CREATING AND MAINTAINING HIGH- PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATIONS
Concepts and brief description:
A structure should set short term goals but also medium and long term objectives in order to maintain performance in the structure. More than just being satisfied by measures already existing on the company, managers should always look for improvement and development.
First, team work and empowerment of employees is very important. Employees should be given more power of initiative to take risks and decisions that managers usually take. Team work should be strengthened and more trust and independence should be given to the teams, even though it remains necessary for managers to supervise issues, communication, and resources.
Second, the knowledge should be shared with employees. Managers should always learn and know more about the organization. They should always stay aware of problems and constantly try to identify training needs. Managers should also encourage initiative actions as well as innovation from workers and teams.
Third, employees should be satisfied of their jobs. They should occasionally be given important tasks to fulfill and managers should foster employee’s passion for their jobs. Finally, managers should find ways to create a friendly work environment.
Emotional hook:
If employees are not motivated, trusted, evaluated, and happy in their work environment, motivation and satisfaction are not going to be reached which can be a serious problem for a company which wants to maintain high-performance activities.
Key to elicit discussion:
It can be hard to try to create friendship, team work, initiative freedom, and risks allowance in a structure without frequently needing to re-orient the focus and preserve professional spirits and behavior in the structure.
Facilitative questions:
How can management find the perfect balance between friendly and relax work environment and professionalism?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
COLLECTING BARGAINING AND LABOR RELATIONS
Concepts and brief description:
In the working world, with time, three different groups appeared in order to defend different rights and concepts. Those groups are the managers of a structure, the unions of employees, and society. All those groups have different objectives that are often opposed. Their main role is to negotiate with each other in order to find a solution that satisfies everyone.
Managers always look for solutions that have low costs and which raise outputs. They work on avoiding clashes with their employees which are often encouraged by unions. Finally they look for solutions which will let them remain flexible and keep control over rules and schedules.
Unions fight to obtain acceptable work conditions for employees. They want to enroll and represent as many workers as possible because the more employees they gather, the more power, financial resources, and strike power they obtain. Unions also claim higher salaries and stronger rights for employees. They aim at building solidarity among employees.
Society hopes that unions will transform violence between workers and management into negotiations. However, with time, many scholars became worried about union actions because they came to a point where workers have too much power over management.
Emotional hook:
Many criticize the actions of unions against management. However, if unions had not appeared, we probably still would work with bad work conditions and with no rights. Unions created a regulated and structured work area for almost all categories of jobs. Today we should be happy that unions allow their leaders to sit around a table in order to defend workers’ rights and conditions.
Key to elicit discussions:
The situation of the car industry is certainly the best US example which shows that unions are not always the solution to workers’ problems. With years, unions got too much power, gave too many rights to workers which make the production costs go higher, which can be the cause of huge troubles and recession for the US car industry.
Facilitative questions:
Can we really consider today that unions are good things for employees over all? Or can we say that many industries and companies suffer of the rigid rights given to employees?
Concepts and brief description:
In the working world, with time, three different groups appeared in order to defend different rights and concepts. Those groups are the managers of a structure, the unions of employees, and society. All those groups have different objectives that are often opposed. Their main role is to negotiate with each other in order to find a solution that satisfies everyone.
Managers always look for solutions that have low costs and which raise outputs. They work on avoiding clashes with their employees which are often encouraged by unions. Finally they look for solutions which will let them remain flexible and keep control over rules and schedules.
Unions fight to obtain acceptable work conditions for employees. They want to enroll and represent as many workers as possible because the more employees they gather, the more power, financial resources, and strike power they obtain. Unions also claim higher salaries and stronger rights for employees. They aim at building solidarity among employees.
Society hopes that unions will transform violence between workers and management into negotiations. However, with time, many scholars became worried about union actions because they came to a point where workers have too much power over management.
Emotional hook:
Many criticize the actions of unions against management. However, if unions had not appeared, we probably still would work with bad work conditions and with no rights. Unions created a regulated and structured work area for almost all categories of jobs. Today we should be happy that unions allow their leaders to sit around a table in order to defend workers’ rights and conditions.
