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Donna Flagg Articles

Written by: Donna Flagg

Organizational Alignment: The Importance of Building HR Infrastructure - Click To Read Article
Companies seem to inherently value the role, presence and necessity of infrastructure when it comes to their technology, financial and other operational systems. But human resources is a vital a system too, one that provides just as much support to a business as any other, if not more. Yet often times HR gets overlooked because it’s considered “soft” which usually translates into “less important.” Except, how can the very system upon which all others depend not be important?

The Difference Between Managers and Leaders is A Lot & Not Much - Click To Read Article
Debate has long surrounded the topic of whether managers differ from leaders and vice versa, and if so, how. Meanwhile, the reason that we never seem able to settle on a single answer is because they are both different and the same simultaneously. What I mean by this is that managing requires getting work done. It’s the nitty gritty of the day-to-day - organizing people, logistics, communication, etc… and making sure that things run smoothly like how the moving parts of a machine work together to create a functional whole. Leading on the other hand is about inspiration, the epitome of ideals, having vision and being able to effectively communicate its tenets. Implicitly workplace leaders have followers. Managers don’t, not necessarily.

HR Departments: Making Structure Make Sense - Click To Read Article
Human Resource departments are not being optimized because of the way they tend to be structured. Usually “HR” refers to things like benefits, payroll, hiring, firing, training, reviews, compensation and the like. But we in corporate America missed the opportunity to better organize Human Resources when it moved away from its roots in “Personnel.” But not to worry. It's not too late.

HR Department Basic Functions - Click To Read Article
Even though there are many ways to structure an HR department, most of them generally look the same. They are typically made up of “generalists” or “specialists” or some combination thereof. Sometimes one generalist will oversee a group of specialists and sometimes the reverse is true depending on the needs of the organization and the available talent on hand. But in all, whether you have a formalized HR department or not, there are a few necessary skill sets that make up, and round out the overall practice.

Strategic HR Plans Integrating People and Business - Click To Read Article
With so much changing in the world around us, it’s going to be hard to make assumptions about what we think we know as we try to plan for success in the year ahead. Our existing beliefs are being challenged like never before, our systems have been disturbed to the point of collapse and the status quo is more of a moving target than ever. That makes now a good time to start mapping out primary and secondary objectives along with major and minor initiatives for 2009. That is, if you haven’t already. But even if you have, it is also a good opportunity to be sure (or as sure as you can be) that your upcoming goals are clear, targeted and aligned to be mutually reinforcing and produce desired business results.

Employee Benefits: A New Perk for the Broken Hearted - Click To Read Article
Hime & Co., a Japanese company founded by 37-year-old Miki Hiradate offers employees paid time off to heal from a broken heart. Aside from being a welcome and humane approach to management, it also makes good business sense to give people a little space to recover from the loss of a failed relationship, because in the end, they are going to take the time anyway.

A Better Way to Implement Mentoring Programs - Click To Read Article
Formal mentoring programs have become a staple in many organizations, but they often fall short because they tend to make employees feel awkward on both the mentor and mentee side of the relationship. This is not because mentoring is a bad idea, it’s because the existing framework isn’t right.

Creating Healthy Work Environments - Click To Read Article
We want security and we want it everywhere. As a nation, we’re focused on national security. We schlep to work everyday for financial security. Once we get there we work hard to prove ourselves hoping for job security. We have lifestyles we want to secure and we look for it in our relationships. We secure our buildings, our computers, our accounts and our valuables. But we never seem to notice that the security people feel inside is often the least secure thing of all. Instead we install more alarms, add to our nest eggs and write new laws to protect our assets, our futures and our loved ones, when what we really need to do to make better, healthier companies is exert as much energy securing ourselves internally as we do our external environments and circumstances.

Consensus Building Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing - Click To Read Article
There are a lot of upsides to building consensus in organizations, and generally, it tends to be very good for company culture and morale. However, it does have its downside too in that it also increases the chances that nothing will get done. Now, I’m all for enlisting the opinions of others, and happen to personally enjoy weighing multiple perspectives against one another in order to learn something new or see something in a way I hadn’t seen it before. But sometimes instead of helping, the exercise of pursuing “agreement,” does more to hold things back. Why? Because it’s not very often that everyone agrees, especially as the size of a group increases. So while “consensus” is “in” and considered politically correct, it can also be equally as unrealistic a goal if it is not exploited properly.

Sales Training 101 - Click To Read Article
We are so conditioned to think about selling in terms of “helping customers,” that we sometimes loose sight of the fact that not everyone wants or needs “help.” Think about it. The assistance you offer one is the pestering you provide another. The most important thing to assess when dealing with customers is whether they are decisive or not when it comes to making a decision about your product. From there, you can gauge not only how much you need to give, but also how much “selling” versus backing off is actually necessary.

Scaling Efficiencies and Reducing Redundancy by Connecting People with Products - Click To Read Article
People often have a hard time grasping the idea that marketing and training are more similar than they are different since historically the two have always operated in silos strictly independent of one another. One department always handles the “people” while another takes care of the “products.” On one level, that’s fine since each involves its own specialization. But at the same time getting the full potential out of employees and products should not entail too divergent an approach.

