Monthly Archive for April, 2009

  • Should I Include Individual Credibility as Part of Performance Management?

  • Next to their job performance, nothing has more bearing on your employee’s influence or stature within the organization than their reputation for integrity and honesty. Consequently, you may want to include, as part of the behaviors that will be assessed, those that protect your employees’ credibility. Thus you will discourage your workers from taking any [...]

  • What Criteria Should be Used in Setting Performance Standards?

  • Standards or objectives are based on the history of productive workers. Review the employee’s job description, assuming it is not dated, and study the department and corporation plans. These should help you to identify goals or standards against which the worker’s performance will be measured. The goals or standards set should be defined in clear [...]

  • What Can I do to be a Better Evaluator?

  • The single most important ingredient is the setting of objectives or standards that reflect aspects of an employee’s job that contribute most to the overall success of the job and that offer the greatest benefits to the organization. Once you have these in writing, and you and your employee have agreed to them as the [...]

  • If I Give my Employees Regular Feedback About Their Work, Why do I Need to Conduct Formal Evaluations?

  • Formal evaluations provide a framework for discussing the overall work of an employee. The information that comes out can lead to corrections of deficiencies and improved performance. Formal assessments can give employees recognition for past work and reinforcement for continued performance at that level. It can also identify employees who could benefit from coaching, to [...]

  • How Can I Maximize the Use of Exit Interviews?

  • Find a comfortable place for the meeting. If you like, take the employee out to lunch, even breakfast. Discuss the employee’s new plans, and let the person know that you are happy for him or her. Now is the time to let the employee know how much you’ve appreciated his or her work efforts. Ask [...]

  • Given the Costs of Recruitment, How do I Reduce Turnover?

  • Turnover is the total number of separations of employees from your department during a given time period. This question raises a more basic question: "What makes most employees leave their jobs? Many managers will tell you that the reason is that the employee can make more money elsewhere, but the truth is, money is rarely [...]

  • When and How Should I Notify all the Other Applicants that the Job Has Been Filled?

  • Some organizations tell applicants that if they don’t hear from the firm by a certain date to assume they didn’t get the job. Others prefer to write or phone applicants who have been seriously considered. Certainly, the latter leaves candidates with a better viewpoint about the firm to which they applied. One warning: Don’t notify [...]

  • What Can I do to Help a New Hire Succeed in the Job From the First Day?

  • You need to plan that first day and monitor progress beyond it. Leaving new hires to learn on their own what they need in order to do their work is unfair to the new hires. If you don’t have a new employee orientation program, start one. If your company has one, think about how you [...]

  • How Can I Make a New Hire’s First Day on the Job Productive?

  • Rather than leave the new hire with an assortment of brochures and employment forms to complete, and forget about him or her, leaving it to the employee to find work, you should have tasks ready for the employee to complete on his or her first day at work. Once you have "oriented" the employee to [...]

  • What do I do if I Can’t Hire Anyone From my Group of Winners?

  • You need to decide whether you want to go through the entire recruitment process again or choose someone from among your potential winners. As you look through your potential winners, ask yourself what it would take to make your top potential winner into a winner. If the answer is as simple as a training course [...]

  • What Does it Mean for an Employee to be Hired "At Will"?

  • Employment-at-will means that an employee can be terminated without cause. That is, it is the employer’s right to terminate him or her at any time with or without cause. But there are exceptions to this. The attorneys of litigious-minded terminated employees will use these exceptions to argue their case. The exceptions include the charge that [...]

  • How do I Decide Between Two Good Candidates?

  • Deciding which applicant to hire isn’t easy. But you can make a better decision if you separate facts from hunches—not that you should ignore your intuition. It’s a good idea to take a few minutes between each interview to jot down what you think are the significant facts and list your hunches too. Both are [...]

  • How Can I Conduct an Effective Reference Check?

  • The goals of reference checking are twofold: to verify the information that your candidates have provided and to gain some candid insight into who your candidates really are and how they really behave in the workplace. One way to encourage a positive response to your query is to have applicants sign an authorization permitting former [...]

  • How Can I Ensure That Individuals Hired Fit Into Our Corporate Culture?

  • You want to make the right match, and personality type is as important as job specs or experience. Let’s assume that you run a very team-oriented group. You don’t want to hire someone who takes pride in his or her individualism. Or maybe your company is more individualist and the candidate has worked previously in [...]

  • What Kinds of Notes Should I be Taking During an Interview and How Should I Use Them?

  • Begin with job factors. Using the job description as a guide, note the background of the candidate on each item. Intangibles are more difficult to note. Stay away from vague comments. List specifics. So, instead of observing that Joe is creative, list examples of his creativity in previous jobs. If appearance is a job-related factor, [...]

