Are Small-Medium-Sized (SMEs) Reaping the Benefits of Work-Life Balance (WLB)?

“A 'good job' can be both practically attractive while still not good enough to devote your entire life to.” 
― Alain de Botton

Work-life balance (WLB) enables employees to better manage their (un)paid work and non-work activities. Organizations promote WLB culture with flexible work hours WLB along with family friendly policies. WLB is a trend that HR practitioners suggest SME businesses does not integrate a comprehensive approach.  Challenges in firm size and implementation strategies confront SME managers, thus causing apprehension in implementing WLB policies.

Large organizations adopt WLB policies and procedures in greater numbers. The reason larger organizations are more apt to adopt WLB policies is they have greater resources and manpower. Inadequate resources, staffing and retaining concerns and sickness and absenteeism costs make it difficult for SMEs to balance daily management of workforces with complex economically driving business pressures. Despite the difficulties, literature findings suggest greater workplace flexibility powers accountabilities to employers with increased awareness in terms of their social, moral and ethical obligations towards the employees. Promoting a holistic work environment increases employee morale and organization’s well-being as a whole.

Implementing effective WLB policies in SMES will progress employment relations, customer services, business performance and organizational culture. Developing and communicating WLB policies ensures a healthy WLB culture. While there is apprehension in SMEs caused by uncertainty in firm size and applied flexibility, it is important to note SMEs should not adopt a one-size fits all model.  It is essential to adopt WLB policies to address the individual firm’s organizational cultural needs. Many SMEs adopt WLB policies and utilize discretion on a case-by-case basis.

Affirming a healthy WLB culture is encouraged by communicating WLB policies in employee handbooks, employment contracts, notice boards, intranet, staff induction and training sessions along with informal discussions with management. Once WLB policies are implemented, it is important to monitor and update these policies, as with all HR policies. Adopting WLB policies in SMEs is a sure way to improve employee and organizational.

Has your SME adopted WLB policies in your organization? Why or why not?

For more information on implementing WLB practices in your SME, contact all4hrbiz@gmail.com.

April D. Halliburton, MBA

All-4-HR & Business Solutions

Capella University Organization and Management PhD Candidate

www.all4hrbiz.net

all4hrbiz@gmail.com

Small Business Management - Managing Benefits

Benefits are one of the challenges facing human resource (HR) Professionals.  Benefit regulations is and ever-changing industry concerns. HR professionals should stay well-informed of government and state regulation changes and be sure to keep employees up-to-date through newsletter communication, etc. HR Professionals should review packages offered by other companies in the industry. 

There are no laws mandating health insurance, life insurance, vacation, or holidays except for the Service Contacts Act of 1965, which governs federal contractors. There are, federal laws regulating health benefits, retirement income, pension plans, and other benefits when they are provided.

As an employer, it is effective to adopt the approach of keeping healthcare cost under control in a number of ways. The approach includes increasing the share of premiums that employees pay, increasing deductibles and co-pays, and implement various  managed care strategies. 

Periodically review your current plan and establish whether the plan your company has in place is the best choice for your employees. Indemnity and managed care plans are:

·         Indemnity Plan

·         HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations)

·         PPO (Preferred Provider Organization)

·         POS (Point-of-Service Plans)

·         Consumer Directed Plans

SBA has a great new small business healthcare assessment tool located at     http://www.sba.gov/healthcare.

Click here Healthcare Checklist Request to receive any of the below small business healthcare insurance Checklist to assess your current health care position. 

• Healthcare Benefits Chechklist
• Health Insurance Carrier Checklist
• Health Insurance Cost Containment Checklist
• COBRA Checklists
• Worker's Compensation Insurance Checklist

Email or call with any HR or Business related questions. All4hrbiz@gmail.com   

Stay tuned for HR Lunch Café coming very soon. Name a Topic You would like us to research! All4hrbiz.gmail.com

April D. Halliburton, President

All-4-HR & Business Solutions, LLC

Evidence-Based Management (EBMgt) in SMEs

     

     Evidence-based management (EBMgt) establishes the difference between research and practice. It is imperative human resource partners create, change and implement organizational changes based on evidence; not speculation and experience. Many HR practitioners have consistently held the importance of reviewing past and present HR metrics of policies, procedures and practices in the workplace to determine the effectiveness of a particular organizational change. What are your thoughts and views on evidence-based management?

