Comfori

Stress at Work: 5 Tips To Manage Stress

It is important to know the causes of stress and how to prevent it. Research has show that some stress are good for us, it helps us perform at optimal level. However, according to American Psychological Association, stress can result in headache, muscle tension, chest pain, fatigue and other physiological and psychological repercussion.

Research finding show that the most stressful type of work is that which values excessive demands and pressures that are not matched to workers' knowledge and abilities, where there is little opportunity to exercise any choice or control, and where there is little support from others.

It is hard to avoid stress at work - poor work organisation, and the way we manage them - can cause work stress. Since we can't necessarily avoid stress, it is important to learn on how to deal with it.

Here are five techniques that psychological research has shown to help reduce stress in the short and long term:

Take a break from the stressor

Break away from that big work project. Give yourself permission to step away from it and you will let yourself have time to do something else, which can help you have a new perspective or practice techniques or feel less overwhelmed.

Exercise

Lots of research being published on the benefits of exercise on your mind as well as your body. We keep hearing about the long-term benefits of a regular exercise routine. But even a 20 minutes walk, swim, or dance session in the midst of stressful time can give an intermediate effect that can last for several hours.

Smile and laugh

Our brains are interconnected with our emotions and facial expression. When people are stressed, they often hold a lot of stress in their face. So laugh of smiles can help relieve some of that tension and improve the situation.

Get social support

Call a friend, send an email. When you share your concerns of feelings with another person, it does help relieve stress. But it's important that the person whom you talk to is someone whom you trust and whom you feel can understand and validate you. If you friends or boss is a stressor, for example, it may not alleviate your stress if you share your works woes with one of them.

Meditate

Meditation and mindful prayer help the mind and body to relax and focus. Mindfulness can help see new perspectives, develop self-compassion and forgiveness. When practicing of mindfulness, people can release emotions that may have been causing the body physical stress. Much like exercise, research has shown that even meditating briefly can reap immediate benefits.

Hopefully you will find this article helpful .Give us a feedback by email to us your tips on managing your stress at work.

In one way or another, every department in a company serves employees to some extent and needs to be represented on a company intranet.

And yet surprisingly HR’s presence on the intranet is often understated despite the fact that HR’s core business function is to serve the employee!

HR certainly should be one of the driving forces behind a social intranet.

HR should be a critical decision maker in selecting and implementing intranet software, and HR certainly should be one of the driving forces behind a social intranet. We could list 100 ways in which a social intranet benefits the business, and we did with our 101 Intranet Ideas eBook, but to condense it down, here are three common goals for the intranet:

1. To support the company culture and collaboration

2. To improve and streamlines communication

3. To offers tasks, education and knowledge to employees.

HR is tied into all three. HR can prove value through the intranet by streamlining employee tasks and offering employee growth opportunities. Top of mind is vacation requests, benefits, retirement, career growth, workplace compensation, recruiting, safety, health & wellness, HR policies, grievances and conflict resolution.

Build an HR Intranet that will help employees, and big bonus! - help HR too!

One huge advantage of an HR intranet is the ability to tap into your existing talent pool of employees and reduce the cost of staff turnover.

For those of you in IT managing your intranet sites: turn off your computer monitor off, get up, stretch your legs and take a walk - to the HR department. Ask HR pertinent questions. Where do they get bottlenecked? How can they better reach out to employees and educate them? What pain points do they have in getting information out to employees? Discuss ways that the intranet and its many tools and functions can be leveraged to improve this bottleneck.

One huge advantage of an HR intranet is the ability to tap into your existing talent pool of employees and reduce the cost of staff turnover. When you do recruit, start the search internally with your intranet. This gives employees the growth opportunities within and lessons lessens the burden and financial toll with the recruitment and on-boarding process.

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Employees are collaborating online through their social intranets – listen in.

2. Employees are receiving gamification rewards and public intranet kudos for deliverables.

3. Robust social directories include employee skills, passions, proficiencies, expertise, training background, contributions and intranet content authored.

4. Witness employees who mentor their coworkers and show team leadership.

5. Look for those key individuals with outstanding performance, attitude and personality traits.

6. The intranet will show you the employees who are truly engaged.

Think about it. How powerful is that? Your social intranet can show you the talent pool that is already within the walls of your company, and who could be considered for promotion.

The intranet can also be used heavily during new employee on-boarding processes. Encourage the “people helping people” nature of a social intranet. Create an employee wall or social networking space where newbies can ask questions and employees of the company can give advice, provide a warm welcome, help them get acclimatised, speak to the culture, and smooth out the on-boarding, thereby taking the burden off HR.

Create task-based lists for new employees through a “new employee site” on the intranet.

This site can address key areas and documents that they need to read and tasks to perform as part of their first week:
1. Read the company brand promise.

2. Read the customer service delivery statement.

3. Go through the posted annual or quarterly goals on their department site.

4. List online forms to fill out, and then route the forms to supervisors / managers for approval.

5. Link to online learning videos about the company or your products.

6. Create quizzes and tests as part of the on-boarding process.

HR offers task-based needs and immediate value for employees. This in turn creates immediate value for the intranet.

Ask HR their opinion on how the intranet is growing, how it is it resonating and how it could it offer more value to the employees. What initiative does HR have, on the go, and how could the intranet support those initiatives?

Get HR involved and invested in your intranet. You can’t afford not to.

Source: http://www.hr-matters.info/feat2012/2012.oct.TheHRIntranet.htm

The term “consensus” is most often heard during political campaign season or when Congress is in session. Politicians are forever promising to build consensus with those on the other side of the political aisle, but there’s typically more talk than action.

Business leaders and human resource managers cannot afford to be so cavalier in their commitment to consensus. Sticking to the concept of proper consensus management can lead to happier employees and more robust bottom lines.

What is consensus?

Consensus is a method for group decision-making in which the goal is to arrive at a final decision that is acceptable to all members of the group because each had a say in its formation. Effective consensus decision-making leaves every team member feeling that they have been heard and that their ideas have been considered.

Consensus can be a very powerful tool for human resources because with it you can unite employees around a common goal and generate greater productivity. Consensus also fosters a climate of cooperation with employees collaborating to solve problems.

Because it involves the participation of everyone within a group, fostering consensus builds more buy-in from individual employees who feel they have more say, and therefore more of a stake in business processes and outcomes.

Five Ways to Implement Consensus for Group Decisions

As a human resources manager, it’s important to know some of the considerations that should be weighed before implementing a consensus-building model.

Important ideas to consider:

1. Lose the attitudes that undermine consensus. A team that operates in a “win-lose” environment – one employee’s idea must prevail over another’s – is not going to do well with consensus. Consensus building can also falter on a team with members who routinely avoid conflict. For effective dialogs to take place, employees should be encouraged to speak their minds, but also to understand that everyone has an equal say. Bear in mind that reaching consensus does not necessarily mean a unanimous decision.

2. Have regularly scheduled meetings. A team using consensus management must meet frequently to allow every team member the opportunity to have a voice in decisions. There also should be a consistent process at these meetings for employees to voice their opinions.

3. Foster an atmosphere of open communication. Employees will not speak freely in an atmosphere where new ideas are not welcome. Managers must make it clear to employees that all opinions are welcome. This will lead to employees trusting the process, which is a critical component of consensus building success.

4. Set clearly defined goals. No decision-making process, whether by group or individual, is going to be successful if the goals are not clearly defined. Clichés abound on this subject, but the simplest is still the best: You can’t get anywhere if you don’t know where you are going. Communication is vital in this area. Managers should make the ultimate group objective clear to employees before engaging in consensus building.

5. Support the decision. After encouraging employees to work together to forge consensus, it’s important to support the ultimate decision. There are rewards that come naturally from this exercise. Proper support reinforces the consensus building process to increase engagement among all stakeholders and decrease negative attitudes that can undermine productivity.

As difficult as it may be to implement, consensus building can offer tremendous rewards for the manager who uses it wisely in the right circumstances.

Source: http://www.hrmtoday.com/topic/featured-stories/

According to several independent, in-depth studies that have been done by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), businesses perform better when they invest in the development of their leaders.

Findings from work by The Conference Board, Bersin & Associates and HR analytics expert McBassi & Company, among others, point to the fact that leadership development is one of the most pressing issues facing organisations globally today, and represents a great chance for HR to set up leadership development programs that are key to helping companies seize competitive advantage in their industries.

More precisely, investments in leadership development allow companies do four following things that drive sustained success:

1.     Improve bottom-line financial performance. Companies that rate highly for their investments in human capital deliver stock market returns five times higher than those of companies with less emphasis on human capital. Leadership development builds capacity to reduce costs, drive new lines of revenue, and improve customer satisfaction.

Global pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, has successfully bolstered their bottom line because they have developed their leaders to come up with ways to reduce costs (nearly USD$2 million saved) and drive new lines of revenues.

