June 20, 2013

You are here: Home / Archives for Employee Relationships

Save Money by Improving Your Employee Relations

June 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It pays in big ways to have excellent employee relations. By keeping your staff happy, they’ll be more likely to continue working for your company. This saves you a bundle of money because you won’t constantly be spending money on new hires. Consider these strategies for improving your employee relations.

Create a Committee

So, nobody likes to be on a committee, especially at work. However, this committee is special because its members will develop ways to make the workplace more enjoyable. Recommendations might include giving employees one or two days off during a slow period for your company, offering on-site childcare, and giving wellness incentives. Some of these measures can save employers money in the long run in the way of lower healthcare costs and fewer sick days.

Offer Flexibility

If you don’t feel like you can give your workers additional time off, be creative in developing other ways to reward them. For example, find out if some jobs could be performed at different hours. Some parents might welcome the chance to work earlier hours so they can end their work day at the same time the kids get out of school. Additionally, many employers are making 30 hour work weeks available for certain positions. (Ideally, the employee continues to receive benefits, including health insurance.) There are cost savings because the employees take home three-fourths of the pay they received when they worked 40 hours per week. It’s a fair trade for many employees who enjoy having additional time off.

Keeping your employees happy may cost you up front, but many of these measures save you time and money in the long run.

Filed Under: Business Costs, Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

How to Have Successful Client Relations

May 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Successful client relations are key to any business. Of course there are easy clients that are easy to please, but there are also high maintenance clients that seem to require hours on the phone, tons of edits and lots of time. There are some keys to successful client relations that can make a business flourish.

  • It is important that you know your role. Be sure that expectations are clear and concise. You need to know exactly what the client wants and expects. Get it in writing and pyrefer to it often.
  • Invite client input. If the client feels that they have made a significant contribution to the project they will be less likely to request major changes. They have a stake in the finished product due to their contributions.
    Downtown LA's office skyscrapers. Including th... 

    Image via Wikipedia

  • If you have messed up admit it. Clients do not like excuses. They want results.
  • Do not take every project you are offered. Too many companies just starting out are desperate for work and are tempted to take on projects that they know they may not be able to complete or do successfully.
  • Be on time. When you say you are going to deliver the results do it.
  • If the partnership just isn’t making progress ending the relationship may need to be considered. If you are miserable chances are the client is miserable. Part ways peacefully.

Client relations are the bread and butter to any business. Follow these tips for a happy, successful client relationship which will lead to a successful business.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Business, Client Relationships, Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Hiring employees for less

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Maintaining a healthy head count is crucial for the success of any business. You don’t want to end up understaffed when you need the manpower to finish vital projects or overstaffed during lean periods that leads to unnecessary spending. Although companies generally have a plan on how they will be going about their recruitment process, smaller businesses often end up incurring huge expenses in hiring. They need skilled and talented employees yet can’t afford to pay high salaries or commissions to agents. Here are some tips on how you can get quality staff for your organization without having to delve too deep into your pocket!

1. Hiring immigrants instantly reduces the amount you will be spending on salaries. Immigrants, although highly talented, usually ask for lesser pay as their English may be flawed or they may not have enough local experience. With a little bit of training they can become high performers.

2. A lot of female executives leave their jobs to concentrate on their families once they have children. Often, however, they look out for part time jobs or work as consultants. They can provide you with much needed expertise at a discounted price!

3. Look out for people who work on contract basis. If you think you will need additional staff for a single project, hire employees on a contract that lasts the duration of the project. This way, your work will get done and you won’t have to pay for employee idle time.

4. Interns are a great way to fill up positions that don’t require a lot of experience. They look for jobs solely to gain experience and don’t expect much of a pay.

5. Encourage employee referrals to avoid paying huge commissions to agents.

Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Save money – promote your employees

March 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hiring new recruits from external sources can consume a lot of time and money. You have to engage your HR team into the recruitment process, pay consultants for referring suitable applicants, train the new recruits and then go through a waiting period till the new employees fully settles into the job which could take months! Promoting employees within the organization is always the better way to go, especially for small businesses that can’t afford the cost of hiring new recruits. Here are a few tips on how you can use in-house talents t fill up higher posts:

1. If you have a small company, chances are that you will know what skills and abilities every individual working for you has. Make a list of all their educational and professional qualifications as well as soft skills that your employees may have.

