Empowerment is critical to quality management

Organizations that include employee empowerment in their total quality management initiatives are twice as likely to see significant improvements in products or services.

Top quality companies enhance decision-making at all levels, redesign jobs or work groups to address customer needs, give employees the authority to act when necessary to meet customer expectations, and provide strategic information to employees at all levels.

It is not surprising that organizations that report improvements in products or services also report better results in finance and operations. Companies that empower their employees report improved profitability, lower internal costs, fewer errors, and increased employee morale. Empowered organizations also report that there is a positive impact on suppliers to pursue greater internal empowerment and quality improvement, and to be more responsive to customer needs.

This positive impact on the entire supply chain results in increased efficiencies and vastly improved quality of products and services all around.

Costly sleep disorders ... do you have one?

There are more than 100 different sleep disorders. Some of them include:

Insomnia - an inability to fall asleep

Narcolepsy - sudden and unpredictable attacks of sleep

Apnea - the inability to sleep and breathe at the same time

Sleep disorders cost industry billions of dollars each year in terms of lost productivity, medical bills and industrial accidents. Human error due to sleep loss and fatigue have contributed to some of the most spectacular and disastrous accidents in history.

The situation is getting worse rather than better, even in light of increased knowledge in the area. North Americans are becoming increasingly sleep deprived because workers tend to put in longer days with greater stress. Because alertness on the job is crucial to top performance and productivity, no amount of motivation and training will combat poor performance associated with fatigue.

So pay attention to your sleep patterns and be alert to signs of fatigue among your co-workers. Making others aware of the impact of sleep disorders could not only save your organization huge amounts of money, but could also save you from a serious or debilitating accident.

Don't tolerate harassment!

Harassment at work is a fairly common problem. Whether based on sex, race, personality, physical attributes, or whatever, it needs to be addressed forcefully and in a timely manner. While addressing the problem with prevention is the best policy, many times employers still run into problem employees. Reporting harassment is in the best interest of the company, and all of its employees, so that they can address the issue and remedy the situation.

Before we start talking about how to deal with harassment, it’s important to define exactly what harassment is:    harassment is anything in word or deed that results in someone feeling significantly uncomfortable. This can be something as insensitive as a co-worker asking if you got ‘any’ over the weekend, to your boss belittling you through words or actions, to overhearing racial or sexual jokes, to making comments about the way someone walks or looks, etc., etc.. There are no bounds to what can be offensive or embarrassing. Harassment can be subtle or blatant and it’s not a condition experienced by any particular demographic.

Here are a few tips for dealing with the harasser:

• Tell the person that his/her behavior makes you uncomfortable and that it’s inappropriate. Tell them that the behavior must stop immediately.

• If the harassing behavior does not stop, start keeping a written journal of incidents. Write down what happened, what was said to you, and how you chose to deal with it at the time and why. Also note the date and the time of the incident. Keep this journal in a very safe place.

• Tell someone. Start with the Human Resources department. If you work for a small company and there is no HR department, or there is no real defined person in charge of HR, then go to your boss. If he/she is the harasser, then go to that person’s boss. If your boss is the owner, and there is no HR department, then make a formal complaint to the Labor Board in your city. Above all, do not keep things to yourself. Remember, you have done nothing wrong, and you have the right to work in a safe environment free of harassment.

• If you’re retaliated against, don’t put up with it. Retaliation can be very subtle. It might be a one-on-one meeting where your boss or co-worker threatens you and/or your job, or you may find yourself with too little or too much work to do, to name a few examples. If this happens,document it in your journal, and go back to whomever you spoke to the first time and report the retaliation. Continue to do so for as long as it continues. Don’t let up on the abuser. Tell him/her to stop it immediately. Don’t discontinue reporting, even if it appears that no one is listening to you, or even if they tell you to stop. You have the legal right to report the retaliation, any further harassment, and to work in an environment which is not hostile. Remind anyone of that if they attempt to thwart your efforts.