2.     Attract and retain talent. Leadership development boosts employee engagement, increases the organisation’s ability to deal with gaps in the talent pipeline, and reduces headaches and costs associated with turnover.

After implementing leadership development, KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, has transformed its organisational culture into one that’s powered by strategy, collaboration and overall excellence – helping the company to retain valued employees.

3.     Create organisational alignment. Effective leadership development isn’t development for its own sake. Organisations need a leadership hierarchy that closely connects with the business strategies and equip employees with the necessary leadership skills to implement these strategies. Leadership development allows organisations to shape the culture and strategy of business.

Financial services provider, Barclaycard, found itself facing regulatory changes and competitive pressures in a volatile global economy. It turned to CCL for the development of Barclaycard Academy which is a consistent leadership model for all business leaders that bolstered overall strategy and execution for Barclaycard.

4.     Increase organisational agility. Leadership development increases people’s ability to respond rapidly in unpredictable business environments. When organisations look beyond developing senior executives and high potentials to unlock the full potential of their talent pools, agility is magnified.

Insurance company, Aviva, partnered with CCL to help develop leadership development programs (LDP) that will include a bigger portion of the employees. Such LDP approach allowed Aviva to widen their pool of leaders and forge a more nimble organisation. Ultimately, it helped them to weather the global recession.

The sooner organisations fully embrace these four reasons, the sooner they will reap the rewards.

Source:

http://www.hrmasia.com/resources/leadership/four-reasons-to-invest-in-leadership-development/142485/

COMPENSATION PROCESSES

Global ? Organisations that constantly evaluate and improve their total compensation processes are more efficient at achieving their strategic workforce performance goals.

Research from Ventana Research has shown that 72% of companies indicated that deploying a total compensation management system was a top priority. A quarter of 145 executives surveyed across various industries found that their companies still have inconsistencies in executing compensation processes across the business departments and divisions. More than half lack confidence in their existing processes.

Respondents added that managing merit pay and base pay were still at the forefront of their issues. Alignment of pay and performance were listed second and third as areas for improvement.

Ventana offers five recommendations to improve compensation management processes.

Focus on outcomes for improving workforce performance.
Before an organisation can take action to realise the benefits of investment in total compensation management, HR and finance must ensure they agree on the direction. The benefit companies desire most is the ability to align their workforce to the business strategy and goals (52%), followed by efficiency of process (50%). Companies also want visibility into employee compensation, performance and succession related information (40%) and establish pay for documented performance (39%).

Replace outmoded technology to increase efficiency.
Although companies are looking to improve their processes, more than half of respondents are still using spreadsheets for compensation activities. Organisations should assess available applications to determine what may meet their needs cost effectively. Those that don't are likely to fall behind in the race to acquire and retain talent.

Work to integrate appropriate sources and systems.
To drive improvement, it is necessary to integrate existing information sources with compensation and workforce performance or talent management systems. Integration will require the organisation focus not just on the usability and functionality of the applications but also the architecture needed to support integration to other internal systems, including the Human Management Resource System and spreadsheets, as well as external hosted or on-demand systems.

HR should explore ways to find a compensation system that can become the repository of the single view of compensation at every level, from individual to organisation. If separate dedicated compensation systems are needed, they should be designed to support integration into the system that provides the integrated view.

Understand what you really need.
Make sure you fully understand what your managers want and need from the compensation management so you can determine the type of application to use and the sources of data to draw upon. Individual compensation management software systems have relative strengths and weaknesses. Some are better at managing variable pay components while others have better capabilities for making critical decisions about workforce planning and strategy.

By clearly defining your business, user, information and technology requirements, you will be better equipped to evaluate how well providers of total compensation management applications will satisfy your particular needs.

Bear in mind it is possible that no single dedicated application will meet all of your needs. Perhaps bringing together specific capabilities from different systems will be required. If the latter, integration capability is essential.

Seek top management support.
Enlist sponsors from finance and senior executive management who will support the required investments and provide organisational leadership for the programme and its goals. With improved processes that work together efficiently, you can reduce friction in the workforce and focus on driving performance improvement.

Source: http://www.careerwise.com.my/Newsletter.php?id=6

Over the past decade, HR has evolved to become a strategic partner in many organisations. The ability to outsource basic HR functions to third party businesses has been a key enabler in this process.

