What’s more important than that morning pep talk to rally the forces? Respect. According to CNN Money, 72 percent of employees are more impressed by respectful treatment than they are by anything else. So if you’ve been wasting your company’s time and money on frivolous endeavors such as an unending supply of donuts in the break room or forced party games at the start of every training meeting, just stop. Focus on employee engagement and what’s really important to your employees, and watch morale go through the roof.

What Employees and Job Seekers Really Want

Aside from that most important feeling of respect, what else do employees say they want when it comes time to clock in?

• Trust from senior management
• Benefits
• Good pay
• Work-Life Balance
• Fair treatment
• A bright future

Entrepreneur.com ranks opportunity for advancement high on the list of things employees look for when considering new positions. And if your company can provide this particular perk and focuses on employee engagement, along with the other goodies that workers find most important, you have a good shot at finding and retaining the best of the best.

Keeping Up Morale and Employee Engagement

But even the best companies can suffer dips in morale from time to time. And when your employees are suffering from a blah disposition and even bleaker work performance, how can you get them motivated once again?

According to Forbes, there are several employee engagement methods of reconnecting with workers who’ve lost their will to meet goals.

• Take interest: Talk with employees about where they’re heading, where they’ve been, and their job compatibility. Express interest in their career paths and offer feedback on how best to get them there.
• Show flexibility: So somebody needs an unscheduled day off? Consider it. Obviously, you won’t be able to accommodate every time-off request throughout the year, but if someone has an important occasion such as a wedding or a graduation to attend, bend the rules. Remember, employees have lives outside of work too.
• Listen: If you take time to really listen to genuine gripes and concerns, and then do your best to fix them, it will go a long way toward raising company morale. Everyone wants to feel that what they say matters. Everyone wants to feel validated.

The next time you’re tempted to boost production and employee engagement by requiring employees to attend a company picnic, don’t. Take a step back instead, and consider what’s most important — treating your employees the way you’d like to be treated yourself.

Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/28/pf/employee-job-satisfaction/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/253781
http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/03/18/5-easy-ways-to-motivate-and-demotivate-employees/

Disclaimer Statement: All information presented is for information purposes only and is not intended to provide professional or legal advice regarding actions to take in any situation.

Pre-employment testing has been used by businesses to screen and assess potential new hires in the early stages. However, some businesses have doubted the efficacy of this aptitude testing recruitment tool.

The following are six key reasons why pre-employment testing still matters:

1. Measures for Skills and Likely Behaviors

Pre-employment testing allows for objective measurement of candidates’ current skills, attitudes and likely behaviors. This can be indispensable in determining if they will be a fit in the job, industry and workplace environment for which they are applying.

2. Allows for Character Assessment

Pre-employee screening can assist with determining the candidate’s attitude toward key considerations like missing work, being late, job hopping, drugs, theft, violence and workplace safety. Professional employment screening in the later phases can help to verify what they’ve shared as well as their financial history and criminal past.

3. Provides Objective, Tangible Support for Employers

If a candidate is not selected, there is always the chance that they will pursue legal action if they believe they were unfairly passed by. In these cases, pre-employment testing results can be invaluable in showing clear, valid reasons why the candidate was not a fit and not hired.

4. Helps to Identify Unique Skills and Aptitudes

A pre-employment test can also uncover latent skills, talents and aptitudes that even the applicant wasn’t aware they had. This may result in the realization that they are better qualified for a different position than the one for which they are applying. Unique personality traits, core values and cognitive strengths may be discovered, resulting in the ideal hire for very specific tasks and positions.

5. Increases Worker Engagement

Pre-employment aptitude screening assists in weeding out candidates that aren’t a fit while zeroing in on the ones that are most likely to thrive in the company. Because of this, worker engagement for both new hires and current employees is naturally increased.

6. Reduces Employee Turnover Costs

Pre-employment testing can help to ensure that the best candidates are ultimately hired. This increases satisfaction and longevity, which in turn reduces the costs associated with employee turnover.

Pre-employment assessment testing can help to determine how job candidates measure up in just about every facet of a position before hiring. This can help with avoiding applicants who aren’t a fit and routing the most desirable candidates to the ideal positions. The points discussed here are six of the top reasons why pre-employment testing matters.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2011/09/13/pre-employment-testing-a-helpful-way-for-companies-to-screen-applicants/

Disclaimer Statement: All information presented is for information purposes only and is not intended to provide professional or legal advice regarding actions to take in any situation.

Changing global trends in the workplace demand that HR directors reevaluate their hiring process, and integrate these trends.

Here are 5 ways HR directors can adopt these global trends:

1. Employ a Global Reach Free of Global Boundaries. The face of the global workplace (and local) is changing, with many more international collaborations, associations, contractors, etc. being utilized by companies with multi-national scope and reach. Boundaries are being obviated in many ways, regions, territories, and industries by corporate leaders who are interested in doing business that doesn’t have to “check in” at national borders. The company that can best employ the practice of having as wide a global reach as possible while not letting national designations determine or color the way they do business will succeed best in the 21st Century.

2. Redefine Security Protocol to be More Inclusive. Here is another global trend that savvy multinationals can adopt to do better business in the global marketplace. CEOs, CFOs, CCOs, and COOs, must realize how security protocols have, in some cases, constricted the way business is done, and embrace the potential for more fruitful partnerships. Security standards on every front should be re-evaluated in order to be more relaxed and allowing in some areas, and tighter in others.

