Induction of Employee… Orientation of Employee… Succession Planning › HRM Megaposts
Administration of Human Resources in Organizations
Administration of Human Resources:
- Induction of Employee
- Orientation of Employee
- Succession Planning
- Promotions of Employee
- Employee Transfers
- What Is Mentoring?
- Personal and Professional Qualities of a Mentor
- Mentee's Responsibilities
- Counseling - Features of Counseling - Counselling Process
- Techniques of Counselling
- 14 Things to Never Share or Discuss with Your Co-workers
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Induction of Employee
This is the last activity in relation to a newly employed person before he is trained for his job.Induction Meaning:
Induction of Employee is the first step towards gaining an employees' commitment, Induction is aimed at introducing the job and organization to the recruit and him or her to the organization. Induction involves orientation and training of the employee in the organizational culture, and showing how he or she is interconnected to (and interdependent on) everyone else in the organization. .------Business Dictionary.comThe new employee’s first contact with his or her physical and human working environment is extremely important, since it will condition his or her relationship with the company. The employee must feel supported and important. The first person he or she will meet is the immediate supervisor, who should present the corporate profile in addition to providing information on the organization’s background, values, clientele, services offered, staff, and expected behaviour. The immediate superior will also specify the newcomer’s role. The points listed below should be covered during this meeting.
Purpose and Need
An employee has to work with fellow employees and his supervisor. For this he must know them, the way they work and also the policies and practices of the organization so that he may integrate himself with the enterprise. Any neglect in the area of induction and orientation may lead to high labour turnover, confusion, wasted time and expenditure.Induction Programme
A good induction programme should cover the following:1. The company, its history and products, process of production and major operations involved in his job.
2. The significance of the job with all necessary information about it including job training and job hazards.
3. Structure of the organization and the functions of various departments.
4. Employee’s own department and job, and how he fits into the organization.
5. Personnel policy and sources of information.
6. Company policies, practices, objectives and regulations.
7. Terms and conditions of service, amenities and welfare facilities.
8. Rules and regulations governing hours of work and over-time, safety and accident prevention, holidays and vacations, methods of reporting, tardiness and, absenteeism.
9. Grievances procedure and discipline handling.
10. Social benefits and recreation services.
11. Opportunities, promotions, transfer, suggestion schemes and job satisfaction.
An induction programme consists primarily of three steps:
General orientation by the staff: It gives necessary general information about the history and the operations of the firm. The purpose is to help an employee to build up some pride and interest in the organization.Specific orientation by the job supervisor: The employee is shown the department and his place of work; the location of facilities and is told about the organization’s specific practices and customs. The purpose is to enable the employee to adjust with his work and environment.
Follow-up orientation by either the personnel department or the supervisor: This is conducted within one week to six months of the initial induction and by a foreman or a specialist. The purpose is to find out whether the employee is reasonably well satisfied with him. Through personal talks, guidance and counselling efforts are made to remove the difficulties experienced by the newcomer.
Who Should Do The Induction?
If you are unsure about the best way to pass on the information, then leave it all to whoever will be the new employees superior. However, you may decide that it is relevant to break down the information to be given by the relevant departments. For example, your personnel department may inform them about employment contracts and procedures.
If the new employee will be working with others, you may offer the responsibility to one of his/her future colleagues. This way can benefit the new employee because they will be making a new friend at the same time and could see it as a doorway to their social involvement.
If this isn’t yourself, then you may think it is best to leave the induction to the person who is most interested about the effectiveness of the induction scheme. They will then perhaps make it their responsibility for ensuring that the new employee integrates into the company with the right balance (job/social/personal involvement).
Whoever you allocate to do the induction, it will start to form a good relationship between those involved (or not as the case may be).
Indian companies using innovative ways of employee inductions to make its brand-new employees learn.
Yes bank greeted its new employees with drum beating session provided a stress buster and other various activities conducted to add experiential learning, rather than induction programme merely focusing on PPTs and lectures on organisational culture, etiquettes and opportunities.
At NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), induction is serious business. The one-year programme takes them through six months each of classroom and on-the-job training with several initiatives to make them bond together such as two-week theatre workshop by the National School of Drama. Corporation also does a lot of fun things such has theatre workshops for dramas , cultural programmes for graduate engineers as they are called to participate in workshop and stage dramas on various issues and hosting of dinner by top management to help them come together as they come from different parts of the country.
Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) India office, offered layered induction programme for new employees, which includes various informal dinner to interact with each other as new Johnnies are from different parts of the country.
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Orientation of Employee
Orientation
An introductory stage in the process of new employee assimilation, and a part of his or her continuous socialization process in an organization. Major objectives of orientation are to(1) gain employee commitment,
(2) reduce his or her anxiety,
(3) help him or her understand organization's expectations, and
(4) convey what he or she can expect from the job and the organization.
It is commonly followed by training tailored to specific job positions. See also acculturation and company orientation.
----www.businessdictionary.com
Orientation is the planned introduction of new employees to their jobs, coworkers, and the organization. However, orientation should not be a mechanical, one-way process. Because all employees are different,
orientation must incorporate a sensitive awareness of the anxieties, uncertainties, and needs of the individual. Orientation in one form or another is offered by most employers.
The orientation is meant to educate new employees about the goals and responsibilities of the position and company, as well as to answer any questions they may have about HR, benefits and payroll information.
Orientation Responsibilities
Orientation requires cooperation between individuals in the HR unit and other managers and supervisors. In a small organization without an HR department, such as a machine shop, the new employee’s supervisor or manager has the total responsibility for orientation. In large organizations, managers and supervisors, as well as the HR department, should work as a team in employee orientation.Orientation Process
Purposes of Orientation Employers have to realize that orientation isn't just a nice gesture put on by the organization. It serves as an important element of the recruitment and retention process. Some key purposes are:1. To Reduce Startup Costs Proper orientation can help the employee get "up to speed" much more quickly, thereby reducing the costs associated with learning the job.
2. To Reduce Anxiety Any employee, when put into a new, strange situation, will experience anxiety that can impede his or her ability to learn to do the job. Proper orientation helps to reduce anxiety that results f rom entering into an unknown situation, and helps provide guidelines f or behavior and conduct, so the employee doesn't have to experience the stress of guessing.
3. To Reduce Employee Turnover Employee turnover increases as employees feel they are not valued, or are put in positions where they can't possibly do their jobs. Orientation shows that the organization values the employee, and helps provide the tools necessary for succeeding in the job.
4. To Save Time For Supervisor & Co-Workers Simply put, the better the initial orientation, the less likely supervisors and co workers will have to spend time teaching the employee.