Some of the functions that are commonly outsourced include recruitment, payroll processing, benefits administration, and employee database management. According to research by IDC, the HR outsourcing market has grown by close to 70% over the past six years, with employers spending some US$103.3 billion on services in 2007 alone.

The recent recession saw an increase in demand for HR outsourcing services as companies sought to improve efficiencies, reduce employment costs and eliminate risks.

Even as the economy recovers, companies are still seeking to maintain cost efficiencies.
An outsourcing service provider manages sometimes thousands of transactions across many clients and normally enjoys greater economies of scale. This can lead to increased value and lower costs, Caleb Baker, General Manager, HR Outsourcing, Talent 2, says.

He says the typical HR outsourcing contract can lead to savings of up to 25%. However, there is more than just cost savings in its favour – quality is also an important factor to consider. Sometimes HR just does not have the expertise or headcount to execute certain functions, Baker says.

Dollars and sense
Payroll processing is a time-consuming and administratively routine task that was once the sole concern of HR - this makes it a good starting point for organisations looking to outsource. Farming this out to a service provider can help in-house HR to focus on more value-added services or strategic decisions.
Outsourcing payroll functions is often cheaper than hiring your own specialist staff, particularly for companies with smaller overall headcounts. According to Andrew McArthur, Managing Director, Pay Asia, a full-time in-house solution requires the procurement of software and hardware as well as maintenance. “This will result in a significant cost which makes less it financially viable for a small and medium enterprise,” he says.
Service providers can often provide greater accuracy from their “outsider” position. For example, they will ensure that employees are paid on time and that your tax payments are in. Many leading providers have avenues for compensation in the event of a mistake – something that is impossible under an internal administration regime. Outsourcing also lowers the risk of corporate fraud.
MacArthur says that companies with a payroll service provider are also freed of the need to be constantly abreast of changes to professional and statutory requirements. Instead, the service provider will check on the regulations and implement them as needed, he says.

Talent search
For many organisations, recruiting new employees is a labour intensive process that is subject to market fluctuations and company performance. A hiring blitz would call for more staff specialising in recruitment. The same employees might become redundant during a hiring freeze. Outsourcing this function to a third party can alleviate these problems.

In recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), an employer moves all or a part of the organisation’s recruitment efforts to a third-party. Service providers in this area cover the whole gamut of recruitment functions from hiring and onboarding, to performance assessment and succession planning. These are handled by hiring specialists who typically have access to a large database of potential candidates.

According to Simon Bell, Regional Director, Managed Solutions and Talent Management- Asia, Hudson, an RPO service provider can offer better control and visibility over the recruitment process. This can lead to improvements in candidate quality with better-defined job descriptions and selection methodologies.

“The power of your resourcing function is only as strong as the people manning it and the tools that enable them. In a rapidly recovering economy, they can be the difference between success and failure,” he says.

Getting started
Organisations need to establish their most pressing HR needs and prioritise them accordingly. Many outsourcing service providers offer diagnostic tools that can guide HR through the various strengths and weaknesses before settling on an appropriate solution. The outsourcing process brings along a period of changes and HR must effectively sell these to management and employees in order to get their involvement and buy-in.

An outsourcing arrangement also requires HR to work alongside service providers. Both parties need to plan and communicate their needs and expectations, to ensure that service level agreements are adequately fulfilled. A structure of governance that includes transparent reporting on key metrics is essential to cut down on unnecessary time spent on outsourcing issues.

Organisations must also understand that outsourcing HR does not lead to immediate profit. It often takes time for the outsourcing service provider to fully understand and deliver a client’s requirements.

Source: http://www.hrmasia.com/resources/outsourcing/sharing-the-load/49850/

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

featured Slider

Stress Management

Stress at Work: 5 Tips To Manage Stress

The HR Intranet

Five Ways to Use Consensus for Group Decisions

Four Reasons to Invest in Leadership Development

Five ways to improve compensation processes

Sharing the load

Featured post

ONLINE TRAINING ON MAR: DEVELOPING CREATIVITY THINKING & INNOVATION IN MANAGEMENT

Blog Archive

FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS

Labels

featured Slider

Stress Management

Stress at Work: 5 Tips To Manage Stress

The HR Intranet

Five Ways to Use Consensus for Group Decisions

Four Reasons to Invest in Leadership Development

Five ways to improve compensation processes

Sharing the load

Search This Blog

Featured post

ONLINE TRAINING ON MAR: DEVELOPING CREATIVITY THINKING & INNOVATION IN MANAGEMENT

Blog Archive

FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS

Labels