Blog Archives

10 Tips to Keep Your Inbox from Driving You Insane

8/27/2015

This quick read will benefit anyone who depends on email to get their job done, especially virtual workers who have less face-to-face interaction than their office counterparts.

1 | Be Concise

Keep your emails brief.
Your contact is as likely to read your email on a smartphone as on a computer, so shorter is easier to digest – which means you’re more likely to get a response.
If your email can’t be a single line, then:
Don’t make your contact wade through a long email to get to the point.
Make it clear at the beginning of your email why you are writing.
Make your most important point first, then provide detail only if necessary.

2 | Write Quality Content

Do not send one-liners that do not advance the conversation in any way (like "Thanks," “You’re welcome” or "Oh, OK“).
Identify your issues in short sentences of 15-20 words. Use short paragraphs with blank lines between each paragraph. Number your questions and points. Communicate “action steps” first, not last. Include deadlines.
Use multiple rather than single options to reduce back-and-forth emails. Example: “I can meet at 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. Will one of those times work? If not, please reply with 3 times that are good for you.”
Be careful with formatting, colors and stationary since your contact’s device or email software may not be able to display these features correctly.

3 | Pick Up the Phone

When a topic has lots of parameters that need to be explained or negotiated and will generate too many questions and confusion, don't handle it by e-mail.
Also, e-mail should not be used to deliver bad news. If you have an employee or contact you need to deliver bad news to, a phone call is preferable.

4 | Use Meaningful Subject Lines

We all skim our inboxes, deciding what to read now and what to read later.
The subject line is a key place to indicate importance and time sensitivity.
Use subject lines like “FOR APPROVAL:” or “SCHEDULING REQUEST:” or “FYI:” to indicate what action is or is not needed.
Update or change “Re:Re:Re:” subjects in email threads to make them more meaningful (or pick up the phone if the email thread is getting too long).
It’s useful to think of subject lines like newspaper (or blog) headlines – they should be expressive and compelling. It’s your prime chance to capture the reader’s attention and get them to respond.

5 | Use "To" and "cc" CorrectlyAs a rule of thumb, the more people you send an email to, the less likely any single person will respond to it, much less perform any action that you requested.
The people you include in the “To” field should be the people you expect to read and respond to the message.
The “CC” field should be used sparingly, specifically for people you want to stay “in the know” but who you do not require to take any action. Copy a contact’s manager if they need to be kept informed…but not in an effort to coerce a reply from your contact.
The “BCC” field should be used even more sparingly. People you include in the “BCC” field will not be visible to others.
Don’t add contacts to emails who don’t need to take action or need to know.

6 | Use Proper English

Business emails should be free of shortcuts to real words, emoticons, jargon, or slang. Examples to avoid include: BTW (by the way), LOL (laugh out loud), "4 u" (instead of "for you"), "Gr8" (for great) and the smiley :-).
Any of the above has the potential to make you look less than professional.
Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation. Mistakes in these areas give a bad impression of you and your company, and can sometimes even change the intended meaning of your text.

7 | Lose the CAPS

Don’t use ALL CAPS in the body of your email.
CAPS are the digital equivalent of shouting.
Besides ALL CAPS are harder to read (as anyone in advertising will tell you.)

8 | Mind Your Tone

Unlike face-to-face meetings or even phone calls, those who read your e-mail messages don’t have the benefit of your pitch, tone, inflection, or other non-verbal cues. The more matter-of-fact your emails are, the better.
Use email to praise, but not to criticize others. Sarcasm is especially dangerous. If something gets “lost in translation,” you risk offending the other party.
Never ever fire off an e-mail in anger. They almost never serve their purpose or your long-term interests and burn up relationships faster than just about anything you can do. If it makes you feel better, write the message, then delete it. Usually a day or two after you didn’t send an angry e-mail, you’ll understand the wisdom of restraint.

9 | Reply Swiftly

Your customers (and fellow employees) send e-mail because they want a quick response. If they did not want a quick response, they would send a letter or a fax.
Strive to reply to each e-mail within at least 24 hours, preferably within the same working day.
If the email is complicated or one you cannot get to same-day, send a reply acknowledging receipt and specify when you will get to it. Doing so will quell your contacts’ anxiety, and save yourself a future nagging email from them. It also preserves goodwill: Explaining now why you won’t get to something until later is much more effective than apologizing later.

