Worcester Business Journal

January 11, 2021

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30 Worcester Business Journal | January 11, 2021 | wbjournal.com 10) Safety begins on day one. Develop a safety orientation program for all new and transferred em- ployees covering key safety topics such as accident reporting, proper lifting techniques, and ergonomics. 9) Training. Educating your workforce about the importance of safety helps to protect them and to establish and maintain a safe workplace by increas- ing their knowledge and awareness of safety issues. Ongoing training and education will help maintain that culture of safety. 8) Enforcement of safety rules. You implemented a safety program addressing safety concerns and regulations. Ensure its success by enforcing it. Be sure to conduct workplace safety walks to identify possible safety hazards and resolve them. 7) Positive reinforcement. Disciplinary reinforce- ment on its own is not enough. Take it to the next level by identifying and reinforcing good safety behavior when observed. An example can be a workplace celebrating x amount of days with no incidents. 6) Proactive safety. Fixing safety concerns before an incident occurs should always be the goal. Establish a near-miss/safety observation reporting program, regularly follow up with near-miss reports. 5) Reactive safety. Every workplace aims for zero incidents. Unfortunately, sometimes incidents do occur. Ensure your readiness to respond to incidents by having a robust incident investigation process, root cause determination, and effective corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence. 4) Engagement from the workforce. Safety im- provements start and end with the front line work- ers. Having a workforce engaged and committed to safety is one of the best ways to improve your safety performance. Find ways to empower your workforce to identify and eliminate safety concerns. 3) Communication of safety goals. It's important for the safety goals to be communicated in a consis- tent manner. You want to strike a balance between repetitive and consistent messaging while avoiding desensitization. 2) Redeployment of resources. Safety is every- one's job; we should help each other reach the over- all safety goal. That means being nimble enough to shift resources and attention to areas demonstrating safety challenges, creating a mindset of: "We're in this together." 1) Tracking and metrics. All stakeholders should know where the company stands relative to safety records. This requires tracking and reporting out incidents/injuries and communicating them into digestible and understandable format. K N O W H O W How to become an interview ninja B efore a company recruits or hires, it needs to know the job for which it's hiring. But a 2018 Career Builder survey showed 74% of small businesses hire the wrong person for the job, resulting in additional costs, lost productivity and potentially substandard output. Generic job descriptions attract generic candidates, making job analysis an important tool. It's a blueprint for workforce planning. Job analysis involves: Identifying the tasks required for the role; compiling information regarding its duties and responsibilities; determining ways to assess differences in performance, say between poor and above-average team members; and examining current workers in that position to see if there are ways to add more value to the organization through the role, according to HRgrapevine.com. Beyond hiring, it has broad uses. It structures the type of talent needed in companies, a core element to fuel profitability. Companies must know who they are looking for to recruit correctly. "Job analysis data highlights the level of education, qualifications, experience and skills that need to be held by ideal candidates … helps develop advertisements, salary levels, interview questions, selection tests, evaluation forms and orientation materials for new recruits," writes Martina Markovska at CareerMinds. com. Other reasons for job analysis include job designing and redesigning: determining training needs, setting up policies for compensation management, and carrying out performance reviews. Employees can help by being specific, or the value of the analysis is lost. eBalanceCareers.com's Susan Heathfield says it's not unusual for HR and management to see output without knowing what work goes into a particular job. "Don't just say you 'produce monthly reports.' Say that you 'gather the data from six different departments, check the data for accuracy using a custom-designed Access tool that [you] created and maintain.'" 1 0 T H I NG S I know about... ... A solid safety culture BY ANUPAM KOUL Special to the Worcester Business Journal I nterview taking is an art. Some perform it better than others. For many the mere thought of interviewing has them break into a sweat. However, there is no need to despair because anyone can master techniques making interviewing easy. Follow these golden rules, and you can become an interview ninja. Portray yourself professionally. In- terviews are done over phone, video or in person. Getting situated appropriately for an interview is imperative. Nothing derails interviews faster than bad con- nections, equipment malfunction or lack of a professional demeanor. Interviewees must dress the part and be in a quiet, well-connected and comfortable place. e 5-5-5 rule. Arriving to an inter- view late is the worst disservice one can do to themselves. Planning, preparing and starting early should be the norm. Give yourself 5 minutes to settle in, 5 minutes to focus on interview details, and 5 minutes to relax. is will help you feel settled, ready and in-charge. Be your best self. Sloppiness can show in many ways. Offensive body odor, dressing inappropriately, not carrying a copy of one's own resume, walking in without a notepad or a pen are examples. One can never go wrong in carrying to the interview an organizer with notepad and pen, reference letters, resume copy, and other pertinent arti- facts like certificates and diplomas. Name dropping helps. Everyone and everything today has an indelible digital footprint. is imprint carries more weight than even our true persona. Interviewees should be mindful of this and should use this to their advantage. Dig up the latest company news, learn about their products and technology, and look up your interviewer(s) pro- file(s) online. Use LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Glassdoor and others. Check your online profile so you are not caught unawares. Be ready to namedrop, as common connections boost one's credi- bility just that iota more. I vs. we. Your conversations should focus on conveying how you individu- ally contributed to your work, and what areas you led and drove. Interviewers are simply interested in you and not your team. Do in Rome as Romans do. Different folks, different strokes. Every interview- er has their own style of interviewing. An interviewee is best served in observ- ing, learning and matching an inter- viewer's cadence as closely as they can. Conversation, not interrogation. A two-way conversation makes for a better interview than monotony of one-sided questioning. Use the interview as an op- portunity to showcase your awareness, knowledge and intellect. Inquire about the job, company, and prospects. 3 C's of communication. Remem- ber to be clear, crisp and concise in your conversations. Portray clarity of thought, convey it succinctly with a direct answer, and provide to the point explanation with just the right amount of detail. Brevity is best. Attitude and aptitude. Interviews are as much about assessing fit to a team as they are about gauging caliber and capability. Listening patiently, speaking in turn, exhibiting interest and demon- strating preparedness percolates one right to the top of a viable candidate list. Protect confidentiality. Be aware and refuse to divulge details infringing on any confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements signed previously. Ques- tions should be answered in generalized terms and, as needed, interviewers should be made aware of confidentiality restrictions. Impassioned responses. Bad mouthing a previous boss or employer is almost always viewed negatively. A better alternative is to admit a mistake or give the other party a pass. Ryan Sylvia, CEO at Envisage, contributed to this article. Anupam Koul is a serial entrepreneur and techno-business thought-leader. He is president of the board at Marlborough product engineering solutions firm Envisage, Inc. His full profile is at www. linkedin.com/in/anupamkoul. BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal By Abed Hamid Abed Hamid is the environmental health & safety leader at Charlton manufacturer KARL STORZ Endovision. Reach him at Abed.Hamid@karlstorz.com. 10 1: J O B A N A L Y S I S W W W

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