 Welcome to Effective HR Administration. My name is Koji Makai, and I'm going to be serving as your instructor. You're going to see quite a bit of me, so let me tell you a little bit about who I am, what motivates me, and what drives me. I'm extremely excited with the opportunity that you've given me to spend some time teaching you the concepts of Effective HR Administration. We're going to talk about leadership and so many other concepts, and these are areas that I am passionate about. But let me tell you where those passions come from. Before I mention anything else, let me tell you what my educational background is. I have a bachelor's degree in speech communication and psychology, and I got this from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. I got my master's degree from Jones International University in Colorado, and my specialization there is leadership and influence. The main course itself was in business communication, but I specialized specifically in leadership and influence because I wanted to get an understanding of what drives people when it comes to leadership. How do we get people functioning better and doing better in everything that they do? My doctoral degree is actually in applied management and decision sciences, and my specialization there was leadership and organizational change. I've always been interested in how people handle change, but ultimately, what kinds of leaders do we need during periods of change? My dissertation itself was actually on culture. I wanted to understand the role that culture plays in how people prefer certain types of leaders. Ultimately, what I wanted to do was to discover the kinds of leader that I wanted to be, but also be able to exemplify that with the people that I worked with. Now, how do I do my work every day? I'm a human performance improvement specialist. I go into companies and I spend time with them looking at their HR functions, their sales functions, and many other functions, trying to find gaps in performance and doing my very best to help people succeed. Ultimately, what I want to do is to ensure that this world is a whole lot better than I found it, and so I focus primarily on individuals and people themselves. See, different parts of what we do in our consulting practice involve coaching people, training and development, for instance, but we're also going to spend some time just spending our time and working on the role of the consultant and the advisor. I've had a wonderful run of it. I've been doing this now for 10 years straight, full-time, but been doing this since college. I started my company in my second year of college and I've been doing it since, and I tailored all my education to ensure that I could be a resource to people such as yourself, people that I've never met before. Now, once you start to hear the stories that I'll share with you, you will notice that I am crazy about family. I like to have balance, and you will notice that when we talk about balance, it's important for us to have a balance between our professional work and our personal work. Now, I have a lifestyle job. Basically, a lifestyle job is the kind of job that my office never truly closes. I vote clients all over the world, so my office never truly closes. I have to make choices every day to actually shut down the office. But also, my brain never stops working, so I actually have to spend time away from activities that will get my brain stimulated so that I can continue to enjoy the value of being a husband and being a family man as well. Ultimately, what I want to do is to ensure that as you listen to these stories, I can humanize the material for you. When I did my training both in undergraduate and graduate school, and probably much more in graduate school, is I was taught to become a bridge between theory and practice. See, those of us who have doctoral degrees, people assume that we always talk about people. I'm going to talk to you right there where you are. I'm going to talk to you based on where you are. I'm going to use the vernacular that you normally use in your language rather than speak at high levels. And I say rather than speak at high levels is because I like to keep my life simple. One of the things that you're going to notice about me and about the material in the course is I take the material extremely seriously. I just don't take myself very seriously. Because I know that life is too short, I want to make sure that you and I can connect on a real level. That as you're looking into this material, you will see it through the lens of my experience, but hopefully also it can translate through the lens of your own experience as well. I look forward to spending time with you and teaching you these concepts, and I hope that as you continue to learn this material, it will lead you to become one of the best HR professionals that your organization has ever had. Now let's talk about human relations. This is the process by which management brings workers into contact with the organization in such ways that the objectives of both groups are met. This part is important to understand. The human relations inside the organization isn't just about the organization itself. That means the management or the structure that's put in place. It's about ensuring that there's a good relationship between the people that come into work inside the organization but also with the people that are charged to run the organization. Here are the realities of human relations. The people who come to work have their own agenda. The people who manage the organization, they've got their own agenda. And as long as we've got two agendas that are running parallel, the organization will generally succeed. But if we have people going in different directions, we're going to have a whole lot more conflict. What we want to do is to align as much as possible the expectations of management but also the expectations and the objectives of employees. We