News
The HR Strategist: September 2019
In this issue:
- Snowball Effect: Company Culture affects Customer Service
- How to make a Difficult job, Easier
- Is it Time to Update your Time & Attendance policies?
Snowball Effect: Company Culture affects Customer Service
Have you heard of the ‘Snowball Effect’? If not, it is a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger. This effect plays a huge role in company culture and customer service.
Your employees are your biggest advocates. So when your company culture, customer service, and communication strategy align, you help your business maintain a strong reputation and loyalty. Therefore, by ensuring your company culture is strong, you can drive your customer service through the roof. But how can you keep this type of ‘flow’ going when you hire new employees? Well, here are a few tips:
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During the process of searching for a new employee, look beyond their tactical skills, and explore what their mindset is
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Ask how they approach certain situations and see if it aligns with the rest of the teams
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Inquire how they view brand advocacy and what that means to them
If their answers and/or actions are within your companies’ standards and mission, then it’s safe to move forward. The best part? HRi can help you with that by finding the perfect candidate for your company.
HRi and our employees are dedicated to ensuring our engagement and strategy aligns with our client’s philosophy. We believe that with great customer service and company culture, we can provide the best communication and service.
Is it Time to Update your Time & Attendance policies?
Time & Attendance issues can show up in several ways. Employees may become resilient towards their schedules, or you may notice an increase in unscheduled absences. When these types of 
issues arise, many HR departments find themselves revisiting their company’s time and attendance policies.
These policies are important as it helps employees know what your organization expects based on absences, schedules, and time. Having a written time and attendance policy makes it easier for employees to refer to these policies rather than asking their managers. By clearly communicating policies, managers can easily support their disciplinary decisions by referring to these policies, and employees can tell the company is committed to treating employees equally.
If your company doesn’t have a Time & Attendance policy, now is the time to implement one. Things like issues with scheduling and unexcused absences can impact companies of all sizes. By not having a policy in place, employees may not be aware of what is expected of them, and managers are unable to ‘back up’ their reasoning behind disciplinary actions. We highly encourage you to review your handbook to ensure you have a set policy!
How to make a Difficult job, Easier
For most managers and HR Professionals, disciplining an employee is one of the most dreadful part of their position. However, there are simple steps to take the dread out of this process and to make it a little less painful for both parties.
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Define expectations
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Have policies in writing through an Employee Handbook
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Create set goals that motivate employees to improve
Although, if these steps are taken and no improvements are made, you may need to find a different solution. Yes, that terrible ‘T’ word, termination. If you end up having to terminate an employee, we highly recommend conducting an exit-interview (which we can help with!), and defined policies to help them move along. To ensure your termination process is compliant, consider reaching out to HRi to connect with our HR Professionals. Our highly trained and certified team will be able to provide guidelines on employees from discipline to termination.
WELCOMING…
We would like to take this time to introduce and welcome our new Tax Specialist, Lorrie Johnson! Lorrie has a background in Tax Management, Reconciliation of Tax Returns, Accounts Receivable, and more! We are so excited to have her as a part of our team, and can’t wait to watch her grow within her new role at HRi!
Did You Know…
We can help you remain in compliance by creating an Employee Handbook?
Watch our video below to check out why your company should have one in place.