Discussion 7
Post 1
This class really came at the right time for me. Hiring employees in the future of my organization, I really feel like I have a good hold on what it is going to take to make the workplace effective, happy and healthy. Filling out the toolkit came in handy as I was able to be specific to my field and how human resources will play a role in my organization. Although all areas are important, I am most concerned with employee hiring and retention. The animal welfare field is a hard field to work in. Employees are underpaid for the work that they do. As a non-profit, money is always going to be a deal breaker when it comes to wages and benefits for our employees. As much as I want to offer appropriate wages and good benefits, this may not be practical, especially in our early years. It is great to have tools to offer different kinds of benefits to employees without breaking the bank. We can offer paid-time-off and health insurance stipends as a way to make up for being unable to offer health insurance or higher pay. We can focus on mental health within the organization by offering quiet space and by bringing in volunteers to offer yoga or other coping skills. We can provide lunch or breakfast a few times a month. There are so many ways to show your appreciation for your employees without having the money to increase wages or offer benefits. While doing these things, you can also retain employees by showinig this appreciation. You can also show public and private praise in meetings as well as have awards monthly. These things will let them know that you are paying attention to their work and that they are appreciated. I look forward to using my toolkit as a reference in the future when we have employees and volunteers working with us.
Post2
I loved completing the toolkit. In the workplace human resources can be said with some negative connotation, but the course work and completing the toolkit have shown me that is not the truth. While completing the tool kit the idea of strategic HR really resonated with me and how I can apply it to the employees I supervise. Being a part of a large city organization the strategic plan of the human resources department can get lost as it trickles down to the line staff I supervise. The toolkit let me reflect on the ways I can incorporate the strategic human resources plan from the City of Dallas into the daily operations of my staff.
One of the sections that I enjoyed was completing evaluations. In other positions feedback was so few and far between that the act of receiving an evaluation was anxiety ridden. While reviewing the material for the toolkit it showed that evaluations do not need to be this way. Consistent feedback that emphasizes the positive and corrects the negative is truly the best way to ensure growth in employees.
Many times in sheltering we are forced into crisis mode all the time and developing the employee is left by the way side. Training is a critical part of ensuring that employees are learning more and allowed to learn skills that makes them more efficient. The procedures for training provided tools to help ensure the time set aside for training is effective and worth wild for our employees. Evaluations of these trainings are critical to ensuring this is happening.
I am excited to be able to look at and reflect on my toolkit in the future. I liked that some other students placed websites in their toolkits and I will be adding useful website to mine. I also really liked the format of Kathryn's toolkit.
Post 3
Working on the toolkit was great exercise for me to review all of the different aspects of HR that we learned about throughout the course. I ended up formatting mine a little differently. I felt like headings and bullet points were more accessible to me so I used that through my toolkit to help me track useful lists, suggestions, and resources. Probably the most helpful aspect of creating the toolkit was formulating questions in the "how section" of what our organization can implement to be better employers.
I feel like a common theme throughout my toolkit and discussions was the importance of being flexible with employees depending on their situation. It's especially important in an organization like mine, where compensation is tight and it's hard to reward people with additional pay, that being flexible and looking for alternative ways to reward people can make a huge difference in their happiness at work.
I also really enjoyed parts of the text where employee engagement was covered and highlighted those in my toolkit. There are so many interesting and effective ways for employees to participate at work and it's helpful to be creative in putting people together to solve problems, to work with people from different departments, and to listen to what employees have to say about improving their situations.
Another aspect that was helpful was information about hiring and onboarding. In the last few weeks, I have participated in hiring four full-time employees and several part-time employees, with some positions still open. Reviewing the chapters that covered the whole hiring process from writing the job description, to interviewing, to crafting an offer letter, to onboarding has been extremely helpful. And hooray, because of what I learned in this class, I was able to bring in a vendor to perform background checks. This has given me a lot of peace of mind as we move forward with our new employees.