2. Keep an eye out for high performers. People who are willing to go the extra mile and show an interest in development are likely to evolve into better roles over a course of time. Remember to be unbiased in your evaluation of your employees.

3. Make sure that every employee has a career path to follow. Have your HR team have one to one sessions with each employee to know how they see themselves progressing in the organization and plot a timeline based graph for their growth.

4. Have in-house training courses arranged that aim at developing employee skills that will benefit your organization. Keep a check on which employees shine during these training sessions.

5. Let your employees know that you are interested in promoting them and encourage them to approach you when they feel they are ready to take on more responsibilities.

Filed Under: Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Effective Employee Orientation

March 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Most companies have an orientation program for new recruits to get them up to pace with the organization. Orientation fast tracks an employee towards better understanding of the organizational goals, the work environment, policies, benefits and lots more. Here are a few points that will make employee orientation more effective for any organization.

1. Have a good orientation plan. Bombarding a new employee with a load of information on the first day is never a good idea so spread your orientation over the period of a month.

2. On the first day, make sure the new employee gets introduced to all their colleagues as well as department heads.

3. Appoint someone from the employees’ department as his or her ‘buddy’. This person will be responsible for making the new recruit comfortable in the new work environment and help them adjust.

4. Create an Employee Handbook that contain all the policies pertaining to HR, administration, benefits, holidays and almost anything that an employee can have a question about. Give this handbook to the employee on the first day and ask them to read it thoroughly, indicating that their knowledge will be tested shortly.

5. At the end of the first week, conduct a quick test to know if the employee understand his or her job role and how their own department functions.

6. AT the end of the month, arrange for an employee orientation day for all the employees recruited that month. Have senior managers and executives of each department brief them on how their department functions. It would be great if you could get a chief officer to explain the organization’s goals, mission and vision.

7. Conduct a final test to know if the employee is aware of all policies of the organization.

Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

The Potential Employee

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In the cutthroat business world, there is so much riding on the resume and interview. It is very difficult to land a great job, so there will be many different applicants for open positions. Here are a few things to look for when interviewing potential candidates.

Resume

When looking for a potential employee, the first thing you will see is their resume. It’s not just an outline of their work history or their education, it’s also a glimpse into their personality. If you receive a beat up, poorly printed resume full of misspelled words and outdated information, you probably aren’t looking at the next great employee. Only let the applicants through that meet the meticulous standards your company warrants.

Education

While looking at resumes, you will also be looking into the applicants education history. You first want to make sure that they meet the minimum education requirements that the position needs. It doesn’t matter whether it’s from junior colleges, online schools, or even ivy league schools, a commitment to education shows a lot about your applicant. A couple of red flags you want to look out for may be if they changed their major a lot, never finished, or got horrible grades, because indecisiveness, lack of commitment, or doing the absolute minimum required are all qualities you want to avoid in an employee.

Interview

You can learn so much about a person when you meet them face to face. When interviewing potential employees, you want to try and absorb as much about them as you possibly can. The person you want working for you will exude confidence, look you right in the eye when speaking to you, and seem comfortable around you. Although, you may want to be a bit understanding when it comes to nerves, because you don’t want to miss out on a great employee because they were a little nervous in the interview.

Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Are Former Employees Sharing Your Information?

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Hilton Worldwide

Image via Wikipedia

In light of the latest scandal between Hilton Worldwide and Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, business managers all over should pay attention. When people move from one job to another they often take  knowledge and clients with them, even if they signed a nondisclosure contract. A person cannot “un” know something, and chances are, they were hired at the new position because of what they know.
Hilton hired two of Starwood’s management people who took proprietary information with them. New projects of Starwood’s not only became knowledge to Hilton, but even pertinent details of the new project came out in Hilton’s version of the same idea.  Of course, a lawsuit was born and then settled in December of 2010.
HR managers take note: there are things that can be done to minimize the conflict that’s naturally created between the new hire’s old job and the new job. There are steps that can be taken to ensure a smoother transition without litigation.
HR Managers can Prevent Proprietary Information Dissemination

  • 1.) There has to be a thorough background check, first to avoid criminals and second to get an idea of what the person knows. This includes showing old contracts to potential employers, talking about experiences and sharing the policies and procedures about clientele lists, among other things.
  • 2.) All new hires must go through a process of orientation where they learn policies about confidentiality of information and procedures. They need to know how secret that information should be kept, and that the company has a zero-tolerance policy for sharing or reproducing information.
  • 3.) When an employee states an intention to leave the company, the HR department needs to act right away. Considerations are locking the person out of computer files and servers, collecting property like computers, rolodexes, etc. Take inventory and do an exit interview where the person is reminded of the legal ramifications of information sharing.
Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: , ,

