January 1, 1970
Is there ever any doubt in your mind as to the mood of a coworker upon their arrival at work? Nonverbal communication is the single most powerful form of communication. More than voice or even words, nonverbal communication cues you in to what is on another person’s mind. The best communicators are sensitive to the power of the emotions and thoughts communicated nonverbally.
Nonverbal communication ranges from facial expression to body language. Gestures, signs, and use of space are also important in nonverbal communication. Multicultural differences in body language, facial expression, use of space, and especially, gestures, are enormous and enormously open to misinterpretation.
To gauge your expertise in interpreting nonverbal communication, take these nonverbal communication interpretation quiz questions from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Each link leads to pictorial quiz questions and explanations.
One of the funniest – yet saddest – nonverbal exchanges I have ever witnessed occurred in the registrar’s office at a major university. A multinational student tried to communicate his problem to an older, white female. He gesticulated constantly waving his hands to punctuate his communication.
He tried to narrow the distance between himself and the university employee who kept backing away to maintain her level of spacial comfort. By the end of the conversation, the student was chasing her the length of the countertop still gesturing with his hands heatedly. The employee told me later that she had been terrified of the student who was merely trying to tell her that he had already paid the bill he had just received from the university.
One study at UCLA indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Another study indicated that the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the words used, 38 percent by voice quality, and 55 percent by the nonverbal communication.
If you want to mask your feelings or your immediate reaction to information, pay close attention to your nonverbal behavior. You may have your voice and words under control, but your body language including the tiniest facial expressions and movement can give your true thoughts and feelings away. Especially to a skilled reader of nonverbal cues, most of us are really open books.
Here are several tips for improving your reading of nonverbal information. No matter your position at work, improving your skill in interpreting nonverbal communication will add to your ability to share meaning with another person.
Shared meaning is my definition of communication. Correct interpretation of nonverbal communication will add depth to your ability to communicate.
Tips for Understanding Nonverbal Communication
Recognize that people communicate on many levels. Watch their facial expressions, eye contact, posture, hand and feet movements, body movement and placement, and appearance and passage as they walk toward you. Every gesture is communicating something if you listen with your eyes. Become accustomed to watching nonverbal communication and your ability to read nonverbal communication will grow with practice.
If a person’s words say one thing and their nonverbal communication says another, you are wont to listen to the nonverbal communication – and that is usually the correct decision.
Assess job candidates based on their nonverbal communication. You can read volumes from how the applicant sits in the lobby. The nonverbal communication during an interview should also elucidate the candidate’s skills, strengths, weaknesses, and concerns for you.
Probe nonverbal communication during an investigation or other situation in which you need facts and believable statements. Again, the nonverbal may reveal more than the person’s spoken words.
When leading a meeting or speaking to a group, recognize that nonverbal cues can tell you:
-when you’ve talked long enough,
-when someone else wants to speak, and
-the mood of the crowd and their reaction to your remarks.
Listen to them and you’ll be a better leader and speaker.
Understanding nonverbal communication improves with practice. The first step in practice is to recognize the power of nonverbal communication. I’m sure you’ve had gut feelings that what a person said to you was untrue. Listen to your gut. Along with your life experiences, training, beliefs and all that make up your past, it’s your inner expert on nonverbal communication.
January 1, 1970
The typical workplace has its ups and downs in terms of employee negativity. Many workplaces are trying to be employee oriented. But, even the most employee oriented workplace can shudder under the weight of negative thinking. When employers understand the causes of employee negativity and put in place measures to prevent employee negativity, negativity fails to gain a foothold in the work environment.
I’ve written about how an employer can prevent negativity from occurring at work. I’ve also written about what to do about workplace negativity that already exists. The persistent question I receive from managers is: What really causes employee negativity?
