than ever, top execs are seeking HR professionals with business skills to help shape organizational strategy. Here are the top business skills that experts and surveys say executives want in HR professionals ...
In these challenging times, getting good advice from a competent direct mail
marketing production partner is more important than ever. Crystal Uppercue, marketing manager for EU Services, says you should expect these six essential capabilities from a partner:
A participant in our HR Specialist Forum posed this question: “When some employees come to the HR office, they carry on like they’re at home yelling at their children. What can we do to stop this?" Here’s how some HR professionals replied.
It doesn’t matter whether strong leadership comes from innate talent or
intense practice, if the leaders in question are not focused on the
consequences of their impact. Regardless of where you are on the talent scale, these four action steps will allow you to leverage your strengths and focus your actions
in such a way to achieve greater results.
Email has become so wildly popular that 75 percent of companies say
they will boost spending on it this year,
according to the consulting firm Eloqua. Why? Simms Jenkins, founder and CEO of BrightWave Marketing, provides the following insight:
“What works best in e-mail marketing?” I got asked for the umpteenth time the other day. “Long copy or short copy?” It’s a quandary for direct marketers much more so than general marketers. Here’s why:
In doing strategic planning for your business, a useful and important exercise is a SWOT analysis. It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Suppose you had responded to an advertisement from a manufacturer of forged steel valves and requested more information. How would you react to this reply?
Q. One of our employees is taking intermittent FMLA leave for planned medical treatment. However, the employee’s appointments occur during work hours, and that has started to have a serious adverse impact on our customer service function. Can we require the employee to schedule medical visits better to address these problems?
Yes, customers are watching every penny. But instead of cutting your prices, try fattening your offer with irresistable "extras." Best of all, those extras don't have to cost you a penny!
If you don’t have up-to-date job descriptions, you are asking for legal trouble the next time an employee asks for reasonable accommodations under the ADA. Without a current job description, the employee will come up with her own—quite possibly minimizing the essential functions she can’t perform.
Every workplace has managers who love to hand out nicknames to employees and co-workers. It’s all good fun until an employee in a protected class—age, sex, race, religion, disability, etc.—takes offense ...
Customer service training is almost always undertaken to address
some problem or achieve some goal that has been eluding a business. The
problem is that most businesses wait too long to do it, contends Drew
Stevens, a St. Louis-based consultant who specializes in helping
businesses acquire and retain customers.
As the leader, you need to take your team through uncertain situations by absorbing uncertainty for them. People facing an uncertain future go into “frozen in the headlights” mode: Nothing happens while they wait for more information.
No one likes a layoff, especially the affected employees—who may look for a reason to sue. Smart employers can stop many baseless lawsuits by using objective, neutral criteria to select which workers will lose their jobs. That’s what happened in the following case ...
Even when the economy hits the skids, it doesn’t mean everyone has stopped buying. People still need products and services; the challenge is attracting them to your doorstep. To help goose your sales before year-end, go back to some of these traditional tactics.
Some employees have chips on their shoulders—everything is always someone else’s fault, not theirs. They constantly pester supervisors and higher-ups with complaints about discrimination, retaliation and general unfairness. How is an employer supposed to deal with such constant whining? ...
No matter how small your business or how tight your budget, it’s possible to find a customer service
training solution that meets your needs at an affordable price. “If
you’re really on a tight budget, it can be as simple as spending $10 on
a book,” says Kate Zabriskie, founder and president of Business
Training Words, a soft-skills business consultancy in Port Tobacco, Md.
“The association I work for will be moving to another state sometime in
the next six months. Knowing that our jobs are ending has made it
difficult to do our jobs and remain professional toward the people who
made that decision. I feel we need to serve our members the same as we
did before. But other employees have copped an attitude. What's the
best way to deal with the anger of co-workers and still maintain good
customer service and remain professional?” -- Janice
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has won a significant victory in an overtime lawsuit filed by two customer service representatives. A court has denied a petition to elevate the case to class-action status—a decision that could save the insurer millions of dollars if it eventually loses.
Some employees have chips on their shoulders—everything is always someone else’s fault, not theirs. They constantly pester supervisors and higher-ups with complaints about discrimination, retaliation and general unfairness. How is an employer supposed to deal with such constant whining? ...
The EEOC has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Laura Vallejos, a former customer service agent for Northwest Airlines’ subsidiary, Mesaba Airlines, based in Eagan. She claims she was fired for refusing to work past sundown on Fridays, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath ...
