How Do You Deal With a Negative Co-Worker?

Often it’ll fall to you as a human resources professional to handle negative co-worker, and this week on the Frank Kelly blog, I’m going to let you know how.

You will be A Negative Employees First Port of Call

No employee is perfect. The simple reality of working life is that everybody has their good days and bad days, and everyone occasionally has an issue in the workplace that they feel they have no choice but to air their grievances over.

Of course, as a human resources professional you will be their first port of call; after all, it is your job to manage people. Handling a co-workers negativity is no desirable task, but it is one that you will have to engage in, to ensure that their negativity odes not impact the company’s bottom line.

Frank Kelly’s Top Five Tips for Dealing with a Negative Co-Worker

In my experience I have found that there are a number of ways to negate the risk posed by a negative co-worker, and these are the top five that you can use as a human resources professional to do just that:

Listen: How can you address a disgruntled employees concerns if you don’t know what they are. Always make sure that you listen attentively, so you can handle their grievances effectively.

Be Sensitive: Whether you think their complaints have any validity or not, your co-worker feels as though it does, which means, even if they haven’t got a point, you can’t just dismiss what they are saying. Always use sensitivity when dealing with a negative co-worker.

Be Firm But Fair: It is your task to determine whether the employee’s complaints have any validity, and whatever you decide, you need to take what they have to say into consideration and be confident in how you decide to deal with the problem, to ensure that the employee is mollified.

Stay Uninvolved: It is not your task to personally weigh in on the issue at hand, rather act as a liaison between the aggrieved party and the management, therefore you need to ensure that you keep yourself uninvolved from the issue at hand.

Don’t Be Judgemental: Whether you think the employee in question has a valid concern or not, it is not your place to judge them. Do so, and you’ll likely only exacerbate the problem and ensure that the employee’s negativity infects the larger workforce.

Dealing with a negative co-worker is a balancing act, and unfortunately, it is a balancing act that will fall to you to negotiate. Ensure that you follow these five tips from the Frank Kelly blog to make sure that said employee’s negativity does not become a drag on your company’s bottom line. 

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What Are the Personality Traits A HR Professional Needs to Have?

If you want to work in HR, you need to be a certain type of person, which is why on the Frank Kelly blog this week, I've outlined the personality traits any HR professional needs to have.

Managing People is a Considerable Task

Taking on a role in human resources is certainly not an easy task. You are essentially a people manager, and as it turns out, effectively managing people so that they prove an asset to your company’s bottom line, is a considerable task.

Between recruiting staff, training them, administering them, serving as the first port of call for specific people management issues etc. human resources is a job description with many elements. In my experience, there are several personality traits that often prove essential to carrying out this job 

description effectively, including….

Conscientiousness: Often as a HR professional, you are dealing with sensitive issues, which require you to think through how you handle the matter at hand.

Empathy: Dealing with people requires them to be able to communicate with you. People often feel far more comfortable communicating sensitive issues with a HR professional who has the ability to emphasise; thus communicate with them on their level.  

Efficiency: You are often dealing with facts, figures, records etc., and you need to be able to handle them efficiently, so that the company you work for runs smoothly.

Inquisitiveness: One of the roles that will often fall to you as a HR professional is recruiting and training new staff. You need to be inquisitive so that you can make sure that not only are they right for the vacancy in question, but that they receive all the essential training they need to prove an asset to the company.

A Desire to Help: Above all, you need a desire to help if you want to make it as a HR professional. Essentially, this job is about helping people, and if don’t have a desire to help, it will translate into what you do, and employees will pick up on it, making it far harder for you to succeed in the role of ‘managing people.’

At the end of the day, it takes a certain type of person to take on the role of HR professional, but once you take it on, it can be the most rewarding job you've ever had; you just need to know how to work with people.

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Frank Kelly’s Top Five Employee Motivational Techniques for the HR Professional

As a HR professional, it’s your job to ensure that your company’s employees remain motivated and thus, productive. This week I tackle this subject with Frank Kelly’s top five employee motivational techniques.

A Motivated Worker is a Productive Worker

A business’ human resources staff is responsible for hiring, administrating and training staff. Ensuring that staff remains motivated is an enduring part of the job description, as a motivated worker is a productive worker, who will increase your company’s bottom line.

Often the job of a human resources professional is a thankless one, and ensuring your firms employees stay motivated in such a limited capacity is a task at best, difficult at worst. However it is always achievable.

Frank Kelly’s Top Five

It is possible as a human resources professional to play a pivotal role in ensuring an employee stays motivated and here are five ways you can do just that:

Listen: Often times a disheartened employee just needs someone to talk to, and the pastoral nature of your position makes you the person. Having someone to listen can broaden an employees’ perspective, and motivate them to approach the task at hand with a new vigour.

