The Pros and Cons of "Ownership Thinking"

Ownership Thinking: Can It Help Your Business?

There’s been some buzz in business circles about Brad Hams’ Ownership Thinking: How to End Entitlement and Create a Culture of Accountability, Purpose, and Profit. This weekend I sat down to see what the fuss was about, and found some interesting and some not so interesting points in his work.

Salary Negotiation Tips for Employers

How to Respond to a Request for a Raise

It’s that time of year again: the annual salary budget has been set, performance evaluations are done, and suddenly managers are hiding behind closed doors, anxiously dreading “the talk.” The annual compensation conversation doesn’t need to be a daunting, mysterious process, either for managers or the staff they supervise.

What Small Companies Really Need from HR

Large and In Charge: The Strategic Role of HR at Small Companies and Non-Profits

With the buzz around talent management, organizational development, and management circles, the role of HR is becoming more sophisticated in larger organizations . But, in smaller companies and non-profits, HR professionals often still fill more traditional roles in areas like recruitment, benefits, payroll, and evaluation processes – not to mention being the on-staff therapist. It’s time for small organization HR professionals to dig out from under the heavy lifting and get into more strategic positions in the company. The company needs them to do so, and here is why.

Unexpected Leader: Burning Man Festival

Employee Motivation Lessons from the Burning Man Festival

By Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com

How can you inspire human beings to do something great? Books have been written about it, great thinkers have thought about it, and an annual event in the Nevada desert seems to have done it – all without setting up a rewards structure or incentive pay plan. What can we learn about human motivation from Burning Man?

How to Communicate About Total Compensation

How to Communicate About Total Compensation

Perhaps you know this scenario. You have a great total rewards package for your employees – competitive salaries, benefits, professional development and training - even a comprehensive EAP. Everything is in place. Then, one day an employee asks you a seemingly simple question about their benefits. You ask yourself, “Why are they asking me this? Shouldn’t they know that already?”

You may need to work on a key aspect of your compensation package – communication.

Human Resources Managers Know

The Honor of Working in Human Resources

For the last three years, I have had the privilege of talking to many Human Resources professionals in the United States and Canada. There is a border between some of us, and we are in a multitude of industries, yet one thing remains constant: we know what is really going on with pay in our companies.

Practical Performance Evaluation Tips

Performance Evaluation Tips: How to Motivate Management to Complete the Process

How do you get supervisors to get those performance appraisals done? Here are some ideas that may help.

Co-Worker Quirks and Perks

Learning to Appreciate Quirky Co-Workers

I was taking a class one summer when the professor gave us an assignment and said those dreaded words, “This assignment will be a group project.” I balked, and his response to my eye roll was simple: “Life is a group project. There are contributors and there are slackers and that is something you just have to get used to.” That is when I realized that I have been participating in “group projects” my entire life, especially at work.

Unexpected Answer: Qualities of a Good Leader

Every Employee Needs the Qualities of a Good Leader

By Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com

How important is a manager to the success of a team of workers? The qualities of a good leader may be needed in more places than you’d expect. A recent study out of Sweden took a close look at whether or not it is worthwhile to simply train managers to be leaders or if every employee on a team ought to get leadership training. The study’s conclusion: lose the hierarchy and train the whole team.

HR Audits: How to Make Them Easy

How to Approach an HR Audit

Why is it when the phrase “Human Resource Audit” is uttered, the first reaction of so many of us is pain? Perhaps this article will persuade you to an alternative response. HR audits can be an excellent exercise to undertake, especially when you first join an organization.

Advice for Employee-Employer Communication

Employee-Employer Communication: PayScale’s CEO Gives Advice

By Staff Writer

How do you design and present your compensation plan so that your employees feel motivated to perform better? This question has been debated many times here on Compensation Today. Today we hear from PayScale’s CEO Mike Metzger with some of his thoughts on the topic.

Good Bosses vs. Bad Bosses

Want to Be a Better Boss? Good Advice for Success

I recently had the chance to participate in a virtual mentoring program through my alma mater. I was responsible for serving as a mentor coordinator and reviewing the exchanges between students taking an introduction to leadership class and working professionals who served as mentors. The discussion topics were all about leadership, which led to a lot of discussions about what makes a good leader. Although many would argue that there is a strong distinction between leadership and management, many of the exchanges revolved around what makes a good boss.

Managing Your Outsourced Employees

How to Manage Employees in a Partner Company

In the process of growing your business, you may one day sign a Master Service Agreement (MSA) with an outsourcing partner. There could be manufacturing, web design, content production or other skills that you don’t want to bother bringing in house. And, you may assume that you have laid out all of the details in the MSA so clearly that you’re assured success with this new partner. Is it that simple? Not likely.