want both groups to be happy. We want them to be excited about coming to work. We want them to be passionate about coming to work because the world of work isn't just about taking care of products and services. It isn't just about building trinkets. It isn't just about keeping customers happy. It isn't just about ensuring that the federal government or the state and local government are paid what they're supposed to be paid. It's about people realizing that there's a connection between their life's mission and the work that they do. See, we have 8,760 hours every single year. And the difference between us is how we use them. But here's the fact, if you work a 40-hour job, you're going to most likely spend anywhere from 60 to 70% of your waking hours doing your work or in work-related activities. Those include commuting. So it's important for us to realize that if we're going to attract people to come work with us, we want their time that they spend with us to be meaningful. And human relations is a wonderful tool that we use to ensure that there's an alignment between the values that people carry as employees but also the values that the organization has. So here are the four areas of concern from a human relations perspective. Number one is the individual worker. We need to have a basic understanding of who the individual worker is. What motivates them? What excites them? What frightens them? What are the moments that make them feel as though they can? And how can we ensure that they spend more of that time knowing and feeling that they can? How can we get them there? Now when I say we, I mean you and me. Because you and me right now are in HR. That's my field. So you are the HR representative. You are the HR assistant. You are supposed to ensure that the individual worker is represented in every single policy that you write. That means there has to be a basic understanding that if we don't keep this organization centered around the employee, the organization is going to fail. So the individual worker has to be a huge part of the human relations thought and vision. The next part is the group. See we don't just have individuals within the organization, we also have groups. That means we take a collection of individuals and we put them in a work group. Some of those work groups will end up becoming functional groups such as the HR department that you are going to be a part of or perhaps it's the sales department or the administration department, the finance group. There's going to be all these different groups of people. We want to have to ensure that these groups of people learn how to work together. That they learn how to function together. That they respect each other's values. They respect each other's opinions and then they can move from just being a group to being a team. That means they have one vision and they do everything that they can to attain that vision. The third concern is going to be the environment in which the work is actually performed. See human relations is tied very, very closely to the ergonomics. How does technology, whether technology is tables and chairs or computers, how does that interact with the people who work there? How can we get people more comfortable in the work that they do? I have a herniated disc in my back. I would think any company that hired me would want to know that information so that they may be able to provide a chair that is most comfortable for me especially if I'm going to be doing a lot of work in front of a computer. That's good sense. That's all that is. Now you might be thinking that that's an added expense that is unnecessary. Well trust me, the happier I am, the more productive I can be. So ultimately what we want to do is to learn how to create an environment in which the work is performed and to make sure that environment is a wonderful one to be in. But we just talked now about ergonomics for instance but there's so much more. What is the air quality? How warm and how cold does it get in our building? How safe is it in our building? Do we have punch cards that we use to ensure people get in and get out of the building but also specifically perhaps our office suite? Those are the things that we have to consider. We want to make sure as an HR department that we are keeping our people safe. They're safe emotionally, they're safe physically but also they're safe intellectually. Do we take what others in the organization think and say seriously? When we have a suggestion box, do we genuinely want to hear what people's suggestions are? Do we take action with any of those suggestions? Do we ensure that people are feeling as though they are part of the organization and they are part of the decision making tree? Or do we ensure that people feel like they're just a part of everything that we do and this is the only area that they get to work in where we'll make the rest of the decisions? Number four is the leader responsible to ensure that we have proper performance. We have to ensure that we've got strong leadership inside of an organization. Everything rises and falls on leadership as one of my spiritual mentors says but also John Maxwell says that all leadership is influence. Do we have the kinds of people that can genuinely influence us? Do they have the right level of integrity? Does their word and their action match up or do we constantly have what's called cognitive dissonance? Or are a person's words and actions aren't matching up? Is there yes, yes and there no, no? Or are these the kind of people that we simply cannot trust? These are the four areas of concern for human relations and they're important to ensure that we have effective HR administration. Now the modern workplace has completely changed. It is extremely dynamic today. One moment everything is going well and before you know it somebody's asking to buy the company. One moment everything is going really well and the owners of the company decide we're going to sell the company. Another moment things are going extremely well and we realize there's an opportunity for us to expand here. We probably should. One moment we realize that yes we have a hundred people but we can reduce that hundred people to about 70 people if we automate certain services. Now we're getting rid of 30 people. 