Key to elicit discussions:
The situation of the car industry is certainly the best US example which shows that unions are not always the solution to workers’ problems. With years, unions got too much power, gave too many rights to workers which make the production costs go higher, which can be the cause of huge troubles and recession for the US car industry.
Facilitative questions:
Can we really consider today that unions are good things for employees over all? Or can we say that many industries and companies suffer of the rigid rights given to employees?
Saturday, February 27, 2010
RECOGNIZING EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTIONS WITH PAY
Concept and brief description:
In order to pay and give incentives to its employees, a structure can adopt different strategies depending on the job and on the expectations.
For individuals, the different types of pays are pieces of rates, standard hour plans, performance bonuses, merit pay, performance bonuses, and sales commissions.
For groups, a company can choose to to give incentives such as gain sharing, group bonus, or team awards.
Finally, a structure can give rewards to organizations such as profit sharing and stock ownership.
Emotional hook:
In a situation where the pay system is completely not adapted to the expectations or to the type of job, the incentives and motivating measures would be completely inefficient to increase productivity, profitability, and benefits of the company.
Key to elicit discussions:
A company needs to find other solutions and incentives to motivate its employees if the work conditions are too hard or if employees expect more than simply high wages.
Facilitative questions:
How can HR Management determine if salary systems are adapted to the job and to the expectations of the employees in order to create an efficient incentive system?
Concept and brief description:
In order to pay and give incentives to its employees, a structure can adopt different strategies depending on the job and on the expectations.
For individuals, the different types of pays are pieces of rates, standard hour plans, performance bonuses, merit pay, performance bonuses, and sales commissions.
For groups, a company can choose to to give incentives such as gain sharing, group bonus, or team awards.
Finally, a structure can give rewards to organizations such as profit sharing and stock ownership.
Emotional hook:
In a situation where the pay system is completely not adapted to the expectations or to the type of job, the incentives and motivating measures would be completely inefficient to increase productivity, profitability, and benefits of the company.
Key to elicit discussions:
A company needs to find other solutions and incentives to motivate its employees if the work conditions are too hard or if employees expect more than simply high wages.
Facilitative questions:
How can HR Management determine if salary systems are adapted to the job and to the expectations of the employees in order to create an efficient incentive system?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
ESTABLISHING A PAY STRUCTURE
Concept and brief description:
Along with managing and motivating a team, the way an organization pays its employees is also very important. A company should have a pay plan which includes a job structure, a pay level plan, and a pay structure.
Moreover, the law requires a company to follows certain regulations. For example, the pay may be equal for equal jobs inside the company. The salary must be equal or higher than the minimum wage ($5.15 per hour), and every hour beyond 40 hours a week should be paid as overtime.
As the payroll is one of the highest expenses of an organization, it has to be planned according to the goals of the company. It has to be balanced in order to keep the price and the products competitive. In order to keep the employees as long as possible in the company, the average salary should be in the average of the industry.
Finally the pay should be adapted to the size of the company, to the range of the products sold, to the qualification of the employees, to the market previsions, and to the positioning of the company in the market.
Emotional hook:
Usually work force looks for higher salaries. If a qualified or non-qualified work force finds a company which pays more than the company they work for, the chances are that the workers are going to try to join that company.
Key to elicit discussions:
If a company wants to motivate its labor force and keep them in the organization as long as possible, the salaries have to bed adapted and attracting. Most workers are going to take the job which offers the highest salary.
Facilitative questions:
How can a company make sure that the salaries are up to the expectations of its workers and if the wages offered are attracting enough?
Concept and brief description:
Along with managing and motivating a team, the way an organization pays its employees is also very important. A company should have a pay plan which includes a job structure, a pay level plan, and a pay structure.
Moreover, the law requires a company to follows certain regulations. For example, the pay may be equal for equal jobs inside the company. The salary must be equal or higher than the minimum wage ($5.15 per hour), and every hour beyond 40 hours a week should be paid as overtime.
