Human Resource Practices That Would Lead to Your Company Success

What we have in the prevailing marketplace in today's economy is the effort that has been made by some well-recognized companies, among them, the Fortune 500 companies based in the United States, who have come to take note of the contribution of their human resource department towards the success of their organizations, SHRM. This has led to the creation of human resource practices by HR department, that motivate its members to continuously being proactive in looking at the business organization, as it engages its employees to determine how they can be supported in strengthening the company's strategic policies.
A business organization's human resource practices coupled with its policies are very important in the creation and maintenance of a work culture that is meant to reward, support and then create the expectation for the employees to be consistent in the performance of their work and provision of services. The ultimate goal is the achievement of an optimum customer satisfaction, which at the end leads to a satisfactory financial outcome that create a tremendous success for the company involved, SHRM.
Human resource professionals have been traditionally aligned with administration and finance, tasked with paperwork and far removed from where decisions are made in C-suite level leaders. It has been acknowledged in today's organizations the value of employees as a key resource, therefore are embracing HR as a key strategic partner with organizational leaders. The new role being given to HR is behind the drive to have companies invest more in advanced technologies that will enable them to manage the workforce, in order to allow HR to spend more time in making valuable contributions.
It has been found based on an audit of Fortune 500 companies that having an HR executive officer among the company's executive leaderships lead to high performance. In the audit, it was made clear the impact of having Chief HR Officer in the C-suite, which is that the companies with CHRO are averaging 105 percent more profit than their industry peers that do not have one.
Having a chief human resource officer at the C-suite conference table means that the person with the title is able to bring to the table issues affecting the HR department that could not have been possible were the person not there. So the CHRO presence is able to make the argument of the impact of having human resource on the company's bottom line, the value it brings to the company's strategic decision making process, and also the need for the company to create HR that is high performance and is involve in the learning and development of its employees, and also the need for an effective technological solutions.
According to some of the Fortune 500 companies audited, the CHRO in those companies embraced the use of customer analysis, proactive talent management as human resource practices. Some of the human resource practices policies enacted that directly lead to high performance in those companies include the exposure of HR risks, like the need to retain key talent in the company's annual reports and instituting the continuous review of goals and performance throughout the year, particularly:
When the company involve identify risks in their annual reports, the company performs better when compare with peers that do not identify risk in their key financial and market metrics like return on assets (55%), operating profit (by 95%) and earning per share (by 54%).
The organizations that review its employees performance throughout the year are likely to continuously meet its quarterly financial expectation, and show a better average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) when they are compared to their peers that only review performance on an annual basis.
Organizations that have a higher part of its goals aligned and completed does better than its industry peers in key financial metrics, such as quarterly financial estimates, operating profit, earning per share, and price-earnings ratio.
Having a CHRO has proven to have a link to a company's bottom line, demonstrating the vital correlation between effective talent management and business performance. There are many companies that are very successful in today's marketplace because they have been able to institutionalized human resource practices platform that put forward an advanced, connected HCM solutions that manage an entire employee life cycle; starting from recruitment to retirement- taking the role from being transactional to strategic, also predictive.

