Bringing new people onboard is an important process, and should be done with care and planning. New workers should be brought up to speed, given the tools they need to be successful, and made to feel welcomed by the company.

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!

When the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) went into effect in 2003, most employers that had self-insured health plans took steps to make sure they were in compliance. But with the passage of time, compliance standards at a number of organizations have fallen off some, and human resource departments need to take another look at HIPAA and healthcare privacy, according to Workforce Management, a human resources communications company.

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.

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A representative from human resources needs to be on any performance improvement team that is worth the name, according to business analyst Brad Power.

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!

Recent signs are showing that companies that develop a culture where coaching is encouraged and practiced well by everyone have better bottom lines. This may be something for human resources departments to think about and to get involved in creating such an atmosphere.

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!

A recent Gallup poll has revealed that workers who are overweight or obese miss 450 million more work hours each year than workers who are normal weight.

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!

Human resource departments are not doing enough to get out in front and help their organizations change and improve the way they work, according to business consultant Brad Power.

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.

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As changes in management techniques, the economy and technology lead to changes in the workforce, employers are struggling to keep abreast of guidelines on worker classification.

Because of this, the Society for Human Resource Management has called on the federal government to clarify the statutory and other regulations that classify workers as employees or independent contractors. It is a need that is urgent, according to Christine Walters, a Society member and employment law attorney, who testified before Congress about the issue.

Each time a company enters into a relationship with a new worker, there is the challenge of asking the right questions to ensure that the worker is classified correctly, Walters said. And it does happen that employers do, without knowing it, make mistakes in classifying workers, she said.

The work environment in the 21st century has created a host of worker arrangements, some brand new, that companies now have to deal with, including part-time employment, flex-time and telecommuting schedules, leased employees, direct-hire employees, temp workers associated with agencies, per diem workers, and independent contractors.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that there is a patchwork of federal laws that apply to independent contractor arrangements, including the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Internal Revenue Code, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and state unemployment insurance codes.

The Family and Medical Leave Act allows employees to take up to 12 months of unpaid leave of absence for the birth of a child or a serious family illness. The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates that employers make changes to protect the rights of people with disabilities. The Fair Labor Standards Act makes requirements relating to the basic minimum wage and overtime pay. It affects both public and private employers. It requires that companies pay covered employees at least federal minimum wage and overtime pay. The National Labor Relations Act explains the rights that employees have to organize and to bargain collectively with their employer through the employees’ representatives.

There needs to be more guidance and education from the government about the laws affecting workforce arrangements, along with more enforcement of them, Walters said.

employees and managers to stay in touch regarding performance benchmarks via online journal entries. Such tools make it easier for firms to align their employees’ tasks, projects and responsibilities with clear goals. The tools also help track performance on a year-round, on-going basis.

When you need to tap into the “hidden talent market” for your New York City company, contact Winston Resources. We have many excellent contract professionals available to serve at your firm on a temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire basis. We look forward to hearing from you.

A recent study by the firm of Towers Perrin on the human resources function in business came to the following conclusion – that the role of human resources is changing from a more isolated, independent department to one that is now more integrated with the other areas of the company, and one which works with managers throughout the company to help the business achieve its goals.

It used to be that human resources just handled things such as recruitment, personnel records, salary and benefits, and labor relations. It was a paper mill and counseling clinic, according to Nor Franco, an expert with more than 30 years’ experience in human resources.

But human resources now does more than just handle these employee functions. It has become a full-fledged strategic partner with other departments in the company in helping a firm achieve its goals. Training and development has acquired a new importance in beefing up the bottom line for businesses.

This has several advantages, Franco says.

In the past, employee problems and issues used to be handled by human resources, but now, with the changing role of the department, these tasks are being taken over more effectively by line managers. Employees are taking their grievances and conflicts to their managers and the managers are mediating these issues. This is a big improvement, because it is these managers who can best understand the issues affecting the workers and the context of these issues. The role of human resources now is to train the managers in how to mediate effectively and how to work to boost employee motivation.

Another advantage of these changes is that they allow the human resources department to focus more on the strategies and programs that will enable the business to become more competitive in the marketplace. Human resources can focus on bringing together and using the policies and goals of the company to make sure the business is prepared to face the challenges of its competitors.

Franco says there is no department better equipped to handle this mission than human resources. He added that as new markets develop and new businesses start, human resources will continue to evolve to meet the demands faced by these companies.

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As with any business, occasionally you will have employees resign for any one of a number of reasons. When this happens it raises issues with how to handle the resignation, such as how to announce it, and when.

If the employee has not submitted the resignation in writing, you need first of all to get it in written form, including the final day the employee will be working. This provides protection for the company for such things as unemployment claims.

If you decide to let the employee work for the final two weeks, or whatever time period is decided upon, he or she can be very useful in making the transition for after he or she is gone.

The employee can tie things up and bring people up to date on what projects, what has been accomplished, what needs to be done, and what problems might arise. If someone is taking over the person’s duties, he or she can explain to the new person what needs to be done. And if the person who is leaving worked with customers, he or she can provide and introduction to the new person filling in.

You should notify other workers in the person’s department first about the resignation, and inform them when the person’s last day will be. You can ask the other department members to help take care of any issue still hanging, and then also work out what duties other people will have to assume to pick up the slack.

You should also give the other employees some idea of how long it will take to find someone else for the position.

You can notify the rest of the staff about the resignation through e-mail. Generally, a notice like this tells the other employees that a person is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities at another company. Then, it usually includes some words of praise for the employee and well wishes for his or future endeavors. If there is going to be some kind of farewell gathering, the e-mail could give the details on that. You should, however, check with the person who is resigning to get his or her approval on the e-mail and the information in it. After this, you would conduct the exit interview.

All of this helps to give a sense of closure for everyone, and it shows all of the employees how they are valued within the company.

Call Winston Resources when you need to fill positions in your Manhattan company. We can provide you with top marketing, administrative, healthcare, IT, accounting, legal, human resources, publishing, and real estate professionals. Contact us today to learn more about how strategic staffing can help your business succeed.

In the past, contingent workers were looked at as last-minute, stop-gap measures, something to plug a hole to keep things running. But that is not the case any longer. Companies are using contingent workers in increasing numbers for all kinds of jobs, integrating them into their business operations like never before.

As this process has been taking place, human resource departments have been looking at ways to use these workers to the company’s best advantage and to help the company get the best return on investment.

Companies have developed best practices for the use of contingent labor. These strategies better help companies handle production when demand is greater and when demand falls off. The strategies also help in planning to use contingent labor take in vacant positions until full-time people are hired. Other strategies involve taking on someone as a temporary worker to screen him or her for a possible permanent position. Other strategies use contingent labor for areas where there is a lot of turnover, incorporating the turnover rate into the planning process.

Companies that are effective at using their contingent labor work to predict when they will need temporary workers and work them into the big-picture. These companies try to figure out when business will pick up and slow down before it happens, as well as when more labor will be needed for projects.

These companies also set up specific budgets for their temporary labor and they set up a system to monitor their contingent workforce and what they are spending on it.

Companies that are most effective using contingent labor are now moving away from using multiple staffing firms. Instead, they use one firm as their primary contact, and then that staffing company works with others in the area to find the specialized labor that each service is best at delivering. The primary service sets up strategic partnerships with the other firms in order to best supply the needed labor to the client company. This arrangement generally works best when companies use a high level of temporary workers, which is usually 20 or more people.

Are you a New York City-area employer looking to bring in some high-level talent into your organization? Winston Resources can help. We provide top-notch workers for you within temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire assignments. Contact us today!