Performance reviews – everyone’s favorite time of year. Err, okay, maybe not.  While some cannot wait to hear about their performance others get the sweats just thinking about the process.

Me? I’ve only ever had a formal review once in my seven years of professional work experience.  While of course the review was fantastic (blatant sarcasm), the process was mundane and provided little value to me.  Maybe it’s because I have very high expectations for myself and do whatever I can to exceed them.  Maybe it’s because I let criticism soak in (for the most part) and try and learn from experiences.  Or maybe it’s because the process didn’t cater to my personality or professional outlook.  All I know is…snoozeville.

I’m all for forms and policy and procedure. I’m a nerd who grew up in a strict Catholic-based home.  I even went to a private, formerly Catholic, but tries to exude non-denominational-ism, college in upstate New York.  I thrive in well structured work environments.  I don’t like to break the rules unless I believe they should be broken.  Why do I think the formalized performance review process isn’t for me? Hmm.

I prefer constant feedback – positive or negative.  I don’t want to wait to get reviewed once a year.  How can you honestly remember all of the good and bad from the past year.  Be realistic, managers/supervisors have enough to worry about.  Remembering every little instance of an employee’s performance is just not possible.

Just thinking about it annoys me.  I understand as a manager you need to give me, a Gen Y’er, a realistic outlook of my performance and develop goals for the next six months to a year.  How do you get me to listen and take you seriously?  Just because you are my boss doesn’t necessarily win me over.

I read a post recently by Kyle Lagunas from Software Advice that discussed this topic  in a post called A Generation Y Perspective on Performance Reviews.  It is definitely worth checking out.  I really enjoyed reading his insight into how managers can take a proactive stance in reaching out to their Gen Y population and helping them “elevate their game” so to speak.  To briefly summarize:

1. Make the most of the review.
2. Lose the cream filling, and challenge us to succeed.
3. Don’t just talk to us – connect with us.
4. Positive reinforcement isn’t a bad thing.

For me, I expect my supervisor to be honest with me.  Be responsible and invest the time to help me develop.  Make an honest effort and build a solid business relationship that we can mutually benefit from.  I prefer this so much more than a gold star or a report card.  Be smart and it will pay off.

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I recently read an interesting post from Heather Vogel – the HR Whisperer – over on the HR Mouth of the South blog called “Superjobs or Super Stress.”  She cites an article from the Wall Street Journal about how with the continuing economic instability, employees who have been forced to take on multi-functional roles will be required to maintain them in order to keep their employers happy.  These multi-functional roles or jobs have been dubbed “superjobs.”  Heather provides some great tips on how to help employees cope with this situation.

Reading Heather’s post really hit home for me so to speak.  I started a new job back in January, changing industries from higher education to engineering consulting.  I was extremely excited for a new opportunity with a rapidly growing company where I would be able to learn and grow my skills as a human resources professional.  I was hired on as the divisional human resources manager.  Today marks my six-month anniversary with the company.  I must say that these first six months have been an absolute whirlwind and have not gone exactly as I had expected.

Rather than having a real opportunity to transition into my new role I was forced to immediately start running…and the running hasn’t stopped.  I still have piles of paperwork and tasks from the previous HR manager that need to be dealt with but no time to take care of them.  On top of that our division is growing rapidly and I have been consumed with filling highly specialized positions for an office in another state and the complete re-branding of our company, including a name change.  It’s been a very long time since I had a normal 8 to 5 work day.

Yes, I am completely exhausted and super stressed but I still enjoy my job.  Every day I get to do something new and challenging, it just feels like it is enough for 4 people.  I have had an opportunity to work in areas of HR I have never had a chance to before.  I’ve handled a multitude of issues that one normally only reads about in articles from HR Magazine.  I believe I’ve done an excellent job with multi-tasking but there is a limit for every person and some days I do get maxed out.

