WHAT ANNOYS YOU ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEES?

by Lyn Ribisi on July 23, 2010

Part 3

Handling problem employees is a huge area of help that Silkin Management Group clients and prospective clients are interested in. In Silkin Management Group’s blog site of July 20th & July 21st we introduced Part 1 and 2 of a 5 part series on things staff do to drive their bosses crazy and what to do about them.

In Part 1 we went over the “clock puncher”, the low responsibility staff member. In part 2 we discussed the staff member who spends job time doing personal things and disturbing other employees.
Here is a third type of staff member that can cause irritation to their boss:

“I know you already told me a few times, but can you tell me again, how do I do this?”

These employees just can’t seem to learn anything and are always asking you to solve their problems. They rarely, if ever, offer solutions. They just don’t take the intuitive to seek answers or work out solutions to problems by themselves. Even if you have an easy-to-understand and comprehensive job policy manual put together, they’ve just never read it, but instead bother you and the other staff members with questions that are clearly answered in their job materials.

Solution: For starters, make very sure you have a comprehensive Office Policy and Job Description Manual. Then check the employee out on their job description by asking them to perform some of the duties covered. Do this on a gradient basis, taking the easiest first. If they have trouble with the easy stuff, you know you are going to have trouble generally. More basic, do some literacy testing PRIOR to hiring.

Silkin Management Group provides job description and office policy manuals to its clients as well as various tests for screening applicants. If you’d like more information about this contact us at info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.

Lyn Ribisi
Senior Analyst’s Assistant
For Silkin Management Group

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We’ve written many articles on our various Silkin Management Group blog sites about the economy, the Administration’s economic stimulus program and how that affects small businesses. As all of Silkin Management Group’s clients are small businesses, we like to keep an eye on this activity.

Silkin Management Group is located in Portland, Oregon. $3.9 billion is to come to Oregon from the federal government over three years as part of the economic stimulus program. So far, $2.8 billion has arrived in the state. In checking where this money went, I found the following highlights:

• $780 million went to unemployment payments
• $169 million went to construction projects such as highways, bridges, etc.
• $159 million went to food stamps
• $54.2 million went to pay prison staff
• $20.7 million went to pay for low income child care
• $11.7 million went to low income weatherization assistance

Other than the $169 million for construction project and maybe the weatherization assistance, I don’t see any of this money going to increase productivity in the economy. To me, it has gone to keep people working or having some money while not working.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against helping out those who have gotten bashed and battered in this severe recession. But let’s call a spade a spade – most of the above does not stimulate the economy, it merely helps many people from drowning further. To me, economic stimulus should increase productivity and I’d like to see more of that, not only in Oregon, but throughout the country.

Jack Hennessy
Silkin Management Group Consultant

If you would like more information about Silkin Management Group and the management consulting and training services we offer, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com.

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WHAT IS THE HEALTH OF MY BANK

July 12, 2010

Although Silkin Management Group is not an expert on the status of the banking system, we certainly are interested in the health of the banks we deal with and that our clients use. In fact we do get asked by Silkin clients if we know how to determine the health of banks given the [...]

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MORE MARKETING TIPS

July 1, 2010

In yesterday’s Silkin Management Group blog article, which you can access here http://blog.silkinmanagementgroup.com, we introduced two marketing tips that we use with Silkin Management Group clients (who are primarily single doctor owner/practitioners in a variety of fields such as dentistry, veterinary medicine and optometry). Most of our clients are interested in increasing the number of [...]

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FURTHER DATA ON THE NEW REGULATIONS FOR EXISTING HEALTH CARE PLANS

June 24, 2010

We’ve written recent articles on the problems small businesses may soon experience with existing health care plans as a result of the new guidelines put out by the Obama Administration. You can read these previous articles on two of Silkin Management Group’s blog sites: http://practicemanagementblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-rules-for-existing-health-care.html & http://silkinmanagementgroup.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-information-on-new-rules-for.html
The following is a short summary of this [...]

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WHY ARE SOME STATES SUING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OVER THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL?

June 17, 2010

Anyone who has been reading our various Silkin Management Group blog sites knows that we’ve been writing for months about various aspects of the health care reform bill and its effects on small business. (Silkin Management Group clients are all small businesses.)
Many of you may be aware that some states decided to sue the federal [...]

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WHAT IF AN EMPLOYEE WORE A KNIFE TO WORK?

June 9, 2010

One of the most frequent areas of concern for new Silkin Management Group clients is dealing with employees. Who to hire, how to train them, what should written office policies and job descriptions look like, who do you fire and how, how do you deal with discrimination and harassment, etc. are the common areas [...]

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HOW DOES THE HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION AFFECT GROUP HEALTH CARE PLANS?

June 2, 2010

Part 2
Yesterday, on this Silkin Management Group blog site, which you can link to here: www.silkinmanagementgroup.blogspot.com, we discussed some of the aspects of the new health care legislation relative to how it affects group health plans. All of Silkin’s clients are small businesses and many of them have group plans. Therefore wanted to relay [...]

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MORE INFO ON THE INTRUSIVE PAPER WORK HIDDEN IN THE NEW HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

May 25, 2010

On several of our Silkin Management Group blog sites, we’ve posted articles about what was once a hidden and unknown portion of the health care legislation that has nothing to do with health care. This hidden stipulation requires all businesses to file 1099’s for every purchase of over $600 with any and every company [...]

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THERE ARE SOME GOOD LAWYERS AROUND!

May 19, 2010

Silkin Management Group has worked with thousands of clients in the health care profession throughout the United States and Canada for close to 30 years. One of the areas that we continually train and consult our clients in is dealing with employees. Hiring the right staff is a technology unto itself. Hiring the wrong [...]

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