It’s not news that customers aren’t spending. Rattled and battered
by continuing economic uncertainty, they are being more careful and
more cautious in their decision-making. Here are five key tips for appealing to the
frugal mind-set to help with your customer relationship management efforts:
To help prevent negative tones of voice, try installing mirrors in the customer service cubicles so workers can see how they look as they talk on the phone.
Best Buy recently agreed to settle an age discrimination lawsuit with the EEOC that accused the company of failing to hire a 68-year-old applicant because of his age. Under the terms of the agreement, Best Buy will pay $17,500 to Reinhold Schouweiler on whose behalf the EEOC filed suit in 2007 ...
Job applicants bringing Mom along to an interview or interrupting the interviewer to take a cell phone call ... These are two of the top 10 faux pas committed by job seekers, as reported by our HR Weekly Forum readers ...
To make customers feel practically giddy about your company, begin by serving employees. That’s the philosophy of Colleen Barrett, president of Southwest Airlines, a company whose feel-good approach to customer service is legendary.
In a weak economy, it’s especially important to focus your time and
energy on keeping customers and clients fully engaged, and a strategic
communication management plan can help. Here are four tips to consider:
Being an online evangelist is really about relationships—building your
presence on the Web, interacting with the online community, and social
networking. It's about being the face of your company or product and
communicating with your users and potential users, because they're
already talking about you.
According to Wes
Ball, author of The Alpha Factor, things like competitive pricing, customer service,
quality products, being the first to market, and so on, aren’t the factors that create alpha companies.
Often, executives feel they're vulnerable or may lose control if they admit they need to learn something new or give up the established way. Where does it say that you have to know everything because you're running a company?
Creating a winning reputation is easier said than done. Everyone must get in the act: customer service
reps, middle managers, marketing specialists, and more. George Ludwig, author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code, suggests
putting these reputation-builders into practice at your company:
If you’re the owner of a growing business, you’re likely wondering
if you’ll become a casualty of these tough economic times. Ed Hess and
Charles Goetz, coauthors of the book So, You Want to Start a Business? 8 Steps to Take Before Making the Leap, say you do have a fighting chance — but you need to take aggressive action to safeguard your business. Here’s how:
Being smaller and smarter than the giants offers a creative competitive advantage for getting new customers. Here are 6 ways to battle the big boys as part of
a business development process.
Don’t think you can pick out disengaged workers from a lineup. Employees usually check out mentally long before you spot the obvious signs—poor productivity, absenteeism, lousy customer service. Find out whether your employees are fully engaged in their work by asking them these 17 questions.
The situation: you see an opportunity to improve customer service. You’d like to talk to your boss (the CEO) about it. Unfortunately, though, it means singling out the receptionist, who is a friend of yours but has a bad case of body odor.
Verizon Wireless is keeping its employees longer by keeping them educated and trained. The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company pays tuition for employees to earn business-related degrees ...
A significant number of companies — primarily those
in service industries with a rich history of focusing on and marketing
to men — still miss the boat when it comes to speaking to their female
customers, says Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs.
Your organization’s youngest workers learned an important lesson about the workplace from their parents: You can’t count on keeping the same job for your whole career. If you want your talented Gen Y employees to stick around, you’re going to have to change the way you look at employee benefits. Here are three things they want that might surprise you ...
A simple Google search for “HR software” will return a mind-numbing half million results. Some systems live up to the hype, and some don’t. To select the right vendor and software for your organization, arm yourself with these nine questions to narrow your search ...
Your new camera is broken, and you’ve had a difficult time going
through traditional channels to fix it. Try one of these five
strategies to get your dispute resolved.
In these tough economic times, making sure the cash keeps flowing into
your business is crucially important. To help you boost your coffers,
this guide outlines 10 inexpensive and effective ways to boost your
sales.
Many organizations conduct periodic employee engagement surveys to check the pulse of their work forces. Surveys can accurately measure engagement, but only if they include the right questions. If you’re creating your own survey, use some of the following 17 questions that go to the heart of the issue ...
The boss commends a co-worker for coming up with a brilliant way to do something. Trouble is, it’s your idea, the one you told your co-worker weeks ago.
