HR MANAGEMENT - 5 Common Mistakes Made Managing Your Employees

by MELISSA FAIRMAN on DECEMBER 5, 2012

LESSONS LEARNED MANAGING YOUR EMPLOYEES

If you have been managing people for a while, you probably feel pretty comfortable with the manager hat on. You’ve given more than a few good and bad performance reviews, you’ve managed those tough money conversations, and heck you even handled a sexual harassment complaint last year! OK well, HR and legal were involved but still…

So you probably don’t think you are doing anything wrong…Well I think you are doing something wrong and you don’t even realize it.  It’s natural to fall into a rhythm and think you have this managing stuff down pat…but be aware of these mistakes that both newbie and experienced managers managing their employees can make:

5 MISTAKES MANAGERS MAKE

§  Giving too much information – maybe you have been managing “Bob” for a couple years now. You “know” Bob so you feel comfortable discussing confidential information, like how Betty’s husband has cancer and that is why she is missing so much work.  You probably feel like it’s OK to say that because otherwise everyone just thinks Betty is getting a lot of vacation.  Problem is you’ve just violated HIPPA; Bob doesn’t need to know why Betty is out of the office.

§  Not giving enough information – If you’ve been burned in the past by a “Bob” you are probably weary of sharing information with your team. This is natural but it’s important to realize that by not giving out information you are making an even bigger mistake. When people don’t get information from you or hear the information third hand, you help build the workplace rumor mill we all despise. 

§  Ruling by decree – this is a subtle one. You probably think that you are a very democratic leader. After all you always say “Anyone have any questions? Thoughts?” it isn’t your fault that no one ever speaks up…right? Well maybe it is your fault.  Have you created an environment where people are afraid to speak up? Do you ridicule people’s suggestions? If not getting suggestions or feedback is a regular occurrence, I suggest you look in the mirror at your own behavior. Make it safe for people to suggest new ideas and challenge your thinking.

§  Managing everyone the same way – Somewhere along the line you heard the message that “everyone must be treated equally” and you’ve taken that to heart. Everyone gets a 2.5% raise. No one gets to work from home.

Really!? By treating everyone with the same middle of the road mentality you fail to differentiate between good and bad performance.  If I know that the slacker in the cube next to me got the same raise (and I do because us employees talk) why exactly am I going to work any harder?

And finally…the number one mistake you are making:

§  You are comfortable in the manager role. You think you’ve got it covered….that’s where the problem lies. Good managers challenge themselves to get better.  They don’t stop at “comfort.” They challenge themselves and their team.  Don’t stop at comfort…keep moving forward.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD MANAGER

What do you think? What qualities make for a good manager?  What are your suggestions to stay on your manager A-game?  Are there any other common managing employee mistakes I missed?

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HR MANAGEMENT - 10 most common legal mistakes HR makes

by BUSINESS MANAGEMENT DAILY on MAY 16, 2012 12:00PM
in EMPLOYMENT LAW,HUMAN RESOURCES

The Human Resources department has a host of responsibilities. Juggling them is often overwhelming, to say the least. One small misstep could cost the company hundreds, thousands, and even millions of dollars. Knowing in which areas of HR's numerous responsibilities the most common pitfalls lurk goes a long way to ensuring that you don't fall into these traps.

#1: Advertisements, Interviews, and Offer Letters

Mistake: improper language in job advertisements. Too many employers still use inappropriate terms — such as "girl," "boy," or "young" — in their job advertisements. This is particularly true when managers, rather than HR, write the ads.

Mistake: unlawful interview inquiries. Too many hiring managers ask about personal and/or protected characteristics during job interviews, which sets the employer up for a discrimination lawsuit if the applicant is not hired.

Mistake: inaccurate description of the job. Some hiring managers work so hard to get top-notch recruits in the door that they fail to be realistic with their description of the job. The unhappy employee will leave, and it will have been a shameful waste of the employer's time and money.

Mistake: inadvertent creation of contractual promises. Too many employers include language in their job offer letters that inadvertently creates an employment contract. For instance, mentioning a yearly salary implies a yearly contract.

Manage your workforce with confidence by knowing your rights as an employer. Employer's Practical Legal Guide: Plain Language About Current Employment Law

#2: Wage and Hour Issues

Mistake: misclassification of workers. Exempt vs. non-exempt status: Finding and correcting these mistakes are an Obama administration priority. While there are many factors to consider, you're basically basing your determination on the employee's level of responsibility and/or training, and a salary test.

Mistake: mandating confidentiality of wage information. Prohibiting employees from discussing their wages is a violation of the National Labor Relations Act.

