Here are some tips on creating a strong interview process:

• Ensure that you make time to go through the candidate’s CV – do not leave it until the last moment

• Offer the candidate a glass of water before the interview starts. Everyone is nervous at these times, which can result in a poor interview and you letting the best candidate slip through your fingers

• Explain to the candidate the structure of the interview, which will help put them at their ease and result in a better interview

• Tell them a little about your company. Ask a little about them, including the information on their CV. Be wary of any inconsistencies between the candidate’s CV and what they’re telling you.

Some strong interview questions that you should ask each applicant are listed below. By asking each applicant some of the same interview questions, you will gain comparative insights into the different applicants and their answers.

Why are you the right person for the job?

This is a fantastic question because it allows candidates to answer however they see fit, providing insight into their personality and working style. Some may provide a list of qualities and tell you how they fit the position, whilst others may concentrate on passion for the industry. Consider how their answer fits in with your current team and your business goals as a whole.

What do you know about our company?

Candidates that display knowledge about your company show they have made an effort to prepare for their interview. Good preparation skills are essential for any job and reveal self-discipline and a realistic approach. If a candidate hasn’t bothered to find out about your organisation, your strategic goals or your products and services, do you really want them working for your team?

What are your biggest weaknesses?

Be prepared for a wide range of answers. The content is less important than the candidate’s willingness to accept their imperfections and commit to either improving or working around them. If the candidate doesn’t address how they deal with their weaknesses, don’t be afraid to follow up.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Candidates with strong professional aspirations often display drive and enthusiasm that can really benefit your business. Look for candidates that have a good working knowledge of the industry and can identify relevant opportunities that may relate to their own careers.

What do you like to do in your free time?

When hiring employees it’s important to consider their place in your team. Finding out what candidates do in their free time can help you decide whether they will integrate successfully with your current team.

Do you have any questions about the position or our company?

This is a great leading question that allows candidates to find out relevant information; they may ask where you see the company in five years, how you feel the industry is changing or why you’re recruiting for the role. You’re looking for engagement and interest.

Recruitment and Selection HR Tools

Please take an opportunity of our special offer HR&OHS Diagnostics worth $465.00 and be ready for 2012.

In this month’s edition we have the following:

• 2012 WHS Harmonisation – Are you prepared?
• Legal Wisdom with Travis Sturgeon
• Identify Stress in Workplace
• Steps to Implement when Changing Work Culture
• Be the Employer of Choice
• Psychometric Tools for Employers

You may view all the articles once you have open the Newsletter.

Employee job descriptions are written statements that describe the duties, responsibilities, required qualifications, and reporting relationships of a particular job.  Job descriptions are based on objective information obtained through job analysis, an understanding of the competencies and skills required to accomplish needed tasks, and the needs of the organization to produce work. Job descriptions clearly identify and spell out the responsibilities of a specific job, and also include information about working conditions, tools, equipment used, knowledge and skills needed, and relationships with other positions.

Employee job descriptions provide an opportunity to clearly communicate your company direction and they tell the employee where he or she fits inside of the big picture.

Whether you’re a small business or a large, multi-site organization, well-written employee job descriptions will help you align employee direction. Alignment of the people you employ with your goals, vision, and mission spells success for your organization. As a leader, you assure the inter-functioning of all the different positions and roles needed to get the job done for the customer.

Employee job descriptions set clear expectations for what you expect from people. If employees aren’t doing what you want them to do, you need to make certain that they clearly understand your expectations. This understanding starts with the employee job description.

Whether you’re recruiting new employees or posting jobs for internal applicants, employee job descriptions tell the candidate exactly what you want in your selected person. Clear employee job descriptions can help you select your preferred candidates and address the issues and questions of those people who were not selected.

Well-written employee job descriptions help organization employees, who must work with the person hired, understand the boundaries of the person’s responsibilities. People who have been involved in the hiring process are more likely to support the success of the new employee or promoted co-worker. Developing employee job descriptions is an easy way to involve people in your organization’s success.

