Human Resource

How to Overcome Your Employment Gap

2011-06-29T09:35:00.000+05:00

Concerned about getting back in the workforce after a gap in your employment? You should be when you consider the bad experiences some employers have had when they take a chance on people with a gap in their employment history. Additionally, the job market appears to have qualified candidates for most positions. How will your resume, with a one, five, or ten year employment gap, stack up against those of people who have been racking up career achievements and accomplishments for the same ten years?

Stay-at-home moms and dads who raise their children, rather than their expertise and visibility in a workplace, are the largest group to sport these resume gaps. Even a couple of years out of the workforce can devastate your career if you’re not careful. In worse case scenarios, you can become unemployable in your field. Even in best case scenarios, you will undoubtedly take a salary cut and find yourself reporting to someone who would formerly have reported to you.

This is not to say that returning to work is hopeless. There are plenty of people who have walked back into an executive job, developed their dream job or created a career change following chosen unemployment. It’s just that it’s harder for you with an employment gap. These tips will help you stay ready for employment while you raise the kids or take a few years for a non-work activity. It’s much better to spend that time preparing to be employable than to hit the job market cold after years at home. You'll be better prepared if you heed these tips.

Tips for Staying Employable During an Employment Gap

Work With Your Current Employer: Your current employer, assuming you are still working, may value you and your experience. Talk with your employer to identify potential part-time or consulting work or periodic assignments you can do during the years you plan to work less than full time. If you work in marketing, for example, perhaps you can do freelance work on brochures, the website or press releases. If you work in Human Resources, you may contract to update the employee handbook annually or teach a class periodically. This is the easiest way to stay grounded in the workplace during an extended leave. Make your best pitch before you leave your job. Don't hesitate to call, however, even if you have been off work for a period of time.

Build and Keep Your Network Before You Need It: It is easier to maintain current professional contacts than to build a new group a few years down the road. Professional contacts become dispersed to new positions; mentors retire; valued coworkers move on to new jobs. It is up to you to maintain relationships, sometimes for years, with people who will remember your talents when you decide to return to full-time employment. It is also imperative that you relate to friends and associates in your off-work life as an educated professional who has chosen to take time away from her career to raise a family. Talk about more than the children; make sure your friends know what you do professionally as well.

Stay Active in Professional Associations: Most career fields have professional associations that sponsor meetings, conferences, committees, training sessions and more for members. Stay active in your local association by attending meetings, writing for the newsletter, acting as a good will ambassador and attending national conferences. Volunteer for the activities that most closely match your career field and interests. Choose activities in which you’ll interact with many members to expand your network at the same time.

Volunteer in Community, School and Civic Organizations: Challenging volunteer work can help to fill the gaps in your resume whether you return to your original career or create a career change in the future. Do invest thinking time in determining what kinds of volunteer work will be the most strategic for your longer term goals. Serving as president of the school board is likely worth more, when you return to work, than sewing costumes for the school play. Do both if you have the time and energy – they fulfill different aspects of your spirit. Do think about how the volunteer work will appear on the resume and stress contributing in volunteerism related to your future employment.

Keep Your Resume File Updated: Keep track of new skills and activities you have developed and experienced during your time away from the workforce. Keep the resume file filled with notes about your volunteer work and other contributions. When you want to return to work, you’ll be happy you kept good records of the time you were unemployed.

Create a Small Business and Work Even a Few Hours a Week: Think creatively. A mom I know just left the workforce to spend time with her eleven-year-old daughter. She is launching an Internet home baked doggie treat business. Active for years in Greyhound associations, she has identified her initial customer base and plans to expand from there. Write for newspapers, magazines and businesses; write and edit an About site; develop marketing materials for organizations; sell your professional expertise as a consultant; make candles or other crafts; design and maintain gardens; operate a daycare center or a home-based school; design and build websites; paint, wallpaper and decorate homes and businesses; cater special events; and provide virtual office assistant services over the web. Check Scott Allen’s Entrepreneur’s site for even more ideas.

Keep Your Skills Current: Can you imagine a computer programmer finding a new position after five years outside of the workforce? Neither can I. Not unless she can demonstrate current skills. Fields such as banking, employment law, securities and financial planning change quickly. Attend school, take graduate seminars, participate in online learning and read to stay current in your field. Your local college may have classes you can audit if you can't pay tuition. No, a quick refresher class won’t help you out in most fields when you decide to return to work or change careers. Keeping abreast of your field every year is the best way to stay employable at something you’d like to do.

Use the Time at Home to Change Careers: Maybe it’s time to try something new. A time away from work is perfect for pursuing career options and learning more about yourself and your interests. You may want to Create the Life You Want With a Mid-Career Crisis. If you decide to change careers, you can invest the time to earn a needed degree. Or, you can spend your volunteer or home-based business time on skills needed for the new career.

Consider Part-time Work: Work part-time in your field, your career change field or just to keep your work record fresh. The money may also come in handy for the family or to fund your future goals.

Consider Job Sharing: Many people have chosen to leave the workforce for periods of time. According to the Wall Street Journal, the percentage of mothers with a child under one-year-old who are working, dropped to 55 percent in 2002 from 59 percent in 1998. This reverses a thirty year trend according to the Census Bureau. Employers may have to consider creative ways to keep valued people working or to fill hard-to-fill positions. Job sharing, either half days, or splitting the week can work for both the employees and the employer if lines of communication remain open. And, the shared work may work best for all concerned when two talented people invest their energy in the same job.

With a consistent investment in yourslf and retaining your job and career relevance, you can overcome an employment gap. Choose to be prepared for the day when the hiring manager asks, "What have you been doing for the past ten years." You can respond, "A lot. I'd like to tell you about that time."

HRM Systems Diagnostic Checklists

2011-06-24T10:06:00.000+05:00

The following check-lists present some questions which may prove helpful for you to think about when planning your development programs for human resources (your people) in your organization.

Use them to provoke thought and to stimulate discussion. Consult with others in your organization. They will help you to identify the critical human resource issues facing your organization.

The aim is to begin to explore how a considered and planned approach to people management can improve business performance, to the benefit of all.

Use this checklist in conjunction with our team building diagnostic instrument. It will, via your team members responses identify critical issues they perceive as important. These issues may be at odds with your own perceptions and analysis and therefore any such discrepancy will need to be addressed.

Warning Indicators

Your organization is more than likely in trouble if any of the following holds true:

chronic industrial relations problems
no means of resolving employee grievances
increasing / erratic employee turnover
increasing number of customer complaints
no pride in the organization
inter-group conflicts
no career paths for ambitious talented employees
dissatisfaction with pay and conditions
unclear job roles
no clear performance measures
quality is unimportant
bad product service / delivery records
poor recruitment standards / practices
no management development programs
no induction training for new employees
critical skill shortages
inter-departmental conflict
you do not know if any of the above are applicable
you ignore any of the above

Culture, organization, people, systems (COPS), checklist

Culture

Do your staff identify with the organization and 'the success of the organization' as being of direct benefit to themselves?
Do your staff see themselves as having common interests with their work colleagues and group? Is there a strong team spirit?
Is work allocated on the basis of individual expertise rather than position in the organization?
Are there sufficient skills / power bases in the organization?
Are there appropriate leadership skills within the organization?
Are your staff encouraged to say what they think about the organization?
Does your organization encourage innovation and creativity amongst staff?
Do your staff feel a sense of personal responsibility for their work?
Is quality emphasized in all aspects of the organization?

Organization

Does the structure of your organization encourage effective performance?
Is the organization structure flexible in the face of changing demands?
Is the structure too complex? If so in what areas?
Do your staff have clear roles and responsibilities?
Does your organization structure tend to push problems up rather than resolve them at the point where they occur?
Do your procedures and management practices facilitate the accomplishment of tasks?
Do you constantly seek to challenge your organization structure?

People

Do your staff have the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their jobs in the most effective manner?
Do your staff understand their jobs and how they contribute to overall business performance i.e. have clear goals and objectives?
Do your staff have a customer service orientation?
Are people with potential spotted and developed for the future?
Are your staff encouraged to perform well through the giving of recognition, feedback, etc.?
Do your people know what their expected performance standards are?

Systems

Do your organization's systems (e.g. employee selection and recruitment, promotion, planning, management, information and control) encourage effective performance among your staff?
Are these systems consistent across the organization?
Are there clear rewards for effective performance within your work group?
Does the organization review its systems frequently and ensure they mutually support each other?

You may now wish to consider and write down:

What are the three critical people issues facing your business?
What plans /actions can you take to address these issues?

Steps in Developing HRM Strategy

2011-06-22T10:10:00.000+05:00

Step 1: Get the 'big picture'

Understand your business strategy.

Highlight the key driving forces of your business. What are they? e.g. technology, distribution, competition, the markets.
What are the implications of the driving forces for the people side of your business?
What is the fundamental people contribution to bottom line business performance?

Step 2: Develop a Mission Statement or Statement of Intent

That relates to the people side of the business.

Do not be put off by negative reactions to the words or references to idealistic statements - it is the actual process of thinking through the issues in a formal and explicit manner that is important.

What do your people contribute?

Step 3: Conduct a SWOT analysis of the organization

Focus on the internal strengths and weaknesses of the people side of the business.

Consider the current skill and capability issues.

Vigorously research the external business and market environment. High light the opportunities and threats relating to the people side of the business.

What impact will/ might they have on business performance?
Consider skill shortages?
The impact of new technology on staffing levels?

From this analysis you then need to review the capability of your personnel department. Complete a SWOT analysis of the department - consider in detail the department's current areas of operation, the service levels and competences of your personnel staff.