#3: Privacy Assumptions and Violations

Mistake: permitting an expectation of electronic privacy. Too many employers fail to advise employees to expect no privacy on their computers. If you asked employees, "Do you think the stuff you put into that computer is private?" you might get some interesting answers.

Mistake: improper electronic monitoring. Some states have statutes that require employers to give employees notice if they are being monitored electronically.

Mistake: inadvertently revealing private employee information. HR possesses a great deal of sensitive information about individual employees. It is your duty to keep that information confidential.

#4: Training and Performance

Mistake: failure to train supervisors. When supervisors are not trained, they're the ones who get you into trouble. They may say rude, racist, or sexist things, or be unintentionally discriminatory, and because they are in a supervisory position, the entire company is on the hook.

Mistake: misleading performance evaluations. If you try to discipline an employee for a performance/behavior problem that was never noted on their evaluation, your hands may be tied.

#5: Rough Beginnings and Sharp Endings

Mistake: sloppy start. Among HR's common errors in this area are: failing to submit the state notice of a new hire; failing to tell the employee the key terms and conditions of employment; and providing the employee with a misleading description of working conditions.

Mistake: sloppy finish. Regardless of whether a termination is voluntary or involuntary, always allow the employee to leave with dignity.

#6: Investigations

Mistake: failure to oversee supervisory investigations. As an HR professional, you know that timeliness and thoroughness are important in an investigation. But what about when a supervisor is the one investigating, not HR? It's still HR's responsibility to provide oversight.

You're the employer. You're in charge. And as long as you treat your employees fairly, you have plenty of legal leeway in what you can do.

That's where the Employer's Practical Legal Guide comes in – emphasis on practical. This convenient desk reference is all about knowing the rules so you needn't be intimidated when dealing with hiring and firing, promotions and payroll.

Note: You need this guide even if you already have a good handle on employment law. Every year we update the guide to keep you informed about the ever-changing legal and legislative landscape every employer must navigate. 

#7: Record-Keeping/I-9 Issues

Mistake: failure to document past practices. Courts love to know not only whether the treatment of an employee was against the law or company policy, but whether it was in line with past practices.

Mistake: failure to comply with Form I-9 requirements. Failure to complete the I-9 form properly and failure to keep the form in a separate file are common mistakes employers make.

#8: Breakdowns In Communication

Mistake: failure to keep employees in the loop. Forgetting to notify employees about policy/procedure changes, outcomes of investigations/discipline issues, or unsatisfactory behavior or work quality can be a costly slip-up.

#9: Accommodations

Mistake: failure to explore accommodations. "Accommodation" can be defined as "a determination in favor of the employee." Employers should explore accommodation options when an employee: has a disability, is pregnant, is called to active military duty or has a family member called to active military duty, or wants to engage in a religious observance/practice.

#10: Non-Compete Agreements

Mistake: unreasonable scope. Obviously, an agreement prohibiting an employee from working at any position in the same general industry forever and ever isn't going to hold water.

Mistake: lack of consideration. Legally, contracts are valid only if both sides give something. If the employee gives up their right to compete, the employer must also give something. Too often, the employer gives nothing, making the non-compete agreement invalid in a court of law.

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HR MANAGEMENT - 8 common mistakes most of HR Professionals make!!

Today, I want to share some of the mistakes which HR professionals make at various stage of their career. 

Yes, I am also one of them who has made such mistakes . Hope this post will help all those who are about to do a lot in their HR career. Why to make mistakes if you can learn for others. Better learn from them, evaluate and take your own decision.

Not knowing about law and rules / regulations set by Government 

It is very important for all of us to have knowledge of laws and rules / regulation set by government i.e. Central and State Governments. These are the basics when it comes to articulate policies of your company for human resources. You cannot make any policy which is inferior than set rules and regulation by government. 

For example, you cannot give less leaves than prescribed by state government. There is no restriction on giving more. So if you are not aware about leave entitlement set by government which means you are setting a wrong policy which is not accepted. You should participate in various discussions happening on different HR forums to learn. Also you need to be updated about announcements / notification coming from time to time and accordingly take your decisions. One of such forum is HR SUCCESS TALK Forum where you can ask questions and get reply for other HR members and download recent notification given by government. Understanding of statutory laws is also necessary from compliance point of view. Small mistake can turn big and can even lock out the company especially in manufacturing industry or any other industry where labour is involved.

