The Power of Positive Feedback

Many of us know that positive feedback is important, and that a manager who gives out as much positive feedback as negative ( or 2:1) is going to get better motivated, happier people out of the deal. But how many of us actually do it?

I had a manager at one point who constantly felt under-appreciated and ill-used by her boss, the regional manager. He played managers off each other, by talking up the accomplishments of one to the other, and never said anything positive about you to your face. My manager was certainly able to recognize that he was doing a terrible job of increasing job satisfaction, engagement, and motivation, and felt his was a poor management style. Which it was, however, she failed to see that his lack of positive feedback was the same as hers to her staff.

During one conversation about the regional manager, where she was complaining about his lack of appreciation, we discussed the importance of positive feedback in the workplace and I asked her gently when the last time was that she had said something positive about any of her staff's work to that staff member? She was quite appalled to realize that, while she did say positive things, it was almost never to the employee directly. She'd say good things about someone, but very rarely to their faces.

If you want to be a better manager, make a point of saying positive things about your employees, and make sure the positives outweigh the negatives. Then make sure your positivity goes directly to the employee in question. It'll take conscious effort, because we are all much more used to negativity at work, but it'll pay off in terms of employee job satisfaction if they feel appreciated for what they do.

Culture in the Workplace

What's your workplace culture? How would you define cultural fit with your organization? Do you even know?

Most of us don't. "Cultural fit" is one of those things that we're assured is very important in finding the right job, but when you get right down to the nitty-gritty, what does that even mean?

I've always found the concept of a workplace culture to be a little bit nebulous, and I come from a background in Anthropology, where "culture" applies to just about everything. The problem isn't the validity of the concept of workplace culture, but rather on the definition and identification of it.

Within the context of hiring/job hunting, we all try to assess cultural fit on both sides. But how do you go about doing that? It's especially difficult as the person doing the hiring, because while you might have a solid idea of what your workplace culture is, how do you assess fit reliably based on an interview and a resume? Since chances are your interviewee is trying his or her very best to convince you that he or she would be a perfect fit, regardless of the truth, because sometimes, you just gotta find a job even if the fit isn't ideal. As the jobseeker, though, it is difficult to read between the lines and figure out what the culture is really like- and frankly, if you've been unemployed for six months, you're not gonna care all that much what the culture is like. You just want a job.

Every organization out there seems to have values and a mission statement these days, so that's one way for the jobseeker to try and see something about the culture. The problem is, it's always difficult to tell from the outside how closely the organization adheres to their values and what that means. If you have a connection with someone within the organization, ask him or her about the culture and see where that gets you.

Personally, I feel as if we often overstate the importance of culture. Don't get me wrong, workplace culture and fit is very important for the overall level of engagement, I just feel as if cultural fit is one of the favourite buzzwords of the moment. At least in my limited experience, you will never find a perfect fit and there will always be things you don't like about your current workplace environment. I would rather have a job that is interesting and engaging and doing things I want to do in a culture that isn't a perfect fit for me than one in the perfect company that is boring and unsatisfying. Of course, it all depends what it is about the culture that isn't a good fit for you, but we are speaking in generalizations here. Or maybe I just say that because I haven't worked for an organization that had a truly terrible cultural fit for me.

Thoughts?

Absenteeism and Attendance Management

Does your organization have a formal Attendance Management policy?

Mine doesn't, but they are a good idea. Does your organization have an absenteeism issue? If so, then an Attendance Management policy is an even better idea.

Absenteeism is a major problem in a lot of organizations. Low morale increases productivity costs in many ways, and unscheduled absenteeism is one of those ways, but it there is often a hidden cost to reduced absenteeism.

The goal of a progressive attendance management program is not to eliminate unscheduled absenteeism. For one thing, people still get sick, and there are a lot of costs to having sick people come to work despite their illness. The other problem is that people tend to come to work while sick in situations where their morale is low, because they feel there is a higher risk to staying home than there is misery in being at work while ill. Don't be that workplace that makes it a badge of honour to have never taken a sick day in five years. The sniffles may not be that contagious, but the damage to productivity that can be done by something especially nasty going through the office makes it not worth it, let alone the damage due to people feeling resentment because they feel they cannot stay home when they are ill.

One of the best ways to handle involuntary absenteeism, which is to say, absences that are not the fault of the employee, such as illness, family emergency, etc. is to introduce as much flexibility into working hours as possible given the demands of the job. Make it understood that being sick is permissible, but have an Attendance Management policy in place to handle the abuses of the system. Make allowances for the differences between sick days, personal days, family emergencies, etc. and have it all be clearly laid out and transparent for the staff.

Of course, if there are morale issues anyway, then absenteeism is not your only problem.

What do you think?

Happy New Year...

...almost, anyway.

December has been an incredibly busy month for me, including a trip home to surprise my parents, which was a lot of fun, but consequently, my poor blog has been a bit neglected. Apologies to all.

It's just about the new year, which means it's time for hiring to ramp back up again (I hope) and we'll all get to see what the new year brings with it. In the meantime, I wanted to talk briefly about social media.

How many of you have a focus on social media within your company? Who looks after your social media presence? Is that a twitter feed, a facebook page, or something different, and what do you do with it?