As the prices of gas and groceries continue to climb, your organization’s hourly employees might be having a hard time making ends meet—a problem that could create stress and distraction at work. Consider adding some inexpensive extras for employees who have to choose between buying quality food and filling their gas tanks so they can drive to work ...
Seems like many employees view flexible work arrangements as an entitlement these days—maybe because HR has pushed the idea for years as a way to accommodate work/life conflicts. Putting more structure and accountability into the process makes flexibility less of an ad hoc perk. Here are four ways to structure flexible work arrangements in a more systematic way ...
Seems like many employees view flexible work arrangements as an entitlement these days. Putting more structure and accountability into the process makes flexibility less of an ad hoc perk. Here are four ways to structure flexible work arrangements in a more systematic way.
The Publix supermarket chain has won a partial victory in a sexual harassment case that spotlighted “nauseating” behavior by a store manager. The only bright spot for the grocer: The victim’s failure to properly report harassment means Publix may be liable only for retaliation ...
Q. I work in HR at a customer call-in center. To make sure we have enough coverage to handle calls, we have a strict tardiness policy. Recently, one of our customer service agents was late for work several days in a row. She is an otherwise outstanding performer and we don’t want to fire her. In the alternative, we would like to suspend her for one week without pay. Is that legal? ...
Roughly half of Wayne County’s 1,032 workers are switching to a four-day workweek to cut commuting costs and energy bills and to boost employee morale. County officials hope the move will cut utility costs by $300,000 per year ...
Question: “What is the best career path that an administrative assistant can take
in the admin or facilities field, and what would the duties be?” —
Sreekumari K
Question: "I am the Chairman of our Safety Committee, which meets once a month.
But no one cares what is going on. We decided to do a potluck meal
last month, but once everyone finished eating, it was back to the same
boring routine. No one ever seems to have any input, knowledge or
enthusiasm to offer at the meetings. How can I make our meetings more
fun and exciting and get our members to participate more in our
discussions?” — Keliiokalani A. Tauiliili
Good employees, especially those in sales or professional services positions, can quickly turn into enemies when they quit. Employers frequently require those employees to sign employment agreements containing noncompete and nonsolicitation restrictions when they start work. However, Illinois courts generally do not favor these kinds of restrictions and will look at them very closely. In fact, our courts are quite likely to rule in favor of employees ...
Nothing will escalate an already tense workplace during a union-organizing drive and subsequent election than punishing pro-union employees. While you can certainly continue with any evaluations or disciplinary actions that are warranted, beware of targeting anyone involved in the union push ...
Asking your administrative assistant to fetch you coffee may be
old-school, but is it sex discrimination? In a recent case, a female
employee got in such a froth about her bosses’ demands for coffee that
she said, “Get your own coffee and see you in court!” ...
Q. Our company distributes steel from one of our warehouses. A substantial amount of product has gone missing. We suspect that our warehouse manager is conspiring with one of our former employees to take it, possibly creating a false paper trail to cover the theft. Our camera surveillance is not picking up any irregular activity on the loading dock. We believe the manager may be talking to the ex-employee from his office phone. Can we legally monitor the manager’s phone without violating any privacy rights that he might have? ...
Question: How many cigarette breaks are too many cigarette breaks in an
eight-hour workday? I think we need a smoke break policy of some kind,
if only to keep productivity up. (Maybe we could even keep health care
costs down!) Do any readers have such a policy? What unforeseen issues
might come up if we crack down?—Anna, Miami
A California Superior Court judge has ordered coffee giant Starbucks to pay its baristas $100 million in lost tips resulting from the company’s tip jar policy. Additionally, the court issued an injunction barring shift supervisors and managers from receiving tips ...
Employees can get frustrated. Sometimes, they even act rudely. But a new ruling highlights a legal risk you may not have thought about: An employee’s rude treatment can quickly turn into an ADA lawsuit if the customer is disabled ...
It’s not discrimination for an employer to offer training to some employees but not others—if the training doesn’t lead to greater pay, advancement opportunities or other tangible benefits. Simply put, employers don’t have to worry about discrimination lawsuits if their decisions are based on solid business reasons ...
Sometimes employees get frustrated. Sometimes they even act rudely.
But a new ruling highlights a legal risk you may not have thought
about: Employee’s rude treatment can quickly turn into an ADA lawsuit
if the customer is disabled. A New York court last week called the
problem a “failure to train” case ...
