Five years ago the Gallup Organization developed a 12-question survey that identifies strong feelings of employee engagement. Results from the survey show a strong correlation between high scores and superior job performance.*
1. Do you know what is expected of you at work?
2. Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?
3. At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
7. At work, do your opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
9. Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
10. Do you have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
12. In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
*Taken from Workforce.com
Employees often view HR departments as where to go to get a form or a question answered about benefits.
By HR can actually help you develop your career by:
- Providing suggestions of how to make contacts with those in the organization who may help you advance your career
- Supply ideas of alternate career paths when one road is blocked
- Offer opportunites for coaching and mentoring
- Be an avenue to showcase your accomplishments and how you have contributed to the organization
- Mediate issues betweeen you and your manager
I often encourage my clients to go to HR for help, even when the company has hired me to work with an individual in either a performance improvement, leadership development or outplacement role. But HR’s first allegiance is to the organization, not the employee.
HR can advocate for the employee by providing management training on conducting performance reviews and developing employees. But it is the responsibility of HR to help protect the organization from potential lawsuits, and to enforce directives from the management team.
A properly trained HR manager can be an advocate for both the organization and the employee when it comes to treating employees fairly and with due process, and helping managers to make selection and retention decisions that are in the best interests of the organization. At their best, they can function as both consultant and mediator, and can be a valuable asset for both the employee and the organization in how to effectively implement any organizational change initiative.
The only thing we can count on today is change. Our workforces are constantly evolving. People leave our organizations voluntarily, they are let go based on poor performance, they are no longer a good fit based on the needs of the job and the organization, or perhaps they are not representative of the population served.
Whenever this happens, it is the right opportunity to evalute the department needs and stragically hire for the current and future needs of the organization. Letting someone go in the face of a reorganization is difficult for even the toughest individual, but holding on to a poorly performing or ineffective employee hurts morale and hampers organizational effectiveness.
Acording to the Society of Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment’s (LINE) Report, manufacturers and service-sector companies plan to increase hiring in February compared with the previous year. Few employers in both sectors reported increased recruiting difficulty in January, but it has become more challenging compared with a year ago. There were mixed results for new-hire compensation in January. While fewer service-sector companies increased new-hire compensation, the rate rose on an annual basis for the first time since September 2008 in the manufacturing sector.The LINE Employment Report examines four key areas: employers’ hiring expectations, new-hire compensation, difficulty in recruiting top-level talent and job vacancies. It is based on a monthly survey of private-sector human resource professionals at more than 500 manufacturing and 500 service-sector companies.Together, these two sectors employ more than 90 percent of the nation’s private-sector workers.
According to Workplace Visions, a publication of the Society of Human Resource Management, hiring expectations for the manufacturing and service sectors for Janaury 2010 surpassed hiring expectations for the same period in 2009. 39% of survey respondents were somewhat optimistic about job growth in Q1 2010, although 25% were somewhat pessimistic.
Hiring fell 30% from 2006-2008, and employee turnover dropped from 16% in 2007 to 8% in 2009.
As the recovery continues, turnover is expected to increase as high performers leave those organizations whose financial difficulties prompted a company response. To keep high performers, companies are exploring ways to increase employee engagement by offering higher salaries and bonuses with higher payouts. Particulary vulnerable are those companies that have had multiple layoffs. With higher workloads, those workers experiencing burnout may seek employment with companies that have not been hit as hard financially.
Debbie Brown, MBA, MSW Earns Certification as a Senior Professoinal in Human Resources
Atlanta, GA December 22, 2009 — Debbie Brown, President of D&B Consulting, Inc. a human resource and career management consulting firm, recently earned certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
The certification, awarded by the HR Certification Institute, signifies that Debbie possesses the theoretical knowledge and practical experience in human resource management necessary to pass a rigorous examination demonstrating a mastery of the body of knowledge in the field.
“Certification as a human resource professional clearly demonstrates a commitment to personal excellence and to the human resource profession,” said Mary Power, CAE, Executive Director of the HR Certification Institute.
To become certified, an applicant must pass a comprehensive examination and demonstrate a strong background of professional human resource experience.
The HR Certification Institute is the credentialing body for human resource professionals and is affiliated with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest organization dedicated exclusively to the human resource profession. The Institute’s purpose is to promote the establishment of professional standards and to recognize professionals who meet those standards.
From The SHRM ( Society of Human Resource Management) Leading Indicators of National Employment Report
Employment Expectations for Manufacturing and Service Sectors
Hiring will surpass layoffs in November in both the manufacturing and service sectors. +15.3 for manufacturing and for +5.9 for service
Recruiting Difficulty for Manufacturing and Service Sectors
In October, both sectors reported increased recruiting difficulty for highly qualified employees for the first time since January 2007. +2.8 for manufacturing and +13.0 for service.
In the last entry we talked about Strategic Career Planning.
Once you have determined where you want to go by completing a strategic career plan, you need to go through several steps. The first is to do a thorough assessment which identifies where you are now: your skills, talents, abilities, knowledge, values, and lifestyle.
You can start with some standardized assessments ( MBTI, Strong Interest Inventory, CPI 260,) and other career assessment tools. A career coach can help with the assessment process, since this person can provide the expertise as well as the objective feedback.
However, it is not just about what you do well, but what you want to pursue at this time in your life. It is a complex process, particularly if you are working in an established career. As we get older, our priorities often shift. We may want to focus on areas that are underdeveloped and take a different direction with our careers.
If you want to stay with your organization, you should match your abilities, skills, and knowledge with the needs of the organization. Talk with your manager to develop a career path based on the future needs of the organization. If you can identify a specific career path, you can create a plan, with your manger, to develop the skills and knowledge needed to be hired in that posiiton.
But the first step is to create that strategic career plan. Many people do not want to spend the time to go through that process, and later find that they have repeatedly taken whatever job comes along, and therefore have others direct their career path. Take some time to plan and you will soon reap the benefits.
As managers and executives, we know the importance of a strategic plan for our organizations. But how many of us have a strategic plan for our careers? I find many of my clients want to bypass this critical step in their career development. If you don’t know where you want to go, you run the risk of ending up in a career path that does not work for you.
Strategy Formulation
The first step in the planning process is to define your vision and mission statements.
The vision is the image you have of the career you desire.
The misson specifies how you will pursue your vision.
If you want to run a small company, what kinds of experiences and skills do you need to meet that goal?
The next step is to define your values, and how those relate to how you develop your career. What kinds of organizations offer the culture that fits with your value system?
Strategy Development.
The first step in strategy development is to conduct a SWOT analysis. Evaluate your strengths and weakness, and the opportunites and threats that exist in the external evironnment. Perhaps you do not have the right educational background, skills or experience. What are the oportunties for the future, and what are the challenges you face to beat the competition for these jobs?
Establish long-term objectives. Where do you want to be in three-five years? What strategies will you use to achieve those objectives. Perhaps you will get an advanced degree or get a job where you will develop some new skills.
Strategy Implementation
Establish short term objectives. Perhaps you need to reveiw educational programs and companies where you might be able to get the experience and develop the skills for a high level executive job. What is your action plan and how will you allocate your resources?
Strategy Evaluation
This is a dynamic proceess that requires continuous review and adjustments. Changes in one process may necessiate changes in other areas. You should review your plan periodiclly and make adjustments as necessary.
Executive Coaching 