10 | Reply Correctly

Don’t overuse Reply to All. Use it when you really need your email to be seen by each person who received the original.
Your email reply should include the original email thread for context and should answer all questions and pre-empt further questions. Otherwise, you may receive further e-mails regarding the unanswered questions…which will waste time and frustrate you, your customers and your fellow employees.
Don't reply to spam. Doing so (or “unsubscribing”) just confirms your email address is 'live‘ and will generate more spam. Instead, hit the delete button or use Outlook’s spam control features.
Re-read your messages before sending to make sure you are communicating clearly and observing good e-mail etiquette.

We hope you found this post helpful. Thank you in advance for sharing it with your friends, especially any small or mid sized business owners who need assistance with their HR needs. We'd love to hear your comments and invite you to explore the full scope of human resources and resume services on our website.

Regards, PhoenixHR LLC

Employee Terminations and Emotional Intelligence

8/25/2015

termination, employee, emotional intelligence

When training or counseling supervisors and managers, I often ask, "What's the hardest part of your job?". For three decades, the answers have been nearly unanimous: terminating an employee.

“How do you make doing a termination easier?” they wonder.

“You don’t,” and seeing their puzzled looks, I'd explain my reply.

"Terminations never get easier, no matter how many you do. It’s not about making a termination ‘easier’. It’s about making every termination as ‘graceful’ as possible...for you and the employee.”

I remember spearheading a particularly difficult termination meeting which the employee’s supervisor also attended as a management witness. In the debriefing which followed the employee leaving the premises, the supervisor said, “I hope if I am ever terminated, you are the one that does my exit. You made him feel like a person”. To this day, I regard that comment as one of the greatest compliments an HR professional could receive...and as a validation of what I have long called my “philosophy of grace”. Today's business world has given my philosophy a new name: “emotional intelligence” or “EI”.

EI 101

Definitions of "EI" vary but typically have 4 parts. For the purpose of discussing EI and employee terminations, this 3-part definition published in “Psychology Today” seems more relevant:

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is generally said to include 3 skills:

Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;
The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;
The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.

So now, a quick primer on conducting employee terminations with grace - er, check that - with emotional intelligence:

Plan

Make sure you have adequate backup documentation to support the termination and that it has been reviewed by your company’s human resources or legal representative.
Plan what to say – and equally important – how to say it (more on that below). Think about questions you may be asked by the employee and how you will answer him or her. (EI-Tie In: “…the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others”).
Determine who else should attend; sometimes a witness is helpful if you think there might be difficulty at the meeting or if you suspect the meeting may be misrepresented to outside parties post-termination. The additional party could be the next-level manager or your human resources representative. Like you, they should also plan out what they will say…but think through the need for additional attendees carefully so that it does not backfire with the employee feeling “ganged up” on.
Plan out and confidentially pre-schedule exit-related activities, such as back-up of the terminated employee’s computer files and email, timing the cut-off of system access, logistics for the identification and return of any company equipment, etc.
Make the necessary arrangements with human resources and/or payroll to ensure that all final pay which is due to the employee being terminated is ready in accordance with applicable employment law.

Setup

To the greatest extent possible, always do termination meetings face-to-face. If the employee is virtual and you absolutely cannot meet in person, then at least do a live telephone meeting…but never terminate someone by email (or postal mail).
Arrange the meeting to be held privately in a closed-door office or conference room that is removed from fellow employees and where you will not be disturbed.
Schedule the meeting at the start of a week and preferably at the beginning of the subject employee’s work day for their local time zone. To maximize the employee’s receptiveness to what you have to say and minimize negative reactions, stay away from holding termination meetings at the end of a day or a Friday, or before a holiday or scheduled vacation. (EI-Tie In: “The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving”).

Implement

How you deliver the termination message is key. Remember you are talking to a human being. Someone with feelings, bills to pay (and often a family) whose entire world is about to be turned upside down. The real business world is not a Donald Trump reality show…so saying, “you’re fired!” is not recommended. As a personal preference, I try to avoid using the word “termination” because it sounds cold, callous and impersonal, much like the concept of execution that is often associated with the word. Once an employee hears, "termination" is is not unusual for him or her to stop listening to anything you say afterwards. To soften the blow and keep the employee mentally engaged, I prefer to say “your employment will be separated today” or that “your employment with (company) is ending today”.

