RocketHR

We use employee surveys at work to measure employee satisfaction, gather confidential feedback, and uncover hidden issues and trends lying under the organization’s surface. Some companies spend money and time on expensive survey tools, but as long as the right questions are asked, the followup is more important than the method.

I personally like Google Docs as a tool for creating a quick and easy (and free!) employee survey. Here’s how to do it:

• Go to Google.com/docs
• Log in or create a free Google account if you don’t have one already.
• Click “Create”
• Click “Form”
• Enter the information you’d like your survey to contain
• Click the link at the bottom of the screen to view the published form
• Highlight the link, right click on the link text, and press Ctrl + C on the keyboard to copy the link
• Open an email and press Ctrl + V on the keyboard to paste the link into the body of the email
• Send the email to your employees!
• To view the responses to the survey, log into your Google Docs account and click on the survey in the document list to open the spreadsheet full of responses

There’s more to it than that short explanation, but that is the most basic way to create and distribute an employee survey in less than ten minutes. To give a little better illustration, I created this short screencast to show some of the steps involvled. Click here to open the screencast video in a new window. If you have questions on how to do this after reading the directions and watching the video, feel free to reach out to me for help.

I was talking with one of our employees recently and was quite surprised to learn that they did not realize the importance of reporting participation in an outside investigation. Many of our staff members are located on customer sites, geographically remote from the corporate office. Therefore, if they don’t notify us of an investigation, we have no way of knowing about it. I can remember two instances of this coming up in the past year or two–once handled poorly and once handled well.

Oh, I forgot…

One day I was speaking with an employee about some minute detail (address changes or something equally innocuous) and they casually mentioned responding to someone’s questions about a fellow coworker. After doing some digging, I realized that the employee had been a witness in an investigation by an outside entity to determine if another person in the workplace had done something illegal/unethical. I asked if they had considered reporting that to corporate or the HR office, and the response was fairly typical.

“Oh, I was going to, but I forgot.” 

Sigh. Oh, well. It is what it is, right? So I told them the following story as a reminder for how to handle it next time.

Let me check…

On another customer site, our staff works side by side with other companies supplying contractors for the customer. One day a contractor in the office blew his top. It was the usual yelling, cursing, and general mayhem that accompanies someone under too much pressure. The employee was sent home for the day, and the following day brought with it an investigatory team to determine what had occurred. Being in the office, our employee was naturally asked about the incident. Before he responded or gave a statement, he dropped the golden phrase:

“Let me check with my HR guys first just to make sure it’s okay.” 

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Now, HR doesn’t need to be consulted every time you have to sneeze (that’s a great way to waste time at work), but for something like this that could affect someone’s employment status, it doesn’t hurt to let us in on what’s going on. If there is a possibility that an angry person could come back and cause some level of workplace violence, then it definitely needs to be on our radar.

Just remember: When in doubt, let HR check it out. 

Ever had an employee participate in an outside investigation and have it backfire on you? I’d like to hear how you handled it. 

Warning: This post is supposed to be humorous. If you are not experienced with humor, you might not get it. If that is the case, here’s the IRS website. Feel free to read some of that really exciting stuff over there. Why humor? Because we’re HR professionals, darn it. If we don’t get some measure of humor our souls wither and die.

Today I’ll tell the story of when I accidentally insulted someone during new hire orientation.

And not just any someone.

This guy’s dream (as he’d already told me several times) was to own his own firearms and hand-to-hand combat training business, so he was a pretty tough dude.

So, I’d been recruiting this guy for a few weeks, but we hadn’t been able to talk very much since he was overseas at the time. He was taking a remote position with us, and the group he was working with was actually in town on the day he started, so he came to the home office for his new hire orientation. Simple enough, right?

Well, we are sitting in the orientation session and I pause to talk about the different pieces of the company and what all we do. I mentioned a recent proposal we had submitted to do some work for the government, and his temper went from zero to sixty in a heartbeat. He was on his feet, pacing back and forth, and growling about how dumb the decision was. I’ve never actually seen someone “gnashing their teeth,” but I’m willing to bet that was about as close as you can get.

They make you take psychology classes in college when you get an HR degree. You also take things like communications, public speaking, etc. Basically, you should know how to talk to someone. Heh. At the time that was the furthest thing from my mind.

