STRESS - NIGERIA'S NUMBER ONE UNSPOKEN OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY KILLER

For workers everywhere in both the private and public sector, factors such as the economy, job layoffs, mergers, and acquisistions, as well as constant change within the office has turned work into an unwanted emotional roller coaster. "Layoffs" and "budget cuts" have become bywords in the workplace, and the result is increased fear, uncertainty, and higher levels of stress. 

What is Stress?

The HSE defines stress as "the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them".

Work-related stress is the result of a conflict between the role and needs of an individual employee and the demands of the workplace resulting in pressure on an individual/team/group/dept/etc.  Physiologically, we are programmed to deal with pressure or threatening situations by producing more adrenaline. This response is only intended to be short-term.

The effect of excessive pressure is to keep the body constantly in such a state, and can lead to physical symptoms of ill health, such as heart disease, as well as longer term psychological damage.

Many of the early outward signs will be noticeable to managers and work colleagues and they include:

ü  Changes in behaviour

ü  Unusual tearfulness, irritability or aggression

ü  Indecisiveness

ü  Increased sickness absence

ü  Poor timekeeping

ü  Reduced performance, e.g. inability to concentrate

ü  Overworking or failure to delegate

ü  Erosion of self-confidence

ü  Relationship problems, e.g. becoming withdrawn or argumentative

ü  Increased unwillingness to co-operate or accept advice

Common triggers of workplace stress

• Pressure to perform to meet rising expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction
• Pressure to work at optimum levels – all the time
• Long working hours
• Breakdown in relationships with colleagues or managers
• bullying
• difficult journeys to and from work
• mismatch between the requirements of the job and your own capabilities and needs
• too much or too little responsibility

How do you know if you have work-related stress?

If you ever

• Feel constantly rushed and or tense
• Often miss lunch breaks and don’t ever stand up from your seat during the day and STILL feel like you have not accomplished anything
• constantly take your work home with you (without ever really accomplishing anything)
• don't have enough time for exercise, relaxation or spending time with yourself/family/children/friends
• feel ill or fatigued over a period of more than 2 days, even though the doctors do not diagnose any actually disease or illness

chances are may be under a large amount of stress and are not coping well.

There are a number of ways to reduce the negative impact of stress which involve identifying and dealing with stress (stress management) which we will look at in greater detail in my next write up.

Now take a deep breath, count slowly to ten, exhale, and read on!

Take care

LATE NIGHT MUSINGS AFTER A FULL RECOVERY FROM THE SNIFFLES

Good evening to all my readers...unfortunately after my last post I was a bit ill but I'm glad to report I'm back and blogging like my life depends on it!

My time at home got me thinking. Interacting with my colleagues and friends and during visits I had at home, I've realised there are a lot of new problems that have crept into our offices over the last few years. Civility, office etiquette, time management, stress management, anger management among other things are at an all time low. More and more, we are angrier, getting less done, and taking out our anger on others because we are handling more work, sometimes getting paid less, and having to cope with situations we are no longer young enough to fight back on or just grab our coats and walk out the door from. However, as  your HR Agony Aunt, I'm here to tell you that work doesn't have to be a chore, bore, dreaded event, or situation you just sit and groan thru. As an HR consultant, it's my mission in life to empower individuals, employees, employers, and corporations make smarter decisions to work smart, get maximum productivity, and keep everyone happy. Yes it is true that with the economic downturn, loss of skills, and more competitive workforce, times are tough but that doesn't stop us from being happy, productive, and goal orientated.

Over the next few days, I will be posting articles, answers to questions, and hopefully one or two webinars regarding stress management, anger management, office etiquette, and communication within the office. Its my aim to help us learn new and implementable skills for our offices of 2012 in order to become valuable to our companies and to ourselves.

Guys make sure you check in everyday with a cup of coffee and biscuits, you won't want to miss this!!!

have a great weekend!

FREE BUSINESS SEMINAR IN ABUJA

Guys there is a free training ongoing in Abuja. Its a business eminar with Dr Alex Ibinabo taking place on saturday, the 21st of April 2012. Its Alexis hotel Opposite Apolostic church in Jabi. Invite your friends and family to attend because we all know no knowledge is wasted so why not take advantage of this opportunity to attend a free seminar!!

For more information, please call 08033088546.

SO SORRY FOR THE SILENCE MY READERS BUT IM BACK!!

Hi everybody,

I just want to apologise for being out of touch for the last week. I travelled and unfortunately, had no Internet reception where I was, which wasn't anticipated. I would have put up a whole lot of posts before I left had I known.

Over the few days, we will catch up with events, seminars, and HR and HCD topics as well as addressing some topics and questions I encountered on my trip.

Have a great weekend everyone and I'm glad to be back, missed you all so much!

UPCOMING CONFERENCE IN AKWA IBOM ON EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

NARD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2012 10 to 14 September 2012 Uyo, Nigeria

The conference is on the development of human resources in Africa titles "Is education really the main avenue for the development? What are the other variables? What are the roles of international organisations?"

Keynote Speakers:
1. Prof. Sahr P.T.Gbamanja -
University of Sierra Leone;
2. Prof. Jeniffer Ward - ITT Technical
Institute, South Carolina, USA;
3. Dr. Frederick Gbegbe - Cuttington University,
Monrovia, Liberia; and
4. Emeka Maduewesi, Esq., Google,Inc, mountain
View, California, USA.

The deadline for abstracts/proposals is 20 August 2012.
For more information, please visit:

Enquiries: papers4wesoeduonline@gmail.com
Web address: http://www.wesoeduonline.com

FREE TRAINING ON INFORMATION AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT

Good evening every body.

Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking a lot about administrative duties in an office. Although the administrative department is a vital part of any organisation and is responsible for overseeing the companies documents and data (among other duties), we are finding out that more in more in Nigeria employees are responsible in part for documentation as it relates to their job. Documentation and database management is absolutely vital yet many lack the basic and intermediate skills this requires. For example, yes you may have a central storage unit for client and personnel files, but how do you handle your day to day documents and if you were asked to create a file management systems for yourself or your unit, would you be able to do this? What do you know about how and when to store legal documents? HR documents? Electronic Database management and its importance to business continuity?

I discovered last week an NGO called RIMA (Records and Information Management Awareness Foundation) They are a Non-profit, Non Governmental Organisation "...that seeks to promote access to information, raise public consciousness on the need for proper management and security of records/information, and encourage the overall development of the information management industry in Africa..." They offer paid and  free training, workshops, and courses on a variety of subject matters within information management including electronic record management, database management, and archiving. Their training timetable for the year can be found below:

http://rimaw.org/documents/2012-Events-and-Training-Calendar.pdf

I would like to encourage all managers, Team Leads, HR personnel, Administrators, and any one else who needs to build their competencies in records and information management to have a look at this calendar. HR personnel especially those of us who are new to HR should take note of the free training that will be taking place on Managing HR and Legal Records in June of this year.

Please, for those of us who need practical training and advice on database and information management, do not pass up this great opportunity.

BUILDING A STRONG TEAM

Remember the topic where we discussed how to make things work if your job is becoming a nightmare? I asked a question, what do you do to build a strong team, even if you have been told point blank that there is no money or you get the feeling management no longer believes in you after all the opportunities you have had to make things work? By this point I hope you have implemented all the tips I told you about in your life? If you have and are ready to take ownership of your team and make them as happy as you know they can be, you don’t need a large sum of money or threats from the boss directly to them.

For the last ten years, whether it was in an ICT firm, consultancy, school, bar, or resturaunt and no matter which part of Nigeria the company existed in, the same tips consistently helped business owners and managers build the same team. I took out time earlier this year to write them down and I want to share them with you. Here are four fail proof tips to building a better team:

1. Invest in your people

I’ve always believed in promoting from within whenever possible and this doesn’t always have to involve huge fanfare and an official looking letter from human resources. Know who is(are) the leaders(s) within your team. Informally start mentoring them to take up bigger jobs and responsibilities. Start training them on more complicated aspects of the job and carry them with you to meet important clients and attend meetings. Send them in your place when you are not ready. Ensure you give good reviews and recommend them for promotion when they are due them. It sends a strong message that loyalty, performance and productivity are rewarded, not sidestepped in favor of new blood from outside and this will make people happier to work with and for you. However do not ever try to turn your team into a cult, ensure you teach them how to work well with others and appreciate other people in the office as well as customers. This will ensure that if and when you get new employees they will be warmly received rather than having the other employees gang up on them

2. Pay attention to what people are good at

What are each employee’s job duties? More importantly, which of those roles are they really good at? Look for ways to enhance those skills, develop the competencies, find little ways to reward them and then for a job well done publically and privately.

3. Assess what needs improvement

Know this. Nothing and no one is perfect. Your team and team members will always have their strengths, good points, and unique skills. But there will always be weaknesses, bad points, and even employees who need help with their job and or people skills. Pinpoint the areas that need working on to get your team in top condition. Do not use people's weaknesses and attack them in public. Do a thorough assesment of their weaknesses at work, come up with a plan to improve them, have a one on one meeting with them to agree on milestones and implement your plan. For example, if you notice that your lead sales person has never really understood the need to be more tactful with customers, make it your mission to teach this person empathy by pointing out how it can not only benefit them but practical ways to implement better customer service. Do not scream at them infront of every one, that will only work once or twice to change their behaviour (if you are lucky) and in the long wrong you could loose a great person. Instead let them know the problem, advice them on the possible consequences of not changing, and agree practical ways to change their approach with customers.

4. Train your team to fit your goals

If you can match your employees’ skills and interests with your company’s growth needs, you’re on your way to having a winning bench. Job shadowing, cross training, attending industry events and conferences, and online training are all smart ways to teach your employees new things without spending a bundle. Before you know it, you’ll have a well-rounded team working with you and not against you. For example there is no point having a administrative team that is attending courses on training on paper database management if your CEO has decided the office should go paperless within the next 6 months. Always align training and skill building in your team with what the company needs. It will ensure you remain a team of added value and you will be recognized for all the right reasons.

So remember, to build a great team: invest in your people and promote from within; build up your high performers; work on weaknesses; and align your strengths and training plans with the company needs and requirements. For a free practical assesment and work plan on how you implement the tips above  for your team or office's unique needs, please do not hesistate to contact me on insitefulsolutionsconsult@gmail.com

HELP: MY BOSS IS ALWAYS BRINGING IN HER BROTHER TO DO WORK IN THE OFFICE…

Q: My boss constantly asks me to use her brother to repair our office computers; the problem is that he's just not that good. What do I do?

A: "Most company ethics codes prohibit conflicts of interest, which this clearly is, but they don't always have private ways of reporting and even if they did, you may or may not find out. It's right to speak up, but it's also right to ask yourself whether this is the hill you want to die on. If it is, line up another job, and report the matter and if you want to ensure you keep your job, make sure you are stay out of it, do not join in and bring in people you know to do work. Always follow proper channels to get vendors. If you are not the type of person to document your work start now. Ensure you follow conversations up with emails and document your work. Also ensure you line up good computer repair vendors to use for the inevitable day she admits to herself his work is shoddy and comes to you to get someone new. If you follow these steps, you will learn a new skill, look efficient and offer help as and when needed. Good luck and let me know if you see a change soon."

Best practice recruitment exercises means you employ the best person for the job. Suprisingly the best person for the job can be close family friends and relatives who have passed recruitment tests and have shown themselves capable of excelling on the job while keeping sentiments aside to be employees of great value. Unfortunately this is not always the case as you can see from this question I posted above that I recieved from an old acquantaince. Sometimes, the boss will bring a friend or family member as a favor to someone. Sometimes, it goes smoothly and sometimes it doesn’t. My advice is when working with a friend or family member of the boss, remember, some relationships run deep and blood will almost always be thicker than water. However, it is amazing how many problems you can avoid just by being known as a hard working, high performing, and proactive employee. Being known for your good work will mean a good boss will not want to lose you and being proactive will make ANYONE who wants to play games weary of crossing your path. Avoid any situations that will make you come into conflict with someone who is related to or friends with the boss. Be friendly and diplomatic but do not feel the need to be overfriendly. The chances are if you follow these steps you will not have any problems in the event you are working with a friend or relative of the boss.

If you are currently working with a friend of family member of the boss and are experiencing difficulties or conflict with this employee or manager, please contact me on  

insitefulsolutionsconsult@gmail.com and I will give you advice that will work for your situation.

