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1 year ago
in Punctuality on KnowHR Blog
I'm in healthcare (teaching hospital), and our orientation session includes a presentation on the necessity of punctuality. In this environment, it's important, but the presenter went rather overboard to the point where it was difficult to take him seriously. Every example of late arrival somehow resulted in a medical or legal crisis! So if you're in environmental services and you're ten minutes late, the staff on the preceding shift will have already left for the day and someone will spill some water in a corridor during those crucial ten minutes and an ambulatory patient will slip and be injured and the hospital will be sued for a kajillion dollars and IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT FOR BEING TEN MINUTES LATE.
Yeah. That part of the presentation was less effective than one might want.
Anyway, I think it depends on the specific job. If the position involves shift work (everything from environmental services to nursing), unpredictable arrivals are a big negative. If our outpatient clinic opens at 7am, we need our registration assistants, billing team, and medical staff to be ready to go at 7am. For other positions, it's not a big deal. If I were hiring an accountant or programmer, on-the-dot punctuality (or lack thereof) would be a minor factor.
I may be a little more tolerant than others, though, as I'm married to a chronically few-minutes-late network administrator. :-)
Yeah. That part of the presentation was less effective than one might want.
Anyway, I think it depends on the specific job. If the position involves shift work (everything from environmental services to nursing), unpredictable arrivals are a big negative. If our outpatient clinic opens at 7am, we need our registration assistants, billing team, and medical staff to be ready to go at 7am. For other positions, it's not a big deal. If I were hiring an accountant or programmer, on-the-dot punctuality (or lack thereof) would be a minor factor.
I may be a little more tolerant than others, though, as I'm married to a chronically few-minutes-late network administrator. :-)
1 year ago
in What’s Your HR Tagline? on KnowHR Blog
Unofficial but honest tagline: You make the mess, I'll clean it up. (come to think of it, this would have been perfect for my previous career in tech support)
Very unofficial but more accurate tagline: You make the mess, I'll clean it up, but honestly, there are limits - I mean, I can't control the laws of space and time, and I can't read your mind. If you don't bother submitting your timesheet by the deadline, don't get all bent out of shape if your paycheck isn't correct. And what do you mean, why isn't my new researcher getting paid? Did you even bother to tell me you hired someone? He's been here HOW many weeks?
Sigh.
Very unofficial but more accurate tagline: You make the mess, I'll clean it up, but honestly, there are limits - I mean, I can't control the laws of space and time, and I can't read your mind. If you don't bother submitting your timesheet by the deadline, don't get all bent out of shape if your paycheck isn't correct. And what do you mean, why isn't my new researcher getting paid? Did you even bother to tell me you hired someone? He's been here HOW many weeks?
Sigh.
1 year ago
in What Kind of HR Person Are You? on KnowHR Blog
"By the way, if I like thinking about questions like this, does that suggest that HR might be a good career choice?"
Worked for me. I was a techie before making the accidental and serendipitous switch into HR. I think there's an advantage to having been in another field first, because you've experienced policies and implementation on the receiving end. You've seen what can improve morale and what just made you wince and update your resume!
Worked for me. I was a techie before making the accidental and serendipitous switch into HR. I think there's an advantage to having been in another field first, because you've experienced policies and implementation on the receiving end. You've seen what can improve morale and what just made you wince and update your resume!
1 year ago
in What Kind of HR Person Are You? on KnowHR Blog
Good questions to ponder as I sort through today's tasks. Your first question brings up another question - what kind of HR person does *your employer* make you? I work for a hospital that's owned by a healthcare organization, and just discovered that through our corporate portal I can browse the HR policies for the other hospitals in our system. My hospital's policies are fairly sensible and flexible (IMO, of course), but a sister hospital has policies that clearly show a lack of trust in its employees. There's an undercurrent of paternalism, and I imagine that the HR department is used more as a disciplinary squad than as employee advocates. Would I have stayed in HR if I had begun my career there instead of here? I enjoy helping people and my boss is an expert at thwarting bureaucracy in order to get results - what kind of mentor would I have found at a workplace with such a regulated mistrust of its staff?
