by Karen Young | Culture, Employee Behavior
Wow – what a ride right now, right? Things are changing
almost at the speed of light and it’s tough to keep up. You have your own family
to worry about, your employees and their families to worry about and your business
and revenue to worry about. I’m sure I’ve missed an item or two. (For example,
I’m concerned about all of you and how the team at HR Resolutions can help –
not from a revenue standpoint but from a servant leader standpoint.) That’s A
LOT to keep us all up at night.
So, in an effort to help calm the nerves, let’s step through
these:
- Your own family: no matter what, this is first and foremost. You can’t take care of everything else if you haven’t taken care of you and yours! Be healthy, be safe, practice self-care including whatever you need to do to remain as calm as possible.
- Your employees and their families: before we even start to worry about how we’re going to account for their time or how we’re going to get the work done, let’s focus on what they need for their families. School’s closed? They don’t feel well? They just returned from the vacation of their lives?
- Remote work
- Think outside of the box – you may never have considered a work from home policy before – will it work temporarily right now?
- No one is saying the exceptions you make right now have to be the rule in 2 weeks or a month
- Nope, they “make things” and don’t work in an office
- Give them the time off
- Worry about how it will get paid later
- Flexibility will be the key here. (Trust me, flexibility is not necessarily my first “go to” competency – LOL!)
- Your business and revenue
- After your family, here is where YOU can take the lead
- You’ve run a successful company – this is just a challenge you have not had to face before, and it can be handled
- Taking action always helps relieve fear
- Frankly, I can tend to be a doomsayer, so I plan for the worst so that when the worst doesn’t happen, all is well
The world is not full of roses right now and I actually have
taken my rose-colored glasses off for the time being. There are two (2) things
that I’ve learned in the past year of working with a professional coach: 1) I
have to take care of me first so I can take care of others and 2) “Be open to
it being OK.” Right now, I MUST focus on both of these (see point 3d above!)
Let us know if and how we can help. We’re just a call or an
email away.
by Karen Young | Culture
Did you know – employees truly DO want to know how the Company is doing. As we approach the end of the first quarter of 2019, what approach do you take to keeping employees in the know? (Where has the time gone???)
In a perfect world, goals were set like this:
- Leader established Company goals
- Managers established their department goals to support Company goals
- Employees and Managers set individual goals to support department goals which support the Company goals
We don’t live in a perfect world, but I’ll bet some of these steps were followed – even if it was informally. It’s the end of the marking period now so we need to share our grades. (I have grandkids – report card time is important!)
Nothing says you must share the exact dollar amount of your revenue. However, what about sharing “percentage toward goal” or even “we’re on track”. Don’t hesitate to share the bad either. Rally the troops if the numbers are down – with your employees to foster a culture of involvement and awareness. Who knows, maybe one of the employees will have an idea that will turn the numbers around for the next quarter!
Not sure how to begin a communication program with your employees? Shoot us an email and we’ll help you figure it all out and avoid unnecessary drama!
All the best ~ Karen
by Karen Young | Culture
Happy Birthday to Me – Happy Birthday to Me. Yep – it’s my birthday month. Do you know when your employees’ birthdays are? How simple would it be to shoot them an email (or mail a card to their home) to recognize their birthday?
And, employment anniversaries – who remembers those? (I have a note on my calendar for Melissa’s anniversary – it’s that important to me and I don’t want to miss it!)
To this day, I remember my 1st anniversary note from the President of the Company I worked for in 1989! I single carnation was on my desk when I arrived at work. It had a hand written thank you note on it recognizing my first anniversary. Now, I realize he didn’t drive 45 minutes to leave that on my desk before I got to work BUT he DID take the time to recognize me.
How much did that carnation/note cost to leave this long of an impression on an employee? What kind of an impression are YOU leaving on your employees?
Not sure where to start? Shoot us an email and we’ll help you figure it all out and avoid unnecessary drama!
All the best ~ Karen
by Karen Young | Employee Behavior, Relationships
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace made several recommendations that we should be sure to consider:
- Mid-level and Line Managers should be responsible for preventing harassment and it should be included in their performance review
- Social media considerations should be included in your harassment policies
- You MUST offer multiple methods and contacts where complaints can be filed – no more “requiring” them to be in writing
- Training…training…training
- Include training middle and line managers in appropriate responses
- Consider including training in civility
The Task Force was actually reconvened in June, 2018 in response to the #metoo movement and it’s impact on Workplace Harassment.
Not sure if your policy is up-to-date? Shoot us an email and we’ll help you figure it all out and avoid unnecessary drama!
All the best ~ Karen
by Karen Young | Culture, Employee Behavior, Relationships
Did you know you CAN say something when a romance starts off at the workplace? Even if you do not have a fraternization policy, you can still (and should) hold an adult conversation with the new love birds. The conversation can go something like this:
Really happy you kids have started a relationship, but I want to review some key points for you. We really don’t care what you do outside of work, but I do need to remind you about your interactions at work. It’s important that you always treat each other like co-workers – no hidden kisses or hugs – just cordial, polite co-workers. Remember, unlawful harassment can happen when someone ELSE is offended by your interactions at work and I’m sure you wouldn’t want that to happen. Also, I hope it doesn’t happen but IF the day comes when you two just aren’t a “thing” anymore, please DO remember that must stay out of the office as well. While it may be difficult to do, it’s important that you both remember, if that day comes, to be respectful to each other at the workplace.
Easy peasey – right?
Still not sure about this conversation? Shoot us an email and we’ll help you figure it all out and avoid unnecessary drama!
All the best ~ Karen
