Discrimination at workplace –where to go!!

Discrimination occurs when a person is treated or harassed arbitrarily or differently because they fall in the “protected class”. The groups of people who fall in the “protected class” are protected from discrimination and harassment by Federal, state and local laws. Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex, color, religion, ancestry, National origin, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, disability status.

Whom to reach?

All the organization must have discrimination policies. Employers put these policies and procedures in writing; others fear that putting them in writing will increase their exposure to employment-related claims. There is no law that requires an employer to provide employees with a handbook. These policies guide that if an employee wishes to report harassment or discrimination they need to follow the chain of command. What if the employee is discriminated by his immediate supervisor? If the company is large, there would be the HR department. The employee can reach the HR manager. But what if the company has no HR department. Where does the employee go and complain? The board of directors or the CEO?? If the employee doesn’t receive any response from your employer, consider contacting the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has responsibility for overseeing compliance for many federal anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws, or your state equal employment agency. Employee can reach the third party- an attorney or a consultant. An attorney can help the employee through the complex laws which may apply, can guide the employee through the complexities of the legal process. Third party consultants can be also reached through 1-800 toll free number(in the USA).

While reaching any of the above, the employee should keep a diary of all the incidents of harassment and discrimination. Record the date, approx. time, location, who was involved, and witnesses. Keep all the objects & pictures involved. Any small evidence can help the employee in winning his/her case.

HR Tip of the day!!

There's no second chance in making the first impression!!

Onboarding is the first step in building relationship between the new hire and the organisation.Be ready for the first of the new hire with proper work flow.Make them understand about the organisation culture on day one.Introduce the new hire with his work on day one itself.

HR Tip of the day!!

If you take care of your employees,they in turn will take good care of your customer & the organisation.

Other than receiving competitive pay & benefits,employees also want to enjoy what they do.A mentoring program can help meet those objectives by providing avenues for self-improvement to help them grow with the organisation.

Negativity in workplace, a strict NO!

It’s difficult to control negativity, but avoiding and dealing correctly will erase the negativity in the workplace. The best way to deal workplace negativity is to keep it from occurring in the first place. Early warnings like employee complaints, survey’s, exit interviews with employees whose experience is sore, discussions on Intranets, appraisal feedbacks,360-degree feedback process, and coach managers informs us about the environment in the workplace.

How can you avoid Negativity in workplace?  Knowing what people are negative about is the first step in solving the problem. Communication with the employees will lead to understanding the exact problem & the degree to which the problem are impacting the workplace. Interactive discussion, exercise & case studies will help in learning where the negativity is coming from.

1. HR’s & Managers should be trained & they should be careful  on displaying their own emotions to the other staffs. It takes second’s to react & emulate the manager’s good or bad reactions. Listen to the employee’s complaints until they feel that they are heard & listened to.

2. Treat your employee as adult. Apply workplace policies and procedures consistently & fairly.

3. Clarity about mission vision, values & goals should be imbibed to the employees & make them understand that they are a part of the organisation.The desired outcome of the company would be theirs too. Reward & recognize the employee who contributes to the value.

4. Provide opportunity for the employee who can express their opinion and can provide some inputs in policies and procedures.

A rumor circulating about an impending layoff, appraisal which is not in favor of the employee, negative feedbacks is some of the reasons which make the employee feel left out. These reasons should be sensitively treated and if possible anonymity should be assured. HR must be alert and treat the workplace negativity in priority basis, assuring the employee that the organization needs him and there is no way organization is against the employee!

HR Tip of the day!!

Highly engaged employees miss 20% fewer days of work.

Those employees who are highly engaged will have values fit with the organisation, their peers & the work which they are doing!!

HR Tip of the day!!

Understand your employee,or they leave you-not the Job!!

Communication as well as acknowledgement is very important,or else your employee feels neglected and it leads to frustration!! We all know hiring & training is expensive,so why to loose one potential employee ,if problems can be solved.

Is your Employee Happy?

How do we know if our employees are happy? Is it necessary to know if they are? Fortune 500 companies think that employee’s happiness is directly proportion to client’s happiness. Majority of problems are solved by treating employees well. Understanding what the employee wants & satisfying the employee, makes the business run 100 times better than a sad unhappy employee.

How do I know whether the employee is happy or not?

There are many indications which the employee gives. If not noticed and solved, the employee quits. Hiring & training leads to heavy costs to the company. Good communication from the HR to the employee and vice versa solves major problems. An employee who is unsatisfied will give loads of hints. His productivity will drop down, and he won’t be interested to regain his level, inspite of constant feedbacks & motivation. He will not socialize with peers & never contribute on his own. He may take frequent breaks & also reach office usually late. If asked the reason-he may come up with reasons like heavy traffic, car broke down, etc. Its logical-if he comes to the office late daily, he is giving interviews somewhere else!!