Copy paste of policies and procedures

Well, I have made this mistake myself at early stage of my career. I think it was due to my impatience to implement so many HR things without understanding my company needs. Such implementations do not benefit organization and at end, it is waste of time and money. So it is very important to understand your company and then make policies and procedures. There is no harm in referring policies and procedures set in other companies but do not simply copy and paste them. Better tailor made them for your company requirement. For example, you have to work on building matured performance management system in your company but there are majority of employees are workers and the procedure you choose is best suited for executives and above then it will not benefit company and employees. In fact, it will make situation worse.

Also be careful when you are making policies of company. You should think 360 degree before you submit it for final approval to management.  You should also know Do’s and Don’t while making or reviewing Company HR Policies

Not giving due importance to informal communication channel

We all know, what is formal way of communication? It is in form of written material which is available as hard copy, soft copy or on company web. These are approved and well known to all. We as HR, keeps sending formal communications to employees, by way of circular and email. But informal communication channel is more effective than our formal communication channel. As HR, we should know how to make best use of this channel? If you are leading a HR department, you cannot be present at every place to know what are the informal talks going on? 

In my experience, I have exercised a method to get best out of informal communication channel. I along with my HR team members use to come to know about pain areas of an individual or group of employees through informal communication channel. Example, let’s say one employee, during lunch hour, mention to one of my team member that he feel that his salary transferred is less than expected. This information or grievance can be communicated to payroll executive handling salary issues.  I would expect my payroll team member to quickly have a look at it and call or send email to that employee and clarify his doubt. There could be a possibility that error is at our end so we better rectify it and communicate to employee that it will be paid as arrears in next month and ensure it get paid. 

Here role of each HR team member is very important to keep interacting with employees and communicate such grievances and information to concern team member in HR. If you as HR, exercise this sort of practices, you will see a drastic dip in your formal grievance registered by employees and increase in satisfaction level of employees from HR department. 

You can also use informal communication channel to understand usefulness of any change in policy which you have made recently, happiness of employees from recent appraisals etc.

Not communicating quicker

One of biggest mistake you can make as HR, when you don’t communicate with employee or delay in your communication. If an employee has sent you a request for advance approval and you have not taken action on it for another two days, then there are high chances of this being an escalation and later on you will spend a lot of your time managing such escalations. 

There could be two types of requests which will come to you and my views on how do you handle it.

Normal Requests where we have the information: Request like demand of salary slip, leave balance, information on any policy etc are some of the requests which are well known or we have information available. In such cases there should be no reason why we should not reply to such request immediately? Hence do so. In case you receive any request, which are not concerned with you, you can forward that request to concern person in your HR team or other department cc to employee, so that employee should know that his request has been sent to concern person and in future he can direct such request to correct HR representative or representative of any other department to get immediate response.

Request where you need further discussion or approval: In case, you come across a request where current policies are not clear or you need to take further approval, you should do it and inform employee about the timelines to get back. Lead the discussion and inform employee about the final outcome. Don’t leave it unattended.

Taking data management lightly / automation

Never ever take your data management lightly. This is true for every department including HR. If you don’t maintain your data in proper way then you will not be able to answer employee / management queries properly. You will take more time to analyze the data and take decision basis on such analysis. Also it is important that only one person should be responsible for one data point. 

Example, one employee should be responsible for employee master maintenance and any modification, addition or deletion should be made by that employee only. In case any other HR team member come to know about anything which also require changes in employee master then it should be communicated to employee managing employee master. This employee should circulate employee master to all the concerned team members. This way there will be very less chances of missing any information and correctness of data will be more accurate. 

Managing records also one of part of managing your data. If you don’t manage personnel file of employees in better way then you will not have record when you need it for taking any action. So better ensure that records are managed well in time and not asked when you need it.

Automation can be a great help when it comes to managing HR operations. It can also take care of your data management part. Automation sound easy but it is one of toughest job. Once implemented successfully it gives huge benefits in all respects.

Exercising employee engagement activities without understanding impact of it

Well employee engagement is one of the most exciting things for HR professional but un fortunately, we exercise employee engagement activities without understanding impact of it. In early stage of my career, I use to think that fun activities on floor are employee engagement activities. May be most of us still thinks so. 

Employee engagement is not about fun activities, trip for employees etc, but is way ahead than this. Employee engagement means engaging employee with company and merely some fun activities will not be able to do so. It can be a part of employee engagement activity but not all.

Most of employee leaves company for better pay package hence as HR, we should always do internal and external salary benchmarks.

To ensure no difference between salaries of employee working on same profile and level, internal salary benchmark can be exercised. Also to understand that employees working on various profiles are being paid as per industry, HR can perform external salary benchmark. Now we know what could be impact of such exercises and what we want to achieve out of it. In this case, it makes sense and will help to achieve employee engagement. 

