Dear Simhan,
Thanks for your views. I am with teh same opinion too.
But is there a tool to measure whether such habits can interfer with work... I am in the process of creating one. Maybe I can share it with you and receive suggestion for improving.
In our company - Integrity, character and respect for self - is really important for survival. I need to make sure that - either the employee who joins, has all these things..or must be a person who is willing to change if given a chance to improve.
From India, Madras
54Thanks for your views. I am with teh same opinion too.
But is there a tool to measure whether such habits can interfer with work... I am in the process of creating one. Maybe I can share it with you and receive suggestion for improving.
In our company - Integrity, character and respect for self - is really important for survival. I need to make sure that - either the employee who joins, has all these things..or must be a person who is willing to change if given a chance to improve.
From India, Madras
Hi Ash, Did your IT department is spying on your employees to trece what he is doing on net? How you gather data of his activities with accurate timings..I think some spywere is used.... Partho
From Saudi Arabia
From Saudi Arabia
Partha...he is sitting just pararrel to my workstation.. I mean..just the next line. We all can see what he is doing when we walk inside teh company itself.
No spyware all necessary - he is doing it cooly.
Now he is off to sleep. Just right in front of me. When the boss comes or he hears my Chairmans car..he closes all programs.
About accuracy of timings - though its not teh same everyday..but thats how he divides his day to day activities.
Recently he stopped reading newspaper and was updating everyone on IPL 20/20 match scores. Now that the season is over... he again back to normal routine.
From India, Madras
No spyware all necessary - he is doing it cooly.
Now he is off to sleep. Just right in front of me. When the boss comes or he hears my Chairmans car..he closes all programs.
About accuracy of timings - though its not teh same everyday..but thats how he divides his day to day activities.
Recently he stopped reading newspaper and was updating everyone on IPL 20/20 match scores. Now that the season is over... he again back to normal routine.
From India, Madras
Asha, Please do send me the instrument that you are designing. Any new instrument that is created need to be tested for its validity and reliability. Simhan
From United Kingdom
From United Kingdom
Asha--reg the alcoholic employee: check out if your place has a branch of Alcoholics Anonymous. They specialise in the de-addiction activities-but as far as I know, this will need the family's support & the employer's too. Usually it's a long-drawn affair, but really worthwhile. But your company needs to decide if he is such a valuable resource to invest time & effort [& possibly money] in. If yes, try it out, or if no, dump him. I don't think anyone has a right to make others pay for their mistakes in life.
Reg the guy with the computer games passion, since he closes all the windows when the boss is around, use non-verbal signals/messages to alert the boss to watch when this guy is @ his pastime. That could put some fear into him...he will either change or go.
Now coming to our great Ravi--one can either hate him or love him, but he can't be ignored for sure:-).
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
Reg the guy with the computer games passion, since he closes all the windows when the boss is around, use non-verbal signals/messages to alert the boss to watch when this guy is @ his pastime. That could put some fear into him...he will either change or go.
Now coming to our great Ravi--one can either hate him or love him, but he can't be ignored for sure:-).
Rgds,
TS
From India, Hyderabad
HI Ash,
Mr. Nas.. is correct and wht you are thinking is also right.. Please share whatever instrument you are designing... also if you share your views for what you are planning may be we can give our inputs n it will help for us also to understand...
Now as far as playing games is concerned , many people and managers play at sharemarket during first half of office, inside their cabin. I dont know how is worksetting of this Biz Dev Manager.. Though its tough to stop him if he is a good performer but work ethics should be inplace so that it should not affect other staff, cant say its in ur knwoledge or other people can also see him alwaz doing this...
Alcohol is omething comes under code of conduct, which can be warned... As HR we should make our top management aware with ill effects of activities specially in case we are not part of decision makers,,,,in such if decision not taken atleast u will be cleared that u have informed n warned in advance with policies verbally as well as through mails..
From India, Mumbai
Mr. Nas.. is correct and wht you are thinking is also right.. Please share whatever instrument you are designing... also if you share your views for what you are planning may be we can give our inputs n it will help for us also to understand...
Now as far as playing games is concerned , many people and managers play at sharemarket during first half of office, inside their cabin. I dont know how is worksetting of this Biz Dev Manager.. Though its tough to stop him if he is a good performer but work ethics should be inplace so that it should not affect other staff, cant say its in ur knwoledge or other people can also see him alwaz doing this...
Alcohol is omething comes under code of conduct, which can be warned... As HR we should make our top management aware with ill effects of activities specially in case we are not part of decision makers,,,,in such if decision not taken atleast u will be cleared that u have informed n warned in advance with policies verbally as well as through mails..
From India, Mumbai
Dear Asha,
Coming drunk to the office is not a layman's issue. It is one of the primary issues faced by most of the industries (especially manufacturing firm).
This issue is not really an HR issue. But it comes under the subject of Industrial Relations.
You said you had counseled the employee but there are certain questions which has a catch over this.
This questions are pretty tough to design but for sample here is one of them:-
Why do you drink so often?
Now the answer might be very apparent like i am very tensed/there is too much of work load/i cannot think myself without drink/i feel lonely and so i drink to keep myself in company/
If we get answers like this can we imagine what the catch can be:- the catch here is he faces none of the above problem but he is over addictive.
On the basis of the expressions and the way an employee talks can be standardized with our analysis and inferences.
But as i mentioned previously this questionnaires are pretty tough to formulate.
I hope this might help you to develop a small questionnaire which might sort out the situation.
And one of the least headache solution is "FIRE HIM". If there are too many violations regarding the code of conduct of the organization, behavior and ethics.
From India, Madurai
Coming drunk to the office is not a layman's issue. It is one of the primary issues faced by most of the industries (especially manufacturing firm).
