Do you find yourself struggling with how to deal with people problems at work? If so, Manager’s Desktop Consultant: Just-in-Time Solutions to the Top People Problems that Keep You Up at Night is a worthy addition to your library of business books. Written by organizational development experts Louellen N. Essex, Ph.D. and Mitchell E. Kusy, Ph.D., this book provides practical advice for helping managers effectively deal with people problems at work.

This book is designed to provide leaders at all levels within modern organizations with practical tips and suggestions for effectively handle people related issues. It touches on techniques for managing all types of people problems that arise in the business world, including tips for improving one’s ability to communicate effectively with peers and subordinates alike.

One of the biggest challenges faced by managers relates to effectively managing change within their organizations. Coping with employees who are resistant to change can be particularly challenging and difficult. This book provides guidance for creating a systematic process and plan for leading organizations through change in a manner that will include and engage employees in the process. Encouraging employee teamwork and collaboration is another important people issue of concern to managers. The authors do an excellent job of providing substantive tips for cultivating a culture of teamwork that go beyond the often “touchy-feely” suggestions. Their emphasis is on how to improve productivity and efficiency via team work.

In any environment where people have to work together, conflict is inevitable. Managing conflict in a constructive manner isn’t always easy, but it is something that today’s managers have to face.

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When a relationship between an employee and employer breaks down irretrievably a compromise agreement can be the only way to deal with the situation and prevent a possible complaint to an Employment Tribunal.     

A ‘compromise agreement’ is a legally binding agreement following the termination of employment. It usually provides for a severance payment by the employer, in return for the employee agreeing not to pursue any claim they believe they may have to an employment tribunal. Quite often, the compromise agreement will also deal with the notice element in the contract of employment and may provide for a “payment in lieu of notice”.  Employers are now increasingly using compromise agreements as a mechanism for preventing possible future complaints to a tribunal, especially in redundancy situations.  Compromise agreements are recognised by statute and are the only way a claim can be legally binding without tribunal proceedings having been initiated.  The employee must seek the advice of an independent solicitor before the agreement becomes binding.  The solicitor giving the advice must also sign the agreement and certify that the appropriate advice has been given.

Why is a Compromise Agreement Necessary?
The use of compromise agreements in redundancy situations is used mainly if an employer has not complied with the law in making redundancies (perhaps through failing to consult properly, failing to use fair selection criteria etc) where an employee can complain to a tribunal that the redundancy was unfair. This can be done after the redundancy and could result in an award of compensation or even reinstatement.  The only way an employer can be sure that an employee will not complain to a tribunal after redundancy is to persuade them to sign away their right to do so.

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The glitz and glamour of all the Christmas and New Year festivities are now over and summer is a long way away – have you counted the cost of the festive cheer?

For many employers, January is a hard month to get through and absenteeism has a direct impact on your bottom line. 

Have you reviewed who didn’t turn up on Christmas Eve or any of the due days over the Christmas period or on when you re-opened on 5 January and why they didn’t and also what impact this unreliability had on your business?

Current research by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) showed that on average an employee takes off 8 days a year and absence costs £666 per employee.   

The cost of absence can be felt in different ways.  For example, it can affect everything from quality of customer service to the speed of product development – issues that may have a negative impact on your sales figures.  If also affects employee morale as those in work shoulder the burden of their colleagues days off.

A CBI/AXA Absence Survey in 2008 showed that 1 in 10 absences are not genuine and 60% of employees have said that they fake sickness to extend a holiday.        
Everyone agrees that sick people need time off work, but as an employer you need to deal with two serious and expensive challenges – bogus sick days and helping employees on long-term illness return to work when they are fit to do so.

1 day sickies are the most common and if left unmanaged this can lead to an increase across your business and employees are more inclined to try it for themselves as they see their colleagues ‘getting away with it’.

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As a small business owner, it’s important to take proactive steps toward making sure that your employees are ready and able to handle the technological and environmental changes that are likely to impact your business. It’s important to remember that employee training doesn’t stop with your new hire orientation procedures. Organizational training needs are ongoing, particularly in the rapidly changing 21st century workforce.

Needs Assessment for Strategic Planning
The best way to make sure that you are providing employees with the training needed to position your business for long term success is to engage in an ongoing needs assessment process at both the organizational and individual levels. The process of needs assessment involves developing an understanding of where your organization is now, in terms of employee skills, and where it needs to be in the future.

Individual needs assessment involves looking at your employees’ current skill levels and identifying any gaps that exist between their current abilities and what they need to be able to do, now and in the future. At the organizational level, strategic needs assessment involves identifying gaps between the skills that exist across the organization and the skills that need to be in place to accomplish the company’s long term strategic plans.

Targeted Training
Once you have conducted a thorough assessment of your organization’s training needs, you can identify which gaps are actually training issues. You can begin implementing an employee development plan designed to make sure that your workforce is positioned to take your organization forward toward accomplishment of its long term strategic planning goals.
Depending on your organization’s goals, and the market it which it operates, your workforce may need both technology and soft skills training.