Question: “We have a dress code policy that our managers are responsible for
enforcing. But not all of them do, and now the president is asking me
why these people aren’t dressed appropriately. Does your company have a
dress code? How do you enforce it?”—Sandy, Wisc.
Employers can’t discipline employees for filing discrimination claims with state or federal agencies. That’s retaliation. But what if an employee is spouting off to co-workers and customers about how he’s suing to “get” the company? ...
Complaints from employees, customers and competitors are nothing new in the business world. Until recently, if complaints crossed the line from mere opinions to false statements—that is, downright lies—companies could threaten a defamation lawsuit. Often, the mere threat of litigation will cause a disgruntled critic to back off. Today, however, companies face a more insidious and growing problem: Internet libel, commonly known as “cyber-slander.”
That old stalwart of HR paperwork—the I-9—finally got its much-anticipated face lift. On Nov. 7, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a new version of the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (Form I-9). Start using it now!
Question: After my boss said to me, "If anyone calls here and wants something
done, give the call to Mary or me because we are the only ones who do
anything around here," I just turned and walked away trying to ignore
what he said. What would have been the best way to handle this?
—Anonymous
A woman from Queens is suing her boss and their employer for $2.5 million, claiming she began suffering panic attacks after the boss handed her 15 photos of himself stark naked ...
When it comes to recruiting and retaining, organizations don’t need to reinvent the wheel or create bold initiatives to attract and keep the best workers. Sometimes, simply doing the tried-and-true things right are all you need ...
In the summer of 2002, spurred by the desire for a homey, neighborhood
haven after Sept. 11, the techno songwriter, musician and singer Moby
opened a tea shop in lower Manhattan. With his ex-girlfriend as his
business partner, Moby saw a niche for a teahouse that was neither
English nor Asian, but American.
Hiring managers spend too much time interviewing candidates—and asking them the wrong questions. Then they’re often surprised to have to fire those same candidates a few months later after discovering that good interview skills don’t necessarily signal a great job fit. The problem: Employers often hire for hard skills but fire for soft skills, says Karl Ahlrichs of Hiring Smart, an Indiana firm specializing in employee selection. Instead, says Ahlrichs, “Our new slogan should be, ‘Fire them before we hire them.’” ...
Is your HR department understaffed or overstaffed? Here's a formula to correctly calculate your organization HR-to-employee ratio. Plus, you'll learn the results of a SHRM study on average ratios by organization size, and read comments from your HR colleagues on what they think is the ideal HR-to-employee ratio ...
Culling through stacks of resumes and conducting two or three rounds of interviews takes too long, is too subjective and too often results in bad hires. Employee selection expert Karl Alrichs proposes a four-step hiring process that saves managers time, reveals the best candidates, and highlights the intangibles that separate good employees from the bad ones.
A high percentage of workplace theft is the work of insiders. That’s one reason you may want to question employees when money or goods disappear. But don’t act like the police ...
Question: We have
a company policy that does not permit employees to make/take personal
phone calls during business hours without a supervisor’s permission. I
have an employee who has been warned verbally and in writing for
abusing the policy.
Co-workers have complained that the employee makes personal phone
calls while I am out of the room. My supervisor informs me that either
myself or another supervisor must catch this person making the personal
call.
If I leave the room and come back and suspect that a personal call
is being made, the person pretends that she is talking to a customer.
(This person is a customer service rep.) I am looking for any advice on
this situation. - Darlene
A narrowly tailored English-only policy that is designed to serve legitimate business needs is not discriminatory, says the EEOC. To be valid, the policy should spell out when English is required and let employees converse in any other language at all other times ...
Hiring younger workers for entry-level and managerial-trainee jobs poses unique challenges. Because those applicants have little or no experience under their belts, interviewing requires special insights.To predict job success, focus on applicants' maturity level by asking the right questions and looking for certain nonverbal cues ...
The EEOC last month began repositioning its field office structure, aiming to enhance its enforcement presence and improve customer service. The agency will reduce the number of managers in its field offices and increase front-line staffing for investigations ...
With flexible schedules reaching near-entitlement status, some employers are pulling in the reins on this runaway perk.
A tighter and clearer flex-schedule policy can help you regain control over the benefit and increase productivity ...
Question: "When some employees come into the HR office, they carry on
like they’re at home yelling at their children! How can we let them know
that this kind of behavior is out of line, without escalating their anger? What
kind of language or techniques can we use to defuse these tense situations and
get on with solving their problems?" -- Maria, Florida
Because customer service employees are on your front lines every day, don't just rely on a résumé and a good first impression to choose such vital personnel. New low-cost online tests can help you determine who has the right stuff ...
