Lori Kleiman is an accomplished businessperson, entrepreneur and leader. In her most recent corporate role, Lori orchestrated a group of 18 HR consultants nationally. She brought cutting edge HR techniques to the group, and fostered a practical sense of HR to small businesses. Lori conducted over 30 seminars in 2015 to business people and HR professionals sharing best practices and new initiatives to bring to small businesses throughout the United States.
Mention performance review season and the entire organization groans. HR tends to spend an entire month pestering managers to finish forms, have meetings and get documents signed. Sometimes managers don’t see the value in performance reviews, and that is because they are left out of the performance management cycle the rest of the year.
Open office designs became popular to break the traditional barrier between management and employee. The idea of open space is to increase collaboration among work groups and allow for more flexible work environments. But have we gone too far?
Business literature is filled with all the reasons performance reviews just don’t work, but maybe part of the issue is that we aren’t addressing the real needs of the employees. Yes, they appreciate a positive comment from their manager. Employees do want an annual or semi-annual sit down to talk about your view of their performance and to set goals for the next year. They want to know where the company is going and how they fit into the big picture.
HR is continuing to make inroads in the leadership arena, but work is still needed. There is a renewed awareness that HR is a critical function of organizations. Boards are focusing on HR skills and holding CEOs accountable to be more aligned with their HR functions. CFOs have long been connected to HR, and that connection remains in 2016.
Last week I was doing anti-harassment training in an organization, and got the question I always hate – but hear every few years, “How do we talk to an employee with a body odor problem?” While it may seem odd on the surface, it comes up in organizations more than you might think. So common, in fact, that Inc.
