This Simple Change Can Turn You Into a Star Employee - The Muse

This Simple Change Can Turn You Into a Star Employee - The MuseThis Simple Change Can Turn You Into a Star Employee What if I told you tzu siches one simple- though admittedly not always easy- way to make yourself a better employee? What if I promised that this approach would impress your boss, your kollektiv, and anyone else you work with, and make you seem far more competent, experienced, and ready to take on more responsibility? And what if I added that you can probably use it at least once a week if not every single day? Well, here it is Whenever youre presenting someone with a question, a problem, or a sticky situation, have a suggested solution, too.My parents taught me never to show up empty-handed. When you go to a birthday party, you bring a gift or a card. When a friend invites you over for dinner, you arrive with a bottle of wine or dessert. Similarly, when you approach your boss with any kind of query, you should bring at least one potential way to handle whatever it is. Brainstorming solutions might not be as fun as picking out a silly card or baking cookies (and eating a few before you give them away), but itll earn you major credibility. In the most immediate sense, it reduces the burden youre putting on them to tackle the issue from scratch and do all the work themselves. And because bosses are typically busy people, saving them time and effort is basically like giving them a pile of chocolate. (Relevant While I was writing this article, my manager came back to her desk announcing that an hour and a halfs worth of meetings had just been canceled and I dare say she was beaming.)But wait, theres a metaphorical pile of chocolate in it for you too While youre making your bosss job easier, youll also be demonstrating that youre willing to put in the effort and able to take on bigger, more important tasks. Youll also be getting actual practice handling complicated scenarios- before you have the onus of being the last stimmt genau on them. In other wor ds, theres less pressure at this point in the game. Your answer doesnt have to be exactly right- the point is just to have one. Thats how youll learn. Wins for everyone. Its not always easy to figure out what that suggestion should be, but the idea is simple. And you can employ this reframing technique in team meetings, one-on-one check-ins with your manager, email threads about cross-functional projects, Slack discussions that come up spontaneously, and really in almost any situation. Okay, enough chatter. What does this actually look like, you ask? If youre forwarding an email with a proposal from Fran the freelancer Instead of What do you think of the proposal below from Fran the freelancer?Try I got the proposal below from Fran the freelancer. I think its a good fit for us because reasons, but Id like her to revise it slightly to account for additional factor. If we move forward I think we should offer rate. Looking forward to your thoughtsIf youre bringing up a client issue wit h your boss at a check-in meetingInstead of Client wasnt completely happy with the initial plan we submitted, particularly the timeline. Try Client wasnt completely happy with the initial plan we submitted, particularly the timeline. I think we could potentially move up the final deadline if we shorten the feedback process- both by moving more quickly from one round to the next and suggesting we skip right from the second round to final approvals. Wed have to make sure to get on the same page internally first in order to make this happen, so Im happy to draft an email or call a quick meeting with the stakeholders as a next step to see if we can all agree to the change before suggesting it to the client. If you work with a cross-functional team regularly and the process is inefficient and you go talk to your boss about itInstead of These projects always seem to drag on way longer than they should. I dont know what to do. Try I dont think the process for these projects is as efficient as it could be and it seems like one of the obstacles might be communication among the teams. So I was thinking we could try having weekly standups, even for just 15 minutes, so that everyone can update the group throughout the process and we can hash out any little hiccups on the spot. We could also start a Slack group so that we have a faster and easier way to share new information and get questions answered. What do you think? Ive been trying to infuse this new approach into everything I do at work. While it surely wasnt the only factor, Id swear on teddy bears and freshly baked bread that it helped earn me a recent promotion- it certainly didnt hurt And getting promoted has only made me more aware that I need to amp it up in terms of brainstorming answers and solutions, taking initiative, and figuring out what the questions are in the first place. Best of all for someone whos long struggled with confidence? It not only made my bosses believe I know what Im doing, but it made me start to believe it too.