30 people who've dedicated themselves, whether they've dedicated themselves for six months, for six weeks or for six years and now we have to let them know that we have to let them go. That's the dynamic world of HR for you today. You're dealing with issues every single day because your world is people. That's what you do, you work with people. The reason you put policies together in HR is to ensure that people are taken care of. You absolutely want to protect the needs and the expectations of the organization at large. Absolutely. You are there to represent but the key is your representation is actually a bridge. You are the layers on between employees and management. So you have to make sure that you walk this fine line that lets management know the right way to do things as well as letting the employees know the right way to do things because you want to ensure that the organization succeeds. See today the world is constantly changing. Technology is changing. Global interactions are changing. Organizations are moving from simply being local organizations to being multinational corporations. If you're not a part of that change, you're already behind that change and you've already lost. So as an HR department, you have to be part of that change that you're looking for. How can we enhance everything that happens in our organization? Speaking of enhancement, the key thing and the key work that you have to do as an HR person is to ensure the organizational success. An organization is not going to succeed today if it doesn't do the following thing. Hire the right people. Hire the right people. I will say that again. Most of the problems that we have inside of an organization are because we didn't hire the right person. We just had to get a body in that position. Now it's not enough that a person is going to fog a glass. We need to make sure that the person does a whole lot more than fog a glass. Do the light bulbs go on? Do they recognize that there's an opportunity here and they speak up? Are they the kind of person that is teachable? One of my mentors said it perfectly. In order for you to be successful, you have to be fat. F-A-T. You have to be faithful, available and teachable. If you're going to hire the best and the right people, you have it to ensure that they are faithful, they're available and they're teachable. Faithful people are amazing. They're going to be engaged in the organization and they will do everything that they can to ensure the organization succeeds. Now it doesn't mean that because they're faithful, they will just follow blindly. These are people who have values and one of those values is loyalty. And when they're loyal to you and they've earned your respect and you've earned their respect, they're amazing the things that these people will do. And you don't have to pay them extra because they're always going to go the extra mile. See, what we always want to do is to have the kinds of people that we always say we honestly don't pay you enough for what you do around here. That's when you know you've hired the right people. When you're looking at people and you say, yep, clearly we're paying you exactly what we're supposed to, then you know you haven't exactly hired the right people because these people aren't exactly faithful. The next one is available. Throughout the course we'll talk about so many aspects including absenteeism and presenteeism. We want people to be available. That means in that moment where they're at work, they're at work. That ensures an organization is going to be successful. That means multitasking and those kinds of things aren't the things they try to do too often because they realize that when you multitask it takes you four times as long. It takes your brain four times as long to complete a task. They realize that if they can just stay focused, things are going to work out better. So this process of hiring the right people with the right talent, it's important because you get these people who are faithful, who are available and the last part is they're teachable. If a person is teachable, it means that there's so much opportunity for them but it also means that you can move them from one position to another with less resistance. They're the kinds of people who are going to be very, very flexible. That means they realize that they have to play their role and today if their role means them moving to another position to ensure organizational success, they will do it because they've got the right heart and the right mentality. That's what people who are teachable are like. Why did I share this fat idea with you? Because I want to make sure that you hire the right types of people, the people who've got the right type of talent and then you try to give them as much opportunity as you can for them to unlock their creative potential. How much creativity does a person have? It's unlimited. We just have to figure out a way of tapping it. I would like you to think of your HR assistant role when it comes to HR administration from this perspective. You're a minor and I mean a person who minds. M-I-N-E-R. You're a minor. You go out there and you chisel as much as you can to try to find the diamond in the rough. Once you've found the diamond in the rough, you go through the process of polishing that diamond. Your work is to polish these wonderful people that you've brought in who are already the right people with the right type of talent and you do your very best to unleash everything that's within them. That's what human relations professionals do. They work every single day to ensure that this challenge is