Simple HR Mistakes

How to Avoid the Classic HR Pitfalls

I learned the classic HR pitfalls the hard way. When I began my first position as an HR manager, I walked into a firestorm of new information. I only had my MA in HR and zero actual experience, plus I was the first-ever, full time-HR manager for the company. The situation was daunting.

Managing Former Peers

Promoted Above Your Peers?

Perhaps because it is a rarity in many people’s experience, being promoted beyond your peers holds a mystic as being exciting and a great moment in your career. While it is a compliment, the truth is that being promoted above, or even managing your former peers is something that can be quite awkward and sometimes counterproductive depending on the existing work environment.

10 Reasons to Love Your HR Staff

Love Your HR Staff (Because This Is What They Go Through)

By Staff Writer

February has arrived, the month for appreciating the ones we love. While we don’t mean to promote office romance, we do think that there are plenty of reasons “love” and appreciate your HR staff. The following is a list created by some of the folks on PayScale’s customer service team.

Facebook at Work

Social Media at Work: What’s Your Company’s Policy?

A few weeks ago we posted about the importance of a having a company e-mail policy. E-mail has been around for quite awhile now, so hopefully companies have been moving more and more toward including email communication in their workplace policies. But, what about Facebook at work, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, wikis, etc? How are you handling your employees’ behavior in the world of social media?

Is Multitasking Good or Bad?

Multitasking: Productivity Enhancer or Time Waster?

Can we really perform multiple tasks simultaneously? We all feel the pressure to accomplish more than one thing at once, but are we enhancing our productivity or wasting time? We, as professionals, increasingly have to get more done in less time. But, should multitasking be part of our approach?

Smart Business Decisions

Smart Business Decisions for 2011

What can you do early in the year to make sure that 2011 is a more profitable, positive year for your company? In our previous post, “Business Resolutions for the New Year,” we shared the first five of nine suggestions from Personnel Policy Service, Inc. Here are the last four.

Business Resolutions for the New Year

How to Make 2011 a Better Business Year

The New Year is here and it is a great time to make changes in your work environment by identifying old barriers to success and replacing them with new, more effective behaviors. The “To Do” list that follows offers the first five of nine suggestions in our two part series on creating a better business year in 2011.

Efficient Email Practices at Work

Efficient Email Practices: How to Train Your Workforce

How can you easily make your company’s workforce more efficient? No matter what industry you’re in, your workers are likely spending a significant amount of time on email. So, besides making more powerful coffee, you’d be wise to try improving their email habits.

Gift Giving at Work

5 Tips for Happy Holiday Gift Giving at Work

It’s the season of giving and many times people wonder what’s appropriate and inappropriate when it comes to gift giving in the office. The same rules apply in the office as exist for gift giving in general. But it helps to remember that it can be especially important to act appropriately in the office.

The Importance of a Company Email Policy

Why You Need a Company-Wide Email Policy to Improve Productivity

In our world of mobile devices and global companies, how do people in the business world communicate? Certainly through phone calls and video conferences, but email still reigns as the dominant form of communication. And, if it doesn’t already, your company should consider having a policy around email so that it is used both safely and efficiently by your employees.

HR Best Practices – Performance Management

Focal Or Anniversary Performance Reviews: Which Is Better?

All employees ought to receive an annual performance review or performance appraisal in a timely manner. The sad fact is that too many workers do not. I, for one, have worked in an organization that was not so timely, and I can honestly say it affected my attitude, plus my willingness to go above and beyond during those many months that my review was late.

HR Holiday and Christmas Office Party Ideas

5 HR Tips for Holiday Office Party Behavior

By Staff Writer

The holiday season has arrived, and with it comes get-togethers and festivities of all kinds – including holiday office parties. If you’ve worked in HR for very long, you’ve likely seen some less-than-great office party behavior. How can you give your workers holiday and Christmas office party ideas that will help them make better decisions this year when alcohol, co-workers and cameras mix?

Top 10 Qualities of a Good Manager

What Employees Appreciate from Their Manager

By Staff Writer

Keeping with our theme of gratitude this holiday month, we interviewed PayScale’s director of customer service and education Stacey Carroll about the characteristics of a good manager, and what employees are looking for from their managers. See what you think of her list and if you have any comments to add.

Would You Hire a Felon?

Felon Employment: Ways to Encourage Success

As discussed in previous articles, it’s no mystery that employers are often hesitant to hire convicted felons. A felony is essentially the modern day scarlet letter when it comes to open doors for employment and various other aspects of life.

Employee Disciplinary Procedures: Be Consistent

Consistent Employee Discipline: Not "One Size Fits All" Q&A

When considering employee disciplinary procedures, you know that you should treat your employees consistently. However, being consistent does not mean you have to treat them all the exact same way. Find out how you can take appropriate, fair action and limit potential inconsistencies that could cause legal problems.

How to Deal with Employee Emotions

How to Deal with Employee Emotions in the Workplace

How do you manage your workforce effectively so that you have the expectation of high performance while demonstrating your genuine compassion for an employee? While you may think that you want a little bit of both at all times – both compassion and pushing the employee - this “sweet spot” is not a balance. Compassion and motivation are not at opposite ends of the same spectrum. One does not need to be sacrificed for the sake of the other.

Emotional Intelligence in the Business Workplace

Emotional Intelligence: Two Approaches in the Workplace

Humans are emotional creatures and emotions can get messy. Is it possible to keep that mess to a minimum at work? Let’s look at whether we, as managers in the workplace, should spend time helping our employees deal with their emotions or if it is best to let the employees work out their emotions on their own. Those two extreme approaches have the pros and cons.

Emotion in the Workplace

Emotion in the Workplace: How Much Should Managers Focus On It?

Have you ever been accused of being too “touchy-feely?” Or have you avoided that label as if it were an insult? If the term “touchy-feely” gets used around your office, it probably doesn’t get defined and may mean different things to different people.

6 Tips for Writing Employee Evaluations

Writing Effective Employee Evaluations

Employee evaluations are tools that are often seen in the business world as “necessary evils.” For most part, they are only really pushed by human resource professionals who need paper trails for employees who are performing adequately, or poorly.

Employee Code of Conduct

Employee Code of Conduct – Definition and Design

I would define an employee code of conduct as a general guideline for workplace performance that enforces key work ethics and severely discourages unethical, immoral, or illegal behavior. A code of conduct can be either an introduction to the employee handbook or, in some cases, a completely separate document that is reviewed and signed at the time of hiring.

Employee Dress Code Policy for Summer

Tank Top Trouble: Tips for Employee Dress During Summer

As the weather warms up, you may find that more and more people are crossing the line of what’s appropriate to wear in the work place. From low-cut blouses to too-short of shorts, this situation can create a need to talk about a summer dress code and how your organization wants to manage employees who need to either cover up or go home and change.

Conversations that Change Employee Behavior

Conversations that Change Employee Behavior

Whether it’s explaining new medical benefits or why a team isn’t getting raises, HR professionals and business owners have difficult conversations of all kinds with employees. But, probably one of the most difficult is dealing with a behavior issue. Want to tell an employee that their team is frustrated by their attitude? Probably not. Confronting difficult employees is rarely a favorite task of an HR professional.

Employee Performance Feedback

Steps to Giving Effective Employee Performance Feedback

In a previous post, "Confronting Difficult Employees," we discussed how to work with the managers at your company to ensure that critical employee performance feedback is given to your employees in a consistent and fair manner. Now we’ll review, step-by-step, how to prepare effective employee feedback and then when and where to give it.

Confronting Difficult Employees

How to Have Tough Conversations with Employees

Your employee was twenty minutes late to their shift on Monday and now it’s Thursday and it’s 15 minutes after they were supposed to arrive. They’re not around. You like this employee and have enjoyed their contributions. How can you have a conversation with them that will get them back on track and in the company’s good graces? This is a moment where knowing how to communicate effectively with staff and confronting difficult employees can help you get your job done.

Strategies for Managing Stress in the Workplace

Stretching Strategies for Managing Stress in the Workplace

Are your employees feeling stressed in the workplace? Hopefully, you are starting to lay the groundwork for a corporate wellness program but, in the meantime, your employees can access free stress management in the workplace articles and reliable website resources now.

How to Run an Effective Meeting

7 Tips for Running Effective Meetings

As an HR professional or business leader, you’re likely in charge of a number of meetings every year. From explaining health benefits to reviewing the company’s financial health, running a successful meeting is a skill you need to have.

Workplace Behavior Ethics

How to Promote Positive Ethics in the Workplace

Ethics is a fundamental business term because it can and does apply to all workplaces. Regardless of the organizational function, employees who fail to maintain an ethical standard in their workplace can raise the possibility of not only organizational corruption but also legal liabilities. In any role, it is vital that employees conduct themselves in accordance with both workplace policies, as well as applicable state and federal laws. The fallout of ethics failures can be seen daily on the news, i.e. Enron, and those colossal failures remind us that the collapse of workplace behavior ethics has the potential to damage and even destroy organizations.

Meeting Facilitation Training

Motivation Beyond the Meeting: How to Make Training Last

By Staff Writer

How do you maintain the energy created by a training session and help your employees stay enthused? If you’ve ever been frustrated by a drop in employee morale after an project or event is over, one expert would like to suggest that you take a closer look at the example you are giving on how your approach your work, the physical environment you’ve created and more.