Personnel Files Overview and Sample File Policy

Personnel Files Overview and Sample File PolicyPersonnel Files Overview and Sample File PolicyA personnel file is an employers saved documentation of the history and status of the entire employment relationship with an individual employee. The employer maintains this employment documentation in a personnel file for three reasons. The employer wants to haveaccurateinformation handy and organized when you need access to the information for any reason. Changes in emergency contacts, employee addresses, keeping track of performance evaluations, disciplinary letters, employee recognition, and employment application materials are examples of the kinds of information that the employer will want to be able to quickly access.The employer needs to retain documentation about personnel issues such as employee selection, performance, work history, compensation rationale, and internal vorrckenapplications, to name just a few.An EEOC claim, a lawsuitor even the need to justify the lack of araiseorp romotionto an employee require that the employer has collected and retained this type of employee documentation. Some employee records are required by federal or state governments for employers to keep. Organizing the employee information in a personnel file makes sense for access and legal compliance and readiness. Types of Personnel Files An employer generally maintains several types of personnel files, for business use, for employee confidentiality, for medical privacy, and for legal compliance. I am unaware of any law that says how many files an employer is required to keep. However, there are many laws, and there are personnel best practices for employee confidentiality, that govern thecontentof personnel files and who has access to that information. behauptung are the personnel files that most employers in the US maintain. (Worldwide laws and practices may differ.) Personnel FileThis is the main employee file that contains the history of the employment relationship. Payro ll File You want to maintain a separate file for all payroll issues regarding salary and benefits. Employee Medical File The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires employers to protect employee medical records as confidential. I-9 Employee FormsYou need to maintain a separate file for all employee (not per employee) I-9 forms since you dont want government employees, who are authorized to check these forms under a variety of circumstances, looking through your main, confidential employee personnel files. Employee Access to Personnel Files Employees are allowed access to their employee personnel files under the guidance and supervision of Human Resources staff. Employee personnel files are considered to be the property of the employer who has the responsibility to maintain and safeguard them. Sample Personnel File Policy Following is a sample personnel file policy for use in your company. It discusses the various files that are r ecommended and who should have access to each file. Sample Policy The Company maintains three employee files for each employee. A personnel file is maintained for each employee of (Your Company Name). These personnel files contain confidential documents and are managed and maintained by Human Resources staff. Access to this file is limited to HR staff and assumes that each employees manager maintains his or her own file with documents relevant to the employees work performance. Typical documents in a personnel file include the employment application, a family emergency contact form, documented disciplinary action history, a resume, employee handbook and at-will employer sign off sheets, current personal information, and job references. Not all personnel files contain the same documents but each personnel file has some documents that are the same. Payroll files are also maintained payroll files contain a history of the employees jobs, departments, compensation changes, and so on. Access to the payroll file is limited to the appropriate accounting and HR staff. An employee medical file is also maintained. The contents of the medical file are not available to anyone except Human Resources designated staff and the employee whose records are retained in the file. At Your Company Name), medical files receive the highest degree of safe storage and confidentiality. An employee may view his or her personnel file by contacting a Human Resources staff person during modell business hours. No employee may alter or remove any documentfrom his or her personnel file which must be viewed in the presence of an HR staff person. Also KnownAsemployee files, employee records, human resources files, documentation Disclaimer Please Note Susan Heathfield makes every effort to offer accurate, common-sense, ethical Human Resources management, employer, and workplace advice both on this website, and linked to from this website, but she is not an attorney, and the content on the site, while authoritative, is not guaranteed for accuracy and legality, and is not to be construed as legal advice. The site has a world-wide audience and employment laws and regulations vary from state to state and country to country, so the site cannot be definitive on all of them for your workplace. When in doubt, always seek legal counsel or assistance from State, Federal, or grenzberschreitend governmental resources, to make certain your legal interpretation and decisions are correct. The information on this site is for guidance, ideas, and assistance only.