What to do if you find unhappy employees??

Organizational climate surveys are regularly conducted by large companies to assess the overall satisfaction of their employees. There should be a mix of quantitative questions — asking employees to rate their satisfaction on a five-point scale, for instance — should be mixed with open-ended questions to gain a mix of anecdotal and statistical information. Once the problem is known, either the immediate manager or the HR can solve it.

1. Maximum employees are not satisfied as they don’t recognize the importance of work personal life balance. Managers should encourage the employees to come to the office on time and leave the office on time. It is really important that employees get time at their home as well as with their friends. Making them stay for long everyday will definitely make employee not concentrate on their work and contribute to the success of the company.

2. Listen to them- Talking with the employees really help in knowing what they think about the work, environment in the office etc. If the employee is upset with something, he may be angry, aggressive. Just be calm and try to solve the problem. Work related as well as personal problems can be dealt in easy way.

3. Direction-Employee should know what they are doing and where it is leading to. Clarity to what the project is, how to do it, and the closure, helps employee to know where they stand. Acknowledge each time the employee comes up with some queries.Dont ignore! Involving them makes them feel that they are very much part of the company.

4. Praises- Everybody likes it. Acknowledge them and praise them whenever there is a good deed. Sometimes I feel employees are like small kids who need constant appreciation and recognition.

5. Bonus- Yep this is what the employee wants. But from company prospective, can’t be given to them each day. Check on the company policy and try giving a small bonus to the employees. It really motivates them. Food chain industry like McDonald has a very good motivation technique - A portrait with the picture which says “Employee of the month” in the restaurant .Customers appreciates seeing the picture and the employee is really happy.

6. Food all time, every time- Companies like Google, Facebook provide free food to their employees. A well fed employee works & contributes more than an employee who is not. Employees stays in the company without being worried about what where to eat.

7. Environment- Talk to the employee about the environment in the office. Sometimes the employee is not happy sitting with someone whom he doesn’t like. Sometimes the interior of the office does bother the employee. Make good & reasonable accommodation for the employee. This will make the employee feel special. Allow the employee keep the family pictures or personal achievement on their desk.

8. Open door- I feel this is important in each organization. Now days maximum companies follow this. Employee should have access to their managers as well as CEO. Employee feel that they are at ease and share if something goes wrong without hesitating. This benefits both the employer as well as employee.

9. Work timings – Be flexible, if the employee wants to leave early or come to the office late. There may be genuine problems at their personal front.

10. Casual days, Parties & Family events- Many firms allow their employees to wear anything on Friday’s. Personally I don’t like to wear professional clothing each day. Employees wait for Friday’s where they can be what they feel like. There should be lot of activity in the company like game competitions, parties, get-togethers and Family events. Employees feel good if their family comes and see where they work, what they do etc. Allow childcare facility, so that employees needn’t take tension about the pick & drop of kids. It’s not necessary that you need to arrange these events every month. Try arranging these events may be once in three months. A great place to work seems straightforward: make employees happy.

11. Open for suggestion- Be open for suggestions and feedbacks from the employee.  Send questioners & survey to the employees and assure anonymity. Talk about the problems they are facing and try resolving ASAP. If the problem is not solved to the earliest, employees feels cheated. If you feel that the resolution would take time, acknowledge and keep updating about the status. By doing this employees feel that their issues are taken up seriously and they feel a part of the company.  

Social Media – A must for HR/Recruiting professional

Social media  a medium for social interaction. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. The best way to get smarter about something is to surround yourself with people smarter than you. Just by uploading requirements in job boards like Monster, career builder and other job portal is not enough. I can say one of the latest way of finding potential candidates is through social media. It has many benefits- the program may result in hires who perform better on the job and have higher retentionrates. The dollar value of the program’s benefits may far exceed its cost, and the resulting ROI may be significantly higher than other recruiting programs. Higher offer acceptance rates which results in finalists. I consistently recommend experimenting with new approaches to sourcing, because I have found that the only way to win in recruiting is to get to the candidate first. Recruiting is just like marketing: Once everyone adopts the “new” tool, it loses its effectiveness and its competitive advantage.

There are many different ways where social media can be useful to HR professional/Recruiter. If you know some other ways other than mentioned, please add on!!

LinkedIn-is a business-related social networking site, used mainly for professional networking. LinkedIn also allows users to research companies with which they may be interested in working.
When typing the name of a given company in the search box, statistics about the company are provided. These may include the ratio of  female to male employees, the percentage of the most common titles/positions held within the company, the location of the company's headquarters and offices, or a list of present and former employees.

1. Can find great candidates through these job boards. As the online social networking world is expanding, there are better ways to recruit superior employees.