Step 4: Conduct a detailed human resources analysis

Concentrate on the organization's COPS (culture, organization, people, HR systems)

Consider: Where you are now? Where do you want to be?
What gaps exists between the reality of where you are now and where you want to be?

Exhaust your analysis of the four dimensions.

Step 5: Determine critical people issues

Go back to the business strategy and examine it against your SWOT and COPS Analysis

Identify the critical people issues namely those people issues that you must address. Those which have a key impact on the delivery of your business strategy.
Prioritize the critical people issues. What will happen if you fail to address them?

Remember you are trying to identify where you should be focusing your efforts and resources.

Step 6: Develop consequences and solutions

For each critical issue highlight the options for managerial action generate, elaborate and create - don't go for the obvious. This is an important step as frequently people jump for the known rather than challenge existing assumptions about the way things have been done in the past. Think about the consequences of taking various courses of action.

Consider the mix of HR systems needed to address the issues. Do you need to improve communications, training or pay?

What are the implications for the business and the personnel function?

Once you have worked through the process it should then be possible to translate the action plan into broad objectives. These will need to be broken down into the specialist HR Systems areas of:

employee training and development
management development
organization development
performance appraisal
employee reward
employee selection and recruitment
manpower planning
communication

Develop your action plan around the critical issues. Set targets and dates for the accomplishment of the key objectives.

Step 7: Implementation and evaluation of the action plans

The ultimate purpose of developing a human resource strategy is to ensure that the objectives set are mutually supportive so that the reward and payment systems are integrated with employee training and career development plans.

There is very little value or benefit in training people only to then frustrate them through a failure to provide ample career and development opportunities.

Developing a HRM Strategy

2011-06-21T09:40:00.000+05:00

Faced with rapid change organizations need to develop a more focused and coherent approach to managing people. In just the same way a business requires a marketing or information technology strategy it also requires a human resource or people strategy.

In developing such a strategy two critical questions must be addressed.

What kinds of people do you need to manage and run your business to meet your strategic business objectives?
What people programs and initiatives must be designed and implemented to attract, develop and retain staff to compete effectively?

In order to answer these questions four key dimensions of an organization must be addressed. These are:

Culture: the beliefs, values, norms and management style of the organization
Organization: the structure, job roles and reporting lines of the organization
People: the skill levels, staff potential and management capability
Human resources systems: the people focused mechanisms which deliver the strategy - employee selection, communications, training, rewards, career development, etc.

Frequently in managing the people element of their business senior managers will only focus on one or two dimensions and neglect to deal with the others. Typically, companies reorganize their structures to free managers from bureaucracy and drive for more entrepreneurial flair but then fail to adjust their training or reward systems.

When the desired entrepreneurial behavior does not emerge managers frequently look confused at the apparent failure of the changes to deliver results. The fact is that seldom can you focus on only one area. What is required is a strategic perspective aimed at identifying the relationship between all four dimensions.

If you require an organization which really values quality and service you not only have to retrain staff, you must also review the organization, reward, appraisal and communications systems.

The pay and reward system is a classic problem in this area. Frequently organizations have payment systems which are designed around the volume of output produced. If you then seek to develop a company which emphasizes the product's quality you must change the pay systems. Otherwise you have a contradiction between what the chief executive is saying about quality and what your payment system is encouraging staff to do.

There are seven steps to developing a human resource strategy and the active involvement of senior line managers should be sought throughout the approach.

Employee Education, Training & Development

2011-06-20T09:32:00.000+05:00

In general, education is 'mind preparation' and is carried out remote from the actual work area, training is the systematic development of the attitude, knowledge, skill pattern required by a person to perform a given task or job adequately and development is 'the growth of the individual in terms of ability, understanding and awareness'.

Within an organization all three are necessary in order to:

Develop workers to undertake higher-grade tasks;
Provide the conventional training of new and young workers (e.g. as apprentices, clerks, etc.);
Raise efficiency and standards of performance;
Meet legislative requirements (e.g. health and safety);
Inform people (induction training, pre-retirement courses, etc.);

From time to time meet special needs arising from technical, legislative, and knowledge need changes. Meeting these needs is achieved via the 'training loop'. (Schematic available in PDF version.)

The diagnosis of other than conventional needs is complex and often depends upon the intuition or personal experience of managers and needs revealed by deficiencies. Sources of inspiration include:

Common sense - it is often obvious that new machines, work systems, task requirements and changes in job content will require workers to be prepared;
Shortcomings revealed by statistics of output per head, performance indices, unit costs, etc. and behavioral failures revealed by absentee figures, lateness, sickness etc. records;
Recommendations of government and industry training organizations;
Inspiration and innovations of individual managers and supervisors;
Forecasts and predictions about staffing needs;
Inspirations prompted by the technical press, training journals, reports of the experience of others;
The suggestions made by specialist (e.g. education and training officers, safety engineers, work-study staff and management services personnel).

Designing training is far more than devising courses; it can include activities such as:

Learning from observation of trained workers;
Receiving coaching from seniors;
Discovery as the result of working party, project team membership or attendance at meetings;
Job swaps within and without the organization;
Undertaking planned reading, or follow from the use of self–teaching texts and video tapes;
Learning via involvement in research, report writing and visiting other works or organizations.

So far as group training is concerned in addition to formal courses there are:

Lectures and talks by senior or specialist managers;
Discussion group (conference and meeting) activities;
Briefing by senior staffs;
Role-playing exercises and simulation of actual conditions;
Video and computer teaching activities;
Case studies (and discussion) tests, quizzes, panel 'games', group forums, observation exercises and inspection and reporting techniques.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of training is done to ensure that it is cost effective, to identify needs to modify or extend what is being provided, to reveal new needs and redefine priorities and most of all to ensure that the objectives of the training are being met.

The latter may not be easy to ascertain where results cannot be measured mathematically. In the case of attitude and behavioral changes sought, leadership abilities, drive and ambition fostered, etc., achievement is a matter of the judgment of senior staffs. Exact validation might be impossible but unless on the whole the judgments are favorable the cooperation of managers in identifying needs, releasing personnel and assisting in training ventures will cease.

In making their judgments senior managers will question whether the efforts expended have produced:

More effective, efficient, flexible employees;
Faster results in making newcomers knowledgeable and effective than would follow from experience;
More effective or efficient use of machinery, equipment and work procedures;
Fewer requirements to implement redundancy (by retraining);
Fewer accidents both personal and to property;
Improvements in the qualifications of staff and their ability to take on tougher roles;
Better employee loyalty to the organization with more willingness to innovate and accept change.

Provision of Employee Services

2011-06-18T09:47:00.000+05:00

Attention to the mental and physical well-being of employees is normal in many organizations as a means of keeping good staff and attracting others.

The forms this welfare can take are many and varied, from loans to the needy to counseling in respect of personal problems.

Among the activities regarded as normal are:

Schemes for occupational sick pay, extended sick leave and access to the firm's medical adviser;
Schemes for bereavement or other special leave;
The rehabilitation of injured/unfit/ disabled employees and temporary or permanent move to lighter work;
The maintenance of disablement statistics and registers (there are complicated legal requirements in respect of quotas of disabled workers and a need for 'certificates' where quota are not fulfilled and recruitment must take place);
Provision of financial and other support for sports, social, hobbies, activities of many kinds which are work related;
Provision of canteens and other catering facilities;
Possibly assistance with financial and other aid to employees in difficulty (supervision, maybe, of an employee managed benevolent fund or scheme);
Provision of information handbooks,
Running of pre-retirement courses and similar fringe activities;
Care for the welfare aspects of health and safety legislation and provision of first-aid training.

The location of the health and safety function within the organization varies. Commonly a split of responsibilities exists under which 'production' or 'engineering' management cares for the provision of safe systems of work and safe places and machines etc., but HRM is responsible for administration, training and education in awareness and understanding of the law, and for the alerting of all levels to new requirements.

Industrial Relations

2011-06-17T09:56:00.000+05:00

Good industrial relations, while a recognizable and legitimate objective for an organization, are difficult to define since a good system of industrial relations involves complex relationships between:

(a) Workers (and their informal and formal groups, i. e. trade union, organizations and their representatives);
(b) Employers (and their managers and formal organizations like trade and professional associations);
(c) The government and legislation and government agencies l and 'independent' agencies like the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

Oversimplified, work is a matter of managers giving instructions and workers following them - but (and even under slavery we recognize that different 'managing' produces very different results) the variety of 'forms' which have evolved to regulate the conduct of parties (i.e. laws, custom and practice, observances, agreements) makes the giving and receipt of instructions far from simple. Two types of 'rule' have evolved:

'Substantive', determining basic pay and conditions of service (what rewards workers should receive);
'Procedural,' determining how workers should be treated and methods and procedures.

Determining these rules are many common sense matters like:

Financial, policy and market constraints on the parties (e.g. some unions do not have the finance to support industrial action, some have policies not to strike, some employers are more vulnerable than others to industrial action, some will not make changes unless worker agreement is made first, and rewards always ultimately reflect what the market will bear);
The technology of production (the effect of a strike in newspaper production is immediate -it may be months before becoming effective in shipbuilding);
The distribution of power within the community - that tends to vary over time and with economic conditions workers (or unions) dominating in times of full employment and employers in times of recession.

Broadly in the Western style economies the parties (workers and employers) are free to make their own agreements and rules. This is called 'voluntarism'. But it does not mean there is total noninterference by the government. That is necessary to:

Protect the weak (hence minimum wage);
Outlaw discrimination (race or sex);
Determine minimum standards of safety, health, hygiene and even important conditions of service;
To try to prevent the abuse of power by either party.

