• Kimberly Prescott
  • Blog
  • November 28, 2022

How to Show Workplace Gratitude for the Holidays

The holiday season is upon us! This time of year is a great excuse to show your employees how much they mean to your organization. Before you set out to show your team the appreciation they deserve, take a moment to read through these helpful tips from the experts at Prescott HR!

 

Send a Company Card

Your organization likely already sends a holiday card to your team members. Take this year’s card a step further and include a handwritten note of appreciation for each team member. Be sure to make it authentic and personal, so your team member feels valued when reading it. 

 

Surprise Your Team with Time Off

If your organization can handle the paid time off, a meaningful gesture of appreciation is to give your team an unexpected day off. The holidays are a busy time as employees juggle work, shopping for gifts, prepping for social events, and more. Why not show your gratitude for their hard work by rewarding them with a day off to catch up on personal tasks? 

 

Host an Office Get Together

As the holiday gets closer, consider celebrating together as a team. This could be an office party, team lunch, or employee outing that brings everyone together. One important tip: be sure that you are recognizing all holidays in December, not just Christmas. 

 

Look for Meaningful Gifts

When you are selecting a gift for your team, we recommend avoiding a branded corporate item. Instead, gift your team members with something they will actually want or that has a deeper meaning. One example is to make a monetary contribution to an organization that matters to your team, like a local charity. You could also present them with a gift card to a local coffee or smoothie shop near the office that employees can use in the New Year. 

 

Give Back Together

Along those lines, a great way to show appreciation for your team is to come together and work toward a goal that benefits your community as a whole. Consider giving your team the day off to volunteer as a group at a community charity. This could mean shopping for a local toy drive or packaging food for a free community food drive. 

 

Host a Gift Exchange

A great way to celebrate the holidays is to host an employee gift exchange. Set a spending limit and allow your team to participate in exchanging fun or silly gifts with one another. This is a great way to boost team morale. Just make sure you do not make the gift exchange a requirement for all employees to participate – it should always be optional. 

 

Work with Prescott HR

Does your organization need help to show workplace gratitude this holiday season? We are here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization evaluate your current policies and incorporate new ones, as needed. Our unintimated HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with precisely what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.

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  • Kimberly Prescott
  • Blog
  • November 21, 2022

What is a Federal EEO Investigation?

Has your organization ever experienced a federal EEO investigation? Whether you’ve dealt with one in the past or you’re just receiving a notice, a federal EEO investigation is a serious matter to navigate. Don’t go forward with it alone! Read through what a typical federal EEO investigation entails and how to best handle the situation from the team at Prescott HR.

 

What is Federal EEO?

Federal EEO, or Equal Employment Opportunity, are laws that prohibit specific types of job discrimination in certain workplaces. Federal EEO laws are overseen and enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor. It is the EEO office that ensures certain businesses are complying with the laws, regulations, policies, and guidance that helps prevent discrimination in the workplace. Federal EEO ensures that federal employees or job applicants are not discriminated against based on their race, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, or other factors. 

 

What is a Federal EEO investigation?

If you’ve received a notice in the mail that an EEO complaint has been filed against your organization, here is what you can generally expect from the process. An investigator will be assigned to your case to collect relevant information and documents. This investigator will compile all relevant information into a report, which will serve as evidence in your case. It’s important to understand that the investigator on your case is a neutral party who will not make any decisions about your case: they are simply there to gather the necessary information and collect evidence. 

 

What Happens Next?

After the investigator collects all relevant information, your organization will be interviewed in person or asked to provide a written list of answers to questions. The investigation could include some back-and-forth communication with the employee or applicant who filed the EEO complaint. EEO complaints must have a completed investigation within 180 days of initial filing, however, extensions are granted on a case-by-case basis. 

 

Are You Required to Participate?

The answer is yes, your organization cannot fail to participate in a federal EEO investigation. Your organization will be required to respond to all communications and provide the necessary documentation to the agency and investigator. After the investigation is completed, your organization will receive a summary of the investigation including all statements, affidavits, and relevant documents. 

 

How Does EEO Work in Maryland?

In the state of Maryland, the Office of the Statewide Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator works to administer and enforce all federal EEO laws and policies. They promote work environments throughout our state that are free of unlawful discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. 