As the payroll is one of the highest expenses of an organization, it has to be planned according to the goals of the company. It has to be balanced in order to keep the price and the products competitive. In order to keep the employees as long as possible in the company, the average salary should be in the average of the industry.
Finally the pay should be adapted to the size of the company, to the range of the products sold, to the qualification of the employees, to the market previsions, and to the positioning of the company in the market.
Emotional hook:
Usually work force looks for higher salaries. If a qualified or non-qualified work force finds a company which pays more than the company they work for, the chances are that the workers are going to try to join that company.
Key to elicit discussions:
If a company wants to motivate its labor force and keep them in the organization as long as possible, the salaries have to bed adapted and attracting. Most workers are going to take the job which offers the highest salary.
Facilitative questions:
How can a company make sure that the salaries are up to the expectations of its workers and if the wages offered are attracting enough?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
DEVELOPING EMPLOYEE FOR FUTURE SUCCESS
Concepts and brief description:
Training an employee is not a matter of two or three weeks after hiring the new worker. It is an entire process which will help to prevent high retention or turn over, and which will build up employees for future success. Training has to be future oriented in the purpose of giving diverse jobs or higher positions in the future.
Employee development is more than a simple training and more than a follow up on the skills and abilities of a worker. To correctly develop his skills and keep up the motivation, the training has to deal with interpersonal relationship, formal education, job experiences, and assessment.
Along with the employee development, a system of career management should exist in a company in order to structure and focus the development of the work force to a future success of the employees but also for the benefit of the company. Career management should deal with self assessment, reality check, goal setting, and action planning.
Emotional hook:
Imagine an employee working in the same company for many years but not seeing his position or skill improved. This will kill his motivation and vision for his future. This employee will probably know more about the company, the system, the corporate culture, and solutions to problems better than a young educated new worker.
Key to elicit discussion:
If motivation is one of the most important factors for a company and its employees, giving hope and positive visions for the future of its employees is the best investment for a business.
Facilitative questions:
How can a company efficiently create an employee development and career management for its employees?
Concepts and brief description:
Training an employee is not a matter of two or three weeks after hiring the new worker. It is an entire process which will help to prevent high retention or turn over, and which will build up employees for future success. Training has to be future oriented in the purpose of giving diverse jobs or higher positions in the future.
Employee development is more than a simple training and more than a follow up on the skills and abilities of a worker. To correctly develop his skills and keep up the motivation, the training has to deal with interpersonal relationship, formal education, job experiences, and assessment.
Along with the employee development, a system of career management should exist in a company in order to structure and focus the development of the work force to a future success of the employees but also for the benefit of the company. Career management should deal with self assessment, reality check, goal setting, and action planning.
Emotional hook:
Imagine an employee working in the same company for many years but not seeing his position or skill improved. This will kill his motivation and vision for his future. This employee will probably know more about the company, the system, the corporate culture, and solutions to problems better than a young educated new worker.
Key to elicit discussion:
If motivation is one of the most important factors for a company and its employees, giving hope and positive visions for the future of its employees is the best investment for a business.
Facilitative questions:
How can a company efficiently create an employee development and career management for its employees?
Saturday, February 6, 2010
MANAGING EMPLOYEES’ PERFORMANCE
Concepts and brief description:
Managers daily face troubles and challenges coming from the work force. For example, some of the most common issues emerging from a team can be discouragement, inconsistency in recognizing employees’ skills, non qualification of certain employees to accomplish certain duties, abuse of power from managers, anguish…
To avoid problems and evaluate issues, a company should have an evaluation of performance management. It aims at creating a strategy to help employees achieve business objectives, an administration to provide information for day-to-day decisions, and a development to help employees strengthen their knowledge and skills.
Finally this evaluation of performance must have several criteria in order to be efficient.
It must fit the organization’s strategy, it must be valid, reliable, acceptable, and bring specific feedback.