Make sure supervisors understand what counts as "paid time" and remind them that they should not encourage employees to work off the clock. Example of the risk: Compass Bank of Birmingham, Ala., recently shelled out more than $1 million in unpaid overtime to 2,961 employees ...
You carefully track all hours worked by nonexempt employees. But do you know how many hours your exempt employees work? That can become a problem if you misclassify an employee as exempt when the person should have been hourly ...
Say you want to implement a new training program for sales reps. But every time you propose a new HR initiative like this, executives question whether it can work or say the company can’t afford it. Next time, take a different approach ...
Execs in your organization constantly look for ways to reduce labor costs and improve work force productivity to keep up with competition. Most likely, those bosses don’t ask your advice ... and you don’t give it. To start playing a role in improving productivity, take the following steps ...
HR Law 101: None of your organization’s policies can compromise your employees’ right to privacy. You can’t obtain information about workers that’s not relevant to their job duties, and there are restrictions on what information about employees you’re allowed to disseminate ...
Question: I read
your Admin Pro Forum - Dealing with Divas, and I’m interested in
obtaining a job description for a Sr. Admin Assistant. I am an
executive assistant doing Sr. executive work. I’d like to see other job
descriptions in order to help establish my own senior job description
and present it to my boss. Having input from another senior admin
assistant would be helpful. -- Cindy
Image is everything, as the saying goes. But be extra careful that your pursuit of a certain work-force image doesn’t result in the weeding out of legally protected employees (females, minorities, older workers, etc.) ...
For many employers, absenteeism is a constant problem. You know you must give employees some slack, especially for family and medical emergencies and to accommodate disabilities that sometimes flare up. But, to make sure the work gets done, you need to know who’s going to show up and who isn’t ...
HR Law 101: The Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to keep records on wages, hours and other employee data, most of which is generally maintained in ordinary business practice. You do not need to keep the records in any particular form or use time clocks ...
Question: I have two concerns and
I'm hoping for some advice on either how you've handled it or what you
think I ought to do in these situations: Situation 1 The
receptionist at the company where I am executive assistant, although
relatively friendly and engaging with co-workers, is rather cold and
unprofessional on the phone. Instead of saying “May I ask you to hold
while I transfer you?” she says either “Hold on a moment” or “Just a
moment.”
I once said in a somewhat jovial manner: “You sure
sound happy about answering the phone!” She jovially replied that I
should go back to my desk and handle my job and let her handle hers.
I'm not her supervisor, although typically, I should/would be. Instead,
HR supervises her.
The HR administrator and I have gotten into
small, uncomfortable situations because the boss will tell me to handle
something, and HR will have a cow thinking it’s their project or should
be their responsibility.
That department shows a severe lack
of respect for the boss’s wishes. The boss can ask for a roster of
folks attending a seminar, and I can ask for it twice in the following
three weeks and still, the day of the seminar, there is no roster. HR
indicated that it was waiting on two VP’s. But, when VP’s were asked,
they indicated that HR was handling it, not them.
HR has
translated this sort of behavior to the receptionist, so that when I
ask her, for instance, if someone shipped a personal expense on the
company DHL account, I’m told: “Don’t worry about it; it’s not your
department, and I’m not going to take it up with them.”
Situation
2 I signed off on a work order with the A/C maintenance company, and
the repairs took a day longer than they promised and our server room
temperatures rose dangerously high.
I talked to the manager at
the A/C company and suggested in the future that he at least call to
let us know that the repairs would be delayed. He then contacted the
receptionist, who comes to me saying she didn’t know why I was going
off on him when it wasn’t my place to worry about it, But I SIGNED OFF
ON IT. It was my responsibility to see that it was done.
The
general attitude from HR/the receptionist is “Stay out of it,” even
though the boss has directed me specifically to take responsibility for
such things. I happen to know that the receptionist is close to losing
her job because of the way she handles the phone and also visitors,
whom she handles in much the same manner.
I’m
at a loss as to
how to handle it. If I go to the boss, he’ll tell me to talk to HR and
her and “get her straightened up or shipped out.” If I deal with HR,
I'll get a tossed head and rolled eyes and a mutter about people
staying out of HR’s business. The receptionist will get yelled at, but
nothing will be accomplished because HR simply scolds and doesn’t
deliver a change or even a direction to change. If I talk to the
receptionist, she'll dismiss what I say and tell me to go back to my
desk.