Terminating An Employee

January 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Every boss hires new employees with the thought that this could be a long-term working relationship.  The boss is hoping this is the case, as is, in most cases, the employee.  Both parties are willing to work through the rough spots, to get to that place where the employee is comfortable with the work and the boss is confident in the employee.  Sometimes this takes longer than other times.  Some employees need more training, a little more help to get them started working on their own.  If their work is good and you are happy with their performance, this does not seem like such a big investment to you.

There are those employees who just never seem to catch on.  You are beginning to think that this may not be the right job for them.  You obviously hired this person because you felt they were good for your company.  Maybe there is another position they are better suited for.  Unfortunately when all avenues have been exhausted it may be time to terminate your relationship with that employee.  It may just not have been a good fit.  Obviously he or she is not the right person for the job.  They may feel the same way.  Maybe this is not what they expected this position to be, or it is just too different than what they are used to.  They have tried, but nothing seems to be clicking.

It happens.  At times like these a boss has to do the one thing he probably enjoys the least, let the person go.  Be the consummate professional.  Sit the employee down and let him know you feel he or she tried and that you hope he or she realizes that you did too.  However, you feel at this time that this is not the right position for him, it is not working out for you and you think he should look elsewhere for employment.

Filed Under: Employee Relationships, Human Resources Tagged With: ,

The Company Car

January 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Finding creative ways to keep your employees happy is a great skill, and one that never becomes more important as when there is a recession.  Big company cars for higher level management, along with credit cards to fill those gas guzzling tanks might not be feasible for your company.  However, if your employees will be required to travel  you will have to find some way to make this happen.  Investing in a fleet of eco friendly automobiles may be a very wise investment.  While the initial cost would be higher than purchasing cars, in the long run, the money you will save in gas and wear and tear may be substantial.  You may come to the point where you cannot offer company cars to employees.  Be aware that you will have to find some way to reimburse travel expenses.  There are companies out there who keep their own gas pumps on the company grounds in order to provide gas for those who need to travel.  Perhaps you can forge a relationship with a local car dealer, thereby garnering better deals for cars that you may need to purchase.

Maybe van pooling is the way to go.  This became very popular during the gas crunch and is not a bad idea.  This type of transportation saves wear and tear on the employees automobile, and the ride to work can be a mini meeting in and of itself.  Many good ideas have come out of the ride to work.  When employees are in a group they are most likely going to talk about the job.

If you cannot offer company cars, perhaps you can share the expense of a car, its maintenance and gas with the employee.  Offering to help defray the costs of the transportation is certainly better than requiring the employee to absorb the entire cost, and is an important way for your company to trim the budget.

Filed Under: Employee Relationships Tagged With: ,

Employee Morale

January 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Every good business is a good business because of the people who worked to make it that, from the CEO of the company, down to the janitor who keeps the business looking clean and neat.  Every good boss knows this.  Keeping the employees happy has never been more important.  Disgruntled employees can make for a difficult work place.  On the other hand, happy employees keep a work place happy, and happy work places are considerably more productive than unhappy work places.  During fat times, when the money is flowing it is easy to keep the employees happy.  Employees who are appreciated with monthly or quarterly production bonuses, delivered lunches, or some extra time off feel appreciated.  When an employee feels appreciated, he is more likely to keep production up and the cash flow continues.

It is difficult during a recession to keep the bonuses and free lunches coming.  This may be one of the first things that needs to be trimmed from your budget.  If this is the case, make sure that management are not still continuing to collect fat bonuses while the lesser employees are working hard and not seeing the bonuses.  Let your employees know that you appreciate everything they are doing to keep the business going strong during a recession.  Make sure that management and higher paid employees are proportionately taking the same cuts.  It is not good for the employees to see management padding the expense accounts with lavish lunches and overnight trips to nowhere.  Let your management team know that you appreciate them as well, and that everyone has to give a little across the board.

Find some inexpensive ways to let the employees know that they are appreciated.  Have contests with prizes for good production, positive attitudes or other employee positive situations.  Keep the communication open, giving everyone the opportunity to air grievance, as well as share ideas on how to make it through the recession.

Filed Under: Employee Relationships Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts