What is the best way to handle an employee who is just ‘going through the motions’ and not really invested in their work?     

Employee motivation for their work changes over time.  As an employer you need to know your staff well enough to recognise the signs of a performance drop in the early stages and talk to the employee about it.  The earlier you start communicating opening and honestly about issues, the easier it is to rectify them.

In most instances you’ll find that an early conversation with some assurance of support to the employee will stop a performance drop before it becomes a problem. 

If you have a poor performing employee and it is already a problem then gather the details of the problem together, write them down and schedule a meeting.  At the meeting go through each of the problems one at a time and get feedback from the employee.  Then, together agree on an action plan to rectify the problems so you can focus on a productive work environment.

After the meeting monitor how things are going and schedule a regular feedback meeting with the employee.

April 1st is often a significant date for businesses and this year is no exception:  changes to employee’s tax codes, new minimum wage rates, and a number of changes to legislation which we talked about in our last newsletter:  Kiwisaver, Rest breaks and Infant Feeding legislation, and, for those of you with 19 or fewer employees, the Trial period legislation is now a month old.

If you missed out on any of this important information for your business go to our last newsletter or give us a call on 07 870 4901 for further information. 

As we move through the 2009 dairy recruitment season the team at No8HR have been involved in a wide range of HR and recruitment projects.  Here’s what our customers are saying:

“The No8HR team recently helped me appoint a 2IC for my 430 cow dairy farm.  They were very efficient, good to talk to and knew what they were doing.  I’ve not used an agency before and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.  They made my job much easier, I got good quality applicants and have ended up with exactly the person that I want.  They did a marvellous job.”   
Gilbert de Groot, Northland

“The team at No8HR helped me re-oganise and restructure my business after I’d been told I needed help to make sure I got it right.  Once I had spoken to them and received some information I was a lot more confident with what I had to do and they made sure I had the right information to give to staff.”       
Kym Davey,  Matamata

“In the last month the team at No8HR have helped us recruit three staff for our farming businesses.  We have made good decisions and are looking forward to working with the team we have in place for next season.  Thanks for persevering for us...”       
 Murray and Cecelia Winters, Te Puke

Phone the team at No.8 HR today on 07 870 4901 if you have recruitment or employment issues that you’d like to discuss or log onto www.no8hr.co.nz to find out more about what we do and the current vacancies we’re managing.

With the labour market freeing up significantly on previous years employers are looking forward to easier recruitment processes.  With this comes the opportunity to really maximise your business rather than just take the best that’s available.  But how do you make sure that you really are getting the best candidate?  How do you see the wood from the trees?

Having good processes and good selection tools is the answer.  Research shows us that the following (in order) are the best selection tools to use to make sure you get the best candidate:

1. Work based testing
   Getting the candidate to do some work that they will need to do ‘on the job’ in a  supervised environment during the selection process
2. Ability Testing
   Testing to see if the candidate has the general ability and intelligence to do the job      
3. Structured Reference Checking
   Where information gained from the interview is checked back with referees
4. Structured Interview
   Where the candidate is asked questions directly relating to the work that ask them to provide specific and measurable information
5. Work Styles Profiling or other Personality Testing
   Where the candidate’s preferred style of behaviour at work is analysed to ensure they  will work well with your customers and your team

Non-structured interviews and reference checking do not provide employers with good information on which to base their recruitment decisions.  If you want to manage your vacancy yourself we can help you with some of these specialised tools to assist you to get the best people for your business.
 

The recent flurry of changes to legislation has meant that many employers are seeking to update their employment agreements, job descriptions and other legislative driven employment documentation.  During March we helped many farming businesses develop robust employment agreements in light of these changes.

The general temperature of the business market has also meant that we have been helping clients with role definition and staffing structures for next season to ensure they are maximising their people resources.  Many farm owners are taking a more active role in their businesses in the coming year and this provides an ideal opportunity to ensure you have the right staff doing the right jobs to ensure your business is as efficient as possible.

This also appears to be the time of year where many performance issues are identified with staff.  It is critical that performance in our business is maintained throughout the year,  as often what we are doing today will reflect in our performance next year.          

Give us a call if you need help in any of these areas.  www.no8hr.co.nz  Ph 07 870 4901