Tuesday, December 29, 2009

End of the crash course

My co op is coming to an end. It has been a great short 4 months. I have had so much fun working with Layfield.

Layfield is a small to medium company is that hungry growth. the recent expansion in China and South America is a proof. The experience is a lot different from my first co op with the provincial government. Things are more fast paced, and flexible. Being able to adjust and adapt to opportunities is the key to succeed. Having direct contact with the the upper management is a motivational factor for me. I work directly with the directors and have met the president of the company twice!

The work term is like a door to the field of HR to me. This initial exposure has equipped me with a very solid foundation in human resources, from recruiting to HR planning to benefits and compensation. I am gratefully for the opportunity and i cant thank enough for the coaching I'd received. I am confident that i will be able to utilise the skills that i gained in my future career endeavours.

Personally, i will miss the co workers that i have came to know in a more personal level. But it is time for me to move on, and hopefully things will work out in the end for me.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Tricky tricky.....

In the field of HR, performance evaluation or performance appraisal is a necessary and beneficial process to provide feedback and career guidance to employees. It is a yearly avoided more than held process. Some called it development discussion.

A lot argue that the process is conducted mainly to help with employees learning curve. The problem is employees are learning or are suppose to be learning everyday at work. Regular discussion about work performance should be conducted whenever issues are identified. Evaluating employees once a year? what value does it have?

I recently had to go through a performance evaluation with my boss. I am being evaluated of course. It is said to discuss/improve my performance and hopefully provide me with a clearer career direction. Ironically, i felt more discourage and disappointed than ever. I felt that my good work are not being appreciated and my small mistakes are being magnified. I love my job and it did not show. I take initiative and it did not show. I follow up on my work and it did not show, certainly not to my boss, who come visit me once a month.

The thing is i do make mistakes, and i am learning. I take criticism and try to improve my myself. This is the start of my career and my lack of experience shows. This once a year evaluation is tricky. How does the good work out weight the bad ones and vice verse to score a higher ratings on the scale? It takes a skillful experience manager to do it right and do it well.

So is this really a necessary process or is this a chore? What is the real value?

Monday, November 2, 2009

Job Analysis

I am all geared up to visit our crew at one of Shell's largest construction site near Edmonton. What better way to conduct a job analysis than to personally visit the job site?

It was a guided tour by Andy, one of our project manager. Nice guy, very experienced and knowledgeable but a bit cynical when it comes to life in general. We bonded during the tour and he is now one of my closet "support system" at the workplace.

Honestly I have never really been to a construction site. I was excited.

There I met two of our best field supervisor, Tinus, a temporary foreign workers from South Africa and Mark. Both very skillful workers. I have learned so much just by observing.

The physical requirements of this job is almost the core of the job description. I was feeling slightly under the weather just by walking around and sitting under the freakishly hot sun for 4 hours. These guys work under all extreme weather all year round. The work requires them to be on their knees for a long period of time. The liner installation process requires them to work in awkward positions.

The informal interview sessions with some of the workers was most interesting. (beside not so elegant language) When i say: I would like to know what you guys like and don't like about the job so i know who qualities to look for when i am interviewing someone. I got all kind of responses, some of them include:
  • we are here for the money, money is the motivation,
  • hey you got to have passion for liners,
  • f*** who has passion for liners?
  • hire someone who works in the kitchen because they can work under extreme heat,
  • someone who is flexible
  • someone who can handle extreme stress and pressure
  • you can never tell if someone is suitable for the job, I have seen people who i thought will not make it turns out to be a good worker.
Despite the random responses i got from several questions, I have gained a better understanding not just the job specification, but the employees' needs and motivation.

Although i have not given a chance to recruit a field worker (due tough economic times) I believe the job analysis has made me a better recruiter.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

First time work @ HR

On boarding??

The recruiting process does not stop once the right person is hired. 6 months ago, a new position was created --health and safety manager. The ambitious growth of the company has reached it stage where legislated safety standard has became an issue. With all the money, time and effort put into the recruiting and selection process, the candidate with the best fit was hired. the unfortunate thing is that the same person quit 2 months after his commencement.

the same amount of effort was invested to find a replacement for the position. 2 months later, another qualified candidate was hired. this incident happened 2 months before my coop term with the company. I was hired as a HR assistant and one of my very first assignment is to organise and coordinate the on boarding program with new hires. To my knowledge, i realised that new employee usually go through a training session with manager of different department to gain a better understanding of the company's operations. What surprising to me is that this safety manager, after working for 2 month, has not gone through any on boarding activities. He was thrown in to the sea and was force to use his swim-or-sink ability to fulfill his obligation as a safety manager. He is doing great work for what he was asked for. However, one could guess why the first safety manager quit his job.

It is known as the "On Boarding" process. The steps and activities taken place to ensure that newly hired employees feel comfortable, welcome and able to fits into the organization as quickly as possible. The company should make every effort to minimise the time it take for a new employee to become a productive member of the team. A poorly organised on boarding (or not having one at all) will either lead to employee turnover (which was in the case of the safety manager) or low performance employees. Especially for SME (small to medium enterprises), when talents are hard to come by, an effective on boarding program will definitely pay off and lead to both short and long term goals.

To successfully design and implement an on boarding program requires strong partnership between the hiring manager, HR and the new employee. In most company, on boarding program is usually facilitate by HR. However a proactive approach by the hiring manager is critical. A lot of times, on boarding programs fail due to the lack of committed from the parties involved. Although it is inevitable that when busy times come along, generating profit seems like the first priority. However, we need successful people to run a successful and profitable company.

Nowadays, more and more companies are investing time in employee on boarding and incorporating it into their recruiting strategy, which is also part of the overall HR strategy to successful human capital. There are also tons of on boarding referencing materials out there for HR newbies . Having said that, the least a manger could do is to bring the new person and some co workers for lunch. Building great relationships is one of the important elements to high employee performance. Great long term relationship, that is.