About the skill: There are several steps that can be recommended for developing an organisation's safety and health program. Whether or not such programs are chiefly the responsibility of one individual, every supervisor must work to ensure that the work environment is safe for all employees.
1. Involve Mangement and Employees in The Development of a Sfety and Health Plan: If neither group can see the usefulness and the benefit of such a plan, even the best plan will fail.
2. Hold Someone accountable for Implementing Plan: Plans do not work by theselves. They need someone to champions the cause. This person must be given the resources to put the plan in place, but also must be held accountable for what it's intended to accomplish.
3. Determine The Safety and Health Requirements for Your Work Site: Just as each individual is different, so, too, is earch workplace. Understanding the specific needs of the facility will aid in determining what safety and health requirement will be necessary.
4. Assess What Workplace Hazards Exist in The Facility: Identigy the potiential helath and safety problems that may exist on the job. By understanding what exists, preventive measures can be determined.
5. Correct Hazards That Exist: If certain hazards were idenftified in the investigation, fix or eliminate them. This may mean decreasing the effect of the hazard, or controlling it through other means(e.g., protective clothing).
6. Train Employees in Safety and Health Techniques: Make safety and health training mandatory ofr all employees. Employees should be instructed in how to do their jos in the safest manner, and understand that any protective equipment provided must be used.
7. Develop The Mindset in Employees That The Organisation is to be Kept Hazard Free: Often employees are the first to witness problems. Establish a means for them to report their findings, including having emergency procedures in place, if necessary. Ensuring that preventive maintenance of equipment follows a recommended schedule can also prevent breakdown of equipment from becoming a hazard.
8. Continuously Update and Refine the Safety and Health Program: Once the rogram has been implemented, it must continuously be evaluated, and necessary changes must be made. Documenting the progress of the program is necessary for use in this analysis.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
SAFETY AND HEALTH PROGRAMS
As more and more organisations go smoke-free, a major questions arises. That is, what do the smokers do? In such organisations, the answer si simple. They go outside to smoke. But that raises other issues, like lost productivity while employees are outside smoking, or cleanup of ashes and butts scattered on the ground. Should smokers have rights? It has become well-documented that smoking can create health problems. Accordingly, health insurance premiums, as well as othe premiums like life insurance, are significantly higher for those who light up. And in most cases, employers have passed these increased premium costs on to the worker. Companies have become more stringent in developing policies on smoking, and many have banned smoking on company premises altogether. Clearly, the smoker today is disadvantaged, but how far can that go?
Can an organisation refuse to hire someone simply because he or she smokes? Depending on the organisaton, the requirement of the job, and the stat in which one lives, they might! Even so, employers may take this one step further. Companies may, in fact, be able to terminate an individual for smoking off the job--- on ana employee's own time. Do you believe companies have the right to dictate what you do outside of work? If an organisation can take such action against employees for smoking, and justify it aon the grounds that it creates a health problem, what about other things we do? Eating too much fatty food can create a health problem, so should we be susceptible to discipline for being caught eating a Big Mac? Some members of the medical community cite how one or two alcoholic drinks a day may in fact be therapeutic and prevent the onset of certain diseases. Yet, alcohol can be damaging to humans. Accordingly, should we be fired for having a glass of wine with diner, or drinking a beer at a sporting event? What do you think? How far should we permit regulating "wellness" in our organisations?
Can an organisation refuse to hire someone simply because he or she smokes? Depending on the organisaton, the requirement of the job, and the stat in which one lives, they might! Even so, employers may take this one step further. Companies may, in fact, be able to terminate an individual for smoking off the job--- on ana employee's own time. Do you believe companies have the right to dictate what you do outside of work? If an organisation can take such action against employees for smoking, and justify it aon the grounds that it creates a health problem, what about other things we do? Eating too much fatty food can create a health problem, so should we be susceptible to discipline for being caught eating a Big Mac? Some members of the medical community cite how one or two alcoholic drinks a day may in fact be therapeutic and prevent the onset of certain diseases. Yet, alcohol can be damaging to humans. Accordingly, should we be fired for having a glass of wine with diner, or drinking a beer at a sporting event? What do you think? How far should we permit regulating "wellness" in our organisations?