5. To Develop Realistic Job Expectations, Positive Attitudes and Job Satisfaction It is important that employees learn as soon as possible what is expected of them, and what to expect from others, in addition to learning about the values and attitudes of the organization. While people can learn from experience, they will make many mistakes that are unnecessary and potentially damaging.
Facts
Employee orientation imperative to control attrition: Poll
Over 40% of the employees consider employee orientation program an effective medium to convey good-work practices to the new joiners and beneficial in developing realistic job expectations, reveals a poll conducted by TJinsite, research and knowledge arm of TimesJobs.com. In fact, nearly 30% HR managers agreed that orientation programs help in controlling attrition rates by developing positive outlook towards work and organisation. An effective orientation program is not a one day affair but an ongoing process which could continue up to six months of a person joining the organisation.
Experts alleged that it is essential that employers should educate employees regarding their role, key result areas and organisations expectations in advance to curb attrition at the later stage, during a skills dialogue session, a series of high powered panel discussions organised by TimesJobs.com. It will help employees to understand why they are hired and what their goals are for the coming 6-12 months.
The overall goal of orientation is to help new employees learn about the organization as soon as possible, so that they can begin contributing. From the perspective of employers, the orientation process has several specific purposes, which are described next.
Productivity enhancement
Both employers and new employees want individuals starting jobs to become as productive as possible relatively quickly. Texas Instruments found that orientation helps new employees reach full productivity levels at least two months sooner than those without effective orientation experiences.Some employers, including a large accounting firm, give new employees computer and intranet access upon acceptance of a job offer. That way new employees can become more familiar with the organization and its operations even before they go through a formal orientation program.This example illustrates that orientation to the organization really begins during the recruiting and selection processes, because the way individuals are treated and what they learn about the organization during the first contacts may shape how they approach new jobs.
Another facet of orientation that affects productivity is training new employees on the proper ways to perform their jobs. One construction company has found that emphasizing safety and instructing new employees in safe work practices has significantly reduced the number of lost-time injuries experienced by new employees.
Turnover Reduction
Some employers have experienced significant turnover of newly hired employees, and it is common for over half of all new hires in hourly jobs to leave within their first year of employment. But employers with effective orientation programs have found that new employees stay longer. Corning Glass identified that 70% of the employees rating orientation highly were likely to stay at least three years. Another firm was able to reduce annual turnover rates by 40%, and much of the decline was attributed to more effective orientation of new employees. As pointed out in Chapter 3, turnover is costly, and if orientation helps reduce turnover, then it contributes to organizational success.Organizational Overview
Another purpose of orientation is to inform new employees about the nature of the organization. A general organizational overview might include a brief review of the organization; the history, structure, key executives, purpose, products, and services of the organization; how the employee’s job fits into the big picture; and other general information. If the employer prepares an annual report, a copy may be given to a new employee. Also, some organizations give new employees a list of terms that are used in the industry to help them learn regularly used vocabulary.[ Index ▲ ]
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Succession Planning
Succession Planning is the process of identifying and tracking high-potential employees who will be able to fill top management positions when they become vacant.Succession planning is an ongoing process that identifies necessary competencies, then works to assess, develop, and retain a talent pool of employees, in order to ensure a continuity of leadership for all critical positions. Succession planning is a specific strategy, which spells out the particular steps to be followed to achieve the mission, goals, and initiatives identified in workforce planning. It is a plan that managers can follow, implement, and customize to meet the needs of their organisation, division, and/or department.
Succession planning establishes a process to recruit employees, develop their skills, and prepare them for advancement, all while retaining them to ensure a return on the organization's training investment. Succession planning involves understanding the organization's long-term goals and objectives, identifying employee development needs, and determining trends.
The continued existence of an organization over time require a succession of persons to fill key position. The purpose of succession planning is to identify and develop people to replace current incumbents in key position for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are given below:
• Superannuation: Employees retiring because they reach a certain age.
• Resignation: Employees leaving their current job to join a new job
• Promotion: Employees moving upward in the hierarchy of the organization.
• Diversification: Employees being redeployed to new activities.
• Creation of New Position: Employees getting placed in new positions at the same level.
Succession can be from within or from outside the organization. Succession by people from within gives a shared feeling among employee that they can grow as the organization grows. Therefore organization needs to encourage the growth and development with its employee. They should look inward to identify potential and make effort to groom people to higher and varied responsibilities. In some professionally run large organizations, managers and supervisor in every department are usually asked to identify three or four best candidate to replace them in their jobs should the need arise. However, the organization may find it necessary to search for talent from outside in certain circumstance. For example, when qualified and competent people are not available internally, when it is planning to launch a major expansion or diversification programmes requiring new ideas etc.. Complete dependence on internal source may cause stagnation for the organization. Similarly complete dependence on outside talent may cause stagnation in the career prospects of the individual within the organization which may in turn generate a sense of frustration.
Succession planning provides managers and supervisors a step-by-step methodology to utilize after workforce planning initiatives have identified the critical required job needs in their organization. Succession planning is pro-active and future focused, and enables managers and supervisors to assess, evaluate, and develop a talent pool of individuals who are willing and able to fill positions when needed. It is a tool to meet the necessary staffing needs of an organization/department, taking not only quantity of available candidates into consideration, but also focusing on the quality of the candidates, through addressing competencies and skill gaps.
Succession planning top talent concern for executives
Succession planning and strengthening of the leadership pipeline are the top talent concerns for corporate executives globally, according to a study by Deloitte. Executives worldwide foresee leadership shortages in the coming years and are looking at various ways to accelerate leadership development within their organisations.The report, titled, 'Talent Edge 2020: Redrafting Talent Strategies for the Uneven Recovery' says, despite a new wave of uncertainty, many leading companies are reshaping their talent strategies. As a result, organisations across the globe are seeking new sources of growth and are tailoring talent plans to address differing regional needs to support effective talent strategies and business operations.
"The standout findings from this research are two-fold," said Jeff Schwartz, global co-leader of Deloitte's Talent, Performance and Rewards practice. "The near-universal agreement about the existing and potentially growing shortage of executive leadership and the significant regional differences in talent needs around the globe - most acute in the Asia Pacific economies," he added.
In today's business environment, he adds, talent leaders are taking responsibility for their future by focusing investments and capabilities on rebuilding and developing new talent programmes for leaders and critical employees within their organisations. "Given the high growth and potential shortages in the Asia Pacific region, talent concerns are at the top of mind for business and HR leaders," he added.
In the APAC (Asia Pacific) region, for instance, executives face urgent needs with significant shortages anticipated in research and development, operations and strategy and planning, the study said. Survey participants in the Americas see executive leadership and operations as the main talent gaps, while business leaders in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region are far less concerned about shortfalls in talent.
