HR Girl 4'11" Blog

Keeping Your Employees Cool & Safe This Summer

It’s official; summer is here, and so far it has been a hot one! So what should you do in order to keep your employees cool this year? You need a plan of course, especially for your employees who work outside of the office environment. Workers who are constantly exposed to the sun should be aware of the possible dangers affiliated with the heat. An open line of communication from you to your workers in the field will be the starting point. They will be depending on you for guidance and safety, so make sure you are aware of their work environment.

Here are 6 things to share with your workers this summer, which are all critical to their health as well as reducing your risks:

Sun Screen & Block Application

On a daily basis, sunscreen and/or sun block should be applied, and reapplied as necessary throughout the day. These lotions will help reduce the amount of damage to the skin, due to it’s direct exposure to the sun. Remember, SPH 15 and higher is recommended in order to protect your skin from UVA and UVB damage. The most popular makers of these lotions are ww.bananaboat.com, www.coppertone.com, and www.neutrogena.com.  IDEA: You may furnish small bottles of sunscreen to your employees, so they can always have a small back-up supply.

Heat Stroke and Exhaustion Awareness

Knowing the signs of heat exhaustion or stroke is critical knowledge that your staff should be armed with. Heat exhaustion can occur if your employee has been doing heavy work in the heat, accompanied by lack of fluid intake. Signs of heat exhaustion include: rapid heartbeat, rapid and shallow breathing, dizziness / lightheadedness, confusion or irritability, and nausea. Heat strokes have similar signs, however, a heat stroke can be deadly. IDEA: Train your staff about the signs of heat stroke & exhaustion and how to respond to such emergencies such as these. If all employees cannot be trained, make sure at least one person on site has the proper training, preferably First Aid & CPR certified.

Staying Hydrated

It’s imperative that your employees remain hydrated by taking in plenty of fluids throughout the day. It is recommended that a person should drink 8 to 10 cups of water a day, but if your employees would like to mix it up a bit, and add a little flavor to quench their thirst, they may choose a sports drink such as Gatorade or Powerade which provides a healthy amount of electrolytes for their bodies so they may remain hydrated throughout the course of the day. IDEA: Provide a cooler for your employees to keep in their vehicles at all times. If not, furnish them with a coupon to purchase a cooler.

Shade Provisions

You may find it beneficial to provide your employees with adequate shade near their outdoor workspaces. A 10X10 or 8X8 canopy (www.canopycenter.com or www.dickssportinggoods.com) can be purchased for less than $200, perfect for the employees who remain stationary for long periods of time. This will cost a fraction of an emergency room visit. And whether your company provides vehicles or you require the use of your employee’s personal vehicle, you can suggest frequent breaks to their vehicles. This will allow them a place to access some cool air throughout the day.

Heat Advisories

These advisories are normally issued in the morning on your local news station as well as the national weather service (www.nws.noaa.gov).  So it’s critical for these warnings your priority is to communicate these warnings to your staff, because their lives depend on you. IDEA: Up to date weather can be accessed via cell phone applications, and you may choose to utilize texts notifications in effort to keep your employees in the know.

Weather Flag System

Depending on your geological location, you may develop a flag system that informs employees of the weather conditions along with your companies requirements for working in those conditions. The military uses a similar system that alerts the troops to the current weather conditions so they will know when to limit outdoor activities during those peak hours of high temperatures throughout the day. Here’s an example of a flag system that you can use:

Green Flag – Calm conditions and safe 70° – 89°

  Yellow Flag – Stay alert and safe. Temperatures range in between 90° – 97°.

Red Flag – Extreme caution with frequent breaks. Stay alert and hydrated.                                Temperatures range in between 98° – 102°.

Black Flag – DO NOT WORK! Temperatures exceed 103°.

IDEA: These flags may be disbursed to your staff on the site supervisor vehicle or via text alerts.

Get ready to enjoy a safe summer with your employees by keeping them in the loop. Doing so will reduce your risks as well as furnishing a great and safe working environment for your employees.