met. See, it's a challenge. Finding the right people is a challenge. People show up to job interviews or they've sent in their resumes, they've sent in their applications and they look wonderful in paper. But what we want to do is to find a system that tells us who people really are. Because ultimately what we want to do is to have the right people in the right positions at the right time. When that happens, nothing but success is actually going to occur. Now what's your role as an HR assistant? How are you going to ensure that the HR administration process in your organization is successful? There's a few things that you can do. There's actually several things that you can do and in this case we'll talk about five of them. Number one is to stay positive. You are going to see the worst and the best in people being an HR. I'm just going to keep it straight with you and tell you the truth. You are going to see the best and the worst in people. People that you never thought would ever try to take advantage of the organization will. You will see people take more sick days than they've been given and still try to get paid. You will see people try to sue the organization over something that they shouldn't be suing over. You will see the very worst and the very best of people. But the attitude that you take will determine exactly how you flourish within the organization. You have got to stay positive. If the HR assistant and the HR department itself is not positive, who's going to do it? See management and employees, they're so busy doing their jobs that they forget that there's a human element to it. You are the one that gets to remind them about the human element. So you have to absolutely stay positive. Number two is to be an example. If you're not going to be an example, who will? Why would you wait for somebody else to do it? You have to provide the example. So if you're going to require people to have energy and live, guess what? You have to bring that energy and live yourself. You need to do everything that you can. And I mean everything that you can to live the life that exemplifies the mission and the vision of the organization that you're a part of. If you can't do that, there is no way you can expect people in management or people who are employees to do the same thing. You have to provide the example. Number three is to stay current. That means you have to spend some time understanding your field. So you might have to join the Society of Human Resource Management, SHERM. You might have to join other organizations that force you to stay current. That means you have to read the new trends, the new things that are going on within HR. You have to have an understanding of what the best practices are. You have to benchmark your HR department compared to other people. But you also have to benchmark yourself compared to other people within the HR department, but also HR departments in your field as well. If you don't do that, again, you're not providing the example that we talked about. You're not staying positive. What you need to do is to stay as current as possible. Now that's on the technical side. You also need to stay current on your interpersonal skills. That means you need to learn how to work with people from different cultures. You have to have an understanding that people are different, and because they're different, they think about life differently. And you have to understand that even when we talk about culture, it's the mental programming of a group of people. What is the mental programming that you would like to see for your human resource department? What is the mental programming you would like to see for your entire organization? You get to be a part of ensuring that that comes by staying current. The fourth idea here is for you to stay and to be assertive. See, when you're assertive, you are letting somebody know that their behavior infringes on your rights. It's different from being aggressive. See, when you're aggressive, you basically get what you want by stomping all over other people's needs, desires, and wants. When you're assertive, you can tell somebody the truth about themselves without them feeling as though they cannot fly anymore. See, with us, we don't have to shoot people down. We might shoot their attitudes, shoot down their beliefs sometimes, but we don't have to shoot them down as a person. So you do everything that you can to stay as assertive as possible and you're doing this solely to ensure that the person becomes whole. If you remember from the previous slide, we're hiring the right type of people for the right type of positions with the right type of skills that they have to ensure that they become so much more of what they could potentially be. You have to do the same thing and being assertive is one of those. The last thing that you want to do to ensure that your HR department is successful is to be an invaluable resource. That means you're constantly learning. That means you are also fat. You are faithful, you're available, and you're teachable. Please never reach the point where you think you know it all and you've seen it all because the moment that you think you know it all and you've seen it all is the time that something else comes your way and you have to learn again. So be a person that becomes invaluable. As you work in your first position in HR, you might work with a manager that is a challenge to work with. Be patient. Find ways to connect with them. Find ways to be a resource to them. See, we have this idea that we have to have these relationships that where we all get along. We don't all have to get along or be best friends. But we can respect each other enough and respect ourselves enough that we will do the job that we are being paid for and we'll go above and beyond. Not because we're going to be paid more, but because it's in our nature. It's in our nature to be a resource and to do the very best work that we can.