Poor Leaders are Costing Employers

One of the most important qualities a leader can possess is the ability to inspire trust in the workplace, however, it is something that appears to be on the decline within organisations. When trust declines in a workplace relationship, so too does productivity. Everything will take much longer and costs will increase, all to make up for that lack of trust.

Stephen M.R Covey, author of The Speed of Trust; the one thing that changes everything, calls the extra effort that goes into checking and validating employees work by leaders the “low trust tax”.
In the same way that when there is a lack of trust productivity goes down and costs go up, when there is a high level of trust, productivity increases and costs go down.

Covey believes that the need for trust in the workplace is obvious and it is a “financial, not just social requirement”. “"You can put a value on it," he said. "The ability to create trust is the number one competency of leadership needed today, more than any other”.
Trusting your employees, as a leader, makes you better at everything else that you need to achieve at work.

The thirteen behaviours that high trust leaders possess, according to Covey, are;

1. Talking straight – They say what is on their mind, and don't hide their agenda. Most employees don't believe their bosses are communicating honestly.
2. Demonstrating respect – Actions show leaders care. They should be sincere. People will notice if an action is motivated by a lesser reason.
3. Creating transparency – Leaders should tell the truth in a way that can be substantiated. Transparency is based on principles of honesty, openness, integrity and authenticity.
4. Righting wrongs – To right a wrong is much more than apologising. It involves making restitution. With customers it might include that free gift along with the sincere apology.
5. Showing loyalty – Leaders need to give credit to the individuals responsible for success. A leader should never take credit for the hard work of others.
6. Delivering results – The fastest way to build trust is to deliver results. 
7. Getting better – When others see leaders continually learning and adapting to change, they become inspired to do the same. Covey suggested two ways to get better. First, seek feedback from those around you. Second, learn from your mistakes;
8. Confronting reality – If leaders are honest about the difficult issues and address them head-on, people will trust them. 
9. Clarifying expectations – It is important to focus on a shared vision of success up front. When expectations are not clearly defined at the beginning, trust and productivity both decline. A lot of time is wasted due to leaders not clearly defining expectations.
10. Practising accountability – Leaders must hold themselves accountable, and take responsibility for poor results. It is a normal response to blame others for failure, but when leaders fail, they need to take responsibility for themselves.
11. Listening first – Actively listening builds trust. Leaders need to learn not to go through the 'mechanics' of listening and give the impression they are listening when really they are not.
12. Keeping commitments –This is one of the most important components of inspiring trust in the workplace. When leaders keep a commitment they build trust. Leaders must be careful when making commitments, and make only those they can keep. 
13. Extending trust - Leaders should extend trust to those who have earned it and are still earning it, but show caution to those who have given reason to believe that they are not capable of being trusted.

Essential HR Disciplines for Salesforce Effectiveness

Often, when HR professionals are asked why they aren't more involved, common responses include, a common response is that “Sales kind of does its own thing." Sales leadership does carry the main responsibility for sales effectiveness, however, Human Resources need to increase their involvement in salesforce effectiveness. Why? Basically, companies that do not involve HR in salesforce effectiveness stall their growth.

Here are three of the core Human Resources disciplines that help to drive salesforce effectiveness;

Talent

HR partners will often be requested to help Sales Management with recruiting specific job roles. Sometimes, the Sales team accuses the HR team of not understanding the skill set required for those jobs. The Sales & Human Resources teams need to work together and be able to strategise together. One key strategy would be to focus on talent, this includes; managing poor performance and providing better training for the sales team.

Motivation

The next core element of Human Resources that is vital to maintaining a high-performing sales team is motivation. Sales employees often have a different perspective from the rest of the employee population and are usually more motivated by product quality, marketing influence and achievable goals than their non-sales colleagues, and less motivated by performance management and equity rewards.

Compensation ranks high on their list of concerns, but are these organizations more productive because they pay more, or are they paying more because they're more productive? Paying at or above the market doesn't mean performance will follow. Pay and performance are vital components of salesforce engagement and motivation.

Productivity

There is a strong relationship between sales force effectiveness and time allocation. Companies who spend more time on sales, and less on other duties, such as administration, often have greater sales productivity.

Within any sales organization there is opportunity for productivity to increase and can directly translate to the company's growth. Sales organizations need HR disciplines to align talent with strategy, assess opportunities for increased motivation, and identify barriers of productivity. HR has a very relevant, hands-on role in contributing to sales force effectiveness.

