Despite the importance of human resources to businesses in handling the critical functions of recruitment, retention and developing the workforce, many of those in other departments look at HR with less than friendly feelings. Many managers perceive their company’s human resources department to be inefficient and more of a drag on progress rather than a contributor to it.

Business consultant Ron Ashkenas asks why this happens, and proposes that much of the conflict arises as a result of the transformations that are taking place in human resources today.

Companies are spending a lot of money to improve the basic functions of human resources and to develop the information processes involved with it. Naturally, it takes time to do all of this and (not unsurprisingly) there may be glitches now and then as the transition takes place. Moreover, companies are trying to give their human resources departments more of a strategic role in the business, taking over such things as assessing worker skills, developing leaders within the company, managing change and effectiveness in the business. This also takes considerable time.

Part of the challenge also stems from the role human resources plays and what managers expect from the department. The problem lies in educating managers about the need for them to step in and take the role in the development of their staff members. It is essential for managers to understand that they are accountable for things such as the assessment and growth of the employees in their own department, as well as rewarding and recognizing those workers.

By having department managers take over this kind of role, human resources is then able to focus on company-wide strategic planning, looking at problems that might crop up, seeing how business plans will affect employees and making sure that the best people are working on the most critical needs.

One way to help change department managers’ perception of human resources is to rotate people between human resources and management jobs, Ashkenas says. This will help whittle the perception that the human resources department is something separate and isolated from real business concerns.

When you need help finding great professionals for your Washington, DC-area construction, engineering or architecture firm, contact RealStreet Staffing. We can help you source, vet and place great workers for temporary and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you!

If you are a human resources manager, you naturally rely on a lot of people in your organization to get things done. And it’s natural to show your gratitude to people who have helped you. But when it comes to showing appreciation, business consultants caution that you should look beyond the obvious people to those who might not immediately come to mind, but whose help has nonetheless been important.

Mentors are people often overlooked when it comes to showing appreciation, according to business strategist Dorie Clark. This might happen because they are not around on a regular basis. But the advice they give can make a big difference in your performance. Having a more senior manager in your corner to offer advice and encouragement is a real stroke of good fortune and should not be taken for granted.

When considering people to thank, don’t ignore a person just because it may have been a while since he or she helped you, Clark says. Even though you may not have seen the person in a number of years, he or she almost certainly will be glad to hear from you. Clark relates a story about a person who wrote a thank you note to a college professor a few years after she graduated. He was touched that she remembered him.

Also, remember support staff, Clark says. If someone important has helped you, in addition to thanking that person, think about the people under him or her who may have made his or her efforts possible.

The method of thanks that is the most personal and has the most impact is a handwritten note. The note should include specific details about what the person did that was helpful to you.

If you want to send a gift as a way of showing your appreciation, you need to keep in mind any legal restrictions that may apply because of the person’s position, or any ethical considerations – something that may pose the appearance of a conflict of interest, for example.

Also, when sending a gift, it is best to take into account the recipient’s interests, Clark says. If the person is a big football fan, for example, getting him football tickets probably would be greatly appreciated. If the person you wish to thank is more inclined toward the arts, or something cultural, a ticket to a symphony or an art exhibition would be more appropriate.

When you’re looking for a new job – or a new employee – look to RealStreet Staffing. We can help skilled workers in the construction, engineering and architecture sectors find great positions with Washington, DC-area companies who need them. Contact us today!

With the uncertainty in the economy, and companies demanding more and more from their workers, employee engagement with their jobs has sunk lower and lower. Business analysts say that to keep your company productive, you need to have employees that are engaged with their jobs.

The experts offered a number of ways to build and maintain employee engagement.

One way to rev up employee engagement is right at the start when they are hired. You can use the process of bringing them on board to build their engagement. You have workers who are naturally receptive and enthusiastic as they begin their new job, and so onboarding provides a great opportunity to show how much you value them and what you can offer them, says business advisor Alice Snell. Making them go through a process where they sign the same forms five times or not having a computer at their desk is not the way to do it.

Also, when they start you need to let them know right away what the goals of the company are and how the employees fit in with those goals.

Another way to maintain engagement is to keep the lines of communication open, especially in offering positive feedback for a job well done.

Another way to keep the energy and enthusiasm of employees high is by giving them a feeling of community, such as sponsoring company activities or working on team projects.

The company also should offer employees chances for advancing their careers, help them develop their skills and potential, treat them like professionals, and give them a sense of empowerment by letting them know that their opinions are valued.

