Employee Training

The following video is a humorous representation of a training video for a men's clothing store. It depicts a sales manager teaching a new sales associate on how to take care of employees. As corny as the video is, with the nerdy boss wearing lensless glasses, it does convey some good points. It promotes a friendly attitude towards customers and to be as helpful as possible in order to provide them with the best experience possible. This will hopefully encourage them to come back to the store.

It is crucial for a company to have cheerful and engaging sales associates and employees, especially in the retail industry. Customer service is the best way for a company to improve their reputation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7WIJW0bBIY&feature=youtu.be

For everyone's pleasure I have added both parts of the "Wendy's Grill Skill" training video from 1989. This is a flash back to a time well before I remember, but it definitely applies to the training guides necessary to work at a place like Wendy's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUKDspx0LZ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2mWxFAndxg&feature=related

Is the HR department doing more harm than good?

In recent months I have been reading more and more articles from Fast Company. I really like how they discuss all sorts of companies and the focus on innovation. So, when we were asked to talk about any topic in HR, I started looking through Fast Company to find something relevant. That is when I came across this article: Why We Hate HR.

Original Cover from the Fast Company Print

Please read it for yourself to see if you agree. The one problem, or point I should make is that this article is from 2005. As such, many things have changed since this article was written, but I think the author still makes several valuable points. Please leave your feedback.

Recruiting and Hiring

I have read about a concept that there are only three essential questions that will be asked in an interview. Although these questions may come up multiple times in multiple ways they boil down to these three:

• Can they do the job?
• Will they do the job?
• Will they fit the culture of the organization?

This article goes into a better explanation on these questions. Since this article is from Entrepreneur.com it takes the perspective of an entrepreneur doing the hiring. Entrepreneurs face an added difficulty or barrier to hiring because most of them are hiring for positions they know nothing about, hence why they need to hire someone.

As I have posted and mentioned on other blogs and and discussion boards, I feel that Culture is critical. The culture of a company, whether its a company of two to a company of 2000. I feel that if an employee can fit into the culture most everything else can be built from there.

SHRM's Template for a Social Networking Policy

While I was reading through articles for the basis of this blog I came across the Society of Human Resource Management's "Social Networking Policy." This policy allows a company to input their company name into the text. The policy goes through every aspect that a social media policy at work should cover. Some of the key points include the connection a personal blog, such as mine, can have when talking about my employer and encouraging employees to use this media. The reason that SHRM promotes the use of social media and blogging is because "The goal of authorized social networking and blogging is to become a part of the industry conversation and promote web-based sharing of ideas and exchange of information." This is something that I think all companies should promote in order to build a better company."

Workplace Flexibility

I just read an article about workplace flexibility. It discusses research done by professors at the University of Minnesota and the University of Delaware. They talk about how it is healthier for employees to have a more flexible work schedule because they are more likely to go to the doctor when needed and get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep that your body needs. This research is discussed in conjunction with research that was conducted at Wake Forest University of Medicine that also talks about workplace flexibility and healthier lifestyles. Workplace flexibility deals with societal environmental factors because the way in which people are most productive has changed over the years. These changes have come about because families are trying to spend more time together and less time in the confines of a cubicle.

From personal experience I find that having a flexible work schedule helps to not only keep me healthy physically but it also helps mentally. Which I think is even more important. Being able to go to work a few hours later or being able to work from home make me more likely to stay late in the office if I really need to in order to get a project done on time. These flexible policies produce a loyalty to the company.