What you should avoid, however, if you are in human resources, is a very long and very boring orientation session, something, for example, that usually runs for more than three hours. If it goes longer than that, says human resources specialist Meredith Soleau, you are going to fall victim to the law of diminishing returns. Some HR orientations run long because they show videos, some covering areas that may not even be all that important.

In fact, showing videos may signal to your employees that you don’t think their time is that important, especially if the videos are some generic, bland and boring production. More effective would be a presentation made by someone in human resources about the pertinent issues, presentations that have been well thought out, that are simple, clear, and direct, telling the employees what they need to know and why they need to know it.

An effective and efficient presentation would focus on a company’s major policies first – things such as accepted norms of behavior, harassment issues, professionalism, and performance goals. Covering the benefits package should not take hours either. If it does, it is probably too complicated.

For those employees who work on a shop floor, obviously safety is a primary concern, and there should be a safety manual to go over with the employees.

For job duties employees will perform in their departments, those should be left to the managers to introduce.

This emphasis on streamlining the process is meant to increase efficiency, not to downplay the importance of the onboarding process, which for the most part does not get enough attention from employers. But a lot of the onboarding process should be done by managers – things such as bringing the new hire up to speed on the job’s duties and what is expected of on the job, making the new hire feel welcome and an important part of the team.

If you’d like help with your orientation process, contact Winston Resources. We can help your Manhattan company look its procedures and suggest ways to make them more efficient. Contact us today!

What can you do to upgrade your leadership skills? Here are a few tips from business analysts John Coleman and Bill George.

One thing you can do is find a good mentor, Coleman and George say. This is very important for developing skills as a leader. A recent study showed that people who had mentors were more likely to succeed and to be happier in their careers than people who did not have mentors. When looking for a mentor, try to find someone with whom you get along well and who has your best interest at heart. And recognize that the character and values of your mentor are just as important as his or her success.

Another strategy for developing leadership skills is to form a leadership development group. This is a group of generally six to eight people who get together on a routine basis to talk about their challenges and what is important to them. It gives members of the group an opportunity to think exclusively about leadership, what defines a good leader, how good leaders face the difficulties that confront them and how good leaders have a long-term impact on their organizations.

Volunteering for a civic or service organization is another way to develop leadership skills. It gives you an opportunity to take a leadership role and to get in touch with people in the community, broadening your perspective and experience. It gives you experiences you cannot get just from work alone.

Travel also is a way to gain leadership skills, according to Coleman and George. In the age of globalization, being able to deal with people of diverse cultures has become almost a requirement of good leaders. A survey of top MBA candidates revealed that most of them had worked in at least four countries before they enrolled in graduate school, and they expected to work in several countries after they graduated.

Finally, if you want to develop your ability as a leader, you need to keep an open mind and a curiosity about the world. It’s not always about having the right answers, but in the age of information overload, about knowing what the right questions are

If you have managerial experience and want to move into a more important leadership position, contact a recruiter at Winston Resources. We can present your qualifications to some of Manhattan’s finest employers. We look forward to helping you take your career to the next level.

One problem that has arisen is the failure of businesses to comply with the HIPAA security rules.

Many businesses still have not completed their plans and procedures for maintaining security of electronic healthcare information, stipulated in the HIPAA guidelines. Others have not updated their security arrangements, specifically arrangements they need to have with business associates, spelling out exactly who can and cannot have access to healthcare information, and how to protect that information. This is something human resource departments may want to prioritize since the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has recently begun HIPAA compliance audits.

Businesses often fail to train new workers who have access to protected healthcare information about HIPAA guidelines, and to retrain workers when there are changes to the company’s healthcare arrangements, such as new wellness programs. This training is required. Companies should also should have periodic refresher courses for employees to remind them of what the privacy guidelines are for health information.

Another problem is that employers have not taken the time to familiarize themselves with state privacy laws. HIPAA does not preempt these laws, so if they are stricter than the HIPAA guidelines, both state law and HIPAA regulations must be followed.

