Add You - Business

Beginning a Six Sigma Initiative
You cannot have a project-specific vision when beginning a Six Sigma initiative. It is essential that you develop a perspective with a comprehensive and an all-encompassing viewpoint that reaches out of the scope of the project on hand.Begin the Project Selection with the Right InitiativeSelect the project for Six Sigma implementation after weighing priorities. This does not mean that you should dive at the most pressing problem first without looking at constraints. Here is a brief guideline for project selection as initiation of Six Sigma.1. Not all projects incur or help save same amounts of money. This infers that apart from monetary considerations, you should look at weighted aspects such as simplifying draconian procedures, improvement of employee satisfaction and the potential to produce an outstanding and exemplary result that instigates further improvement projects.2. Decision a

e a place people enjoy coming to every day without fear of harassment or intimidation.

The organisation has not had to replace the previous supervisor as the workload has easily been absorbed by the current employees now they are empowered and not harassed.

Cost

Cheryl spent 5 days solid time investigating and dealing with the harassment complaints.

The direct cost’s to the organisation was $12,000 in employee entitlements and the Mediators fees. Indirect costs amounted to the same and what about the loss in productivity, absenteeism and workplace counselling that followed?

Several staff had been traumatised which effected productivity and put at risk government funding that was an important component of the organisations’ revenue.

As this harassment had gone unreported for 2 years the personal cost to several staff had been high and this explained the high staff turnover in that period.

Summary

Do not ignore workplace harassment and think it will go away – it rarely does. Deal with it immediately or the cost to your organisation and employees will be high both in personal, productivity and possible legal penalties and claims.

You can effectively manage workplace harassment by adopting some of the following procedures

Introduce a workplace specific harassment

6 Rules for Better Meetings
Your sitting at your desk, up to your arm pits in work, when suddenly the screen on your monitor flickers and comes to life. You hear a faint beep, and there it is! Someone’s scheduled you to attend another meeting. Not another one! They’ve got you going to so many meetings there’s no time to do the work you’re expected to do.Ever calculate what an expensive waste of time most meetings can be? They almost always start late. And regardless of how late they start, someone always arrives later yet, so there’s that interruption to contend with. Then there’s the obligatory nonsense of first catching up on what everyone’s done since the last time you were together.The next time you’re in a meeting with more than three people, start calculating the true cost of that gathering. For openers, think about how much each person there earns per hour. Add up those numbers, then multiply the total by 133 pe

Where there is people there is politics! Bullying is now a major workplace issue that has invaded our not for profit organisations. Take the following example.

Cheryl was the General Manager of a Not for Profit organisation in a major Australian City providing specialist supervision for young adults. She had recently received complaints of intimidation and harassment against a supervisor by an employee.

Imagine her surprise when within a week she received 3 more complaints from 3 other employees. All complaints appeared to hinge around the same behaviours.

The common thread appeared to be that the supervisor had publicly humiliated staff in front of other staff, scolded them for not doing expected work when they were not told about it, lectured them on nit picking incidences and often disappeared from the workplace for long periods of time leaving the other employees to carry the load.

This had been occurring for several years but had now come to a head.

What is Workplace Harassment?

In Queensland, Australia, the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 employers have an obligation to ensure the health and safety of all workers by managing risks at the workplace.

1. A person is subjected to “workplace harassment” if the person is subjected to repeated behaviour, by a person, including the person’s employer or a co-worker or group of co-workers of the person that- is unwelcome and unsolicited; and the person considers to be offensive, intimidating, humiliating or threatening; and a reasonable person would consider to be offensive, humiliating, intimidating or threatening.