Recognise: An unmotivated employee can sometimes feel as though their contributions are going unnoticed. You are in the position to not only directly communicate appreciation for their services, but to approach the management and encourage positive reinforcement in the work place.

Train: Sometimes an unmotivated employee is simply a bored one. Arranging further training for them will not only reengage their brains, but add value to their position at your company.

Incentivise: In your position as a human resources professional, again you have a unique pull with higher management, which you can use to boost employee morale.  Arrange incentives for employees to work for, and watch their motivation soar.

Strategize: An unmotivated employee is often one with no aspirations. Why not work with them to set a list of goals to reach both in the work place and their further career, then provide the necessary information they need to achieve them.

It may be a thankless job, but the role of human resources professional is a pivotal one in improving employee motivation. Use your position to enrich the lives of your company’s employees, whilst driving their productivity, and consequently your firms bottom line, up in the process. 

Frank Kelly

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Frank Kelly’s Top Five New Employee Training Tips for the HR Professional

Train new employees to be a valuable member of your team, with Frank Kelly’s five new employee training tips for the HR professional.

Training is a Vital Task

As a member of the human resources (HR) team, your remit is personnel management, which means that you are often the first port of call for new employees. Often it falls to you to conduct their  orientation, as well as provide them with the vital information they need to undertake their employment, and conduct the basic training they need  to prove an asset to company.

Training is a vital task – without it, that employee is far less productive, damaging the entire company’s bottom line. That is why you have to get it absolutely right, a considerable task in light of the burden placed upon your shoulders.

Frank Kelly’s Top Five Tips

Any HR professional has the basic people skills to become an effective personnel trainer, you just need to know how to translate them into what is effectively a teaching capacity, and these five tips may help you along the way:

State Your Intentions: Ensure new employees know what the purpose of their training is, and how it correlates with wider company aspirations. This gives them a reference point for how the information you are sharing with them, will play out in the working environment.

Remember Location: A teacher is only as good as the quality of their classroom, and the same applies to a personnel trainer. Pick a space that has the necessary equipment to help you carry out your training programme, and with minimal distractions.

Diversify the Training Process: People have short attention spans; there’s only so much information they can take in before they switch off. Try bringing in guest speakers, such as a member of management, to diversify the training process, and keep new employees attention. 

Encourage Learning: An essential tip, you need to make your new employees want to learn. Try injecting some competitive spirit into training sessions, as the thrill of competition often spurs people on to learn in  pursuit of the sheer glory that comes with winning!

Incentivise: Even the best teachers need to bribe their students every once in a while, and you shouldn’t be afraid to do the same. New employees will eagerly take up the task of preparing themselves for their role, with a small prize at the end of the metaphorical yellow brick road to spur them on.

As a HR Professional, not only is it often your role to train new employees to become product members of the company, but your people skills often make you the best person for the job. Remember that.

Don't forget to visit my site for all the latest news from HR industry.

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What is the Role of a HR Professional?

The role of a HR professional is critical to a company’s wellbeing, but what does this role entail? This is the question I wish to explore on the Frank Kelly blog this week.

At its core, a human resources (HR) department exists to manage an organisation’s staff. A broad job description to be sure, it encompasses several different roles that each in their own right are critical to employee well-being.

Recruitment

Often it falls to the HR Professional to recruit an organisation’s staff, an essential job, as if an organisation is staffed with inadequate employees, productivity suffers. Specifically, a HR professional will be involved in advertising vacancies, sourcing and screening applicants, conducting first stage interviews and advising managers on the suitability of candidates for the position in question.

Training

Once you as a HR professional have recruited a staff member, you will then be involved in training them. This will usually include conducting extensive orientation programmes for new employees, as well as implementing and maintaining training programmes for established employees, to give them the information they need to progress, as well as maximise productivity and increase the corporate bottom line.

Employee Relations

Once that employee is released into the wider workforce, your role as a HR professional involves ensuring they integrate effectively into the company, as well as maintaining employee relations at all times, to ensure a positive work environment, where employees can excel. Specifically, this often includes ascertaining employee satisfaction and engagement, as well as acting as a mediator in cases of workplace conflict.

Maintaining Safety

It often falls to the HR department to ensure that the company is in compliance of health and safety legislation, and that individual departments are meeting in house health and safety standards. This means that the HR professional is usually involved in supporting workplace safety training and managing official workplace safety and accidents records, as well as handling potential compensation issues.