A recent study answers the question about what causes employee negativity. The study, conducted by Towers Perrin and researchers Gang & Gang, surveyed a randomly selected group of 1,100 employees and 300 senior Human Resources executives working for mid-sized and large-sized companies in the United States and Canada. Participants were asked to describe their feelings about their current work experience, They were also invited to describe an “ideal” work experience. According to Employee Benefit News, the study “used a unique emotion-based research technique called Resonance, which captured participants’ spontaneous emotional responses to the total work experience.”
The study determined that the reasons for most of the employee negativity included these that I call the big five:
An excessive workload
Concerns about management’s ability to lead the company forward successfully
Anxiety about the future, particular longer-term job, income and retirement security
Lack of challenge in their work, with boredom intensifying existing frustration about workload
Insufficient recognition for the level of contribution and effort provided, and concerns that pay isn’t commensurate with performance.
The Employer’s Challenge in Addressing Employee Negativity
In my own experience, intensifying any of these factors causes employee negativity. Knowing about these causes of employee negativity enables you to take action to prevent or eliminate employee negativity. Here are several examples.
If you lose an employee and divide the work across several remaining employees, you foster employee negativity unless employees have the end in sight – a new employee with an expected arrival date.
Companies that experience a business downturn will experience negativity. Employees are concerned about both management and their future with the company. Insecure employees are negative and looking for the worst to happen. Following a period of financial woes, management has to work hard to regain employee trust.
An employee who applies for a promotional opportunity and does not get the job can be extremely negative, especially if promotional opportunities are perceived as limited. You must take great care to make sure your promotion system is fair and that employees know exactly what they need to do to get ready for the next opportunity.
Employees love recognition for their work. They also like to see salary increases for contributing employees. One of the most significant causes of employee negativity occurs when employees believe poor contributors received raises – especially when their own raise was below their expectations.
This is a snapshot of causes of employee negativity. If you can eliminate these five, you have gone a long way in the direction of building a positive, supportive work environment. You’ve minimized the potential for employee negativity.
January 1, 1970
Need low cost life insurance? Take a look at the budget friendly option of a term life insurance policy. Term life insurance policy premiums are generally much cheaper than cash-value policies (universal and whole), especially if you are young and in good health and a low cost term life insurance policy does exactly what you expect it to do by financially taking care of your beneficiaries if you die. Here’s the basics of a low cost term life insurance policy:
Purchasing a Term Life Insurance Policy
You buy a low cost term life insurance policy with a specified time period, usually one, five, or ten years. During that “term” you pay a specified premium. Your beneficiaries will receive a death benefit if you die during the term of the life insurance policy.
Facts About a Low Cost Term Life Insurance Policy
Seems simple enough, right? Well, as with all insurance, there are little complexities and loop-holes you need to fill. For instance, the death benefit may not be the same throughout the term life insurance policy depending on whether you choose decreasing, level, or increasing term life insurance. And, what about when your term is over? That’s where renewable and convertible term insurance comes in. Take for instance you want a basic 10 year low cost term life insurance policy with the death benefit to stay the same throughout the term life insurance policy, and at the end of the term you would like to “convert” to a different term life insurance policy such as a cash-value policy, without taking another medical exam. In that case you would choose a level term convertible life insurance policy.
Deciding if a Term Life Insurance Policy is for You
Term life insurance does not build cash-value or have the tax benefits like universal or whole life, but it can be a great option for someone who would like life insurance, but can’t afford the higher premiums. Here is a check-list to help you decide if a low cost term life insurance policy is right for you:
You’re on a budget and cannot afford a very high premium.
You are young, and in good health.
You are looking for a simple, straight-forward, low cost life insurance plan to protect your beneficiaries.
Talking to Your Insurance Agent About a Term Life Insurance Policy
When checking with your agent on term life insurance, ask a lot of questions. Generally, agents do not receive as much commission on term life insurance verses cash-value policies so you may have to probe a little for more information.
January 1, 1970
Powerful Performance Management
Definition:
Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. Performance management is a whole work system that begins when a job is defined as needed. It ends when an employee leaves your organization.