Community Service Leave

Employees, including casual employees, are entitled to take community service leave for particular activities under the Fair Work Act, including:

• Voluntary emergency management activities
• Jury duty

With the exception of jury duty, community service leave is unpaid.

An employee is involved with a voluntary emergency activity when:

• The activity involves dealing with an emergency or natural disaster.
• The employee participates in this activity on a voluntary basis
• The employee was either requested to participate in an activity , or it would be reasonable to expect such a request would have been made if circumstances permitted
• The employee is a member of, or has an association with a recognised emergency management body.
• A recognised emergency management body is:
• A body that has a role or function under a plan that is for coping with emergencies or natural disasters.
• A fire fighting , civil defence or rescue body
• Any other body which is mainly involved in responding to an emergency or natural disaster including SES, the Country Fire Authority and the RSPCA.

Community service leave is likely to carry greater consequences in high risk and rural areas, especially during the summer when the threat of bushfires is much greater.

There is no limit on the amount of community service leave an employee can take however an employee who takes community service leave must give their employer notice of the absence as soon as possible and the expected period of absence. The employer can require the employee to give the employer evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that the absence is because the employee has been, or will be, engaging in the eligible community service activity. An employer can face serious penalties for dismissing an employee that tries to take community service leave. A violation of a provision of the National Employment Scheme can result in penalties of up to $10,800 for an individual and $54,000 for a corporation.

Community service leave to volunteer in an emergency situation is unpaid leave under the National Employment Standards, although some State and Territory laws have created an obligation to pay employees for the time off. Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia all expect you to pay ordinary wages during an employee’s absence.

Under the National Employee Standard, you are obliged to pay an employee jury duty for their first 10 days of service at their usual base rate of pay.

Re-shaping Performance Management


Performance management has been a popular topic of discussion within organisations recently, with 96% of surveyed organisations having recently changed or planning to change their system within the next 12 – 18 months. As companies struggle with leadership, engagement, and capability challenges, they are realizing that the performance management process affects all of these challenges.

Many employees and managers are feeling dissatisfied and frustrated with the current performance management systems. However instead of completely over hauling current systems, the way to change will most likely require organisations to evolve the practices they already have in place.

New performance management models are now becoming imperative as businesses update and improve their talent solutions. Companies leading this transformation are redefining the way they set goals and evaluate performance, focusing heavily on coaching and feedback and looking for new technologies to make performance management easier.

Some essential changes are needed but some of the original elements should remain the same.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when changing your performance management strategies:

• Performance management is changing, not disappearing with the focus shifting from annual assessments to more continuous dialogue. The performance information gathered will be more constant and more relatable to what employees are doing at that moment instead of reviewing what they did six months to a year ago.
• Corporate culture and values are to become more closely aligned, with employers encouraged to enabling employees to do their best instead of “fixing” their performance.
• Different techniques for different areas of the workforce. Different jobs require different performance management criteria and systems.
• Disposing of the performance rating. Rating your employees is not helpful or productive. If ratings are not eliminated completely, they should at least be simplified into broader categories.
• Separate performance from rewards. Fixed approached based on performance ratings are dubious, especially when objectives are conditional or achieved through team collaboration.  Assessing someone’s skills produces inconsistent data. 
• Continuous feedback - the regularity, emphasis and quality of communication will change to enable more real time conversations about how the employee is going.
• Mobile technology should enable more immediate and personalised feedback.
• Managers need training to become leaders. Manages who have received development to become better mentors and coaches will focus conversations on capabilities and performance than faults or issues.
• Simplicity is the key. Much of the current performance management processes involve filling out paperwork, evaluating job rankings and developing unrealistic goals. The information that was gathered had little practical application for managers or team leaders. 

Tips for Hiring

Choosing the right people for your organisation is vital to building and developing a successful business. People provide the framework for any thriving company.

Here are some tips for hiring the best candidates for your business and keeping the employees you already have.