One big change for me has been my inability to carryout my volunteer duties with the HR Florida State Council.  As the social media director and a voting member I have specific duties that I am expected to uphold.  My dedication to SHRM groups, specifically HR Florida has had a great impact on my career and I do not take that for granted.  Unfortunately, with the very long work days, travel and other time consuming responsibilities I have with my paying job it has become very difficult to do my part.  For a month or so I even had to admit that I couldn’t juggle everything any more and took a temporary leave of absence from my duties to support the annual state conference so that I could manage extended hours with my paying job.

During this time I was upset with myself.  I do not like to back out of things that I agreed to take care of.  I really do not like to disappoint people.  Fortunately I had the forethought to be completely honest with our team of volunteers.  I explained my situation and we worked to develop a plan to keep things moving forward.  It was also during this time that I had an epiphany about why I constantly step up to volunteer for so many things.

I enjoyed my past two jobs a great deal.  I experienced so much and learned a great deal about myself and the industries in which I worked on top of continuing to develop my human resources and management skills.  However, they did not seem to fully “complete” me professionally.  They left me longing for more knowledge and opportunities for growth.  Hence I began the volunteer with my local SHRM chapter and have been a dedicated supporter ever since.  I took all that free time that I had and devoted it to volunteerism.  Now with my new job I simply do not have that problem.  All of that extra time I had is taken up by working with my managers to integrate new policies and procedures, roll out new standards of practice, and primarily full-on recruiting.

Yes, I admit that I feel super stressed, but it is not all bad stress.  I am thankful to how fulfilling my job is but I also acknowledge the fact that I can only push myself so far.  This is what I am trying to deal with as we speak.  Continuing to be successful in my job while also finding balance across both the personal and professional plains.  I know that if I do not I will snap at some point.  With this challenge comes even more opportunities for growth.  Specifically, I hope that I can lead our management to take on some of the ideas shared in Heather’s post to use for our company and continuously improve our culture for our employees.  We all work towards the success of our company but we also have to understand and acknowledge how much effort we each put forth.  If we don’t, I fear we will find ourselves as one of those Conference  Board statistics.  I look forward to the challenge.

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Last week I got an email from the HR Minion herself, Shauna Moerke asking for some help in getting the next edition of the Carnival of HR out.  It was to be hosted by my friend Paul Smith of the awesome blog, Welcome to the Occupation (one of my favorite names of a blog, by the way) but due to some unforeseen circumstances he was unable to host.  Enter Mr. guy who can’t say “no” – that’s me by the way.  All kidding aside I am very happy to help Shauna and Paul out.

When I first heard of the theme Paul was running with – Worst of HR – I instantly loved it.  Far too often you hear “best practice this” and “best practice that.”  Very infrequently do you hear of mistakes or the worst things in HR that people eventually learned from and grew both personally and professionally.  In addition, this is one of my favorite topics to chat with my buddy Ben Eubanks about.  We are constantly trading ridiculous stories.  With that said, I give you the Worst of HR in all of its glory…

Worst of HR Practices

Does the espresso maker in the break room get more peer nominations for Employee of the Month than anyone else at your company? Ouch.  Check out Choose a recognition program that will inspire, not backfire from Baudville’s Allison.  Love it.

Dan McCarthy of Great Leadership shares an interesting study that describes how most new managers are blind-sided by the job and fail to produce.  They just don’t get how to succeed in their new role.  Why? Read to find out!

The HR Introvert makes reference to social etiquette in The Phone Call I Screwed Up.  Not everyone can be a bubbly socialite like Kim Kardashian.

Shauna Moerke, the HR Minion gives us Worst of Me in which she actually admits a mistake she personally made, unlike most of you other cautious HR folks.  From her mistake, she learned that inaction is still a choice, and a fear of being wrong cannot stop you from doing your job, not when you work in HR. HR can’t be passive and still function.

Here’s one from Mark Stelzner.  In 6 Ways To Destroy Your New Hire, Mark literally describes six ways to destroy your new hire.  I love how he begins the list…”Congratulations – you’re about to ruin someone’s life.”  I’ve experienced more than one of these situations myself. Ridiculous!

