Human Resources

5 Dysfunctions of a Team

Teamwork remains the single most untapped competitive advantage for any organization. Whether you work in a large corporation, a non-profit, a small organization, or a new entrepreneurial venture finding a way to maximize morale and productivity will lead to extraordinary organizational results. Outstanding teamwork does not happen by accident. It is purposeful and their development is ongoing. Today is the day to begin the process of increasing your team’s cohesiveness and productivity. Learn how to spot and address the 5 Dysfunctions any team may experience: inattention to results, avoidance of accountability, lack of commitment, fear of conflict, and absence of trust.

D.I.S.C.

The D.I.S.C. personality report or inventory, profiles four primary behavioral styles, each with a very distinct and predictable pattern of observable behavior. It is commonly used in business and corporate environments and can lead to personal insights that can strengthen the performance of staff, supervisory, management, and leadership personnel throughout your organization. D.I.S.C. helps to level the playing field, giving everyone a common language, and helping your management team understand how to approach, discuss, discipline, and reward their staff.

Diversity

Whether you’re an HR Manager or just wear the hat as part of your job duties, you are a key player in the establishment and ongoing support of a hostile-free work environment within your organization. HR professionals must be the vigilant experts that assertively lead the initiative to ensure our entire workforce understands the advantages provided by a diverse workforce and appreciates differences to create a team capable of working within each member’s unique strengths.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to an individual’s ability to recognize their own feelings as well as the feelings of others, for motivating themselves, and for managing themselves and their relationships. These abilities are distinct from traditional academic intelligence and cannot be measured by IQ. Emotionally intelligent leaders help their organizations to create competitive advantages through their staff using a number of avenues such as: increased performance, improved motivation and teamwork, enhanced innovation and restored trust.

FourSight

The FourSight tool provides insight into how people think, approach their work, and solve problems. This assessment breaks down into four distinct phases of the breakthrough thinking process, indicating strengths and preferences for each individual. Discover how to best leverage your thinking style and those of your team as the first step toward achieving greater productivity, team effectiveness, and breakthrough results.

Hiring Right the First Time

Identifying and placing the right candidates into the right positions can be a daunting task. Behavioral interviewing, understanding your organization’s cultural fit, and having a clear picture of necessary current and future skills for your position openings will take you a long way to hiring the right people the first time. Add this skill to your HR toolbox to help you make the best possible choices.

Managing Multiple Generations in the Workplace

There are currently 4 generations in the workplace, all with different values, biases, needs, and expectations. Leaders, managers, and supervisors must understand how best to manage, motivate, and retain the best within each of these groups to ensure organizational health and prosperity.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

“Whatever the circumstances of your life, the understanding of type can make your perceptions clearer, your judgments sounder…” Isabel Briggs Myers. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tool helps individuals and teams better understand why people behave the way they do, thereby gaining a clearer understanding of how to best interact with others both within the organization, and with external customers. MBTI serves as a basis for team building, leadership and coaching, managing conflict, and improving job performance.

Performance Management

Performance management is a system by which an organization is able to effectively align its strategic goals with the day-to-day functions of its staff while operating in a turbulent, global economy. It includes the examination, modification, and creation of accurate job descriptions, task assessment and measurement, and clarification of employee expectations. In addition, supervisors must learn how to effectively write and deliver performance appraisals that motivate employees and help them to reach their full potential. HR professionals need to ensure appropriate training of their management and leadership staff, create an environment conducive to open communication and teamwork, and hold team leaders accountable so as to bring organizations closer to achieving their mission.

Positive Discipline, What?

Learn how to permanently resolve tough performance problems. Our step-by-step process is invaluable in clarifying the problem, identifying the performance gap and working with your employees to develop a positive and productive solution. Positive discipline is essential in every workplace that needs their employees to remain motivated on the job and give 100% every day.

Sexual Harassment

Under the law, there are two categories of sexual harassment in the workplace; quid pro quo and a hostile work environment. The most common, in today’s workplace is the accusation of a hostile work environment, leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and fines. Many leaders, supervisors, and staff members, unaware of what constitutes a hostile work environment inadvertently contribute to the problem. In addition, a hostile work environment has been shown to reduce worker productivity and overall retention.

Every employer in New York State is required to provide employees with sexual harassment prevention training pursuant to Section 201-g of the Labor Law. Employees should receive training upon initial hiring and annually thereafter.

The BEST Center offers this trainng both in a classroom setting and online! Our 30-minute online session fulfills the minimum NY State requirements for interactive training. Call now to arrange your classroom training or for a FREE demonstration of our online training opportunity! For more information contact the BEST Center by calling 585-345-6868 or by emailing bestcenter@handmadegreen.com.

Social Media: Policy and Practice

What are the legalities surrounding looking up your candidates profile on Facebook and Twitter? What about LinkedIn? Should your organization be using these tools to recruit potential candidates?

The exponential surge in the use of social media by individuals and organizations has been accompanied by ethical debates and legal consequences. HR professionals need to stay abreast of best practices to protect their organizations, preserve employee morale, and supporting customer service.

Social Styles

How do you prefer to communicate with others? Can you tell by observing someone’s behavior, how they prefer to communicate? How they think? And therefore, why they react the way they do, to you and others around them? The Social Styles assessment is a quick, easy, and fun tool to help teams, supervisors, and leaders better understand workplace behaviors, and productively manage them.

Strategic Human Resource Skills

Today, it is not enough for leaders just to agree intellectually that employees are the life blood of the organization, they must know how to act on this to procure maximum commitment and productivity from their staff. Although HR duties have developed into a specialized function and many organizations have individuals performing that function, it is more important than ever for leaders to understand the core components of HR; employment law issues and best practices.

Talent Management

Talent Management, otherwise known as Succession Planning, emerged in the 1990s as more and more companies came to realize that employee talents and skills drove business success. The process now known as Talent Management evolved as a systematic way of developing employees skills to their potential, increasing employee retention, and attracting highly skilled workers to the organization. Companies engaged in talent management are strategic and deliberate in how they attract, develop, and retain their employees. Research done on the value of these development systems revealed benefits in critical economic areas such as revenue, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, cost, and market capitalization.

Train-the-Trainer

How do adults learn? How can trainers address different learning styles in the classroom? How is the training content determined? Trainers must be able to reach a broad range of learning styles, communication styles, and thinking styles to fulfill their responsibilities within the organization. Effective trainers understand they hold the key to the development and delivery of accurate and timely training that is aligned with organizational objectives, thus providing the skill set needed to achieve the organization’s mission.

Violence in the Workplace

Workplace violence is a serious issue that affects all business sectors and occupations. As an employer, the safety and security of every employee, customer, and external vendor that walks into your establishment is yours. Reduce your liability and risk by training everyone in your organization to spot potential workplace violence issues and behavior, and know how to avert them.