Many writers and consultants are using the term “performance management” as a substitution for the traditional appraisal system. I encourage you to think of the term in this broader work system context. A performance management system includes the following actions.
-Develop clear job descriptions.
-Select appropriate people with an appropriate selection process.
-Negotiate requirements and accomplishment-based performance standards, outcomes, and measures.
-Provide effective orientation, education, and training.
-Provide on-going coaching and feedback.
-Conduct quarterly performance development discussions.
-Design effective compensation and recognition systems that reward people for their contributions.
-Provide promotional/career development opportunities for staff.
-Assist with exit interviews to understand WHY valued employees leave the organization.
Also Known As: Performance Appraisal, Performance Evaluation, Performance Review
January 1, 1970
Understanding Stress
Stress is normal. Everyone feels stress related to work, family, decisions, your future, and more. Stress is both physical and mental. It is caused by major life events such as illness, the death of a loved one, a change in responsibilities or expectations at work, and job promotions, loss, or changes.
Smaller, daily events also cause stress. This stress is not as apparent to us, but the constant and cumulative impact of the small stressors adds up to big impact.
In response to these daily stresses, your body automatically increases blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, metabolism, and blood flow to your muscles. This stress response is intended to help your body react quickly and effectively to any high-pressure situation.
However, when you are constantly reacting to small or large stressful situations, without making physical, mental, and emotional adjustments to counter their effect, you can experience stress that can hurt your health and well-being. It is essential that you understand both your external and internal stress-causing events, no matter how you perceive those events.
Stress can also be positive. You need a certain amount of stress to perform your best at work. The key to stress management is to determine the right amount of stress that will give you energy, ambition, and enthusiasm versus the wrong amount which can harm your health and well-being.
Important Stress Causing Issues, Characteristics and Traits
While each person is different and has different events and issues that cause stress, there are some issues that almost universally affect people. These are the stressors you most want to understand and take measures to prevent.
Feeling out of control,
Feeling direction-less,
Guilt over procrastination or failing to keep commitments,
More commitments than time,
Change, especially changes you didn’t initiate or institute,
Uncertainty, and
High expectations of self.
What Affects Your Coping With Stress Skills?
During times of stress and uncertainty, you can anticipate some predictable issues, problems, and opportunities. For instance, during any change, members of an organization have:
-Different ways of regarding change. Some people have difficulty accepting and adjusting to change and uncertainty; others will relish the changes and view them as great opportunities. Some people initiate change; others prefer the status quo.
-Different amounts of experience and practice in stress management and change management. (What is devastating to one individual may excite another or only mildly irritate a third person.) Theoretically, people become better at managing stress and change with experience.
-Some people need to “talk it out.” Others suffer silently. Some find relief in complaining. Some talk and talk and talk, but are really supportive of the change. Others find ways to sabotage changes and undermine efforts to move forward.
-Different levels of stress and change occurring in other areas of their lives.
-During change, people will experience different amounts of impact from the current changes and stress producing situations. The will also experience different amounts and types of support from their spouse, significant other, friends, supervisor, and coworkers
Stress Results From Change
People have deep attachments to their work groups, organizational structures, personal responsibilities, and ways of accomplishing work. When any of these are disturbed, whether by personal choice or through an organizational process from which they may feel quite removed and uninvolved, a transition period occurs. During this transition, people can expect to experience a period of letting go of the old ways as they begin moving toward and integrating the new.
When you consider stress in the workplace, understanding these components about stress, situations that induce stress, and employee responses to stress, can help you help both yourself and your staff effectively manage stress and change.
January 1, 1970
How to Interview Potential Employees
The job interview is a powerful factor in the employee selection process in most organizations. While the job interview may not deserve all of the attention that the job interview receives, it is still a powerful force in hiring.
Other background checking and work history references provide much less personalized and more factual information, and hopefully, you have added these checks to your hiring decisions, too. But the job interview remains key to assessing the candidate’s cultural fit. The job interview remains the tool you can use to get to know your candidate on a more personal basis. The job interview process helps other employees “own” the new employee who joins your organization.
