HR Diary: SOCIAL MEDIA & ITS BENEFITS

HR Diary: SOCIAL MEDIA & ITS BENEFITS: "I will be putting out some basic principles I have learnt from social networks about business development through platforms such as LinkedI..."

SOCIAL MEDIA & ITS BENEFITS

I will be putting out some basic principles I have learnt from social networks about business development through platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.  Moving into the modern environment of business development, bringing about new relationships could well be pivotal for our business survival. Today we have a wealth of social networks operating with over 300 million users bringing about a fantastic marketing opportunity as well as a prospect database that we can all tap into.
Tip 1: using platforms such as LinkedIn allow you to build a highly effective public profile about yourself. I personally recommend that any profile you have about yourself is not used to openly advertise your business. I say this because potential clients will automatically be pulled away from your profile if they believe it to be a sales pitch. I would recommend listing your specialties to show to the public what you provide and building a public brand.
Tip 2: Have a full company profile! This is especially important for the smaller businesses out there. Having a full profile for your company as well as promoting each member of the team on this page gives your company maximum exposure to key markets as well as hidden markets. This is one of the fundamental flaws I have seen my research of companies on social networks.
Tip 3: You can also use this to also utilize the careers aspect of these sites. A very important part of managing sales globally is to have the correct management personnel in place in each of your countries spearheading the company goals. They caliber of people on LinkedIn, Plaxo etc. will bring you access to the type of people you need running a segment of a business, especially those new to running regions… it is a very different ball game to running a country with much more to do!
Tip 4: The lifeblood of any business is new business! Building on existing relationships brings us about some regular work but the most beneficial growth tool is new business. Social networks allow us to enter into new avenues of relationship building after which we can begin engaging in sales cycles. On the other side, also be responsive to those who may be able to help you. Gaining business partners through social networks could be the key to success!
Tip 5: Participate openly in the Q&A segment of these sites. Here you are again able to build a portfolio of being an expert in your field bringing new sales potentials and building your company’s network. This is also a great way of using Twitter which allows you to use a keyword search to see who is trending about your company or your services! Sales heaven!
There are so many more way in which we can use these networks to build our presence and sales pipeline. It is the modern executive, the learning executive, the humble executive who will take into consideration all the options available to them!

HR Diary: THE BUSINESS IMPACTS OF A VACANCY & ITS COST!!!

HR Diary: THE BUSINESS IMPACTS OF A VACANCY & ITS COST!!!: "When you have a vacant position, one or more of the following things may happen. 1. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY * Time To ..."

THE BUSINESS IMPACTS OF A VACANCY & ITS COST!!!

When you have a vacant position, one or more of the following things may happen. 

1. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY
* Time To Market (TTM) is dramatically impacted by the entire production chain. Because departmental schedules and plans are closely interwoven, any disruption in one department may adversely affect all others.
* In industries that are seasonal (i.e. toys) this disruption may be even more costly. Vacancies in key skill positions may mean that products and projects may need to be dropped altogether.
2. TEAM IMPACTS
* Team product development may be dramatically impacted by the disruption caused by the lost productivity, lost experience, leadership, idea generation and skills of the “vacated” person.
* If a team environment exists, a disruption in team cohesiveness may occur. This can result in a longer TTM (Time To Market) and a loss of focus that can also impact TTM.
* Vacancies may affect the idea generation of others because co-workers are frustrated or overworked.
* Vacancies may cause overworked employees (because they have to fill in) to tire, which may cause increased accidents.
* Vacancies may cause overworked employees to tire, which may adversely affect product quality through increased error rates.
* Excessive vacancies may lead to increase “whining,” grievances and even union activity.
* If the team leader is the “vacancy” then “time to productivity” is likely to be even more negatively impacted.
*A vacancy may make a manager reluctant to terminate poor performing employees. Vacancies coupled with poor performers can cripple the team.
3. INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYEE IMPACTS
* A vacancy means that a current employee must do the work of the vacant position. This can cause a cascade effect causing others to have to fill in for their position, resulting in many “rusty” people doing unfamiliar jobs and decreasing productivity.
* Vacancies may frustrate other employees, causing them to lower their productivity.
* Vacancies may frustrate other employees, causing them to quit at higher rate than they normally would.
* Vacancies may cause the team to miss its goals, thereby reducing the possibility of individual and team incentives, which may further reduce productivity.
* Increased stress on overworked current employees (caused by having to fill in) may cause increased absenteeism and tardiness.
* Vacancies may hold up vacation time for current employees who may lead to increased stress or frustration.
* Understaffed departments will not be able to send current employees to training and conferences, which may lead to increased stress, decreased worker knowledge or frustration.
* If temps or “fill-ins” must be hired, they usually have a higher error rate that the average employee and they are unlikely to generate many new ideas.
*Superstar employees often resent being asked to fill in when lesser employees positions are vacant, which may cause them to quit also.
4. INCREASED MANAGEMENT TIME AND EFFORT
* Teams with vacancies require “high maintenance” and more management attention and worry.
* Managers often have to skip their normal management planning and responsibilities in order to fill in for the vacant employee.
* When managers fill in for “vacant” employees that time can’t be spent on the best employees.
* Vacancies in management and team leader positions have a multiplier effect on productivity and the recruitment of others.
* There are opportunity costs for things a manager and co-workers could have done if they didn’t have to carry the extra load of filling in for a vacancy.
*If the vacancies are caused by top management decisions (hiring or budget freezes) it can cause managers to lose hope. This can impact morale and it may lead to a high management turnover rate.
5. CUSTOMER IMPACTS
* Excessive vacancies may send a message to customers and suppliers that we are getting weak or we don’t care about them. It may cause a period of confusion for suppliers and customers regarding whom they can contact and the stability of the relationship. Errors caused by “vacant” employees may lose sales volume and occasionally customers.
*Any “fill in” as a sales/account rep may provide them an opportunity or excuse to look for other suppliers.
6. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
* Excessive vacancies may cause management to panic and to “quickly” hire some poor performers. Once the team is saddled with a large number of poor performers, you may never be able to hire any new top performers.
* Vacancies at the CEO, CFO, CTO, and other top manager positions can adversely impact our financing and the willingness of others to partner/merge with us.
* Vacancies in key positions may send a message to analysts and the stock market that you are getting weak.
* Vacancies may send a message to competitors that you are vulnerable, which can lead to increased competitive pressures.
*A large number of vacancies means we are losing employees, which means weakening our culture. New employees with new values may change or dilute our values and “corrupt” current employees.
7. IMAGE AND RECRUITING
* Excessive vacancies sends a message to your competitors you are getting weak. This might encourage them and improve their own confidence so that they become bolder in the product and employee poaching market.
* Vacancies may impact new recruiting because vacancies send a message to future recruits that we are not easily able to recruit replacements.
* Large numbers of vacancies may also send a message to our current employees we are headed downhill.
* High vacancy rates may over-stress our recruiters and recruitment process.
*Vacancies may send a message to outside recruiters that we are vulnerable, which can lead to increased “headhunter” activity.
8. OUT OF POCKET COSTS
* Having to hire high-cost consultants as “fill in help” could mean higher costs. If hourly employees are involved it probably means additional overtime costs.
*Vacancies can mean the underutilization of plant and equipment.
OTHER MISCELLANEOUS CONCERNS (AND COSTS) THAT MAY ARISE
* The new hire may be a lower quality (low performance) candidate.
* New hires are unlikely to be immediately productive, thus resulting in increased costs.
* Some “vacating employees” take others with them soon after they leave. A “break in the dike” of one leaving may cause the whole intact team to leave.
* Many new hires don’t work out and must be replaced within 6 months, essentially stretching the length of the vacancy.
* In a tight labor market vacancies in hard to hire jobs may not be replaceable, at any cost.
*In start-ups and small departments, where there is little cross training, the cost may be more dramatic. If you only have ten employees and you lose two, you have a 20% vacancy rate (big deal!).
* Spending the time to avoid vacancies may have a huge ROI especially if your former employees go to a competitor with “your” ideas, causing their revenues to increase as yours go down.

HR Diary: Humor!!!

HR Diary: Humor!!!: "All Working with Private Companies Only GOD can understand our problems Swarg k dwar pe 3 log khade the.... God : Sirf 1 hi andar ja sak..."

Humor!!!

All Working with Private Companies Only GOD can understand our problems Swarg k dwar pe 3 log khade the.... God : Sirf 1 hi andar ja sakta hai.... 1st : Main Brahmin hu, sari umar aapki seva ki hai. Swarg pe mera hak hai.... 2nd : Main Doctor hu, sari umar logo ki seva ki hai. Swarg pe mera haq hai.... 3rd : Mai ne sari umar Private Company mein kam kiya hai.... Aur...... God :Bass......... aage kuch mat bol.... Rulaayega kya pagle..? Andar aa ja......... Tere follow-ups, monthend, quarterend, CTC se zaada deductions, raat me ghar jana, boss se meetings, delivery dates....uff

HR Diary: Managing Conversations during Team Building!!!

HR Diary: Managing Conversations during Team Building!!!: "Some of the most intense team building sessions that we have had the privilege of facilitating, have happened when we managed to break th..."

