Showing Appreciation to Workplace Un-Sung Heroes

Millions of Un-Sung Heroes are born every minute! They are found everywhere–on street corners, in our homes, offices, and communities–wherever there are people in need of rescue. These special people, whose positive actions and initiatives are performed to benefit others, are not famous or in the news for what they are doing; but their efforts affect, enrich and touch countless lives.

Every business has these Un-Sung Heroes. They are the receptionists, secretaries, and administrative professionals we rely on daily to keep the wheels of corporate America turning.

The role of the office professional has changed significantly as reliance on technology and office automation has increased. Downsizing or organizational restructuring has led secretaries and administrative assistants to assume a wider range of new responsibilities that were once the property of management and senior professional staff.

How to Identify the Un-Sung Heroes in Your Office

Un-Sung Heroes are easy to recognize, but just in case you can’t find them in your office, here is a simple way to help you spot their contributions.

  1. You frequently go to them for coordination of office administrative and support activities.
  2. They are walking libraries of information you need to service your clients.
  3. You often rely on them for training and orientation of new staff members.
  4. You would be lost without their expertise in researching on the Internet and operating and troubleshooting new office technologies.
  5. When they are absent the office just doesn’t seem to run smoothly and efficiently.
  6. You haven’t a clue how to make your own travel arrangements; they do this with dexterity and ease.
  7. They are walking desktop publishers and proposal and presentation writers.
  8. They’ve taught you so many important things as well as how to be self-sufficient and get your own coffee or tea.
  9. They are excellent team players who understand the value of being flexible and working with others to share their expertise.
  10. Let’s face it, without their assistance you would not be able to perform your own job efficiently and resourcefully.

If you were able to spot at least one of these behaviors, you have caught a glimpse of a real live Un-Sung Hero. Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to show your appreciation for all their efforts and hard work.

Every April, we celebrate National Administrative Professionals Week, which was originally created in 1952 as National Professional Secretaries Week to emphasize the importance of secretarial work and to encourage more women to become secretaries. Included in this week-long celebration is National Secretary’s Day–a special holiday to honor, acknowledge and express appreciation for secretaries throughout the United States. Over the years as men became secretaries, the role changed significantly to that of an administrative support function. As a result the name changed to Administrative Professional’s Day.

It is customary to give a politically correct gift (cards, gift certificates, flowers, etc.) or to take the administrative professional to lunch. However, don’t wait for the next holiday to acknowledge the many contributions your Un-Sung Heroes make.

Going forward, develop a positive recognition habit and commit to finding at least one thing each week you can do to thank your administrative professional.

Workplace Violence Assessment Tool Eases Bill 168 Compliance

Violence in the workplace is quickly becoming the buzz word of the time. Most governments are now considering legislation that will force companies to deal with these issues in order to improve workplace safety. Take Bill 168, in the province of Ontario Canada, that is about to take effect on June 15, 2010.

The Bill, under the Health and Safety Act, requires an employer to assess the risk of workplace violence that may arise from the nature of the workplace, and the type of work or the conditions of work. The assessment must take into account common risks at other similar workplaces and risks specific to the employer’s workspace. A copy of the risk assessment and its results must be provided to the joint health and safety committee or health and safety representative. If there is no committee or representative, employees must be advised on how to obtain copies of the assessment and its results and it must be provided to workers on request.

A good strategy to stay ahead of any legislation should include the following:

– An overview and understanding of the legislation and or pending legislation that emphasize key components and legal duties of your organization.

– Recognized and approved best security practices for conducting workplace violence risk assessments.

– Putting workplace violence in perspective with other security issues in your organization.

– The categories of workplace violence and how each one requires different mitigation actions.

– Steps to creating a court defensible workplace violence program.

– Workplace Violence Risk Assessment – more than checklists.

– Written and implementation plan of effective policies and procedures that work.

– Training programs – what works and what doesn’t – getting buy-in from the beginning.

– Incident management – the multidisciplinary team approach.

– Mitigating the impact of incidents to minimize the impact on your operations.

– Case management – how proper recording and analyzing incident reports can enable you to take proactive preventive steps to prevent future incidents.

– Supporting the victims of workplace violence to minimize the effect on the workplace.

There is little doubt that given the current stresses we are all exposed to, employers need to create a safer workplace for its employees, and if it takes government intervention to do so, then count me in as a supporter.

Last week there was a news event about some young man in high school that took his own life after reportedly being the victim of ongoing bullying. The school board and high profile community members set up a task force to examine what can be done about this ongoing issue in schools today. All this, just on the heels of this new Bill 168 Workplace Violence and Harassment legislation that is to take effect June 15, 2010.

Rather than gather more adults and so-called experts to see what can be put in place to deal with these issues, the task force should be made up of mostly students and the primary focus should be on HOW do we empower students to resolve these sorts of conflicts themselves. As the old saying goes “Give the man (student) a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him/her how to fish you feed them for life”. The fact that Bill 168 and similar legislation has been needed, is evidence that students and young adults were never taught how to fish for themselves.

As a society that is more and more reliant on technology and less reliant on working with one another, schools should adopt mandatory effective communications skills. Books like Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” or Dr. George Thompson’s “Verbal Judo” need to become part of the curriculum.

You see, since the game boy generation, our kids have been taught that in order to win at “the game” you have no time to think; you simply need to react as quickly as possible and faster than the game. That has created a generation of society that goes through life reacting before thinking of what the consequences might be. We give our kids violence simulator and take away many of the social programs from our school curriculum and then act all shocked when they develop violent or aggressive behaviour.

There is no law, no matter how strict, that will ever resolve the issue or workplace violence and harassment. The only way to resolve the issue is to empower tomorrow’s generation with communication and social education skills they need to survive in this shrinking world.

Rene Beaulieu CPP, President, SECURaGLOBE Solutions Inc.


http://www.securaglobe.com

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