Similarly, other steps can be taken to ensure employees are happy with organization culture, there is no or less conflict between employee and superior, career path for employees, ample opportunities to learn etc.

Doing training for sake of doing it

Still a lot is to be learned in this segment by HR professionals. Many of us still do training for sake of doing training without understanding whether these training programs are helping us in any way? 

We make training calendar in the starting of the year and try to ensure that training mentioned in the calendar get executed. We take feedback from participants and some time from trainer, do some paperwork and close our files. We even don’t bother to understand whether a particular training program made any difference or we just wasted our time on it including trainer and participants. Hence we should learn ways to make effective training calendar, identifying training needs of company, better ways to execute training so that learning is more and ways to evaluate ROI (Return on Investment) of training programs executed.

Refer post "How to get best out of training programs conducted in your organization?"

Do not know about various business segments of organization

Now days, companies are into diverse product and services. Companies are spreading their wings to exposure new market and enter into new product and services. Hence we also need to explore ourselves to know about each and every business vertical we have. In absence of understanding a department or business unit, we will not be able to contribute fully. We will make mistakes during recruitment, performance management, framing policy etc, if we are not aware about business model and various profiles which are required to run this business model. Hence, we need to spend adequate time to know about functioning of our various departments and business units, the way we do to learn about HR. Then only you will be able to align HR practices to business growth and be partner to success of company.

I am sure there are many other mistakes which we can think of and made in our career. Please do share with all of us such experience and opinion. 

Source: http://hrsuccesstalk.blogspot.com

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MANAGEMENT - 7 Common Mistakes Managers Make (and How to Avoid Them)

By James Harwood

Managers play a key role for any business. Growth and success of an organization will largely rely on their expertise and experience to manage certain tasks. Unfortunately, mistakes are inevitable in the business world. Whether you’re an amateur or veteran in managing, you are bound to make mistakes as you further your career. In addition, a study shows that over half of the manager population received no training whatsoever prior entering their respective fields of work.

To guide you in becoming a good manager, here is a list of the 7 most common mistakes that managers make and tips to avoid them.

Micromanaging

New managers perceive the urge to assert their newly established authority and entrench their role as the boss. They also feel the need to guarantee their group is victorious in all tasks. They suddenly find themselves accountable for the actions and performances of their employees. As a result, they resort to micromanaging to feel their power.

Tip: No one wants to be micromanaged. Doing so will turn your employees against you and create a bad environment for your organization. Delegate, create deadlines, and hone expectations, but allow the employee to decide how he/she will be completing the task.

Insufficient directions

This is another common mistake that may arise when you take micromanaging to the extremes. While you should avoid micromanaging, leaving your workers with scarce information to work on isn’t good either. Workers should be fully briefed of what they should expect from respective projects, what their objectives should be, and what the standards of success should be.

Tip: Call out your employees and discuss what the desired results and goals should be and the most efficient ways to reach it. Inquire if any employee has ideas of their own regarding how best to complete the task, etc.

Neglecting employees’ personal problems

New managers are usually promoted due to their outstanding project management skills and relevant professional attributes. In most cases, they do not have any training or experience on how to handle personal issues in the workforce. Nonetheless, if performance or behavioral issues go unresolved, the business can suffer greatly for it.

Tip: Always address these problems immediately. Talk with the employee/s in private and ask your Human Resource department for advice.

Taking on too much

Driven to demonstrate their qualifications and worthiness for a promotion, new managers tend to take on too much work. Eventually, it blows up in their face. Managers assume they will be able to maintain recent quality levels and even accept new tasks concurrently. They do not consider the chunk of time it consumes to manage workers.

Tip: Learn how to balance your roles. Know when you need to refuse any more projects or unreasonable time frames for completion of projects.

Being stagnant

This is a mistake commonly made by newly promoted internal managers. While it isn’t exactly necessary to forget your old friends and co-workers or undergo a complete personality makeover, you should be ready to adapt to changing environments.

Tip: New management should avoid gossips or whining and display a positive and professional attitude at once.

Too many alterations

New managers exaggerating on the previous tip may end up making this mistake. Making too many changes after a promotion can turn out bad for you.

Tip: Take time to make the necessary adjustments entailed from your new role and establish solid relationships first prior considering making any significant changes.

Not abiding to human resource laws and policies

While it is committed unintentionally, new managers tend to break regulations set forth by their HR department. While new managers are aware of major laws like racial discrimination, they sometimes forget to account for minor acts of racism, sexual harassment, and sexism.

Tip: Always ask questions appropriate for the subject, be it an interview or monthly assessment. In addition, know what queries you can and can’t ask to your employees. 

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