Administrator The Health Training

Training health administrators requires exposure to three main knowledge and skill sets. They include health, administration and research. While other types of knowledge and skills may be included, a master's tenable program in health administration should provide opportunity for participants or trainees to acquire and master these broad content areas.
It can be argued that health related knowledge may be the main component of a course in health administration. Participants should master content in patient satisfaction, patient safety, epidemiology, and social and biological determinants of health and wellness. They should demonstrate mastery of health systems such as hospitals and gain an appreciation for the role of health in national development. For instance, participants should develop an appreciation of the relationship between population health or quality of life and productivity. It is critical for health administrators to understand different ways through which they can strengthen their departments or units by implementing appropriate evidence based knowledge, practices and procedures. Additionally, they must be able to assess the usefulness of methods appropriate for monitoring and evaluating health systems across different countries.
Health administrators should know traits of an effective leader. They must learn that effective leaders get the job done even when they are off the job. They will learn ways of building employee self-confidence and developing a collaborative work environment. Three basic leadership traits they should study are mentoring, coaching and facilitating. It is important that they learn how to mentor others as they will work in an environment where critical decisions to save patients' lives must be taken in specific contexts. Participants must appreciate the fact that the leader who mentors, will help build team confidence. They should know that good leaders must learn when to coach and when to instruct. Coaching implies that they will lead by example. In other words, as leaders they must model appropriate behaviour and attitudes. Facilitating suggests that they learn to create an enabling environment in which subordinates know when to take risks to like save lives. In this way leaders will acquire techniques to build a climate of trust, cooperation and mutual respect. The student administrator will learn how individual members of the team can work together toward achieving collective goals.
Thirdly, it is ideal for participants in a health administration program to attain knowledge of research. They should be able to distinguish between quantitative and qualitative research designs and methods. Knowledge of proposal writing should be taught. This will strengthen their understanding of the role of data in managing, monitoring and evaluating health systems. Students pursuing a degree in health administration should know how to collect, analyse and apply health data such as biology statistics and health care data related to quality of life, morbidity and mortality. A good health administration program should teach academic writing such as style of referencing, English and use of health discourse.
Overall, health administration programs should include one practicum so that participants will be given the opportunity to learn and practice skills in leadership, administration and research. It is palpable that at the end of practice, a variety of authentic assessments are used to determine mastery of the course of study. These could include reflexive journals, diaries, application exercises, incident reports, paper and pencil tests, oral presentations and practical demonstrations. These can prove to be more beneficial than a final thesis.

Global Staffing Trends in 2017

The staffing and recruiting industry is the blood line for any workforce. In the past, companies that sought the services of staffing agencies have had a difficult time in finding the right group to serve their needs. With leaps in modern technology and the rise of social media, the staffing and recruiting industry had been able to implement effective strategies to reach their human resource and company goals.
Recently, LinkedIn released its annual Global Staffing Trends report for 2017. It is based on 2,000 manager-level and above, search and staffing recruitment professionals from 35 countries. Some of the highlights of the report state that companies' overall growth, the competitive search for top talent and doing more with less is a top priority. Here are some key points:
Positive Growth in Staffing
Recruitment agencies are working harder to maintain and maximize their growth. With 68% of staffing firms expecting to increase this year, 79% of staffing firms also expect to see an increase in candidates placed.
There is now a widespread reduction in time to place, with 83% of staffing firms reporting that the average is now less than two months.
So, the mood is positive even amongst political uncertainty (Brexit in the UK, Trump administration in USA, etc) where staffing firms are refining their own processes and using technology to improve efficiency.
Branding and Social Media Increased Growth
Social media is becoming the most cost effective way to build a company's brand. Measuring the brand's promotion and growth is through social networking based career websites like LinkedIn coming out on top (74%), third party website or online job boards (55%) ahead of Facebook (36%) and Twitter (18%). Referencing this with the current breakdown of recruiting budgets, we see that social media is delivering significant ROI for its low cost to set up and maintain.
82% of the top staffing firms agree that investing in brand generates new business, but only 10% of their budget goes to it. Measurement of the brand was reported as: traffic to career website (45%); response to emails/InMails (43%); social media engagement (35%); the number of social media followers (27%); and survey data on potential candidates' perceptions (21%).
Investment in New Technology and Tools
Although recruiters are still focused on traditional methods such as business development, there is a noticeable desire for cost effective technology which makes candidate sourcing faster and more efficient. If recruitment agencies had an unlimited budget for 2017, the investment would be allocated to increasing the agencies brand through more business development (49%), better candidate sourcing tools (34%), and new technology/recruitment software (30%).
IT and engineering roles are the top two priorities to place for clients
Client demand for IT and engineering candidates is so much that recruitment firms have to start thinking more about how to recruit from these talent pools. One tactic would be to target them with highly customized content relevant to them.
Major Challenges
The top challenges leaders say their teams face include competition for talent (58%), business development (38%); limited budget (30%); small recruiting team (25%) and poor communication with hiring managers (20%).
On measuring success, staffing firms are focusing on metrics that have a lasting impact on the business, which are client retention and how many candidates are placed every year.
Future Outlook
Even though staffing firms budgets are growing, so are the client demands and the expected number of placements. To boost their competitive edge the survey suggests that staffing firms will be using more social and professional networks to generate new business (55%); recruiting more diverse candidates (30%), innovative interviewing tools (29%); candidate relationship management tools (29%); and using big data (28%).
It's clear that we will see great growth in the staffing and recruitment industry. There is a tremendous amount of potential for companies to improve still and use all the resources they have to get the best candidates for the right job.