Managing Conversations during Team Building!!!

Some of the most intense team building sessions that we have had the privilege of facilitating, have happened when we managed to break through a glass ceiling of trust amongst the members, and people truly & openly spoke and shared some of their deepest feelings, fears, hopes, influences, apprehensions and achievements. Yes, we are true believers in the Power of a Huddle! But over a period of doing many such workshops, one of the realizations that has slowly crept on us is that, much as we would like it, the magic that happens within a group of people huddling in conversation, often times does not happen automatically – it needs to be facilitated. Here are a few things to make this happen for your team:
1) Look out for everyone The real magic in a team can only be captured when everyone is heard and also feels heard. As intuitively simple as this sounds, this does not always happen by itself. Very often, even when the breakthrough in trust happens and the sharing begins, the louder, more dominant members start hogging the conversation. And the quieter people slowly start retreating back into their shells again. Previously held stereotypes about individuals quickly re-surface again and the fragile trust is broken – and unfortunately, so is the conversation. So, watch out for the conversation hoggers. A good way to steer the conversation is to acknowledge a point they make and connect it to another quieter person. For ex. “That’s a great point that you have made about the need for ethics XYZ- Thankyou” and then quickly, “What do you feel about it ABC? Does your experience validate this too?”. As the team building facilitator, you are the one person who has to look out for everyone – and ensure that every single person is heard and feels heard.
2) Its ok to interrupt But what do you do when there is a particularly tough conversation hogger, who just won’t stop? Its funny, but we have often caught ourselves thinking during such long monologues, “He has got to pause to take a breath somewhere!” Most of us have been taught that its bad to interrupt when someone else is speaking. So heres some advice against the grain, when it comes to team building programs : It is ok to interrupt. Humour we have found is an effective tool in handling such situations. Also, another counter intuitive insight: the conversation hoggers most often are extroverted people who need to think by speaking aloud. So, once their point is made & is validated by you, they really don’t mind if you interrupt them. Infact it makes the conversation richer for them.
3) Be an active listener One of the mistakes that you can make inadvertently sometimes is to think 60 seconds ahead of the conversation. “What do I say next?”, “How do I move this forward?”. The reason we do this is perhaps because we are too anxious. But, that’s precisely the wrong thing to do to achieve that result. When you are completely with the conversation and the speaker – there are a couple of things that you do at once: Firstly the sincerity always shows through – the speaker who is perhaps sharing intimate snippets of his life, feels respected & heard. In turn that helps him to open up even more. Secondly, the team in large takes cues from your behavior – the intensity builds. And finally, active listening unfailingly helps you as a facilitator to steer the conversation, when you encounter the conversation hoggers.
4) Be Flexible Conversations many a times – are like different rivulets that split away from the main flow to join back again. At a time when you sense the conversation is beginning to flow freely – facilitate loosely. If a revelation from someone gets a gasp and the conversation steers in a different direction, don’t be in a hurry to cut the flow & pull them back. Should you have an instance of someone breaking down during the sharing, stay with the moment & don’t make a huge fuss about it. Don’t be rigid in your approach. Having said that, there is just one caveat. At times when a conversation is mid-stream, someone may take a completely different track. Incomplete conversations leave a feeling of “not being heard”. Watch out for these – and when you see it happening, saying, “Guys can we hear what XYZ has to say before we move on?” – is often the only nudge needed to pull back the conversation.
5) Work on cultivating relationships Facilitators play a big role in opening up a conversation within a team. And much of that has to do with the relationships that you as a Facilitator have managed to build with the team. This is one reason why an activity like this never works as a stand-alone or as the first activity in a team building session. If you, the Facilitator are a part of the team (or its leader) – before you embark on an activity like this, you need to critically look at what is the relationship that you currently share with the team? Going in first as a leader and sharing vulnerabilities, in a sincere, genuine way, is one powerful method we have experienced the trust barrier being lowered.

Don't overestimate your competencies!!!

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming
that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd
gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was
not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most
beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and
boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, "Why
your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine." The crowd and the young
man looked at the old man's heart. It was beating strongly, but full of
scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put
in, but they didn't fit quite right and there were several jagged
edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces
were missing. The people stared -- how can he say his heart is more
beautiful, they thought?

The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state and
laughed. "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine, mine
is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears." "Yes," said the old
man, "yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You
see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love - I tear
out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a
piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but
because the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough edges, which I
cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared.

Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person
hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges --
giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they
stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I
hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now
do you see what true beauty is?"

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He
walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful
heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling
hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then
took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in
the young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some
jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but
more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man's heart flowed into
his. They embraced and walked away side by side.