This topic is for both employees and management!  Making sure what one does, or what the company is paying someone to do and documenting accurately the features of that position is one of the more difficult tasks management has.  Employees also are negligent in keeping track of the position description as their duties change.  In small companies this even becomes harder as everyone pitches in to meet deadlines and get things done!  One of the discussion topics on the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) website provides information and tools to manage the job descriptions.
First – why this is important:  the descriptions are used as information for many of the company activities.  They are a tool used in recruiting, salary planning, setting employee objectives and doing career planning.  They are also needed to do strategic planning at the executive level.  Finally, they are part of the process when meeting legal requirements for compliance purposes. 
The discussion on the SHRM site recommends reviewing these documents every few years, in conjunction with salary reviews and updating the organization’s purpose and mission.  I maintain that in a rapidly expanding business this may not be often enough.  The issue here is not the one-time “other duties as assigned” task.  The description needs to change when job assignments are shifted or a new process is added to a department or employee.  Sometimes a position is eliminated, as has been the case in the last few years.  The duties of that position are normally shifted to another employee and need to be written down.  I’ve seen situations where a critical department function was let drop because no one remembered who was responsible and there wasn’t sufficient documentation.
The review process should include tracking an employee’s duties and the how much time is spent on each task, observing the employee performing his or her job, interviewing the employee, managers and others who work with the employee, and comparing the job to other jobs in the same department or the same job level and category.  Please remember – this is not an employee review, but a test of the accuracy of the job description.
There are forms available that can be used to audit a job.  Employees can fill out a questionnaire to provide a current picture of the job as they perceive it. The form may ask for job title, reporting structure, general purpose and daily and periodic tasks.  The employee may be asked to estimate the time each takes, and for how long they have been performing these tasks.  An important part of this survey should determine what the employee thinks they are doing that is unnecessary, and what things they should be doing as part of their position.  Information gathered here can be very revealing!  Finally  the employee should provide background – education and experience – that the job requires, and what skills and education they have currently. 
The same form can then be used to check with department managers and confirm that these are indeed the tasks and responsibilities of the position.  Education and experience should be checked against the current position requirements.  In the process there may be situations where the job needs to be re-categorized to meet the facts!
Sound like a lot of work?  In reality it can save a lot of hassle later on because of misunderstandings or – as I mentioned earlier – missed steps in the business process.  Good luck!

Tags: employment issues, job descriptions, staffing plans

The issues surrounding electronic devices and social media continue to pop up in HR news.  The Society for Human Resource Management  (SHRM) featured a couple of articles of interest this week.
 The first was a follow on to an earlier one covering National Labor Relations Board rulings on social media.  These rulings relate to employer social media policies and to employee discharge after they posted comments to Facebook.  The NLRB release that accompanied the latest report emphasized two main points:  employer policies should not be so sweeping that they prohibit protected activity, and an employee’s comments are not protected if they are mere gripes.  The main issue here seems to be that there is a significant difference between the old “water cooler” conversations among employees at work and the posting of comments on social media.  The difference, of course is the vast audience reached via social media, outside the workplace.
So how do employers create policy to protect the company and the employee’s right of free speech at the same time?  It appears that social media policies should reflect the same standards as workplace policies against discrimination and harassment.  These policies are based on federal and state regulations regarding the various types of discrimination.  The policy also can prohibit employees from disclosing confidential or proprietary information, including personal health information about customers and employees. 
Eric Mayer, attorney with Dilworth Paxson in Philadelphia, is quoted in the SHRM article and provides tips based on the NLRB report.  First it is ok to prohibit employees from sharing confidential and proprietary information online.  It is also ok to prohibit employees from using vulgar and obscene language, or posting intimidating or harassing material – provided they use the NLRB-blessed language to pass muster. If your company is struggling with these issues a review of the NLRB rulings might be helpful – and then consult with your employment legal advisors.
As if life weren’t complicated enough, now employees want to use their personal technology devices at work – reasoning that their home device usually is much more current than work-provided tools.  And some employers decided to let their employees bring personal devices (labeled the bring-your-own-device policy).  Another SHRM article cites research conducted by one human capital research firm regarding the prevalence of the new policies and provides interesting stats.  Of the 415 organizations surveyed by the firm, 75% were allowing employees to use their own mobile devices for business purposes.  Experts expect this trend to grow, considering the mushrooming popularity of tablets and other devices. 
So, how to you manage the issues that will naturally arise – such as an employee leaving the company and still having sensitive date on their dual-use device?  What if hackers prey on the less sophisticated security features of personal devices?  If an employee breaks copyright law in downloading material from the Internet to a PD while on the job, is the company  liable? I think that human resource, legal and line executives are going to be busy reviewing these issues before they allow employees to use their personal devices.  It’s always something!

Tags: change management, For Employers, social network

If you check out any HR news at all, you will notice that the new healthcare rules are frequently cussed and discussed.  The new goals for health coverage create difficulty for employers because there are a lot of unknowns for them. 
A new development in employer health benefit programs is a “tiered’ system for premiums.  This new system has become more prevalent, according to an article in the Society For Human Resource Management News, because of the new regulation concerning coverage of adult children.  Employers are trying to find ways to share the increased cost of providing coverage for employees’ adult children up to age 26. 

The tiered system usually breaks down into these categories:  Employee only (individual), employee plus spouse (or increasingly plus one, either spouse, partner or child), Employee plus children (without spouse/partner), or Employee plus spouse/partner and children (family).  Each level may require a different level of cost sharing with employee.  In some cases the plans may limit the number of children eligible for coverage.