• Be present and engaged in the hiring process, be there during candidate interviews and communicate with HR. 
• Build a culture within your organisation. Have a clear vision of what you want the culture of your organisation to be like and this will help you to build a team to fit it. Once you have decided on your company’s values and culture make it known to all potential applicants. Include these values on your website.
• Utilise social media. Recruiting via social media is more popular than ever. Include links on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to your career page on your website.
• Recruit Continuously. Always be on the lookout for potential employees, even when there are no openings. You can never tell when an employee might leave.
• Know what you’re looking for in an employee. Have an understanding of the skills and traits that will make an applicant successful in the role and write a job description accordingly.
• Interview a broad range of candidates. You may not know the right person for the job until they are sitting in front of you.
• Develop your staff to their full potential. Provide training and opportunities for advancement. Train all new employees in job requirements on hiring instead of a few months down the track to prevent them from forming bad habits.
• Conduct exit interviews. A good way to ensure that you keep your current talent is to find out the reasons why another employee is leaving. An employee who is leaving is often more forthcoming than one who is currently still employed with you.
• Ask the right questions. The job interview is a major factor in hiring the right employee. The questions asked during the interview are critical in defining whether or not the candidate is right for the job.
• Don't Settle. It’s tempting to settle for the best of the bunch, but if the best pick of all your candidates still doesn’t feel right keep looking.
• Offer a three month trial period .It’s expensive hiring new staff but it’s even more so to replace them. Having someone work for you on a short contract is a good way to see if they are the right fit for your organisation.

Hiring the Best Candidates

Hiring the right candidate is vital for any organisation if they are to thrive. Here are some important tips to help you attract and select the best candidates.

•    Select an appropriate interviewing team.

Senior managers and experienced employers should be involved in the interviewing and hiring process, however it is also good practice to involve the people who will be working alongside the selected candidate .Present employees who are engaged in similar roles within the company will be able to relate to the candidate and encourage them to feel more compatible and involved with the organisation.

•    Prepare fully for the interview.

Relevant questions and criteria should be prepared ahead of time. It is also helpful to determine the interview structure and style before you begin interviewing candidates. You should try to ensure that the candidate talks 70% of the interview and the interviewer only talks for 30% of the time. The interview questions should be based on the job requirements and should not discriminate on grounds of sex or race.

•     Develop an accurate job description.

It is easy to overlook the job description, however in many cases, an applicant can be attracted to a job exclusively because of how the position is communicated. If the job description is not clear enough, it can fail to attract candidates with the right qualifications and abilities.

•    Fully explain the job.

It is important to fully explain the job to the candidate and make sure that they understand what is expected of them. If a candidate is hired into a position they don’t fully understand and their expectations do not match the job, it is likely they will leave soon after being hired. This will mean that you will have to begin the whole recruitment process again.

•     Communicate often.

Make sure to communicate with all applicants frequently throughout the recruitment process. Inform the candidates who are selected, as well as the ones who aren’t, as soon as possible.
When someone applies for a job within your company they are also forming their first impression of you and your organisation and what it may be like to work there.

•      Select a broad range of candidates.

If you shortlist too severely you can end up with only one or two candidates left to interview. You should always have a minimum of three to four candidates left for the final interview. This will ensure that if you do not get your top candidate you will still be left with a few good choices.

•    Follow up.

Once the successful applicant has accepted the position, follow up straight away with the necessary paperwork. Make sure that the salary, probation periods and benefits have been discussed throughout the recruitment process so there are no unexpected surprises for the candidate.

•    Start with a probation period.

Starting a candidate’s position with a probation period allows the manager a chance to test the employee’s skills and talents and gives both parties a way out if the employee is not performing or the job is not what they had expected. Probation periods vary in length but are commonly around 6 months .You may choose to start the employee on a slightly lower pay rate or withhold giving full employee benefits until they have fulfilled their probation period.

2014 WAGE DECISION: FWC orders 3% increase in minimum wages

1.5 Million Of Australia’s lowest paid workers will have a pay increase of 3% by July of this year. For a full-time employee working a 38-hour week the increase is $18.70 per week (50 cents per hour) to $640.90 per week, or $16.87 per hour.
 FWC President Justice Iain Ross announced the decision, noting that the increase in super guarantee from 1 July had a moderating impact.

The ACTU had originally asked for a $27 per week, or 4.3% increase but the Federal Government warned that increases that high would lead to a loss of jobs as some businesses would not find this affordable.

Ai Group had proposed a 1.6% or $10 per week increase, with ACCI's proposal even more conservative at 1.3%.
The panel suggested that it would not be as low if the superannuation guarantee rate was not also due to rise in July.

The Fair Work Commission last month ruled to limit Sunday penalty rates for some restaurant and cafe staff from July, expected to save businesses up to $112 million a year.