Some companies do not believe in giving reasons for termination...and if they engage employees under an “at-will” employment relationship, they legally and technically do not have to give a reason. However, I have rarely found the “no reason” approach to work. As thinking adults, employees who are being terminated typically want a reason. If the terminated employee is not given a reason, (s)he will usually fill the information void with negative emotions and/or assume discriminatory reasons for the termination.
If you do give a reason, keep the content short, to the point and factual. Don’t be harsh, critical or judgmental. Make eye contact with the employee and explain your reason in a calm, direct manner.
Use your earlier preparation efforts to convey your confidence in the termination decision and make it clear that the decision is final. (I’ve watched even senior executives botch up this confidence element with ugly results: the termination meeting goes twice as long as it should and the employee argues the decision all the harder.) If the employee remains contentious or starts to react emotionally, maintain your own composure. If need be, consider ending the meeting early and rescheduling when cooler heads prevail. (EI-Tie In: “The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions and the ability to…calm down another person”).
Close out with a review of separation-related topics such as benefits (e.g., insurance continuation, 401(k) rollovers, any applicable severance), company policy on references, reminders on maintaining confidentiality of company information and the recollection of assets.
If circumstances permit, end the termination meeting on a positive note by voicing your appreciation of the employee’s attention and cooperation under difficult circumstances and wishing the employee the utmost future career success.

“One More Thing”...as an added plus, following the above can significantly reduce the odds of a terminated employee deciding to sue you and your company.

We hope you found this post helpful. Thank you in advance for sharing it with your friends, especially any small or mid sized business owners who need assistance with their HR needs. We'd love to hear your comments and invite you to explore the full scope of human resources and resume services on our website.

Regards, PhoenixHR LLC

The Amazon Debate & “Restoring Balance to the (Work) Force”

8/21/2015

Beneath the vigorous (and very public) debate over the New York Times’ recent article on Amazon's "bruising" workplace, a great opportunity is emerging: a chance for employers and employees to better understand one another...an understanding which can restore some much-needed balance to today's workforce.

Over its 3 decades of providing Human Resources services to some very entrepreneurial clients, PhoenixHR LLC has been in a unique position to assess the workplace from the perspective of both employer and employees.

We've seen (and helped enforce) legislation implemented over the years to (deservedly) protect employees from various forms of workplace abuse; we've also seen employees who try to take advantage of that legislation with false claims and frivolous lawsuits in attempts to get "easy money". We've seen hard work and sacrifice by both employers and employees, sometimes properly recognized and credited, sometimes overlooked or taken for granted. We've seen the "aggressive" side of employers who constantly demand excellence from employees; we've also seen many employees who give as little effort as possible to their jobs while expecting maximum pay and maximum perks. We've held the meetings for employees laid off due to business downturns, comforting them as much as possible through their tears. We've also attended the meetings that most employees never see where management has agonized over making the tough decisions of being forced to cut good people. Net-net, it's time for employers and employees to get back to some level-headed basics:

Employees: There is nothing wrong, illegal or unfair about an employer expecting every one of its employees to work hard and excel.
Employers: How you demand excellence matters...comply with employment law in making your demands, and in how you treat employees. Don't think of your employees as human "capital" - they are not disposable commodities or equipment. Instead, think "human being" and “valuable talent". When you receive the excellence you demand, don't take it for granted. Recognize your employees' efforts (and remember recognition doesn't necessarily have to cost money).

Employees: Don't leave your work ethic at home. Bring your A-game to work every day. A job is the delivery of services for income, a job is not an entitlement or a welfare program.
Employers: Excellence in the workplace does not happen magically. Hire the right candidate for the right job the first time....and once you have him/her, train and educate properly. Don't expect excellence if you leave your new hires on their own to sink or swim.