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Have you taken the appropriate steps to make sure that your workplace complies with all necessary OSHA regulations? As an employer, you have a duty to make sure that you are providing a save working environment for your employees. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has very specific regulations and standards, and it’s your responsibility to make sure that your organization is compliant.

One of the most important things any small business owner or manager can do is educate him or herself about OSHA regulations. It’s easy and affordable to participate in OSHA safety training. When you complete formal safety training, you’ll have a much better understanding of how you can take steps to prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace, which can have an overall positive impact on your organization’s bottom line.

It’s also a good idea to encourage your employees to participate in OSHA safety training. Depending on the type of industry you work in, your staff members may be required to earn OSHA 10 hour or 30 hour cards, that provide evidence they’ve been properly trained. Even in industries where these specific courses aren’t required, sending your employees to relevant safety training can keep them safe, reduce downtime, and keep your productivity levels where they need to be.

In addition to completing OSHA safety training, you should also download your free copy of the OSHA Small Business Handbook, which provides guidelines for keeping your operation compliant with the standards and regulations established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

When it comes to safety, you can’t know too much. The more you know about keeping your workplace injury free, the fewer problems you will experience related to work related injuries.

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Employee development training is critical to the long term success of any organization. Making plans to help employees keep up with and fully utilize technology is part of any sound strategic plan. It’s also necessary for business leaders to identify employees who have the potential to grow with the organization and develop them to fill critical roles that are likely to become available in the future.

Practicalities of Employee Training

However, it’s one thing to know that employee training is important and quite another to find the time to incorporate a comprehensive training program into already busy scheduled. The day-to-day challenges of running a successful business often take precedence over implementation of cross training, succession planning, and other things necessary to fulfill long term strategic goals. 

Finding a way to balance the need for employee development and current work demands is a real challenge for many businesses. It’s becoming more and more common for companies to look toward non-traditional options for providing training to employees. Providing blended learning opportunities for employees is one way that companies are rising to the challenge of finding time to fit needed training into the busy work day. 

What is Blended Learning?

As companies are finding it more difficult to schedule groups of employees to attend training sessions during the day, many are turning to solutions that provide a more flexible means of delivery. Blended learning is often described as hybrid learning. This increasingly popular approach to employee training combines online learning and face-to-face instructor led training.

Utilizing a blended approach to employee training involves making both traditional employee training classes and opportunities for online learning available to employees.

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People often mistake by relating the term ‘Management’ with HR. Which I feel is not absolutely true. Management means managing, like how a HR Manager manages its employees, a Sales Manager manages its Sales, a finance manager manages flow of funds and an account manager manages its firm’s accounts. Management teaches the ways to manage things well, sometimes one thing at one time and sometimes requires multi-tasking, take an example. An employee is very disturbed due to some reasons and misbehaved with many of his seniors, its HR manager’s job to handle him. The better he handles the man, the better he has learnt the term ‘management’.

The other terms, management means the most senior staff of an organization i.e. Chairman, Director, C.E.O. or Board of Directors etc. In such a case, the managerial staff is treated as representative of the senior management.

In terms of HR, management study teaches how to know different human beings, how to recognize their needs, how to persuade them to perform better and also to understand what make them feel good and happy. Almost every company is turning its side to HR department, and expecting their HR professionals to prepare its employees to perform best and give the positive results. But, this is not possible unless the problems and issues of an employee are resolved. To understand what’s going in the employee’s mind, what he wants, and what is troubling him, HR Department should try its best skills. I feel if an employee has had a bad start of the day, his whole day will be ruined and in the same manner, if he is having a bad evening, his rest of the day will be not good. Thus, HR Department should help the employee to make balance in his personal and professional lives.

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You may have been selected by your executive to initiate and see through some change program in your organization. Or you may have decided that the time has come to make your mark by dusting off the cobwebs in your workplace. However your change role came about, you have a challenging task ahead of you.

Consider this sobering thought. In spite of the importance of successfully implementing workplace change for maintaining your business’s competitiveness, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organizational benefits. This failure occurs for a number of reasons:

• absence of a change champion or one who is too junior in the organization
• poor executive sponsorship or senior management support
• poor project management skills
• hope rested on a one-dimensional solution
• political infighting and turf wars
• poorly defined organizational objectives
• change team diverted to other projects

Do you recognize one or more of these in your organization from previous initiatives? You have probably experienced already one major cost of such failure. The cynical and burned out employees left behind only make the next change objective even more difficult to accomplish. It should come as no surprise that the fear of managing change and its impacts is a leading cause of anxiety in managers.

Your first step in becoming a successful change leader is fully understanding your organization and matching the initiative to your organization’s real needs. This means not just adopting the latest management fad. Recognize that bringing about useful and meaningful change is fundamentally about changing people’s behavior in certain desired ways. It is not primarily about installing a new system or rearranging the organizational structure. If people in the end do not behave and work differently, then the money and time spent in “doing stuff” is wasted.

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