According to the survey, 83% of the respondents felt that their organisations required significant improvements in their talent programmes, while only 17% said their talent programmes were 'world-class across the board'. The survey also revealed many executives are aligning their talent management practices to identify and develop new leaders, create effective succession plans and build global workforces. A majority of executives say performance management, talent assessment and high-potential employee development are core talent priorities over the next 12 months.
While fewer than one in five executives identified their organisations as 'world-class' in talent, more than four out of five acknowledged the need for significant improvements. Many executives anticipate seeing across-the-board talent shortages over the next one year and are developing plans to meet these challenges.
27 Jan, 2012, 07. ET Bureau
Effective succession planning imperative for business success: Survey
Nearly 90% of the organisations conferred succession planning as an important HR process in a survey conducted by TJinsite, research and knowledge arm of TimesJobs.com. According to Rajendra Ghag, Executive Vice President-HR & Admin HDFC Life, a structured succession planning process helps companies to manage their 'Business Critical Positions' (BCP), effectively.Referring to the succession planning process in his organisation, Ghag commented, "As a part of our HR strategy, successors are named by an effective PRP (Performance Review Process) function. In this process, key potential candidates are identified and then, top management sit through for four days to find out whether these high potential individuals can fit into the next higher role. Based on the management's input, they are given ratings, which defines their strength and areas where they need support to grow to become a leader."
Industry experts believe that a well calculated succession planning process can unlock a host of benefits for the organisation. In TJinsite's survey, over 30% of the organisations feel that succession planning can tackle the perpetual attrition problem, leading to higher employee retention. Further, if the process is formally instituted and systematized, can lessen the anxiety felt by employees and actually lead to more employee empowerment, believe 20% of employers.
Experts resonated that putting a strategically planned succession planning process in place, proactive management of the talent pool and employee engagement in the process, can ensure better growth prospects for the organisation.
Distinction between "Career Planning and "Succession Planning
No doubt, career planning as well as succession planning constitute very important input to manpower planning. Sometimes, many people consider that the terms "Career' Planning" and "Succession Planning" are synonymous. But it is not so. Distinction between them is made clear in the following box.Career Planning
1. Career planning is the process or activities offered by an organisation to the individuals or its employees to identify their strength, weaknesses, specific goals and the jobs they would like to occupy. Through career planning, the employees, individuals, identify and implement steps to attain their career goals.
2. In career planning, an organisation is concerned with strategic questions of career development.
3. Career Planning is a must for all managerial cadres and posts.
4. Career Planning's basis is long term till the retirement of the employment contract.
5. The important objective of career planning is to explore the opportunities to enable the individual employees to grow and to develop and also to encourage or motivate them for self-development.
Succession Planning
1. Succession planning is the important process which involves identification of individuals or employees as the possible successors to the key or very senior positions in an organization which such position become vacant. Thus, in short, succession planning focuses on the identification of vacancies and locating probable successor.
2. In succession planning, the focus of attention is the persons who can occupy the vacant post.
3. Succession planning is essential for all those who operate in key functional areas and also for key managerial cadres that are likely to become vacant.
4. Succession Planning is usually for 2 to 5 or 2 to 7 years period for an individual but it is a continuous exercise for an organisation.
5. The important objective of succession planning is to identify the most suitable, potentially qualified, efficient, skilled and experienced employees or individuals to occupy or succeed to key positions when they become vacant.
From the discussion done so far we come to know that career planning and succession planning are very important from the view point of an organisation and its employees. Career planning helps to integrate the employees needs, aspirations with their organisational requirements. Perhaps, it is one of the important challenging task which has assumed great importance in the present century since organisations are becoming keenly interested in attracting, retaining and utilizing the potential of highly talented, efficient, technically specialized, professionally trained and well experienced experts. It is also found that some organisations also think properly and pay attention to succession planning wherein those executives possessing the desired skills and potentials are systematically identified and efforts are made to develop the appropriate executives to hold the position in future. Career Planning and Succession Planning, though are different, act as one of the important tools for harnessing the human potential in which top management, Human Resource Managers have a major role to play.
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Promotions of Employee
In simpler terms, promotion refers to upward movement in present job leading to greater responsibilities, higher status and better salary. Promotion may be temporary or permanent depending upon the organizational requirement. According to Clothier and Spriegel,“promotion is the transfer of an employee to a job which pays more money or one that carries some preferred status.”
In the corporate sector employee promotions doesn't make much difference as that of in government sector. In the government the word promotion is the ultimate desire for an employee for the service rendered by him in the organisation and this is the only way for an employee career development in the government sector. Promotion is the ultimate motivating factor for any employee because moves employee forward in hierarchy of concern organisation added with additional responsibility, higher respect, honour, with increase in grade pay and allowances.
In countries like India, employee promotions are withhold by employers if any enquiry is pending on concerned employee due to his disobedience of duties or misuse of his powers especially in government departments. Until clearance of enquiry pending before COMPETENT AUTHORITY on concerned employee promotion will not be given. It is the responsibility of employee on whom enquiries pending should prove his innocence before concerned competent authority.
Employers should not show any discrimination between men and women with regard to promotion according to section 5 of Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
Purpose and Advantages of Promotion
Promotion stimulates self-development and creates interest in the job. According to Yoder, “promotion provides incentive to initiative, enterprise and ambition; minimizes discontent and unrest; attracts capable individuals; necessitates logical training for advancement and forms an effective reward for loyalty and cooperation, long service etc.” The purposes and advantages of promotions are to:• recognize employee’s performance and commitment and
motivate him towards better performance;
• develop competitive spirit among employees for acquiring knowledge and skills for higher level jobs;
• retain skilled and talented employees;
• reduce discontent and unrest;
• To fill up job's vacant position that is created due to retirement, resignation or demise of an employee.In this case next senior employee will be promoted to the vacant job.
• utilize more effectively the knowledge and skills of employees; and
• attract suitable and competent employees.
Favouring family members leads to employee disengagement: Study
In a study conducted by TJinsite, research and knowledge arm of TimesJobs.com, a large proportion of employees expressed that competency should be the most important criteria for employment or promotion. And, they feel disengaged when relatives are given a key position or promotion, bypassing talented employees. The study highlighted that nepotism policies -favoritism towards family members- degrade level of commitment, loyalty and the sense of ownership amongst employees and leads to higher attrition rate."Nepotism is most commonly seen in family run businesses. And, family run businesses (FRBs) constitute most businesses in India. While favouring family members is very common in family businesses, it runs the dual risks of demoralising non-family members and increasing complacency among family members. The after effects of favouring family members for a senior level position on the existing employees are severe
Types of Promotions
Different types of promotions are discussed below.a) Up or Out Promotion: In this case, an employee either earns a promotion or seeks employment elsewhere. Out promotion usually leads to termination of employee and joining some other organization in a better position.
b) Dry Promotion: In this type, promotion is given in lieu of increase in salary. For example, when an university professor is made Head of the Department, there is no increase in salary.
c) Paper promotion: Paper promotion happens on seniority of employee in government sector having different departments. Paper promotion is an employee promotion given to the employee belonging to the parent department, but indeed working in another department on transfer, on request of employee or due to exigency of work. Paper promoted employee draws salary pertaining to job in another Department, but not according to promotion’s job in the parent Department.
