Added Value

Vacancy for a Cooling Compressor Technician

10 ways to gain and keep the loyalty of your staff

1: Be initially neutral regarding concerns about a subordinate
Don't throw an employee under the bus when someone outside the department complains to you, agreeing with that person automatically. At the same time, don't assume the person is totally wrong, rebuking him or her, and blindly defending your employee. Listen to the concern, thank the person for alerting you, and say you will check with the subordinate in question. Then do so. In this way, you get both sides of the story

2: Aim for collaboration
The more you can develop a collaborative relationship with your staff, the better that relationship will be. You and your staff do depend on each other, so try to impress that point on them. Remind them that each of you can (and should) help the other to be successful. Remember the saying "One hand washes the other."

3: Listen to staff concerns
Your staff will have concerns about working conditions, working hours, deadlines, and other matters. You may not be able to resolve them all. However, listen to what they are telling you, because if you don't, you will lower morale. If there's little chance that you can resolve the concern, let them know immediately so that they have a proper expectation. Similarly, if you do succeed in resolving a concern, let them know about it. They may not thank you verbally, but chances are they still will appreciate you for what you did.
When listening to your staff, try to avoid interrupting them to explain or defend a position. Similarly, try to remain even-tempered and think before you speak. Your attitude sets the tone for the whole department. Remember the old saying, (which applies equally to both genders): "A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult."

4: Be committed to staff development
Your employees needs training to maintain their skills. That training includes hard skills, such as programming and network design. It also includes soft skills, such as how to deliver effective presentations and how to communicate effectively. In fact, those soft skills often are more important than hard skills in determining career success. Make sure your staff receives such training — and when they're participating in a training session, respect that time. Don't call and pull them out of class "just for a second," because they never will return, and you will have wasted money.

5: Fulfill commitments
If you make commitments to your staff, keep them. Otherwise, you lose credibility and will face lowered morale. When you keep your commitments to your staff, it increases the chances that they will reciprocate and keep their commitments to you regarding work delivery.

6: Exhort, don't belittle
You always want your staff to do more, produce more, finish the project earlier — and for less cost. So there's often a gap between where they are now and where you'd like them to be. It's better, generally, to exhort them to reach that point. If you criticize them because they're not where you want right now, you may create resentment. Of course, there might be one person who does get motivated by being belittled, someone who says, "I'll show that X$X # manager" and goes on to perform exceptionally well. The percentages are against you, however, because many others will simply "turn off." It's far better to say, "Here's where I'd like us to be, and I know you can do it" rather than, "How come you're not there right now, you slacker?"

7: When singling out staff in public, do so positively
I'm not saying that you always should praise people publicly. Some people become embarrassed or self-conscious when they're the subject of public attention. But I am saying that if you do choose to single someone out in public, do so in a positive, rather than a negative way. The latter will embarrass everyone involved.
When you issue public praise, be brief and specific. Talk about what the person did and why it helped the department, organization, or company. Finally, thank the person. Ironically, the less you smile when praising, the more sincere it sounds. (Of course, you should be sincere to begin with, and you should smile just a little bit.)

8: When giving correction, do so privately
Conversely, if someone messes up, talk to them about it behind closed doors. When doing so, focus on the issue, not the person. Try to avoid words like "you" and "yours." Instead of, "Your program caused the system to crash," consider, "Program xyz [which your subordinate developed and supposedly tested] caused the system to crash." Focus on the actions that caused the problem and help the subordinate learn from the situation so that the same issue doesn't occur again.

9: Serve as a buffer for your staff
Unfortunately, you may run into upper-level managers who insist on micromanaging. They will visit your staff and issue directives that might clash with yours. As a result, your employees will find themselves in an awkward situation, unsure of how to react. When that happens, you must step in and make clear to upper management that the chain of command works in both directions. You wouldn't want your staff going around you to complain to your bosses. Neither, therefore, should the opposite occur.
Yes, stepping up could be hazardous to your career, so be diplomatic and tactful when you talk to your bosses. Focus on the benefits to them on observing the chain of command, rather than criticizing them for disregarding it. After you've had the talk, make sure your staff knows about it. Even though the grapevine probably will have alerted people, it's still good to remind your staff that you have their back.