Other roles often attached to the position of HR professional include: ensuring an organisation complies with legal guidelines, handling employee administration (wage, holiday days etc.), mediating between management and staff etc.

Honestly it’s hard to define everything the HR role entails. Ultimately, it’s about making sure employees are a benefit to the company which you work. That is why the position of HR professional is so critical. 

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter.

Frank Kelly

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Navigating Issues of Privacy in the HR Industry

The nature of the human resources industry requires the handling of somewhat delicate information. Considering the fact that privacy is an increasingly prevalent topic of conversation across all areas of industry, how can you navigate issues of privacy as a HR professional?

Working as a professional in the HP department is a unique position. Considering that the crux of the vocation requires employee interaction and the handling of information and data that is restricted to other departments, certain discretion is required from those involved in these activities.

Private information is passed to HR individuals as a matter of course; it’s necessary to ensure employee payment, safety, accessibility etc. However in the wrong hands this information can be abused. This leaves any HR employee in this position vulnerable; this is after all their area of responsibility.

Therefore it is crucial if you ever hope to cultivate a sustained career in this sector that you familiarise yourself over issues of privacy in the handling of sensitive information and data. What are you allowed access to, what are you allowed to share etc. to ensure that you are never left in a vulnerable position.

A certain employee confidentiality is critical to the maintenance of a position in HR. This means that not only are you required to protect the rights of the employee from the employee, but often from other employees as a matter of course.

Take the matter of the termination of a contract, for example. The reasons for termination could be varied; dismissal, the natural end of a contract, inappropriate conduct etc. the matter of employee confidentiality comes into play. It is your obligation, both to the employee and to the company, to keep the matter of the issue in a question discrete.

This in itself creates an issue we should address; employee inquiries on sensitive subjects. This is because in a case such as dismissal, a culture of fear often arises in the office and as liaison between employee and employer; it’s often you they turn to for answers.

In this case, firstly employee confidentiality would obligate you to refuse to provide an answer concerning the termination. Secondly in this case you would remind the employee that any issue concerning job performance and termination would be brought up by the manager.

This analogy signals both the importance of employee confidentiality and the role of communicator in the HR industry. Employee confidentiality is sacred and should always be upheld in matters of privacy. However this should be mitigated by a communication strategy that defuses the problem at hand.

HR in some ways is the medium of compromise. You have to balance matters of privacy with the facilitation of a productive work environment and this task often involves sensitivity and common sense.

Don't forget to visit my website or follow me on Twitter for all the latest advice from myself.

Frank Kelly, Dublin City

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How Can You Cultivate a Career In Human Resources?

Considering the breadth and scope for opportunity in the modern HR sector, it is an industry that many wish to enter. Considering this, how can you cultivate a career in the modern HR industry?

The industry is on the rise; as a career option that appeals to those with people skills and proficiency for communication, it is attractive to a large swathe of the educated population. Furthermore the essential role HR holds for the cultivation of a success business venture means that any modern company needs a HR department.

These two key factors have ensured that the industry is projected to continue expanding further into the job market. Experts predict that by 2016 the industry will have grown 11% from its 2006 figures. However a wealth of opportunity does not a career make. The modern HR sector is like any industry; they only take the best of the best.

So this leads to the question that considering the high bar the sector places on entry into its ranks, how can you cultivate a career in the HR industry?

The first element to consider is education. It is not completely impossible to hold a position, even a managerial position, in HR without a degree. However increasingly the industry has placed a heavier emphasis on the need for academic credentials and in the post 2000 world, it’s almost essential.

Saying this Most HR departments require a minimum of a four year degree in a range of academic disciplines. However a bachelor’s degree in human resources, personnel or another related discipline is preferred due to the demands training for the position requires.

However in the modern day academic credentials are often no longer enough to differentiate you from the myriad of other degree level applicants vying for the same post. There are so many people who have attained degrees in the employment market that the HR industry is looking for people who stand head and shoulders above the rest.

This is why if you are serious about entering the industry, you must have experience. Experience indicates a familiarity with the industry. Furthermore it emphasises the fact that you have already handled the unique pressures the HR sector can bring and have proven yourself a match for them.

From there general vocational principles apply. Take every opportunity given to you. Cultivate contacts and working relationships. Act with integrity and efficiency. Prove that you are a valuable employee; this is the only way to move up into a higher, even a managerial, position in this diverse sector.

The opportunities are endless in the modern human resources industry; however you have to be willing to work for them. Don’t believe that doors will open for you, do everything you can to open them for yourself.

Why not check out my website for my latest articles.

Frank Kelly, Dublin City

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