  • How Can I Probe for an Applicant’s Weaknesses?

  • Ask questions about areas of past jobs that were likely to have caused problems. Find out how the individual handled them. For example: What aspects of your previous jobs gave you the most trouble? What are some of the disappointments you have had in your last job? In what areas did you need help or [...]

  • How do I Legally Discuss Accommodations with the Applicant?

  • Concerns about hiring a person with a disability often centers around the person’s ability to perform job duties and meet attendance demands. While discussing this issue with someone disabled may seem awkward, it can be made a manageable situation if you develop and use a standard set of questions to identify whether or not each [...]

  • What are "Reasonable Accommodations"?

  • There are numerous "reasonable accommodations" that employers can make to assist qualified individuals with disabilities in the performance of essential job functions. The following list identifies the nature of accommodations and some specifics. Keep in mind that what might be "reasonable" for one employer may not be for another. These may include: Making facilities accessible [...]

  • What are the Ten Most Common Interviewing Questions that Could Cause Legal Problems?

  • Unfortunately, there’s no neat list of illegal questions. Even if you don’t mean to discriminate, the implications of some questions that managers could ask during an employment interview may cause a court to declare them (and your firm) discriminatory. For instance, asking if an applicant can come to work on weekends may seem innocuous, but [...]

  • What are the Key Employment Laws Related to Hiring?

  • The five federal EEO statutes that have had the greatest impact on hiring practices are: Title VII of Civil Rights Act (1964) The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967) The Immigration Reform and Control Act (1990) The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) The Civil Rights Act (1991) Tell Me More Title VII of Civil Rights [...]

  • What are the Advantages of Recruiting on the Web?

  • Online recruitment is less costly than its print counterpart, averaging 5 percent of the price of placing a help-wanted ad in a major newspaper for thirty days. Cost is based not on the size of the ad, as with print, but either by individual posting or subscription. Online recruitment also generates faster responses from prospective [...]

  • How Can I Increase the Number of Prospective Candidates Available?

  • If you advertise, think about display ads and not only in local newspapers. Advertise in journals in the field. Check out Web sites that specialize in the field, too, and place ads there. Consider, too, your own corporate Web site. Because recruitment information can be lost on your company’s Web site, you may want to [...]

  • How do I Hire the Best Recruiting Firm?

  • Before you choose a recruiting firm, ask some key questions: What is their past experience? What positions do they specialize in? What do others who have used them say? Tell Me More If they pass your review, sit down to discuss fee limits and the terms of guarantee you want. Spell out clearly what forms [...]

  • What Are the Benefits of Working with Search Firms?

  • Sometimes using such a firm can speed up the hiring process and help free up the manager’s time. Some search firms and headhunters specialize and therefore have good inside knowledge of a field, including individuals who might be interested in a move. If the position is hard to fill, search firms can be more effective [...]

  • What Can I do to Make a Candidate Feel More at Ease?

  • A nice way is to go out and greet the applicant in the reception area rather than have him or her brought into the office by your assistant. Consider taking the applicant on a tour of the workplace as you walk to your office. You might open the conversation with a noncontroversial question such as, [...]

  • How Can I Effectively Prescreen Candidates?

  • If you have done your homework, you have developed an up-to-date job description that makes clear the specific type of education and/or experience candidates need. As you review the resumes you receive from prospective candidates, consider those qualifications. Now quickly scan all the resumes for those items. Only those that get through this screening should [...]

  • How do I Best Use Web Ads to Recruit People?

  • The secret to a well-written online ad is the use of "key words"—that is, words based on those factors critical to the job being offered. While use of the jargon of the field may eliminate some good prospects, those best qualified for the job should be familiar with the language. Here are three other rules, [...]

  • What Can I do to Make Help-Wanted Ads More Effective?

  • Brevity is the secret to effective help-wanted ads. There may be numerous responsibilities associated with the vacancy, but the ad should list only the key ones. This increases the likelihood that those who respond will be able to do those tasks most critical to job success. There’s another reason, too, to focus on only a [...]

  • What Constitutes a Well-Written Job Description?

  • A well-written job description has six components. These include: Job title. Statement of objectives. Major responsibilities. Job requirements. Preferred criteria. Relationships with others. Tell Me More Job title. If the person were introduced to others, how would you identify him or her? "Sam, I’d like you to meet Sue Ellen, our new copyeditor," or "Marie, [...]

  • How Can I Determine What the Requirements are for the Jobs I Have to Fill?

  • You need to talk to the previous jobholder. If there are others doing the job while you are recruiting, you should also observe them at work. Talk to them as well. Talk, too, to people with whom jobholders interact—both coworkers and customers. The more you know about the job, the clearer you are in terms [...]