In Interview #fail, Mervyn Dinnen describes one of the worst interview experiences he has dealt with in his career.  I’m not sure how I would have reacted to this one!

You can’t handle the truth !! by Steve Browne made me cringe.  Steve discusses a past experience in which he learned the real power of confidentiality.  Yikes, there’s no way I would have wanted to be attending this meeting!

Amy Wilson of Wilson Insight discusses being a hoarder of cats, err, knowledge in Are you a knowledge hoarder? The fact is, intentional or not, knowledge hoarding isn’t going to get you anywhere.

“Incentives Gone Bad” – sounds like the title of an episode of The Office. Classic.  In An Incentive Fairy Tale (sort of), Lisa Rosendahl describes the major failures of a company’s incentive program.  She likens it to blackmail. Read it.

Worst of HR Posts

Trish McFarlane of the HR Ringleader shares this gem, HR – It’s Not “One Coat” Paint, in which she compares human resource professionals to you’ve guessed it…paint.  As she shared, “this one seems pretty trivial and I have no idea why I wrote it!”

The Working Girl, Laura Schroeder shares some “dreadful poetry” (her words…mine too) about Tiny Budgets.  Very funny!

Random Worst

Ben Eubanks shared How to set an ATM on fire as his worst HR, err, wait a minute, this has nothing to do with HR.  However, it is pretty hilarious and I felt like including, so enjoy!

So that’s that. Read on, laugh, learn, and grow.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of the Carnival of HR, brought to you today by the letter W…as in Worst.  Props to Paul for coming up with an entertaining theme!

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One of the best things you can do for your employees is to discuss what you expect from them very clearly to be effective in their roles within your organization.  Where I see many companies fail is when they make assumptions rather than identify expectations.

We’ve all experienced a similar situation in which you for some reason did not get the memo so to speak on what the outcome of a certain issue was supposed to be, rather than what happened  and led to a manager’s dismay.  In those instances you were frustrated that the expectations were not made clear and that this lack of clarification led to you looking like a fool.  It isn’t pleasant.  Don’t do this to your employees.

When roles change for employees be sure to document and review them in order to provide the big picture.  Let employees ask questions and see how they ultimately fit within the organization.  Don’t let them guess or make assumptions that lead to the discontentment of management.  Be clear and to the point regarding what is needed of their positions to work most efficiently and effectively.  One of the worst things to do in the case of morale is to send an employee down the path of inevitable failure because you were unable to accurately describe their responsibilities.

Develop appropriate position descriptions.  Maintain compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act of course but also identify responsibilities in addition to the competencies and educational/experience requirements needed to fulfill the responsibilities.  Tie the entire position description into performance management and again, clearly identify expectations.

When an employee knows what is expected of them they will most likely perform at their highest  level helping to lead to the organization’s overall success.

One of the first things I noticed when transitioning into my new job is that there  is no HRIS system.  Yes, I said NO HRIS system.  I don’t thing you realize how much of a big deal this is to me, a HUGE technology geek.  I have been absolutely terrified.

As I began to ask more and more questions I learned that most everything is kept in Excel spreadsheets…that little to no one has any access to.  Now this is a big problem, especially for a company who is global.  If an employee contacts me requesting their leave balance I have to call two or three separate people, who in some cases provide different balances.  Needless to say it is an absolute nightmare and completely ineffective.

Luckily I recently learned that we will be transitioning into an HRIS system in the very near future.  Has anyone ever used or heard of Taleo? I’ve heard of it before but do not have any experience.  My previous job used Oracle’s PeopleSoft technology – it wasn’t the best but I knew what to do to get what I needed done…done.

I’m always excited about new technology.  I immediately read guides and test things out myself.  I am big on teaching myself rather than listening in on a conference call or watching a webinar.  There is something so much more satisfying when you can figure it out on your own.

If anyone does have any experience with this software, please share in the comments.  I would love to get a real-life perspective from some actual users out there.  What am I to expect?

In the middle of transitioning into my new job I was given an opportunity to participate in an incredible project put together by by Chris Ferdinandi of Renegade HR.  The opportunity was to submit a blog post to be considered for the 2011 edition of his eBook Do Amazing Things.