For effectiveness, you must regularly look at and use employee job descriptions as part of your day-to-day work. In addition to the updating of regular goals and objectives suggested above, employee job descriptions are an integral part of the performance management and evaluation system. They are used to determine salary increases and bonus eligibility.

If the job description is just going to sit in the Human Resource’s file cabinet, or only be reviewed at times of hiring, then it will become a waste of paper and will not help the company reach their goals.

Please visit out HR Resources page and choose from 300 well written Job Descriptions to set you and your business up in reaching your goals.

It is very important to listen to the employee carefully during the exit interview, but it is even more important to act over the feedback and information the employer receives.

Why are exit interviews important?

Many employers fail to recognize the reason why their employees leave. Exit interviews are considered a very important and useful tool for the manager. Proper exit interviews are an excellent source of learning the strengths and weaknesses of both; the managers and the organization. It helps the employer understand the correlation between the organization culture and the employee, and the techniques to best satisfy and keep hold of valuable employees.

Managers know the importance of exit interviews, but when an employee exits, managers are too busy finding a replacement and planning a transition strategy with their team while managing their workload. When the employee finally exits, the managers think that they have lost the opportunity. In fact, it is considered more beneficial to conduct an exit interview after an employee has left.

Exit interviews are a unique chance to receive candid feedback from employees to identify the negative traits of the management. The departing employees can be completely honest about their reasons to leave, their experience with co-workers, or their say over the company policies. The employer needs to conduct an exit interview with all the departing employees to identify the systematic or chronic defects in the organization.

However, the departing employee does not have anything to worry about, but some might fear the damaging relationships that go far beyond employment terms. The employees majorly fear a bad job reference due to which they restrict themselves to remain as discreet as possible during the exit interview.

As previously mentioned, exit interviews do not serve the purpose by conducting a single or a handful of interviews. They must be conducted as much as possible to identify the weak areas of the organization. It is very important to design and implement an effective strategy for conducting exit interviews and administer them regularly. The organization can learn a lot about itself from these interviews.

Appraisal results are used in many organizations to determine the outcomes of the reward. Some mangers make certain mistakes while conducting the appraisal. Here are some mistakes which should not be made.

1. Insufficient information of the employee and insufficient evaluation time

It is important to know the employees to appropriately assess their weaknesses and strengths. Employers should also take sufficient time to assess the performance of the employee.

2. Incompatible standards of excellence

Ineffective managers often mingle personal regards to bias the process of evaluation. Lack of consistent criteria within managers often leads to promotion of undeserving employees. Moreover, some managers also tend to be very friendly with some employers while conducting an appraisal while being excessively critical with others.

3. Failing to assess the complete period of performance

Many employers improve their performances when the performance evaluation is due. In such situations, many mangers fail to take notice of the performance in the complete period and end up assessing the current performance, which is not fair.

The mangers should immediately write down any negative performance or inappropriate behavior at all times. Similarly any worth praising performance should also be noted down so it does not go unnoticed during the appraisal at the end of the period.

4. People pleasing with employees

Many managers are apprehensive about probable confrontations from the employees and thus avoid unfavorable comments even when such comments are justified.

5. The rainbow effect

When employees are well-liked at their workplace, they are often mistakenly reviewed as the “always competent” ones, whereas the unpopular employees end up being labeled as “inadequate”.

6. Maintaining job security

This is also known as “empire building” by managers. Such managers ignore the weaknesses of the employees to gain favor with inefficient employees. Some managers will even unfairly criticize the workers as “sacrificial lambs” and “scapegoats” to save their jobs.

7. Weak analytical aptitude

Some managers lack analytical aptitude as evaluators. Other employees take advantage of this fact and often get unqualified appraisals in place of the deserving ones.

8. Irrelevant factors

Sometimes non-job related factors influence the decisions of the managers during appraisals such as social standing and physical appearance of employees. Such mistakes often become costly mistake implied on efficient employees, because such employees find their way out in no time and the organization loses them.

To find out more about Employee Management please email us HRSupport@signaturestaff.com.au and write HR Support in the subject line. Your Recruitment Agency Cairns – Signature Staff.

Absenteeism is one of the most critical issues for businesses. It can be very difficult to observe, evaluate and improve absenteeism. When employees fail to turn up at work, employers increase their financial burden because the business loses productivity and the costs increase because of the work not completed by the absent employee.

Ways to control absenteeism

Most absenteeism is not caused by illnesses, so the employers can manage to control approximately 60 percent absenteeism. An employer cannot manage absenteeism caused by personal reasons but can improve the turnover ratio with the help of the following initiatives.

i) Improve employee motivation

Though it is not as easy and simple as it seems, it is possible by enhancement of the intrinsic motivation employees get from their job. You should make the production target more achievable, increase the desired job responsibilities and improve the working conditions. An employer should also improve extrinsic motivation through some kind of reward of recognition program.

ii) Improve job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is influenced by many different factors of employment. This can be achieved by cutting down on workplace stressors to make the workplace a more enjoyable experience and constantly give out honest praise and feedback.

iii) Employ a job enlargement or job rotation plan

One of the reasons of uncontrollable absenteeism is the lack of challenging tasks and career growth opportunities, repetition of tasks, boredom and burnout. Employers can improve the employee’s take on his or her position by offering opportunities to rotate the jobs. This will help employees undertake a new task or role and learn new skills and knowledge.

iv) Reserve rewards and discipline rules for absenteeism

Reward and punishment practice might not be implemented at some workplaces, but it is an effective method to control rates of absenteeism at the workplace. If the management offers a financial reward upon decreased absenteeism, the employees will strive to work harder and cut down on absenteeism. Moreover, motivated employees react positively to such strategies.

v) Allow the employees for a modified work schedule

Some kinds of absenteeism are caused by personal matters. In such cases, the employees should be allowed flexibility in their schedules temporarily or permanently. This helps employees keep a balance in their personal and professional lives.

For HR Advice for Small Medium Business or a FREE HR ebook please email us HRSupport@signaturestaff.com.au

Today, almost all employers have some employment policies and procedures for their employees to follow. Some employers consider it better to issue these policies and procedures in writing to the employees, while some fear that written statements increase the chances of employment claims.

Here are 10 reasons why the employee handbook is necessary for your organization.

1. Important for the business

Employee handbooks can easily set the nature of your organization. They place all employees on a single platform related to the workplace rules and regulations and set forth the legal commitments for the employers as well.

2. Keystone to better employment practices

An employee handbook can enhance the relationship between the employer and employee. It secures against harassment claims, discrimination and wrongful termination. A well-drafted and legally analyzed employee handbook can become the keystone to better employment practices regardless of the size of the organization.

3. Integrity and fairness

The employee handbook can give a sense of integrity and fairness among employees on behalf of the organization. This will lead to greater production and loyalty.

4. Exposure � limiting policies

Clear policies and procedures are a great defense against various claims brought forward by employees. If such policies are posted on the bulletin board or communicated to the management to inform the employees, the organization will never know which employees actual read them or know them.

5. Consistency in policies

If there are no formal policies and procedures issued, then the past and present activities become the framework of policies. The organization can face dangers of lawsuits and claims because many of the informal practiced policies lack consistency and can be discriminatory. An employee handbook is clear on these grounds for every employee.

6. Course of action for all

With well established policies, the organization should imply that managers and supervisors also take the same course of action. Unclear polices often go unheard and unnoticed by senior managers and supervisors which becomes a matter of conflict with other employees. A clear policy framework will define the course of action for all employees on a single route.

7. Accusations of harassment

The most widespread and costly incidents in organizations today are the accusations of harassment which includes racial, sexual and ethnic harassment. Communication is the solution to minimize such claims. A clear message in the employer handbook will send the message to all the employers that harassment is illegal.

8. Open door policy

Organizations that have an open mode of communication often face less chances of law suit from an employee. The open door policy is the best strategy to imply in the employee handbook so employees confidently discuss their matters with the HR department or the management.

