How to train your human resource team?

Considering the key responsibilities of any HR team is hiring the right person for the job, improving employments standards & working conditions, ensuring employee retention, engagement and even the benefits and salaries.

Being a new department in many businesses, training is required to ensure that the people in the department fully understand their duties and responsibilities. Some of the steps that can be taken during training of the human resource staff are listed below:

• Selecting a relevant topic

Depending on the type of business you run. There is a very wide range of topics you may want to train your HR staff on. The topic you select should be relevant to your business and mostly reflect on the current factors affecting your business. Training your human resource team on how to tackle issues will not only help them to become more efficient in their handling of the other staff, but also help in the running of the business. You can opt to have your human resource staff take training on few topics at a time depending on the urgency and time available.

• Choose the most effective format of training 

This will largely depend on your preference and the effectiveness of the format to suit the company’s needs. As there are many schools for human resource training, there are many different formats in which the information is passed onto the learners. Whether you opt to take them on a one week seminar, or have them take online training lessons, it is entirely up to you to select the format that will be convenient for the your business. You should also be able to follow up on the progress of your human resource staff to ensure training effectiveness.

Why it is important to train your human resource team

Just like training for other staff, there are several advantages of training your human resource staff. Some of the major advantages include the following;

• Training helps your staff to acquire new skills. This enables them to have more knowledge on how to handle difficult issues that may arise at the place of work.
• It is good for your brand. The human resource staff in every firm are the ambassadors that represent the image of the firm to the outside world. This is because all the other employees of the firm look up to the human resource department to give them guidance of their roles in the firm.

  • The HR department is responsible for setting the culture of your firm. Whether they chose to go with a very strict culture or a casual culture, the human resource staff have to choose the culture that will ensure maximum benefit to your firm. Having well trained human resource staff enables you to rest assured that your firm is in good hands.

  • Ensuring there is proper management if the employees. The major function of the human resource managers if the firm is to cater for the needs of the employees. Properly trained staff will be able to easily handle and tackle the needs of the employees to ensure their needs are catered for in the best way possible. When your employees are happy and content, then your business is guaranteed to thrive.

• The role of the human resource staff is to also ensure there is good communication between the employees and the organization. HR staff that are well trained will be able to easily engage the other employees in the running of the firm and ensuring that your employees feel valued.

The human resource department is a department that deals with employee’s activities. Hiring and firing of employees and management of other employees are some of the major functions of the HR department. It is important to ensure that your human resource team is properly trained for the success of your business. You should find the best approach on how to train your human resource team to ensure training effectiveness.

The Top 5 Performance Appraisal Biases and how to avoid them

Evaluation of performance appraisal can be improved easily if there is a strong connection between the supervisor and its subordinates. Supervisor alone cannot amend or give better results by merely passing the instructions.

Improved appraisals and satisfied employees are the main assets of any company that empowers the business performance. There are numerous ways to improve the evaluation of performance appraisal, 10 of these are discussed below.

1) Repetitive appraisals

Performance appraisal should be done repetitively i-e periodically or quarterly. If it is held four times a year, it makes the employees attentive and concerned about their performance. It will be equitable for the employee in every meaning and will give the best result. If appraisals are done once a year, and the employee had a bad month in which evaluations were done, he will get an unjust result.

2) Process or Event?

Performance appraisal should be a recurring process instead of a one-off event. Few employees may start working hard two months before the evaluation is started and may come in management’s good books. This leads to bad results of evaluations and wrong promotions. So, in order to gain maximum efforts of employees to gain good appraisals, supervisors should manage high-performance workforce and make it a regular process of the business.

3) Interpersonal relations

Interpersonal relations add a lot to the working environment, success, and empowerment of business performance. Better communication, loyalty, and friendly environment help to get the most of employee’s performance leading to improved appraisals. Any worker cannot give his best if he is not comfortable with the environment and seniors.

4) Conversations; not Confrontations

Supervisors or managers should always try to pull in a conversation with the employee if he is not performing well. They should avoid confronting the employee with issues. This may lead to retaliation in work or directly resignation. To improve, manage and retain the workers, things should be discussed instead of confrontation.

5) Negotiation with the employees

In order to get good performance and appraisals, decisions should be made after discussion and negotiation with the employees. Employees may not work properly if they feel decisions are being imposed on them.

6) Decision making

The workers should be involved in decision-making processes as it boosts their spirits and increases their interest in the projects. Apart from moral encouragement, employees are the one who has to work in the field; they may add some technicalities that the management might not have thought deeply. Higher management should manage high-performance workforce in such a way that the subordinates also participate in decision-making and raise their enthusiasm level.