HR managers responsibilities

The personnel manager's involvement in the system of industrial relations varies from organization to organization, but normally he or she is required to provide seven identifiable functions, thus:

To keep abreast of industrial law (legislation and precedents) and to advise managers about their responsibilities e.g. to observe requirements in respect of employing disabled persons, not to discriminate, not to disclose 'spent' convictions of employees, to observe codes of practice etc. in relation to discipline and redundancy, and similarly to determine organizational policies (in conjunction with other managers) relevant to legal and moral requirements (see also 4.).
To conduct (or assist in the conduct) of either local negotiations (within the plant) or similarly to act as the employer's representative in national negotiations. This could be as a critic or advisor in respect of trade etc. association policies or as a member of a trade association negotiating team. Agreements could be in respect of substantive or procedural matters. Even if not directly involved the personnel manager will advise other managers and administrators of the outcome of negotiations.
To ensure that agreements reached are interpreted so as to make sense to those who must operate them at the appropriate level within the organization (this can involve a lot of new learning at supervisory level and new pay procedures and new recording requirements in administration and even the teaching of new employment concepts – like stagger systems of work - at management level).
To monitor the observance of agreements and to produce policies that ensure that agreements are followed within the organization. An example would be the policy to be followed on the appointment of a new but experienced recruit in relation to the offered salary where there is a choice of increments to be given for experience, ability or qualification.
To correct the situations which go wrong. 'Face' is of some importance in most organizations and operating at a 'remote' staff level personnel managers can correct industrial relations errors made at local level without occasioning any loss of dignity (face) at the working level. 'Human resource management' and the obscurity of its reasoning can be blamed for matters which go wrong at plant level and for unwelcome changes, variations of comfortable 'arrangements' and practices and unpopular interpretation of agreements.
To provide the impetus (and often devise the machinery) for the introduction of joint consultation and worker participation in decision-making in the organization. Formal agreement in respect of working conditions and behavior could never cover every situation likely to arise. Moreover the more demanding the task (in terms of the mental contribution by the worker to its completion) the more highly–educated the workers need to be and the more they will want to be consulted about and involved in the details of work life. Matters like the rules for a flexitime system or for determining the correction of absenteeism and the contents of jobs are three examples of the sort of matters that may be solely decided by management in some organizations but a matter for joint consultation (not negotiation) in others with a more twenty-first-century outlook and philosophy. Human resource management is very involved in promoting and originating ideas in this field.
To provide statistics and information about workforce numbers, costs, skills etc. as relevant to negotiations (i.e. the cost of pay rises or compromise proposals, effect on differentials and possible recruitment/retention consequences of this or whether agreement needs to be known instantly); to maintain personnel records of training, experience, achievements, qualifications, awards and possibly pension and other records; to produce data of interest to management in respect of personnel matters like absentee figures and costs, statistics of sickness absence, costs of welfare and other employee services, statements about development in policies by other organizations, ideas for innovations; to advise upon or operate directly, grievance, redundancy, disciplinary and other procedures.

Employee Evaluation

2011-06-16T10:01:00.000+05:00

An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in existing jobs for three reasons:

To improve organizational performance via improving the performance of individual contributors (should be an automatic process in the case of good managers, but (about annually) two key questions should be posed:
- what has been done to improve the performance of a person last year?
- and what can be done to improve his or her performance in the year to come?).
To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use that to fill vacancies higher in the organization or to transfer individuals into jobs where better use can be made of their abilities or developing skills.
To provide an equitable method of linking payment to performance where there are no numerical criteria (often this salary performance review takes place about three months later and is kept quite separate from 1. and 2. but is based on the same assessment).

On-the-spot managers and supervisors, not HR staffs, carry out evaluations. The personnel role is usually that of:

Advising top management of the principles and objectives of an evaluation system and designing it for particular organizations and environments.
Developing systems appropriately in consultation with managers, supervisors and staff representatives. Securing the involvement and cooperation of appraisers and those to be appraised.
Assistance in the setting of objective standards of evaluation / assessment, for example:
- Defining targets for achievement;
- Explaining how to quantify and agree objectives;
- Introducing self-assessment;
- Eliminating complexity and duplication.
Publicizing the purposes of the exercise and explaining to staff how the system will be used.
Organizing and establishing the necessary training of managers and supervisors who will carry out the actual evaluations/ appraisals. Not only training in principles and procedures but also in the human relations skills necessary. (Lack of confidence in their own ability to handle situations of poor performance is the main weakness of assessors.)
Monitoring the scheme - ensuring it does not fall into disuse, following up on training/job exchange etc. recommendations, reminding managers of their responsibilities.

Full-scale periodic reviews should be a standard feature of schemes since resistance to evaluation / appraisal schemes is common and the temptation to water down or render schemes ineffectual is ever present (managers resent the time taken if nothing else).

Basically an evaluation / appraisal scheme is a formalization of what is done in a more casual manner anyway (e.g. if there is a vacancy, discussion about internal moves and internal attempts to put square pegs into 'squarer holes' are both the results of casual evaluation). Most managers approve merit payment and that too calls for evaluation. Made a standard routine task, it aids the development of talent, warns the inefficient or uncaring and can be an effective form of motivation.

Employee Motivation

2011-06-15T10:53:00.000+05:00

To retain good staff and to encourage them to give of their best while at work requires attention to the financial and psychological and even physiological rewards offered by the organization as a continuous exercise.

Basic financial rewards and conditions of service (e.g. working hours per week) are determined externally (by national bargaining or government minimum wage legislation) in many occupations but as much as 50 per cent of the gross pay of manual workers is often the result of local negotiations and details (e.g. which particular hours shall be worked) of conditions of service are often more important than the basics. Hence there is scope for financial and other motivations to be used at local levels.

As staffing needs will vary with the productivity of the workforce (and the industrial peace achieved) so good personnel policies are desirable. The latter can depend upon other factors (like environment, welfare, employee benefits, etc.) but unless the wage packet is accepted as 'fair and just' there will be no motivation.

Hence while the technicalities of payment and other systems may be the concern of others, the outcome of them is a matter of great concern to human resource management.

Increasingly the influence of behavioral science discoveries are becoming important not merely because of the widely-acknowledged limitations of money as a motivator, but because of the changing mix and nature of tasks (e.g. more service and professional jobs and far fewer unskilled and repetitive production jobs).

The former demand better-educated, mobile and multi-skilled employees much more likely to be influenced by things like job satisfaction, involvement, participation, etc. than the economically dependent employees of yesteryear.

Hence human resource management must act as a source of information about and a source of inspiration for the application of the findings of behavioral science. It may be a matter of drawing the attention of senior managers to what is being achieved elsewhere and the gradual education of middle managers to new points of view on job design, work organization and worker autonomy.

Recruitment & Selection of Employees

2011-06-14T10:28:00.003+05:00

An analysis of the job to be done (i.e. an analytical study of the tasks to be performed to determine their essential factors) written into a job description so that the selectors know what physical and mental characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes are desirable and what characteristics are a decided disadvantage;

In the case of replacement staff a critical questioning of the need to recruit at all (replacement should rarely be an automatic process).
Effectively, selection is 'buying' an employee (the price being the wage or salary multiplied by probable years of service) hence bad buys can be very expensive. For that reason some firms (and some firms for particular jobs) use external expert consultants for recruitment and selection.
Equally some small organizations exist to 'head hunt', i.e. to attract staff with high reputations from existing employers to the recruiting employer. However, the 'cost' of poor selection is such that, even for the mundane day-to-day jobs, those who recruit and select should be well trained to judge the suitability of applicants.

The main sources of recruitment are:

Internal promotion and internal introductions (at times desirable for morale purposes)
Careers officers (and careers masters at schools)
University appointment boards
Agencies for the unemployed
Advertising (often via agents for specialist posts) or the use of other local media (e.g. commercial radio)

Where the organization does its own printed advertising it is useful if it has some identifying logo as its trade mark for rapid attraction and it must take care not to offend the sex, race, etc. antidiscrimination legislation either directly or indirectly. The form on which the applicant is to apply (personal appearance, letter of application, completion of a form) will vary according to the posts vacant and numbers to be recruited.

It is very desirable in many jobs that claim about experience and statements about qualifications are thoroughly checked and that applicants unfailingly complete a health questionnaire (the latter is not necessarily injurious to the applicants chance of being appointed as firms are required to employ a percentage of disabled people).

Before letters of appointment are sent any doubts about medical fitness or capacity (in employments where hygiene considerations are dominant) should be resolved by requiring applicants to attend a medical examination. This is especially so where, as for example in the case of apprentices, the recruitment is for a contractual period or involves the firm in training costs.

Interviewing can be carried out by individuals (e.g. supervisor or departmental manager), by panels of interviewers or in the form of sequential interviews by different experts and can vary from a five minute 'chat' to a process of several days. Ultimately personal skills in judgment are probably the most important, but techniques to aid judgment include selection testing for:

Aptitudes (particularly useful for school leavers)
Attainments
General intelligence

(All of these need skilled testing and assessment.) In more senior posts other techniques are:

Leaderless groups
Command exercises
Group problem solving

(These are some common techniques - professional selection organizations often use other techniques to aid in selection.)

Training in interviewing and in appraising candidates is clearly essential to good recruitment. Largely the former consists of teaching interviewers how to draw out the interviewee and the latter how to xratex the candidates. For consistency (and as an aid to checking that) rating often consists of scoring candidates for experience, knowledge, physical/mental capabilities, intellectual levels, motivation, prospective potential, leadership abilities etc. (according to the needs of the post). Application of the normal curve of distribution to scoring eliminates freak judgments.