Also, if a company makes changes to the way it administers its health plan that affects privacy policies, or adds new kinds of health plan coverage, or adds a wellness program, the company needs to make changes to its HIPAA compliance regulations and send notice of these changes within 60 days. This often is not being done.

Another problem is that companies often do not have procedures in place for dealing with privacy complaints. HIPAA does not require a company to have a written policy for resolving complaints, but having one could prevent a lot of headaches later on. The company could be assessed penalties by Health and Human Resources if a complaint is filed with the agency and the complaint is determined to be valid.

When you need help finding great employees for your NYC-area company, call upon the expertise of Winston Resources. We look forward to hearing more about your staffing requirements!

In addition to people who know how things work, and people who know how to make them work better, Power says that there also should be on the team people who know how to get workers to accept and work with the new policies and procedures. These are people who know about how incentives work, how best to incorporate training programs, who know how best to communicate, and who know how to work within the corporate culture. These are all the people skills in which human resource workers specialize.

Studies have shown that efforts to make change happen in companies fail almost three-fourths of the time. The reason, Power says, is not because the new procedures were bad, but because the workers didn’t want to change the way they worked.

While Power says it is crucial to have human resources on any performance improvement team, few companies do. Part of the problem is with human resources itself. If it is to get involved in process improvement, human resources needs to change the way it operates.

It must change its standard defense for keeping things the way they are. This is a natural reaction for human resources – the department’s job is to maintain the policies and procedures of the company by making sure it complies with all the laws and regulations. But this is a role where human resources works against change, where it has to watch out for risks and threats. So if the company makes major changes in its operations and processes, a whole new set of risks and threats arises to which human resources needs to attend. It involves changes in job descriptions, terminations, training and development, etc.

But any performance improvement team needs members who are human resource professionals, who know about the behavior of employees both individually and as an organization. They know what is important to employees. They can be of immense help to the team in assisting them to fit the needs and interests of employees into the needs of a new system that is more effective and efficient.

Let Winston Resources “be of immense help” to your New York City firm when it comes to sourcing, vetting and placing qualified and reliable workers for your company. We look forward to hearing from you!

A recent study by the California-based advisory firm Bersin and Associates showed that companies where managers made efforts to frequently coach others had business results that were 21 percent better than those companies that did not. And companies that developed a corporate culture where coaching was encouraged had a bottom line 13 percent better than those that did not, as well as significantly better engagement, productivity and customer service among employees.

The study, surveying almost 200 companies, also revealed that nearly three-fourths those surveyed now do coaching in place of conventional performance reviews. However, the authors also noted that coaching effectively is not a skill that many managers have.

According to the study’s authors, coaching is a major challenge for businesses trying to improve performance, yet they don’t know how to get the support needed for it. To ensure that coaching becomes an integral part of a company’s culture, senior executives need to get involved in coaching. But this is a problem in itself as only about 10 percent of executives believe in the value of coaching to improve performance.

To reverse the problem, business leaders need to get involved and personally bang the drum for coaching, especially by starting up coaching programs in their companies, according to the report. The report also says that human resource departments also need to get involved to help create an atmosphere that supports and measures the effectiveness of coaching.

Good performance management centers around coaching, experts say. Performance reviews focus on the past, while coaching looks toward the future and how to improve. To coach effectively, managers need to be good listeners, help to reinforce the behavior they want to see, and also ask open ended questions.

If you’re Manhattan-area company is on the search for improved results in 2010, partner with Winston Resources. We can help you source and place great employees, help you with your payroll, help you with drug testing, and more. Contact us today!

Recent poll results show that larger companies – those with 500 employees or more — are more likely to be hiring than smaller companies. But the survey showed that almost 75 percent of companies are doing some hiring for full-time employees.

The survey of more than 2,000 companies was conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management to gauge the ongoing impact of the recession  on companies’ hiring and their bottom line.