WRITING A JOB ADVERTISEMENT
About The Skill: How do you get individuals to pay attention to your job opening? Get them interested in your organisation? Give them enough information so that those who are not qualified do not respond? The answer to these questions lies in the job advertisement. The more effective your advertisement, the more likely you will be to achieve the dual goal of recruiting.
1. Tell Enough About The Job: Your goal here is to provide enough information about the job so potenetial applicants can determine whether they are interested or qualified.
2.Give The Relevant Information About The Job: This includes providing a job title and a description of job duties. This information should be drawn directly from the job description.
3. List The Minimum Qualities a Successful Job Incument Need: This inclueds specific requirements a job incumbent is required to possess. This may reflect educational levels, prior experience, and specific competencies or skills. Again, much of theis information should be readily available from the job-specification component of the job description.
4. Be Specific About Unique Aspects of The Job: Disclose any pertinent information about the job that an applicant should know about. For example, if the job requires extensive travelling, state so. If experience on specific equipment, technology applications, and so forth, is required, this too, should be stated.
5. Check The Advertisement for Correctness: Make sure the advertisement is properly written, contains no grammatical or puctutation errors, and is to read. Whenever possible, avoid using jargon and abbreviations that may be confusing. Checking for correctness also means reviewing each word to ensure that no terms used may deemed inappropriate or potenetially create an adverse impact.
1. Tell Enough About The Job: Your goal here is to provide enough information about the job so potenetial applicants can determine whether they are interested or qualified.
2.Give The Relevant Information About The Job: This includes providing a job title and a description of job duties. This information should be drawn directly from the job description.
3. List The Minimum Qualities a Successful Job Incument Need: This inclueds specific requirements a job incumbent is required to possess. This may reflect educational levels, prior experience, and specific competencies or skills. Again, much of theis information should be readily available from the job-specification component of the job description.
4. Be Specific About Unique Aspects of The Job: Disclose any pertinent information about the job that an applicant should know about. For example, if the job requires extensive travelling, state so. If experience on specific equipment, technology applications, and so forth, is required, this too, should be stated.
5. Check The Advertisement for Correctness: Make sure the advertisement is properly written, contains no grammatical or puctutation errors, and is to read. Whenever possible, avoid using jargon and abbreviations that may be confusing. Checking for correctness also means reviewing each word to ensure that no terms used may deemed inappropriate or potenetially create an adverse impact.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Building A Resume
Recruiting in organisations brings with it two certainities-- resumes that people submit and the need to track what's been sent in. Software on the market today can help in both of these areas--helping someone design an effective resume, and helping the organisation track applicant information.
Resume Expert:- Resume Expert is a computer software program that is widerly used on college campuses. You may want to check with yur college's career center to see if they subscribe to Resume Expert. The typical Resume Expert fee is $25, and sometimes is paid by your student fees, or charged to you individually for registering for its use. Resume Expert is designed to help you build several resumes that can be tailored to specific audiences. Moreover, with Resume Expert, your information is placed into a database which can be accessed by client organisatios who can search through that database looking for matches. You also can obtain a paper cop as wll as an electronic file copy.
Resume Maker:- Resume Maker (Individual Software, Inc, $49.95; www.resumemaker.com) provides sample resume designs, recommended resume phrases (keywords), and sample cover letters. Resume Maker also provides an opportunity for you to develop and submit an electronic resume to several career websites, such as Monster.com. you can also develop a web page of your resume with Resume Maker.
Applicant Tracking/HR Tools:- (For the exployer, Applicant Tracker) HR Press, $495, provieds a paperless environment in which to track applicant information. The software permits user-defined fields that can be tailored to the specific needs of the organisation. Applicant Tracking/HR Tools tracks such information as skills, education, EEO classification, job applied for, and salary requested. The software also builds a database of relevant applicant information that enables the HR practitioner to send customised letters to the applicant, or merge data ( like name and address) into other word processing software.
Resume Expert:- Resume Expert is a computer software program that is widerly used on college campuses. You may want to check with yur college's career center to see if they subscribe to Resume Expert. The typical Resume Expert fee is $25, and sometimes is paid by your student fees, or charged to you individually for registering for its use. Resume Expert is designed to help you build several resumes that can be tailored to specific audiences. Moreover, with Resume Expert, your information is placed into a database which can be accessed by client organisatios who can search through that database looking for matches. You also can obtain a paper cop as wll as an electronic file copy.