Abusing the person/s loudly, usually when others are present;

Repeated threats of dismissal or other severe punishment for no reason;

Constant ridicule and being put down;

Leaving offensive messages on email or the telephone;

Sabotaging the person’s work for example by deliberately withholding or supplying incorrect information; hiding documents or equipment;

not passing on messages; and in other ways, getting the worker into trouble;

Maliciously excluding and isolating the person/s from workplace activities;

Persistent and unjustified criticisms, usually of the nit-picking variety;

Humiliating the person/s through sarcasm, criticism and insults, often in front of customers, management or other workers;

Spreading gossip or false, malicious rumours about the person/s with an intent to cause them harm;

Singling out and treating person/s differently from others, without good reason

Effects of Workplace Harassment on the Employees and the Business

Workplace harassment has detrimental effects on workers and the workplace.

Workers who are harassed can become:

distressed, anxious, withdrawn and depressed
physically ill, sleep deprived
aggressive, vengeful
less self-confident and develop low self-esteem.

Workplace harassment may result in:

loss of trained and talented workers;
loss of profits;
reduced productivity and morale;
an unsafe working environment; and
legal costs for a workplace.

Taking the ‘Bully’ by the Horns

Cheryl was in the middle of an important change management rollout when she received these complaints and recently the board had requested an updated strategic plan. Life was hectic for this Manager, Wife and Mother.

However, Cheryl was concerned about Bobs’ behaviours and consulted her organisation’s policy and procedures to see what she should do.

There was nothing specific on workplace harassment but there was a grievance policy, which Cheryl put into action immediately.

She personally interviewed all complainants and took notes followed up by external advice.

She spoke with Bob about her concerns and the complaints she had received and after several hours discussion had obtained agreement to contract a professional mediator to facilitate the grievances and hopefully reach a positive outcome for all parties.

The day of the mediation’s arrived. Seven hours later the 3 mediation’s were completed. Bob refused to acknowledge that his behaviours were inappropriate although he did concede that he was beginning to see his behaviours might have had some effect on his staff.

The following day Cheryl requested that Bob meet with her and discuss his behaviours privately. She had discovered that two of the employees had visited their Doctors the day before and were recommended taking anti-depressants and stress leave.

Bob arrived at his meeting. Cheryl placed before him incident after incident that had come to light explaining that there was a pattern in all these behaviours.

Bob refuted each incident believing that he had done nothing wrong.

After 7 hours of interactive discussion Cheryl asked Bob to leave the room and return in ? an hour when she would let Bob know her decision.

Bob returned and Cheryl informed him that she considered his behaviour serious and that his employment was to be forthwith terminated for workplace harassment.

Time Passed

Within 2 weeks of Bob’s departure the workplace settled down, the 2 employees did not take stress leave or anti-depressants. Some months have now passed and the workplace continues to be a place people enjoy coming to every day without fear of harassment or intimidation.

The organisation has not had to replace the previous supervisor as the workload has easily been absorbed by the current employees now they are empowered and not harassed.

Cost

Cheryl spent 5 days solid time investigating and dealing with the harassment complaints.

Several staff had been traumatised which effected productivity and put at risk government funding that was an important component of the organisations’ revenue.

As this harassment had gone unreported for 2 years the personal cost to several staff had been high and this explained the high staff turnover in that period.

Summary

You can effectively manage workplace harassment by adopting some of the following procedures

Introduce a workplace specific harassment

Buying Cheap Office Equipment Online
Whether one is setting up a new small office/ home office (SOHO) or expanding an existing office, buying the right office equipment at the right price is an important consideration, simply because it has a huge bearing on direct cost, convenience and productivity. Importantly enough, this applies to relatively large-ticket items such as computers, printers, copiers as to lower-priced items such as paper-punches, staplers or other stationery items that are indispensable in an office. Therefore, proper introspection, planning and prioritisation of individual needs are important to determine the type of office equipment that would be required.Shopping for office equipment online has increasingly become a preferred option for small businesses and large businesses alike. One of the biggest advantages of buying office goods online is the availability of choice: the number of websites selling office products onlin

uding the person’s employer or a co-worker or group of co-workers of the person that- is unwelcome and unsolicited; and the person considers to be offensive, intimidating, humiliating or threatening; and a reasonable person would consider to be offensive, humiliating, intimidating or threatening.