Most of the hiring, about 75 percent, is for levels below management — hourly and salaried positions. More than half of the businesses surveyed are hiring for management positions. About 20 percent are hiring at executive levels.

Almost three-fourths of the companies surveyed said they had lost about 10 percent of their employees or fewer in 2011. That is actually up from 2010, where about two-thirds of companies said they had lost 10 percent or fewer employees. Only about one-tenth of the companies reported laying off between 10 and 20 percent of the workforce. About one-tenth of the companies surveyed reported laying off between 20 and 50 percent of their workforce.

As far as the financial health of businesses is concerned, most reported little change from 2010 to 2011. Two-thirds said things had pretty much stayed the same or had improved a little, while the other third said they had experienced a small decline.

In 2011, a majority of companies, nearly two-thirds, indicated that they were hiring to replace people, but only about a third  are hiring for new positions. Only about one-tenth of the companies surveyed said they were adding new duties to current positions.

The survey also showed that the small companies, those with fewer than 100 employees, were most likely to be hiring for new positions.

More than half of the new positions created require new skills, along with the same kinds of skills needed in the past. About 15 percent of the new jobs created, however, require completely new sets of skills. About one-fourth of the new jobs require the same skill sets as jobs did before the recession. When a job required new skills, almost two-thirds of the companies surveyed said they had difficulty finding people to fill the positions, especially smaller companies.

When you’re looking for work, look to Winston Resources. We have connections with hundreds of New York City’s best companies – both small and large – and we can help you get your foot in the door through a temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire assignment. Contact us today!

This absentee rate has lead to about $153 billion in lost productivity each year. Less than 15 percent of the workforce is not overweight and does not have ongoing health issues because of the weight, according to the Gallup poll of more than 100,000 workers. The health problems of the overweight, and their high numbers, are a big hindrance to productivity, according to Gallup.

Because of this, it is imperative that companies take action to address these health problems, and many employers are. Many companies now have gyms in their buildings, wellness websites and free memberships to health clubs. But the problem is that often workers do not take advantage of these things. The problem is making sure they get some kind of physical activity on a consistent basis.

One example of a company that is making an active effort to get employees engaged with their health is PepsiCo. The company provides employees with an easy-to-use overview of their entire health background. The technology keeps tabs on employees’ insurance claims and other information in a personal online health assessment.

Based on this information, the company gives employees wellness information that is tailored to their particular situation and needs. For example, an employee who is pregnant would receive information about prenatal care, or an employee with high blood pressure would receive information on hypertension.

The company also provides employees with health coaches that workers may contact by telephone or in person, Hewlett says. These coaches can help the workers design health programs suited just for them. The program has helped more than 30,000 PepsiCo employees reduce or eliminate a health risk.

According to Gallup, workers who are overweight and have one or two chronic health problems have about 1.1 days a month when they are not well, and this increases to more than 3.5 days for workers who have three or more chronic health issues. Workers who have normal weight by comparison only have about a third of a day a month when they are not well.
 
The costs to business of unhealthy U.S. workers are more than four times higher than those of workers in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, about 20 percent of the workers are normal weight and have no chronic health issues.

When looking for reliable and talented workers for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire needs, contact Winston Resources. We’ve helped hundreds of companies in Manhattan and the NYC-area since 1967 and we’d be delighted to help yours. Contact us today!

These character traits can be the difference between a person who is mediocre in a job and one who is outstanding. A person who has strong problem-solving skills, yet may lack the specific educational or work experience required, still might be the one to hire because of his or her unique ability.

It may be well worth the effort to find a person who thinks outside the box, works well with others, thinks independently, and questions the way things are done. This is particularly important, according to human resource professionals, if you are in an industry that is changing quickly, or if your company is growing rapidly.

To find these qualities, human resource professionals recommend the following:

First, you need to figure out what particular qualities you seek. You need to establish these qualities even before the first candidate comes in for an interview. For example, do you want someone with good problem-solving ability? If the job is one where the person will need to increase sales of a flagging product or merge supply chains, it may be important that the person can think creatively. How important is it for the person to be calm under pressure? Is unpredictability a key element of the job, where there may be a lot of competition or a lot of change in demand? Then poise under pressure may be a key trait the person will need to succeed in the job.