3. Recognize and Integrate Talent Clusters, or Pockets. The Society for Human Resource Management recently released data on research they did which helps companies identify and utilize the phenomenon of “talent clusters”. These are geographical locations where certain talent pockets arise, e.g. Boston, Toronto, and Hong Kong have become known as “incubators” or pools for engendering certain types of academic or professional talent, in certain areas of expertise. Identifying where specific talent clusters may arise allows HR directors and managers to better focus recruiting radar and methods of talent procurement.

4. Integrate Relevant Global Trends. One of the most relevant global trends companies would do well to integrate is that millennials in the workplace have surpassed Gen X-ers as the biggest portion of the global workplace. Others include technological advances, new types of worker needs dealing with health and wellness, and training techniques.

5. Employees Looking for Meaningful Careers. Another one of the major global trends relates to the fact that making it a meaningful experience and career is paramount for today’s hires. They want to know they are doing something important in the world, and will take substantial salary cuts to accomplish this meaning in the workplace. HR directors can make the work experience in their SMEs or larger corporate organizations meaningful and globally-competitive.

HR directors should be aware of these global trends in order to attract and retain high caliber employees.

Disclaimer Statement: All information presented is for information purposes only and is not intended to provide professional or legal advice regarding actions to take in any situation.

Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adp/2016/05/09/5-ways-hr-leaders-can-monitor-global-workplace-trends/

http://futurehrtrends.eiu.com/report-2015/profile-of-the-global-workforce-present-and-future/

Many companies are finding that it’s important to create a set social media policy for their employees. The purpose is two-fold. It gives companies the chance to educate their employees on what is allowable according to the company standard. It also gives employees a clear indication that misuse of social media that can negatively impact the company persona meets with disciplinary action in the workplace. As the technology changes, the implementation of a social media policy sounds like a common sense solution. The problem is that your employee’s social media platforms are their personal property. There may well be legal ramifications to your social media policy.

A few short years ago, social media was viewed as a novelty – companies weren’t entirely confident in the marketing potential of such venues. Personal use, while high, wasn’t considered in any serious way. According to a 2014 study on Social Media in the Workplace, more than 70% of employers found the need to take disciplinary action due to misuse of social media by employees.

Legal Considerations When Contemplating Your Company Social Media Policy

There are a few legal considerations when making social media policy. The first thing your company should verify is that your policy doesn’t breech the National Labor Relations Act. There are specific ways that your employee’s rights to free speech are protected under law. Making a written policy which disregards employment laws isn’t likely what your company was aiming to achieve in their policy measures. To be clear, petty gripes aren’t covered; so an employee complaining blindly about work or co-workers isn’t protected under law to do so (and most sensible people know that they can be fired for doing those types of things).

Another consideration that you might not have thought of is your legal liability for taking large portions of control over what employees post. If your policy is so detailed that the company has control over what can and can not be posted, the company can feasibly be found liable for what employees post on their personal social media accounts. That’s not a liability most companies should want to open themselves up to, especially since people are more likely to litigate with a larger entity than a private citizen.

When considering any type of social media policy, realize that common sense issues are already punishable. Make sure that your policy doesn’t overstep too far into your employee’s personal space.

Disclaimer Statement: All information presented is for information purposes only and is not intended to provide professional or legal advice regarding actions to take in any situation.

One of the most important elements of strong productivity at work is having a good work-life balance. Millennials demand a good work-life balance more than any previous generation, and since they now make up the largest part of the workforce according to U.S. Census Bureau data, offering that balance is more important than ever for companies.

Though management has a lot of influence in establishing work-life balance programs, human resource professionals should be at the forefront of developing, implementing, and maintaining those programs.

Here are four ways HR can improve work-life balance to increase job satisfaction and worker productivity, engagement, and retention.

1. Survey Employees

Anonymous surveys are the best way to discover employee needs. Employees may be hesitant to openly say what they don’t like about their jobs, but an anonymous survey allows them to be truthful without the risk of negative repercussions.

Surveys can also be a great opportunity to ask employees what they think of specific initiatives that management is currently working on. The results can then be analyzed to make changes that will make employees more satisfied.

2. Organize Workshops

Another thing HR pros can do to create better work-life balance is to set up workshops with useful information on how to achieve better balance. This could be as simple as presenting exercises employees can do at their desks or showing them ways they can reduce stress at work. Workshops can also open up the lines of communication so HR can better discover what employees value and set up initiatives to cater to those needs.

3. Offer Flexible Work Hours

According to CareerArc and Workplace Trends, nearly 9 out of 10 HR leaders say that flex-time policies boost morale so much that the majority of managers are now using it as a recruiting tool. Whether it’s allowing the employee to set their own hours, occasionally work from home, or a combination of both, a flexible work hours policy can give employees a sense of freedom from being tied to their office chair from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

4. Organize Fun Events

Getting out of the office now and then for a fun organized event can do a lot for employee morale and foster better work-life balance. Some examples would be having a company amusement park day or bowling day. Events like this have the added benefit of improving cohesiveness as people get to know their co-workers outside of an office setting.

Sources:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3041908/the-future-of-work/the-surprising-gap-between-work-life-balance-beliefs-and-reality

http://beekeeper.ch/3-ways-hr-can-improve-employee-worklife-balance/

Disclaimer Statement: All information presented is for information purposes only and is not intended to provide professional or legal advice regarding actions to take in any situation.