The election is coming and it will be all pervasive in the country, and in your workplace. What's the impact of allowing your workspace to become politicized? All the answers point to: don't let it happen. The only role the workplace should play is to encourage and make it easy for all people to register and then vote.
Some companies don't let any politics in, no buttons worn on employee uniforms, no signs at desks and no tag lines on e-mails. The bigger the firm, the more likely it is to have more restrictive rules. Sounds draconian, but it really isn't. You don't want someone wearing your company's uniform to then place a political ad on your logo. This will upset exactly half of your customer base, unless you know which gentleman will win.
If you don't provide company shirts or uniforms you have a little less ability to say what buttons can or can't be worn, but you can insist that anything worn while you are at work needs to be below a certain size, does not contain hate language or obscenities. Avoid bumper stickers on your company trucks, whether for a candidate or an overall position. Put all you want on your personal car. Make all the contributions you want with personal funds, not with company money. When employees who happen to disagree with your position sees that the company has donated to or endorsed a candidate, they will question why they are working hard for you to give money to the campaign they don't support. Also, exactly half of your customers will ask why they are giving you work, and money, to spend on someone they don't want elected!
Avoid posters in your storefront window supporting one way or the other. Avoid letting your company name being used in a support ad. Avoid having a meet & greet with a local politician or a representative of a national campaign on your premises.
We all benefit from an active debate and information flow to all people, including your employees. Your workplace however, or during your work time, should not be the time and place for this debate.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
It's Sum, Sum, Sum, Sum...Summertime
Bar-B-Ques, ball games, family picnics, long weekends, and of course, vacations. Vacations are great. Everyone remembers their favorite trip or place they went on a vacation. As a business owner or manager, your take on vacations usually is 'a scheduling nightmare'. Here are some tips that may help every business.
Vacation is not a mandated benefit. Some companies don't offer vacation, especially to part-time or contract workers, but there are three reasons you want to offer vacations: A good vacation program allows you to hire and retain the best employees; most employees come back from vacation with their batteries recharged and are ready to perform at their best for the company; and managing a vacation schedule allows leadership to cross-train and observe other members of the company.
Vacation is not a mandated benefit. Some companies don't offer vacation, especially to part-time or contract workers, but there are three reasons you want to offer vacations: A good vacation program allows you to hire and retain the best employees; most employees come back from vacation with their batteries recharged and are ready to perform at their best for the company; and managing a vacation schedule allows leadership to cross-train and observe other members of the company.
That's the textbook in me writing. Let's get to what we in the glass industry can do to help ourselves with proper vacation scheduling. The most common vacation schedule in the United States is two weeks during the summer, as that is when the kids are out of school. If everyone wants their vacation in the summer, you may find yourself without enough people to staff your business needs.
In your employee manual, or just your vacation policies sheet, you may make any rules you want. There is no federal guideline. If you want to offer vacation only in the fall and winter, your quiet season, that's OK. You might not hire or retain great employees, so you have to strike a balance.
Set a number of employees, by company or department, that can be on vacation at any one time. For instance, you have six field glaziers, you might say no more than two at any given time can be scheduled out. The single best way to set the schedule is based on employee seniority. It is the simplest and prevents any other problems. Ask for a vacation schedule early in the year, by February if you can. People may say they can't make their plans this early, but others who take a planned week will want to get reservations early to save money on travel and hotels.
So, ask for a schedule by February 15th. If there are conflict dates, or too many people in a week, talk with the group and tell them that the most senior people get the requested weeks, and ask the others for their next choice. A week later, hand out a note with the scheduled vacations. After that, fill in requests only as they meet your minimum staffing requirement. Please don't make the mistake of allowing someone to beg for a closed week. This will only hurt the rest of the company.
It is OK to allow one week during the summer, and the other week sometime during the rest of the year. If an employee has earned more than two weeks, only the first two weeks should go into the advance schedule. A person with a month off should not hinder the rest of the group.
An extremely common situation is the employee who asks to work through a vacation week, earning an extra week's pay. If you accomodate this request, you should allow for one of an employee's two weeks. Remember, you are now paying this person for 53 weeks, not 52, and your budgeting is getting a hole blown in it.
Never, ever grant an employee to work through their entire vacation, most especially any employee that handles cash, your checkbook, pays bills, invoices customers or places vendor orders. You want them away for week and you want someone else to learn and do their job. Why? So that when the customer says, they normally get an order at half price, your alarm bell goes off. It is a major warning when a financial person says they want to work through vacation. This is the time to be suspicious.
You should also have a policy on returning from vacation. If someone is due back on a Monday, they should be back and ready to work. If someone drives from 500 miles away all night Sunday, and comes to work looking like they are half-asleep, send them home, without pay. The old joke about having to go back to work, so they can recover from vacation, is no joke when it affects your company's productivity.
I always have a hard time with the employee who calls at 8:00 on Monday morning, saying they will be late because their flight came in late. Being on vacation is not an excuse for being unreliable.