The reason for giving paper promotion is, generally in government sector, employee promotion will be given in order of seniority of employees subjected to the vacancy position created. Whoever is most senior employee amongst all employees in the same cader, out of them top senior employee will be given promotion. When a top senior is working in another Department, in such cases to fill up the vacancy position, promotion on paper will be given to such employee, because he’s not occupying job in the parent Department. Subsequently promotion will be given to the next top senior who is working in the parent Department. Paper promoted employee draws salary pertaining to the job of another Department only but not according to the job, which got paper promoted in the parent Department.
The main objective of a promotion is to protect the right, seniority of an employee and reserve his/her promotion seat in the parent department when an employee reverts to his/her parent department.
Facts
Morning Star is a tomato processing company based in California, with revenues of $700 million and over 400 employees. These unremarkable facts would not qualify for a cover story in Harvard Business Review by management guru Gary Hamel (December 2011). What makes the company remarkable is that it has no bosses, titles or promotions. Can companies be managed without bosses, titles or promotions? More >>
The Domino's Pizza chain focused on its store managers to reduce worker turnover from a staggering 158% down to 107%, according to a StartupJournal.com article. To accomplish this, Domino's HR department deployed a store manager strategy of hiring more selectively, coaching them on how to create better workplaces, and motivating them with the promise of stock options and promotions.
Promotion Program and Procedure
Every organization should make advance plans for promotion programme. A carefully planned promotion programme has four elements:a) formulation of promotion policy,
b) identification of promotion channels,
c) promotion appraisal, and
d) centralized records. We shall discuss each element in detail.
a) Formulation of Promotion Policy:
Each organization needs to maintain a balance between the internal sources of personnel promotion and external sources by means of recruitment. Hence, promotion must be based on consistent, fair and clear cut policy. The National Institute of Personnel Management (NIPM) has suggested a promotion policy on the following lines:
• Encouragement of promotion within the organization instead of looking outside to fill vacancies in higher places.
• An understanding that ability as well as seniority will be taken into account in making promotions. Ability, efficiency, attitude, job performance, physical fitness, leadership, experience, and length of service are some of the factors considered in making promotions.
• Drawing up an organization chart to make clear to all the ladder of promotion. Where there is a job analysis and a planned wage policy, such chart is quite easy to prepare.
• Making the promotion system clear to all concerned who may initiate and handle cases of promotion. Though departmental heads may initiate promotion, the final approval must lie with the top management, after the personnel department has been asked to check from its knowledge whether any repercussion is likely to result from the proposed promotion.
• All promotions should be for a trial period to ascertain whether the promoted person is found capable of handling the job or not. Normally, during this trial period, he draws the pay of the higher post, but it should be clearly understood that if “he does not make the grade” he will be reverted to his former post and former pay scale.
b) Promotion Channels:
Promotion channels should be identified and recorded on paper. This process is related with job analysis and career planning of an organization.
c) Promotion Appraisals:
The promotion of an employee is entirely dependent upon his/her performance appraisal outcome.
d) Centralised Records:
The education, experience, skills, abilities and evaluation of all employees should be recorded and maintained in a centralised manner by the department of the organization, because basing on these attributes, promotion is given to an employee.
Bases of Promotion
Promotion is given on the basis of seniority or merit or a combination of both. Let us discuss each one as a basis of promotion.Seniority as a basis: It implies relative length of service in the same organization. The advantages of this are: relatively easy to measure, simple to understand and operate, reduces labour turnover and provides sense of satisfaction to senior employees. It has also certain disadvantages: beyond a certain age a person may not learn, performance and potential of an employee is not recognized, it kills ambition and zeal to improve performance.
Merit as a basis: Merit implies the knowledge, skills and performance record of an employee. The advantages are: motivates competent employees to work hard, helps to maintain efficiency by recognizing talent and performance. It also suffers from certain disadvantages like: difficulty in judging merit, merit indicates past achievement, may not denote future potential and old employees feel insecure.
Employees who reach office early more likely to get promoted
LONDON: Want to bag a promotion at work? Reach office early!Employees who arrive at work earliest are most likely to get a pay rise, regardless of their performance and total time worked, according to a new study. Researchers also found that those who turn up late and leave the office last are more likely to be overlooked for promotions.
"We think it's a cultural thing. Those who turn up early are thought of as hard workers, while if you turn up later, you're perceived as lazy," said Kai Chi Yam, who led the research at the University of Washington.
Researchers surveyed 149 pairs of employees and managers about when each arrived at work and how the manager rated the employee's conscientiousness and performance.
People who started later were rated worse, particularly when their managers were early risers. There was no evidence that people who went home early were seen as less productive.In a second experiment, students took the role of a manager in a fictional scenario to rate staff performance.
They were told that the employees' performances were identical but their start times varied. Late start times led to lower ratings, even though productivity and total hours were the same.
The study is to be published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
INDIA: Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) employees approached Andhra Pradesh High Court on the irregularities in their promotions. Aggrieved employees allege that their promotions are not being done in accordance with prescribed regulations, which prescribes merit, suitability and seniority of employee should be considered while promotions. In response to this, the honourable High Court of Andhra Pradesh issued interim stay on the promotion of employees.
The economic Times, 22-dec-12
Seniority-cum-Merit as basis: As both seniority and merit as basis suffer from certain limitations, therefore, a sound promotion policy should be based on a combination of both seniority and merit. A proper balance between the two can be maintained by different ways: minimum length of service may be prescribed, relative weightage may be assigned to seniority and merit and employees with a minimum performance record and qualifications are treated eligible for promotion, seniority is used to choose from the eligible candidates.
Facts
Employees have no "vested" right to promotion
Feb, 2012, NEW DELHI (India): The Delhi High Court said though employees have no "vested" right to promotion but they should not be deprived of it "arbitrarily" and without any reasonable ground by their employers.
"It is true that no employee has a vested right for promotion but respondents (employer) cannot act arbitrarily and without any reasonable excuse defer the meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) and thereby deprive the employee of his legitimate expectations for being considered for promotion to a post if he is eligible for being promoted," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and V K Jain said.
March, 2012: In the other case women officers recruited in short service commission of Indian Air Force, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court for making them eligible for promotion and permanent job. The High Court issued orders to Indian Air Force in favour of women officers to make there jobs permanent and promote them to the higher rank with all consequential financial benefits .
DEMOTION
Demotion refers to the lowering down of the status, salary and responsibilites of an employee. Demotion is used as a disciplinary measure in an organization. The habitual patterns of behaviour such as violation of the rules and conduct, poor attendance record, insubordination where the individuals are demoted. Beach (1975) defines demotion as “the assignment of an individual to a job of lower rank and pay usually involving lower level of difficulty and responsibility”.
Causes of Demotion
Demotion may be caused by any of these factors:
• Adverse business conditions: Employees may be demoted because of recession faced by company.
• Incompetency of the employee: It happens when an employee finds it difficult to meet the required standard.
• Technological changes: When employee is unable to adjust with any technological change made by the company.
• Disciplinary measure.
Yoder, Heneman, Turnbull and Stone (1958) have suggested a fivefold policy with regard to demotion practice.
• A clear and reasonable list of rules should be framed, violations of which would subject an employee to demotion;
• This information should be clearly communicated to employees;
• There should be a competent investigation of any alleged violation;
• If violations are discovered, there should be a consistent and equitable application of the penalty, preferably by the immediate supervisor;
• There should be a provision for review. (In a unionised case, this will be automatic via the grievance procedure; in a non-unionised case, the employer will need to make other provisions for review).
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[ 5 ]
Employee Transfers
A transfer is a horizontal or lateral movement of an employee from one job, section, department, shift, plant or position to another at the same or another place where his salary, status and responsibility are the same.Yoder and others (1958) define transfer as “a lateral shift causing movement of individuals from one position to another usually without involving marked change in duties, responsibilities, skills needed or compensation”. Transfer may be initiated either by the company or the employee. It also can be temporary or permanent.
Transfers are generally affected to build up a more satisfactory work team and to achieve the following purposes;
1. To increase the effectiveness of the organization.
2. To increase versatility and competence of key positions.
3. To deal with fluctuations in work requirements.
4. To correct incompatibilities in employee relations.
5. To correct erroneous placement.
6. To relieve monotony.
7. To adjust workforce.
8. To punish employees. (Generally in government organisations, employees who commits mistakes or malfeasance will be treated with transfer to other place where he cannot act according to his wish or misuse his job position. )
Reasons for employee transfers:
1. To avoid favoritism and nepotism.2. To avoid gaining capacity of influencing and egocentrism.
3. To avoid monotony in the work of an employee.
4. Makes an employee accountable to his seat, so as not to find mistake by his successor.
5. So as to avoid excess dependency on particular employee, otherwise may affect the purpose of hierarchy and lose control over subordinates.
6. To create transparency among the employees and their work.
7. It limits taking advantage and sole control over the seat or section.
8. To avoid unnecessary influence on others for their own advantage.
9. To make conversant of different seats work.
10. To maintain healthy relationship in between all the staff members to retain harmonious environment to avoid unnecessary disputes.
Importance of employee transfers
Transfer of employees is must and essential in an organisation for the purpose of minimising politics between employees, to ensure cordial relationship between employees, to increase transparency in work, to obviate syndicate of employees for unethical purpose and to obviate nepotism in organisation.Employee transfers is considerable, as most essential when a position of employee is a top-level in hierarchy. Especially in the governmental organisations employees holding top-level positions are affected with frequent transfers for the reason, to obviate nepotism into increase transparency in the work. Organisations having no transfers for their employees may create their own informal groups for their common interest and their own benefit. Subsequently, this may leads to secrecy in the flow of work, eventually, no transparency in work. Employee transfers less organisation may definitely see organisational politics among employees, that which leads to fall in coordination in between employees, eventually may lead to drop in overall organisational performance.
Drawbacks from employee transfers
Inauguration point of view, transfer of employees will definitely benefit organisation and also keeps away disturbances and misunderstandings in between employees. However, there are a few drawbacks out of employee transfers that effect individuals or employees. Below listed are a few drawbacks due to employee transfers.• Employees who are having attachment with the organisation and their morale maybe disturbed due to transfer to some other location.
• Family members of employee who got transferred maybe psychologically disturbed because they have to shift their entire family to new location for which it may take time to get accustomed to new place.
• Definitely, employee transfer will financially cost to him by way of shifting of his households and furniture in transportation.
• In case of your employees, employee transfer may lead to resignation for the reason he may not willing to leave current location if that location is his native place.
Types of Transfers
Employee transfers may be classified as below.a) Production transfers: Such transfers are made to meet the company requirements. The surplus employees in one department/section who are efficient might be absorbed in other place where there is a requirement. Such transfers help to stabilise employment.
b) Replacement transfers: This takes place to replace a new employee who has been in the organization for a long time and thereby giving some relief to an old employee from the heavy pressure of work.
c) Versality transfers: It is also known as rotation. It is made to develop all round employees by moving them from one job to another. It also helps to reduce boredom and monotony.
d) Personnel or remedial transfers: Such a transfer is made to rectify mistakes in selection and placement. As a follow up, the wrongly placed employee is transferred to a more suitable job.
e) Shift transfers: This is pretty common where there is more than one shift and when there is regularised rotation.
Facts
Ericsson lays off 22 executives in India,
Feb, 2012. The Indian arm of the world's largest telecoms gearmaker, Ericsson, is trimming and redeploying staff as it faces lukewarm operator spends in a fiercely competitive market.
Nearly 22 executives across categories have been fired on performance grounds and another 100 are likely to be transferred to sister organisations like Ericsson India Global Services, Ericsson Supply Site Jaipur, R&D centres and the regional technical centres (RTCs) to boost efficiencies, a top company executive aware of the development .
Transfer Policy
Every organization should have a fair and impartial transfer policy which should be known to each employee. The responsibility for effecting transfers is usually entrusted to an executive with power to prescribe the conditions under which requests for transfers are approved. Care should be taken to ensure that frequent or large-scale transfers are avoided by laying down adequate selection and placement procedures for the purpose. A good transfer policy should:1. Specifically clarify the types of transfers and the conditions under which these will be made;
2. Locate the authority in some officer who may initiate and implement transfers;
3. Indicate whether transfers can be made only within a sub-unit or also between departments, divisions/plants;
4. Indicate the basis for transfer, i.e., whether it will be based on seniority or on skill and competence or any other factor;
5. Decide the rate of pay to be given to the transferee;
6. Intimate the fact of transfer to the person concerned well in advance;
7. Be in writing and duly communicated to all concerned;
8. Not be made frequently and not for the sake of transfer only.
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What Is Mentoring?
Mentoring is the Employee training system under which a senior or more experienced person (the mentor) is assigned to act as an advisor, counselor, or guide to a junior or trainee. The mentor is responsible for providing support to, and feedback on, the person in his or her charge.14 Things to Never Share or Discuss with Your Co-workers
What Is Mentoring?