Techniques for International Student Recruitment

Have you been looking for some techniques for international student recruitment? If so, we suggest that you read through this article. The 5 tips given in this article can help you with the recruitment of students from across the globe. Read on.
Virtual Reality
There have been a lot of talks about the use of virtual reality in the education sector. But VR got popular in the gaming industry only. You may have seen some good examples of VR in the higher education. As a matter of fact, using VR is a great way of recruiting international students, especially those who can't be in your campus in person.
Social Media
We all are familiar with social media in the here and now. As a matter of fact, more than 50% of mobile phone users have access to at least one social media site. According to a survey done in the USA, Snapchat experienced the same level of growth that was experienced by Twitter in just 4 years. So, social media should be an important part of your international student recruitment strategies. Nowadays, universities are making offers to international students via social media websites.
Print is going to be in again
Since this is the era of digital developments, it's hard to believe that print is going to make a comeback. As a matter of fact, we have been receiving almost everything in digital format. And that is the reason getting anything printed doesn't look "normal" to us anymore. However, with this strategy, you can stand out from the crowd.
According to a survey, when students were invited to an open day, around 75% of them showed postcards that they got for invitation.
Stay in Touch With Students
In the digital world, making a connection on an emotional level is hard. What you need to do is try your level best to talk to your prospective students. For instance, when you get a chance to talk to an international student, you may want to invite them to a webinar for answers to the questions that they may have.
Apart from the postcards and webinars, you may want to engage the students with campaigns. As a matter of fact, this small effort can make a great difference as far as international student recruitment is concerned. This way the student will think that they are important to you.
Student-Led Content
You can also go for the student-led content, which can prove another great strategy. While you are not bound to do it, this strategy can prove a great one to help you recruit students from across the globe. You can have them post your social media posts, host webinars and make phone calls. According to a research study, international students can't be totally convinced with beautiful videos and glossy prospectuses that are produced by universities.
Long story short, you may not want to underestimate the intellect of students. They are not stupid. Therefore, it's a good idea to use the right strategies for the recruitment of international students.