Disclaimer: Products mentioned are not being endorsed. These are merely suggestions offered in effort for you (the reader) to make an educated decision in regards to providing a safe working environment for your employees.

Using Social Media to Qualify Instead of Disqualify Candidates

As mentioned in an earlier post, Social Media sites should be used in the character reference portion of the background checking phase once you have narrowed down your top 10 or 3 candidates for the position. Avoid using these sites as the only verifying source for your candidate's skills, education and abilities. This would be a smart choice.

Don't Do This Yet

If you are still a little uncertain about using social media, then give yourself a little time to adjust, because at the present moment, you may not be ready. Keep in mind, checking out your candidates' social networking pages may not be for you if:

1. If you want to control what your employees do in their personal time outside the workplace.
2. If you have an excessive need to check their pages for updates and conversations. And seek out to follow their friends and their conversations.
3. If they are a fan of a particular group that you don't agree with. Particularly racial, sexual, political, theoretical, or religious groups.
4. If you are prone to discriminate based on marital status, sexual orientation, race, and religion etc.
5. If you quiver at the fact that you get a chance to see the candidate prior to the interview.

Once you overcome these 5 obstacles, you are well on your way to forming a more open minded approach to screening and qualifying candidates without the threat of being discriminative or judgmental.

Qualify Your Candidates

Should you find a candidate who has a social presence, understand that this is a great benefit that adds on to their overall portfolio. However, you may have other strong candidates who do not have on online presence. In this case you will have to use professional judgment in order to determine who will be the best fit for your organization. 

Here are some qualifying factors for your candidates who use social media:

1. They are knowledgeable enough about technology.
2. They are willing to learn new things and adapt to the current economy in order to survive.
3. They are competitive and realize what it takes to be recognized.
4. They are fearless enough to interact with other professionals.
5. They are outgoing enough to build their network and join groups.

All of these things listed are indeed character based reasons. Therefore, and I state my case, that social networking sites should be used for character referencing purposes. Not as the one and only reason to disqualify candidate. I will discuss later how to Set Up Your Internal Guidelines for Using Social Networking Sites-Qualify Candidates.

Any thoughts?

Stay There Til You Get It Right

Sound familiar? You may have been told that as a child, but it does not always apply as an adult. If you have ever been in a position that doesn't allow the slightest amount of brain power, or if you have been overwhelmed with an assignment, then you are familiar with the amount of frustration that some of your employees may be facing. 

 If you have a staff member who is obviously having some difficulties with their position to the point where they are struggling to adjust, grasp new concepts, or their frustration has almost reached boiling point here are some options:

A. Analyze the situation. See how long the employee has been in their current position. They may be too green for an accurate performance evaluation, therefore they may have a minor adjustment issue. Make sure that they have been given proper training and the tools needed for their position along with a clear understanding of what the company expects. If the employee has been with the company for several years, they may be experiencing burnout, so it may be time for them to expand their knowledge & skills in order to apply them somewhere else within the company.

B. Employ mentorship. Having an experienced member available to answer questions and provide insight can make a huge difference. Some employees need a little extra time in order to familiarize themselves with the functionalities of their job. Having someone there as a professional guide can take a load off of their immediate manager. Three (3) months is long enough for a person to get the majority of their questions answered through their mentor.

C.  Offer them the option of transferring to a different position or department (if available). The employee may have a set of skills that aren’t a match for their current position. This could occur if you have heavily relied upon outdated assessments to place candidates in certain positions. If transferring is an option, make sure that they not only qualify, but have the drive to make it work. At any rate, they still have to prove that they are capable of assuming a new role, so first make sure that they are evaluated properly through the use of personality profiles and skills assessments before recommending them for a new role in the company, “show me the money”.

D. Wait another 6 months so they will have a poor performance evaluation. Besides the proof is in the pudding. Once they've shown that they are incapable of doing their job and it is well documented, then you can't be sued. (Many companies do this all the time.)