The company also needs to have an effective reward system in place. This involves more than just pay, because beyond a certain point, pay is not the prime motivator. Other kinds of rewards focus on giving employees more autonomy and authority to make decisions on their own, giving them more challenging work, and giving them more recognition, according to a number of business analysts.

Leadership is important as well – it is difficult to maintain engagement among employees if managers and executives do not appear to be engaged themselves, says business executive Judy Whitcomb. And finally, the image people have of the company matters also. If people feel they are working for a company that is respected and admired, they are more likely to be excited about their work and to stay as an employee.

When you need to bring in fresh talent, look to RealStreet Staffing to help recruit engineers, construction professionals and architects to your Washington, DC-area firm. We look forward to hearing from you!

With the recession — and layoffs – a company’s morale and reputation can suffer. Adverse public relations also can dampen morale.

If a company’s reputation is being attacked, it makes it more difficult for employees to do their jobs and it makes it harder for companies to attract the best workers. During the recession, employee morale in general has fallen along with the economy.

In addition, a business shouldn’t take workers’ allegiance for granted in a tough economy, just assuming that they will work hard out of fear of losing their job, according to well-known business consultant Sylvia Ann Hewlett. Actually, in this environment, workers feel more estranged from work and more besieged than ever, asked to do more with less, and getting less feedback, according to Hewlett.

Surveys show that since the recession began, company loyalty has dropped more than 40 percent among workers, and trust in their companies has dropped about the same, Hewlett says.

If you are a human resources professional, how can you help a company enhance its reputation and improve employee morale? One way is to organize philanthropic programs in which employees may get involved in, Hewlett says.

The ratings service Moody’s is one example of this. It has weathered a lot of criticism for its supposed responsibility in letting the current economic crisis develop. But the company is trying to improve its reputation and keep its best workers by partnering with a nonprofit called Kiva. In this program, Moody’s evaluates the creditworthiness of businesses from around the world for microfinance business loans from Kiva. Companies such as Kiva help attack poverty around the world by providing these micro loans.

It’s an area where Moody’s has expertise to share, even a new way to rate these companies that is specially designed for microfinance. Moody’s employees have responded enthusiastically to the program.

Another company that is getting involved in philanthropic work is the drug company Pfizer. It has linked up with Grameen Health to help the working poor in developing countries have easier access to healthcare. Interest from workers was high, and many said it made them feel good to be part of a company engaged in such a program.

These programs show that philanthropic efforts really do help keep employees energized and loyal to a company, Hewlett said.

If you’re a company in the Washington Metro area looking for top-notch professionals in the construction, engineer or architecture sectors, contact RealStreet Staffing. We look forward to hearing from you!

If you are in human resources, you probably use e-mail a lot, for all kinds of transactions. It is easy and fast, and it has been responsible for jumps in productivity.

But we can rely on e-mail too much. It has drawbacks. Sometimes, it’s better to pick up the telephone, or have a face-to-face conversation, where you can do a better job of communicating than with email, says Anthony Tan, a venture capital CEO.

Conversation becomes especially important, Tan says, when you are trying to resolve a conflict or get the word out about an important business decision. E-mail has become the mode of choice when people try to resolve conflicts today. But what this actually does is allow the participants to avoid the issue at hand. It is the path of least resistance, where you don’t have to face the person you are dealing with.

The e-mails bounce back and forth, but nothing really gets accomplished or resolved. They continue long past the point of usefulness.

The problems with e-mail are really not mysterious, Tan says.

One drawback, Tan explains, is that e-mail doesn’t have the nuances that the human voice is capable of to impart meaning. Through the intonations and changes in our voice, we are able to communicate a lot more than you can through writing. With e-mail you cannot get to the emotion the words carry as readily as you can listening.

Another problem with e-mail, Tan says, is that it too often encourages responses that simply are a reaction, as opposed to moving things forward. When you receive an e-mail, you feel an obligation to respond as quickly as possible, to show your efficiency. And so you often fire something off without giving it much deliberation. Thus, instead of thoughtful discourse, you fall into this reactive mode. It’s also easier to be more defensive in e-mail than in person because, unlike face-to-face conversation, the message is divorced from the person sending it.

For the reasons given above, e-mail can sometimes drag things out, Tan says. It allows tit-for-tat exchanges to gain a momentum of their own. After a while, they simply become a waste of time.

E-mail, and other forms of social media, have enriched our communication in many ways and allowed us to expand our relationships. Yet there are times when a real face-to-face conversation is best at resolving issues, and using e-mail is just a way of dragging out a problem.