Tips for Employers Hiring Veterans

Tips for After You Hire Veterans and Ex-Military Employees

The two major times when people enter the military are usually right after high school or right after college. Regardless of their level of education, the majority of these soldiers are never exposed to many elements of corporate culture in the typical business setting, and most likely only worked at a steak house part-time, like yours truly.

HR Articles: Compensation Today 2009 Review

A Compensation Today 2009 Review

By Staff Writer

In the year of 2009, Compensation Today started publishing compensation and HR-related articles – over 110 of them, at our current count. To make it easy for you to see all of the issues we covered, we’ve created a list with many of our posts bundled by topic – starting with the signing of The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act back in late January. Hopefully, these lists will provide you a handy guide to the information that you need. Enjoy.

Top HR Issues for H1N1 Defense

Guidance for HR Professionals During the Influenza (H1N1) Pandemic

As we are in the midst of influenza pandemic or global epidemic, a day does not go by without some sort of media coverage regarding its impact on our local education and health care systems, businesses, as well as just how our government is planning to respond to all of this. Hearing this information and sorting out all of the details can be overwhelming.

Ethics in the Workplace

Encouraging Positive Workplace Behavior: Ethics on the Job

Have you ever experienced a situation at work in which a highly performing and highly skilled employee was accused of some inappropriate behavior in the workplace? You probably watched, along with other employees, to see if the person being accused would be confronted if their behavior was indeed determined to be unethical. Maybe you were disappointed because your organization overlooked the unethical behavior due to the fact that the accused employee was such a “good” performer?

Voluntary Benefits Plan

The Advantages of Offering More Voluntary Benefits

It doesn’t seem that long ago that the extent of voluntary benefits plans for employees was limited to “buying up” extra insurance on the company’s group plan, or increasing short-term (STD) or long-term disability (LTD) benefit coverage from 50 to 66 percent. In 2009, it seems like every organization is looking for ways to reduce benefits costs and voluntary benefits plans are, often, the only way to expand offerings for employees.

The easy conclusion to be made of this situation is that employers are simply unwilling to add any additional costs to their budgets. While this is certainly true, it does not make this deal automatically negative for employees.

HR Guide to Leadership Training and Coaching

Leadership Training for Senior Management

It’s a new week at the office. You just found out that corporate is kicking off a new leadership training and coaching program and you will be participating. You know that it never hurts to receive leadership training on how to be a better manager. But, you’re skeptical.

You’ve been through leadership training exercises before. You’ve had high hopes that the training would help you to be a better manager. But, upon returning from the training, you settled back into your usual ways. Your boss has given you specific feedback on how you need to be a better manager. And your employees would really like it if you managed them better. You really do have the desire to be a better leader but how do you make what you learn “stick” this time?

Employer Benefits for Hiring Veterans

The Employer Benefits of Hiring Veterans and Ex-Military

During the period of time when I was preparing to exit the military and re-enter the civilian workforce, I read countless articles on what to expect while entering the workforce. Resumes tips, tricks on how to put a strong spin on military skills, so forth and so on. Unfortunately, I had a sinking feeling that potential employers weren’t reading similar articles about what to expect from job candidates that have a previous background in the military.

Changing Role of HR Technology

Talent Management Software: Why Free Trials Are a Smart Choice

Having been in the HR technology field now for 14 years, it’s refreshing to see more free trials for talent management software offered than ever before. This option gives organizations an opportunity to try before they buy. Yet, despite its value, many companies don’t take advantage of the offer or, when they do, they don’t involve those who will be directly impacted by the talent management technology. Maybe it seems like too much work upfront.

Based upon my experience, organizations need to look at the upfront work done to review a new HR technology system at their company as a smart investment. For many companies today, the investment in HR technology review by a variety of employees doesn’t seem worthwhile. Yet, the process can improve employee engagement in the software over time and lay the foundation for a widely adopted talent management strategy.

Effective Employee Communication

Effective Employee Communication Part 2: How to Avoid Trouble

Clear and effective employee communication is an element of everyday work operations and is absolutely vital to all aspects of business interaction. And, keeping it both accurate and efficient can be tricky.

Most of us were taught about the challenges to accurate communication as kids. You likely played the game at some type of youth camp where everyone sits in a circle and the game begins with a whisper. The first person whispers a word or phrase into the next person’s ear and can only whisper it once. Each person subsequently whispers into the next person’s ear until the very end. Usually, a phrase like, “I have two cats,” ends up being something akin to, “I live boo rats.”

The following is my advice on how to avoid an “I live boo rats” outcome at work.