What this means for you

Modern Awards
Businesses that apply Modern Award rates will have to increase them to comply with the FWC decision. From 1 July 2014 all wage rates and penalties will need to match the applicable Modern Award.

Annualised Salaries and Individual Flexibility Agreements
if your business has utilised Individual Flexibility Agreements, you will have to review those agreements to guarantee employees are still “better off overall” when compared to the increased modern Awards rates.
 Employers who use annualised salary arrangements under Modern Awards should also check the Award requirements.

Enterprise Agreements
if you are currently negotiating an Enterprise Agreement or if you already have one, you should consider the increase to ensure that the rates that are negotiated are enough to pass the Better off Overall Test.
If you have an Enterprise Agreement, you will need to ensure the minimum base rates in the EA remain at least equal to the new Modern Award rates.

Allowances

The Fair Work Commission’s decision will impact allowances as well as base rates. A number of Modern Award allowances are expressed as a percentage of the "standard rate", which is the rate applicable to the trade’s equivalent classification in the award. These allowances will therefore increase in line with the increase in the standard rate. Expense related allowances will increase in line with the relevant CPI index.

High Income Guarantee
the High Income Threshold will also increase from 1 July.  Any employers who avoid Award conditions by using High Income Guarantees to will need to examine their agreed terms to remain compliant and above the new threshold. If guarantee levels fall below the threshold minimum entitlements will revert to those in the Award (including, for example, overtime and penalty rates).

Employers will have to identify and implement any changes promptly to ensure compliance to the Fair Work Commission’s decision.

2 Ways the Budget Affects You

The 2014 budget may affect many different aspects of your business. Here are 2 changes that may affect both staff and employers.

1. Superannuation Guarantee increase delayed

Effective from 1 July 2014, the Superannuation Guarantee percentage has increased to 9.5% from the current 9.25%.

The Superannuation Guarantee percentage will gradually rise to 12 % by July 2022,

Superannuation Guarantee is the official term for compulsory superannuation contributions made by employers on behalf of their employees. An employer, whether they are a small or large business, must at this time, contribute the equivalent of 9% of an employee’s salary.

The new increases are laid out in the table below:

Financial year	Superannuation guarantee
July 2014-June 2015	9.5%
July 2015-June 2016	9.5%
July 2016-June 2017	9.5%
July 2017-June 2018	9.5%
July 2018-June 2019	10.0%
July 2019-June 2020	10.5%
July 2020-June 2021	11.0%
July 2021-June 2022	11.5%
July 2022-June 2023	12.0%

The Superannuation Guarantee has financial implications for anyone planning to remain in the workforce for more than 7 years as the increase of 3% will take full effect in just over 6 years’ time. According to the Federal Government, the 33% increase will give a 30 year old on average full time wages an extra 108, 000 in retirement savings.

2. Changes to the Fair Entitlement Guarantee

One of the other important changes the 2014 federal budget delivered was alterations to the fair Entitlements Guarantee, which guarantees several unpaid employee entitlements in the event of insolvency or bankruptcy.

From January 1 2015 the maximum payment for redundancy pay will be 16 weeks. Previously redundancy pay was capped at 4 weeks’ pay per full year of service. From 1 July 2014, indexation of the maximum weekly wage used in calculating entitlements for claimants earning above the maximum weekly wage of $2,451 will be paused until 30 June 2018.

The changes will apply only to liquidations and bankruptcies that occur on or after the commencement date of 1 January 2015.

Employees seeking to claim an entitlement above the maximum will maintain rights as unsecured creditors to recover any outstanding entitlements through the winding up of their employer’s business.

The Government will achieve savings of $87.7 million over four years by aligning redundancy payments under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme to the National Employment Standards contained in the Fair Work Act 2009.

The savings from this measure will be redirected by the Government to repair the Budget and fund policy priorities.

Effectively managing employee underperformance

What do you do with an employee who is not performing?  What options do you have in this area? 

You have a responsibility as an employer to ensure that they have been given sufficient opportunity to improve their performance before you resort to disciplinary action.  After all, they may be having a hard time outside of work or any number of other factors may be affecting their performance and this should be addressed with fairness.

Counselling the under performing employee is vital and entails advising them that their performance needs improving and setting out a plan for improvement.

Workplace Bulletin provides a good suggested couselling scenario for an underperforming employee:

1. Investigate the matter further

Investigate the issues before meeting with the employee so you can be sure of the facts. This may mean that you speak to other managers, employees and witnesses.