Cost-Effective Training for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses

2011-05-18T13:06:00.000+05:00

It’s 2011 and most businesses are looking around at their internal talent and heaving a small sigh of relief—relief that the company survived the horrendous economic downturn and relief that they have been able to retain as many key employees as they could.

Even so, savvy leaders know that as the economy improves, their employees will be looking for what the company is doing to support them—including the key element of employee training and development. While offering quality learning opportunities to staff is a critical component for talent retention, small to medium-sized businesses often face bigger challenges in providing development and training for their employees. Frequently, without in-house training staff and always with limited budgets, these companies have had to do more with less, and they continue to do so in 2011 and beyond.

Some Positive Examples

MultiAd, a 200+ person marketing solutions company headquartered in Peoria, IL, has always believed in the power and importance of training its workforce. However, like most companies of its size, it has relied upon external resources for its workforce training programs. According to James Douglas, President and CEO, “we often look outside the company for training on subjects we feel will help continuously build and improve the performance of our employees. Even during the recession, we continued to offer classroom-based programs on topics such as goal setting, performance management, team work and even ‘Changing & Growing - Without Going Crazy!’” MultiAd is a member of AAIM Employers’ Association, a non-profit membership organization serving four Midwestern states, and it receives HR services, including interactive, classroom-based training as part of its membership fees.

MKTG Inc, a 200+ marketing services firm with headquarters in New York City and offices in Cincinnati, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, while still not large enough to have trainers on staff, has an HR Director with a passion for learning and a “think outside the box” penchant for finding solutions to budget and geographically-dispersed workforce challenges.

Economic Opportunism: Learning & Training for the Future During Financial Crisis

2011-05-17T10:53:00.000+05:00

Smart businesses know that economic downturns are a time for investing in the future, so when conditions improve they have the skills needed to grow and thrive once again.

This is perhaps in juxtaposition with the austerity measures being taken, which mean training budgets are being slashed. However, the idea is not to train more, but rather to train smarter.

ROI of Training

Running training like a business involves targeting the funds for workforce development towards those areas which are likely to yield the greatest results and boost to productivity, while streamlining those which are of least value.

For those who need a little encouragement about the ROI of training initiatives, the figures speak for themselves. Research from the University of Pennsylvania found that for every 10 percent of revenue spent on capital improvements productivity increased by 3.9 percent.

In comparison, spending the same amount on human capital yielded an 8.5 percent increase in productivity.

HR Shared Services Trends and Challenges

2011-05-11T09:51:00.000+05:00

Shared services increased in popularity over the last ten years as organizations realized the potential to streamline their enterprises and cut costs. This trend was accelerated towards the end of the decade when the economic downturn struck. Figures released by the Shared Services Institute (SSI) in 2010 show since 2007, HR shared services start ups in the United States have been increasing by 39 percent.

"HR shared services is experiencing a second surge in popularity that appears to be quite strong," the report said.

Shared Services Trends
These HR shared services were said to be as "unique and varied as the organizations they serve," however some clear trends were emerging.

"Virtually every HR service can be found to be delivered through a shared services model somewhere," the report, based on the views of 5,000 United States companies, noted.

Globalization was said to be one of the major trends impacting shared services in the future, as it is with many other business functions.

Just 11 percent of those who took part in the research said they had no intention of expanding their services globally, while 14 percent already had an integrated global model, and 24 percent planned to create one in the future.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications were also increasingly being seen as favorable by organizations. Gartner predicted last year SaaS would play an increasingly important role within HR functions, particularly in talent management. It is not surprising that its use is now spreading to other HR functions.

Some 80 percent of participants in the institutes' research were said to be open or favorable to SaaS.

Measuring Success of Your Shared Services Model
Despite this clear eagerness to adopt a shared services model and reap the benefits, many were unsure or unconvinced that their efforts were having the desired effect.

"Enabling the transformation of HR's role was listed among the most critical business drivers, yet it lagged behind all others in perceived level of achievement," it was explained.

Around 15 percent of the companies which participated in the survey said their shared services venture had achieved below average results in terms of transforming HR, while less than five percent said the model had not met their expectations in terms of cost savings.

A larger proportion, more than 40 percent said they didn't know or it was too early to tell if their shared services were meeting their expectations. However, this lack of understanding was prevalent across all performance indicators, which led the institute to claim a "valid benchmarking across such a diverse set of operating models remains elusive."

Cultural Challenges

Technical challenges are not the only ones facing HR shared services ventures. Unless staff members are fully on board, cultural differences could prevent the systems from presenting their full benefits.

The UK-based National Trust consolidated its 17 personnel departments into one center a number of years ago. These changes brought about a significant streamlining of operations and cost savings, but the biggest challenge had to do with human resources.

Paul Boniface, director of HR and governance at the Trust, told Personnel Today: "We did have examples of line managers not complying with new processes. Over time, that eroded as they saw the benefits of doing things the new way."

In response, Vanessa Robinson, head of HR practice development at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, told the news provider the key is being open and communicating the changes with employees early on.

Workers must take a long-term view of shared services, however they can be resistance to change— especially if they view it as a way of cutting staff numbers. This can be particularly true within public sector organizations, many of which are seeing their budgets squeezed.

"It's making sure people know what the change is about, good communications, and making sure you set up project teams, which comprise more than the people changing jobs, but a number of key stakeholders too," Robinson said.

Making Sense of the Millennial Generation: What Organizations Need to Know

2011-05-10T10:18:00.000+05:00

The "Millennial Generation" - people born in the 1980s and 1990s who are in their teens and 20s today - represents the latest chapter in a long-running tale of generational misunderstanding. Each new generation that enters the workforce is typically viewed by its elders as not sufficiently dedicated to the world of work, posing potentially large challenges to organizations and the way they structure the employment proposition.

The good news is that, just like any classic tale, we have seen it before and know how the story ends - at least one part of the story. A large part of the misunderstanding is due to a natural evolution as generations go through predictable life cycle stages.

Early career labor market experience is typically characterized by a lot of job and career "shopping." Whether voluntary or involuntary, the facts are clear that younger people tend to move around from job to job a lot more than older people. It's partly due to choice, as many are in the process of making up their minds about the kind of careers they want to have.

The other part is due to the nature of how human capital is built and valued in the marketplace. The opportunity cost of job switching is low for young people because they have not yet built up large amounts of occupation- and industry-specific human capital. After working for a number of years, accumulated human capital makes people more specialized in the types of jobs that offer the biggest financial rewards, so their options narrow - and this makes them much more dedicated to specific types of work and organizations, and thus, from the organizations' perspective, more dedicated and reliable. So part of the stereotype is due to expected differences in how young people interact with the labor market, and vice versa.

Another part of the stereotype is due to the ups and downs of the business cycle. Young people who enter the labor market when times are good face more options and can be pickier about their job choices than people who enter the labor market in tough times. Part of this may be temporary optimism that is enabled by a growing economy - optimism that should get tempered during a subsequent bust. That certainly has been the case for the Millennials.

The "old" Millennials - those born in the early 1980s - who entered the labor market during the latest economic expansion in 2002-07 found a relatively healthy economy with many job options. If they have been fortunate to keep their jobs in the recent deep recession, it is virtually certain that their expectations for their careers - and their demands on their organizations - have been tempered at least a little. Yet the pain of recessions is never spread evenly, and those who have been fortunate to keep their jobs have continued to develop skills and accumulate experience that will enable them to put further distance between themselves and other who have not been so fortunate.

While the pain of unemployment often gets spread over more people in younger generations (they typically have higher unemployment rates than older generations), people who lose jobs later in their careers face much steeper challenges finding work that suits their skills and thus greater economic adjustment on average. At the end of the day, the distinguishing feature of recessions is that they create winners and losers within each generation. And it is the differences between those thrown out of work versus those who keep their jobs that are more important defining features of labor market experience than generational differences.

There is a related, but different, economic trend that has been a defining feature of the US and other advanced economies for many years: a growing gap between economic winners and losers among people who in previous decades would have had much more similar economic fates. This trend started in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to greater dispersion of economic success - and failure - among people who one would think should have similar success in the labor market. This means, for example, that people who train and work today as lawyers, engineers, finance professionals, medical professionals, etc. are ending up with much more varied amounts of economic success and failure than their counterparts who chose those same professions in their parents' generation.

That times have changed like this is no accident, and is due in part to widespread deregulation and increased competition in sectors that in previous generations were much more shielded from competition both domestically and internationally. The recent rise of emerging economic dynamos like China, India, Brazil and Eastern Europe with large pools of well educated workers has helped continue the trend. The other contributing factor is organizations' increased use of pay for performance and accountability that create greater differentiation in both rewards and job security.

Taken together, these three issues - natural life cycle evolution, business cycle ups and downs, and growing dispersion of economic winners and losers - mean that there are real economic issues that Millennials face that organizations should be aware of. But whether and how organizations should respond with policies specifically targeted toward the Millennial Generation is another matter.

Existing HR programs and policies that address the different needs of single versus married people, old/late career versus young/early career, etc., should be sufficient to address the early-career life cycle issues the Millennials currently are facing. The other two trends do not necessarily require different HR programs and policies. They do, however, highlight the importance of recognizing that generational stereotypes often take too much attention away from the fact that it is difference among people in the same generation that often are much larger and more important than the differences between generations.

Recognizing the growing capriciousness of the labor market - things are more varied and random today - and what that means for both current and prospective employees will enable organizations to approach each person with the right perspective and compassion needed to engage and motivate each person. And that applies to both the Millennial Generation and their older brethren.