Mentoring is the process of sharing your knowledge and experience with an employee.• Mentoring can be informal or formal:
o Informal mentoring takes place spontaneously between senior and more junior employees.
o Formal mentoring occurs through a program with an established structure.
• A mentor can be an employee’s manager or not:
o Management typically involves at least some employee mentoring. In acting as a mentor for an employee who reports to you, think of yourself as an advocate for that employee—not for any particular behavior, but for the person—for their personal growth and career. Discipline can then become a matter of helping an employee out of a difficult situation.
o In formal mentoring programs, the mentor is typically not the employee’s manager, nor even in the employee’s chain of command
Mentoring is an ongoing relationship that is developed between a senior and junior employee. Mentoring provides guidance and clear understanding of how the organization goes to achieve its vision and mission to the junior employee.
Facts
Mentis Consulting is an international consulting firm specialising in leadership assessment and development. Our mission is Achievement through people™ – to help our clients to improve organisational performance by selecting, developing and retaining talented people.
Mentis was formed in 2003 and since then we have delivered management training and leadership development programmes involving many thousands of managers and leaders internationally. With offices in London, Abu Dhabi and Dubai and 25 consultants we offer world class leadership training programmes, talent management consulting and personality profiling tools to enable our clients to discover, grow and nurture talented people. Mentis works with over 350 client companies across the UK, Europe and Middle East.
A recent AARP national survey of 1,500 workers age 45 to 74 showed that nearly 70% plan to work in some capacity during their retirement years. Companies can leverage this tremendous source of experienced human capital. Mature, older workers can be positioned as mentors or assigned to cross-generational teams so that workers of all ages can learn from and appreciate each other.
The purpose of a mentorship program is to match up a manager or other experienced employee with someone new to the company or position. The mentor takes a mentee, or protégé, under her wing and helps groom his professional career. A mentor program can be formal, as in the case of assigning a mentor to a protégé and following specific guidelines for the program, or it can be informal, such as to encourage people to volunteer their services or seek out a mentor and meet on their own terms. A successful mentoring program will not only help retain employees, it will assist your training efforts and help boost employee morale.
The meetings are not as structured and regular than in coaching. Executive mentoring is generally done by someone inside the company. The executive can learn a lot from mentoring. By dealing with diverse mentee’s, the executive is given the chance to grow professionally by developing management skills and learning how to work with people with diverse background, culture, and language and personality types.
Executives also have mentors. In cases where the executive is new to the organization, a senior executive could be assigned as a mentor to assist the new executive settled into his role. Mentoring is one of the important methods for preparing them to be future executives. This method allows the mentor to determine what is required to improve mentee’s performance. Once the mentor identifies the problem, weakness, and the area that needs to be worked upon, the mentor can advise relevant training. The mentor can also provide opportunities to work on special processes and projects that require use of proficiency.
Some key points on Mentoring
• Mentoring focus on attitude development• Conducted for management-level employees
• Mentoring is done by someone inside the company
• It is one-to-one interaction
• It helps in identifying weaknesses and focus on the area that needs improvement
Responsibilities of a Mentor
• The responsibilities of all mentors:o Assist the employee in developing talents.
o Maintain objectivity and balance.
o Allow the employee to grow and become more independent.
o Foster a sense of risk-taking and independence.
o Balance the responsibilities you take on for the employee.
• The additional responsibilities of mentors in a formal program:
o Listen to and acknowledge the employee without undermining the role of the manager.
o Encourage the employee to resolve problems directly with the manager.
Detailed Activities of a Mentor
1. Attend regular meetings with the mentee, preferably in an informal environment2. Prepare for meetings
3. Set the agenda for discussions in collaboration with the mentee
4. Allow out of turn meeting with the mentee if the mentee needs one
5. Work out plan of action for the mentee in consultation with him
6. Maintain dialogue and discussions
7. Act as a sounding board
8. Observe the mentee and train mentee to observe others
9. Provide feedback to mentee
10. Acclimatize the mentee with the values, culture, policies and systems of the organization
11. Maintain confidentiality befitting mentor-mentee relationship
12. Take relevant training to become a better mentor
13. Share information with the mentee about continuing professional development and opportunities
14. Provide emotional support as needed
15. Guard against the exploitation of the mentee by other parties
Facts
Mentoring and Sponsorship
Mentoring is a need felt by women recently, when they see the rise of their male counterparts in the workforce. Having a mentor means you have a formally appointed 'guru' at the workplace.
But, mentoring alone is not sufficient - sponsorship is also increasingly becoming a need for advancing women in the workforce. Sponsors don't just invest time in you, but are ready to use their power and influence to your benefit.
Mentoring Techniques
The focus of mentoring is to develop the whole person and so the techniques are broad and require wisdom in order to be used appropriately.A 1995 study of mentoring techniques most commonly used in business found that the five most commonly used techniques among mentors were:
1. Accompanying: making a commitment in a caring way, which involves taking part in learning process side-by-side with the learner.
2. Sowing: mentors are often confronted with the difficulty of preparing the learner before he or she is ready to change. Sowing is necessary when you know that what you say may not be understood or even acceptable to learners at first but will make sense and have value to the mentee when the situation requires it.
3. Catalyzing: when change reaches a critical level of pressure, learning can jump. Here the mentor chooses to plunge the learner right into change, provoking a different way of thinking, a change in identity or a re-ordering of values.
4. Showing: this is making something understandable, or using your own example to demonstrate a skill or activity. You show what you are talking about, you show by your own behavior.
5. Harvesting: here the mentor focuses on "picking the ripe fruit": it is usually used to create awareness of what was learned by experience and to draw conclusions. The key questions here are: "What have you learned?", "How useful is it?".
Different techniques may be used by mentors according to the situation and the mindset of the mentee, and the techniques used in modern organizations can be found in ancient education systems, from the Socratic technique of harvesting to the accompaniment method of learning used in the apprenticeship of itinerant cathedral builders during the Middle Ages. Leadership authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner advise mentors to look for "teachable moments" in order to "expand or realize the potentialities of the people in the organizations they lead" and underline that personal credibility is as essential to quality mentoring as skill.
Tips on Mentoring
o For all mentors: Let the employee learn from you.o Whenever possible, give encouragement.
o Point out alternatives.
o Remember that mentoring also takes place in phone calls, e-mail, etc.
o For mentors in a formal program: Introduce the employee to people who would be helpful.
o Keep your program administrator informed, and seek assistance when needed.
o At the end, allow the employee to keep in touch.
Objectives of a Mentoring Program
• To retain and advance talented employees.• o retain and advance women and minorities.
• To give mentors satisfaction and a rewarding experience.