And if the environment is unpredictable, how important is it that the person be a quick study, that her or she is able to learn and adapt quickly? How important is it that the person is able to work well with others and/or influence them?

You’ll need to develop questions that focus on the traits you seek. For example, if you see from a candidate’s work experience a time when he or she was navigating an unfamiliar landscape, you can ask how the candidate felt about and handled the situation.

When you’re looking for that special employee, let Winston Resources help your Manhattan-based company find the right candidate. We’ve been helping NYC companies find high-performing and reliable employees throughout our 44-year history. Contact us today!

Some business leaders see their human resources department more as a bureaucracy where innovative thinking is not encouraged. Others say human resources is not used enough.

In order to integrate an attitude of constant improvement in a company, three areas need to be considered, according to Dave Ulrich, a professor and recognized leader in human resources – the people working there, the rewards given to them and the kinds of training they get.

Companies need to hire and promote people who take to heart the company’s mindset and behaviors, and let go the people who don’t. And so if the company hires people who value constant improvement it sends a clear signal about what the company thinks is important. When people see what is going on, they will change the way they work and what they do to fit what they see. The problem here is that the human resources professionals often are limited in what they can do – they have to follow the requirements set down by their manager. And these requirements tend to revolve around expertise, not the staff’s skills sets or behaviors.

Another way to instill constant improvement in a company is through rewards, which also can change the way people behave. Through rewards, companies can recognize workers who have achieved measured goals. To have constant improvement, workers not only have to do their work, but improve on it as well. But, again, human resources often has been limited to what it can provide here because it does not usually have the kind of experience or permission to work with managers in changing rewards to encourage improvement.

The third area, training and development, also can be used to encourage constant improvement. Training and development also can be used to show workers what the company sees as important. But human resource departments normally cannot encourage improvement training unless it is pushed by the company’s leaders.

To become more effective, human resources needs to help a company’s leaders focus on customers, long-term results and investing in the workforce. Human resources must be able to have the ear of the company’s leadership to be able to work constant improvement into the equation.

When you’re looking for great temporary workers for your New York City company, call upon Winston Resources. We look forward to hearing from you!

Job candidates tell outright falsehoods, or they will leave out important facts about their background or employment history. The most common falsehood is extending dates of employment to cover up gaps in work history.

Job candidates also will include on resumes or applications degrees or certifications they have not earned, list a college or university they have not attended, list particular technical skills they do not have or exaggerate, or lie about other accomplishments.

To head off these problems, employers need to include disclaimers about making false statements or omissions and that these fraudulent statements will automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration, according to Russell Thomas, an attorney specializing in employment law. Employers also should not neglect doing background checks. Naturally, the higher level the position, the more you want to do a thorough background check on the applicant.

Another way to verify statements made by applicants is to simply look at what’s in the public record, Thomas says. With all the social media that now exist, there are plenty of places to go to do this. You can check out MySpace, Facebook or YouTube for information. These sites can confirm what is on a person’s resume, or reveal false statements a person has made on a resume.

The interview also is a key place to look for discrepancies or misleading statements and try to verify statements, Thomas says. That is why good interviewing skills are important. The best thing to do is ask the applicant questions that he or she will not expect. The interview should be set up so that the applicant is the one doing most of the talking, while the interviewer is spending most of the time listening and observing.

Whatever you do as an employer, Thomas says, avoid the urge to overlook misrepresentations on an applicant’s resume. These misleading statements could be a sign of some deeper character flaw that may affect the person’s ability to do the job.

In this tough job market, employers need to be especially vigilant about fraudulent resumes, Thomas says.

Let Winston Resources source and vet candidates for positions at your Manhattan-area company. We can perform preliminary interviews and conduct background checks to verify statements regarding skills, education and job history. Contact us today!