10: Don't micromanage
Just as your bosses shouldn't be micromanaging, neither should you. If you've staffed your team with competent people (and if you're a first-line technical manager, you have strong technical leads), you should be confident that they know what they're doing. You don't have time to do the job of each member of your team anyway.
At the same time, be alert to clues that you might have to step in. Are others talking to you about a co-worker's performance? Are you getting evasive or unclear answers in meetings or conversations? Do you have an uncomfortable gut feeling about a project? In those cases, you might have to take a more active interest in your subordinates' work. However, pick your battles carefully.

Credit to Sangojinmi Christiana Oluwakemi(Human Resources Nigeria Facebook Group)

How to Prove the Value of HR to Your Company’s Decision Makers
Posted on: Insperity.com (Jan 21, 2016)

As a human resources professional, you know HR can and should do more than manage the company’s performance appraisals, benefits and hiring. If you sense indifference from your executive team, what can you do to change your leadership team’s opinion of HR’s value?

First, you must understand that human resources does not generate revenue and thus starts at a disadvantage with profit-focused business executives. In order to earn a seat at the big table, human resources leaders must demonstrate to the C-suite how their work affects the company’s profitability.

Your task is not as daunting as it may sound. Now’s the time to develop an in-depth understanding of company operations. Such understanding will allow you to position human resources as an essential tool that helps your company thrive.
Embed in other departments

HR professionals sometimes live (and think) in an ivory tower of theory and best practices. If you’ve fallen into this rut, it’s time to change your perspective. The best way to do this is to embed yourself into business operations.

You need answers to the company’s basics, such as how the company makes money, how sales and operations communicate, customer characteristics and what differentiates your company from its competitors. This knowledge will help you develop strategies to address your company’s most important workforce issues.

Reach out to leadership in other departments and explain what you’re trying to do. Schedule at least one day a month to shadow someone in each major department. While embedded in other departments, ask questions such as: What are your key workforce issues? If you could change one pain-point, what would it be? What makes us different from our competitors?

The information you gather will give you valuable perspective in everything from efficiency issues to workforce challenges to promises made to customers. Your feedback and counsel will improve, and become more vital to other departments, the better you understand the business.

Build a business vocabulary

Want the CEO to love you? Stop the HR-speak. Learn to talk in bottom-line terms. In the case of business executives, that usually means dollars, threats to profitability, logistics and other business metrics.

Yes, you should report the basics:

“This quarter HR interviewed 200 people for positions in five departments, on-boarded 45 new hires and supervised the firing of two people.”

Now’s the time to go deeper:

“This quarter we also conducted a study of turnover in our sales force which resulted in a 10 percent drop in widget sales. We also evaluated where our compensation package stands in relation to our competitors. We found that the company may need to re-evaluate its salary and bonus structure in order to recruit and retain top sales performers.”

Connect abstract concepts like turnover to dollars and cents, to sales, and impact on the company’s ability to grow. Your growing business acumen and familiarity with the company will help you become a valued team member.

If you don’t already know how, learn to read a balance sheet and income statement. If you work for a publicly traded company, familiarize yourself with the 10K, other public documents and history of the stock price. A deeper understanding of the business and its financial challenges will allow you to identify areas where HR can impact the bottom line.

Get proactive

If you’re waiting for the phone to ring then you’re not adding value. Use your new-found knowledge of the business to spot and help correct issues before things get out of hand and plan for strategic workforce needs.

Say your embed time reveals that manufacturing and sales aren’t communicating effectively. Now’s the time to bring those department leaders together to find solutions. By improving productivity and efficiency, you’re proving that HR can impact the bottom line.

Another example: If 20 percent of key employees will retire in the next five years, HR should be the first to identify this looming issue. Step up and lead the effort to plan for those retirements, create a framework for knowledge transfer and communicate those efforts to senior management.

Yes, every company needs solid human resources to direct best practices in hiring and firing, new hire orientation, retention, engagement and performance management. But what every company really needs is HR leaders who know the business and think strategically.