The other feature that distinguishes the Millennials from older generations is the widespread use of social networking and other new technologies that are the latest rage. This of course is to be expected because new technologies are always adapted much more quickly by the young. Yet the widespread adoption of these new tools by the young is not necessarily the issue on which organizations should focus. On the one hand, there always are new technologies, and we have to ask ourselves, How does this technology really change the way we can do work around here? If the new technology is just the latest version of an electronic water cooler - a place for people to gather and gab - then no response may be the right response. On the other hand, each new technology - the telegraph, telephone, cell phones, internet, etc. - eventually does change the way people interact in fundamental ways.

The issue that organizations need to address is how the new technologies can change the nature of work for everyone, not just the younger generation. The younger generation is the place to go to see what is possible with new technologies. But the real power to transform organizations lies in whether and how the technology changes the way we communicate, think and organize work in all corners of the organization. If the potential is high, then attending to the opportunity of new technologies should be given very high priority, and members of the Millennial Generation can be invited to help lead the task teams charged with exploring and acting on alternative scenarios. If the potential is low, then the new technologies should not be ignored, but they also should be put in perspective and not be allowed to dominate the conversation to the exclusion of other changes that could be more important (globalization, regulation, supply chain, etc.).

Training: The Best is Business-Driven

2011-05-04T10:11:00.000+05:00

Many internal training organizations must really start to reinvent themselves––or face the prospect of significant downsizing.

CEOs and CFOs are now demanding investments in training deliver maximum value to the organization.

Translated, this means training budgets are being put under the microscope. Training costs––their identification, measurement, and control––are an area of concern because it's difficult to monetize the return on training investments.

Yet training costs, after all, do not exist by themselves. They are always incurred––in intent at least––for the sake of a result.

What matters therefore is not the absolute cost level but the ratio between training dollars spent and their results. But––and this is a big “but”––results must be business- driven.

There are many different ways to define what is meant by business-driven results.

For the purposes of this article, we will discuss two specific ways––namely:

(1) Quantifiable measurements related to business processes and;

(2) The use of strategy maps to identify the skills needed to carry out an explicit corporate strategy

Monetizing Training Results: An Example and Its Lessons

Oral and written mastery of a subject is important. But from the perspective of the organization, the only real test of training is its impact on business performance.

Here's a concrete example. And we'll have you as the old statement goes, "walk in another's moccasins.”

Let's assume you are a manufacturer of Styrofoam coffee cups used in vending machines. Lucky you!

You want to improve the quality of your coffee cups. Why? Because the costs associated with scrap, return shipments, field service calls, and customer complaints from the vending companies are devouring your profits.

Careful study reveals four major quality problems with respect to your Styrofoam coffee cups. The problems can be classified as:

Coffee cups that are too large (this results in customers feeling cheated, that is, they are getting less coffee than expected)
Coffee cups that are too small (this results in coffee overflowing the cup…making an unwanted mess)
Coffee cups withcracked lips (this results in a coffee cup looking like it was chewed by a rodent)
Coffee cups with pin holes at the bottom of the cup (this results in a leaking coffee cup)

These are the performance measurements that must be improved. Measurements define what we mean by performance. They largely dictate where efforts should be spent.

Let's further assume that, for whatever reasons, far too many of your coffee cups have one or more of the above-mentioned quality defects.

Greatly simplifying, you need to dramatically reduce the percentage of coffee cups with quality defects.

Time Management

2011-04-30T11:57:00.000+05:00

Time is the most important factor in our lives, it never stops and we cannot freeze any moment all the way or it can never get back. Once the time is gone it will be subtracted from our life. Time passes quickly and we feel that we have wasted our most precious asset just doing nothing. We must train ourselves to utilize it most effectively and in constructive manner to achieve our goals in such a short span of life.

How can we manage to do things well in time? We plan daily and still we manage to do only urgent jobs yet ignoring the most important things to work upon. Our biggest problem remains adjusting our routine jobs and dream jobs. Sometimes we work whole night and still we can’t resolve our matters of work fully. We feel frustrated and again try to list up the important things to be done accordingly.

We are not super human beings; all we have is limited to some extent only we can manage to utilize our time with best schedule. The most important thing is to concentrate upon our goals and targets and not allowing the things going out of control. We should give priority to our dreams and don’t let mishaps to work against that what we deserve in life. Scheduling of daily work routine jobs in the start of the day will help to manage regular schedules of whole day. The good idea is to picture your urgent jobs and dream jobs on daily basis and try to maintain it with seriousness. The enjoyment is also a vital part of our daily routine life and never ignores it at any cost. While busy in daily routine jobs you will be able to bear hard work with a pleasant feeling of enjoyment just after finishing it.

Manpower planning

2011-04-28T17:24:00.000+05:00

The penalties for not being correctly staffed are costly.

Understaffing loses the business economies of scale and specialization, orders, customers and profits.
Overstaffing is wasteful and expensive, if sustained, and it is costly to eliminate because of modern legislation in respect of redundancy payments, consultation, minimum periods of notice, etc. Very importantly, overstaffing reduces the competitive efficiency of the business.

Planning staff levels requires that an assessment of present and future needs of the organization be compared with present resources and future predicted resources. Appropriate steps then be planned to bring demand and supply into balance.

Thus the first step is to take a 'satellite picture' of the existing workforce profile (numbers, skills, ages, flexibility, gender, experience, forecast capabilities, character, potential, etc. of existing employees) and then to adjust this for 1, 3 and 10 years ahead by amendments for normal turnover, planned staff movements, retirements, etc, in line with the business plan for the corresponding time frames.

The result should be a series of crude supply situations as would be the outcome of present planning if left unmodified. (This, clearly, requires a great deal of information accretion, classification and statistical analysis as a subsidiary aspect of personnel management.)

What future demands will be is only influenced in part by the forecast of the personnel manager, whose main task may well be to scrutinize and modify the crude predictions of other managers. Future staffing needs will derive from:

Sales and production forecasts
The effects of technological change on task needs
Variations in the efficiency, productivity, flexibility of labor as a result of training, work study, organizational change, new motivations, etc.
Changes in employment practices (e.g. use of subcontractors or agency staffs, hiving-off tasks, buying in, substitution, etc.)
Variations, which respond to new legislation, e.g. payroll taxes or their abolition, new health and safety requirements
Changes in Government policies (investment incentives, regional or trade grants, etc.)

What should emerge from this 'blue sky gazing' is a 'thought out' and logical staffing demand schedule for varying dates in the future which can then be compared with the crude supply schedules. The comparisons will then indicate what steps must be taken to achieve a balance.

That, in turn, will involve the further planning of such recruitment, training, retraining, labor reductions (early retirement/redundancy) or changes in workforce utilization as will bring supply and demand into equilibrium, not just as a one–off but as a continuing workforce planning exercise the inputs to which will need constant varying to reflect 'actual' as against predicted experience on the supply side and changes in production actually achieved as against forecast on the demand side.

Aligning Training with Organizational Goals and Objectives

2011-04-27T10:50:00.000+05:00

It seems that many organizations embrace the strategy of reinventing and modernizing training processes and programs. Technology opens the door to many new opportunities and capabilities for enhancing employee learning and development. Learning, though a vital part of company culture and continuous employee development, must still demonstrate a clear impact and justify the ROI of new programs. But how often are these initiatives actually effective, and how should an organization measure the value on their learning and training implementations?

In order to answer these questions, we must look at exactly what are the needs and requirements from multiple perspectives: the organization’s perspective; the people who are delivering the training; and the people who are attending the program.

Technology should be viewed as the tool that enables the organization to ensure that the consistency on content of training is high. Cost over the long-term is managed. With the usage of the right technology, companies can develop customized training based on organizational needs.

Creating alignment with organizational goals and objectives

The first critical point here is to ask and define: “What is our organizational strategy?” It should have clear linkage with the vision of organization, and approximately 3- 5 years of future thinking.

To design and understand organizational strategy, we should look at multiple data points that involve reviewing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), as well as internal and external trends and people capabilities. This information helps to update or renew the vision and strategic position of the company.

Alignment is achieved by linking strategy with individual and team goals, and defining short-term milestones for these strategic points. This goal-setting process should be planned for the year and should involve the participation of as many team members as possible. Monthly team meetings help to stay updateand to make adjustments early enough to ensure progress.

Brief weekly individual progress meetings are held to ensure that progress is on track. Strategy maps and other linked (inter-connected) maps are useful to communicate to a larger audience and present a snapshot of strategy. I am a very big fan of Dr. Robert Kaplan of the Harvard Business School, co-creator of the Balanced Scorecard measure. I think his research work is the most valuable possession of 21st century. Many of the previous insights are supported by Kaplan’s research on communicating and managing strategy within the organization.

Continual measurement of progress and improvement plans

Dashboards should be designed to include customer metrics and process metrics. The ideal balance is about fifty percent of each component. As the process is redesigned and modernized, more emphasis should be on customer metrics. Internal process metrics should have all the three types of process metrics: input process, in-process and output process metrics.

Dashboard should be designed at three levels: organizational level, process level and (if possible) entity level. Financial metrics should be at the organizational level; training effectiveness metrics should be at the process level and environment, feedback on material metrics, etc should be at the entity level.

Calculation of training ROI should include direct factors such as efficiency improvement, defect reduction and a faster learning curve. Indirect factors that impacts ROI can be evaluated by employee opinion survey and informal feedback mechanism. Examples of indirect and long-term factors are culture building, attitude improvement and higher levels of engagement.

Bottom line: A clear strategy can only be of value when it is translated into a few crisp, critical goals, and when organization's resources are continually aligned toward their execution. Learning and development has the potential to create alignment with organizational goals and objectives, but must be continually examined and measured. When learning and development initiatives are viewed as part of the company’s holistic strategy, they have the potential to increase workforce productivity and have measurable impact on ROI.

