January 23rd, 2011 
jvremec
HR and Employee Relations Training for Employee Engagement
Author: David Shoemaker
One common topic in employee relations training is how to increase employee engagement. If your company values employee engagement, the human resources department must work to create an engagement strategy using the resources available. With the right skills, developing and maintaining high employee engagement can be done even with limited resources. A comprehensive human resource training program should cover the development of an engagement strategy as well as cover the tools needed to assess the current engagement climate.
Another driver of employee engagement is more directly related to the human resources department, which is where a good human resource training program comes into play. This next driver relates to a solid rewards program – financial rewards, bonuses, raises – these all make employees feel more secure and are great incentives for employees to engage. Employees that have financial difficulties are much less likely to feel attached to their work, even if they enjoy it. Financial stress does not drive employee engagement. A company must provide a good rewards system to foster more engagement.
The third driver is the general sense of involvement and the quality of communication in an employee’s daily work. An employee should know how the company is doing and what the future might hold. Communication is key to making an employee feel like he or she is a valuable part of a company. If an employee knows that he or she is worth something within a company, he feels more attached and is more likely to engage. A company should ask employees for participation and ask them to get involved. Creating an emotional attachment to work improves engagement.
There are several ways for a company to evaluate its current level of engagement. Surveys may be helpful, as are focus groups and one-on-one discussions. The HR department can go out and interview people throughout the company to get valuable insights. Gathering data to understand current performance is key to learning what a company needs to do to improve. A human resource training program can introduce some of the tools needed to conduct interviews, and employee relations training can also be beneficial for an overall understanding of engagement and what employees need to get more involved. A comprehensive engagement strategy should first evaluate the current situation and then develop a plan to improve employee engagement through several channels.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/hr-and-employee-relations-training-for-employee-engagement-3696826.html
About the Author
David Shoemaker is Vice President of Learning Solutions and Innovation at eCornell. For more information on employee relations training, human resource training program, or eCornell, please visit http://www.eCornell.com
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Math Calculus for Bus: A company training program determines that, on average, a new employee can do P(x)?
A company training program determines that, on average, a new employee can do P(x) pieces of work per day after s days of on-the-job training, where P(x) = (90+60x)/(x+5). Find lim x approaches 5.
Is the answer 30? How so?
How can you determine if an employee has the reading level necessary to succeed in a training program?
A series of questions with an increasingly complex level of required response should help give an indication of reading level. Training programs may be geared towards those of a certain reading level depending upon the content requirements, so understanding reading capabilities is an important pre-assessment step.
An example of a progressive questionnaire, using small engine repair as a training topic:
(1) Have you ever taken a course on small engine repair?
(2) Name three basic parts of a small engine, from largest to smallest.
(3) Tell us about a situation where you needed to do work on an engine. What was the problem? What was the solution? How could the problem have been prevented?
Additionally, you can get a comparative reading ability by taking samples of writing and plugging them into MS Office Word. Word has a Readability tool that will identify the reading level required to understand the entry. While this will not give a definitive indication of reading level, it is useful in comparing the relative reading levels of members of a group to identify the lower spectrum capability.
Best of luck!
We are creating a training manual for a 4 star hotel. How do u suggest we get employee’s to take initiative?
This hotel training program for all employees must encorage them to take the initiative when dealing with customers in order to take the extra steps towards customer satisfaction. Any imput is very much appreciated. Employees include, banquet staff, front desk staff, and housekeeping staff.
“Initiative” means different things to different people. The first thing you need to do is make sure you have a clear definition and concept of what you consider acceptable “initiative” to be. People need to know what authority they have and where that authority ends. You also need to make sure that supervisors and managers understand what types of decisions employees will and won’t be allowed to make.
I’ve worked places where I believed I was taking initiative and I was accused of being pushy, bossy, or over-stepping my authority.
Ballarat Dry Cleaning Company: The new training program???
At the present time the Ballarat Dry Cleaning Company has no formal induction or training policies or
procedures. The owner, Jennifer Carter, believes this is one reason why the standards to which she and her
father, Jack would like employees to adhere are generally not maintained.
The Carters would prefer that certain practices and procedures are used when dealing with customers at the
front counter. For example, all customers should be greeted with what Jack calls a ‘big hello’. Garments they drop off should immediately be inspected for any damage or unusual stains so these can be brought to the customer’s attention, lest the customer erroneously blame the store when picking up the garmet. The garmets should then be placed immediately in a nylon sack to separate then from other customers’ garmets. The ticket should be carefully written up, with the customer’s name and telephone number and the date precisely and clearly noted on all copies. The counterperson is also supposed to take the opportunity to try and sell the customer additional services such as waterproofing, or simply notify the customer that: ‘Now that people are doing their spring cleaning, we’re having a special on curtain cleaning all this month.’ Finally, as the customer leaves, the counterperson is supposed to make a courteous comment like ‘Enjoy your day’ or ‘Drive safely’. Each of the other jobs in the storespressing, cleaning and spotting, periodically maintaining the coin laundry equipment, and so forthsimilarly include certain steps, procedures and, most important, standards that the Carters would prefer to see upheld.
The company has also had other problems, Jennifer feels, because of a lack of adequate employee training and induction. For example, two new employees became very upset last month when they discovered that they were not paid at the end of the week, on Friday, but on the following Tuesday (as are all employees). The Carters use the extra two days in part to give them time to obtain everyone’s hours and compute their pay. The other reason they do it, according to Jack, is that ‘Frankly, when we stay a few days behind in paying employees it helps to ensure that they at least give us a few days’ notice before quitting on us. While we are certainly obliged to pay them anything they earn, we find that psychologically they seem to be less likely to just walk out on us Friday evening and not show up Monday morning if they still haven’t got their pay from the previous week. This way they at least give us a few days’ notice so we can find a replacement.’
Other matters that could be covered during an induction, says Jennifer, include company policy regarding paid holidays, lateness and absences, and general matters like the maintenance of a clean and safe work area, personal appearance and cleanliness, time sheets, personal telephone calls and mail, company policy on substance abuse, and eating or smoking on the job. Jennifer believes that implementing induction programs would help to ensure that employees know how to do their jobs the right way. And she and her father feel that it is only when employees understand the right way to do their jobs that there is any hope their jobs will be done the way the Carters want them to be done.
1. Specifically, what should the Carters cover in their new employee induction program and how should
they covey this information?
In an HRM course that Jennifer took, the textbook suggested using a task analysis record form to
identify the tasks performed by an employee. Should they use a form like that for the counterperson’s
job, and if so, what would the filled-in form look like?
Which specific training techniques should Jennifer use to train her pressers, her cleaner-spotters, her
manager and her counterpeople, and why?
This is a lot of work for us to do for you.
Why not do your own homework?
Does anyone know what companies are investing on employee training in todays economy?
I’m looking to start working for a Dale Canegie franchise selling their training program B-2-B and am curious as to how this market is doing.
All companies train to a certain extent. You need to look into e-commerce, supply chain management, international companies and in general larger publicly traded companies with growing networks.