Employees: Mentally change places with your employer every once in a while. Have you ever thought about how hard it is to start a successful business from scratch? We guarantee your employer knows first-hand. Remember that raising a business is like raising a child. Business owners are "parents" and their business is their "child"....a "child" born from months (often years) of hard labor. So of course business owners are "passionate" about their "child" and want to maximize their child's success. Think about all those "behind the scenes" meetings which all employers have that you’ll never hear about...meetings where hours are invested finding ways to improve or maintain employee benefits in the face of ever-increasing costs or trying to avoid layoffs. Just because your employer doesn't publicly say "we love you, we love you" every five minutes doesn't mean your employer doesn't care.
Employers: Communicate with your employees clearly and frequently, especially your virtual employees. Employees who feel "disconnected" from the company, are unsure of how it is doing or what it is striving for are less likely to care about excelling in their job.

Employees: Remember that it's not all about you. Remember that everything you do in your job directly - or indirectly - affects both your internal customers (your fellow employees) and your external customers (without whom your company has no jobs to offer you or anyone). Wasting company resources hurts everyone you work with, not just your employer. Ditto for the damage done by frivolous lawsuits from employees trying to "get even". Frivolous lawsuits cost a lot of money to defend...and steals money that employers can reinvest in improving the company and rewarding deserving employees.
Employers: Avoiding (or at least containing) frivolous litigation is easy in concept, but sometimes harder in practice. There is no magic formula, but cultivating a sense of fairness and doing the right thing when dealing with employees is key. Peter Drucker (a renowned management consultant, educator and author whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation) said it best: "Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things".

Thank you in advance for sharing this post with friends...we'd love to hear your comments and invite you to explore the human resources management and resume services on our secure, mobile friendly website.

Regards, PhoenixHR LLC

A Robot Wrecked My Resume

8/20/2015

With each passing day (for better or worse) our lives become increasingly entwined with technology...

Research shows that on average, users grab their smart phones over 1,500 times a week for various tasks from emails to playing games and posting to social media.
Windows 10 – rolled out to rave reviews and installed on 67 million PCs as of the date of this blog – has been found to "spy" on almost everything you do by default unless you change the settings.
Apple and Google are quietly going to war over developing and getting you into a self-driving car.
And an ever growing number of companies are using resume "robots" - formally known as “Applicant Tracking Systems” or "ATS" - to evaluate your resume before it ever reaches a human being.

A time-saving model of computerized efficiency, ATS software strips your resume to plain text (how depressing after you did all that nice formatting work) and "ranks" it based on its "relevancy" to the company's description of the job you are applying for.

The theory is that an ATS frees up its human users – recruiters, HR staff and hiring managers – to focus on the most "qualified" (read: "highest ranking") resumes.

The reality is that in deciding who is sufficiently “qualified”, these ATS "robots" reject some 75% of all resumes submitted.

So how do you get your resume past the ATS resume "robots" and in front of the human being who will call you for an interview? This question resonates with anyone who has ever felt the frustration of applying for multiple jobs they felt they were “perfect” for, but never getting called for an interview. Ditto for those who know they have the skills for their desired job but feel they can prove it better in person than they can on paper.

The short answer to getting past ATS “robots”: your resume should use plain text formatting and relevant keywords...much the same way that a good website uses relevant keywords to get a high ranking when you search for it on Google. Details are readily available online (assuming you have the time to find and digest it all...and can tell the good advice from the bad). But frankly, such details are not the intended focus of this post.

This post is about looking at the big picture: even if you researched all the best practices for getting past an ATS, an effective resume still comes down to effective writing: what your resume says and how it says it.

Are you hunting for a job as a resume writer? If yes, no worries…then you got this. But if you are part of the other 99.999% of job hunters, you need a resume that won’t get rejected by a machine. And once you succeed in getting past an ATS, your resume still needs to be strong and meaningful enough to convince the human reader to call you for an interview.

Bottom line: writing resumes that survive today's ATS “robots” requires human knowledge and skill (not templates, on line searches or software). Cover your bases with professional writing services that not only get your resume past the resume "robots" but have the hiring experience which can prompt a human reader to call you for that job interview. Click here and let us help you…and thank you in advance for sharing this post with friends.