7) Regular feedback

Regular feedback can augment the performance appraisals as the employees get the reviews on daily or weekly basis. And they can easily amend their working styles if the manager points out anything.

8) Innovation and its acceptance

Successful businesses continuously change and innovate their styles to meet the market requirements and gain a good ranking. Employees do not always respond positively in such cases. If a change is necessary, yet unpopular with the workers, management should proceed slowly in order to gain acceptance. Otherwise they will get poor appraisals and growth.

9) Delegating effectively

The delegation of right duties to the right employees is a very important. A person talented enough for a higher rank, if given a small job will lose his interest in the job. Likewise, a person not capable of a certain job will spoil the project’s growth.

10) Avoid biasness

Performance appraisal is badly affected if the top management shows biasness towards a certain employee or a group of employees. Other workers stop putting up any effort because they know only favorite people will get the rewards. If the management is biased is rewards and incentives, appraisals will also give the same result so biasness should be avoided.

Finally, it must be remembered that the employee’s willingness and determination combined with the manager’s/ supervisor’s right decisions take a business to the next level. Performance evaluations are critical for both managers and employees. They don’t only enable the discussion and assessment of the latter’s performance-employee performance reviews also allow managers to discuss organizational priorities and goals with the people they manage. However, conducting them can be challenging, as you need to ensure the proper approach and the right process for best results. One way to achieve these objectives is to use a good performance review software that will allow you to schedule periodic evaluations for teams, persons, and job titles.

5 super easy Ways to attract the top talent to your organization

As a recruiting specialist, you will surely like to win applause for your ability to attract the top talent to your organization. In fact it’s a dream come true if you are able to consistently achieve this over a period of time.

These individuals can significantly push a firm’s productivity to a level that fully represents an organization’s objectives. Such talent is often hard to lure since they are fully aware of the value they can add and many of them would not want to have a career situation where their professional skills are under-utilized.

Attracting and retaining this talent isn’t easy since these individuals think beyond mere monetary benefits, a factor that many employees often prefer to base their career arguments on.

Many aspects come into play when a firm has the intention to recruit top, highly professional and competent professionals. There’s a lot that can be done to get you this pool of super achievers. However, what you must start with is to have the basics in place and here are a few things that you cannot simply forget:

1. Create a conducive work environment 

In instances where employees are ever subject to overly harsh micro-management, they may get unsettled and start searching for potential employers who can offer conducive work environment. That means employers must establish the right working tools, human resources and an environment that encourages top professionals to deliver their best. In situations where vital work tools or human resources are missing or poorly structured, it may get incredibly hard for some professionals to work best as they would want to and that can only drive them into looking for new avenues that represent their career aspirations. Organizations’ managements should routinely engage their professionals and inquire from them anything they would need to boost their professional commitments in the best way possible.

2. Recognize your top performers with Rewards & Recognition

You must ensure that your Rewards and recognition program is not merely intrinsic but also extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is all about getting public recognition as well as external rewards such as bonuses and praise. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation can be considered as even more crucial as it allows employees to feel connected. It gives a sense of autonomy and freedom as well as offers an opportunity for personal growth.

3. Give your employees some time off from their professional commitments

Though many organizations often perceive vacations as a wastage of valuable work hours, the fact is that employees have so many things to think about besides their professional commitments. If employers hardly give their employees adequate vacation to focus on personal issues such as family, the employees may get so unsettled by such work ethics. That can consequently lower productivity since such poor work ethics may drive some disgruntled top talents to searching for organizations where employees’ welfare is well taken care of through vacation incentives. It has also been proven that organizations that give their employees vacations tend to be more productive than ones that don’t. Top professionals would only want to stick to organizations that give them time to focus on their personal commitments, and in the absence of such motives, it would be very tough for an organization to attract treasured top professionals.

4. Establish fair and well-balanced promotions within a professional workplace

It is fairly reasonable to argue that an organization cannot expect the same level of professional work input from all its employees. Some professionals obviously give their best to an organization than others and such efforts must be duly recognized and rewarded accordingly. Top professionals always strive to rise the corporate and leadership structure of any organization they are committed to and that factor must be properly recognized. Besides establishing salaries and wage increments for incredible professional efforts, any professional job ranks given to employees who show excellence must also duly deserve their professional inputs. The promotions and incentives should be awarded fairly so that no feeling of mistrust arises among competing employees.