The 3 Things Employees Need to Be Happy

2011-04-26T15:35:00.000+05:00

Even the most “fun” companies on the planet may be lacking in employee morale. So you have a pingpong table in your break room; you hand out yo-yos as random gifts; you have an endless supply of coffee and even group outings to theme parks. How in the world can anyone on the payroll not love their life? Well, if you have employees that are over 15 years old, it may take a little more than table tennis and roller coasters to provide a truly fulfilling career.

So you throw some money at them. Sure, that’ll solve the problem. All anyone wants is a bonus or a raise right? Well, for a lot of people a good salary is enough to keep them quiet and still, at least until something better comes along. But if you want to cultivate an environment that will inspire employee loyalty, it takes more than arbitrary gestures and rewards. It takes a genuine commitment to creating employee morale and deep, lasting fulfillment. There’s no magic formula for that either, but it starts with a little common decency and grows from there.

Respect

Respect is a funny thing. It’s one of those ambiguous concepts that mean different things to everyone. We know when we have respect for someone else, and we know when we don’t. We know when we feel respected and we know when we are made to feel like dirt. Yet sometimes it can be difficult to put a finger on exactly why. When it comes to employee relations and keeping up employee morale, showing respect takes more than just a regular paycheck.

It’s easy to treat employees like a collection of mindless drones. It’s easy to play "Big Brother," to micromanage and offer copious criticism. It takes more effort to treat every employee as an individual and utilize their specific strengths. It’s difficult to trust people and to offer positive feedback in addition to constructive criticism. But sometimes, respect isn’t about doing what’s easy. Sometimes it’s about faith.

Ok, so we’re talking about business, right? There’s no room for touchy-feely words like “faith”. I get it: there’s a bottom line to think about. But respect isn’t a warm and fuzzy word. It is can be the make or break factor between an employee doing their best work and one who does just enough to get by, because they secretly hate management. As adults, we tend to think of ourselves as capable, responsible people. We like to be treated that way in our jobs. If you can’t trust and respect the people you hire, then the problem is probably in your hiring process. When you hire the right people, and train them well, give them the tools to succeed and the space to do so, that is the epitome of respect.

Every child prays that he or she will grow up and find a rewarding occupation. But as adults, many of us settle for something that “pays the bills” but doesn’t give us any real happiness. Deep down, we all still have the desire to truly enjoy the 40+ hours a week we spend earning our living. When employees feel trusted and respected, they are more likely to be passionate and invest themselves in the work they do. And that’s the kind of job performance that pays off in a big way for everyone.

Growth

Even when you treat employees well, thank them for their efforts and give them the freedom to absorb themselves into their work, they are going to need something more eventually. In our lives, we want to feel as though we are moving forward. If we don’t feel ourselves progressing, we may feel as though we are stagnating. But unfortunately in our careers, we often spend years just treading water and wondering when our ship will come in. The problem with many good— even great— jobs is that they are often dead ends.

Everyone wants to know what the next step will be in a relationship or in their career. We want to feel as though we are working toward something and not as though we are hamsters trapped in a wheel. If there is no way to move up or over, many of your best employees will eventually move on. It may be because they leave for better positions, or it may be because their frustration with a lack of mobility diminishes their job performance.

If an employee is constantly forced to watch some people gain more and more authority while his or her own time, skill and dedication is completely dismissed, that commitment will inevitably wane. Obviously, there are a limited number of higher-up positions in any company, so not everyone can get promoted every time they deserve it. But it’s within the boss’s power to add a skylight to even the most limiting of glass ceilings. I’m not just talking pay raises either. Cash incentives are absolutely a great way to show appreciation and growth. But if that’s not in the budget, there are other ways.

Letting qualified employees take on more responsibility, or have more influence in decision-making is always a great way to provide growth without having to create a new position. Sometimes, it really is as simple as letting someone take on a new project or making them feel like their experience and insight is valued in determining the direction of the business. If a person doesn’t ever feel like they are going someplace with your company, they will probably be going to someone else’s pretty soon.

Recourse

Money, respect and growth potential are really important to employee satisfaction, but even if your company grants all of those things, some problems will still persist. If you don’t have a process for dealing with internal issues, no cash bonus, good will or promotion is going to be enough to keep your best talent. On top of the basics, workers need a way to vent their concerns constructively, offer suggestions and file grievances. It’s not enough to say “just tell the office manger” if the office manager is a busy body that nobody trusts.

Every office needs a way for employees to seek solutions to their problems in a real way. If legitimate issues are consistently not handled, employee frustration will eventually give way to deep dissatisfaction. A “suggestion box” is great if it actually gets used and if good suggestions are taken seriously. But if it’s an anonymous suggestion box, it needs to be in a place where people can drop ideas in it inconspicuously—which means the boss’s office is not the place for it.

The human resources department is meant to be a place where employees can go to lodge complaints. When it works well, it works really well. But when there is a breakdown, red-tape or complicated procedures, complaining about a problem can become more of a hassle than the problem itself. That is a major issue. When an employee has a problem that they can’t resolve, it will fester and grow. Eventually something will have to give and the situation is likely to blow up. This may result in you losing a great worker over something trivial that could have been resolved if there was a method for proper recourse from the beginning. In order for employees to stay happy, they need the opportunity to see their issues addressed consistently, privately and completely. Without that process, someone is going to wind up very unhappy— and someone may even wind up unemployed!

No one is completely blissful at work all the time. We all have good days and bad days. What it comes down to is how we feel at the end of the day: Do we count down the seconds until we can bolt for the door, or do we head out with a smile and satisfaction from another day’s work? As workers, when we are offered respect, a chance to grow and recourse for dealing with issues, we are much more likely to be truly content with our jobs. You can’t make everyone happy all of the time. The right combination of empathy and opportunity may keep the majority of your workforce happy— at least most of the time. Truly happy employees will be the ones that are most loyal, trustworthy, and productive. Happy employees are the ones that you are sad to see go, when they retire after 20 years of dedicated service.

HR Psychology

2009-12-27T15:15:00.000+05:00

HR Psychology - Learning to Multitask: Simultaneous Reading and Writing

Classic Attentional Training Study Hints At Our Considerable Potential to Multitask.

The mind has a remarkable ability to focus attention on just one voice from a chorus (see: the cocktail party effect). But what about spreading our attention across different types of tasks? A classic 1976 study which taught two people to read and write at the same time hints at our considerable potential to multitask.

Professor Elizabeth Spelke and colleagues at Cornell University wanted to know whether we can really divide our conscious attention between two demanding tasks, like reading and writing. To find out they recruited two participants willing to put in 29 hours of practice over a 6 week period: Diane and John were their volunteers (Spelke, Hirst & Neisser, 1976).

Before the training Diane and John's normal reading and comprehension rates were measured, so it could be compared with post-training. Then Spelke and colleagues set about their three-phase training regime.

Phase 1: Simultaneous Reading and Writing.

The first step was to get Diane and John reading and writing at the same time. To do this they read short stories by authors like Katherine Mansfield at the same time as writing down a list of words being dictated to them. Afterwards the experimenters checked their story comprehension and memory for the list of words. This procedure was continued throughout all three phases of the study.

Naturally when Diane and John first tried to multitask their reading speed, comprehension and memory all deteriorated. But surprisingly, after six weeks, they could read just as fast and with the same level of comprehension whether or not they were also taking dictation at the same time. They also often recognised more than two-thirds of the dictated words.

There is a problem with this study so far though: it's possible that Diane and John weren't really multitasking but had just leant to take dictation automatically and unconsciously. Spelke and colleagues knew they had to push Diane and John harder.

Phase 2: Detecting Structured Sub-Lists

Over the next few weeks Spelke and colleagues tested Diane and John's higher-level awareness of the dictated lists. Instead of dictating relatively unrelated words, patterns were now surreptitiously inserted into the lists, sometimes whole sentences.

Without forewarning Diane and John found these difficult to spot, but once told to search for the patterns they started noticing rhymes, categories of words and even sentences. Although still missing a few, they did spot many of the patterns the experimenters hid in the sub-lists.

Remember that this is all at the same time as reading an unrelated story at their normal speed and level of comprehension. In this second phase the participants' multitasking is even more impressive and it's harder to argue that the dictation has become automatic and unconscious because Diane and John could spot many of the patterns.

Phase 3: Reading While Categorising Words

In the third and final phase Diane and John were asked to just write down the category to which the words belonged rather than the words themselves. Again, their reading speed initially dropped when they were given this new task, but soon, with practice, it was back up to its original level.

After the 16 weeks of the study it seemed that both Diane and John could categorise lists of words and write down the name of the category at the same time as reading, and understanding, a sophisticated and completely unrelated short story.

Not only that but their reading speed and comprehension of the short story was unaffected compared with their pre-training tests. Quite an impressive feat of attention.

What Does This Mean?

Not everyone accepts that what Diane and John were doing was really multitasking. Here are some of the objections:

• One of the tasks became automatic and therefore unconscious.

• Similarly, people have complained the tasks weren't hard enough: reading and writing are already highly practised skills.

• Diane and John were learning to switch their attention from one task to the other very quickly, not focus on both at the same time.

• Two people is a very small sample size!

These are all good points, but ultimately there's still an impressive human performance here that requires explanation. Whether or not Diane and John were really multitasking, the research certainly implies that we can train our attention to carry out two sophisticated tasks which require conscious deliberation at the same time.