Regards, PhoenixHR LLC

Offshoring Human Resources: 5 Keys to Success

8/19/2015

The 2000's were a turbulent period across the Indian subcontinent. During this decade, PhoenixHR LLC helped two of its major technology clients transition their HR functions from the United States to offshore teams in India and Pakistan. Despite many geopolitical and other challenges, these offshore teams emerged as sustainable models of optimized HR offshoring....here's a quick look at the top 5 elements behind their success:

1. Staff
It all starts here. Fill every offshore HR job as if it were a US job...in other words, hire the very best and most qualified candidates you can find and afford. Don't settle. Make sure your recruiter clearly understands what HR tasks are being outsourced and what level of HR experience is needed to do those tasks successfully. Remember that while many general HR practices (hiring, termination, benefits, etc.) are globally understood, specific US employment law is not as familiar to an offshore audience. So be prepared to look for candidates with "translatable" HR education and skills that can be molded to support US needs through teaching.

2. Learn
Don't just plunge into managing your offshore HR staff. Take the time to learn about your offshore team...not as business resources, but as human beings. Educate yourself about their culture, their values and what's important to them. You'll find that typically, your offshore team will welcome and appreciate your genuine interest and be very forthright and sharing. And the insight and knowledge you gain will make you a better manager. For example, in the Indian subcontinent, you will find that education and family are highly valued, and may sometimes take precedence over continuity of employment. Learn the values of your offshore team and respect those values, and you will rewarded with respect, loyalty and hard work in return many times over.

3. Teach
Teaching is an essential and constant requirement, especially when offshoring the HR function. Since US employment law changes frequent;y, your offshore team needs regular updating and guidance. Local HR practices offshore will often be very different from the same HR practices in the US, so never assume that your team "already knows". Especially at the start of offshoring implementation, start with the basics of US HR and as time goes on and their knowledge base increases, you can adjust your content. If these offshore positions were staffed correctly, you will quickly find that team members are highly educated, quick studies that are always thirsty for knowledge. Need proof of the talent which originates in the Asian peninsula? The US need look no further than its own backyard to the new heads of Microsoft (Satya Nadella) and Google (Sundar Pichai).

4. Communicate
Your offshore employees are no different from virtual employees in the US....all remote employees need to "feel connected to the mother-ship" and all remote employees thrive on clear - and constant - communication. Not just specific to their assigned work, but on developments with their employer and the business they are supporting. Maintain a mix of structured and informal communications: have weekly staffs meeting that your offshore resources can count on as a forum to address work issues as a group, as well as cultivating an open door policy where they feel comfortable contacting you individually with questions on work tasks. Regularly reiterate core-concepts to ingrain behavior, such as the HR function's ongoing need for complete confidentiality and your best practices for securely managing HR data. Equally important, remember to dispense earnest praise for a job well-done and use emotional intelligence when addressing any problems with work performance.

5. Trust
Remember that your company implemented offshoring for a reason: it wanted to successfully move the work so that US resources could be redeployed in other activities which support the needs of the business. It can be tough to "let go", especially when dealing with a function as sensitive, regulated and complex as human resources. Offshoring the HR function is *not* a set-it-and-forget it" proposition....it requires constant diligence. But if the above 4 success elements suggested above are in place, then trusting and letting go so that your offshore resources can show their stuff and shine is the last step to make the offshoring of HR successful. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy's advice to Captain Kirk in one of the original Star Trek episodes, "Relax, Jim...your people know their jobs."

If you are implementing offshoring or seek other HR management consulting services, PhoenixHR LLC can help. Click here to review our HR services, or contact us by Live Chat, email or phone today...we're happy to help.

It's Alive! PhoenixHR LLC Goes To LinkedIn

8/18/2015

PhoenixHR LLC is thrilled to announce that in addition to our mobile-friendly and secure website and Facebook Company page,we now have our own Company page on LinkedIn!

Through our LinkedIn Company page (and our website blogs) we'll be sharing developments of interest to readers on the latest in the ever-changing worlds of human resources and the art of the perfect resume.

We'd love to have you "follow" our LinkedIn Company page and all it takes is just 2 quick clicks:

Click anywhere on the "PhoenixHR LLC" image below.
Log in to your LinkedIn account.
Click our LinkedIn page "Follow" button.

(You can also reach our LinkedIn Company Page by clicking the "in" icon that appears in our website's footer on every page.)

We look forward to seeing you on LinkedIn!