How to Select Candidates to Interview
Your starting point, before scheduling a job interview with a candidate, is to review each candidate’s:
Resume cover letter and
Resume.
When faced with 100-200 candidates, it’s important to use tools that separate the great candidates from the many. These will help you select the candidates for the job interview. They will also help you prepare your list of questions to use to telephone screen candidates and ask during the job interviews.
Hold a recruiting planning meeting.
Devise a list of qualities, skills, and experience to use to screen resumes and job interview candidates.
Telephone Screen Candidates Prior to an Interview
The telephone interview or candidate screen allows the employer to determine if the candidate’s qualifications, experience, workplace preferences and salary needs are congruent with the position and organization. The telephone job interview saves managerial time and eliminates unlikely candidates. While I recommend developing a customized interview for each position, this generic job interview will guide you.
How to Prepare for the Job Interview
The interview team was selected at your earlier recruiting planning meeting, so the interviewers have had time to prepare. You will want to use the list of qualities, skills, knowledge, and experience you developed for the resume screening process.
Use this list to make sure each interviewer understands their role in the candidate assessment. Review each interviewer’s questions, too, to make sure the interview questions selected will obtain the needed information.
Sample Interview Questions for Employers
Motivation Job Interview Questions
Teams and Team Work Job Interview Questions
Leadership Job Interview Questions
Interpersonal Skills Job Interview Questions
Management and Supervisory Skill Job Interview Questions
Communication Job Interview Questions
Planning Job Interview Questions
Decision Making Job Interview Questions
Empowerment Job Interview Questions
Illegal Interview Questions for Employers
Ask legal interview questions that illuminate the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses to determine job fit. Avoid illegal interview questions and interview practices that could make your company the target of a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit.
Hold a Behavioral Job Interview With Each Candidate
During the job interview, help the candidate demonstrate his or her best knowledge, skills, and experience. Start with small talk and ask several easy questions until the candidate seems relaxed. Then, hold a behavioral interview.
Behavioral interviews are the best tool you have to identify candidates who have the behavioral traits and characteristics that you have selected as necessary for success in a particular job. Additionally, behavioral interviews ask the candidate to pinpoint specific instances in which a particular behavior was exhibited in the past. In the best behaviorally-based interviews, the candidate is unaware of the behavior the interviewer is verifying.
In addition to the candidate’s verbal responses during the job interview, you’ll want to notice all of the nonverbal interaction, too.
Assess Candidates Following the Job Interview
Provide a standard format for each interviewer to use to assess each candidate following the job interview. You should have several candidates who you’ll want to ask back for a second or even third job interview.
Note: The information in this article is from this Web site and a variety of online resources. The information provided, while authoritative, is not guaranteed for accuracy and legality. Please seek legal assistance, or assistance from State, Federal, or International governmental resources, to make certain your legal interpretation and decisions are correct. This information is for guidance, ideas, and assistance only.
January 1, 1970
Every person has different reasons for working. The reasons for working are as individual as the person. But, we all work because we obtain something that we need from work. The something we obtain from work impacts our morale and motivation and the quality of our lives. Here is the most recent thinking about what people want from work.
Work IS About the Money
Some people work for love; others work for personal fulfillment. Others like to accomplish goals and feel as if they are contributing to something larger than themselves, something important. Some people have personal missions they accomplish through meaningful work. Others truly love what they do or the clients they serve. Some like the camaraderie and interaction with customers and coworkers. Other people like to fill their time with activity. Some workers like change, challenge, and diverse problems to solve.
Whatever your personal reasons for working, the bottom line, however, is that almost everyone works for money. Whatever you call it: compensation, salary, bonuses, benefits or remuneration, money pays the bills. Money provides housing, gives children clothing and food, sends teens to college, and allows leisure activities, and eventually, retirement. To underplay the importance of money and benefits to people who work is a mistake.