This is more than just simultaneously talking and driving, or patting the head while rubbing the stomach: both reading and writing involve relatively deep processing of similar types of linguistic information. Spelke and colleagues were clearly very impressed with Diane and John's new abilities and they suggest there may be no limits to training human attention, perhaps even no limits to our general cognitive capacity. All we need is some creativity along with plenty of time and practice.

HR People

2009-12-22T10:28:00.000+05:00

HR People - 13 Most Annoying People to Work With

Most of us have had colleagues over the years who turned annoying into an art form. Well, now it's a classifiable art form. Career experts Christine Lambden and Casey Connor, authors of the new book, "Everyday Practices of Extraordinary Consultants, " have compiled a list of "The 13 Most Annoying People to Work With." How many of these does your company still have on its payroll?

• Pontification Person: This person goes on and on, telling you what he or she is going to say, saying it, and then telling you what he or she said.

• Um Person: To avoid losing control of the conversation, this co-worker fills every pause with "Um," not realizing he or she might be able to think better when not talking.

• Too Much Detail Person: The authors could elaborate on this one, but then, of course, that would be contributing to the problem.

• 50,000-Foot- Only Person: He or she is eloquent when you talk about the big picture, but refuses to allow anyone to get into the details, which we all know is where the real work gets done. "Unless you’re the CEO of a multinational corporation, "say Lambden and Connor, "you have to be willing to work at any altitude."

• Hypnotized-by- E-mail Person: Wireless technology can be a lifesaver, but there’s something defeating about presenting to the tops of people's heads because everyone at the conference table is hunched over his or her laptop.

• Buzzword Person: "This employee is annoying in meetings, team rooms, and in cubicles," say Lambden and Connor. "In fact, this person is just plain annoying all the time."

• Foul Language Person: Much like Buzzword Person, this co-worker is too lazy to think of the right words to express what he or she is thinking, if, indeed, he or she is thinking at all. This person isn’t trying to impress you with his or her knowledge. "They aren't trying to impress you at all," Lambden and Connor note. "They don't care what you think of them." Refreshing on some level, but probably not a person you’d want on your team.

• Reiteration Person: The only contribution this person makes is to restate what already was said. So, basically, he or she actually has no contribution to make.

• Too Busy to Be Prompt Person: He or she always is late to work and every meeting, clearly lacking time management skills. Nobody can be working on something important all the time, after all.

• Can't Control the Meeting Person and arch-nemesis Wants to Take Over the Meeting Person: There has to be some balance between the out-of-control ditherer and the maniacal meetings dictator, doesn't there?

• Secondary Conversation People: Your best material often isn't riveting, but staffers at least could pretend to care. But Lambert and Connor point out these workers "only are annoying if their conversation is less interesting than the meeting."

• Disagrees With Everything Person: "This co-worker honestly believes he is just being practical, or serving as the voice of reason, or playing devil's advocate," the authors point out. "This may be true sometimes, and even helpful occasionally, but when it becomes a habit, everyone else just tunes them out."

• Obscure Metaphor Person: This employee is as annoying as "the fool in a troupe of Morris dancers," say Lambden and Connor. "See? Wasn’t that annoying?"

HR Leadership - Walk Your Talk

2009-12-18T13:17:00.000+05:00

A few years ago I was invited to spend some time with Ken Blanchard at his lake home in upstate New York. Over the last 20 years Ken has probably sold more books than any other business author. His classic, The One Minute Manager, has sold over 10 million copies. He has also built a large training company with the focus on servant leadership and customer service.

I've had the good fortune to meet many successful businessmen, authors, and speakers during my career, but I've never met anyone that "walked the talk" more than Ken. He gets it. The first night of my visit to Ken's lake home, we were sitting on the deck with Humberto, his son-in-law, talking about some ways we could work together. It was about 10 p.m., when all of a sudden Ken jumped up and asked to be excused. He returned about 10:20 and Humberto asked "What happened?" Ken said, "I can't believe it; I forgot to call Dorothy on her birthday."

Later that night, after Ken had gone to bed, Humberto told me that Dorothy is an 85 year old part time employee for the company. It then dawned on me that at 10 p.m. Ken left to spend almost 20 minutes talking to Dorothy and inquiring about how she had spent her special day. However, after spending more time with Ken over the next year, I came to realize that this was no fluke. This is who he is. The last time while visiting him at his San Diego office, I learned that one of his employees who worked in the warehouse had recently passed away. On that day, Ken had invited the employee's wife to come to his office. When she arrived, he spent an hour walking around with her carrying a tape recorder to record all of the wonderful memories that other employees had of her husband. When the wife left she said it was a day she'd never forget.

You see, what many leaders would have considered a waste of time, Ken saw it as an opportunity to serve and to thank his people. He doesn't do it because it's expected of him, he does it because he truly cares. It comes from his heart, and his people love him for being the servant leader that he is.

This is an old Chinese poem that offers wonderful advice for any leader:

GO to the people

LIVE among the people

LEARN from them

LOVE them.

START with what they know,

BUILD on what they have.

But of the BEST leaders,

When their TASK is accomplished,

Their WORK is done,

The PEOPLE will remark,

"WE HAVE DONE IT OURSELVES."

HR Leadership

2009-12-15T20:50:00.000+05:00

HR Leadership - Leadership In Hard Times - Leading - and Succeeding

"The truth is that no one factor makes a company admirable. But if you were forced to pick the one that makes the most difference, you'd pick leadership." (Warren Bennis, Organizational Consultant and Author)

As organizations adapt to changing business environments, the need for effective leadership is especially critical. When times are good, leading a company or a team is exciting. Resources are plentiful, customers are satisfied, and opportunity is everywhere. However, when the economic conditions are challenging, this excitement and positive energy tend to weaken. People often feel the pressures of work, and they fear for their job security. These worries and fears present a major challenge for leaders who want to keep their teams on target and productive.

Good leadership is good leadership, regardless of the economic climate. However, during difficult times, top-notch leadership skills become even more important. Second-rate leaders might be able to keep a company going in a strong economy, but you need high-performing leaders to succeed in tough times.

Of course, you need leaders who can control costs and conserve cash. However you also need leaders who see opportunity - and who will strive to seize that opportunity - despite all the negativity. You need leaders who remain committed to their people. And you need leaders who can transfer their own positive outlook to the people around them.

Create New Opportunities
In an economic downturn, you need to conserve your resources so that you can survive. However, you also need to position yourself to benefit as competitors falter, and to be ready when the economy recovers. An economy in decline is often an opportunity to regroup, rethink, and renew. To take advantage of new opportunities, consider doing the following:

Review Your Strategy - Figure out which objectives you're meeting, which ones need more emphasis, and which ones you should reconsider or drop as the environment around you changes.
Lead By Example - Now, more than ever, you have to lead 'from the front' by setting an example. Take personal responsibility for customer care and contact. Actively pursue new business. Show that you're willing to make extra effort to commit to the organization' s success.
Add Value - One of the ways that leaders can gain greater market share and improve operations is by really listening to their customers. Look for innovative ways to add value without adding costs, and win customers who aren't being well served by your competitors.
Use Market Conditions to Create a Stronger Business Model for the Future - If you're a senior manager, consider looking for bargains, in terms of mergers and acquisitions, which will improve your company's future competitive position. Whatever level you're at, negotiate keener rates with suppliers, which you can continue to enjoy after the economy recovers.
Take the Opportunity to Trim Costs - Encourage cost-consciousness within your team or organization. Now is a great time to do this - everyone knows that times are tough, and people will be more willing than ever to cut unnecessary costs.
Implement a Continuous Improvement Plan - Look at your systems and processes to find efficiency opportunities. Lead the way in building a culture of continuous improvement (members only). You can use these savings to pursue the numerous opportunities created by the downturn.

Commit to Your People
Negative messages are all too common during economic downturns. People are losing their jobs, unemployment rates are going up, and personal and corporate bankruptcies are increasing. This can weaken morale, both in the workplace and in society as a whole, and it can tip people into panic, severely damaging their productivity.
It doesn't have to be that way. Don't abandon your people. Use this time to reinforce how important they are, and build the skills they need to help the company survive.

Invest time In leadership Skills Training - Leadership is key to success. The better your leaders are, the better it is for you, your team, and the organization. OK, you may not want to spend a lot of cash on leadership training, however, when times are slow, you may be able to invest much more time than before in management and leadership development.
Retain Your Best People - Part of good leadership is keeping costs under control. However, profits are made by your people. Don't cut back on attracting quality people, and make every effort to retain your best team members by treating them with dignity and respect.
Be Creative With Recruitment and Retention - Salary increases may not be possible, but you can do lots of other things to create attractive work conditions. See our members' article on Managing During a Downturn for specific ideas.
Build a Motivating Workplace - It's easy to focus too much on specific tasks and the bottom line, especially at a time when resources are limited and "cash is king". As a leader, however, you can't let that stop you finding ways to motivate your workforce. Sirota's Three-Factor Theory suggests the following:
Treat People Fairly - When you can't avoid layoffs, give people as much warning as you sensibly can. Talk honestly about what's happening, and how cutbacks will affect them. And if you're cutting people, try to cut the volume and scope of the work you do so that you don't overload those who are left.
Provide Useful Work for Which People are Recognized - Be careful about reassigning the workloads of people who have been laid off. Take time to determine who is best suited for which tasks, and remember to give lots of praise. Match people's skills and interests with the work you need done.
Foster Good Relationships at Work - If you have to stop the Friday company-sponsored lunch at a restaurant, replace it with a low-cost potluck event. Try to avoid cutting it entirely.