Emotional hooks:
If managers do not have tools and means to motivate a team, it will lose it efficiency and profitability for the organization. If the motivation strategy and evaluation of performance do not identify and bring any fee back, it is inefficient and does not help the company to go forward and to stay competitive.
Key to elicit discussion:
For example, discouraged employees will not accomplish their job very efficiently and as fast as they should. In the case of a customer service organization, this kind of behavior from workers can become a huge weakness for the company and its image.
Facilitative questions:
How can a company make sure that its evaluation of performance is going to bring specific and meaningful feedback?
Concepts and brief description:
Managers daily face troubles and challenges coming from the work force. For example, some of the most common issues emerging from a team can be discouragement, inconsistency in recognizing employees’ skills, non qualification of certain employees to accomplish certain duties, abuse of power from managers, anguish…
To avoid problems and evaluate issues, a company should have an evaluation of performance management. It aims at creating a strategy to help employees achieve business objectives, an administration to provide information for day-to-day decisions, and a development to help employees strengthen their knowledge and skills.
Finally this evaluation of performance must have several criteria in order to be efficient.
It must fit the organization’s strategy, it must be valid, reliable, acceptable, and bring specific feedback.
Emotional hooks:
If managers do not have tools and means to motivate a team, it will lose it efficiency and profitability for the organization. If the motivation strategy and evaluation of performance do not identify and bring any fee back, it is inefficient and does not help the company to go forward and to stay competitive.
Key to elicit discussion:
For example, discouraged employees will not accomplish their job very efficiently and as fast as they should. In the case of a customer service organization, this kind of behavior from workers can become a huge weakness for the company and its image.
Facilitative questions:
How can a company make sure that its evaluation of performance is going to bring specific and meaningful feedback?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
TRAINING EMPLOYEES
Concepts and brief description:
Today a company has to be flexible and should be able to adapt to the variations of the market. If a firm fails to do that, it may lose its competitiveness. To tackle competitors and to remain competitive, a company should have training programs in order to improve the efficiency of its employees and to use the technology available.
A good training program should have set objectives and goals, an efficient training process, an evaluation of the efficiency of the training, and finally should collect the feed back.
When training, a company should also have needs assessment in order to structure the training process. This means that HRM should analyze the context of training first, determine who needs to be trained, and identify the areas of improvement and training.
The organization analysis looks at the training needs, the persona analysis identifies who needs to be trained, and the task analysis determines what should be emphasized during the training.
Emotional hooks:
If a company does not have a training program, it will lose competitiveness. With inventions and new technologies, companies should be able to internalize those techniques and the employees should be taught and trained to use them. Managers can not count on employees to become more efficient or to learn to use new tools by themselves.
Key to elicit discussions:
The case of car manufacturing is a good example to show that if those companies would not have introduced robots and technologic tools, most of them would have huge construction costs and would be able to face competitors.
Facilitative questions:
How often should employees be trained? Should every single employee be trained regularly?
Concepts and brief description:
Today a company has to be flexible and should be able to adapt to the variations of the market. If a firm fails to do that, it may lose its competitiveness. To tackle competitors and to remain competitive, a company should have training programs in order to improve the efficiency of its employees and to use the technology available.
A good training program should have set objectives and goals, an efficient training process, an evaluation of the efficiency of the training, and finally should collect the feed back.
When training, a company should also have needs assessment in order to structure the training process. This means that HRM should analyze the context of training first, determine who needs to be trained, and identify the areas of improvement and training.
The organization analysis looks at the training needs, the persona analysis identifies who needs to be trained, and the task analysis determines what should be emphasized during the training.
Emotional hooks:
If a company does not have a training program, it will lose competitiveness. With inventions and new technologies, companies should be able to internalize those techniques and the employees should be taught and trained to use them. Managers can not count on employees to become more efficient or to learn to use new tools by themselves.
Key to elicit discussions:
The case of car manufacturing is a good example to show that if those companies would not have introduced robots and technologic tools, most of them would have huge construction costs and would be able to face competitors.
Facilitative questions:
How often should employees be trained? Should every single employee be trained regularly?
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