    Evidence-based management is the systematic use of the best available evidence to improve management practices. Under the Evidence-based theory, management science must arm the manager’s imagination and supply them with the vision needed to make rational decisions in respect to the business enterprise.  Management should not serve as a substitute for decision and judgment but should supply methods for making possible decisions that are more effective and with more informed judgment.

      As a small- medium- sized enterprise (SME) owner, a great start is the utilization of human resource metrics in your organization. The fundamental decision every enterprise must make, no matter what stage of maturation, is the allocation of its capital and resources. When analyzing choices of strategy, expansion, acquisition and new products, the decision should be evidenced by detailed financial metrics that show the high returns. More often than not, only those ventures that demonstrate the highest return are selected. The calculation is return on investment (ROI). As a SME owner-founder-manager, how are you setting, benchmarking and achieving your company’s growth?  In 5 years, where will your Company be?

All-4-HR & Business Solutions is committed to helping your organization reach its long-terms goals through effective (HRM) strategies, practices and procedures.

April D. Halliburton

All-4-HR & Business Solutions, LLC

Developing Human Capital Management in SMEs

Small- medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have important strategic factors that must be present to gain and retain a competitive edge. The most important factor is specialized people with the skills to develop innovative solutions that provide competitive advantages and increase the organization’s survival rate.  SMEs account for 4.3% of the total land and generate 29.4% of employment (Rivas, Cano & Mendoza, 2010).  These figures represent not only high productivity and the backbone of national activity, being the main providers of large companies.

What is the commonality among these SMEs? The commonality is human capital. More specifically, organizational growth of SMEs, in large part is attributed to investing in human capital through utilization of HR analytics/metrics, training and development, performance management, etc. SMEs realize factors, i.e., training and development, recruitment and retention systems, performance management systems, progressive discipline systems are essential to achieving organizational growth.

Padilla and Juarez (2006) suggest human capital consists of primarily knowledge and skills acquired through formal and informal education in the education system and in the home. Human capital also is inclusive of training, experience and mobility of the labor force. Developing human capital is inclusive of all organization levels. Training and development all employees are essential to achieving organization growth. Managers must be knowledgeable and experienced in HR practices and procedures while managing employees and building human capital. Some tools that are essential to effectively growing human capital are:

*      Effective human resource management (HRM) policies and procedures

*      HR analytic/metrics

*      Effective job descriptions

*      Progressive discipline systems

*      Performance management systems

Are you utilizing these tools to increase your organization’s human capital? 

April D. Halliburton, President

All-4-HR & Business Solutions

website - http://www.all4hrbiz.net
email - aprilh@all4hrbiz.net

Small- Medium-Size Enterprises (SMEs) Progressive Discipline

     Characteristics of very small enterprises (VSEs) include informal structure, compression of time, irrationality and the important role of affect in the decision-making process. The concept of VSE possessing a problem in which the problem increases with size while decreasing the size of VSE is divided into four components: number effect, microcosm, proportion effect, and egotrophy effect. It is critical that disciplinary problems are not allowed to progress. They must be resolved immediately. It is critical for small businesses as they work with limited resources. 

     Human resource management HRM challenges experienced by very small enterprises (VSEs) and small- medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) vary substantially from large organizations.  As the economy is controlled in large portion by SMEs and VSEs, it is beneficial for researchers to determine what aspects determine the success or failure of these organizations. Human resource management strategies applied to HRM will determine the success or failure of VSEs and SMEs. 

     An effective HRM strategy that reflects four components discussed above is the implementation and execution of a progressive discipline policy. EVERY company NEEDS an effective progressive discipline policy. No organization is exempt. Absence of a progressive discipline policy lays the foundation for organization failure. A progressive discipline policy protects both the employer and the employee. The objective of a progressive discipline policy is to avoid the lingering effects of employee problems, thus allowing them to fester.  Everyone knows once an employee problem or issue festers long enough, it becomes impossible to resolve thus, leading to termination. After terminating an employee, starts the process of recruiting to fill the position plus the added expense of training, etc.  You see where I am going with this?