Do Amazing Things in 2011 is a collection of short, actionable ideas presented by 21 human resource professionals with a focus on what you can do in 2011 to become a better HR professional.  I am honored that my post “Build a Reputation” was selected to be included.  I wracked my brain to make sure I was able to provide thoughts that I truly believe in and concepts that I have experienced myself.

Each post included provides insight from professionals from various backgrounds, industries and experiences within the human resource profession.  If you feel like you are stuck in the day-to-day of your career and want something to help you move forward, I highly recommend that you  download your copy today.

Thank to Chris for putting together such a great resource!

I am one week in at the new job and very happy. Jumping into this new company culture has been interesting.  There are many standards to uphold and a reputation to break and enhance for human resources.  Regardless, my first week was very interesting and productive.

I want to thank all of those who commented on my previous post where I asked for suggestions on what to focus on during my transition.  The consensus revolved around communication, which I agree wholeheartedly.  As Lisa Rosendahl commented:

Take it all in. Listen to everything managers, supervisors and employees say and listen for what they don’t say. What’s going well for them, what keeps them awake at night and what can you and your team do to help?

As I begin my second week I have many plans in the works to make sure my co-workers do not lose sight of who I am and what I am there to do.  Beginning Tuesday I will be sending an email to all of our Tallahassee employees with a short message about my transition into my role and an invitation to stop by my office to chat with me.  My goal is to show them that I care about this company and what they represent.  I also hope to demonstrate my ability to listen as I get to know each one of them more.  I plan to come up with a short list of questions that I will ask each one that takes the time to stop by my office.  For example:

1. Give me a summary of what you do for our company?
2. Is there anything you need to do your job more efficiently?
3. What can I do to enhance our work environment?
4. What are you passionate about?

I plan to also give each an opportunity to ask me questions in hopes to give them an understanding of my background and experience.  I hope to prove my worth as a valuable part of our company.

I am fighting the fact that my office is tucked away in a corner across from our president’s – away from a majority of our employees.  I want to ensure that our employees feel comfortable stopping by my office or talking to me in the hallways,  and letting me do my job.  John Jorgensen eluded to this issue when he mentioned Management by Walking Around (MBWA) in his comment, something I have never formally thought of before.  I love this concept and realize this is very much how I have functioned in previous jobs.  I will make sure to do that in my new role.

In these brief meetings with each employee I hope to get a better understanding of how they each fit into the organizational structure of the company in addition to our work dynamic.

Next week the process will begin all over when I travel to our out-of-state office and carry out the same process.  Although we are one division I am very aware the there are many differences in the culture of these two offices.  One focuses heavily on client interaction while the other focuses on internal company interaction. Regardless of this difference each office needs to understand how they fit into the full picture and how they help lead our company to its success.

Do you have any other suggestions for specific questions I can ask? How can I come across as someone who cares about learning what works and what does not for our employees.  I do not want to lead my co-workers to believe I am the HR “police” and out to get them.  I simply want to get to know each of them in an effort to help me work more effectively in my own job.  Please share your suggestions in the comment section below!

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My life is a whirlwind. Last week I ended a job and then traveled to Orlando where I participated in a conference team meeting and council meeting for the HR Florida State Council.  I also had an opportunity, strike that, four opportunities to give a presentation on marketing and branding SHRM affiliated chapters to leaders from across the state of Florida at our annual leadership conference. I had an amazing time.  In all of my years volunteering with this group and attending this event, this by far was the best year yet.  Not only were the attendees completely engaged, they also asked the right questions and brainstormed amazing ideas.  It was truly an amazing feeling to leave Orlando knowing that we accomplished so much.

Coming off a big high as I returned home from Orlando on Sunday it was fitting that I was to start my new job on Monday morning. I don’t really get to bothered when trying something new.  In some instances I may be hesitant to change but that is usually when my mindset is “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Monday morning I was happy and excited to begin a new chapter in my career.