How
do I handle these situations? I'm normally a people pleaser, but also
am very disciplined in what I believe is expected from someone in a
professional position ... especially one as high-profile as a
receptionist (first impression of the company).
I can’t stand
it when people don’t do their jobs right or take pride in even trying.
Yet, I do like the receptionist and view her as a “work friend.” I beg for advice of you wise people! Thank you! -- Anonymous
Customer-service workers are the face of your company, and they’re especially vital at smaller businesses. So, don’t just rely on a résumé and a good first impression to choose such employees.
Question: "I need some good
employee-appreciation ideas. My company has about 500 employees who
work in different departments, and we don't even recognize birthdays!
There's so much to be done, but I wanted to get some other points of
view first." -- Looking for ideas in Mississippi
No question that mergers are painful when you have to consolidate positions. Utz-Hellmuth Felcht, chairman of Degussa, the world’s largest
specialty-chemical company, has had a lot of practice at it. He deals
with mergers in two main ways:
The most successful business Web sites are those created around the customers’ needs, not the company’s products and services. Here are 10 tips for creating a successful, customer- focused Web site, from Tiffany Shlain, founder of the Webby Awards, which annually honors the top Web sites.
IBM has always been known for its leadership training. So, why did it decide to rewrite its own book on leadership? In 2002, incoming CEO Sam Palmisano decided that the Internet really
did change everything, and Big Blue’s leadership model would have to
change.
Issue: Employees who return from injury leave may or may not be covered under the ADA. Risk: By treating employees as if they're "disabled" (even if they're not), supervisors create ...
Question: We have an office of about 70 employees, about 55 of whom have
face-to-face contact with the public. The owner would like all patients welcomed
with friendly faces. Not all the employees are this friendly. They aren’t rude,
but are very cold. They do their work correctly.
How do you make people smile without making them more
unfriendly? If they don't fit into the atmosphere we are trying to create,
would that be crazy to let them go? -- Anonymous
You may know that the ADA entitles disabled people to reasonable accommodations to allow them to perform their job's essential functions. But what about employees who have minor medical ailments that ...
Issue: If you uncover an employee's performance problems while she's on FMLA leave, can you fire her? Risk: Firing may be legal in some cases, but it will likely prompt ...
The world of disability accommodation is complex. New adaptive technologies hit the market every day. How can employers keep up? The answer varies depending on your organization's resources. Large companies, ...
Issue: Executives are reluctant to approve training unless they can prove that it will pay for itself many times over. Benefit: By providing the CEO with legitimate return-on-investment (ROI) figures, ...
Issue: You need to occasionally buy training videos/DVDs, but thousands exist and the quality varies greatly. Benefit: Using a reputable rating service can help you sort out the "Citizen Kanes" ...
Nearly half of employers say they make employee diversity a competitive selling point for their organizations, according to a new Novations survey of 1,780 HR execs and senior managers. Still, ...
Craig Newmark describes himself as a formerly overpaid software
engineer who grew up wearing a plastic pocket protector and thick,
black glasses taped together. One decade ago, he started an e-mail list
of fun events in San Francisco. Craigslist grew and grew. Now, it has 7.6 million users in nearly 100
cities. But early on, Newmark stamped it with his personal code: Don’t
be greedy. Here are three of the conscious decisions that helped make Craigslist what it is today:
Issue: Overburdening employees because of their language abilities. Risk: Relying too heavily on bilingual employees could spark a national-origin bias lawsuit. Action: Remind supervisors to be on guard against ...
Question: I recently completed my graduate degree in business and have
been working as an executive assistant at my current company for almost 4 years.
I have been doing an excellent job, taking and completing tasks outside my job
description, and have made sure that the right people are aware of my
accomplishments including my MBA. I am ready for more responsibility and my
performance, education and "self promotion" have set the stage for approaching
my supervisor (HR Director) about becoming the head of the admin team. This
would be a new position for the company, and there are sound, supportable
reasons for creating this position and putting me in it, but there is one hurdle
to overcome.
I am not the assistant to the President of the company.