Fair benefits and pay are the cornerstone of a successful company that recruits and retains committed workers. If you provide a living wage for your employees, you can then work on motivational issues. Without the fair, living wage, however, you risk losing your best people to a better-paying employer.
what people want from work is situational, depending on the person, his needs and the rewards that are meaningful to him, giving people what they want from work is really quite straight forward. People want:
Control of their work:
including such components as the ability to impact decisions; setting clear and measurable goals; clear responsibility for a complete, or at least defined, task; job enrichment; tasks performed in the work itself; and recognition for achievement.
To belong to the in-crowd:
including items such as receiving timely information and communication; understanding management’s formulas for decision making; team and meeting participation opportunities; and visual documention and posting of work progress and accomplishments.
The opportunity for growth and development:
including education and training; career paths; team participation; cross-training; and field trips to successful workplaces.
Leadership:
people want clear expectations that provide a picture of the outcomes desired with goal setting and feedback and an appropriate structure or framework.
January 1, 1970
A job description describes the major areas of an employee’s job or position. A good job description begins with a careful analysis of the important facts about a job – such as the individual tasks involved, the methods used to complete the tasks, the purpose and responsibilities of the job, the relationship of the job to other jobs, and the qualifications needed for the job.
It’s important to make a job description practical by keeping it dynamic, functional and current. Don’t get stuck with an inflexible job description! A poor job description will keep you and your employees from trying anything new and learning
how to perform their job more productively. A well-written, practical job description will help you avoid hearing a refusal to carry out a relevant assignment because “it isn’t in my job description.”
Realistically speaking, many jobs are subject to change, due either to personal growth, organizational development and/or the evolution of new technologies. Flexible job descriptions will encourage your employees to grow within their positions and learn how to make larger contributions to your company.
For example: Is your office manager stuck “routinely ordering office supplies for the company and keeping the storage closet well stocked ” or is she/he “developing and implementing a system of ordering office supplies that promotes cost
savings and efficiency within the organization?”
When writing a job description, keep in mind that the job description will serve as a major basis for outlining job training or conducting future job evaluations.
A Job Description should include a:
Job Title
Job Objective or Overall Purpose Statement:
This statement is generally a summary designed to orient
the reader to the general nature, level, purpose and objective of the job. The summary should describe the broad function and scope of the position and be no longer than three to four sentences.
List of Duties or Tasks Performed:
The list contains an item by item list of principal duties, continuing responsibilities and accountability of the occupant
of the position. The list should contain each and every essential job duty or responsibility that is critical to the successful performance of the job. The list should begin with the most important functional and relational responsibilities and continue down in order of significance. Each duty or responsibility that
comprises at least five percent of the incumbent’s time should be included in the list.
Description of the Relationships and Roles
The occupant of the position holds within the company, including any supervisory positions, subordinating roles
and/or other working relationships.
When using Job Descriptions for recruiting situations, you may also want to attach the following:
Job Specifications, Standards and Requirements:
The minimum qualifications needed to perform the essential functions of the job such as education, experience, knowledge and skills. Any critical skills and expertise needed for the job should be included. For example, for a receptionist, critical skills may be having:
1. a professional and courteous telephone manner
2. legible hand-writing if messages are to be taken
3. the ability to handle a multiple-lined phone system for a number of staff members
4. the patience and endurance to sit behind a desk all day.
Job Location – where the work will be performed.
Equipment to be used in the performance of the job:
For example, does your company’s computers run in a Apple Macintosh or PC Windows environment?
Non-Essential Functions:
Functions which are not essential to the position or any marginal tasks performed by the incumbent of the position.
Salary Range:
Range of pay for the position.
Keep each statement in the job description crisp and
clear:
Use un-biased terminology:
For example: use the “he/she” approach or construct sentences in such as way that gender pronouns are not required.
