Category: Human Resource

Developing your employees is an integral part of keeping your business a successful one. How you choose to do this, however, is another question. It varies greatly from business to business, because more often than not, it depends on the organisation itself and the skills needed.

Training and coaching often go hand in hand, and can work well together as part of a complementary development programme.

Training

Training is, simply, sharing of knowledge. Those who are experienced or have knowledge and expertise in a particular field teach individuals who have less knowledge of that field. This can vary from an instruction on the best way to lift a heavy box, to language classes to a wine tasting session.

Training is direct. The trainer is the expert, and will tell the trainee(s) what to learn and how to do it.

Coaching

A coach is not necessarily more knowledgeable, or has more expertise or experience in a particular area than the ‘coachee’ or ‘mentee’. Instead, a coach facilitates development in an individual. They don’t impart knowledge; instead, through coaching methods, a coach will raise awareness of the individual’s skills, knowledge and expertise, and their own possibilities. The coach will then motivate the individual to utilise these skills to be who they want to be or do what they want to do.

Coaching or Training?

The best answer is both, but it depends on how you want to support your employees. A typical training and development programme within an organisation looks a little bit like this:

Introduction – for new starters, an introduction to the company is essential. The company’s goals and how they as an employee contribute towards those goals, is a good place to start.

Review the Job Description – Identify anything that they don’t know how to do, or things that they want to know about in more detail.

Training – group training or individual training; make sure that your employee is competent and able to do their job.

Ongoing Development – on site training should be confirmed and updated regularly. Offsite training at conferences or workshops help your employees feel that they are valued, and equally have something of value to contribute to the company

Coaching – Coaching will help employees develop their skills, not only as employees, but in other aspects of their life as they begin to identify ways that they can develop themselves. You can hire a company like Watt Works Consultancy who can mentor your employees for you, or you can develop your own coaching programme, using other employees as coaches.

No matter the size of a business, the employees that build up the workforce will determine how successful you are. It is important that in every single role you have the right person for the job, and you also need to ensure that you are building for the future so that you can enjoy continued success over the years. This is not so straightforward though as people will come and go over the years, and managing your talent is something that all businesses will struggle with at one point or another. This is true of all sized businesses, but the problems that you may encounter are significantly multiplied for global organisations, and these companies will face a lot more issues than any other type of company.

They of course have to deal with working in different time zones to the offices abroad, there are cultural differences that can have an impact, and on top of this having the right person for the right job becomes harder to manage too. There is something that these large corporations can do however to make the attracting, recruiting and keeping of talent a little easier and more manageable, and this is through talent management software solutions that have been developed.

How Software Packages can Manage Your Talent

All kinds of software is constantly being developed that greatly benefits all kinds of different companies, and you can now add talent management onto this list. These software packages, like the one available from Cornerstone, help to attract and retain talent in a few different ways; they help to recruit the finest talent around with recruitment management, they help to train new employees through e-learning and social collaboration, they improve performance with goals, reviews and more, and also help to develop a network throughout the company.

As you can see, these packages really tackle everything involved in getting the right person for the job and helping employees to reach their full potential. When you have this it means that your organisation will be working efficiently and to the best of its ability, which is of course something that all businesses strive for. The great advantage that using a software package has is that it does all of the difficult, ongoing work for you, and this will alleviate a lot of the stress that talent management inevitably brings.

Whether you own a business or head the Human Resources department, you know what top talents can do. When armed with the right set of tools, they have the power to propel a business to success. Top talents, however, aren’t always easy to come by, which is why taking care of those you already have is important. One way to do that is to ensure that their HR needs are addressed in a timely manner.

Timeliness and accuracy being two important elements, it’s no surprise that a lot of businesses today, big or small, are employing the help of HR software solutions to simplify and streamline their HR needs, some of which being turnover reports, sick/vacation/bonus accruals, trainings and certifications, performance evaluations, benefits enrollment and updated contact information.

HR software – the benefits

If you haven’t yet joined the fray, you’re probably wondering what’s in it for you if you choose to implement an HR software. Here are some of the benefits:

• Increased productivity 

Using an HR software to track every employee information and request (a routine task that happens within the HR department on a regular basis) saves you half the time it normally takes to do the process manually, which, then affords you more time to do more important stuff, like creating/revising employee training manuals, resolving employee conflicts, if any, planning team building activities, among others.

• Data accuracy 

If there’s one thing that irks an employee the most, it’s HR not getting his/her information right despite multiple requests for erroneous fields to be corrected, especially if such errors are directly tied to benefits, tax exemptions, deductions and the like. With an HR software, you get one central repository of employee data that you can update as needed, and which can also be forwarded to other pertinent departments, such as Payroll, for example.

• Task distribution 

Normally, when an employee sends in a request, say, for vacation leave, a sequence of tasks is set to motion. HR acknowledges the request, which, depending on your business protocols, then checks things with the Workforce Department or any such department overseeing the company’s service level and staffing requirements. Once approved, the employee is informed, and other necessary data tracking steps within HR are performed.

With an HR software, tasks are automatically created for each step, and then distributed to pertinent individuals through push notifications, reducing the need for constant follow-ups among the participants. 

• Data tracking 

In the leave request example above, data such as the employee’s available leave days, requested leave dates, and whether the request is approved or denied are involved. Alongside task distribution automation, data tracking can be automated as well, making yearly/monthly/weekly audits a breeze, as opposed to tracking every piece of data for each employee manually. 

