In my first semester as an MBA student I wrote three different double-digit page research papers for the three classes that I was taking at the time. All of them were interesting topics to me in some way, which I think is the only way to really produce good work/content, but there was one in particular that really hit home for me. The topic of the paper was on job satisfaction in the restaurant industry, which is the industry that I have spent most of my time being employed within over the past four years, as well as most of my college career. It was interesting to me to study job satisfaction in the industry, because I believed from my experience that it was really an afterthought of most managers due to the statistically high turnover that has always been associated with the profession.
One article interested me in particular, and I felt that it was extremely applicable to any industry when it comes to improving employee performance. The article is entitled "If You Don't Hear From Me You Know You Are Doing Fine": The Effects of Management Nonresponse to Employee Performance, and it talks about the impact that feedback from management can have on employee performance via a study of 243 employees of two different hospitality organizations. The findings of the study indicated that feedback, even when it is of the negative variety, improves employee performance. The study also found that ommission of positive commentary on good performance had a slightly negative effect on workers' effectiveness and job satisfaction.
My Mother and Father used to tell me that 'if I didn't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all,' but it seems that the moral of the story is that management needs to spend more time giving any kind of feedback to employees that they can. Despite everything that is going on within an organization, and all of the other responsibilities that management of that organization will have throughout each day, one of the best ways to spend your time might just be in providing some feedback, regardless of if it's positive or negative...and especially if it's positive.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Cross Training for a More Productive Workforce
I grew up playing a lot of sports, and when I wasn't in the middle of a sports season (and even sometimes when I was), I was always playing some sort of sport or doing some sort of physical activity in my spare time. We were always encouraged to practice other sports, lift weights, etc. (I even had a friend who's father made him join ballet to gain balance and strength for football) in order to become better athletes in whichever respective sport we played. I actually started playing football, at that time I didn't play anything in the fall, because I was told that 'real athletes' never had an off-season.
I think that growing up that way has made it difficult for me to pick one career that I want to do for the rest of my life, because I get bored at work if I'm not constantly challenged. I've had a lot of different jobs thus far, and one of the things that I've noticed about each of them is that people aren't cross-trained enough in business environments. It's not like when we were kids and a teacher took a day off and the school district would just call in a sub for the day. When a member of a team in an organization isn't there for a day of work, the strain can be huge (especially if they are gone for extended periods of time). If other employees are trained to handle multiple responsibilities, however, the organization can continue to function like it should, and employees can feel like they are more of a central part of its success.
Here is an article about the idea of cross training within organizations, and some of the benefits that can result from it. It talks a bit about the difference between job enlargement and job enrichment, and, while I'm mainly for job enrichment, I think that job enlargement can go a long way with making each day of work a bit more fun and interesting as I eluded to earlier. If you're constantly giving people a chance to improve at work, even if it is just to cover for or help out a co-worker from time to time, it can go a long way to making their experiences within the organization more meaningful.
I think that growing up that way has made it difficult for me to pick one career that I want to do for the rest of my life, because I get bored at work if I'm not constantly challenged. I've had a lot of different jobs thus far, and one of the things that I've noticed about each of them is that people aren't cross-trained enough in business environments. It's not like when we were kids and a teacher took a day off and the school district would just call in a sub for the day. When a member of a team in an organization isn't there for a day of work, the strain can be huge (especially if they are gone for extended periods of time). If other employees are trained to handle multiple responsibilities, however, the organization can continue to function like it should, and employees can feel like they are more of a central part of its success.
Here is an article about the idea of cross training within organizations, and some of the benefits that can result from it. It talks a bit about the difference between job enlargement and job enrichment, and, while I'm mainly for job enrichment, I think that job enlargement can go a long way with making each day of work a bit more fun and interesting as I eluded to earlier. If you're constantly giving people a chance to improve at work, even if it is just to cover for or help out a co-worker from time to time, it can go a long way to making their experiences within the organization more meaningful.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Recruiting...with your very own job board
When the topic of recruiting came up in the text, I knew I was going to have a really hard time deciding what to write about. I've worked in the sales departments of various companies and in restaurants for the bulk of my time as an employee, and in both of these arenas recruitment is very important because compensation is, at least somewhat, based on performance and turnover can be extremely high. Employers often need to combine internal and external strategies for recruiting new hires as necessary, and it's often really hard to distinguish what your company has to offer from all of the others in the vast sea of job postings that one can find all over the internet on various sites.
