FM Oct 04 PDF - Orlando Chamber of Commerce

Identity
Theft
Organizations take
measures to protect
employees.
From the Society for Human Resource
Management
The Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) recently
conducted an online survey that
measures organizations efforts to
guard employees against identity
theft. Fifty-four percent of the human
resource (HR) professionals surveyed
say they have a written privacy policy
safeguarding employee data.
The online survey found that
companies are limiting the use of social
security numbers on time sheets,
computer log-ins and forms.
HR professionals were asked, “What
measures is your organization taking to
protect employee information and guard
employees against identity theft? (Please
select all that apply)” Forty-nine percent
of the HR professionals say background
checks are performed on employees
who will have access to employee files.
Other responses included the
following:
■ 95 percent say they lock up employee
files and limit access to them.
■ 54 percent say their organization has
a written privacy policy safeguarding
employee data.
■ 49 percent say they conduct
background checks on employees
who have access to employee files.
■ 24 percent say they educate
employees on fraud prevention.
■ 21 percent say their organization
has a company policy on what
to do in the event employee
information is compromised.
■ 2 percent say their organization
contracts with an outside firm
that helps employees who are
victims of identity theft.
The online Identity Survey
responses consisted of 419 randomly
selected HR professionals.
For more, visit SHRM online at
www.shrm.org.
The Human Relations Doctor
Dr. Mimi Hull is a fully licensed corporate psychologist
whose Chamber Member firm, Hull & Associates, specializes
in Human Relations assessment, training, consulting
and facilitation. Below are some questions posed to Dr.
Hull by people in the local business community.
Dear Dr. Mimi,
I recently heard bits and pieces
of a conversation on behavioral
interviewing. I was wondering if you
could give me more insight into this
topic and if you think that learning
the technique is worthwhile.
Dear Just,
— Just Wondering
We often train our clients to do
behavioral interviewing as it focuses
on examples of past behavior that
can be useful to help predict future
actions and attitudes. The benefit of
using this method is that you’re able
to get the person to tell you more
about specific experiences and
anything they may have learned from
those experiences.
In a traditional interview, by
simply asking if they like to work hard,
you may only get a yes or no answer.
This interviewing method will give
you more information to go on when
deciding if the person is right for your
particular job.
Here are a couple of samples of
some traditional interview questions
and the behavioral interviewing
questions developed from these:
■ Traditional —
Do you like to work hard?
Behavioral —
Tell me about a time in which you
had to be persistent in order to
reach one of your goals.
■ Traditional —
Are you good at making decisions?
Behavioral —
Describe a situation in which you had
to draw a conclusion quickly and take
immediate action.
Not all questions in an interview
need to be behavioral. Tailor your
questions to get the information
that you need to determine if the
candidate is right for your particular
position.
Dear Dr. Mimi,
I have an employee who I am
certain has brilliant ideas, but she is
very shy and introverted. We are
about to have an important strategic
planning session, and I would love to
have her express her ideas, but I fear
that she won’t say a word. How can
I coax her to speak up?
Dear Extrovert,
— Extrovert
Let me explain the difference
between introverts, extroverts and shy
people. Introverts do not fear social
situations, but prefer solitary activities.
Extroverts love social situations and
speak up freely. People who are shy
are not introverts. They would like to
socialize but are often restrained by
inner fears. Perhaps your employee is
afraid of what others will think of her
ideas, so she is hesitant to express herself.
You may want to talk with her
ahead of time to learn if she is truly
shy or simply an introvert.
Below are some tips to help her
feel more at ease:
■ Build a safe climate — If she is
indeed shy, do not allow anyone to
criticize ideas or tease within the
strategic planning setting. What may
seem like benign teasing can be a
thought stopper.
■ Use an outside facilitator — One of
the best ways to build a safe environment
is to use an outside facilitator.
The outside facilitator is invaluable
both before and throughout the
strategic planning session. We’ve
often found that people are reluctant
to share ideas with their boss
especially if their boss is doing the
facilitating. As a neutral facilitator
we conduct interviews, focus groups
and/or surveys prior to meetings and
learn many things that employees
would never tell their boss.
■ Create an equal-opportunity
environment — If meetings are
dominated by extroverts shouting out
ideas, this intimidates shy people. You
may want to institute a rule that no
one speaks twice until everyone has
an opportunity to speak at least once.
■ Permit silent participation —
People process information differently,
and while they may not speak up
they are still participating by listening.
■ Use alternative methods — Give
everyone an alternative way to submit
their ideas before, during or after the
meeting. This can be in writing or
electronic form. You may want to
allow people to make anonymous
recommendations.
■ Announce when brainstorming
is just about over — Quiet thinkers
will often wait to contribute their
ideas until brainstorming is just
about over instead of participating
in an ongoing discussion.
■ Give positive reinforcement — Shy
people are very critical of themselves
and their mistakes. When they give an
idea, be sure to encourage it and ask
others to build on it.
■ Allow small-group collaboration
— People who are shy often do not
open up to everyone. Break the larger
group into pairs or triad and have the
small groups share and then report
out their ideas.
If you’re having a problem with a
personality dispute, or a hard-to-handle
group, or just want to get your
employees to work better together, you
can either phone or e-mail Dr. Hull at
407-628-0669 or mimi@hullonline.com.
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