The most common vacation-earning schedule is:
- First Year - one week earned
- Second Year - two weeks earned
- Eight-Ten Years - three weeks earned
- Fifteen-Twenty Years - four weeks earned
Don't fall into the trap of trying to match other companies or industries. We are not high-tech or education. I have seen many glass companies that offer vacations to three weeks, and just a very few who go to five weeks.
One of the biggest decisions in vacation policy is: when is a vacation earned and eligible to be taken. Is it after one year of employment, and then take one week during the second worked year? Or is it one week earned and taken during the first year? There is no correct or right decision. If you tend to hire employees for long-terms, then go with the earn and take in the first year. On the other hand, if you turn people over, then wait until one full year worked to earn the vacation.
What about when an employee leaves you--do they get their accumulated vacation? Remember, it is not covered by federal law, so you may pay it or cancel it. (some states may have other policies). I know some employers who forfeit accrued vacation when an employees resigns. This may make an employee think twice before quitting after a disagreement in the plant; but for the most part, this just causes ill-will, which is transmitted by the ex-employee through out your community. We paid all accrued vacation after confirming hours worked in the last pay period, and after all company materials, (phones, safety gear, etc) were checked back in.
If an holiday occurs during the employee's vacation period, make it optional if the employee gets the following Monday, or another day of their choice.
Some companies let employees take a vacation day or two in advance, in effect loaning them the days ahead of when they are earned. This is really a win-win situation. You give the employee something they are going to earn in a short period of time, the employee thinks you are really accommodating, and you can still with hold a day's pay from their last paycheck if they quit the week after the vacation. Do this when it is within a month or two of actually earning the last day, and to an employee you want to reward.
We'll talk more about vacation scheduling when winter vacations come up for scheduling, later in the fall. To all, have a great trip, wherever you are going!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Change In The Glass Industry
Sure, you think this will be about Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain and the politics of change. Wrong.
This is about change in your store. Read on----
Last month I was on a visit to a client and I forgot my small calculator, usually packed in my briefcase. Stopping into a national printing and office supply store I found a $4.70 calculator, which was just right. I brought it to the counter where two young women were talking. After waiting about thirty seconds, I asked if one of them could take my money.
The dirty look told me volumes about their customer service. I handed one of them a twenty-dollar bill. She told me the amount was $5.03 with tax. I said, wait a second, here is three cents. She froze like a deer in headlights, looking at me and then at the cash register. She had already recorded my twenty and had the change amount flashing on her screen. She looked petrified. Finally, after about 15 seconds, I asked if she was all right. She shook her head kind of up and down, and then sideways. She said wait a minute, she had to see a supervisor. She came back with the supervisor who used a key insert to void the sale, and the the clerk reentered the transaction with $20.03 tendered, and gave me my change. I asked her why she called the supervisor, and slowly she replied, she didn't know how to make change without the screen telling her.
All together, it took over three minutes to pay. Now, three minutes is not that important, but then again, it was. I was irritated that my time was wasted, as was the time of my partner in the car. I was surprised that a national store couldn't train their counter help to make change.
The moral of the story is: make sure your counter help is trained. When you hire someone, test him or her to see if they can make change. Don't depend on the school system to do this. Make sure your staff knows how to use whatever systems you have to finish a transaction.
Train your staff to ask if there is anything else the customer needs. Have them ask for their e-mail address for your mailing list. Have them say, with enthusiasm, "Thank You" for shopping in your store. Teach them to say, "And by the way, we sell mirrors for your home, and we can replace your old windows with new low-e, energy saving, windows."
Don't let the weakest link in your chain be the last person your customer sees!
This is about change in your store. Read on----
Last month I was on a visit to a client and I forgot my small calculator, usually packed in my briefcase. Stopping into a national printing and office supply store I found a $4.70 calculator, which was just right. I brought it to the counter where two young women were talking. After waiting about thirty seconds, I asked if one of them could take my money.
The dirty look told me volumes about their customer service. I handed one of them a twenty-dollar bill. She told me the amount was $5.03 with tax. I said, wait a second, here is three cents. She froze like a deer in headlights, looking at me and then at the cash register. She had already recorded my twenty and had the change amount flashing on her screen. She looked petrified. Finally, after about 15 seconds, I asked if she was all right. She shook her head kind of up and down, and then sideways. She said wait a minute, she had to see a supervisor. She came back with the supervisor who used a key insert to void the sale, and the the clerk reentered the transaction with $20.03 tendered, and gave me my change. I asked her why she called the supervisor, and slowly she replied, she didn't know how to make change without the screen telling her.
All together, it took over three minutes to pay. Now, three minutes is not that important, but then again, it was. I was irritated that my time was wasted, as was the time of my partner in the car. I was surprised that a national store couldn't train their counter help to make change.
The moral of the story is: make sure your counter help is trained. When you hire someone, test him or her to see if they can make change. Don't depend on the school system to do this. Make sure your staff knows how to use whatever systems you have to finish a transaction.
Train your staff to ask if there is anything else the customer needs. Have them ask for their e-mail address for your mailing list. Have them say, with enthusiasm, "Thank You" for shopping in your store. Teach them to say, "And by the way, we sell mirrors for your home, and we can replace your old windows with new low-e, energy saving, windows."
