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I don’t know of any organization that doesn’t want anything but happy and positive employees. What organization would want unhappy and disgruntled employees? The truth of the matter is that having positive employees with good attitudes is a great thing for organizations. Continue Reading →
How many of us have had one experience with just one employee at an organization that suddenly makes us form a single opinion about the brand or organization? All it takes is one employee for us to go from loving a brand to suddenly feeling very angry or upset. What can organizations do to ensure that each interaction is the best possible? Continue Reading →
Do you remember being a kid and being told exactly what to do? As a kid growing up, it was common knowledge that after school I was to get my homework done and be at the dinner table when I was told. Much in the same way, we all have similar guidelines at our jobs. We have guidelines we have to abide by such as to be at a meeting at a certain time and to meet project deadlines. Continue Reading →
Most employees want to have positive relationships with their managers. After all, employees’ managers can dictate the success of an employee moving up or moving down. What happens when managers cross the line? What is the impact on employees? Continue Reading →
When the topic of turnover comes up in organizations, most organizations believe they have this concept all figured out. Managers will tell you their thoughts about why employees leave their organization. If you have ever heard some of the reasons, like me, you may laugh to yourself thinking that they are missing the ball. Continue Reading →
Just as any other industry, the hospitality industry faces many of the same challenges with multiple generations in the workforce. However, some admit that finding great talent within the Millenial (or Generation Y) group can be difficult. One might think that many positions in the hospitality industry would be a great fit for a young adult as it is common to begin with little experience and to receive on-the-job training (except for upper level positions). It could also be beneficial for college students to work in the hospitality industry as seasonal employees during breaks from school while gaining business experience. So why is it still so hard to find and, more importantly, keep Millenial employees?
Whether you’ve heard it from a colleague or read about it online, you’ve probably heard a few hiring horror stories. But as shocking as these stories can be, chances are you probably believe you’re immune to the repercussions of a bad hire. I don’t mean to put a damper on your day, but even the most experienced interviewers are at risk of making a poor hiring decision.
Let’s take a look at some hiring horror stories, and how they could have been prevented:
“We hired a summer intern to help with office work. We asked him to send an audiocassette to a client. He just stuck it in an envelope, and in a week it came back smashed to pieces. We asked him what he was thinking. His response: ‘It didn’t look like that when I sent it.’”
“We also asked him to mail about a dozen 9 x 12 envelopes. He put the postage on the flap, instead of the upper right hand corner. They all came back. BTW, he was the valedictorian of his college class!” — The Grindstone
Assuming a large portion of this intern’s day was performing administrative duties, it’s questionable why he, a college graduate and valedictorian, would be working as an intern. It also seems strange he was assigned tasks that don’t necessarily require a degree to complete. Nonetheless, had this company conducted a pre-employment skills assessment to evaluate the intern’s office administrative competencies, they probably would have made a different hiring decision. The skills assessment would have shown that despite his status as valedictorian, he didn’t have strong administrative skills.
“I was heading up a hiring committee to hire an executive director for a social service agency in New Hampshire. I led him into the interview in front of the six or so committee members. I asked him to tell us a little about himself. The first thing he said: ‘I just want you to know that I can’t be hired for less than “X” amount of dollars. I think you should know that first of all. Since his request was $10,000 more than the highest amount we could offer for the position, I said, ‘Thank you for telling us that. Let’s not waste your time with an interview today. Thank you for coming.’ I got up, shook his hand and led him from the room.” — Sun Journal
With a panel of six interviewers, there’s no doubt this interview was a challenge to schedule. Additionally, the time each interviewer spent preparing for the interview went to waste – and in a society where time is money, companies just cannot afford to operate that way.
If the head of the hiring committee had conducted a phone screen, the concern regarding the position’s salary likely would have come up. It’s proper phone screen etiquette to end the conversation asking if the candidate has any questions. Because salary seemed like a significant concern to this individual, he probably would have brought it up then. This would have saved the committee head time that could have been dedicated to interviewing more qualified candidates.
To avoid becoming a character in the next hiring horror story, do your homework. Before an interview, make sure you know just whom you’re bringing in for an interview. Phone screens are a great way to do this. It gives you the opportunity to talk with the candidate, and to address any concerns before bringing them in for an interview.
Once you do conduct an interview (or two) with the candidate in person, and you think you’ve made a hiring decision, don’t hand over the offer letter just yet. Even if you are just hiring an intern, it’s important to conduct pre-employment skills assessments and other verification services, such as background checks. This verifies (or disproves) the claims your candidate has made so you know exactly whom you are hiring.