5 EMPLOYEES YOU CANT AFFORD TO KEEP IN 2012

Afternoon everyone

For those of us running our own businesses, firms, and organizations as well as some of us getting set to start new ventures, you MUST understand that it is not every one you employ and if you do, you must keep a close eye on your employees and know that there are some you cant afford to keep and who may be detrimental to the success of your business. 

I found  the article on the link provided below very insightful and I hope you do as well as it was written in 2011 but is very relevant to the strategic approach businesses in Nigeria must continue to adopt in 2012.

http://www.openforum.com/articles/5-types-of-employees-you-cant-afford-to-keep

DEALING WITH THE EMPLOYEE WHO HAS BEEN WITH THE OFFICE SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME (OFFICE RELICS)

If you haven’t encountered this particular type of employee, I’m not sure whether to say you are lucky or unlucky, but be rest assured you will unless YOU happen to be the person I am talking about J

Who is the office relic? This is the employee who has been with the company for a very long time, and often times in smaller establishments, they may be found among the pioneer staff  who have been there since the company started. Please do not assume an office relic will apply to all old staff and or pioneer staff because I’m not talking about the good and faithful employee(s) who have remained loyal over the years and who add value with their employment. With the office relics, we are talking about employee(s) who despite all odds, schemes, scandals, who despite an inability to work or work well with others, have survived it all and still remain onboard.

These are the employees that survived the hard times…. Mass sackings…survived consultants…seem to get promoted while doing nothing…they are the office untouchables…commit atrocities while the boss/management looks away… Sounds familiar? There are many reasons why the office relic exists and flourishes in an office: past glory; loyalty to the company; personal sacrifice that translated to him/her endearing themselves to management.  In a lot of establishments, crossing the path of the office relic(s) can cause you to lose your job. In the last ten years I’ve run across so many people who lost jobs because of upsetting these employees who then went after them. Why did they get sacked? the simple fact is these type of employees are survivors and are sometimes willing to play dirty tricks, manipulate the office culture or other employees, and or understand management enough to hide under the radar should you and them  be under the spotlight for the wrong reasons. However you CAN avoid the trap of battling these employees without sacrificing your ethics while carrying out your work by simply following these steps:

UNDERSTAND THE CULTURE AND SUBCULTURE OF THE OFFICE

Office relic(s) survive for one key reason; he/she understands and thrives in the most important subculture in the office – the one that exists within the management/owner circle. He/she can give them exactly what they want and knows how to fly under the radar and avoid what they don’t like. You as a new employee must understand this culture and stand out for the right reasons. Know what is unacceptable and acceptable in terms of office behavior. Do your job well and know what you will be praised for. For example if your office is known for using up all types of hours to try and please the customer, make a personal commitment to spend time to solve a problem that has persisted with a customer and spend as many hours as you need to solve it. Management will take note. You must take at least 4-6 weeks to understand where you are working and who you are working with. In that time, concentrate on doing your job well and understand your boss. After a few weeks, you will have a better understanding of your office, who you should avoid, and the extra value you can bring to the establishment.

BECOME THE ONLY RESIDENT EXPERT ON WHAT YOU WERE EMPLOYED TO DO (AND MORE IF POSSIBLE

The employee turned relic is most likely known for past glory or being an expert in something. You as a new employee must become the resident expert in your job. You must know as much as possible. Research, study, get in touch with the people you work for. Go above and beyond your job scope so that everyone around you including management is confident you can carry out your job successfully.

PROTECT YOUR TERRITORY

Protect your territory (your job) If the office relic is known to be a bully, aggressive, passive aggressive, or manipulative. You must protect your job territory. This doesn’t mean you need to be aggressive, manipulative, or violent, but protect your job as you would anything important in your life. Remain proactive, not reactive. Have your to do lists, always think ahead, handle all tasks on your desks and keep an eye on your surroundings. Learn to read body language and try and maintain a cordial relationship with people as much as possible while ensuring you are a proactive employee who is known for their dedication, resilience, and loyalty.

No one prays to have problems on the job but truth is people are employed to work for all sorts of reasons, and problems on the job with your colleagues and employers can jeopardize your career. However, there is no problem you cannot overcome including the unique ones presented by working with or for the office relic. However, if you take note of what I have detailed further and apply it to your circumstances and work environment, you can steer clear of falling into the trap of doing battle and possibly losing your job in a situation where you at a disadvantage