• Real-time visibility 

Let’s say the business just hit the big time, and you’re in need of new employees, not just several but a good number of them. If you’re the HR head, naturally, you have to stay on top of things, particularly if there are hiring schedules and targets you need to strictly adhere to.

The right HR software is equipped with a central dashboard that gives you immediate visibility into the status of every task being undertaken by your staff, eliminating the need for board meetings and numerous status updates. This allows your people more time to actually get the job done. 

Conclusion 

Technology has come a long way, and the ability to address your workforce’s concern in a manner that doesn’t require them to jump through hoops is a big plus in taking your relationship with them to the next level. This way, they recognize that you value their contributions and that your HR department is willing to work with them, not just for them.

About the Author:

Maricel Rivera is a researcher and freelance writer currently writing web content for Comindware, a business solutions software provider. Comindware Tracker, Comindware’s core product, is a single software with pre-built templates that can be tweaked to suit your specific business needs, whether that be for HR, Finance, Sales and Marketing, Software Development, IT Helpdesk, and so many others.

One of the most difficult things for a startup is to hire the right person. But why do most startups avoid spending time on quality hiring? Simply because they’re busy with many, many other things. Yes, it is a fact that you need to focus multiple things to make a startup success. And one of them is hiring. What do you do?

#1: Build Your “Employer” Brand

Not many startups have proper brand recognition. You’re new and you’re non-existent to most people, especially if you’re running in ‘stealth mode’. Yes, some startups are lucky enough to have star founders with their previous success stories backing them up. They can leverage their existing name brand to push their startups brand. But if you’re not them, then you need to build your employer brand – which is nothing but how your startup is perceived both externally and internally.

The power of a good brand goes beyond marketing/selling products. It also applies to your startup’s recruiting. Building a real brand isn’t rocket science, but it does take time. In order to build a brand you can do basic things like using a rubber address stamp to customize envelopes and business cards with your company’s logo/website address. You can customize pens for your employees and clients to write with. However, you shouldn’t limit yourself to the basics. Go beyond and be active, authentic and communicative to create a strong brand that potential employees can connect with.

#2: Recruit Constantly

One thing that you should understand as a startup entrepreneur is that if you’re not going to recruit constantly, you will fail. You along with your team should always be looking for fresh new talent. After all, you want to be in the position to hire top talent when it shows up on your door. The more you focus on this one factor, the better it is for your startup.

Now, this certainly doesn’t mean that you have to keep spending gobs of money regularly or have recruiters on retainer. Just make sure you have the word out there that you’re “looking”. Your website should be informative and as well as interesting to keep readers engaged. See to it that you are marketing open positions to your talent pool regularly. Find more about recruiting options and agencies as they can help you market your positions.

#3: Focus on Cultural Fit and Personality

Startups thrive and survive only when they have the right people backing them. The quality of the team of people behind a startup determines how far it is going to go. This is why you should hire only those people who fit in your startup culturally. Things such as “lack of experience” can be overcome with time, but how do you fix poor team spirit and broken culture?

Hiring one person who doesn’t go with the culture and doesn’t have the right personality for your startup can derail everything. In order to hire the right person, get everybody involved in the hiring process. The more people involved, the more clarity you will have. This is one factor that you should never compromise on.

In conclusion, creating a successful startup depends on how much you focus on creating a great team. The above hiring tips are only the tip of the iceberg, which is why you should keep experimenting and learning as you move forward to keep hiring the best people for your startup.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

 

When employees feel comfortable and appreciated, they will work tirelessly for their company. It will encourage them to keep pressing forward and to help the company get ahead of its competitors. A truly successful company understands that if they can’t get brand loyalty from their own employees, then they can’t expect it from consumers. Happy employees will defend the company against competitors both on and off the clock. Not because you tell them to do it, because they truly support and believe in your brand.

Comfortable Working Environment

The idea of bland cubicles has been left long ago. Employees today want to know that they aren’t just a number. That they mean more than a grey cubical under fluorescent lights. Create a comfortable working environment. Create an open office to reflect the open line of communication between you and your employees. Make sure they understand that you are there to help them with whatever comes their way. Get comfortable couches for the break room, buy lunch for the entire office at least once a week. All of these things are little changes that make a big impact. It will set you apart from your competitors and make your employees happier.

Showing Appreciation of Employees

Now that they understand you don’t see them as number or replaceable figures, find different ways to show employee appreciation. Things like free education, tuition reimbursement plans and free job training are a few ways to show that you appreciate their hard work and want to help them move forward.

Extra Incentives Produce Hard-Working Employees

Free gym memberships, lunches and game rooms have become a commonplace in many offices around the country. Why? This sort of relaxed environment lowers the stress levels of your employees and helps them have a clearer mind to focus on work. When working for a company is a privilege, not a drudgery, you know that you have set yourself apart from many of your competitors. When you treat your employees right, they’ll brag to their friends, word will spread and others will talk your company straight to the top.

Happy, loyal and successful employees are the reason that certain companies are on top. It doesn’t matter if you have the same technology and bigger players. If you don’t understand how to show appreciation to your employees, you will fail. You can pay them more than anyone else, but money will only go so far. Doing things like creating a comfortable working environment and giving extra programs and incentives are ways that will mean more than money in the long run. They’ll want to come to work each day. That’s when you know that your company is successful.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith