Category: Human Resource

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

You have been on a team before and wondered, “Why am I on this team?”

Or, you’ve hired someone, put him on the team, and asked, “Why did I do that?”

Regardless of which side of the hiring desk you find yourself, there is a guaranteed way to insure you make a Work Positive Dream Team decision. It focuses on three often overlooked yet key components to building the best possible team.

Here are your 3 Keys to Build a Work Positive Dream Team:

Core Values: Why do you do it?

As you’re hiring, this key question focuses on the why of the team, the motivating values that power the team functions. As you’re interviewing, identifying your why is as important a question as you’ll ever ask yourself.

It’s at this core value level that teams become Work Positive Dream Teams or Work Negative Nightmare Teams.

Be honest about your core values. Avoid declaring a pie-in-the-sky team value like integrity when you know it’s more of an ends-justify-the-means culture.

Also, be clear. Avoid saying, “I take personal responsibility” if you’re more of a “cover-your-backside” team member.

Be authentic. Whatever values you ascribe to yourself or the team in that first interview are what you must bring.

Know and communicate well why you do what you do. 

Priorities: What do you do?

Ever interview for a position, understand your priority tasks lie in one area, take the job, and two weeks in realize you’re doing little of it?

Or, interview someone, analyze a certain skill set for an hour, and discover there was nothing more?

“We just need someone who can blah blah blah” is a recipe for a team nightmare. Build your Work Positive Dream Team by first listing the tasks and functions of the position. Second, give a time percentage of day and week for each one. You clearly identify the priority role on the team as you do.

Find your Work Positive Dream Team by listing your best strengths and interests. Ask what percentage of time you’ll spend on each. You clearly identify your priority role on the team as you do.

Know and communicate well what you do and the expectations of the position.

Unique Contribution: Who are you?

Having answered the first two questions about your team or yourself, this third question virtually answers itself.

“Here’s who we are with regard to what we need you to do best and why” describes the team position.

“Here’s who I am with regard to what I do best and why” clarifies what you bring to the team.

It’s at this intersection that you discover the unique contribution required by the team and offered by the prospect.

If the respective answers shake hands well and complement, you are creating a Work Positive Dream Team together. Congratulations!

About the Author

Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), Positive Success Coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover the free webinar about the coveted 7 Weeks to Work Positive Coaching Program at www.GetPositive.Today.

Before commencing employment, it is important to be aware not only of your personal rights and responsibilities, but also of the rights and responsibilities of your employer. Staying informed of these important considerations can help avoid legal disputes arising later in the course of your employment. All employees should be aware of important employment factors including work dismissal laws, discrimination in the workplace, occupational health and safety obligations and workers compensation.

General responsibilities and entitlements

There are general rules about what general entitlements employees receive at work. This may include what hours you work and how often you are able to have to have a break. These rules can be set out in different ways, such as through an award, registered agreement or an employment contract. It is important to understand your general entitlements and responsibilities under your specific contract or other agreement before commencing work. It may be useful to review employment contracts with a lawyer, in order to ensure that you fully understand both your responsibilities and entitlements and are happy to agree to the terms your employer has set.

Discrimination

You have the right to be protected against discrimination based on a disability, your gender or any other factor in the workplace. In turn, you have a responsibility to refrain from engaging in any act or form of discrimination in the workplace.

Examples of discrimination in the workplace may include

• insulting or humiliating comments or action about disability
• insulting or humiliating comments or action about gender
• abusive behaviour toward employees with disability

If you have a disability, you also have the right to workplace modifications in order to minimise the impact of your disability in the workplace. Discrimination is a serious, prevalent and sadly often overlooked issue in the workplace. If you believe that you may be a victim of workplace discrimination, it is important to seek the advice of a lawyer.

Occupational health and safety

Every employee has the right to work in a safe and healthy workplace. Preventing work related injuries and illness is an important role held by both employers and employees.

Your employer has a duty of care to provide and maintain as far as practicable, a safe working environment. This duty of care involves;

• protecting you from physical hazards and other workplace hazards (for example workplace bullying)
• providing and maintaining workplaces to avoid exposure to hazards;
• providing information about the hazards and risks from your job;
• providing you with instruction, training and supervision so you are able to work safely;
• consulting and cooperating with safety and health representatives
• providing adequate personal protective clothing and equipment without any cost to you

In turn, all employees have a responsibility to;

• ensure their own safety and health;
• make sure their actions do not cause injury or harm to others
• ask for assistance if they do not understand the information
• follow your employer’s instructions on safety.

