Meeting Agenda for HR manager
In the first meeting with the staff, Jill can consider the following as the agenda for the meeting:
- Official introduction to the staff
- Organizational culture and structure
- Internal Communication within the Department
- Challenges Facing The Employees
- A.O.B
- Closing Remarks
The importance of the agenda items
i. Official introduction to the staff
As Jill sets out to assume a managerial position in the HR department, it is important to quickly develop an understanding on her area of operations. The manager needs to know her team, and they as well need to know the manager. This first meeting agenda will give Jill an opportunity to know the processes, strengths, weaknesses, culture and the employees.It is at this point that Jill will be able to get herself known to the staff so that she can get the best out of them (Laurie DL, 2006). Being her first meeting with the staff, Jill will use this agenda to set the ethical climate in the organization purposefully to stimulate dialogue among the staff during the meeting. In order to familiarize with the staff, Jill needs to commend the staff in the areas where the reports indicate progress and positive growth. Her introduction to the staff should be geared towards motivating the employees.
ii. Organizational culture and structure
Under this agenda, Jill needs to understand the structure of the HR department in the organization. Normally, the structure determines the relationship of roles in the organization and how the members of the organization function (Saunders M, 2007). Jill needs to be guided by a number of questions while seeking to understand the structure of the organization. Some of the questions that the HR manager needs to seek their answers during the first meeting with the employees include:
Are the department’s objectives met through the organizational arrangement of how work is coordinated within the department?
Are there some ambiguity and confusion in terms of duties, responsibilities and roles of the employees?
What is the accountability levels within the department?
When Jill gets the responses to these questions, she will be able to understand the employees and how the work is organized, coordinated and performed within the department. Already Jill has been informed by the COO about absenteeism and filing problems of the organization. She needs to be very moderate and careful not to get to the employees’ throat from day one(Armstrong M., 2008).Addressing this agenda will help Jill to read the moods of the disappointed members such as Ed who felt to be out rightly fit for the position. It is important and wise for the new manager to be on the receiving end rather than pressing the button too soon.
iii. Internal Communication Within The Department
Internal communication is a common area where most organizations perform so poorly.Internal Communication, whether, horizontal, vertical, upwards or downwards needs to be treated with utmost care. Jill needs to ensure that in her first meeting she addresses on communication within the department (Armstrong, 2008). She needs to encourage the employees to embrace team spirit through effective and timely communication among the different offices within the department. For instance Jill should emphasize the need for the members to be free to express their concerns and issues without fear of intimidation and victimization(Ashe-Edmunds, 2014). As part of the agenda, Jill should seek the opinions of the members on how best the communication process should proceed with her department. Obviously, she will be able to address the matters that touch on the delicate areas affecting the organization. The staff needs to be reminded from time to time the various principles that hold the organizational objectives. Priorities need to be set right at this stage. Jill need to set her priorities right so that the staff can know from the word go.
iv. Challenges Facing the Employees
HR department is not only concerned with sourcing, recruiting and employing qualified staff for the organization but also looks at the welfare of the employees. This agenda is very important is very significant during the first meeting. The employees’ complaints, concerns and issues affecting their performance can be addressed at this stage. Employees can only work well if the working environment and atmosphere is conducive and motivating (Holbeche, 2008). The employees need to be given a chance to express the things they consider to be a thorn in their flesh. Jill will be able to identify the areas where she needs to try so much to improve in order to work well with her team. Under this agenda, the HR Manager needs to ask questions such as:
What are your feelings about the performance of the department?
Which challenges do you face in your line of service and duty in the organization? What seems to be working and which ones don’t?
Are there areas that you wish to be addressed soon and worked on as soon as possible?
In your various areas of duty, do you have all the resources and facilities necessary effectively to carry out your duties? What do you want to be added?