There is another interesting factor that companies are using to mitigate their healthcare insurance expenses – focusing on the employee’s eligibility for coverage under a spouse’s plan.  Some companies deny coverage to spouses that have insurance through another source.  In some cases the employee may be charged a “surcharge” if they are eligible for coverage from another source. 

Pricing of coverage is very important in the overall picture.  If the company’s policy is inexpensive relative to the employee’s spouse’s plan, then the employer may end up covering more dependants than other companies in the area.  If the pricing is too restrictive, then employees may not get the coverage they need for their families,   The end result may be a  hardship for that employee in the event of a health issue, or the employee may search for other employment due to this dissatisfier.

Now let’s throw another factor into the mix.  In a blog in the New York Times online recently, the blogger posted the idea that American insurance companies may go away altogether.  There are a couple of reasons given:  first , over 60% of working Americans are now covered by a company self-insurance plan.  Second, the new healthcare reform act, focusing on accountable care organizations, may significantly affect the reimbursement process for care.  The outcome may be that providers are reimbursed by patient, with bonuses for quality achievements.  Theoretically the providers will be focused on keeping the patient healthy to keep treatment costs down. Also there’s no need for an insurance “gatekeeper”, as the company or group of individuals will contract directly with the provider group for care. (Sounds a lot like the original HMO plan goals, without the insurer.  We’ll see!). 
So, best of luck to employer and employee alike!

Tags: employee benefits, healthcare benefits

Recruiting well is a virtue that affects company success in all aspects of the business including economic growth and employee morale.  The successful recruiting team has their ducks in a row before they start the process.  A few of the important “ducks”, according to Ross Staffing consultants:  have the interviewing team ready to go and able to focus their attention on the process; be prepared with an efficient decision process allowing for feedback and closure; and know when the search should be outsourced (the position may be difficult to fill or require more expertise to screen).  It is important that the recruiting team have a high sense of urgency so the best candidates don’t get snapped up by some other company.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently researched the ‘time to fill” metric and found that their sampling produced an average time to process of 33.28 days.  The number includes weekends and holidays.  The challenge, according to an article in the SHRM news is to keep it under 30 days.  The article offers some suggestions to facilitate this goal.

Initially, companies should always include head count and projected growth as part of the annual budget/forecast process.  This helps the recruiting department plan ahead, and keep an eye out for needed talent. 

Then – set a timeline for the process.  If you have been looking ahead, you should be able to get past the “let’s see who we can find” that traps you in a perpetual candidate identification circle.  Set a realistic deadline for receiving applications and move on.  Once the candidates have been presented, set a schedule for phone and face-to-face interviews, assessing and processing the hire. 

Review the process itself and answer some key questions – who will do the interviewing, how will they report results, and how (and who) will candidates be kept informed of the progress?  If communication and understanding isn’t there, the “time-to-fill” will be out of control.

Technology Ventures Corporation provides continuing education classes on all aspects of starting a company and one of the sessions spends significant time on preparing for and conducting interviews.  An important task is the initial screening of the applicant resumes.  A thorough review of that document can save lots of wasted time later in the recruitment process, and help reaffirm exactly what types of candidates the company is looking for.

Remember- the candidate may have other prospects, and you want to keep them interested while your team is making decisions.  The worst outcome of a hiring activity is to have your chosen candidate say “I just accepted another offer last__.”  Pick one “mentor’ to stay in touch with your best prospects.

It goes without saying that those conducting the interviews should be well trained and prepped for the task.   Good luck!

Tags: hiring process, hiring talent, recruiting

There are an amazing number of statistics being passed around (this is after all an election year) and they sometimes contradict each other.  Economists repeatedly state (McKinsey Global Institute Study, June 2011) that in order to return to pre-recession levels by 2020 we need to create 21 million jobs.

On the other hand, the group “Skills for America’s Future” claims that there are 3 million jobs currently open and unfilled due to skill gaps. Fifty-two percent of employers with job openings claim they can’t find qualified applicants.   What if we just create more jobs we can’t fill?

An article in the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) news presents a lot of statistics, and also ways that HR Professionals and others are trying to help bridge that gap.  There seems to be three areas where companies and applicants need updating.

First – companies may be setting requirements for jobs that are not only unnecessarily stringent, they are unrealistic.  To address this, HR folks and upper managers are taking a closer look at the job descriptions they develop.  Admittedly, as I mentioned in the article addressing skill gaps for job seekers (Can Employers Find the Right Skill Set…?), companies are adding technology to increase efficiency in their organization.  This inherently requires a worker with higher tech skills.  The HR manager may be able to find quality applicants without the specific skill set, but with a background in the industry and an obvious ability and willingness to train for the new job.  Example – McDonald’s food chain developed a language skills training curriculum for new hires so they are able to better communicate with customers!  I have had discussions with local companies about this very topic – and made the suggestion that they may need to develop some training, and then can hire an experienced employee and bring them up to speed.

Second – Training skills aren’t always in every manager’s portfolio.  However, when there are 14 million people looking for work, and many of them experienced employees, it is worth spending some time to “train the Trainers” to keep up with the hiring needs of the employer.  In some cases local community colleges or professional societies such as SHRM are providing instruction in how to develop a training program and deliver it to new hires.  Hiring employers will need to recognize that there will be a little extra effort involved to get a new hire on the job and being productive.

Third – The job seeker needs to take the initiative to GET the needed training.  Again, local community colleges and universities are working with local companies to develop training programs that meet the needs of the new job market.  Local employment agencies and job postings can provide that information.  For the job seeker – let a prospective employer know that you are getting some training to meet the job requirements they list, and ask for feedback.  That may give you a head start in actually getting the position.
As always, good luck.

Tags: hiring talent, retraining