5. Prioritize Learning & Development as much as Employee Performance

In a cut-throat work environment, we often tend to push as hard as we can without taking any break or waiting for reflect on areas of improvement. This is when we also allow learning to pass us by. While this could have been alright earlier, companies today cannot afford to sacrifice continuous learning. With changes becoming the order of the day for most organizations, to compete effectively you must be geared up to out-think your competition. This can only happen if you build an environment of continuous learning, where personal & professional growth are viewed and valued as profitability.

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These are some super easy ways that wouldn’t require a lot of fundamental changes to get the top talent want to work for you. The earlier you work towards incorporating these practices, the easier it will be for you to build a culture where top performers thrive and build their career.

5 Super Easy Ways to Attract the Top Talent to Your Organization

As a recruiting specialist, you will surely like to win applause for your ability to attract the top talent to your organization. In fact it’s a dream come true if you are able to consistently achieve this over a period of time.

These individuals can significantly push a firm’s productivity to a level that fully represents an organization’s objectives. Such talent is often hard to lure since they are fully aware of the value they can add and many of them would not want to have a career situation where their professional skills are under-utilized.

Attracting and retaining this talent isn’t easy since these individuals think beyond mere monetary benefits, a factor that many employees often prefer to base their career arguments on.

Many aspects come into play when a firm has the intention to recruit top, highly professional and competent professionals. There’s a lot that can be done to get you this pool of super achievers. However, what you must start with is to have the basics in place and here are a few things that you cannot simply forget:

1. Create a conducive work environment 

In instances where employees are ever subject to overly harsh micro-management, they may get unsettled and start searching for potential employers who can offer conducive work environment. That means employers must establish the right working tools, human resources and an environment that encourages top professionals to deliver their best. In situations where vital work tools or human resources are missing or poorly structured, it may get incredibly hard for some professionals to work best as they would want to and that can only drive them into looking for new avenues that represent their career aspirations. Organizations’ managements should routinely engage their professionals and inquire from them anything they would need to boost their professional commitments in the best way possible.

2. Recognize your top performers with Rewards & Recognition

You must ensure that your Rewards and recognition program is not merely intrinsic but also extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is all about getting public recognition as well as external rewards such as bonuses and praise. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation can be considered as even more crucial as it allows employees to feel connected. It gives a sense of autonomy and freedom as well as offers an opportunity for personal growth.

3. Give your employees some time off from their professional commitments

Though many organizations often perceive vacations as a wastage of valuable work hours, the fact is that employees have so many things to think about besides their professional commitments. If employers hardly give their employees adequate vacation to focus on personal issues such as family, the employees may get so unsettled by such work ethics. That can consequently lower productivity since such poor work ethics may drive some disgruntled top talents to searching for organizations where employees’ welfare is well taken care of through vacation incentives. It has also been proven that organizations that give their employees vacations tend to be more productive than ones that don’t. Top professionals would only want to stick to organizations that give them time to focus on their personal commitments, and in the absence of such motives, it would be very tough for an organization to attract treasured top professionals.

4. Establish fair and well-balanced promotions within a professional workplace

It is fairly reasonable to argue that an organization cannot expect the same level of professional work input from all its employees. Some professionals obviously give their best to an organization than others and such efforts must be duly recognized and rewarded accordingly. Top professionals always strive to rise the corporate and leadership structure of any organization they are committed to and that factor must be properly recognized. Besides establishing salaries and wage increments for incredible professional efforts, any professional job ranks given to employees who show excellence must also duly deserve their professional inputs. The promotions and incentives should be awarded fairly so that no feeling of mistrust arises among competing employees.

5. Prioritize Learning & development as much as Employee Performance

In a cut-throat work environment, we often tend to push as hard as we can without taking any break or waiting for reflect on areas of improvement. This is when we also allow learning to pass us by. While this could have been alright earlier, companies today cannot afford to sacrifice continuous learning. With changes becoming the order of the day for most organizations, to compete effectively you must be geared up to out-think your competition. This can only happen if you build an environment of continuous learning, where personal & professional growth are viewed and valued as profitability.

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These are some super easy ways that wouldn’t require a lot of fundamental changes to get the top talent want to work for you. The earlier you work towards incorporating these practices, the easier it will be for you to build a culture where top performers thrive and build their career.

How to build an Effective Employee Brand Ambassador Program

All companies want effective brand ambassadors. They are constantly searching for individuals who will help them in getting a positive image for the company.

Brand ambassadors help to glorify the image of the brand and also reach out to the majority of consumers out there. They make new consumers aware about the brand and also successfully retain old ones also.

Employees should also be encouraged to spread the word about your company as they are the ones most closely associated with your brand. When employees start talking and chatting about your company on social media, they will share a perspective native to humans which people tend to gravitate to naturally. They will share vital information about your company and the brand which you operate.