 

Work with Prescott HR

Does your organization need help to navigate an upcoming federal EEO investigation? We are here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization deal with this kind of investigation. Our unintimated HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with precisely what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.

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  • Kimberly Prescott
  • Blog
  • November 14, 2022

Get the Right People in the Right Seats

Every successful human resources manager understands how important it is to get the right people in the right seats. An organization is most likely fighting an uphill battle when they fail to prioritize this important concept. If you are starting a new business or looking to improve on your current one, keep reading for some helpful tips from the experts at Prescott HR.

What Does “Right People in the Right Seat” Mean?

There is a metaphor from Jim Collins’ 2001 bestselling book “Good to Great” that guides leaders on how to help their organization excel. Part of Collins’ theory is that an organization has to set the right direction by getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. It’s just as important to assemble a team that works well in their different roles as it is to let go of individuals who are “weighing down” the rest of the group.

 

Take Inventory of Your Current Team

Whether you are a startup or an established company, you should begin by taking inventory of your current team members. Ask questions about each of your team members individually: what are their strengths or areas for improvement? Are they being challenged in their role or are they just working day-to-day without a bigger goal in mind? Sometimes it may be necessary to place an employee in a new position or department if their skills are not being utilized as well as they could be. 

 

Be Willing to Delegate

As a business owner or manager, you cannot get bogged down on the day-to-day mundane tasks of office life. That’s where hiring the right people for the right positions will help improve overall company function. A successful leader knows how to delegate tasks to those who can perform them best, so be ready and willing to release some responsibility as your team grows.

 

Set Clear Expectations

As you are hiring a new candidate to fill a role within your company, it’s important to clearly communicate what is expected of them. When leaders lack clarity around their overall vision and purpose for a company, it leaves employees frustrated and unwilling to stick around. When recruiting more employees, be sure to clearly outline what is expected from each person in their new role.

 

Determine a Candidate’s Core Values

When interviewing a potential new recruit, you want to get a clear understanding of what their core values are as an employee. Finding the right employees for the right seats starts with hiring the types of individuals who align with your company’s core values. 

 

Work with Prescott HR

Does your organization need help recruiting new talent? We are here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization evaluate your current policies and incorporate new ones, as needed. Our unintimated HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with precisely what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.

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  • Kimberly Prescott
  • Blog
  • November 7, 2022

How to Handle Employee Terminations

Letting go of an employee is one of the most difficult parts of an organization’s human resources team. It’s a sensitive event that can go awry when not handled in the proper way. If you have an upcoming termination to deal with, read through these helpful tips from Prescott HR before approaching your employee. 

 

Come Prepared

One of the worst ways to handle a termination is to come unprepared to your meeting. Before you even set a time to sit down with your employee, you and your executive team should gather documentation for why you are letting your employee go. Sit down with the employee’s personnel file and compile a list of reasons for the termination. You want to make sure that you are thinking through the termination in an unbiased way to avoid employment discrimination in your decision-making process. That’s where having documentation to back up your decision can help.

 

Don’t Catch Them Off Guard

In a sensitive situation like a termination, you want to show respect for your employee by not catching them off guard. Before you let an employee go, there should be procedures in place to warn the employee of potential termination. Make sure that your team has tried to effectively communicate any issues to the employee before termination in order to give them a chance to correct their output. If the employee continues to underperform after several warning meetings, then they should not be surprised or caught off guard during their termination meeting.

 

Be Direct

If preventative measures have unfortunately not worked with an employee, then it’s time to let them go for the good of your organization. In these circumstances, you have to be clear, concise, and direct. There should be no room for drama or lingering questions. When you sit your employee down, give them a brief and direct communication that they are being let go and the decision is final.

Always Be Empathetic

Keep in mind that termination is a very difficult topic and the employee you are letting go is a human being. Always practice empathy and respect, even in the event of a difficult termination. How you handle a termination will also reflect on your other team members’ willingness to stay on board at your organization. If not handled properly, this can put a sour taste in the mouths of other team members. 

 

Don’t Skip Offboarding

Even in heightened emotional states, it’s important to not skip out on offboarding practices. After you make the announcement that you are letting an employee go, be sure to collect all necessary company property and remove employee access to company assets. 

 

Work with Prescott HR

Does your organization need help to handle a team member’s termination? We are here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization evaluate your team’s current skills, plus offer ways to improve. Our stringent HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with precisely what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.

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