A traditional progressive discipline policy consists of: verbal warning, written warning(s), suspension and/or termination. A Letter of Understanding has proven effective in notification and administering disciplinary actions. A manager meets with an employee, discusses a problem with the employee; and negotiates a resolution. Accordingly, the Letter of Understanding identifies a problem, discusses the favorable resolution; and agrees on the favorable resolution. During this meeting the manager and employee signs off on the Letter of Understanding thus, the employee begin corrective action(s). An example is an employee who is consistently tardy to work. The employer and employee meet and execute a Letter of Understanding and the employee agrees to be on time for 6 months. 

     Execution of a Letter of Understanding puts the responsibility of the correcting the problem or issue in the hands of the employee. Thus, it is a win-win situation as the employer has advised the employee of the problem or issue and the forefront of the employee and the employee takes the responsibility to rectify the problem or issue. Sneed (1987) raves the Letter of Understanding presents the employer and employee a positive, non-confrontational manner in which to resolve employee problems or issues. 

Click here to request a Sample Letter of Understanding or Sample Progressive Discipline Policy and related forms.

April, 

President of All-4-HR & Business Solutions

http://www.all4hrbiz.biz

Stay tuned for All-4-HR & Business Solutions Lunchtime Web HR Cafè…..

References

Jaouen, A., & Tessier, N. (2009). HRM strategies and very small firm development: French cases studies. Paper presented at the 1-19. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.library.capella.edu/docview/192410629?accountid=27965

Case history: A positive approach to discipline. (1987). Small Business Report, 12(2), 90. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.library.capella.edu/docview/214381983?accountid=27965

Most managers take clothing into account when making promotion decisions, survey shows

 Workers considering wearing pajamas, a chicken suit, or parachute pants to the office may be putting their chances of a promotion in jeopardy. The results of a recent OfficeTeam survey show that 80 percent of executives said clothing choices affect an employee’s chances of earning a promotion.

Proper attire may carry less weight than it did six years ago, however. In 2007, 93 percent of executives surveyed tied professional wear to advancement prospects. Among those respondents, 33 percent said clothing significantly affects a person’s chances of moving up the ladder, versus just 8 percent who feel this way today.

The survey was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with more than 1,000 senior managers at companies with 20 or more employees.  

Managers were asked, “To what extent does someone’s style of dress at work influence his or her chances of being promoted? Their responses:

• Significantly — 8 percent
• Somewhat — 72 percent
• Not at all — 20 percent

Managers also were asked to recount the strangest outfits they have heard of or seen someone wearing to work, not in observance of Halloween. The responses included:

• A dinosaur costume
• Pajamas
• Parachute pants
• A chicken suit
• Coveralls
• A space suit
• Studs and motorcycle gear
• A wolf mask

They recounted professionals who got creative with their clothing combinations:

• A T-shirt, tie, and flip-flops
• Short pants and a winter jacket
• One red sock and one white sock
• Tennis shoes and men’s knicker pants
• Shorts and house slippers
• A red suit with sporty footwear

They said that others donned apparel that left little to the imagination:

• A see-through dress
• Fishnet stockings and stilettos   
• A bathing suit
• A tube top
• A backless shirt

They mentioned that this gear was more appropriate for the gym than the workplace:

• A muscle shirt
• A sweat suit
• Yoga pants
• Very tight bike shorts

Respondents said that these outfits just didn’t make the “cut”:

• Torn jeans
• A vest with a big hole in the back
• A T-shirt with cut-off sleeves

And, they said that the following getups might be viewed as fashion faux pas both in and out of the office:

• Saggy pants
• Sandals with socks
• Flood pants

See you again Soon....  

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Tele: (313) 523-8090

Email:  aprilh@all4hrbiz.biz or all4hr@gmail.com

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April D. Halliburton, President