One of the jobs that I had along the way, however, gave companies a way to distinguish themselves from the pack long before social media vehicles were available. The company, Collegejobboard.com (that I worked for on a 100% commission basis by the way), provided an opportunity for an organization to create their own job board on their own company website. This allowed companies to distinguish themselves from the competition by not having to post every job available on Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs. Instead, the companies that purchased these services could have one posting on each of these sites, and other sites that job-seekers might frequent, that lead them back to a fully functioning job board with all the same bells and whistles that they could customize and operate as their own.
Of course, not every company out there can afford this type of software or service, and social media is slowly taking over as the best way to recruit, engage, and motivate your workforce internally. If you haven't read it already, I'd encourage anyone that may be reading this blog outside of my current Human Resource Management class at KU to read "Social Media at Work" to gain some incredibly helpful insights for how to use social media to your advantage in pretty much any area of your company that you can imagine.
One of the jobs that I had along the way, however, gave companies a way to distinguish themselves from the pack long before social media vehicles were available. The company, Collegejobboard.com (that I worked for on a 100% commission basis by the way), provided an opportunity for an organization to create their own job board on their own company website. This allowed companies to distinguish themselves from the competition by not having to post every job available on Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs. Instead, the companies that purchased these services could have one posting on each of these sites, and other sites that job-seekers might frequent, that lead them back to a fully functioning job board with all the same bells and whistles that they could customize and operate as their own.
Of course, not every company out there can afford this type of software or service, and social media is slowly taking over as the best way to recruit, engage, and motivate your workforce internally. If you haven't read it already, I'd encourage anyone that may be reading this blog outside of my current Human Resource Management class at KU to read "Social Media at Work" to gain some incredibly helpful insights for how to use social media to your advantage in pretty much any area of your company that you can imagine.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Utilizing Social Media in Delivering HR Services to an Organization
Social Media at Work, written by Arthur L. Jue, Jackie Alcalde Marr, and Mary Ellen Kassotakis, was an excellent resource for developing an understanding of the various ways that social media can be used to enhance various ways employers and employees can communicate with one another and enhance the employment relationship and community. You can visit the companion website to the book in order to find where the book is available for purchase, join discussions about specific chapters, learn about the speaking schedules of the authors, and find other information related to the book.
Since this course deals specifically with Human Resources, examining how these various forms of social media can enhance delivery of Human Resource services to employees within an organization is an important aspect of the many uses of these resources. Chapter four of the book does an excellent job of outlining some of the key areas where organizations have begun to use social media that directly affect human resource goals and services. The five main topics discussed in the chapter are listed below:
There are many other great examples throughout the book of how other companies are utilizing social media to accomplish organizational goals related to HR and various other aspects of how those companies do business. It's a quick, easy read that I definitely recommend if your company is in need of help with utilizing these forms of technology to the best of your abilities.
Since this course deals specifically with Human Resources, examining how these various forms of social media can enhance delivery of Human Resource services to employees within an organization is an important aspect of the many uses of these resources. Chapter four of the book does an excellent job of outlining some of the key areas where organizations have begun to use social media that directly affect human resource goals and services. The five main topics discussed in the chapter are listed below:
- Attracting and retaining the best employees
- Innovation and knowledge creation
- Operational efficiency
- Talent development
- Employee engagement
There are many other great examples throughout the book of how other companies are utilizing social media to accomplish organizational goals related to HR and various other aspects of how those companies do business. It's a quick, easy read that I definitely recommend if your company is in need of help with utilizing these forms of technology to the best of your abilities.
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