California Human Resource Blog

A DYNAMIC, FAST PACED COURSE…to help you effectively resolve difficult problems in face-to-face meetings with employees and work teams.

Packed with SKILL BUILDING and SPECIFIC “HOW TO” STRATEGIES that you can use immediately

Managers and supervisors face many challenges, but few are as unwelcome and emotionally charged as the difficult and awkward conversations we must have with employees who require re-direction, correction or firm confrontation about the quality of their work or their behavior on the job.

Much of effective management is setting expectations, assigning work, giving performance feedback, delegating, recognizing good work, reprimanding, and progressive discipline. Each of these management functions requires us to communicate with precision and honesty and to do so in such a way that others can clearly understand without feeling defensive or attacked, especially if what we are communicating includes something negative.

The focus in this workshop is on ‘what to say’ during these “difficult ” conversations related to employee performance. We will also discuss the issues you must take into account and provide a model for each type of conversation. Learn how to be direct and appropriately firm, but remain supportive and motivate your employees at the same time.

This webinar will give strategies for how to talk with others about awkward and difficult topics in ways that gain their cooperation and reduce stress and anxiety for you.

Among the problems that Managers need to addressed are…

–an employee’s failure to complete work in a timely manner

–lack of initiative

–criticism or antagonism directed at co-workers

–reluctance to take advice and direction

–a person’s work is unsatisfactory, but the employee doesn’t agree there is a problem

Topics include:

• Coaching as conversational format for managing employee performance
• How the coaching approach takes the difficulty out of the performance conversation
• Why Supervisors and Managers need to learn coaching skills as a Core Competency
• What coaching is not
• Finding the balance between hands off vs. micromanaging
• Build time in for coaching into your schedule with five minute coaching
• Setting clear expectations for employees
• Addressing performance gaps
• Eliminating victim mentality
• Defensive producing vs. supportive statements
• Countering defensive behavior
• Strategies for giving constructive feedback
• Four stages of progressive coaching

ACCORD Mediation Services is an employee relations consulting and training firm that provides continuing education and professional development training in negotiation and conflict management, including management training and development as well as skill building workshops for departments and work groups.

Gina Rae Hendrickson, CEO, is a highly acclaimed trainer and teaches Core Competency Workshops. Her areas of specialty include negotiation, conflict management, change management, ending the blame culture, creating learning organizations, team development; and management training. As a negotiation coach, Gina Rae assists managers and supervisors with developing negotiation and leadership skills. She provides professional development programs for University of California at Santa Barbara, College of the Canyons, and Ventura Community College District.

Gina Rae shares her trade secrets as a professional negotiator and mediator who has successfully resolved over 1,700 workplace disputes. Her clients include the US Postal Service, US Forest Service and the State of California. Gina Rae has appeared on National Public Radio, CNN and various regional talk radio programs.

Thousands of participants in Gina Rae’s classroom join in hearty unison to say that her trainings transformed their lives and raised the bar for their negotiation skills exponentially as they meet their challenges with confidence.

Ms. Hendrickson is a graduate of the Harvard Program on Negotiation and a Certified Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming, which is the study of communication and how people receive information and organize their thinking for learning.

Dear Participants:

I know what a tough job management is, particularly in dealing with employee performance. Sometimes managers just need more of the ‘HOW TOs’ – of what to say to an employee with a performance problem.

I know that your time is extremely valuable so I promise to make this a worthwhile use of your day. If you want to become a more effective, skilled manager, then please attend this workshop. My goal is to make your life easier, sending you out with a set of tools that you can easily use when you return to your organization. Gina Rae Hendrickson/course instructor

One day while walking down the street a highly successful Human Resources Manager was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St.Peter himself.

“Welcome to Heaven,” said St. Peter. “Before you get settled in though, it seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we’ve never once had a Human Resources Manager make it this far and we’re not really sure what to do with you.”

“No problem, just let me in,” said the woman.

“Well, I’d like to, but I have higher orders. What we’re going to do is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in.”

“Actually, I think I’ve made up my mind, I prefer to stay in Heaven”, said the woman “Sorry, we have rules…” And with that St. Peter put the executive in an elevator and it went down-down-down to hell.

The doors opened and she found herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her friends – fellow executives that she had worked with and they were well dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her.

They ran up and kissed her on both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed ! an excellent steak and lobster dinner. She met the Devil who was actually a really nice guy (kind of cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave. Everybody shook her hand and waved goodbye as she got on the elevator.

The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found St.Peter waiting for her. “Now it’s time to spend a day in heaven,” he said.