This guy is a trained killer, and I just made him angry. If he smashes the computer and chairs, I’m the next biggest thing in the room for him to take his frustrations out on. Unless he used the computer and chairs to smash me. That seems pretty efficient, and I haven’t seen anything inefficient about the guy since I met him. Crap.I’d rather go out in a blaze of glory. Beaten to death with a faux leather office chair was not in my top five ways to die. 

Agh. Why didn’t I sit closer to the door? I could at least get it halfway open before he snaps my neck like a twig. I wonder if I could distract him. Too bad I don’t have a red cape to wave in his face or something. Or a bazooka. That would probably be intimidating, except for the fact that I have no idea how to use one. Sigh. College was such a poor way to spend my time. 

At this point he’s started to calm down a little after circling the room a few times. I’d like to say it was at that point that I took control of the situation and moved on with the orientation.

But I didn’t.

Wow. His hands look really big. I wonder if he could wrap them all the way around my neck. I wonder where he’d hide the body. It’s a small room. But he’s probably inventive. He could stuff me in the ceiling tiles and be out of the building before anyone realized I was missing. Why didn’t I take the extra optional life insurance package? Darn. Wait a minute, what if I play dead? Will he still attack? Oh, wait, that’s for bears, not people. Stupid Discovery Channel. Why don’t you tell us how to survive people? I have yet to see a bear from three feet away, but I’ve been that close to plenty of crazy people… Wait a minute, he’s looking at me again.

By this point he was sitting in his chair, staring at me as if I was the one who had nearly just blew his top. I stumbled and stuttered through the rest of the slides, made an excuse to leave the room, and breathed deeply of the fresh air that filled my lungs.

I had survived.

I’d like to say there’s a grandiose lesson here, but I can’t think of one. Just make sure you sit near the door if you are ever alone in a room with a former special-forces-trained-killer and there’s a chance you could make them angry at you.

Anyone else have a crazy new hire orientation story?

Today we have a guest post from one of the members of the NASHRM Programs committee. Take it away, Jane!

Tell your employees to take a hike. It’s good for them (and your company, too!). Be careful how you tell your employees to take a hike, though. This article is not about employee termination but rather wellness and good health.

One of the obvious ways to achieve good health and therefore better job performance is through staying active and physically fit. We all know that. But how much activity does the average person need? According to the Centers for Disease Control, all healthy adults aged 18-65 need moderate-intensity physical activity of 30 minutes 5 times/week, OR vigorous physical activity for 20 minutes 3 times/week. Additionally, we should all do strength-training of some sort 2-3 times per week, exercising our major muscle groups.

The key fact here for the HR professional is that the moderate 30 minutes can be accumulated throughout the day in three 10-minute sessions. It just might be in your organization’s interests to suggest your employees take a 10-minute break for a healthy brisk walk and fresh-air break. It’s a good way to clear one’s mind so your employees will come back physically refreshed and mentally recharged.

The more active your employees are, the more alert, energetic and productive they will be. Another important aspect of good health and wellness is a peaceful environment. We provide that to working professionals at our facility. We are a community of all one-story buildings so our property is quieter than most, which is a great environment for working professionals.

Here’s to good health for you and your co-workers!

Jane Pavis is a member of the Wellness Committee with Asbury United Methodist Church and Corporate Suites Manager for Abby Glenn~A Quiet Cove Corporate Suites and Apartments in Huntsville, AL.

In the past few years, I have been a wrestling referee for high school and junior varsity matches. This past week I made the decision to go back and officiate this season, so I went to the introductory meeting. While I was sitting there, I felt like I was from two different worlds, and I learned some valuable lessons from the experience. These are random, stream of consciousness type ideas, but they are useful!

• Give good directions. I wasn’t given directions and had a few minutes of panicked phone calls before I found the location. Imagine a job candidate feeling that way.
• Make people feel comfortable. I stood there next to a handful of guys I am barely acquainted with, but half the crowd was made up of strangers. I’d have liked to have the chance to introduce myself and meet the others officially.
• Have a very basic description of what to expect in the job. If I hadn’t already done the job for a few years, I’d have felt very unsure about what to expect for the coming weeks and months.
• Going from the HR/manager view at my day job down to the hands-on, line staff level as a referee is an interesting leap. We have random, pointless rules to abide by, and there’s absolutely no visibility of senior leadership as a guiding force. Sound like your company, perhaps?
• If you’re going to referee, then you have to go through the screwy annual performance review process like I describe in this video. That in itself is just nuts.
• We went over new rules. One of them? You have to buy a special jacket if you plan to wear one. Um, guys, the season runs December to January. We are going to wear jackets. And we shouldn’t have to pay out of pocket to get a specific jacket you are forcing us to wear.
• (Minor rant:) One year I got some black shoes, because you are supposed to wear them as part of your uniform. The problem was the only size and brand I could find in black was a size too small. Needless to say it didn’t work. After seven hours of running and jumping in tiny shoes, I put on my old ones which were not the regulation color. I received several comments about them, but nobody seemed to care when I explained why I couldn’t wear the black shoes. Sigh. Be aware that when people break the rules at work, they might sometimes have a really, really good reason for it. Don’t assume the worst!