Selecting The Right Team For Your Early Education Company

When opening and operating any business, it's important to have the right people, doing the right things, at the right time. It seems simple, but 80% of new businesses still fail in the first 60 months--not five years, 60 months. New companies don't fail over a period of years. They succeed or fail one month at a time.
Decision One: You. It's important to know and be honest about your own strengths and weaknesses. Being candid with yourself helps you identify the gaps that need to be filled. For example, you may be brilliant but not particularly assertive. Hence, you look for a more assertive director or attorney.
Decision Two: Attorney. Most of us know a few attorneys, but your friend who practices family law is not the person to help you navigate zoning laws and negotiate leases with a landlord. Pick an attorney who has a significant, documented history of success in the right field. If you don't know their work, ask for references. Many attorneys will tell you that they can't give you references because of attorney client privilege. That is true. However, most attorneys in this field can scare up a few if it's really needed.
Decision Three: CPA. If you're going to make money, you need to be able to account for it and protect from inappropriate taxes. A good CPA will save your money from taxes, and those savings compounded over years in business can determine the decade in which you retire.
Decision Four: Director. If you're not going to be the director / administrator of the center or the school, then this position will be the most important operational staffing decision you'll make. An average director can maintain a good center if you are well-organized. A great director with autonomy can make an average or bad center great. A bad director can ruin anything.
Decision Five: Banker. You need to have one reliable banker for knowledge and insight and another 15 or so to make sure the first banker is giving you the best terms possible when you borrow. Failing to provide a competitive environment for your banker(s) can be extremely expensive to you. A difference of a quarter percentage point on a million dollar loan over 20 years costs you and extra $34,793. The U.S. has a lot of banks. It's a competitive business. There's no reason not to use them correctly.
Decision Six: Real Estate Transaction Professionals. If you're buying property (land and/or buildings) and you're not experienced in transactional work, get professional help to ensure that you won't miss important factors in the transaction. Help can come in the form of your CPA, a real estate attorney and/or an experienced broker.
Decision Seven: Marketing Professional. This decision can be more difficult as many people have trouble defining marketing. In today's environment, you must have an internet presence. Make sure your marketing person is a talented SEO (search engine optimization) person.
Decision Eight: IT professional. You will need computers. You will need an IT professional. It is better if this person is not part of your staff as some of the information exposed during the work may be sensitive and not to be shared with the teacher who has a computer science degree.
Decision Nine: Payroll. There are several good payroll companies. None of the major companies should have any problem managing your payroll. They're not terribly expensive, and if you have ever talked with anyone who botched their payroll taxes, then you know they are worth the cost.
Decision Ten: Hire your teachers, drivers, cooks and go to work.The early education industry is a great industry. It provides significant financial returns for doing genuinely important and rewarding work.
(Legal Disclaimer: Always consult the proper professionals before taking action. By and before the use of the information provided herein, reader agrees that BFS® is not responsible for viewer's actions related to said information.)

Is It Worth It For Businesses To Go Solar?

Clean energy isn't just for large corporations with enough capital to make decisions solely for the environmental good. For many business owners, going solar can be a strategic decision with significant financial benefits. If you're wondering whether solar is a feasible option for your business ask yourself these 4 questions.
1. How much do you currently pay for electricity?
By some estimates, the average commercial property owner saves 75% on their electricity bill by switching to solar, but there are numerous online resources available to estimate how much money your business can save on its electricity bill each month. This information can also help you determine your payback period, or the amount of time it takes to break even on your solar investment. The higher your electric bill, the less time it will take for the system to pay for itself, so businesses operating in places with high electricity rates can realize considerable economic gains from investing in solar PV.
2. Choose your equipment wisely
The amount you save by investing in a solar PV system depends on a number of factors, including the size and orientation of your roof and the efficiency, durability, and reliability of the equipment itself. Higher-quality photovoltaic panels that increase your upfront cost may end up saving you more money in the long run by reducing maintenance costs, improving productivity, and increasing the lifespan of your system overall. On the other hand, you may find that the most expensive panels don't necessarily translate into the greatest savings for your particular needs. Be sure you're working with a solar provider who can help you navigate your many options based on purchase and installation costs, power capacity, and how long your solar panels are expected to last.
3. Compare your financing options
Solar can be a smart investment with a strong rate of return, but financing a solar energy system is a complicated process with many variables. Cash purchases yield the greatest savings at the greatest upfront cost. Those interested in reaping the benefits of ownership without purchasing their system outright can finance the purchase with a solar loan, which allows you pay off the cost of the system through fixed monthly payments. For some business owners, it makes more sense to rent their solar PV system with a solar lease, or power purchase agreement (PPA), which brings immediate savings with little or no money down, although monthly payments on a solar lease or PPA usually increase at a predetermined rate every year.
4. Consider short-term cost vs. long-term savings
To determine their true return on investment, business owners should consider the long-term benefit of going solar beyond its initial cost and immediate savings. In addition to considering your purchase or renewal options, federal tax incentives, rebates, corporate tax credits and other state tax breaks all factor into the short-term cost of going solar. Thanks to increased financial incentives and lower installation costs, the price of solar has decreased in recent years while electricity prices continue to rise. Investing in solar can help stabilize your energy costs and save you from the rising and often fluctuating price of electricity purchased from a utility. In many cases, solar can even increase property value, enabling you to see additional financial gain down the line.