PERFORMANCE, ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
by Tunde Oyeniran (8th Sept 2015)

1. It is ONLY what is rewarded that gets done
2. It is what gets measured that gets done well and easily tracked
3. Sales managers must reward only RESULTS and specific performance
4. True, actions and activities are necessary ingredients for producing results, but you can't take them to the bank
5. It is okay to recognize activities/actions, but NEVER use an activity - based reward system
6. Determine, decide and communicate performance metrics to those concerned before hand. No surprises
7. Communicate, without any ambiguity, rewards and sanctions for different levels of performance before applying them. Again, no surprises.
8. Give no excuses for failure. Take no excuses for failure.

Am I missing something; What do you think?

BUSINESS VS. BUSYNESS (Being Busy Isn’t the Same as Being Productive)

Research has found that people have a natural aversion to idleness. We’ll go out of our way to stay busy, even if we have to invent things to do.

But being too busy can be counterproductive. Studies have also shown that we have a bias toward action. When faced with a problem, we prefer to act, even if it would be best to pause first or do nothing.

Together, both of these behaviors show that choosing to be busy is the easy choice.

Being productive, by contrast, is much more challenging. What helps remedy this dilemma?

Take time to step back and reflect on a regular basis. Reflection helps us understand the actions we’re considering and choose the ones that will make us productive.

Even 15 minutes of planning each morning can help. So the next time you feel busy, stop and think about what you actually need to get done

ARE YOU A TORTOISE OR A HARE? ABOUT WORK.

Are you a tortoise or a hare?

I love paradoxes, parables, koans, aphorisms, fables, and teaching stories of all kinds. Lately I’ve been thinking of the Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.

In the familiar fable by Aesop, the tortoise and the hare run a race. The hare is so confident that he’ll win that he takes a nap, and while he’s asleep, the tortoise’s regular, plodding pace allows him, the slower competitor, to cross the finish line first.

I’m not using “tortoise” and “hare” exactly as Aesop did, but it’s a handy frame of reference. Here is my question: Are you a tortoise or a hare when you approach a large task?

A Tortoise prefers to work more days, for fewer hours–three hours a day for seven days. Slow and steady.

A Hare prefers to work fewer days, for more hours–seven hours a day for three days. Bursts of effort.

There’s no right or wrong way, but just whatever system works better for you.

I myself am a Tortoise. I like working every day, but I don’t like feeling that I have to get a huge amount done in any one session. I like having distant deadlines that I approach slowly and steadily. I love writing books, but I could never work for a daily paper; the crush of constant deadlines would make me crazy. On the other hand, I never miss a deadline.

A friend is a Hare. She allows herself to take a day off here and there, but she makes up that work. She doesn’t mind the pressure of needing to accomplish a lot over a short period. She feels energized by deadlines.

One problem with being a Hare is that to be effective, you really do need to catch up. You can’t sleep through the entire race. Often, I see quasi-hares fall into the trap of the “tomorrow problem” (which is related to the one-coin problem). “I didn’t work today, but I’ll work seven hours tomorrow”–but when tomorrow becomes today, they don’t feel like working the seven hours. If that’s a challenge you face, you might try a tortoise approach. Don’t try to do too much on any one day, but push yourself to be very, very consistent.

How about you? Are you a tortoise or a hare?

VACANCIES

Vacancy exists for the position of Executive Secretary at the Industrial & Production Engineering Alumni Association & Governing Board of the University of Ibadan.

The Candidate shall be the key interference between the Alumni Association and other bodies such as the Students, Academic Staff, Professional Associations, Governing Board etc.
He/She shall own the IPE Alumni Association annual work plan and ensure successful implementation of all actions.
The Candidate must ensure 100% compliance to the quarterly target of equipment contributions to the department
Successful candidates shall be the overall administrator of the alumni website and ensure the website is regularly updated with relevant event/information and also use it in reaching out to potential members through all available social media to drive awareness and grow the pool of registered members.

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
• A minimum of BSc Degree in any related field
• 3 – 5 years cognate experience in administering an association or any professional bodies
• Good experience in the use of various social media tools and Web-base administration
• Applicant must not be more than 40 years old
• Good communication skills
• Applicant must be resourceful, self-driven, enterprising and matured.
• Proficiency in Microsoft office, Excel and Power Point

Entire package in range of N100.000 to N150,000 per month

Interested applicant should forward their current Cover Letter and CV’s to: [email protected]

The interview is scheduled for Thursday July 23rd 2015 by 10am.

Only qualified and shortlisted candidates will be contacted.