PAWAN,
IN ADDITION TO THE POINTS ALREADY LISTED.
HERE IS SOME USEFUL MATERIAL.
REGARDS
LEO LINGHAM
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LARGE EMPLOYERS
LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY
Getting the Best Employees
-plan their workforce for better staffing.
-specify jobs and roles for better staffing.
-effective recruitment for better staffing.
-effective screening of applicants for better staffing.
-effective hiring of new employees for better staffing.
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY OFFER BETTER
Employee Benefits and Compensation
Employee benefits typically refers to retirement plans, health life insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, employee stock ownership plans, etc. Benefits are increasingly expensive for businesses to provide to employees, so the range and options of benefits are changing rapidly to include, for example, flexible benefit plans.
Compensation includes topics in regard to wage and/or salary programs and structures, for example, salary ranges for job descriptions, merit-based programs, bonus-based programs, commission-based programs, etc. See
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY
Training Employees
-by offering career development plans.
-by offering effective orientation programs.
-by offering suitable management development programs.
-by offering suitable personal development plans
-by offering suitable supervisory development plans
-by offering tailored training and development programs.
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY
Ensuring Compliance to Regulations
-by developing suitable HR policies/informations.
-by implementing employee laws and managing issues.
-by staying close to business ethics,using appropriate
practical toolkits.
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY
Ensuring Safe Work Environments
-by effective use of diversity management
-by effective programs dealing with drugs in the work place.
-by offering employee assistance programs.
-by offering ergonomic safe facilities in the workplace.
-by dealing with HIV/AIDS in the workplace.
-by offering personal wellness programs.
-by preventing violence in the workplace.
-by ensuring safety in the workplace.
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY
Sustaining High-Performing Employees thru
Employee Performance Management Process.
-by establishing performance goals.
-with the help of performance plans.
-thru evaluating performance.
-by providing feedback.
-by rewarding with performance.
-by identifying performance gaps.
-by offering suitable performance improvement/development plan.
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY WITH
GROUP PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Various Perspectives
-checklisting for evaluating team performance.
-evaluating consensus team decision making.
-auditing group performance management.
-evaluation of team member performance.
-evaluating teams' skills.
-ways to harness the teams'power.
-evaluating team performance and determine training needs.
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY TO
OFFER PROGRAMS IN
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS.
-building skills.
-managing conflict.
-handling etiquette.
-managing difficult people.
-how to value diversity.
-how to negotiate.
-how to manage office politics
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LARGE EMPLOYERS USUALLY TRY IN
RETAINING EMPLOYEES
Various Perspectives
-by offering scope.
-by motivating
-by becoming the employer of choice.
-by promotions.
-by success planning programs.
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SMALL EMPLOYERS
The most common hazards in employment are:
Lacking policies and procedures. Saying too much in employee handbooks, thereby creating implied contracts.
Absence of job descriptions.
Misclassifying employees as exempt when they may be nonexempt. Misclassifying employees as independent contractors.
Not bolstering an "at-will employment" doctrine. Putting too much faith in at-will employment.
Inconsistencies in the application of policies (or actions which become policy). Giving preferential treatment to an employee or group of employees.
A lack of documentation.
Not evaluating performance.
Waiting too long to discharge an employee.
These are certainly not mutually exclusive. For example, because so many performance evaluations are haphazard if done at all and therefore, because documentation is lacking, it is often difficult to terminate the marginal or unsatisfactory employee. Even though "protected" by at-will employment provisions, one rarely can terminate an individual out-of-hand ... nor should an individual be terminated without some justification.
Lack of Policies and Procedures: Before a company hires its fifth employee, it should have some sort of written policies and procedures. While most companies wouldn't think of operating without a bookkeeping function, the majority do not think about putting employment policies in writing until after at least one negative incident involving the behavior of an employee.
An Absence of Job Descriptions: No one likes to write them, certainly no one likes to keep them updated, but the job description is a valuable tool. It describes the responsibilities of the incumbent in a job. (It should also describe the accountabilities, but rarely does.)
The job description should also be related to performance appraisal. How can an individual's performance be evaluated if the manager doesn't know what the employee is supposed to be doing?
Misclassifying Employees: What seems commonplace to someone who's been in Human Resources for 30 years is obviously not common knowledge in smaller businesses
At-Will Employment Clauses: All states recognize the concept of "at-will employment," employment that can be terminated by either the employer or employee with or without cause and with or without notice. Too few smaller businesses establish this right -- one of the few protections they might have. Why should a business have to establish the right if the law says that the company has the right? Because the employee must be notified that the company is an at-will employer and allows the individual to terminate his or her employment under the same conditions as the company.
Inconsistency: Inconsistencies in applying policies and procedures can be the ruination of whatever structure a company has established. While many still adhere to the dictum that "rank has its privileges," sometimes the "privileged" give special consideration to their own subordinates. The VP of Engineering, for example, who allows his or her subordinates to be late while the VP of Accounting wants to dock his or her subordinates for being 10 minutes tardy, undermines all departments' attempts to be equitable in enforcing policy.
Furthermore, inconsistencies and preferential treatment such as this can lead to claims of discrimination. Admittedly, it is a tightrope, but it is one which must be walked. Treat all employees fairly and with equity: it is better to be consistently strong than weak.
Documentation: Forget what has been said for the past 20 years: the business world does run on paper. Aside from what normally goes into an employee's file -- and, yes, there should be a file -- be certain that there are the following documents: Application for Employment, any performance reviews and consultation reports, attendance records, and any agreements that have been signed by the employee such as trade secrets or nondisclosure agreements.
Any time that an employee must be disciplined should be documented. Initially, the document can be a handwritten note, but if the offense is sufficiently severe, a "formal" warning or consultation report should be completed, a meeting held with the employee describing the specific offense(s), and the form should be signed by the employee. (The employee should be allowed to rebut the report, but always have the individual sign the original even if s/he wants to write in a disclaimer.)
If the employee does something positive and worthy of mention that, too, should become part of the file. (We have designed a form, the "Occurrence Memo," which has both positive and negative actions listed.) The combination of such memos, always dated, makes evaluation of performance and positive or negative actions so much easier.
Performance Appraisals: Without periodic documentation, two major faults with performance appraisals will appear. These are called the "halo" and "horns" effect.
Simply, an employee performs marginally for 11 months and then, just prior to the formal evaluation, does something outstanding. The tendency is to rate the individual as "good" or "excellent" because of this more current behavior, termed the "recency effect" in psychological circles and the "halo effect" in Human Resources.
The opposite of the halo is the horns effect in which an individual performs superbly for 10 or 11 months and then errs in one way or another. The overall performance is evaluated as "marginal" or even "unsatisfactory" because of this one event.
For these and other reasons, performance should be evaluated and documented, both positively and negatively, on an ongoing basis. Be extremely careful in any policy stating the timing of evaluations.
Waiting too Long to Discharge: Though it is usually in the best interests of a company to see that an employee succeed, there is also a time to cut one's losses. You can limit the company's liability by following a progressive discipline process, but you do not have to go through the three or four normal steps (counseling, probation, suspension, termination) over a long period of time. If you have done everything to "save" an individual, but the behavior remains, it is time to terminate the employment relationship.