So she spent the next 24hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. She had great time and before she knew it her 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.

“So, you’ve spent a day in hell and you’ve spent a day in heaven. Now you must choose your eternity,” The woman paused for a second and then replied, “Well, I never thought I’d say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell.”

So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down back to Hell. When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. She saw her friends were dressed in rags ! and were picking up the garbage and putting it in sacks. The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.

“I don’t understand,” stammered the woman, “yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends look miserable.”

The Devil looked at her smiled and told…

” Yesterday we were recruiting you, today you’re an Employee. ..”

At YPP, we have already received our Employee Benefit renewal rates for our January 1, 2012 Anthem insurance plans. Although anticipating at least 15% increases based on current trends, we are thrilled that our clients who offer our PPO and HSA plans will have only a 5.3% increase next year (we do not expect our new Kaiser rates until November).

Especially in the current economy, increasing health insurance costs are a huge worry for most small to mid-sized businesses, and they feel that they have no control over this annual “surprise”. And insurance, and all of the various options, is complicated, and they really don’t know who to trust. Fortunately for our PEO clients, YPP takes care of negotiating for health and workers’ compensation insurance so they don’t have to. While we don’t sell insurance, our experienced HR professionals not only sort out what’s best for each of our clients’ businesses, we also take a strategic, holistic look at all of the various factors that go into keeping costs down, while still maintaining our clients’ ability to attract and retain the best people.

If you are dissatisfied with your insurance renewals and simply don’t have the time or experience to stay on top of all of the complexities and changes throughout the year, pick up the phone and give us a call, and let’s talk about adding the HR Divas to your team.

Nothing serious going on here!

Clearly presentation skills are an important part of HR and one part of that is waking the crowd back up during a long session. Here is a joke that is perfect for that sort of situation.

JobDig HR series – Transferable Skills

Founded by Rich Arzaga, Cornerstone Wealth Management is nationally acclaimed for delivery of independent, comprehensive fee-based financial planning, and is continuously ranked as one of Worth magazine’s Top 250 Wealth Advisors in the United States.  CWM specializes in creating succession strategies for small and closely-held businesses.   Rich is a nationally recognized leader and speaker, as well as an instructor at U.C. Santa Cruz and U.C. Berkeley – where he was recognized by the Financial Planning Program as the 2008 Instructor of the Year.

Top Wealth Advisors

An employee complains that a supervisor is harassing her, touching her inappropriately, treating her different than other employees, or any of a number of other types of complaints.  What should you do?

The natural reaction is to immediately question the employee who is the target of the complaint.  The goal when dealing with a complaint is to address the issue in a way that minimizes any financial and emotional impact on your organization, and if you rush to speak with the alleged harasser without proper planning and guidance you may make the situation worse. You need a systematic plan before you speak with anyone other than your HR team or legal counsel.

Proper planning involves first obtaining thorough information from the person making the accusations, and then determining from the information you obtain during that initial interview who else needs to be interviewed.  Often the employee making the complaint is distraught or angry, so it is critical to listen and carefully phrase questions to elicit as much information as possible without causing the complainant to “shut down”.  Your list of potential interviewees will include not only the accused but may also include coworkers, supervisors and possibly even friends and family of the alleged victim. None of these fact-finding processes is cookie-cutter and so each fact-finding has to be planned well to ensure the best possible process.

What are some typical problems we find when conducting fact-finding processes?

• A client knew their supervisor or employee was “difficult” and had not adequately addressed their behavior towards other employees
• Employees were being hired without conducting references or background checks, a failure of basic due diligence in the hiring process
• The supervisor accused suddenly wants to tell us about performance issues with the employees who were interviewed, that they meant to tell us about earlier
• The first interview was with the accused, who convinces the Client he did nothing wrong and the employee just had a grudge
• Management wants it resolved quickly and quietly so important steps in the process get rushed or skipped entirely.

How do you prevent these problems?  First, ensure best practices in human resources, including:

• Proper screening of candidates
• Documented training that includes anti-harassment and supervising fundamentals
• Address performance issues timely and appropriately with proper documentation
• Maintain adequate and correct documentation of any complaints and follow-up
• Set a zero tolerance corporate policy and tone in your organization
• Identify who is authorized to handle complaints

Any employee complaint requires urgent but thoughtful action.  An immediate and effective response can save your company thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of management and employee time.  If you receive a complaint and believe the situation may lead to a formal complaint with a government agency or future litigation, then seeking professional advice from either a highly qualified HR professional or legal counsel may be your best option.