9. Equal employment opportunity

Nearly all the employers are required by the state and federal law to promote the organization on an equal employment opportunity basis. A well written EEO policy statement in the employment hand book will put the employers at ease. An organization that practices EEO is more likely to progress rapidly than the ones that do not.

10. Non � legal outlook

With a non-legal outlook, an employee handbook can be very useful to new employee in the organization. The new employee can easily assess much from the welcome statement and the brief synopsis of the organization history and mission. This printed introduction of your organization can make the employee comfortable in your organization.

For a Free E-Book “Recruit Right” and a 10 Step HR Resources Checklist email us HRSupport@signaturestaff.com.au

You can follow these steps and successfully change the work culture of your organization.

1. Change the set up of your hiring process

Generally, work cultures are broadly defined by the work practices and beliefs followed by you and your employees. If the prevailing hiring process is not helping you lure, identify and retain employees in a particular manner that you wish to have done, then you are moving away from the change goals with every hiring decision. Change the hiring set up completely and give the responsibility to another team that can employ different approaches to attract and retain new employees.

2. Assess leadership behavior consistency

Many organizations measure leadership in a very vague manner. They evaluate their leaders by the results of their employees rather than the personal contributions made by the leader themselves. Leaders should be assessed on the grounds of their contributions to make the cultural change quicker.

3. Improve communication systems and methods

The communication system in most organizations is one way. Employees do not get feedback on their performance and other work related matters. As a result, employees find the meetings, bulletin board messages and newsletters a complete waste of time. Remove these communication barriers and develop a cordial relationship with the employees.

4. Revamp the compensation system

If your employees don’t find your compensation system fair enough, it will soon reflect in their attitude and behavior. Your compensation system affects the overall performance of the business because it becomes a barrier in active involvement and effective communication as well. Go through the compensation guides and work closely with the HR department to reallocate the compensation.

5. Use technology as a mechanism of improvement

Today, all organizations are making use of new technologies but only a few are able to achieve the appropriate level of success. This happens because most people belonging to the upper management are the ones who are working before computers entered the mainstream. As a result, the upper management fails to understand the power of a digital workplace. A lot of tasks that can be completed digitally are implemented with tons of paperwork, less powerful communication, and overall slow procedures.

Here are 10 key strategies to create commitment among employees and improve the retention rate of your department.

1. Offer competitive and fair salaries

Many organizations pay their employees fair compensation, but do not work alone. If you offer below-market wages, then an employee is more likely to look for work elsewhere. According to research, if salaries lag behind by more than 10 percent with comparable jobs, employees are more likely to run off.

2. Benefits are productive

Although benefits are not the only reason why an employee would continue with an organization for long, but benefits offered by competitors and others can tick you off very easily. You must review benefit plans regularly ranging from reimbursements to health insurance to pension plans.

3. Train the managers, front line supervisors and administrators

A good employee/ manager relationship is critical to employee retention and satisfaction. Ensure that your managers do not drive the employees away. Give them enough training to build up supervisory and people management skills.

4. Define roles clearly

You must define a formal job description for every title or position in the department. This will help your employees know what is expected of them every day and to whom they should report.

5. Advancement opportunities

You must implement a career ladder and define the requisites to earn a promotion. Also conduct performance reviews regularly to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the employees.

6. Communicate openly

Employees are more committed to the organization if their employers keep them aware of the key issues regarding the goals of the organization.

7. Encourage learning

Create more opportunities for employees to learn. Reimburse them for courses, professional meetings and seminars. Also encourage every employee to learn one new thing every week.

8. Be flexible

Employees have many commitments as well, such as looking after children, aging parents and other conditions. Allow them to work flexible hours, or provide job sharing services or similar practices.

9. Give the best supplies and equipment

Old and depreciated equipment is a big turn off for employees. So update computers, software and machinery regularly. Also give the highest quality of supplies that the business can afford.

10. Value your employees

Recognize all the outstanding achievements immediately and publicly. Give comments on the small contributions that your staff makes each day towards the mission of the organization.