Imagine that you’re leaving a restaurant at lunchtime with a group of your friends and all of them put their business cards in the fish bowl for the free contest. Unfortunately, your company doesn’t give you a business card. Makes you feel rather unimportant, doesn’t it?
The fact is that every one of your employees should have a business card that states your company’s vision, mission, or values on the back side. This will have a reinforcing effect on the employee, and will help acknowledge and reinforce their loyalty — not to mention providing a great “plug” for the organization. Best of all, you can get 500 cards printed for less than $25 at many online vendors.
You can train your employees and sales representatives on how to use business cards by distributing the inexpensive “How to Get More Business from Your Business Cards” brochure available at www.bizbooklets.com.
Much has been written about the newest generation to hit the workplace. Of course, generalizations and a one-size-fits-all mentality have their limitations. Given the reality of the nature and nurturing of this generation, employers may wish to consider the following:
- Get very clear about what “privacy” and discretion means. Don’t assume they will think about it the same way you do. Up to the point they came to work for you, they’ve always been “on” from a technology standpoint. Text messaging in class, laying out their personal lives on MySpace, and so on. If you intend for them to keep something private or secret, make sure they agree to do so in a contractual document. For example, HR That Works users should consider having employees sign the Email/Internet Policy and review the Cell Phone Agreement.
- Half of this generation grew up with over-supervision (having their lives totally scheduled) while others were raised by one or two parents who had to work full time. Either way, they are going to expect or need supervision. They may not be as independent or responsible as you’d like. Being very clear with job descriptions and career paths is a must if you want them to perform.
- Much of this generation expects to get rich tomorrow. They have very little patience and have been told they can have something because they want it bad enough. It is important for leaders and managers to identify both short-term and long-term goals. Let them know that there will be no instant gratification and that they can expect to pay their dues. At the same time, let them know that if they do what they agree to do, you will live up to your promises as well and their future is bright.
- Many a Generation Me employee has grown up with parents who are over-worked and stressed out. It’s no club they want to be a member of. Unlike during the dot-com boom years, with its promise of instant gratification, Generation Me employees are not going to see an instant quid pro quo in working the extra hours. Whether they are right or wrong in their perception of a balanced life-style, employers are going to have to come to grips with this reality.
- Lastly, we have to be aware of their communication abilities. Many can’t write a decent business letter. They also have difficulty communicating in more than three sentences at a time. Employers may be wise to have them attend training sessions that improve communication skills.
Generation Me employees are arguably smarter, and more talented than any entry-level workforce in history. As we all know, someone’s emotional intelligence has as much to do with their IQ when it comes to business success. In the end, the greatest challenge for managing these employees won’t be in terms of high-tech, but rather in terms of high-touch.
Millions of Americans are in a credit mess. While half of these people have credit problems due to health problems, divorce, or loss of long-term employment, others simply spend more than they make. Employers argue that using employment credit checks can establish not only workers’ identity, but their fiscal responsibility, honesty and integrity. Insurance companies use credit reports in underwriting Automobile insurance based on the assumption that people with poor credit history tend to get into more accidents, file more false claims, and malinger or create injuries.
Should your company conduct credit background checks? The answer is a resounding “yes” if the employee is in a security position or handling your money or that of a client. Banks and financial service companies run employment credit background checks routinely. As for everyone else, legal considerations will affect your decision. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires disclosure and consent before a company can use a third-party reporting service. Then there’s the question of privacy. Employees and their lawyers are sure to argue that one’s credit history has such a remote relationship to a worker’s ability to perform that it’s an “invasion” of their privacy. You can counter this argument by severely restricting who gets to see the report information and sharing the information with the employee so that they can guard against inaccuracies caused by identity theft and inaccurate reporting.
Lastly, there is the concern that credit checks may generate a “disparate impact” on protected employee group. Ultimately, unless the worker will be in a financial/security type position, bear in mind that a person’s credit history is only one part of the decision-making that goes into the hiring process.
We encourage you to use such reporting agencies as www.globalhrresearch.com that have the staff expertise to help you properly access and manage sensitive, credit, and other background information.
Change is inevitable. If you need proof, just look at where you were 10 years ago.
Fast Company magazine sees change management as one of the three essential components for survival in today’s economy (with learning and leadership being the others). Although changing with the times makes sense, there can be a great amount of emotional resistance in getting people to “move their cheese.”
The word “change” evokes images of a distant past. For most people, their first experience with the concept came when their parents told them to change one of their behaviors. Since early on, “change” has been associated with control, the threat of punishment behind it, and rebellion.
We were resistant to being told to change then, and we remain so today, even when it makes sense to do so! That’s why managers and leaders have to be very understanding when going about the process.
Before implementing “change” in your workplace, start by asking team members to describe an experience in their career that involved change. Ask them how going through the process felt and what the eventual outcome was. Acknowledge that not all change is positive: Things often change for the worse.
Telling stories allows us to connect emotionally with change by expressing our fears and anxieties, as well as our hopes and desires. We can build on past lessons, including successes and failures alike. Going through this type of group exercise allows team members to have some ownership of the change that will affect them. Once these emotional fears and anxieties are on the table, they will disappear in the light of understanding — and big changes can happen!
When you’re trying to move up the emotional ladder, you don’t need to take a full leap at a time. Once you’re honest about where you are right now, you can then ask yourself what type of emotional response would be better. For example, if work just feels just OK, focus on it feeling good. Don’t leap to try feeling great just yet. Take it one step at a time and you’ll avoid the usual crash that most people go through. For example, if I love my fellow employees but hate my job, I could say that I love my fellow employees and I feel OK about my job. That’s the way to start. Once this statement holds true (the more you focus on feeling OK, the more you’ll feel OK) you can then progress to feeling good about your job.
See which statement most accurately reflects how you or your workers currently feel. Then consider changing the language to one step better and notice the results this produces in only a few weeks:
- I love the work that I do. I’m passionate about it and look forward to coming to work almost most every day.
- Although it’s not exactly a joyride, I take pride in the work that I do and feel that my fellow employees support my efforts.
- I’m not excited about the work that I do every day and believe that when I do produce good results, they are ignored.
- I dislike my work environment and don’t feel good about the work I do every day. I feel stuck because it would be difficult getting a new job right about now.
- I hate my job. I feel that management and my fellow employees dislike their jobs as well and it shows. I’ll quit working here as soon as I find another job.