E. Just fire them because they can't get it together. There are thousands of other people who can replace them right now. You don't have time, everyone that comes on board should be able to hit the ground running. (Nice mentality, don’t you think?)

Let's face it, ruling your employees with an iron fist is out. But retaining good talent is in and will be here to stay for a while. If you selected D or E, I really feel sorry for your employees, because they will be joining the 60% of workers who are waiting for the economy to pick back up so they can leave.

Remember, every employee contributes to a company, through their position. Giving them the right tools and a reasonable amount of time to do their job, is a small step in the right direction towards retaining good talent. Avoid at all cost forcing an employee to stay at a dead end job, because it's a sure fire way of showing that you really don’t care, and therefore they won’t either.

Longevity Doesn't Equal Contribution

Finding a candidate with some staying power is such an awesome thing. There are a lot of candidates out there who are willing to stick with a good employer, and there are others who are just looking to build their resume.

Though you may find candidates who have been with a company for several years. They may appear to have staying power, or they could have a bad case of the "Warm Body Syndrome". 

Before your recruiting campaign kicks off, look at your current employees to see what their track record has been and how much they are contributing to your business. Think about it:

• When was the last time your employees were evaluated for performance?
• When were they held accountable for the things they do?
• Does your company have an invisible grandfather clause?

Ask them for some feedback on how they enjoy their job and what could happen in order to make their job a little better. Besides there is always room for improvement. Some of your old timers may not like the fact that you are asking questions, however, it is critical to your bottom line. Be brave and just do it! You both will have a lot to gain from it.

The idea here is simply to slow down the hiring mistakes. You don't want a warm body migrating from another company, to sit in your chairs for another 15-20 years. It doesn't necessarily mean that an employee who has managed to stay under the radar for a long period of time without any spots, has the capability to make a contribution to their employer.

Here are some critical questions to ask your candidates:

1. When you participated in a team project, what position are you normally nominated for?
2. When was the last workshop / seminar you attended? Was it mandated or voluntary?
3. What are some of the goals that you foresee setting in this new role?
4. How would you like to grow with this company?
5. How do you stay on top of your field?

The goal here is to hire staff with some staying power, along with the ability to contribute and grow. The bottomline is you have a business to run. Though there is no such thing as a perfect person or candidate, you still should strive towards a contributor and steer away from the warm body.

What ' s your H1N1 Plan

Flu season? Yes it's that time of year. But for some, it's been flu season all year it seems. The H1N1 "Swine-Flu" pandemic has been the talk of the town and/or world. Has your company developed a plan to deal with the possibility of a contagious employee walking into work and sneezing on someone? Well if you don't, here's some background information and a key to getting ready.

H1N1 is a new strain of virus which is highly contagious and spread from human to human. Often times a person is contagious 1 day prior to showing symptoms of being infected, and 5 to 7 days after being sick. The virus lives on surfaces for 2 to 8 hours.

Developing a plan is simple. Organize a meeting with ALL employees whether they are in the office or working remotely and discuss this issue with them along with your plan. This creates not only awareness but an educational opportunity. Your preventative plan should include the following:

• Encourage the use of antibacterial soaps that are available for your employees.
• Educate them on the importance of sneezing and coughing into their elbow, not hands or open field.
• Routine cleaning of desks, phone, tools and other objects that are touched frequently.
• Increased physical distance from coworkers.

If an employee is diagnosed, then obviously they should be ordered to stay at home at least 24 to 48 hours without fear of losing their job. Make sure that your leave policy is in place in order to cover sicknesses such as this. Reasonably so, ask for a doctor's note to verify this sickness within a reasonable amount of time, after the sickness is over.

As you would want for business to continue as usual, make sure that you have a backup plan, whether its cross training or utilizing a temporary worker. Also, keep this in mind in the event that your employee has to take time off in order to take care of a sick household member. More information can be found here: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/business/guidance/