Resume Maker:- Resume Maker (Individual Software, Inc, $49.95; www.resumemaker.com) provides sample resume designs, recommended resume phrases (keywords), and sample cover letters. Resume Maker also provides an opportunity for you to develop and submit an electronic resume to several career websites, such as Monster.com. you can also develop a web page of your resume with Resume Maker.
Applicant Tracking/HR Tools:- (For the exployer, Applicant Tracker) HR Press, $495, provieds a paperless environment in which to track applicant information. The software permits user-defined fields that can be tailored to the specific needs of the organisation. Applicant Tracking/HR Tools tracks such information as skills, education, EEO classification, job applied for, and salary requested. The software also builds a database of relevant applicant information that enables the HR practitioner to send customised letters to the applicant, or merge data ( like name and address) into other word processing software.
JOB ENRICHMENT
The most popularly advocated structural technique for increasing an employee's reward potential is job enrichment. To enrich a job, management allows the worker to assume some of the tasks executed by his or her supervisor. Enrichment requires that workers do increased planning and controlling of their work, usually with less supervision and more self-evaluation. From the standpoint of increasing the internal motivation from doing a job, it has been proposed that job enrichment offers great potential. This comes from the increased responsibility, increased employee's freedom and independence, organised tasks so as to allow individuals to do a complete activity, and providing feedback to allow individuals to correct their own performance. In addition, we can say that these factors lead, in part, to a better quality of work life. Furthermore, job-enrichment efforts will be successful only if the individuals in the enriched jobs find the "enrichment" rewarding. If these individuals do not want increased responsibility, for example, then increasing responsibility will not have the desired effect. Successful job enrichment, then, is contingent on worker input.
A sucessful job enrichment program should ideally increase employee satisfaction and commitment. But since organisations do not exist to create employee satisfation as an end, there must also be direct benefits to the organisation. There is evidence that job enrichment and quality of life programs produce lower absenteeism, reduce turnover costs, and increase employee, commitment, but on the critical issue of productivity, the evidence is inconclusive, or poorly measured. In some situtions, job enrichment has increased productivity; in others, productivity has been decreasd. However, when it decreases, there does appear to be a consistently conscientious use of resources and a higher quality of product or service. In other words, in terms of efficiency, for the same input a higher quality of output is obtained; so fewer repairs could increase productivity if the measure included the number of repairs.
A sucessful job enrichment program should ideally increase employee satisfaction and commitment. But since organisations do not exist to create employee satisfation as an end, there must also be direct benefits to the organisation. There is evidence that job enrichment and quality of life programs produce lower absenteeism, reduce turnover costs, and increase employee, commitment, but on the critical issue of productivity, the evidence is inconclusive, or poorly measured. In some situtions, job enrichment has increased productivity; in others, productivity has been decreasd. However, when it decreases, there does appear to be a consistently conscientious use of resources and a higher quality of product or service. In other words, in terms of efficiency, for the same input a higher quality of output is obtained; so fewer repairs could increase productivity if the measure included the number of repairs.
WHAT ARE CONTINGENT WORKERS?
Contingent workers include individuals who are typically hired for shorter periods of time. They perform specific tasks that oftern require special job skills, and are employed when an organisation is experiencing significant deviations in its work flow. Then, when the special need for them is fulfilled, these workers are let go-- but not let go in the traditional layoff sense. Contingent workers have no "full time" rights in the organisation. Consequently when their project is completed, so, too, may be their affiliation with the organisation. Similarly, because of their status, these workers often do not receive any of the employee benefits that are provided to core workers. About 5 percent of the work force in 2000 was comprised of contingent workers, and the numbers is expected to climb in the years ahead.
WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE WORKER?
Knowledge workers are at the cutting edge of this third wave. Theri jobs are designed around the acquisition and application of information. Organisationsa need people who can fill these jobs-- the demand for them is great. And because the supply of information technologists is low, those in the field are paid a premium for their services. Meanwhile, the number of blue-collar workers has shrunk dramatically. Unfortunately, some of the blue-collar workers don't have the education and flexibility necessary to exploit the new job opportunities in the information revolution. They don't have the specific skills to move easily into high paying technologists' jobs. This situation contrasts with the shift from the first wave to the second. The transition from the farm to factory floor required little addtional skill-- often just a strong back and a willingness to learn, follow directions and work hard.
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