Employee brand ambassador programs are a successful part of a marketing technique. You should be able to identify the correct employees who are actively taking part in the interest of your company. You should also be able to do some ground work beforehand. Gather information about employees who are natural sincere leaders and who are being an asset to the company. Read on to find out more about how you can successfully create and implement an employee brand ambassador program.

Assigning and choosing the right leaders

You should at first nominate a captain from the work force. A captain would be someone who will be willing to take the reins of the program in his/her own hands. This pHR Analytics is one of the main HR and Recruiting trends in 2017. However, it is also a very complex topic and I got the impression that most people do not really know what it is about and why it got so important. It’s high time to speak to an expert in this field.erson would be someone who can effortlessly guide other people who are already familiar with the ropes. The leader will provide a common aspect and vision. He/she will also coach and train employees and oversee all online content before they get posted. The ideal or prospective leaders of your organisation can also be identified with the help of a leadership assessment.

Communicating your vision

The second is to implement the vision your company upholds to everyone. Your employees should be able to communicate with one another over social media about new practices and techniques. Then only will employees feel empowered and secure. Proper communication among employees, employers and captains will lead to greater results.

Feel free to share your expectations with them

You should properly communicate with your employees about what you want and how you want it. Nothing can be successful without proper guidelines. You should make your employees under the program follow a certain set of rules. Following a proper method and structure will help you in progressing with the program. The more strictly they will follow; the better will be the output. Sit with your captain and draw out a proper blueprint of all the activities you want done.

You should keep materials and resources readily available

Your social media should have all the collected ideas, posts, photos, videos, articles and other contents which your employees can use in their posts. You should properly manage all social media content and ensure that your employees receive the information fast. Also make it known to all your employees that they can feel free to share and make use of any information they might like. Proper use of your company’s content will result in communicating and reaching out to a wide member of the audience.

5 Mistakes You May Be Making in Your Social Recruiting Process

Nowadays, social media recruitment is a well-known practice and most organizations are using it as a hiring tool during their recruitment process. Such companies use the online platform or social media to screen candidates and thus shortlist a select few to be interviewed physically. Social media allows these recruiting companies the option to advertise and market their jobs and also give the potential candidates access to such jobs 24 hours a day. However, most firms find it hard to get the right candidates using social media due to some mistakes they make in the selection process. Avoiding such mistakes gives you the opportunity to choose the right candidate easily.

Here are the 5 mistakes you may be making in your social recruiting process which you can do well to avoid:

1. Failing to Plan and To Describe Your Scope Properly

This is a common mistake committed by most online recruiters. It is important to plan your recruitment process well and have your company description properly displayed. There are many social media sites and you need only the best candidates.

If you just post the job advert without properly describing it, most candidates may not even bother seeing it. Ensure that you plan well on social media sites to use and employ some strategies to make the advert reach as many people as possible. For instance, you can sponsor your advert and set your preferred target candidates.

2. Not Defining Your Target Audience 

This is a mistake that most hiring firms do when posting jobs on social media. You have to describe your job and state clearly the target audience including the academic qualification, age and the required experience. This gives you a chance to eliminate unnecessary applicants and you will have a chance to choose from the candidates you want. This makes your selection process easier instead of having many applicants that are not qualified.

3. Limiting Yourself to A Few Social Media Sites

This is another common mistake you should avoid. Researches have revealed that most of the employers only use the common sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. There are many sites where you can reach all your potential candidates easily. It is a fact that not all candidates are on one site and this explains why you should make use of as many sites as possible. This increases your chances of choosing the right candidate suitable for your job description.

4. Use of Lengthy Application Process

Most applicants do not complete lengthy application processes. Most firms hiring online lose qualified candidates due to such processes. It is advisable that you make your online application and hiring process simple, short but thorough. This gives many qualified applicants a chance to complete their process and thus you get the best candidate.

5. Failure to Display the Benefits of Joining Your Company

Most firms do not clearly display the benefits of joining their company. As an employer of choice, you need to convince them that they will not only grow financially but also professionally. This encourages many qualified candidates to apply and you will choose from the best candidates. These benefits can very easily be conveyed via social media though failing to do so can be a mistake.

These are some of the mistakes most recruiters commit while using social media for their hiring initiatives.

While you make sure you avoid these 5 mistakes, you can go a step further to refine your recruitment process by making use of online skill assessments to hire the absolutely right fit for your organisation.

Are there any such errors in social recruiting that you may like to share with us? Reply in the comments box and we will be happy to learn from your experience.