Project Positive Energy
Good leaders provide hope and vision. These two qualities can keep a workplace going, even during tough times. People need someone they can trust - someone who is inspiring, and knows how to get things done. As a leader, make it a priority to do the following:

Expect Great Things from Your People - Within reason, the more you demand, the more opportunity you give people to perform, which can be highly motivating. However, don't push too hard, and remember to communicate your expectations.
Keep In Touch With Your People - Use the MBWA (Management By Wandering Around) technique (members only) to find out what's going well, and what needs your attention. Remember to recognize and praise success. Staying connected builds relationships and trust. In tough economic times, you need your staff to perform especially well. The more they know you care, the more likely they are to respond to your call for action.
Be Visionary - Leaders with vision, passion, energy, enthusiasm, and real engagement with their staff, are the key drivers of economic growth. Stay focused on the big picture, and manage to the best of your abilities.
Take Care of Yourself - Respect your own feelings and emotions during difficult times. Where appropriate, share your concerns with people you trust, and build a network of people you can talk to, however work hard to remain upbeat - if you're constantly worried, others will sense this. Get enough rest to keep yourself fresh, and manage your emotions to keep your creativity and self-confidence high.

Key Points
Leadership during good economic times has its challenges. But those challenges increase when the economy is tough, and staff are worried about keeping their jobs and paying their bills.

In these conditions, leaders and managers must keep a sharp eye on their environment, prepare for recovery, support their people, and project enthusiasm and energy. By remaining positive, supporting your people, and looking for new business opportunities, you can help your company survive - and succeed - through the difficult times. Leadership performance is critical to organizational success, so use all of the assets available to you.

HR Investigation - 10 Ways to Catch a Liar

2009-12-12T09:58:00.000+05:00

J.J. Newberry was a trained federal agent, skilled in the art of deception detection. So when a witness to a shooting sat in front of him and tried to tell him that when she heard gunshots she didn't look, she just ran -- he knew she was lying.

How did Newberry reach this conclusion? The answer is by recognizing telltale signs that a person isn't being honest, like inconsistencies in a story, behavior that's different from a person's norm, or too much detail in an explanation.

While using these signs to catch a liar takes extensive training and practice, it's no longer only for authorities like Newberry. Now, the average person can become adept at identifying dishonesty, and it's not as hard as you might think. Experts tell WebMD the top 10 ways to let the truth be known.

Tip No. 1: Inconsistencies
"When you want to know if someone is lying, look for inconsistencies in what they are saying," says Newberry, who was a federal agent for 30 years and a police officer for five.

When the woman he was questioning said she ran and hid after hearing gunshots -- without looking -- Newberry saw the inconsistency immediately.

"There was something that just didn't fit," says Newberry. "She heard gunshots but she didn't look? I knew that was inconsistent with how a person would respond to a situation like that."

So when she wasn't paying attention, he banged on the table. She looked right at him.
"When a person hears a noise, it's a natural reaction to look toward it," Newberry tells WebMD. "I knew she heard those gunshots, looked in the direction from which they came, saw the shooter, and then ran."

Sure enough, he was right.

"Her story was just illogical," says Newberry. "And that's what you should look for when you're talking to someone who isn't being truthful. Are there inconsistencies that just don't fit?"

Tip No. 2: Ask the Unexpected
"About 4% of people are accomplished liars and they can do it well," says Newberry. "But because there are no Pinocchio responses to a lie, you have to catch them in it."

Sir Walter Scott put it best: "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" But how can you a catch a person in his own web of lies?

"Watch them carefully," says Newberry. "And then when they don't expect it, ask them one question that they are not prepared to answer to trip them up."

Tip No. 3: Gauge Against a Baseline
"One of the most important indicators of dishonesty is changes in behavior," says Maureen O'Sullivan, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of San Francisco. "You want to pay attention to someone who is generally anxious, but now looks calm. Or, someone who is generally calm but now looks anxious."

The trick, explains O'Sullivan, is to gauge their behavior against a baseline. Is a person's behavior falling away from how they would normally act? If it is, that could mean that something is up.

Tip No. 4: Look for Insincere Emotions
"Most people can't fake smile," says O'Sullivan. "The timing will be wrong, it will be held too long, or it will be blended with other things. Maybe it will be a combination of an angry face with a smile; you can tell because their lips are smaller and less full than in a sincere smile."

These fake emotions are a good indicator that something has gone afoul.

Tip No. 5: Pay Attention to Gut Reactions
"People say, 'Oh, it was a gut reaction or women's intuition,' but what I think they are picking up on are the deviations of true emotions," O'Sullivan tells WebMD.

While an average person might not know what it is he's seeing when he thinks someone isn't being honest and attribute his suspicion to instinct, a scientist would be able to pinpoint it exactly -- which leads us to tip no. 6.

Tip No. 6: Watch for Microexpressions
When Joe Schmo has a gut feeling, Paul Ekman, a renowned expert in lie detection, sees microexpressions.

"A microexpression is a very brief expression, usually about a 25th of a second, that is always a concealed emotion," says Ekman, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco.

So when a person is acting happy, but in actuality is really upset about something, for instance, his true emotion will be revealed in a subconscious flash of anger on his face. Whether the concealed emotion is fear, anger, happiness, or jealousy, that feeling will appear on the face in the blink of an eye. The trick is to see it.

"Almost everyone -- 99% of those we've tested in about 10,000 people -- won't see them," says Ekman. "But it can be taught."

In fact, in less than an hour, the average person can learn to see microexpressions.

Tip No. 7: Look for Contradictions
"The general rule is anything that a person does with their voice or their gesture that doesn't fit the words they are saying can indicate a lie," says Ekman. "For example, this is going to sound amazing, but it is true. Sometimes when people are lying and saying, 'Yes, she's the one that took the money,' they will without knowing it make a slight head shake 'no.' That's a gesture and it completely contradicts what they're saying in words."

These contradictions, explains Ekman, can be between the voice and the words, the gesture and the voice, the gesture and the words, or the face and the words.

"It's some aspect of demeanor that is contradicting another aspect," Ekman tells WebMD.

Tip No. 8: A Sense of Unease
"When someone isn't making eye contact and that's against how they normally act, it can mean they're not being honest," says Jenn Berman, PhD, a psychologist in private practice. "They look away, they're sweating, they look uneasy ... anything that isn't normal and indicates anxiety."

Tip No. 9: Too Much Detail
"When you say to someone, 'Oh, where were you?' and they say, 'I went to the store and I needed to get eggs and milk and sugar and I almost hit a dog so I had to go slow,' and on and on, they're giving you too much detail," says Berman.

Too much detail could mean they've put a lot of thought into how they're going to get out of a situation and they've crafted a complicated lie as a solution.

Tip No. 10: Don't Ignore the Truth
"It's more important to recognize when someone is telling the truth than telling a lie because people can look like they're lying but be telling truth," says Newberry.

While it sounds confusing, finding the truth buried under a lie can sometimes help find the answer to an important question: Why is a person lying?

These 10 truth tips, experts agree, all help detect deception. What they don't do is tell you why a person is lying and what the lie means.

"Microexpressions don't tell you the reason," says Ekman. "They just tell you what the concealed emotion is and that there is an emotion being concealed."

When you think someone is lying, you have to either know the person well enough to understand why he or she might lie, or be a people expert.

"You can see a microexpression, but you have to have more social-emotional intelligence on people to use it accurately," says O'Sullivan. "You have to be a good judge of people to understand what it means."

Extra Tip: Be Trusting"In general we have a choice about which stance we take in life," says Ekman. "If we take a suspicious stance life is not going to be too pleasant, but we won't get misled very often. If we take a trusting stance, life is going to be a lot more pleasant but sometimes we are going to be taken in. As a parent or a friend, you're much better off being trusting rather than looking for lies all the time."

HR Grooming - The Chains That Bind

2009-12-08T15:57:00.000+05:00

The circus elephant demonstrates what happens to us when we become tied to a habit. When an elephant is a baby, a strong chain is applied to one leg to keep it within a certain range. The baby elephant pulls against the chain, trying to escape, but is unable to do so. After many attempts, the baby elephant finally realizes that she will not be able to break the chain and so does not continue to pull at it.

As an adult, the elephant needs only to be restrained by a small chain that could be easily broken by the very strong elephant. However, she doesn't even try and remains within a limited circle. She has been fooled into thinking that she is limited to this small area and does not attempt to push beyond it.

This scenario demonstrates how we are restrained by our habits and limited thinking. When we meet resistance often enough, we begin to assume that our world is limited. Like the elephant, we are fooled into thinking that we are restricted to a certain lifestyle, because we have become accustomed to it.

Are you tied to old ideas and old thought processes? Do you believe that you must remain stuck in a confining, unsatisfying job merely because you have roped yourself into believing that you can't get promoted? Have you tied yourself up with the belief that this is all there is to life? Have you restricted yourself because you believe that as you get older, your body doesn't work as well as it used to?

Have you limited yourself in other ways, because your habitual thinking has imprisoned you in a cell with a window that only allows you to gaze upon a more desirable world? If so, do you really want to be confined to this very limited space, or do you want to advance to that which you desire?

It can be done! How? By recognizing that you are the one who accepted the restraints and you are the one who must remove them. It begins by asking yourself, "What do I really want and what am I willing to do about it?" If you feel resistant to making changes in your life, ask yourself what you will gain by remaining tied to the current circumstances. Then ask yourself how your life would change if you broke through the resistance and moved on to a different way of being or living.

Desire and imagination are the tools that will free us from an undesirable situation. This is the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Affirmation: “I break away from those chains that bind me to an unhappy situation in my life. I use the tools of desire and imagination to provide me with freedom from the prison of limited and habitual negative thinking. I am pulling up stakes and moving on to a better life and a more joy-filled situation.”