Don't let the weakest link in your chain be the last person your customer sees!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
You Know You Have To Fire Him, But...............
You have cursed him for three years; told yourself you would do it on three different times; you almost did it once; why can't you fire him? He does just enough to get by, most of the time; he shows up on time, on pay day; he said he was sorry for spilling his coffee on Mrs. Customer's white rug, after she stopped payment on the check; why can't you fire him? You gave him a raise every year for three years because you didn't want him complaining.
Yes, it is hard to do. You loose sleep over it, and you chew antacid pills by the dozen. It is easier to live with mediocrity than fire someone. He might sue you for something. He will play on your heartstrings, telling you about his sick daughter. He may bad mouth you to the rest of the employees. He might work for a competitor and tell them who your best account is.
On the other hand, your other employees will thank you for getting rid of a rotten apple and you will sleep better. You may save money, because, with our current economy, you are not going to replace him.
Here's the plan. Put him on probation. Write a thoughtful and accurate critique of his work. Comment on his attitude, his quality and quantity of work, his safety habits, and his reliability. When you say something negative, (and you will), give a specific instance which backs up your comment. Most important, set a target date and work goal you expect for improvement. It is hard to figure out for attitude, buy you will know it when you see it. It is subjective, yes, but you are within all bounds to ask for better and more polite communication with all levels of the company and customers.
Meet with him for an half-hour, laying out your concerns, and your goals for his improvement. (If he does improve, you have a win, and all is fine!!)Set a time to meet again, usually 30-60 days. Explain that his job is in jeopardy if he does not improve. Give him every reason to improve in your meeting, specifically, he will keep his job. Keep accurate notes during this time period about his failures and his successes. Since tigers don't change their spots, his failures will continue.
At your next meeting, explain where he has not met your goals and now you are going to suspend him for 1 week. Tell him to go home and think about whether he wants to work for you. Keep his medical and other benefits intact for this week, but no pay. This is not a lay-off. Be clear, this is a dire consequence of his inability to meet your goals. He may ask to be paid a week of vacation...split answer on this. No pain, being no pay, may improve him. My feel--give him the vacation money, you will owe it anyway, and you are showing the strongest support by doing this.
After the suspension, give no more then 30 days to your next meeting. If he doesn't improve, it is time to terminate. Make it quick and simple. Tell him he hasn't met your goals and his job is done. Do not get into an argument, have another person present with you; don't present details; if he is going to sue you, don't give him the ammunition. Save this for your lawyer.
I promise you, all the fear and problems will be offset when one or two other employees come to you and say thank you for letting the rotten apple go. You will sleep better. Your company will be a better company.
This is a simple note on a complicated situation. It is a start. Think about him and his impact on your business. Do you want to talk with an impartial person? Drop me a note a paulbaseball@msn.com.
Yes, it is hard to do. You loose sleep over it, and you chew antacid pills by the dozen. It is easier to live with mediocrity than fire someone. He might sue you for something. He will play on your heartstrings, telling you about his sick daughter. He may bad mouth you to the rest of the employees. He might work for a competitor and tell them who your best account is.
On the other hand, your other employees will thank you for getting rid of a rotten apple and you will sleep better. You may save money, because, with our current economy, you are not going to replace him.
Here's the plan. Put him on probation. Write a thoughtful and accurate critique of his work. Comment on his attitude, his quality and quantity of work, his safety habits, and his reliability. When you say something negative, (and you will), give a specific instance which backs up your comment. Most important, set a target date and work goal you expect for improvement. It is hard to figure out for attitude, buy you will know it when you see it. It is subjective, yes, but you are within all bounds to ask for better and more polite communication with all levels of the company and customers.
Meet with him for an half-hour, laying out your concerns, and your goals for his improvement. (If he does improve, you have a win, and all is fine!!)Set a time to meet again, usually 30-60 days. Explain that his job is in jeopardy if he does not improve. Give him every reason to improve in your meeting, specifically, he will keep his job. Keep accurate notes during this time period about his failures and his successes. Since tigers don't change their spots, his failures will continue.
At your next meeting, explain where he has not met your goals and now you are going to suspend him for 1 week. Tell him to go home and think about whether he wants to work for you. Keep his medical and other benefits intact for this week, but no pay. This is not a lay-off. Be clear, this is a dire consequence of his inability to meet your goals. He may ask to be paid a week of vacation...split answer on this. No pain, being no pay, may improve him. My feel--give him the vacation money, you will owe it anyway, and you are showing the strongest support by doing this.
After the suspension, give no more then 30 days to your next meeting. If he doesn't improve, it is time to terminate. Make it quick and simple. Tell him he hasn't met your goals and his job is done. Do not get into an argument, have another person present with you; don't present details; if he is going to sue you, don't give him the ammunition. Save this for your lawyer.
I promise you, all the fear and problems will be offset when one or two other employees come to you and say thank you for letting the rotten apple go. You will sleep better. Your company will be a better company.
This is a simple note on a complicated situation. It is a start. Think about him and his impact on your business. Do you want to talk with an impartial person? Drop me a note a paulbaseball@msn.com.
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