As I entered the building I checked in with my supervisor and quietly began to scope out the office layout, the employees, the conversations, the personalities and so on.  I spent a majority of my day in my new office.  As soon as I entered it the first time I knew there must have been an issue with communication between employees and the former human resources manager.  My new desk was stuck in the corner surrounded by filing cabinets and a printer cart – as if it was a fortress.  One lone chair was wedged between the desk and a bookshelf.  How anyone sat in that chair comfortably is a mystery.  The layout read lack of trust and arrogance and I knew immediately that I needed to make some major changes.  This was not how I wanted to be perceived by these employees who have not had any HR representation for over three months.

After a few hours of completely reorganizing the office I sat down at my desk for the first time.  The layout is clean, organized and open.  A few minutes later an employee walked in and immediately sat down in the chair no longer wedged between the desk and bookshelf.  The first words out of their mouth, “Wow, I feel so much more comfortable in this office.”

For the rest of the day I attempted to stay off the radar as I continued to get set up and begin to make note of employee names, organizational structure and goals for my first week.  Before I knew it the day was over and was a success in my book.

I began Tuesday very differently.  Knowing that my office was no longer an embarrassment that employees felt uncomfortable in, I made the rounds, shaking the hand of each employee as I introduced myself.  While I spent a majority of the rest of my day working on tasks for our out-of-state office a handful of my new co-workers stopped by and made small talk, letting me get to know them each just a bit more.  I also learned that my reputation proceeded me for some  of my co-workers and they are excited that I am on board.  These employees need to feel like they are part of something.  Communication is key, especially when it has been less than stellar over the past few months. I want to develop an environment of vastly improved communication and enhance our leadership team.

Overall, my first two days were a big success.  As I continue to make goals for my first week I wanted to reach out to you and get some feedback. This new job has far greater responsibilities and expectations than my last.  I am getting to know a new staff split between two offices, one out of the state.  Our parent company is in the process of integrating multiple acquired companies into one entity.  I have made positive first impressions.  With that said, what do you think I should focus on for the remainder of my week? In addition to educating myself on employees, processes, organizational structure, compensation and benefits, what should I be striving for?  I have my own list put together – I want to hear from you.  Share your thoughts via comment below.

I have been very busy as of lately. Oh wait, I’m always busy!  In the midst of traveling and leading special projects for HR Florida I have been extremely  busy in my paying job.  Most of you know what my past year has been like.  It has taken a lot of hard work and persistence but I finally started to feel like my life was maintaining some equilibrium and contentment.

BAM! Out of nowhere I received a phone call requesting my resume and references for an opportunity in the private sector.  Within a few days I received a call back for an interview, I interviewed and was offered the job.  I happily and excitedly accepted!

As of January 10, 2011 I will be transitioning from the public sector back into the private sector.  I will be assuming the role of a human resources manager for a division of a larger international company who has 125 offices across Canada, the U.S. and internationally.  I am thankful to have had the opportunity with my current employer over the past sixteen months.  Through my experience gained with this job and my continued professional development obtained through work with HR Florida I feel very confident with my career choices.  I am very excited about this new venture and look forward to yet another change in my life.

In addition to a new venture with my career I am happy to announce the launch of a new venture for HR Florida.  Just yesterday I announced the launch of HR Mouth of the South – the official blog of the HR Florida State Council, Inc.  As social media director for the Council I will be editor of this new blog that will focus on various topics including conference management, social media, general human resources, strategic planning, leadership, organizational development and more.  I urge you to check out the new site! Please note that we are in the process of developing an official logo so more on that soon!

I am thankful to the opportunities and the amazing support I have received by my colleagues in the human resource/social media community. I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season!

The holidays are literally right around the corner – a time when emphasis is put on socializing and connecting with friends and family.  Personal morale  during this time of year varies from depression to elation depending on an individuals specific circumstances – we’ve all seen the studies.  This got me thinking recently about how various factors can have an impact on employee morale, specifically corporate culture.

Employee morale describes the overall outlook, attitude, satisfaction, and confidence that employees feel at work.