• To open up new channels of communication, information, and education.
• To demonstrate that the organization invests in people and encourages opportunity for a diverse workforce.
• Non-goal: The program is not intended for sponsoring anyone for a particular position in the
• organization.
Benefits of Mentorship
To the Mentee (A Person who is under Mentor)• Makes him feel at home in the organization in a short period of time
• Smoother transition into the work place
• Feeling of having a buddy or friend in the organization in addition to have formal bosses and colleagues
• Availability of support and guidance
• Having a confidant with whom discussions on some specific sensitive issues can be held
• Developmental opportunity
• Having some one who can back you up and sponsor in the organization
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Personal and Professional Qualities of a Mentor
It is worth thinking about the personal qualities and professional skills which make effective mentors:Personal qualities
1. good interpersonal and communication skills2. approachable
3. empathy
4. good listening skills
5. a genuine desire to help others
6. an open mind and flexible attitude
7. supportive without being controlling
8. can give guidance to a mentee without making their decisions
9. will always give honest answers
10. doesn‘t apportion blame but looks to find solutions
11. actively questions the mentee
12. ability to probe and challenge
13. willingness to debate and discuss
14. has realistic expectations of themselves and others
15. good organizational skills.
Professional skills
1. excellent teacher practitioner2. knowledge and experience of the mentee‘s new area of work
3. knows organisational routines, procedures and policies
4. enthusiastic about teaching
5. can offer a range of perspectives and teaching and learning techniques
6. can make suggestions informed by their own expertise and experience
7. can empower the mentee with the knowledge gained from their experience
8. can help the mentee to identify practice which meets professional requirements.
Characteristics of a Successful Formal Mentor
The assigned mentor has these characteristics.• Wants to mentor another employee and is committed to the employee’s growth and development and cultural integration.
• Has the job content knowledge necessary to effectively teach a new employee significant job knowledge.
• Familiar with the organization’s norms and culture. Can articulate and teach the culture.
• Demonstrates honesty, integrity, and both respect for and responsibility for stewardship.
• Demonstrates effective communication skills both verbally and nonverbally.
• Willing to help develop another employee through guidance, feedback, and occasionally, an insistence on a particular level of performance or appropriate direction.
• Initiates new ideas and fosters the employee’s willingness and ability to make changes in his or her performance based on the constant change occurring in their work environment.
• Has enough emotional intelligence to be aware of their personal emotions and is sensitive to the emotions and feelings of the employee they are mentoring.
• Is an individual who would be rated as “highly successful” in both their job and in navigating the organization’s culture by coworkers and managers.
• Demonstrates success in establishing and maintaining professional networks and relationships, both online and offline.
• Willing to communicate failures as well as successes to the mentored employee.
• Able to spend an appropriate amount of time with the mentored employee.
• Open to spending time with diverse individuals who may not share a common background, values, or goals.
• Able to initiate conflict to ensure the employee’s successful integration into the organization. Willing to acknowledge, as a mentor, that an employee may not succeed in your organization.
• Able to say when the relationship is not working and back away appropriately without regard to ego issues or the need to assign blame or gossip about the situation.
If you select employees to mentor who have these characteristics, you will ensure the success of your formal mentor relationships. This, in turn, ensures the successful integration of the new employee within your work unit.
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Mentee's Responsibilities
14 Things to Never Share or Discuss with Your Co-workers
1. Allow the mentor to take the lead initially2. Act with courtesy with your mentor
3. Be an active listener and take notes when necessary
4. Enquire with purpose
5. Take the initiative for feedback and take it with open mind
6. Be considerate towards mentor’s time.
7. Return phone calls promptly and be on time with commitments and meetings.
8. Demonstrate that you have followed advice or commitments.
9. Express appreciation and thank the mentor
10. Do not talk loose about the mentor to others
11. Maintain confidentiality of relationship as needed
12. Prepare yourself to move beyond the mentoring connection once it has served its purpose
13. Keep the door open to return to the mentor for assistance or advice at a future time.
14. Follow up with the mentor after termination to keep in touch, to share progress and to continue to express gratitude.
Mentees should listen first
In a mentoring relationship you should be less concerned about showing your mentor how brilliant you are, than listening carefully and absorbing their advice, says Harvard Business Review."It might be tempting to use your mentoring sessions to impress your mentor - someone who can potentially advance your career. But most mentors are put off by proteges who do more self-promoting than learning.
Listen to your mentor, show humility, and make it clear that you take the counsel seriously. When you get feedback, don't respond with, 'Yes, I already knew that.' Restate the advice in your own words to make sure you've got it right, and ask questions to clarify.
Mentors will often test you by gauging how you respond to feedback; and the better you are at receiving it, the more of it you will get."
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Counseling - Features of Counseling - Counselling Process
Emotions are part of the nature of human beings and emotional upsets are part of their life. It is sometimes more disastrous to suppress emotions. The emotional problems affect the interest of the employees himself and the organisatoin in which he is working for. The problems may reduce their productivity, morale and increase absenteeism. Hence the managers should take steps to maintain a reasonable emotional balance of their employees and channelize their emotions on the constructive lines. The instrument with which the managers can achieve such balance is called counselling.Counselling is a method of understanding and helping people who have technical, personal and emotional or adjustment problems that usually has emotional contents that an employee with the objective of reducing it so that performance is maintained at adequate level or even improved upon.
Features of Counseling
1. Counseling is interviewing the person being counselled and helping to solve his problems through human approach of sharing and guidance.2. Counseling is sitting down in private setting for an open discussion with an employee. Sometimes it is to pay a sincere compliment, sometimes it is to solve a problem that is hurting productivity/effectiveness, sometimes it is because an employee violated your discipline line and you need to talk about improvement in his behavior.
3. It is communicating one to one, in private. It is interviewing- it's a two way dialogue and not one way sermonizing or advising.
4. It is encouraging the other person to to talk about himself so that the problem and it's reasons emerge clearly and solutions can be worked out.
5. In an organization, counseling can be done by the team leader, supervisor or manager or one can seek the expertise and assistance of an in-house or external professional counselor.
Situations that Call for Counseling in an Organization
Given below is a partial indicative list of situations that call for counseling from a superior to his subordinate:• When an employee violates your standards.
• When an employee is consistently late or absent.
• When an employee’s productivity is down.
• When one employee behaves in such a way that productivity of others is negatively affected.
• When two employees have a conflict that is becoming public and it is affecting the work.
• When you want to compliment an individual.
• When you want to delegate a new task.
