HR Mastery

Best practices for hiring, managing, and developing employees

How can you attract, retain, and manage employees without understanding the responsibilities of the position? Job analysis, job descriptions, and job evaluations form the foundation of many HR practices, including compensation decisions, training and development, performance management, and creating reasonable accommodation controls. In addition, they are used as a tool for recruiting and providing a solid foundation for legal compliance.

This skill-building session gives you the chance to:

• Understand the components of a job analysis
• Discuss the do’s and don’ts of job descriptions
• Write clearly defined job responsibilities
• Utilize job descriptions to evaluate positions for internal and external equity

Creative strategies for building a strong and diverse workforce

A pandemic, worker shortages, wage wars and a host of other factors have complicated the process of attracting and retaining talent. This course provides a up-to-the-minute review of what your competitors are doing, national trends, innovative approaches and innovations in recruitment. We’ll look at how HR should manage the process and investigate how talent acquisition isn’t an event or just a process but a strategic approach to keeping your organization fully staffed and growing.

In this knowledge building session, you’ll get the chance to:

• Engage in workforce planning to move talent acquisition from an event to a strategic process
• Describe the latest sourcing vehicles and trends in acquisition and retention
• Identify changes to your interviewing process and content to maximize effectiveness

Develop and engage valuable employees

Build a strong practice of continuous feedback as part of an effective performance management process. You will discover learning opportunities to strengthen employee development. When done well, this feedback loop provides a positive, constructive, and nimble approach to team reviews. Bottom line? When employees feel valued and supported, engagement and commitment to your organization increase long term.

By the end of this session, you’ll be able to:

• Understand how performance reviews impact engagement
• Analyze and apply principles of feedback
• Design tailored review strategies for engagement enhancement

Simplifying the process of setting goals, providing feedback, and evaluating employee performance

Managers despise them, employees dread them, and HR is left to make it happen! If that describes your organization’s performance appraisal system, this course is for you! We’ll look at: how you can overcome the reluctance of all involved, how a systematic approach to appraisals can work for your organization, and how HR can ensure consistency and quality in appraisals. We’ll explore how the formal appraisal is simply a culmination of a communications process that keeps employees informed of their status, expectations and consequences.

This knowledge building session gives you the chance to:

• Recall the common types of performance appraisals
• Describe the four parts of a traditional performance appraisal
• Analyze the common pitfalls associated with an organization’s approach to appraisals that cause stress

Guidance on handling employee performance issues

Telling an employee that they are failing on the job is something most leaders dread. Telling them they’ve lost their job is worse. This session focuses on what happens when improvement doesn’t materialize after coaching. You’ll learn why these conversations are so difficult and how our own values and the organization’s culture and discipline policy influences our decision-making. We’ll review conflict and communications basics and provide ground rules for these difficult discussions. You’ll practice in real world situations to build your skills.

This skill-building session gives you the chance to:

• State communication and conflict basics to prepare for difficult discussions
• Recognize why these discussions are so difficult for both the leader and employee
• Illustrate risk management by applying applicable laws to scenarios
• Prepare for those worst-case scenario conversations