HRComatrix

From Little to Big Yesterday employee A was tearfully telling me that  two coworkers of hers were gossiping about her professional attitude. As a manager you will find her a highly engaged employee. Co-workers evidently found that attitude at least annoying. Three days before that employee B was physically aggressive and rude toward another one who just wanted to show cooperation. Employee B seems to be unable to take criticism,  and delivers results at the expense of both coworkers and proper procedures. There is worse: somebody from somewhere in the organization has decided that employees are not allowed to see the HR rep during working hours! A drastic measure to counteract abuses? Where did go the open door policy? And we all know the latest news about the tragedy in Connecticut . For HR there is not always an easy answer nor a clear-cut explanation. But beyond our labyrinth of procedures we have to find answers to safety and risk management in the workplace because "...

You Party because You are Expected To .... By now you have your Holiday party planned or maybe you are already over it. Preparation can be hectic . You have been trying to give another nice end-of-year party and your hopes are that it will be. It is amazing when we break it into pieces how many things something as simple and as common as a end-of-year Holiday party could involve. From very small to very large organizations, the idea behind it is to cultivate good employee relations . Employees look forward to this event. Life partners are involved in "shopping" for the occasion. It is indeed the networking event of the year for many, the one coming after social networking . As a child I remember going to business Christmas parties where the whole family was invited and children given very nice presents by Santa Claus! For HR, it falls into a busy period: time for performance reviews, time for seasonal hiring for some, time for reporting, and this year, time for prepar...

No, I have no Time Can you afford to listen to an emplo y er for an hour? Or the question should be: can you afford not doing it? Mary comes to see you and pours out her heart and soul and work life. You have been listening, and listening. At times your mind is drifting away: a project is waiting on your desk, you need to meet a deadline for a document, you have an appointment in an hour. Mary has been here for more than 30 minutes, and you are listening...and you wish that she would stop. In the course on the conversation, if conversation there is, you have learnt of two operational issues, one employee relations issue, one repeated managerial issue, and..one trust issue. This later being that Mary puts her trust and work life in your hands. So, could you or not afford to listen to Mary?....oh this document, this deadline, this project, this meeting.... Sometimes, if not at all times, we need to inspire trust and confidence. We need to be able to tend a good, compassionate ...

Now that elections are over, whether the  Health Care Reform within the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a gain or a loss for the common, employed US individual is yet to be seen. According to a survey conducted by the Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) in collaboration with The Benfield Group , a health care consultancy , quite a few adjustments will take place among benefit plans between now and 2018.  Where do Most Employers Stand? On the positive or negative side, major findings  mostly indicate that: There is little indication that  employers will drop health benefits within the coming year; Employers who plan to reduce their benefits in 2014-2016 are 31%, while 41% will do so for 2017-2018. This is an adjustment to the 40% "penalty" tax on high premium insurance - Cadillac - plans; The majority  of employers - 52% -  plan to make vision and/or dental coverage voluntary benefits in 2013. It will rise to 55% by 2018. Interesting enoug...

The other day I came across a republished article on interviewing skills from Chris Dunn in The HR Capitalist .  The Comments were just as interesting as the article itself. How many of you have gone through an interview where the interviewer - often the HR rep.- goes through a list of questions and reads them to you? They stick to the script. And at the opposite side of the desk you wonder: "now what's next?" Corporate Gives You a Script: Follow it You are HR, you are the company. Corporate gives you a script and you are to follow it. Religiously? It could give you an insight of that organization's culture: rules are to be followed without discussions. Just adhere to them or you are out.This could be your understanding as an interviewer.  But most often - if not most likely -  it is a sure indication of the inability of the interviewer to adjust to situations.Granted you are given a script. Let's figure out why. "Corporate" likes uniformity:...

So, you cross each other through the elevator, or halls of the company... This one never smiles.You wonder, people wonder... According to Holtz in Wall Street Journal  people who think that they are in a position of power would have a tendency to smile less, or not to smile back. According to a research from The University of California  in San Diego "a smile can embody workplace authority". The research used facial electromyography method. It recorded involuntary facial muscles movements. They concluded that "when people felt they were powerful themselves, they would rarely return a high-ranking person's smile" and "those who felt more powerless, however, automatically mimicked everyone else's smile, regardless of rank." There is a large bank on related research on UCSD 's site should you be interested in reading further on the subject. One thing is sure, there are intricacies between emotions, perceptions, culture and reactions wh...

So, you've got a new boss. How do you like him?  You do not know what to think of him. Let's call him Full Smith. He has been your new boss for a few weeks now. You have an open mind and you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. He sure comes across as assertive, not necessarily imposing. Just very assertive. Let's just say that lately, he has been qualified otherwise by one of his peers. We will call him assertive and aggressive at tackling his business. Assertive to the point that by his first ten days on the job he had made 80% of the women in the department cry. Crying for what? Different reasons. They were either enraged or probably "just" offended. They all said they they felt demeaned however.  And you, you are a man. Not much of a man do you think because it came to your mind that maybe you should resign. This boss never acknowledges your little accomplishments. He points out  at your failures. It is a constant reminder.  By now you feel like...