Me, I think social media is incredibly important for any organization. I have a twitter feed that I update several times a day, and scan for interesting conversations or articles related to the practice of HR. I also have seen several complaints about customer service from various organizations, and you can clearly see who monitors social media sites for mentions of their organization and who does not. The most impressive organizations monitor and respond to queries or concerns regarding their services, and those that resolve issues that they see posted about on social media sites manage to get some devoted converts.

Other organizations who don't monitor or don't have an active presence (and sorry, a facebook page you created but never check or a twitter feed with all of 40 advertising-related tweets over the past two years doesn't really count, and may be worse than nothing) are, in my opinion, falling behind. Not just in terms of brand presence, either- social media, in one form or another, seems to be here to stay, and it is increasingly an effective method for sourcing job candidates.

So basically, if you aren't on there yet- why not?

Change and Complaining

If you've ever been in a position to spearhead or support major changes in your workplace, you'll have listened to a lot of complaints. We all know that change isn't easy, and we all know that change, even welcome change, often inspires comments and concerns. So how do you deal with those? How do you address these complaints?

First off, it is normal to complain about change. It's a truism out there in the business world that people hate change; I'm not convinced that it's true, but it's definitely normal to complain about it. It's also very important that you listen to the complaints.

Here's the thing. A complaint is one of the quickest ways to get feedback on your new changes- if you listen properly. Remember that the complaint is not necessarily telling you that your beloved new program or whatever is bad or wrong- the complaint is telling you about the problems other people are having with your changes. Don't take it personally, and don't think that you have to be right- if your first reaction to the complaint is to say, "yes, but..."make sure you stop yourself there! Look at the complaint again. What is it really about? Don't react as if the intention of the complainer is simply to be negative- he or she is trying to discuss an issue, and you need to take it seriously and react appropriately. Don't be defensive, and make sure you ask if there are any other issues you need to here about- this is the best time to get real, honest feedback about your changes! Once you have the lowdown on the issues, then you can try and come up with a solution, but if you're not listening, it ain't gonna happen.

I've been fortunate enough to see my current employer bring in some large scale changes in the past year. While I firmly believe that the changes are for the better, there has been a lot of resistance overall, and it's important to take that seriously. After all, when head office is implementing a total change in strategy and approach for jobs nobody there actually does, you have to expect that there will be some important messages in the feedback that you get from your staff who are working these positions. So bring it on, and encourage complaining.

The Job Hunt

I once again have to apologize for my lack of recent posts. Life's been fairly busy- for instance, outside of my usual work week, I had four interviews last week. It's been an interesting process. I have come into these interviews with a more critical eye, of course, after having learned so much about interviews and conducting my own. You can learn quite a bit based on the interviewer. I had the opportunity last week to interview with one of my targeted companies. They have an award-winning company culture, and working with the director of HR here in Calgary would be an exceptional opportunity.

Haven't heard back about that one yet. I think it would be a tremendous opportunity for both of us. I would be able to learn from one of the best about building excellent corporate cultures, and I could bring all of my considerable effort and abilities to support and build the success of the HR department and the company. I have a lot of knowledge, and a tremendous amount of eagerness to bring to the right role. I haven't found that right fit yet, and I know that it will be a long haul, because my experience is unconventional. So far I seem to be ending up as a lot of people's second choice, but as of yet, I haven't really missed out on an opportunity that I really wanted. I'm hoping that the best is yet to come, and I need to find that right fit, where I can bring all of my talent and abilities and really sink my teeth into a role.

Ultimately, I feel that the best approach for HR is to act in a customer service capacity. So that's been a focus of mine in my interviews, and I am looking for a role where I can fit in with the culture of HR in that way. There was one interview a while back where the interviewer, in explaining the format of the interview, explained what behavioral interviewing is and asked if I understood. While I was quick to assure the interviewer that I was familiar with the concept, it made me wonder what kind of candidates they've been seeing. Shouldn't anyone with any experience in HR and a moderately recent education be familiar with it?

The biggest problem that I am running into in the job hunt is in the area of experience. Some interviews consider me overqualified based primarily on my history of policy development, where others consider me underqualified because of my lack of experience in an HR department. So, I'm still looking for the right fit, overall. But I have hope that I will find the right fit for me soon.

What side is HR on, anyway?

As an HR professional, where do you place yourself, on the side of the employee or the employer? I know HR is mostly inclined to stay neutral, but that's not always possible. So where do you generally align yourself?

In any company, the job of the employee is to maximize value for the organization. HR is certainly no exception to that rule. However, how you go about generating that value differs. Obviously, circumstances must be judged individually, but on the whole, I would argue that the best way to add value is by generally operating on the side of the employee. I would argue that good HR errs on the side of the employee because that attitude will be perceptible to the employee, and help keep him or her engaged and productive. I would also argue that this is particularly sound policy here in Canada, where labour law as a whole tends to favour the employee anyway. This does not mean flouting policy in favour of every employee or bending the rules, but rather means navigating between the often conflicting demands of the employee and employer, and doing your best to fundamental equitable solution that works for everybody. Good policy should have some flexibility to it anyway, as unforeseen circumstances often arise.

What do you think?