When you need great temporary employees, pick up the phone and call a real, live recruiter at RealStreet Staffing. Or, e-mail us and let us know what kind of worker you need. We’ll be happy to help you find terrific construction, engineering or architecture professionals for you Washington Metro company!

The makeup of the American workforce is undergoing a sea change, fueled in part by the current weak economy Companies and workers need to adapt.

According to Doug Berg, a workforce expert, the United States is in the middle of a big shift in the workforce, especially in the technology area. The way things have been done in the past just doesn’t apply any more, especially in the area of employee hiring.

If they are going to be successful, companies – including staffing agencies – and workers need to understand how the market for workers is playing out. Companies want quick access to workers who come in for just short periods. Preferences among workers are changing, as is innovation in technology.

The temporary staffing market is booming, growing from $60 billion a year to roughly $200 billion a year. This growth is also a marker of how the labor supply is shifting. The demand for contingent staffing is growing in all areas, while professional areas have been among the fastest growing. Creative, design and engineering consultants always have been in high demand.

The healthcare and legal areas also are showing big growth. Many businesses are moving toward contract and consulting work in the legal area because the big law firms are so expensive. So, instead of hiring a big name law firm, companies are trying to strengthen their own legal departments by hiring contractors.

The same thing is happening in the areas of accounting and finance. Companies are trying to use more contractors and consultants because the cost of these professionals is skyrocketing, driven in large part by government reporting regulations. One of the fringe benefits of this strategy is that a company can expand quickly when the need arises, and then shift resources as the need changes.

Berg predicts that the contingent workforce will only continue to grow. He uses information technology as an example. Companies that were 90 percent permanent workers and 10 percent contingent staffing are now closer to 60 percent full-time employees and 40 percent contract labor. Many of these are big companies, and the shift has allowed them to become more flexible.

If your Washington Metro firm is looking for flexible staffing solutions, give a shout out to RealStreet Staffing. We can provide you skilled and reliable engineering, architecture and construction professionals on a temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire basis. Contact us today!

If you were upset at hearing about air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job, you shouldn’t be, according to Tony Schwartz, a business consultant.  The problem here is basically biological.  We have evolved to be awake during the day and to sleep at night.  The later it gets, the more tired we become.  Some of the worst accidents in history occurred at night – Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, the Exxon Valdez running aground.

The government did a study about the effects of napping on the night shift and found that the more time the air traffic controllers had to sleep, the more alert they were.  Other studies of airline pilots showed the same thing.

What all of this points to is the fact that our society does not value rest and recuperation as much as it should.  And this hurts us all.  When we have a lot to do, rest and sleep usually are the first things to go, even if by cutting out sleep we do a poor job.  Businesses tend to judge their employees purely by the number of hours they put in, rather than the value they create.

But rather than get to work early and stay late, it would be better to get to work at little later and leave a little earlier, and take a few more breaks at work.  The fact is, if you do this, you will be more alert and do a better job.  And you will be more productive, because you will get more things done in a smaller amount of time.

You can see for yourself if resting more really does work, according to Schwartz.  For the next few weeks, try getting about 20 to 30 minutes of sleep between 1 and 3 p.m. You shouldn’t sleep for more than 30 minutes, or you will wake up groggy.  Then, at the end of the day, see how productive you were during the time after the nap.  You will be surprised at how much of a difference it makes.  If for some reason you don’t have the opportunity to sleep for a short time, find some other way to get some rest during the work day.  The best time schedule for this is to do it every 90 minutes.

The bottom line, according to Schwartz, is that there is nothing more important to improving your productivity and effectiveness at work than making sure you get enough rest.

RealStreet Staffing helps Washington Metro-area businesses in the construction, engineering and architecture sectors find productive and effective professionals. If you’re a Washington Metro engineering, construction or architecture firm looking for help in sourcing terrific professionals, contact us today!

In the world of classical music, orchestra musicians are notoriously unhappy – with a job satisfaction lower than that of a prison guard.  While at the same time, the people at the top of the job satisfaction ladder are chamber orchestra musicians.

It is this dichotomy that has important lessons for everyone on how to lead and learn in business and in life, according to Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  For him, the difference in outlook between the two comes down to leadership.

In the large orchestra, the management is top down.  It is for the most part a very autocratic arrangement, with the conductor having all of the power.  In the chamber orchestra, however, each player is pretty much autonomous, and the players cooperate to perform.

Taking his cue from the chamber orchestra, Zander sees his job as a conductor to help the musicians he is conducting achieve their best performance.  They need to look at possibilities, not limitations.  The same is true for businesses, which are taking note of Zander’s approach.