2. Can use the LinkedIn network in a number of different ways to find employees including: searching by employer (current/past), using InMail, purchasing advertising, and networking.

3. LinkedIn  is a great venue to build and develop long term strategic relationships.

4. People seeking employment can search LinkedIn free of charge. Certain premium features are available to job searchers for a fee.

5.Pay a small fee and post your job in Linkidin ,and then recruit and hire candidates.

6. Respond to a question and raise your chances of profile in Linkidin community.

7. Being in touch with Ex, valued trusted employees for future employment.

8. Keywords rich profile helps the recruiter to find a prospective employee.

9. Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

10. Users can now follow different companies and can get notification about the new joining and offers available.

Facebook-Frankly this won’t be my first few choices-First because, I feel people can create a fake profile and secondly because most people are not active to reach. But again Facebook is also a preferred mode of recruiting to most of the recruiters.

1.Advertising in Facebook- Facebook  advertising  targets  passive candidates who are actively looking for jobs career change. A properly executed Facebook campaign gain fans & will have an effect that will last a quite bit longer than other Internet advertising. A fan on Facebook will last for months, or even years after the ad that brought them to become a fan, and furthermore that fan can now influence their "friends" on Facebook for months to come.

2. Facebook fan page -Use Facebook by making a Fan or Business page for your video content. Can gain more subscribers to  Facebook page on a daily basis, than on YouTube channel.Learned that some people like watching video content on Facebook and do not have a YouTube account.

3.Facebook branch out- A Facebook app that allows users to easily network within their social graph. Most businesses ask for references from candidates they’re considering for hire, but BranchOut users can get broader insights, since the app collects feedback from the candidate’s own network. BranchOut also makes it easy to connect with people in your extended social graph, and tap into their personal experience with potential candidates.
4.Recruiting marketing agencies- This can be linked to the fan page ,where the agencies host free webinars sessions helping clients create and leverage recruitment advertising and social recruiting.
5.Cost- The advertiser/recruiter has control how much he wants to invest on ad.

Twitter-One of the incredible way for recruiting. Thousands of job seekers and recruiters are following each other, just to grap the correct person at correct time. Hashtag helps to add additional context & metadata to your tweets.

1. Announce & request Retweet- Announce your job openings with requirements & request for retweet. Retweeting helps to reach mass number of people and hit the bullseye candidate who may be interested for that job. Needn’t post about the requirements of the job rather focus on what type of candidate you need and why they should work in your company. Daily updates about the company like achievements, news, updates also fascinates the would be employee.

2. Super connectors- Needn’t be sad if you don’t have many followers. I believe followers reach you once, so you needn’t go in search for them. There are “super connectors” who will connect to you anyways.

3. Informal way of communication- Approach needn’t be formal, but need’s to reflect professionalism. Communication is important, reply to the tweets. If you have the “right audience” you can ask feedback from they will give you. Take those feedbacks positive and ask what they are looking for. You can also talk about personal stuffs as it shouldn’t look that you are in twitter just to advertise.

4. Sources & Resources-You should also follow associates and other recruiters that might be sources for candidates.

MySpace- MySpace is a social networking site also said to be as Generation Y or MySpace Generation. MySpace has taken the world by storm, registering more than 65 million digital inhabitants. This medium is also a powerful communication channel like Facebook.

1. Demographic –80% of members who are registered member fall into the core demographic of 16-to-30-year-olds.This demographic includes a large quantity of college-educated professionals with many years of work experience. You can find people who have about7-10years of work experience with ample of professions to choose from. It is very obvious that you will use MySpace to hire hourly employees, part timers, college students and mid-level management.

2. Networking- Search by field, sub-field, role, and keywords, and then refine your search and relevancy by specifying sex, age ranges, and location range. With the classmate finder you can find college graduates and students by searching colleges by name, country, or state. Also can search by age ranges, current students, alumni, graduation year, major, minor, department, fraternity/sorority affiliation, clubs, and keywords.

3. Company Profile- Create a company profile and add friends, friends of friends. Daily updates will help the members in the group to know the opportunity, the eligibility criteria and news updates about the company which will help you in selling your organization.

Google +-It is a social networking and identity service operated by Google Inc. Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces new services Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, and Huddles.Before the launch and still many believe that Google+ is going to take over Facebook and twitter. Personally, I don’t believe in this unless seen.There is much more traffic required in Google + as it needs invitation to be a member.

1.Google+ has the capability of actually organizing your contacts. You can take all your contacts and arrange them in your Circle. Recruiters can organize the group according to the talents & can set the privacy.
2. Another feature is the Google Hangout which can be used in either taking interviews or can be used for conferences,meetings etc.
I find that due to less traffic in Google+,people have not updated their complete profile & it becomes difficult for the recruiters. I believe,once there is  awareness for Google+, this social networking site would be the best as it has Google power!!