Avoid using words which are subject to differing
interpretations:
Try not to use words such as “frequently,” “some,” “complex,” “occasional,” and “several.”
If necessary, use explanatory phrases telling why, how, where or how often to add meaning and clarity:
For example: “Collects all employee time-sheets on a
bi-weekly basis for payroll purposes.”
January 1, 1970
With the recession causing thousands of redundancies in the IT industry, it seems SMEs could prove a safe port in the economic storm for tech workers.
Small and medium-sized businesses are far less likely to cut the number of IT staff they employ this year, according to new research.
Some 29 per cent of SMEs in the US and Europe said they will decrease their headcount this year, while 61 per cent of larger enterprises are planning to do so – with 31 per cent of big businesses preparing to cut more than five per cent of their IT staff, research by analysts Forrester has found.
A roughly similar proportion of SMEs and large enterprises are expecting to take on extra staff this year – eight per cent and nine per cent respectively.
While SMEs may be less likely to axe staff this year, it seems they’re finding greater stress put on their overall IT budget.
According to Forrester, European SMEs are more likely to cut their tech spending than their large enterprise cousins – 32 per cent of SMEs are reducing their IT operating budget this year with 28 per cent also lowering IT capital budget, compared to 27 per cent in both cases for larger businesses.
Among those businesses lowering their IT spending, SMEs are taking the knife much deeper, expecting their operating budgets to fall by four per cent year on year in 2009 and their capital budgets by two per cent. For larger firms, the falls are expected to be two per cent and one per cent.
“We should note that these are planned budgets; due to the deeper recessions in Europe than in the US, we expect that actual IT spending levels will be reduced more in Europe than in the US, and both regions will come in below planned budgets,” Forrester notes.
January 1, 1970
If number crunching is second nature to you, an accounting career may be just right for you! Among other things, an accounting career also puts you in the position of ensuring that your company is in line with the latest developments in tax and financial laws.
Charting a career path down the accounting road is a lucrative and rewarding option for many. Tax and financial laws keep changing all the time – and it is one of the responsibilities of an accountant to make sure that his company matches their financial management style to comply with these laws.
However, within the scope of accounting careers, there are several options that you can pursue – sort of like a specialization within the specialization. The top five accounting career options are: becoming a staff accountant, or an internal auditor, or an external auditor, or a compliance executive, and finally a financial analyst.
Staff accountants are amongst the top most career options available in accounting careers. Staff accountants are the key people maintaining the accounts within an organization. They process the basic information right from journal entries and assist with creating the different financial reports required for businesses. Staff accountants also need to have basic and working knowledge of the different laws and compliance requirements. Usually, a staff accountant has a Bachelor’s Degree and has experience in public accounting.
Internal auditors should ideally be Certified Internal Auditors, along with having a Bachelor’s Degree and up to 2 years of work experience in a relevant field. The Internal Auditor performs important functions like controlling costs and meeting compliance requirements. An Internal Auditor is also responsible for maintaining operations efficiency, reliability of financial reporting, along with fraud determination and investigation. They can also advise the Board of Directors on how to better execute their responsibilities.
External Auditors are usually people from outside the company who inspect a company’s accounts and records and make required recommendations. External Auditors report on whether a company’s accounts are maintained correctly and not fraudulent. These are independent people who perform an exhaustive appraisal of a company’s accounting processes, procedures and records. An External Auditor garners a lot of respect from his colleagues and peers.
A Compliance Executive will ensure that a company is following the different guidelines laid down by the law in maintaining their accounting processes and records. A Compliance Executive also helps companies in the process of achieving compliance with the different legislations in effect.
Financial Analysts help company executives and officials with different budgeting and forecasting analyses that are required to plan their initiatives and to increase profitability. They are also often referred to as Investment Analysts or Securities Analysts. Financials like prices, costs, expenses and taxes are taken into consideration for determining the company’s value and for projecting future trends and earnings.
With all these top accounting career options, you will be sure to succeed in your career path!