2. Hold a private meeting with the employee

Hold the session in private and retain a record of the discussions (this could be recorded in a diary).

Do not make the discussion a casual conversation. Counselling is a focused discussion that is meant to clearly show the nature of your expectations

Be specific in your comments, e.g. 'It is not appropriate to clean the roller on a machine while it is moving', rather than general, e.g. 'You need to clean the rollers properly'.

Allow the employee to respond, and take their comments into account.

Focus your recorded comments on the employee's conduct, rather than the employee as a person.

3. Develop a performance management plan

A performance management plan (sometimes called a performance improvement plan) is a document that outlines the performance goals an employer expects their employee to achieve. These can include health and safety objectives.

The purpose of a performance management plan is to:

• set out the goals or 'key performance objectives' that reflect the employee's role in the business; and
• provide measurable benchmarks for assessing the employee's performance.

Develop the plan with the employee and keep a copy in the employee's file.

If employee performance is handled correctly, problems are recognised and solved early and the need for disciplinary action is eliminated or reduced.

4. Set a review date for following up

Your performance management plan should identify further dates for reviewing the employee's progress.


Source Workplace Bulletin

7 signs that bullying is occurring in your workplace

Workplace bullying is a big issue and it’s also very bad for your business!

Employees who are at the receiving end of workplace bullying can suffer a number of emotional and physical consequences such as stress, absenteeism, low self esteem or depression, anxiety, digestive upsets, high blood pressure, relationship problems etc.

If workplace bullying is not dealt with it can results in expensive hits to your business such as high staff turnover, low productivity, difficulty in hiring, lost innovation, bad reputation etc.

7 SIGNS THAT BULLYING IS OCCURRING IN YOUR WORKPLACE

Source: Workplace Bulletin

1. Patterns of absenteeism or excessive sick leave.
2. High staff turnover.     
3. A high number of grievances, injury reports or WorkCover claims.
4. A workplace culture that accepts or promotes a ‘tough guy’, ‘dog eat dog’ or ‘harden up’ attitude to interpersonal relationships, performance management and distribution of work.
5. Leadership styles that are particularly forceful, rude or aggressive, demanding, aloof, overbearing or micromanaging.
6. Systems of work in which there is: uneven or unfair distribution of work; excessive intervention in a person’s work; excessive amounts of work; or provision of menial or tedious tasks, or failure to provide any (or any meaningful) work.
7. Workplace relationships in which one or more people are excluded from a larger group or social activities.

What Gets You Out Of Bed In The Morning?

Who is really responsible for the development of my career?
With statistics reporting more than 35% of people waking up wondering how on earth they ‘got here’, it seems that we live in a world, of which a large proportion of people tend to fall into their careers based on circumstances rather than a passion or dream.

According to research from Right Management; over 90% of HR managers feel their organisations are under performing and that almost half of all employees are wrongly fitted in their careers. It’s no wonder employees are left uninspired to perform at their optimum capacity in their career of, well, chance.

Career management practice leader of Right Management, Tim Roche, recently stated that half of the 146 000 participants in his survey, aiming to challenge and bring awareness to their true career motivators, effectively made some career change.

 No longer in the age where an employee would spend their lives in one occupation and/or in one company, there are a few grey areas regarding who’s responsibility it is to motivate and develop an employee’s career.

 It is unfortunately not yet typical of a business to integrate both career development and business strategies, although doing so might increase the company’s performance, productivity and overall focus from employees, whilst decreasing turnover.

There is a need for managers to be bold and courageous enough to tackle career management, so that employees are not only strategically motivated and empowered in the present, but also for the years to come. Managers must learn to seek and embrace friendly, personal conversations with employees about the direction of their careers.

 Common misconceptions prohibiting managers from stepping up in this area, rather than avoiding completely or redirecting matters to the company board, are that such conversations will be an expense or that employees may be unrealistic in their expectations or capabilities. In order to engage employees in a positive way, managers must be secure in their own understanding of what drives and motivates both themselves and their fellow employees, and how to implement principles and strategies to encourage this.

 Lizzy Allen of Right Management, adds that career management should involve tripartite commitment, in which the individual, the leader and the organisation equally commit to enable, discuss and promote career development. It is the tripartite commitment that allows active and personal relationships to ensure the success of all parties.