There are lots of options out there when it comes to skills tests and background checks, so shop around. Take a look at the features each product offers as well as customer reviews. Happy hiring!
Employees typically spend much of their time at their desks working. I often joke that I spend more time at my desk than I do in my apartment. If we are spending so much time at our desks, what is the least we ask from our employers? How about the ability to add a few personal touches. Continue Reading →
For retail-based organizations, the reality is that turnover is rather high. Unfortunately, this can be a frustrating reality to organizations. Often it seems the second a new employee is trained, they are already out the door. What is it about retail employees that causes high turnover? Continue Reading →
In one of my previous posts titled, “Make Better Decisions Today,” I shared some information on how to make better choices by being objective and unbiased. Now, I would like to share an interesting tip for helping others to make better decisions. In many organizations, leaders hope to develop their staff to be the best employees they can be by training them on specific tasks relevant to their work. While job-specific training is certainly very important, it is also important to offer other tools for helping employees to transfer what they’ve learned to other situations on the job that may not have been covered in training. Continue Reading →
In human resources and other related fields, we often focus on improving employee performance. This is usually directed toward managers and how they should teach their staff to be more effective. But what about the managers themselves? It seems that the higher an employee is in the hierarchy of an organization, the fewer sources of feedback he or she receives regarding performance. So what can be done to inform managers about their own performance more effectively? Continue Reading →
While many organizations keep up with the latest organizational trends, there are plenty of organizations that are behind the times. With our current economic state, it is not always an option for organizations to focus on organizational change or development when survival is the only option. So, how exactly does an organization begin to create an environment that encourages and strengthens employee engagement? Continue Reading →
In previous posts, we have focused on the negative consequences of workplace bullying. Workplace bullying can have lasting impacts on employees and cause problems in the office. What about women specifically? Is bullying amongst women even more prevalent in the workplace? Continue Reading →
We all know employee handbooks are important and the majority of organizations have a handbook that serves a written document for policies and procedures. These handbooks serve as tools to help employees understand what is expected of them and what constitutes breaking policies. What other purpose do handbooks serve? Continue Reading →
The hospitality industry is a unique one that exists to serve customers in their recreational time. This time is often spent in the form of lodging and travel, amusement parks, cruises, and more. To best serve customers’ needs, there are a vast variety of employees that staff businesses in the hospitality industry from entertainers, to customer service representatives, to maintenance staff. Unfortunately, these employees tend to have a high turnover rate that has long been unexplained (Hinkin & Tracey, 2000). Continue Reading →
One of my least favorite parts of grocery shopping is getting to the checkout only to discover there are only 2 lanes open yet the store is overwhelmingly busy. I always look at my small amount of groceries in my cart and somehow always end up behind the crammed cart stocked to feed an army. What happens next can either change my mood completely or send it even further downhill. This is getting to my turn at the checkout. Continue Reading →
Leadership is both a popular and important subject of research with industrial/organizational psychology because all organizations must include some system of leadership in order to run smoothly. There are a multitude of different theories that describe what it takes to be an effective leader ranging from the trait perspective, to the behavioral perspective, to the contingency perspective. Each of these understandings of leadership provides unique insight into who makes good leaders and what kinds of behaviors a good leader should exhibit. Continue Reading →
If you happened to catch the Oscars recently (or even if you didn’t you probably couldn’t avoid reading about it online) you should know something of the debate occurring over this year’s host, Seth McFarlane’s choices about joke material. The problem many saw with his hosting style was that his focus on gender differences went too far. However, some pointed out that the biggest problem with the 2013 Oscars is that many did not even notice the sexist nature of Seth McFarlane’s jokes until after someone pointed them out. Continue Reading →
To develop a plan for organizational change to improve work-family balance, one might want to target the antecedent of insufficient time for the effective completion of one’s responsibilities for both work and family roles.
First, managers within the organization would want to honestly evaluate the current state of affairs regarding the amount of time employees are expected to work. If they realize that many employees feel as if they are expected to work overtime or back-to-back shifts in order to remain in good standing with the organization, this may be a large contributor to the problem especially if these perceived expectations are not actual benchmarks for performance according to the supervisors. Continue Reading →
Today’s workplace utilizes working in groups more than ever. Organizations have realized that part of working with a lean number of employees is group work. Employees depend on one another and make the most of each other’s skills and abilities. Continue Reading →