Business Agility in a World of Artificial Intelligence

Business Agility, AI and Remaining Human
"The automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most intelligent, caring and supervisory roles remaining." Stephen Hawking.
It doesn't take one of the world's greatest living astrophysicists to understand there is a major shift going on in not only our workplaces, but in our society as a whole. The difference between what humans can do and what machines and computers are capable of is shifting, and at an accelerating rate. This reality becomes truly scary to those who currently earn a living by doing repetitive tasks or thinking in repeatable patterns; in other words, most of us.
If you are not able to distinguish what you do from that of a machine or a computer, then how can you really call yourself much more than a human doing? To remain a human beingrequires more!
The difference between a human doing and a human being?
Your ability to feel and relate.
Going forward, this will be most obvious in those roles that as Professor Hawking reminds us require feelings, leadership and creativity combined with intelligence. For the foreseeable future, this means that your economy will increasingly be influenced by your ability to listen, understand, empathize, create and lead. In short, the more you cultivate your ability to consciously feel, powerfully communicate and relate, the better chance you will have of getting paid. Transacting can be left to our increasingly sophisticated creations.
Even if increasing your ability to use your senses to relate is reduced down to the economics of being employed or not, just that is a positive start! Most of us are now being forced to learn that trying to compete with computers and machines only leads to increased stress and ultimately dis-ease.
"Life in a Spreadsheet"
A good friend, Tim Finucane, came up with this appropriate metaphor over ten years ago, and it rings truer today than when he first coined it. Since the advent of Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel, 30 plus years ago, we have been able to measure job performance with increasing accuracy as well as more intrusiveness. Whereas, spreadsheets were first used to help us perform better, they have now morphed into being used to dictate and monitor increasingly challenging performance metrics. Is it any wonder that each little box in a spreadsheet is called a "cell"? Just like prison, these cells keep getting smaller and just like government budgets, each metric usually increases over time.
Spreadsheet technology gave way to the idea of Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. For your company, these are metrics based almost entirely upon historical performance, yet are prone to increase or tighten every time they are reviewed. This is fine for a machine that you can tweak and improve with newer technology, but when the key components are you and your co-worker, constant increases can stifle your creativity and crush your ability to care. The machine literally drains you of your humanity and what are human beings without that?
Powerful forces, problem or Agile Opportunity?
Thus we have two powerful forces working against us. Firstly, constantly increasing performance metrics keep limiting our ability to be human. Secondly, increasingly efficient computers and machines make obsolete more of our opportunities to earn. The good news is that those who understand these powerful forces and the change they are bringing can begin directly to increase their creativity, as well as hone their ability to sense, relate and lead.
What if this measurement trend also is forcing us to take more personal responsibility to relearn and improve the skills necessary for not just emotional, but social competence? Don't think this is important? One of the seminars held at this year's Davos World Economic Forum was titled, "Maintaining Your Humanity". Even the Elites now get it.
Competing with an increasingly sophisticated computer or machine for jobs that technology can do better is not a winning strategy! Especially if you wish to remain healthy and prosperous. The one area that for the foreseeable future will remain the domain of humans is where feelings and relationships come into play. These areas include but are not limited to:
  • Customer Service
  • Healthcare
  • Sales
  • Leadership
  • Music and arts
Each one of these areas of human endeavor requires feeling and sensitivity to succeed. Computers and machines cannot do that. Machines can measure and they can perform without rest, but they cannot not feel anything while performing or when they objectively measure and communicate the results. This job is left for us to interpret and enjoy, or not.
Conclusion: Remain Human, Get Agile, or Be Swallowed by the Technology
If you want to insure your ability to earn a living going forward, you need to begin now to optimize your use of computer and machine skills, while simultaneously rediscovering and mastering your ability to be vibrant human being. Missing this opportunity may not affect you tomorrow, but sooner or later the Technologically Weighted Future we are all tumbling into will catch up to even you!