Anyway, it took a lot of words but in the end I just felt small. I felt like I didn’t matter.

After being in a leadership position within my organization on a daily basis, I sometimes forget what it is like to not have the insider info, to depend on others to communicate changes and direction, and to be treated like just one more widget on an assembly line. Take a minute today to refocus your view on your people, and try to look at things from their perspective as often as possible. Remind them that you have their best interests at heart.

And please, please, PLEASE make them feel like a valuable asset to the organization (building an effective recognition program will help). They will appreciate it.

Happy Halloween!

Sometimes in the HR profession we run across people that others just can’t deal with. Whether it’s the guy with the body odor problem, the gossiping employee, or the disengaged segments of the workforce, we are the ones people turn to when things get sticky. Compared to the rest of the employees, they almost seem like monsters!

Click here to read Monsters at Work

I’ve been talking about my experience at Hire Minds lately, and there were some amazing quotes I picked up while at the event. One of my favorites was during the Chipotle session when the speaker mentioned their hiring philosophy.

Experience NOT preferred.

Short and sweet, yes, but the gist of the saying is that it’s easier to find someone who is enthusiastic, friendly, and passionate than it is to find an experienced professional and try to train them to fit that bill. Hire for attitude and train for skill is one of my favorite sayings.

I know when we’re looking for entry level people we give culture fit considerable weight. Someone may have great experience and an acceptable salary range, but if they don’t fit the culture, we won’t be considering them for the position. It does no good to fill the position with a poor fit and have to re-recruit for it six months later. We look for people with a hunger for knowledge and a penchant for helping others whenever possible, and it’s been very successful thus far.

Next time you’re getting a job posting ready, consider looking at qualities other than experience and education in order to make your decision. You might be pleasantly surprised with the result.

It is what it is.

I’ve come to hate that phrase with a passion. One of our managers, whenever faced with a particularly significant challenge, will respond with that saying. I’ve decided that the next time this manager says, “It is what it is,” I’m  going to respond with, “Because we let it be.”

It’s time to stop letting things get by because they require a modicum of effort to solve. It’s time to start thinking in terms of what you can do about the problem.

One of the interview questions I’ve taken to asking is “How lucky do you think you are on a scale of one to ten?” There has been research done on this topic, and when people believe they are lucky, they end up finding more opportunities and generally seeming to be more lucky because of their openness to challenges. People that believe they are unlucky are like this manager, and they feel like things happen to them without any control over it.

Do you know someone who uses one of those “catch all” phrases as an excuse?  Will you challenge them in a similar way to look within for an answer instead of throwing up their hands in defeat? 

Employee ownership is something I have been researching lately. Not “actual” ownership, but a sense of it. What effect would that have on someone’s attitude and engagement? How could you encourage ownership without turning to complex, expensive solutions? Check out the video below for some ideas on how to create a sense of employee ownership in your organization.

Subscribers may have to click through to view.

Last week I attended a great event called HR Florida down near Orlando. I sat in on some fantastic sessions, and I really enjoyed the experience. Here are my notes from a few of the sessions:

Why it pays to lighten up

During this session, one of the authors of The Levity Effect shared research and case studies that encouraged having fun at work. If your workplace has a terminal case of seriousness, then you need to check this out. Click the link to learn more about The Levity Effect.

Recognition: it works

Another session I attended was called Developing an effective, no cost recognition program. The speaker gave us ideas to help our managers recognize employees for a job well done and to avoid the fake-sounding praise that is commonplace. Click the link to learn more about developing a recognition program.

Questions you (and your managers) should know

One speaker casually tossed out a question during his session, and it stuck in my head for the duration of the event. Which of your supervisors holds the best meetings? What makes them great? Knowing these answers helps you to better support your managers and employees, and encouraging managers to know them about their own people helps to establish stronger communication in the workplace. Click the link to learn more about questions you should ask at work.

All in all it was an amazing event. I hope to attend again next year!