Employee Counseling in Maruthi Suzuki,s violence
On July 18 of 2012, Labour violence at the manufacturing plant had seen nearly 100 injured and killed of senior human resource manager by setting fire, following the instant company had decided lock-out in the view of safety and welfare of itsemployees. This serious dispute had created panic and psychological disturbance among employees, for this purpose Maruthi Suzuki decided to get psychologist and psychiatrics for counselling its injured employees and violence. The employee welfare team had setup to conduct the counselling sessions for the employees injured.Facts
Companies like Citigroup, Bharti Airtel and DLF have terminated its employees those who are in redundant jobs. To soften the termination issue theses companies took the help of counsellors to counsel.
Objectives of the Interview
The general objective of the manager in counselling sub-ordinates is to help the individual remain effective in his job and performance of his duties in the organization. The man purpose of counselling in industry is to help employees in overcoming their neurotic or emotionally based illness that accounts for a substantial part of employee absenteeism and turnover.Counseling Process
The counselling process, normally consists of the following stages:Initiating
This involves developing mutual understanding openness and acceptance between counselor and counseled. This rapport building is essential to initiate the counselling.
Exploration
This involved understanding with the help of the counselling, the counsellee’s own situation, his feelings, his strengths and weakness, his problems and needs.
The councellor allows the counselee to talk about anything even apparently unrelated to the issue. It is important for the counselor to achieve a free flow of expression-often through rumblings – of the employee. The counselor will need an alert and receptive mind for this. The councellor, however, see to it that the councellor eventually concentrates his thoughts on his problem rather than stray away from it. The counselor has to help the counselee in concentrating more on the problem and getting deeper into it and to discover the basic problems by himself.
Formulation of action plan
This involved exploring possible solutions and formulating action plan for implementing them to make the counselee the normal person.
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Techniques of Counselling
On the basis of techniques counselling could be• Directive Counselling centre around the counselor. The counselor, after hearing the problems of an employee, decides what should be done and give advice and suggestion to him to resolve the problem. But directive counselling seldom succeeds, as people do not wish to take up advice normally, no matter how good it might be.
• Nondirective Counselling is the process of skillfully listening the emotional problems of an employee, understand him and determine the course of action to be adopted to resolve his problem. It focuses on the counselee hence it is called ‘client centred’ ounselling. Professional counselors usually adopt this method of ounselling. The unique advantage of this type of counselling is its ability to cause the employees reorientation. The main stress is to ‘change’ the person instead of dealing
with his immediate problem only. The non-directive counselor deals with respect the person so affected. He takes the person as best to solve his own problems and he facilitates the person to reach his goal.
• Cooperative Counselling is the process in which both the councellor and client mutually cooperate to solve the problems of the client. It is not either wholly client centred nor wholly counselor centred but it is centred both councellor and client equally. It is defined as mutual discussion of an employee’s emotional problem to set up conditions and plans of actions that will remedy it. This form of counselling appears to be more suitable to managerial attitude and temperament in our country.
Among the three from of counselling, the advice offered in directive counseling considers the surface crises; the nondirective counselling goes to the underlining cause, the real crisis that leads the employee to understand his problem. It is thus suggested that nondirective to counselling is, probably, the best among the three forms.
Facts
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.
The Myers-Briggs personality assessment has been identifying introverts, extroverts and other personality types since 1943. Based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, the Myers-Briggs questionnaire has been gauging personalities through attitude, style and cultural changes occurring during the past 60 years. Many consider it an essential tool for hiring and career development. The indicator is frequently used in the areas of pedagogy, career counseling, team building, group dynamics, professional development, marketing, family business, leadership training, executive coaching, life coaching, personal development, marriage counseling, and workers' compensation claims.
Employee assistance programs (EAP) are designed to resolve problems concerning health, marriage, family, finances, alcohol, drugs, law, stress or other things that may affect an employee’s work performance. EAP programs are usually provided at no cost to employees and their dependents.
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14 Things to Never Share or Discuss with Your Co-workers
13 Things to Never Share or Discuss with Your Co-workers
"It's a social environment as well as a work environment. However, you must remember while you can be friendly and develop a good rapport, business is business and friendship is friendship."Most workers don't realize that what they say has as much impact on their professional imges as what they wear. People who say too much, about themselves or others, can be seen as incompetent, unproductive and unworthy of professional development.To avoid your next case of verbal diarrhea, here are 13 things to never share or discuss with your co-workers.
1. Salary information What you earn is between you and Human Resources, Solovic says. Disclosure indicates you aren't capable of keeping a confidence.
2. Medical history Nobody really cares about your aches and pains, your latest operation, your infertility woes or the contents of your medicine cabinet. To your employer, your constant medical issues make you seem like an expensive, high-risk employee.
3. Gossip Whomever you're gossiping with will undoubtedly tell others what you said, Plus, if a co-worker is gossiping with you, most likely he or she will gossip about you.
4. Work complaints Constant complaints about your workload, stress levels or the company will quickly make you the kind of person who never gets invited to lunch. If you don't agree with company policies and procedures, address it through official channels or move on.
5. Cost of purchases The spirit of keeping up with the Joneses is alive and well in the workplace, but you don't want others speculating on the lifestyle you're living –or if you're living beyond your salary bracket.
6. Intimate details Don't share intimate details about your personal life. Co-workers can and will use the information against you.
7. Politics or religion People have strong, passionate views on both topics. You may alienate a co-worker or be viewed negatively in a way that could impact your career.
8. Lifestyle changes Breakups, divorces and baby-making plans should be shared only if there is a need to know. Otherwise, others will speak for your capabilities, desires and limitations on availability, whether there is any truth to their assumptions or not.
9. Blogs or social networking profile What you say in a social networking community or in your personal blog may be even more damaging than what you say in person. Comments online can be seen by multiple eyes. An outburst of anger when you are having a bad day … can blow up in your face.
10. Negative views of colleagues If you don't agree with a co-worker's lifestyle, wardrobe or professional abilities, confront that person privately or keep it to yourself. The workplace is not the venue for controversy.
11. Hangovers and wild weekends It's perfectly fine to have fun during the weekend, but don't talk about your wild adventures on Monday. That information can make you look unprofessional and unreliable.
12. Personal problems and relationships – in and out of the office Failed marriages and volatile romances spell instability to an employer. Office romances lead to gossip and broken hearts, so it's best to steer clear. The safest way to play is to follow the rule, 'Never get your honey where you get your money.
13. Off-color or racially charged comments You can assume your co-worker wouldn't be offended or would think something is funny, but you might be wrong. Never take that risk. Furthermore, even if you know for certain your colleague wouldn't mind your comment, don't talk about it at work. Others can easily overhear.
14. negative opinions or personal feelings on your colleagues or superiors - sharing your personal feelings or opinions with your co-workers may be consoling, solacing or sympathizing, but sometimes this could develop hidden enemies or invite conflicts if your words are carried by the person with whom you shared.
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Source: Human resource management (web). www.whatishumanresource.com (english)