Help Your Employees Help Your Community
Tips for Professional Development through Community Service
Beyond basic skills and industry training, ongoing professional development is important for employees across the board – for all ages and positions. But when you operate a small business, the challenges of providing professional development to your staff are no small issue. First, there’s the monetary investment many professional development programs come with. Then, there’s the issue of time. It’s often difficult for small businesses to afford having employees out of the office for an extended period of time to attend professional development events.
But there’s a solution that many employers are embracing. In fact, the October edition of HR Magazine reported that some companies have turned to businesses that facilitate employee training and professional development by working with local community service organizations. But, small businesses can benefit from this type of program, too, even if they can’t pay for the service. Here are five guidelines to create a professional development program that can impact your community while helping your employees advance professionally.
1 – Set expectations. Businesses that contract an outside company to monitor community service programs are paying partially for help creating guidelines and expectations for employee participation. But, you can do this yourself with a little preparation. Consider the following: What are your company’s overall goals for the program? What timeline do you want employees to commit to – a special project or an ongoing one? How much time will you allow your employees to volunteer on the clock each month? What outcomes do you want from the program? Who can participate in it?
2 – Find the right organization. Finding an organization that aligns with your company’s values, inspires your employees, and is looking for the time investment you have allotted is critical in establishing a successful volunteer program. Luckily, there are several resources you can use to find local and national organizations looking for help. There are several websites you can use, such as volunteermatch.org, commonimpact.org, and thecommon.org. Also, consider contacting a local organization that facilitates company volunteer efforts. Then, select your top three organizations and spend time talking to people within each organization to make sure you can accomplish your vision. If that doesn’t make the decision for you, give your employees a vote on the matter to make sure they’re engaged in the process.
3 – Select positions. Not every type of volunteer work is created equally, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t leadership merits in different opportunities. Examine the leadership and professional development merits of different positions, and help employees select opportunities that are related to their passion and will help them advance their professional goals. For example, an aspiring event marketer may find that volunteering to help plan a fundraiser equips them with knowledge and experience to break into a desired position in your organization.
4 – Communicate regularly. Even though employees may be spending time outside the walls of your organization, it’s important to help them understand how their experience can help them in their career. So, ask them to set a time for regular feedback with you to talk about challenges, experiences, and questions that may arise during their community service project. Help them develop their leadership potential during this conversation by asking them to set the agenda. Then, let them share with you what they are learning, offer troubleshooting or help, and discuss outcomes.
5 – Set a time to review the project. To ensure your program is achieving its goals, make sure to select a time to review the outcomes. A few months after you begin the program, conduct an informal overview of the success you’ve achieved and any improvements you need to make. If you’ve chosen a short-term project for your employees to participate in, examine whether or not you’d like to continue the program. Perhaps it’s something you’d like to offer throughout the year, or maybe it’s something you’d like to offer in short spurts worked around your peak times.
Training and development are critical benefit offerings in today’s workforce. Small businesses can avoid some of the challenges of offering professional development opportunities by encouraging employees to participate in voluntary, company-sponsored community service projects. Not only will your workforce become better equipped, everyone will benefit from contributing to a common mission of goodwill.
The Need for Leadership at Every Level
Book Review: Tribes by Seth Godin
Marketing guru Seth Godin recently released what may be the must-read business book of the holiday season. It’s a little book called Tribes, and it’s about a topic common to the business world: leadership. But this isn’t just any book about leadership. Subtitled We Need You to Lead Us, it’s an inspirational, pithy look at the expanded opportunity to lead in today’s world. Here are a few of the powerful ideas about leadership Godin shares:
• People want to belong to tribes. In today’s world, there are many tribes. Tribes are simply groups of people who share a common interest. And since most people have many interests, they want to belong to many tribes. So there are more tribes emerging than ever before, because tribes help create meaning in people’s lives.
• Every tribe needs a leader. Just like every leader needs a tribe. This presents enormous opportunity to people, because everyone has an opportunity to be a leader. The question isn’t can you lead, but it’s will you choose to?
• Leadership isn’t about the size of your group. That’s why great leaders don’t try to lead or please everyone. Instead, they realize that one small but highly motivated group organized around a single idea, mission, or vision is powerful.
• Leadership isn't about self-promotion. In today’s environment, it’s easy to believe that leaders are self-driven superstars who are only focused on their own image. Godin says that this is almost never the case. Rather, he says: “Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek to get.” What’s more, as opportunities to lead increase, those successfully stepping up to the plate are, according to Godin, “doing it because of what they can do for the tribe, not because of what the tribe can do for them.”
• Leadership can come from any level. Godin cites examples of leadership that happen at all levels of an organization. When people take initiative and lead regardless of their given title or position, amazing things can happen. Problems get solved. Products become more innovative. Processes improve. Godin is careful to point out that this is not about things happening “from the bottom up.” Instead, it’s about everyone within an organization realizing they have the opportunity to lead where they are right now. True leadership happens where leaders happen to be – even if that’s not at the top.
• Great leadership is proactive. It’s easy to react. Almost as easy as it is to respond. But the hardest thing, Godin says, is to initiate. “Initiating is really and truly difficult, and that’s what leaders do. They see something others are ignoring and they jump on it. They cause the events that others have to react to. They make change.”
• Not everyone has to take the lead. Sometimes, what you need to do is follow. It’s not always the right time, or the right idea, or the right situation for you to lead. So if you’re not passionate about an idea, or not sure where to take it, or can’t overcome the fear, don’t lead. Godin says: “that sort of leading is worse than none at all.”
With his characteristic blend of insight, metaphor, passion, irreverence, and motivation, Godin has created a book that with only mere weeks on the bookshelf is already widely acclaimed and topping best-seller lists. Former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley says the book is a must read: “It’s up to each one of us to lead in today’s new kind of world.”
Marked by concise, aphoristic passages, Tribes is a quick, inspirational read appropriate for anyone in an organization, from entry-level to CEO, who is ready to be challenged, motivated, and inspired to lead.
Managing Electronic Data
Data Retention in a Digital World
In today’s society, companies are increasingly going paperless in an effort to go green. With so much business being done electronically, digital information retention and protection has evolved beyond the responsibility of IT departments. With state and federal electronic data laws growing by leaps and bounds, sexual harassment, corruption, safety, and heath concerns are no longer the biggest compliance issues companies face today. According to the 2008 Ethics and Compliance Risk Management Practices Report by LRN, companies rank electronic data protection and data privacy as their top two perceived risks.
What Data is Kept Onsite?
According to the March 2003 Computer Technology Review, 93% of all business documents are created electronically and of that, only 30% of files are converted to paper form – including human resource documents. Although retaining employee records and other employment related files has shifted from paper to digital, the same protection and retention regulation applies.
Create an Electronic Information Policy.
To stay in compliance with the stringent regulations, it takes a joint effort from the IT department, legal counsel, and decision makers within a company to draft an electronic information policy. A survey by the consulting firm Cohasset Associates shows that 87% of companies had record retention policies. But of the organizations that had policies, only 65% incorporated electronic data guidelines. The lack of integrating a policy for electronic retention leaves businesses more vulnerable to the possibility of litigation.
What Information Needs to be Retained?
As of 2007, there are as many as 14,000 federal and state laws pertaining to information retention. In 2004, that number of regulations was just around 2,000, according to the consulting firm, Sensei Enterprises, Inc. With so many regulations, it’s hard for employers to keep up-to-date with the latest ones. The Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to retain a log of occupational injuries and illnesses for at least five years after the end of the worker’s employment. Companies must also keep complete compensation documents for three years after the end of the employment contract. In terms of state laws, 47 states have passed their own electronic data regulations. For a detailed list of federal regulations, review the Federal Record Retention Requirements for Employers provided by the Society for Human Resource Management.
According to the 2008 Ethics and Compliance Risk Management Practices Report by LRN, 60% of companies lack the resources to craft policies and properly train employees on data issues. But they also can’t afford to disregard regulations. The Express Employment Professionals HR Hotline is a viable option. For help creating an electronic information policy, contact your local Express office to subscribe to the HR Hotline.
Exchange is a publication of Express Services, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2008.