PIHRA Scope - Winter 2008 - (Page 11)

HR CONCEPTS By Mike Deblieux, SPHR Vice President, Willdan Management Services people is a complex undertaking. It can be exhilarating. It can be painfully difficult. And sometimes, it can be excruciatingly impossible, frustrating and confusing. When that happens, it helps to take a deep breath, slow down for a minute and revisit the basic principles of the relationship between a manager and an employee. The employment relationship starts with a job offer. The job offer is based on four fundamental and interrelating concepts. First, the employer offers a job and paycheck. Second, the successful candidate agrees to perform the work of the new position and to comply with the policies of his or her new employer. The primary job of a manager grows out of that exchange. The manager: • Deﬁnes the job, • Provides compensation for work performed, • Trains, coaches and provides performance feedback, and • Explains and manages policies, rules and directives. In short, work and rules are the fundamental building blocks of the relationship between a manager and an employee. They are sometimes overlooked or even forgotten. Managing COACH, NOT COUNSEL The job of managing work and rules gets blurred when a manager confuses the concepts of coaching and counseling. A counselor gives advice. It is up to the person being counseled to decide if he or she wants to implement the suggestions that the counselor has to offer. A workplace coach builds a team to work together to achieve a goal. A coach determines the role and responsibility for each member of the team. A coach selects the members of the team. He or she trains the team to perform within established parameters in the way that the coach determines the job should be done. Most importantly, a workplace coach holds each member of the team accountable for his or her job performance. A counselor does not hold people accountable. Marie did not understand the ﬁne line between counseling and coaching. Two members of her team entered into a personal relationship that affected both productivity and team morale. She called each of them into her ofﬁce, one at a time. She told them that she thought they were making a mistake. She reminded them that they each had a successWORK continued on page 13 Winter 2008 PIHRAScope 11 e

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of PIHRA Scope - Winter 2008

PIHRA Scope - Winter 2008 Contents Message from the CEO What’s on the Legislative Horizon in 2009 HR Concepts Dysfunction Doesn’t Make Cents The Three R’s of Environmental Sustainability PIHRA Calendar Scope on the Districts PIHRA’s New Members Index to Advertisers

PIHRA Scope - Winter 2008

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