As a business owner who also has staff to take care of, you will have a lot of decisions to make and a lot of responsibilities. The happier you can make your staff, the more productive, loyal, and hard working they are going to be, and that counts for a lot; it means you can concentrate on your own work and they can do theirs, and you won't be distracted by other issues that come up.

Bearing in mind how important it is to keep your staff happy, here are some important practices to put into place to ensure everyone is happy to be coming to work. It might take some planning to get them right, but once you do this, it will be worth it. 

Recognize Progress 

Although you are going to want to be able to step away from the day to day running of the business to work on the other aspects that you, as a business owner, need to deal with, you will also need to ensure you keep up with what is happening in other departments of your company. By checking in and measuring the successes (and failures) of your team, you can be a true leader and help people find the right path to go down to get things right. 

Part of this task will be to recognize the progress that a department or individual is making within the business. If someone is doing particularly well, their work should be acknowledged as it will make them happy, give them the drive to do more, and show other workers that you are looking out for good results.  Continue reading →

“What we’re telling customers is that we can help make work more human. First is really putting empathy at the forefront of the employee experience. It’s up to HR to work with leadership and create this human experience.” Munjal Munshi, Oracle

 

We’re Only Human – Episode 93

Organizational agility is a critical part of adapting to and overcoming change. What does this mean in the context of the work HR does? 

Everything. 

Our newest data at Lighthouse Research & Advisory show that 96% of employers that claim to be future-ready also say that their HR technology plays a critical role in enabling that agility at an organizational level. In today’s discussion, Ben talks with Munjal Munshi of Oracle to discuss the concept of organizational agility, how HR technology plays a role in that, and the practical lessons and ideas for today’s business leaders.

One critical part of the talk? How HR and IT can work more closely together to create better relationships and better outcomes. 

Check out the free research report: http://oracle.com/goto/lighthouse

“At the beginning of my career, HR was looked at as a necessary evil. Now it’s completely flipped to where HR is the driving force for how companies grow and expand.” Eric Storm, Starmind

We’re Only Human – Episode 92

Skills are the currency of business. Research shows that in the 1980s, 85%+ of organizational value was in tangible assets (property, facilities, equipment, etc.) Today, that has shrunk to just 15% or less, and the rest of value is in intangible assets (ideas, capabilities, intellectual property, etc.)

Skills are a key part of organizational value, but very few companies know the skills inside the business well enough to leverage their value. In this interview with Starmind, Ben digs in with Eric Storm to understand how the firm offers employers a way to identify, understand, and leverage the skills of the workforce. 

To learn more about Starmind, visit http://starmind.ai 

Also, check out episode 24, which Ben references during the show: https://upstarthr.com/the-secret-to-great-team-performance-may-surprise-you-podcast/ 

“We as an industry are driving toward the cliff and the HCM [technology] vendors are competing over who offers better tire pressure.” Dror Gurevich, Velocity Network Foundation

We’re Only Human Podcast Episode 91

How are organizations gathering skill data inside the business? Our research shows that the most common method is also one of the most biased: manager observations. However, Velocity Network Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to solve the problem of unverified, unvalidated employee skills through the power of blockchain.

Dror and Ben explore what this means for the future of the business world, what it enables organizations to do from a talent perspective, and how trusted career records can change processes like hiring and training forever. 

Learn more about Velocity Network Foundation: https://www.velocitynetwork.foundation/

“We need help communicating the benefits we pour our hearts and souls into and making them successful for our employees.”

Jesse Albro, Flimp Communications

We’re Only Human Episode 90

Heads up: open enrollment will happen this year. While this seems like the strangest year in, well, forever, it also has some predictable elements to it. That said, how do you plan for a virtual approach to open enrollment? How do you measure the impact of your communications/ How do you support your people as they think more carefully about health and wellness than ever before? 

In today’s conversation, Ben talks with Jesse Albro from Flimp about these topics and more. Jump in and learn how your company can plan and implement a more virtual and scalable approach to open enrollment. 

Learn more about Flimp: http://flimp.net/