This issue is not really an HR issue. But it comes under the subject of Industrial Relations.
You said you had counseled the employee but there are certain questions which has a catch over this.
This questions are pretty tough to design but for sample here is one of them:-
Why do you drink so often?
Now the answer might be very apparent like i am very tensed/there is too much of work load/i cannot think myself without drink/i feel lonely and so i drink to keep myself in company/
If we get answers like this can we imagine what the catch can be:- the catch here is he faces none of the above problem but he is over addictive.
On the basis of the expressions and the way an employee talks can be standardized with our analysis and inferences.
But as i mentioned previously this questionnaires are pretty tough to formulate.
I hope this might help you to develop a small questionnaire which might sort out the situation.
And one of the least headache solution is "FIRE HIM". If there are too many violations regarding the code of conduct of the organization, behavior and ethics.
From India, Madurai
Dear Members,
pThank you so much for the guidance. I do know that coming uo with a TOOL to check if ones habit interferes with work is really - challenging.
These are the areas based on which I thought I could design:
First: If the person is "addicted" to the habit.
Second: If there were times when the individual was AWARE that the addiction is interfering, tried organizing themself, but failed to give it up.
These are a few lines on the basis of which I have initiated to prepare the instrument.
But also, I want the tool to check if the person is willing to change and completely aware that the addiction to the habit is distracting him from focusing on other core issues in life itself. Because,..only if the person has accepted that he/she has a problem..will they be willing to be counselled.
Will definitely share the instrument once its at least half done..so that I would know if I am on the right track.
Thanks a lot!
From India, Madras
pThank you so much for the guidance. I do know that coming uo with a TOOL to check if ones habit interferes with work is really - challenging.
These are the areas based on which I thought I could design:
First: If the person is "addicted" to the habit.
Second: If there were times when the individual was AWARE that the addiction is interfering, tried organizing themself, but failed to give it up.
These are a few lines on the basis of which I have initiated to prepare the instrument.
But also, I want the tool to check if the person is willing to change and completely aware that the addiction to the habit is distracting him from focusing on other core issues in life itself. Because,..only if the person has accepted that he/she has a problem..will they be willing to be counselled.
Will definitely share the instrument once its at least half done..so that I would know if I am on the right track.
Thanks a lot!
From India, Madras
Dear Asha,
All the best in your challenging project of designing the tool. However, if i might say so, and i might be wrong in saying this, it seems that you have already concluded that designing a tool would have a high probability of dealing with such cases.
It seems to me from your accounts that there are two distinct concerns for you:
a. what to do to take care of situations where an employee comes to exhibit dysfunctional behaviour
b. what to do to ensure that such people are filtered out at the recruitment stage itself.
It seems that analysing the problem as above may be important as however hard we try there might be some cases who come to exhibit dysfunctional behaviours eventually.
For point (a) an MBO based performance appraisal, with quarterly feedback system and enforcement on disciplinary norms should be critical. The role of reporting authority in confronting the employee should be critical as well. Often we need to equip the reporting authority to take care of such issues. In the cases mentioned by you, wonder what was role of the reporting authority. Assuming the desired role was played out, suggesting professional help to the employee (counseling, group therapy, alcoholics anonymous) should be easier.
For point (b) it seems to me that the tool you develop, in conjunction with other tools available, may be critical as they would give us clues. But the clues themselves may not be sufficient to prove or predict reliably whether the person would show dysfunctional behaviour or not. I have found that if we do a few case studies with the candidate based on the clues it may reveal critical details. Also, nothing like a robust system of back-ground check, based on the clues.
all the best in your efforts, again
From India, Mumbai
All the best in your challenging project of designing the tool. However, if i might say so, and i might be wrong in saying this, it seems that you have already concluded that designing a tool would have a high probability of dealing with such cases.
It seems to me from your accounts that there are two distinct concerns for you:
a. what to do to take care of situations where an employee comes to exhibit dysfunctional behaviour
b. what to do to ensure that such people are filtered out at the recruitment stage itself.
It seems that analysing the problem as above may be important as however hard we try there might be some cases who come to exhibit dysfunctional behaviours eventually.
For point (a) an MBO based performance appraisal, with quarterly feedback system and enforcement on disciplinary norms should be critical. The role of reporting authority in confronting the employee should be critical as well. Often we need to equip the reporting authority to take care of such issues. In the cases mentioned by you, wonder what was role of the reporting authority. Assuming the desired role was played out, suggesting professional help to the employee (counseling, group therapy, alcoholics anonymous) should be easier.
For point (b) it seems to me that the tool you develop, in conjunction with other tools available, may be critical as they would give us clues. But the clues themselves may not be sufficient to prove or predict reliably whether the person would show dysfunctional behaviour or not. I have found that if we do a few case studies with the candidate based on the clues it may reveal critical details. Also, nothing like a robust system of back-ground check, based on the clues.
all the best in your efforts, again
From India, Mumbai
Thanks a lot Surya! That really helped in my thinking process.
And Members, Have you heard of CIDs - Chronical In-Depth Interviews? I am reading this now. Trust me - I never knew that Recruitment was SUCH an exhaustive activity!
Its copyright protected, I would not have an online version to share.
The book is by Bradford D Smart, Top Grading - How leading companies win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People.
http://www.amazon.com/Topgrading-Lea...dp/0735200491#
From India, Madras
And Members, Have you heard of CIDs - Chronical In-Depth Interviews? I am reading this now. Trust me - I never knew that Recruitment was SUCH an exhaustive activity!
Its copyright protected, I would not have an online version to share.
The book is by Bradford D Smart, Top Grading - How leading companies win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People.
http://www.amazon.com/Topgrading-Lea...dp/0735200491#
From India, Madras
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