While asking these questions, Jill should be very careful not to annoy the employees but rather to act as if she wishes to do something special to improve them. This agenda is important because it enables the new HR manager to be in the shoes the team she is charged with to coordinate. Once the team reveals its concerns to the team leader she needs to ask each member of the team to cooperate in developing the possible ways of addressing their needs (Holbeche, 2008). For example, she may consider asking the employees how they wish to be handled. Nevertheless, Jill needs to ensure that the team keeps their demands realistic and within the levels that the organization can achieve.
v. Any Other Business
This section also constitutes important body of the meeting. This agenda helps in addressing any other important issue that might not have been discussed in the main agenda yet it is considered important.Jill together with her staff members may consider coming up with goals and targets to be achieved by every office within the company’s HR department (Saunders M, 2007). The agenda will serve to be the best moment for both Jill and her staff members to come up with such performance metrics. Through this forum, all employees will be fully involved in the process of setting the goals and targets and will therefore be more committed to fulfilling them. Jill will also be able to be the state her personal objectives and how she is going to achieve them. She should state the objectives in such a way that the employees will feel to be part of her and that she cannot achieve her set objectives without them (Laurie DL, 2006). This agenda will help to trigger a spirit of teamwork within them.
vi. Closing remarks
The HR department is a very important department in any organization, and the company is no exception. Jill should let the employees know how important they are for the success of the company, make them feel utterly motivated and accountable for their performance. She needs to remind them that they will have a mechanism that will help in providing immediate feedback to all their queries and that she will always be there to address all their issues that will be within her capacity to do so (Saunders M, 2007). On a light note, Jill may ask them to give what they prefer as the best award for best performers. It could be a promotion, money or even a vacation. Jill should give the employees then opportunity to state their preferred dates for the subsequent meetings.
How the meeting will portray Jill
Most competent leaders are those who try to instil a culture that is driven towards performance. The employees are not ready to have Jill as their manager but if Jill conducts the meeting as discussed above, the employees will change their opinion about her and declare her a leader. The employees will recognize Jill as a leader as discussed below.
• The meeting will make the staff members discover that Jill is there to help them improve their performance and to motivate them (Ashe-Edmunds, 2014). Her set objectives will help the non-performers to improve their performance.
• Jill intends to address and resolve the problems and issues that affect her employees and this will help in establishing a good working rapport with her junior staff members. It will help in easing the tension and discomfort that exists within the employees and will feel more comfortable working with Jill.
• Through this forum, Jill will be perceived as one who has respect for her staff members and their listening abilities, expertise and commitment. Jill will turn out to be one who is interested in everyone and everything (Saunders M, 2007). She will be aimed at interacting with as many staff members as possible as she tries to engage with most employees during this first meeting.
• The meeting will make the employees to feel motivated to compete with their peers as they will all want to be rewarded. Jill’s system of reward will be very appropriate in inspiring the employees to out beat their colleagues, and this will make the employees recognize Jill as their manager.
• Employees will tend to voice their grievances directly to Jill as she will appear to them as someone who understands them and their interests (Holbeche, 2008). Jill will seek to understand their responsibilities, duties and their roles. By doing so, she will appear to be in charge of the HR department hence considered a leader by the employees.
• Jill’s communication strategy will promote effective and timely communication within the department and will try to address on the delicate issues affecting this department (Saunders M, 2007). Through this strategy, Jill will be able to provide mentorship to the staff members. She will seek her employee’s views on how they want to be handled and how they want to play their roles, serving as their supervisor.
References
Armstrong, M. (2008). Strategic Human resource Management: A Guide to Action. Kogan Page Limited.
Ashe-Edmunds, T. B. (2014, January 13). External & Internal Environmental Factors Influencing HR Activities. Houston Chronicle, p. D45. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/external-internal-environmental-factors-influencing-hr-activities-34745.html
Holbeche, L. (2008). Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy, 2nd Edition. Butterworth-Heinemann,.
Laurie DL, D. Y. (2006). Creating New Growth Platforms. Harvard Business Review, 3-7.
Saunders M, M. M. (2007). Strategic Human Resource Management: Contemporary Issues . Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