Workers compensation

Employers must take out workers compensation insurance for all employees by law, providing financial protection for you in the event of workplace-related injury or disease. In the event of workplace injury, your employer has specific obligations towards your ability to apply for and receive compensation and to help in the process involved in you returning to work. If you are injured at work, it is important to speak to a lawyer regarding all of your avenues for compensation and to ensure the protection of your rights.

Unreasonable dismissal

All employees have a right to be terminated from their employment, only upon reasonable grounds. When determining whether a dismissal was unreasonable, the following factors will be taken into account;

• whether there was a valid reason for the dismissal
• whether the person was given an opportunity to respond to the reason after being notified
• whether the person had been warned, if the dismissal related to unsatisfactory performance
• Whether the person could have been reasonably re-employed after being held redundant elsewhere within the company or an associated entity of the company.

A great deal of a person’s life is spent in the workforce, so it is important to have a firm understanding of your rights and responsibilities to your employee and fellow workers.

Bio: Laura Costello is in her third year of a Bachelor of Law/International Relations at Latrobe University. She is passionate about the law, the power of social media, and the ability to translate her knowledge of both common and complex legal topics to readers across a variety of mediums in a way that is easy to understand.

It’s safe to say that to a large extent the success of a business depends on the talents involved in running its operations. In order for your small organization to expand, you’ll need both strong, responsible workers and individual talents that will help you push your business offer into the next level. Here are 5 smart tips on how to attract talented employees to a small business.

1. Offer a wider responsibility scope

In smaller companies, employees wear many hats and have much more influence over company policies. And that’s something that should serve as your main selling point – talented employees are ambitious and when choosing between two opportunities, they’ll pick the one that offers a wider scope of responsibility.

When talking to prospective employees, make your expectations clear and delineate their daily tasks and long-term goals. If you spot a real talent, try to get to know this person to learn what their background and career goals are – only then you’ll know how to make an offer that is too good to be true.

2. Market yourself as employer

Every time you decide to recruit, you’re launching a powerful marketing process that defines you as an employer. Build your employer brand by developing clear and thorough job descriptions, providing information on company culture, listing all perks of the positions and making sure you have a professionally-looking careers section on your website.

Treat talents as if they were your customers and deliver a great candidate experience to them. All this will give an impression of a well-organized and genuine small organization offering a set of specific values in employment.

3. Look for talents inside your company

Before you go looking for talents outside the company, turn your attention to your internal structures. As an employer, you should make it clear to your current employees that they have a realistic chance of stepping up the ranks at the company.

When you hire an external resource for a position one of your most talented employees had their eyes on, prepare for trouble. It’s very likely that the employee will let out their frustration, possibly quitting your company to join a similar position with your competition.

Losing an employee isn’t worth it – you’ll need to invest time and money to find and train a replacement, putting a level of unnecessary stress on your existing team.

4. Hire experts

There will come a moment when you’d like to hire a real talent, but simply won’t have the time to conduct the search yourself. That’s when you should consider hiring a recruiting agency to do this job for you.

Before you pick one, check their references and have a look at their LinkedIn profiles and company pages. Make your expectations clear and collaborate with an agency to find your next talent.

5. Promote work/life balance

Encouraging employees to be just as engaged in their work as in their private lives is probably the best way to retain them – and attract new talents who hear the popular opinions about you as employer.

The size of small companies is their advantage – with no unnecessary bureaucratization, they can easily promote the professional and personal growth of their employees and in this way gain competitive advantage – both as businesses and as employers.

Being flexible and allowing workers to do some of their work from home, bring their children or pets into the office, or organizing an out-of-hours event in the middle of the week are all ways to build your employer profile as one that genuinely cares.

All things considered, attracting talents to you company is based on several factors – clear communication with current and prospective employees, a launch of a recruitment drive and a developed strategy for retaining talent.

Tess Pajaron is a Community Manager at Open Colleges, an online learning provider based in Sydney, Australia. She has a background in Business Administration and Management.