Education & Training | Employee Insights

How to Plan an Organizational Change for Improved Work-Family Balance

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 →

Work Groups and Employee Engagement

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 →

Welcome to New Hire Orientation!

When we start a new job it is almost a guarantee that we will have to participate in some form of orientation program at our new organization. Many roll their eyes and see orientations as a useless and boring all day event. Why is it that we dread something so vital? Continue Reading →

Stress in Hospitality Employees

One might think that working in the hospitality industry is an experience that is more positive than working in other industries because many individuals work directly with happy people in their leisure time in attractive physical environments. For example, as a person who has not vacationed much, I would expect that working at a desk in a beautiful hotel would be a vastly positive experience compared to working in a loud manufacturing plant. However, some report that working in the hospitality industry can actually be quite stressful due to the high demands of serving customers’ and mangers’ high expectations (Ross, 1995).

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Climate and Culture

While both constructs are very similar to one another and are often used interchangeably in psychological research, there are important differences between organizational climate and culture that would affect one’s success in attempting to manipulate them.

While organizational culture is considered to be the lens through which employees interpret their organizational environment, organizational climate can be described as how the employees tend to evaluate these interpretations (Neal, Griffin, & Hart, 2000). Continue Reading →

Coaching on Employee Engagement

Coaching in the workplace provides both managers and employees with the opportunity to not only correct negative behaviors, but it can also be a great tool in boosting an employee’s existing skill set. It is a difficult feat to expect an employee to be fully engaged as a manager, yet sit on the sidelines as the employee works. Continue Reading →

Typical and Maximum Performance

There are many problems with measuring performance at work. One major problem involves the differences in typical and maximum performance as described by Sackett, Zedeck, and Fogli (1988). These researchers conducted a study to understand the relationship between typical performance and maximum performance among cashiers at a supermarket. They found very low correlations between the two types of performance which revealed important information about the way organizations should assess work behavior. Since the relationship between typical and maximum performance is so small, one can see how this may become an issue. Continue Reading →

Using Training to Stay Competitive

Organizations are constantly trying to finds ways to remain competitive with other organizations, especially in times of economic hardship. Leaders within these organizations also invest a great deal of time and money into more trendy efforts that may not even work for their organizations. I think that the key to remaining competitive in the future is to develop a culture as a “learning organization.” Continue Reading →

Improving Your Reference Checks

As a human resource professional, it is easy to make mistakes in the hiring process even when not intended, which is a problem for hiring and managing top talent. Specifically, conducting reference checks can be done in such a way that it provides inaccurate and misleading information as opposed to helpful insight. It is actually becoming a trend to seek out other hiring methods to avoid the problems associated with obtaining reference checks.

If this step is required for hiring in an organization, it is important to make the process as structured and objective as reference information can be. Since the nature of reference checks is already somewhat subjective due to supervisors’ opinions and the candidate’s ability to select the most favorable recommendations, there are many steps that should be put in place to ensure accuracy. Continue Reading →

3 Ways to Develop New Leaders

With the first quarter of the new year comes new changes in businesses across the globe. Many companies look to develop current leaders’ skills in such a way that provokes change and progression in the company, while other organizations may be looking for new talent to place in leadership roles. Either way, some trends have emerged for effectively developing old and new leaders that can be summed up in a few succinct pointers. Continue Reading →

What’s with millennials anyway?

Guest Author: Maggie Coffey, marketing intern for Hireology

Before you know it, the job market will be replenished with the latest set of recent college graduates. We’re eager, we’re dedicated and we’re picky. Even with a bleak job outlook and the impending repayment of student loans, millennials aren’t going to settle. Continue Reading →

Incivility and Employee Engagement

Take a moment to reflect on the relationship you have with your supervisor. Are there defining features that make this relationship positive? What about the relationship makes you feel tense or uncomfortable at work? The relationships we have with our supervisors can greatly impact how we feel on the job, employee engagement at the forefront. Continue Reading →

The “Dreaded” Performance Reviews

We all dread performance reviews. And not just the topic, but the actual meeting that must occur in managers delivering the performance reviews and employees feeling awkward as the review occurs. There seems to be a strong negative connotation when saying the words, yet we all know how important performance reviews are to our development as employees. So, how do we lighten the topic? Continue Reading →

The Good Old-Fashioned Pep Talk

http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1038128

When most people hear the phrase “pep talk” with regard to the workplace, a common reaction is to roll their eyes. Employees across the globe have had to endure pep talks of all kinds that are usually intended to motivate or increase morale. These can range from the very mundane to very bizarre in which employees are left feeling awkward and even embarrassed for the “motivator.” This is an unfortunate reality of many workplaces. The bad news is, pointless pep talks are going to continue to happen, particularly in work environments that are led by uninformed management. The good news is, not all pep talks have to be painful and they can be greatly improved in one very simple way. Continue Reading →

Demands-control Model for Work Stress

The demand-control model is focused on the balance of job requirements and autonomy. This model, developed by Karasek (1979), states that those who experience high demands at work with little control are more likely than other employees to feel stressed. According to this model, those who experience low demands with high amount of control should be those who are the least stressed. For example, someone who works in a busy coffee shop would have high demands in that they must make coffee in the correct way every time and within a very small time frame. This person would also have low control because he or she would not have the freedom to make choices about how or when the coffee is made. Those who adhere to the demands-control model would expect this person to be much more stressed than someone with more control or fewer demands. Continue Reading →

Work Group Effectiveness on Individuals

In the world of sports, a common adage used to motivate members of a team is to use the stronger team members to push you harder and help you improve your own skills. I played soccer from kindergarten all through high school and there is truth to this. I always had a sense for the “best” player on my team and I learned as much skill as I could from their example. Continue Reading →

Compensation and Sensitivity

When organizations start talking about compensation with employees, what happens? There can be good and positive reactions and there can also be dissatisfaction and the need to be sensitive to how employees feel. Continue Reading →

Keeping Employees in “The Know”

Think of an organization as a family. Members of a family like to know what is going on with one another. When big changes happen such as someone changes jobs or deciding to move, family members generally want to know about it. The same can be said for employees in an organization. Continue Reading →

What is the Connection Between Training and Engagement?

When you start a new job at an organization, beyond the interview you likely underwent, what is your first impression of the organization as a whole? With a new job comes training and with training comes one of the first judgments a new employee may make about their new organization. Continue Reading →

All Work But No Play

As jobs require employees to take on more and more responsibilities and work, employees can get burnt out very quickly. Long hours and lack of resources can leave employees feeling anything but engaged on the job. While organizations are not currently always able to give employees large wage increases, there are other options available to keep morale high.

The Ping Pong Table and Bags set setup in a storage area at the TNSei office near Chicago. Employees can take a break, have some fun, and team build at the same time.

One of the most effective ways to take all the work out of the workday is to provide employees with opportunities to step away from the desk and refresh themselves. This does not have to mean that the organization needs to take extravagant measures, however, something as simple as a group lunch out can provide employees with a break. Not only does this allow employees to eat away from their desks, but also it provides valuable bonding among employees.