I have worked for both public and private sector companies – all of which have a different outlook on employee recognition and morale.  I believe the culture of an organization has a great deal to do how employee recognition and morale is perceived and performed.  I recently surveyed two colleagues – one from private sector HR and one from public sector HR – about their perceptions of corporate culture, employee recognition and morale.  My goal is two provide information from both sectors and encourage you to look at your own organization.  How does it compare?  Is corporate culture considered a high priority?  What about employee morale?

In your role as a human resource professional in the public/private sector, how is your company’s culture communicated to its employees?

Private – In short, it’s not. We acquire companies rapidly thus each office tends to have it’s own culture. We bring them onto our systems, cover policies and procedures, benefits and such but culture isn’t covered in the integration meetings. Integrating cultures is not a high priority, though it should be.

Public – We have mission/vision meetings and new employee orientations however, the culture is really communicated and learned person to person. People learn it as questions, issues or ideas come up and  boundaries, past precedents and opinions are discussed. Our culture is deeply ingrained and the messages tend to be consistent, however, in the evolution of culture – the person to person “teaching” would tend to be problematic because it is so open to individual perceptions from the masses.

Do you believe your company’s culture has an impact on employee recognition and morale? If yes/no, then why?

Private – Yes. Some offices are motivated by the bonuses we offer, others are motivated more intrinsically. It’s hard to balance the two. The offices that are motivated by commissions tend to do well. Those that are motivated by extra days off, recognition in the newsletter, or office supplied lunch tend to be viewed as needy.

Public – Yes. The culture is ingrained in the design of our rewards and recognition system. The culture is a deeply ingrained long standing culture and our systems have not kept pace with advancement or changes in theory, automation or practice. Yet, they seem to work because our employee satisfaction scores are consistently  high. Why? People know what they are “getting themselves into” for lack of a better phrase and there are benefits to a known culture, a stable culture, and a predictable culture.

How could your company improve employee morale?

Private – Integrated culture and communication from the top. Some of our offices feel a bit like lone step children or out on an island. Communication has long since been a problem, and part of that goes back to the rapid acquisitions. Simply talking to the staff about what’s happening within the company tends to go a long way.

Public – For our organization, better flow of information about organization happenings and tools to assist with career development/progression would make a difference and we are working on that. People want to know how what they do makes a difference and how they can contribute not only now – but in the future. Our turnover is at or below the average for the nationwide organization and we have many, many long term employees.

Have you seen employee morale decrease, increase or remain the same? If there has been an obvious change, what do you perceive to be the cause?

Private – I can only speak for my office on this one. It’s done them all in the past two years. The obvious change is leadership turnover. We’ve gone from one center leader to two, back to one,and now back to to two. Employees form a bond with the leader and when that leader is removed, morale crashes. They get nervous and anxious about the replacement and worry that person will ‘clean house’.

Public – Our employee morale, on average, has stayed the same. Staff are dedicated to the mission and even though our culture can feel “restrictive” at times, the bottom line is everyone does what they can do to get the job done and serve our customers. There is a lot of pride happening every day. So, going back to question #1 – even though the culture is older and ingrained, it is a proud one.

Recently I have heard some discussion about how integral corporate culture is when considering employee recognition and morale.  One common theme – the negative impact of the poor economy on corporate culture and how this negativity filters down through the ranks.  With the economic issues looming overhead how many companies are able to reward their employees in other manners than just a “thank you” or other figurative pat on the back?  Money isn’t everything but it sure does make people happy, especially with economic troubles at bay.  As I have heard recently, “A pat on the back only goes so far…”  With this in mind what can companies do to offset low employee morale due to inconsistent financial rewards – no cost of living adjustments, failed/outdated reward programs, sporadic increases to individuals who most will perceive do not deserve it, etc.?  Issues like this seem to increase inter-office competition, jealously and irrational thought.

What are your recommendations?  If morale is low and there is no money for new recognition programs, bonuses or salary increases what can companies focus on to improve morale, while consistently and effectively living exuding their corporate culture?