His assistant is probably the least qualified person on the admin team to assume
a leadership or managerial role and I'm sure he knows that. Although she is a
very competent assistant, she has no desire to be anything more than an
assistant. Unfortunately, the last time I spoke to the HR Director about a
promotion within the admin team, her response was, in essence, because I was
already an Executive Assistant but was not assistant to the President and
because of the current organizational structure of the admin team, there was
nowhere to promote me to.
This type of position I would like is usually called
either "executive administrator," "office manager" or "manager, administration"
or something similar. Does anyone know of situations where this position was
created or are currently in this position and can provide sound evidence based
examples of how this position helped the company? -- Anonymous
Employers "hire for fit" all the time. But sometimes, a fine line exists between basing decisions on job-related qualifications and the employer's "gut feelings" about the applicant. The problem: That gut ...
A midlevel marketing manager recently flew to London on British Airways. The flight was to land at Heathrow Airport, but a labor dispute on the ground diverted the plane, which circled awhile, then landed at another airport, then sat on the runway, then took off again and landed at Heathrow. The delay chewed up about 90 minutes.
You're free to assign employees based on their foreign-language ability. For example, you can assign bilingual Spanish-speaking employees to serve customers who speak Spanish. But remind managers not to ...
You don't need to let an employee set a bad example by trying to force concessions from you that aren't required in a collective-bargaining agreement or employment contract. Turn the tables ...
Under the new overtime rules, white-collar employees who earn less than $455 per week ($23,660 annually) are automatically eligible for overtime. Those who earn more than $100,000 and perform just one ...
If you instinctively thought of your three biggest clients, you may be making a mistake that's common among small businesses: focusing on less profitable larger accounts at the expense of smaller, more profitable ones.
It's a fact: A small but growing number of employers use location-awareness technology, better known as global positioning systems, or GPS, to help keep track of their employees, boost productivity, sharpen ...
Issue: The Labor Department has finalized rules that redefine which employees are eligible for overtime pay. Benefit/risks: Clearer rules should cut your misclassification risks, but you face a steep learning ...
Issue: You probably track several HR-related numbers, but are you sure you're tracking the right ones? Benefit: By tracking the right metrics, you enhance your perception as a strategic partner. ...
U.S. workers have stayed put, waiting out the recession. Now, 40 percent of workers plan to change jobs this year, according to a Careerbuilder.com survey. Some tips to lure the best:
A female supervisor repeatedly complimented a female customer service rep on her choice of jewelry, clothing and hairstyle. The rep sued, alleging the constant comments were harassing and constituted a hostile ...
Issue: Make sure you're in the right before punishing people for 'misusing' FMLA leave. Risk: Tons in legal fees defending an arbitrary decision. Action: Make it clear to employees ...
You can discipline employees if you discover that they lied about their need for FMLA leave or they seriously misused their leave time. For example, a court recently upheld the firing ...
A pair of recent Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) rulings provide two important lessons for employers: First, have well-written job descriptions for each position ...
Warning: As odd as it may sound, don't believe you're safe from an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit if the employee fails to prove a disability. Most people think ...
When a Wisconsin company restructured, it laid off a 44-year-old customer service rep. None of her direct supervisors or co-workers took part in deciding which employees would be laid off. But ...
During Kathy Smith's first year in a customer service job, her husband was diagnosed with heart disease and her son with water on the brain. Treatment was covered under the firm's ...
An administrative sales assistant at an insurance agency quit after learning that her personal phone calls were being monitored and recorded by her company through a hidden tape recorder. ...
Charles Sledge, an African-American builder at a tire manufacturing plant for 23 years, was repeatedly denied the chance to interview for a promotion to mechanic. In every case, the positions were ...
Here’s an unwelcome trend: More higher-level employees, such as
customer service managers, are being observed by their bosses as they
perform their jobs.
Job descriptions at Northern States Power Co. make it an "essential function" for customer service reps to handle emergency calls like gas leaks and downed power lines. Loretta Emerson handled ...
Jane Foster had a tough decision: Follow the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or follow her boss's orders. She went with the ADA and got fired. But a court has ruled ...
No union, no problem. Right? Not really. Even if your company isn't unionized now, you can't afford to be oblivious. Just ask Amazon.com. In the thick of the holiday shopping ...
Q. I work for a manager who comes in
at 7:45 and leaves at 4:30 sharp whenever he is here (which is not
often), and he takes an hour lunch. He hogs the credit for our work,
and he avoids responsibility.