Heres What Jeff Bezos, Oprah, Anthony Bourdain More Do to Win Big

Heres What Jeff Bezos, Oprah, Anthony Bourdain More Do to Win BigHeres What Jeff Bezos, Oprah, Anthony Bourdain More Do to Win Big Have you ever wondered why some people are successful and some arent? Sometimes it seems like its all you can do to get your day-to-day tasks done, let alone try to learn new and spectacular things you can do to be more successful. Well, weve got great news. You dont have to work way harder or be way luckier to achieve more success you just need to embrace some different ideas about how and why you work. Here are seven things successful people like Jeff Bezos, Oprah, Anthony Bourdain do that helps them achieve so much more success than otzu sichs and that you can do, too Technology and retail ti Jeff Bezos is rated among The Harvard Business Reviews best-performing business leaders in the world , but it didnt happen magically. The Amazon CEO credits his companys outrageous success to its distinctive ability to fail.I believe we are th e best place in the world to fail, writes Bezos in Amazons 2015 annual report . And failure and invention are inseparable twins.To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that its going to work, its not an experiment.In particular, Bezos mentions the two big swings and misses of Auctions and zShops that came out before Marketplace launched in the late 1990s. If hed stopped there and dwelled on the failures, he wouldnt have achieved the success he has today. Most people focus on Oprahs $3 billion net worth okay, who wouldnt focus on that? but theres something else you should be paying attention to if you want to win big like she does her ability to make tough decisions. Her 30+ year career has been fraught with tough decisions, no doubt, but heres a more recent example closing up the original Harpo studios in Chicago and relocating her entire operation to und dann los Angeles. Your Why may be different than Oprahs (she wanted to escape the monotonous, indoor day -to-day schedule she felt trapped by), but what matters is that you weigh the pros and cons and make the decision that makes sense even if its a tough one. Anthony Bourdain will eat anything a brave boast hes proven time and time again on his popular food show No Reservations. But youd think after all these years as a professional chef and food critic, hed fall prey to some of the stereotypes of an accomplished chef fancy restaurants, fancy food, and fancy tastes. Bourdain credits his success to a lesson he learned from his father My father taught me early that the value of a dish is the pleasure it brings you where you are sitting when you eat itand who you are eating it withare what really matter, wri tes Bourdain for Bon Appetit . Perhaps the most important life lesson he passed on was Dont be a snob. Its something I will always at least aspire tosomething that has allowed me to travel this world and eat all it has to offer without fear or prejudice. To experience joy, my fath er taught me, one has to leave oneself open to it.Arguably the greatest NBA player of all time , LeBron James is known for his incredible talent. But a recent GQ profile also highlighted his ability to blend in, effortlessly adjusting to different situations and different kinds of people in order to make a connection. Over the course of a couple of weeks, I was with him as he premiered a documentary with Drake at the Toronto Film Festival, addressed crme de la crme world leaders in Midtown Manhattan, walked in a fashion show in Hells Kitchen, and soldiered through a five-hour magazine photo shoot with ninja-military precision in L.A., writes Marc Anthony Green for GQ . I watched up close the ways he transformed expertly from audience to audience, modulating his clothes, and his voice, and his posture, and the way he used his hands and even the way he talked about the game hes galactically famous for.Ava DuVernay is the award-winning director behind Selma (2014), 13th (2016) and the highly anticipated A Wrinkle In Time . But did you know directing wasnt on her career path radar in the beginning? DuVernay started her career in PR, and she credits her 12 years as an entertainment publicist with teaching her important movie-making skills before she directed her masterworks today. For me as person who loves movies and thinks that theyre magic, to watch the magic happen, it was a demystifying of the idea that only certain people can do it, and that this was a world being created outside of my reach, DuVernay said of her time in PR for an NPR article . Im thankful for my life in publicity. I made a midlife change to another career, but I definitely know that the things I learned from being a publicist in the industry are helping me enjoy this moment now.Want to make a career change? Read this 3 Ways to Plot a New Career ChangeDeloitte US CEO Cathy Englebert is one of Fortunes most powerful women and one of the highest-ranked CEOs on Glassdoor . But her suc cess isnt something shes achieved alone in a vacuum. She has embraced the power of a network both in her business strategy for Deloitte forming strategic partnerships with big technology companies like Apple, Amazon, and Facebook and in her leadership strategy as a CEO Leadership is a set of choices, not a title or a box on an organizational chart, says Engelbert in an exclusive interview for Glassdoor . To me, its about relentlessly pursuing the best interest of our people, clients, and community. And its impossible to lead well unless you know whats on the minds of clients and professionals. So, I spend a lot of time in the in the field with clients and with our teams serving those clients.Job-hopping may make sense in the short-term , but its important to think long-term, too. Just consider that when Satya Nadella stepped into the role of CEO of Microsoft he had already been with the company for 22 years.Theres no question that Im an insider, Nadella says in an interview wit h Fast Company . And Im proud of it Im a product of Microsoft.Being a product of Microsoft might have made him an unlikely candidate for CEO, but with more than two decades of experience in the company, he was able to jump into the job with a deep knowledge of the specific and relevant changes that needed to be made.If you want to be more successful in your career, consider which of these habits and attitudes you can adopt from the successful people who have gone before you