To look at things in terms of possibilities, we must realize that all of our actions are the result of a choice.  We can do things as we have always done them, or we can make the choice to question the assumptions we have always had.  Zander uses a piece of music as an example.  We can play the music as it has always been played, or, by questioning our assumptions about it, and reinterpreting it, we can change it into something altogether new.

As part of his leadership style, Zander now focuses on what he can offer to society, not just what he can accomplish for himself.  Looking at things this way takes the image of success and failure out of the picture.

When it comes to managing and solving problems, we all have choices, Zander says.  We can take on a problem with a range of different attitudes – fear, anger, boredom.  But we also can see the possibility inherent in each situation.  And looking at the possibilities in each problem will lead us to take a hard look at our assumptions because it is these assumptions which are often obstacles to making real innovation.  In every organization, we all need to look at the assumptions we make and make those assumptions explicit so that we can examine them and adjust as needed.

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While mechanization is certainly an integral part of how businesses operate today, the human factor is still vital in countless areas of manufacturing, sales and transportation. Keeping workers engaged in their jobs is vital to maintaining a high level of production.

There is much a company can do to create an environment where workers feel they are vital to the outcome of a company’s mission whether it be in manufacturing or customer service.

One suggestion to keeping employees productive, engaged, and giving 100 percent of their effort is to create the right work environment. Let them have a say in everyday operations. Give them ample control over how things are done. When possible, supervisors should keep a low profile as long as employees are getting the job done. This instills a sense of trust with employees.

Management should do all it can to see that members of a company’s workforce are fully equipped to do their assigned jobs. That means providing all the necessary training and information. Set goals for workers, and provide positive feedback when it is deserved.
Supervisors should provide clear expectations and specific deadlines when assigning projects. This way both parties are aware of what is expected. Workers also should know who they can go to when problems arise.

Giving workers decision-making authority is another way to empower them. As an example, one businessman gave his customer service staff permission to spend up to $400 when resolving customer service issues without having to seek permission from upper management.

Remember, though, there is a flip side to every coin. Management practices that ignore the positive results mentioned above can have negative ramifications that ultimately harm a business.

Paying less than competitive wages sends a clear message that the company cares little for its workers and much more about profits. When workers feel unappreciated they are likely to be less productive and are more likely to look for work elsewhere. Remember to pay workers fairly and competitively.

Secondly, let employees know they are appreciated. Praise and recognition for a job well done goes a long way. Hard working employees who get no positive feedback are likely to respond by slowing down and doing just enough to get by.

While empowering workers can be a good thing, a company shouldn’t overdo it. Giving someone too many responsibilities beyond what his or her position calls for can have negative results. A business doesn’t want to leave workers with the feeling they are being “dumped” on. When that happens and nothing is given in return, such as a raise, time off or another type of perk, supervisors shouldn’t surprised when the grumbling begins and workers begin knocking on the doors of a firm’s competitors.

When a company doesn’t take people for granted and shows its appreciation for its employees hard work, the firm likely will have a contented workforce willing to go the extra mile.

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According to a recent survey on employee health, workers could do more at work to eat better and be more active, while employers could improve workers’ health by doing more to encourage healthy lifestyles.

The issue has become important because about three-fourths of Americans will be overweight by 2015, according to healthcare experts. And the rate of absenteeism of obese employees is almost two times the amount of other employees, causing more than $4 billion a year in lost productivity.

Surveys have shown that about one-fifth of all businesses sponsor weight loss programs, mostly in the healthcare and hospitality areas. Because obesity increases the risk of various health problems, these weight loss programs can help prevent disease and keep down healthcare costs. Diseases connected to obesity include heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer.

The survey showed a number of unhealthy practices at work. Many of those employees responding in the survey said they ate junk food snacks at work. Less than half of those responding said there were healthy foods available to eat. The survey also showed that more than one-third of workers had jobs that kept them at their desks. Almost half of those responding also said that stress at work contributed to less than healthy eating habits.

About two-thirds said they would use a gym, nutrition and weight loss programs if they were available.

Researchers said that businesses can offer their employees programs that will help them eat better and be active, programs that will not only reduce healthcare costs for the company but also help to increase productivity.

Surveys showed that more than two-thirds of the organizations had some type of wellness
program, which was about six percent more than during the previous four years. Also, more than 70 percent of organizations that have more than 500 employees also offer some kind of wellness program. Of these organizations, governmental entities had the highest participation with 82 percent, and service industries the lowest, with 62 percent.

Most of the wellness programs also offered flu shots. Others offered health risk assessments and stop smoking programs, along with annual physicals.

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