Author Archives: Ben

Unplugging, focus, and perspective

Yesterday I returned from a short getaway and jumped straight back into work. However, I had some interesting thoughts and definitely wanted to share them since when I talk to you guys about issues you’re facing, they’re usually issues I’m facing as well.

The importance of unplugging

Last Saturday I ran in a relay race with the Pinnacle Pounders (the running group I work with, or the working group I run with, whichever way you want to look at it). I think we ended up covering about 27-28 miles each, and it was just a fun, exciting experience. Afterward Melanie and I took off for a few days for some much-needed R&R. It felt wonderful to just kick back, relax, and forget everything for a while. We took our phones to keep in contact for emergencies, but otherwise we just used them to snap photos of the wildlife as we enjoyed the scenic hikes around Little River Canyon.

I came back refreshed and energized, and it sometimes takes a total removal from the normal routine to get that spark back that you’ve been missing.

Paring down your life Continue reading →

What are your “big” ideas?

One of our core values at work is “provide innovative solutions that exceed expectations.” That might seem like a standard/blah kind of idea, but it plays out in a way that I haven’t encountered anywhere else I’ve worked. We have a “big ideas” database that allows employees to share ideas on anything they think might be valuable to the organization. We’ve had everything possible posted, from lucrative new product lines to a request for larger garbage bags in the kitchen (seriously!).

Recently the Operations team set up our own database to capture ideas that we might like to implement for our workforce. A few things in our database right now:

Paid volunteer time-Employees at some large companies get paid for volunteer time. I pitched the idea that we could pay for as little as 4 hours for someone to go out, volunteer in some capacity, and do good in the world without breaking the bank on an expensive program.
Adding core values to informal peer recognition-while we already rate people within our formal performance management system based on how they uphold our core values on a daily basis, this would allow the day-to-day recognition on a peer level to also reflect on the handful of tenets that we operate the business by. It’s the little things that matter! Continue reading →

HR Brand-Words vs Actions

Your HR brand is what you do, not what you say

As part of our rebranding of HR we were asked to come up with a new name for our Human Resources department. Can you guys help me with your suggestions to rename our department?

I don’t want to pick on the person who posted this, so I won’t name them, but I had to laugh when I read it. Call it the Pit of Despair. Call it the Confluence of People and Happiness. It doesn’t really matter as much as what you do. Continue reading →

Employee HR Portal-How to Build One

I’ve had “create an employee HR portal” on my To Do list for a while now, and this week is the one where I check that little item off as complete. When it first appeared on the list, I honestly wasn’t sure what I was looking for. Besides walking around and asking people what they would like to see on there (which isn’t a poor option, but it didn’t seem very productive on my part), I wasn’t sure what to cover.

Information to include in an HR portal

My fabulous manager reminded me to treat it like a “first line of defense” for repetitive questions. Kind of like a “FAQ” to help people find what they need quickly instead of having to ask me repeatedly for the information. With that in mind, I made a short list to start from so I didn’t get overwhelmed: Continue reading →

Managing retention on the front lines

I’m a firm believer in managers and their role as an intermediary between the business and its staff. I have seen that relationship play out with both positive and negative results, but there’s no disputing the relationship between good managers and good employees.

On a related note, I did a video a while back on theÂ proper care and feeding of employees. It notes the (amazing) statistic that providing fair/accurate feedback to employees has a 39% impact on their performance. Wow!

In a recent post on retention management, I talked about 11 ways managers can influence their company’s retention rate. I’d love for you to check it out, leave a comment, and share your own thoughts on how managers can help (or hurt!) the retention of great employees.

Catch me today on DriveThruHR!

I’ll be talking on DriveThruHR today, and I’d love for you to call in or listen online. The show is at noon central time and runs for a (fairly quick!) thirty minutes. If you miss the show, you can listen to the archive afterward.

I have had a busy week, and I honestly am not sure yet what I’ll be talking about when I get the famous “What is keeping you up at night?”Â question. Here are a handful of things I’ve been working on in the past few weeks:

Worked to determine how to compensate a team for delivering an amazingly complex project on time and on budget
Looking at potential performance issues and how to deal with them through the eyes of one of our new managers
Working with our events team on living out our “create an enjoyable work environment” value through fun, exciting events throughout the year (paper airplane contest, tailgating, and more!)
Completed the local wage/benefits surveys and had to hand deliver paper printouts of several spreadsheets; no electronic copies of the Excel file that you had to add data to could be submitted
Prepared for the quarterly all hands briefing
Set up our team trivia practice for an upcoming fundraiser (IMPACT Alabama)
Dealt with email flame wars that seemed to go on indefinitely
Developed flow charts to illustrate our processes with regard to recruiting, performance management, etc.

Those are just a few of the things that have kept me busy in the past week! Outside that maybe we can talk about events, HRevolution, and other fun stuff.

New Supervisor Training

I attended a new supervisor training session a few years ago, and it left me with some strong feelings about how to run a supervisor training program. I think the way it’s traditionally been done is a poor method for teaching managers what they need to know, but I haven’t decided on the right combination of teaching tools/methods that would be most effective. The one thing I know for sure is that it needs to change.

I ran across this site recently and had to laugh. It is a common theme that I’ll get a call because I’m the “computer guy” in the family. With Teach Parents Tech you have the option of sending video links directly to those who need assistance. That allows you to indirectly teach your parents/grandparents/in laws/whoever how to do computer tasks from simple (changing your computer’s clock) to advanced (changing your email address).

Why can’t we do that?

Then I started thinking about other applications. What if you could do the same for your supervisors? What if there was a neat way like this to teach them the basic principles of good management? Would you use the tool?

For instance, a new supervisor runs into a situation (giving feedback on poor performance, motivating employees in a slump, giving a presentation to senior management, etc.). They don’t have someone available to ask for help, so they pop onto the web and find the video that corresponds with that particular situation.

No, it’s not a perfect substitute for an in-person chat with someone who already knows how to do the task, but it’s better than going into the situation blind-folded. Just a little bit of preparation could go a long way in most instances.

A few situations I think would be neat to cover:

How to give accurate, honest feedback
Why documentation is essential
The wide world of terminations
Harassment, discrimination, and lawsuits, o my!
Safety and security in the workplace
How to train someone
Coaching and mentoring your staff
Building and managing teams
Developing and pursuing a vision
And tons more!

What do you think? Are there other scenarios that you think they run into on a daily basis that they could use some new supervisor training on?

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