Social Media Management in the Workplace - Click To Read Article
Three easy cut-and-dry steps to get Web 2.0 under control in the workplace.

The Pitfalls of Delegation - Click To Read Article
Delegating has become a major marker of good management skills, but overtime the effort has lost its connection to reality. Delegation is not always the answer, but rather an important tool to be combined with staff management and strategies that bring out the best in people without risking the quality of work outcomes and results.

Tips on Creating Surveys to Measure Employee Satisfaction - Click To Read Article
Employee evaluation on both the organizational and individual level is often one of the most forgotten about and underutilized tools in the workplace. The sense I get is that it is overlooked because people are afraid of surveys either because they don’t know how to use them properly or they don’t know what to do with the information once they get it. Whatever the reason, surveys and evaluation don’t have to be long, cumbersome and complicated exercises that render meaningless results. Rather, it’s just a matter of obtaining some insight that can guide you through the process as you craft a system that works best for you.

The Need for Romantic Relationship Policies - Click To Read Article
A great deal of attention has been paid to office romance lately, but with all of the extra focus and debate, the issue itself has become more convoluted than it needs to be. Workplace conundrum of the century, this is not. At least from an organizational perspective, it is not that complicated. With just a few easy steps, and some basic ground rules, you can simplify a process and streamline an effective practice around handling personal and intimate relationships in your workplace.

Management Technique: Reverse Feedback - Click To Read Article
Managing people can be a challenge, especially when you’re new at it. But it’s even harder if and when your goal is to inspire people to want to do something in lieu of making them feel as though they have to. We all know that the quality of the end result is far better when people are interested in what they are doing and care about the outcomes they produce. So why is it so common for so many managers to fall back on the old, ho-hum hierarchical management model of, “Do it because I’m the boss?” These are remnants of stale power structures which carry assumptions that bosses get things done because they “say so.” At its best, it’s a highly unimaginative and weak approach to managing people, and at its worst it’s ignorant.

Giving Employees a Test Run Before Hiring - Click To Read Article
Be gone with staid interviewing questions, behavioral “what ifs” and real-life simulations. Just put the candidate to work and see for yourself firsthand whether he/she is actually what he/she claims to be. Not that all other techniques should be done away with entirely, but at least with a pre-hire trial approach, decisions don’t need to be solely dependent on a set of variables that are tenuous at best.

HR Departments Need Business Acumen Too - Click To Read Article
The problem with a lot of HR departments is that companies relegate them too far to a “back office” mentality. This only renders the people who work in them out of touch with the front of the house where an understanding of the business and the people driving it is critical. So, in order for human resource employees to be the necessary link that connects internal functions with external performance, those working in HR should be as business minded and savvy as they are administrative and up on HR laws.

Humor at Work - Click To Read Article
It’s often said that laughter is the best medicine. But, not only is humor good for our health, it can also be a valuable workplace tool. Because humor has an uplifting effect on people, organizations can benefit by using it to create a positive and more productive workplace.

How to Write Better Job Descriptions - Click To Read Article
I never understood why job descriptions were such banal documents with no structure, but a laundry list of task-driven responsibilities instead – responsibilities that pretty much look the same from one organization to another. That makes no sense. They’re more than that. Or, they could be. Meanwhile, what they shouldn’t be are generic copy/paste instruments borrowed from the Internet or someone else’s workplace. That approach deprives a company of its originality. No, rather their contents should show a relationship to the larger organization, so that the person who occupies the role actually understands his or her relationship to the larger organization.

How to Handle Discrimination Claims - Click To Read Article
The key to handling discrimination claims is knowing what to do BEFORE it goes to court.

How and When to Use Exit Interviews - Click To Read Article
As we come off the “expansion” phase of business and commerce in this country and face serious “contraction” with layoffs in record numbers, will companies have the wherewithal and be organized enough to collect employee feedback as part of their broader exit strategies? It remains to be seen.

Holiday Parties 101: Risks and Returns - Click To Read Article
With lavish holiday parties not only raising questions but eyebrows too, companies are debating the appropriateness of costly year-end celebrations during these faltering economic times from both a financial and public relations perspective.

Guidelines to Help Busineses Manage Friendships at Work - Click To Read Article
Recently, the pendulum has begun to swing away from the taboo notion that friendships at work threaten business results and toward what value may be inherent to having friendships in the workplace. Employers are rethinking old mandates that expected employees to keep their personal lives "outside."

Finding and Forming Your Corporate Identity - Click To Read Article
Just as individuals need to know who they are in order to lead fulfilling and successful lives, so too do organizations need to be clear about their identities in order to establish a stronghold in the marketplace. Your identity as a brand and essence as a company is the equivalent to an individual’s personality. It informs your culture the same way personalities instruct behavior. So understanding yourself, knowing what makes you tick and having a grasp on how you are viewed and experienced by the outside world all serve to inform the decisions you make about your behavior in business, life or both. The key is to put a little time toward thinking about it and having fun in the process.

Employee Warnings: One Strike and You're Out - Click To Read Article
If an employee's performance needs improve, it shouldn't take a full quarter to find out whether he or she can pull it off or not. A better system can be structured so that you get the information you need about an employee's ability to turn it around sooner, rather than later.





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