How Can You Communicate if You Don’t Talk?

“How the hell can you communicate if you refuse to talk to people?” Consultant Andrew Botwin quoted auto industry icon Lee Iococca and illustrated with a picture of Lee and Snoop Dog hanging out.

Botwin, founder of SPC Consulting, offered the following tips for “communicating up” at BLR’s 2013 Strategic HR Summit held recently in Scottsdale, Arizona.

• Lean towards over-communication, but don’t communicate so much that you become annoying.
• Report consistently what you are doing.
• Remember that “self-promotion” is not a dirty word.
• Don’t make the excuse that it is easier for everyone else.
• Communicate politely, not obnoxiously.
• Build your self-promotion into your routine reports.

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How should you communicate? You have e-mail, instant messaging, and text messaging, but don’t forget about picking up the phone and walking around. You are expected to have a finger on the pulse of the organization, and that’s not going to happen sitting at your desk, says Botwin.

Attitude is Important

Attitude is everything (almost), Botwin says. Consider the following:

• Check your ego at the door. We all have an ego, says Botwin, but those who let it show are not well-thought-of, regardless of their position.
• Can do. You want a “can do” attitude, says Botwin, but make sure that you also “do do.” “Can do” backfires big-time if there’s no follow-through.
• Smile! Positive outlook helps, says Botwin.
• Work. When you work, work hard!

Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR

Also, says Botwin, consider the following:

• Don’t be a victim; workplace bullying happens every day to HR.
• Have a viewpoint, but know what hat you are wearing.
• Be well thought out. Be your own devil’s advocate when time permits.
• Be a leader, not a follower.

Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR

Executives want a trusted advisor, Botwin says, and they also respect leaders. To be strategic, you must meet both expectations.

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Finally, says Botwin, HR leaders need to follow the advice of Mark Twain:

Always do the right thing; this will gratify some and astonish the rest.

Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR features:

• Real-world examples of wage & hour challenges, and how to solve them
• Multiple quizzes, so you can see where you need to review more carefully
• An overtime exemption audit checklist, so you never make the wrong call
• State-specific charts, for comparing your multi-state obligations
• Sample policies, easily modified to fit your specific preferences
• A quarterly newsletter, Wage & Hour Compliance Bulletin, to keep you aware of the latest developments in the law, and why they matter to you.

BONUS! Not just a manual. You also get:

• Free CD-ROM containing over 20 forms, policies, checklists, state-by-state comparison charts and more, all so you can point, click and go.

Why are aggressive attorneys so eager to file claims on behalf of employees? Because there’s so much money to be made:

• $4.75 million: Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California settles wage and hour lawsuit over miscalculated overtime pay and failing to compensate workers for missed meal and rest periods.
• $1.15 million: Las Vegas construction company to pay in back wages to 1,060 current and former employees.
• $976,327: New Mexico aerospace company settles with 900 employees who were routinely required to work through lunch breaks without compensation.
• $340,400: New Jersey convenience store to pay back wages and damages for violations of overtime and recordkeeping.
• $84,541: New York physical therapist agrees to pay 22 employees for minimum wage violations
• $30,000: Texas chain of four gas stations to pay their six hourly employees, again for recordkeeping and overtime violations.

Avoid steep fines. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.

Buyers’ Benefit: To make sure your Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR remains current with changing interpretations and court decisions, we monitor courts, Congress, and state legislatures. Each year, we’ll rush you an updated edition and bill on a 30-day review basis. You pay only if you decide to keep the updated edition.

Stay up to date with wage/hour changes. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.