Yes, I am going to nag about the economy again. My economist friend in Oregon agreed with my posting yesterday. He told me that there is only one Fortune 500 company left in Oregon (Nike); the rest put on their Nike’s and ran as fast they could away from this unfriendly-to-business state. The same happened to Silicon Valley years ago. When the local government got unfriendly to the semiconductor companies, they moved their wafer fab operations to the Sun Belt and beyond.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to write some letters. It may not do much good, but I believe that it is my personal responsibility to speak up. For a long time now, I’ve fretted about us in the “silent majority” and if there was a time that we needed to speak up, it is now. Below, I’m offering some ideas for the next Human Resources Summit Meeting which I called yesterday, “The Save Our Private Sector Expo.”
Ron’s Ten Point Recovery Plan
1. Let the big 3 auto companies file bankruptcy - their union contracts would be cancelled and then they can start over.
2. Remove all constraints on business that make sense - taxes, fees, bureaucratic regulations
3. Provide incentives for businesses to start-up in the U.S.
4. Drill for oil. Allow new refineries to be built.
5. Provide incentives to States who make their states business-friendly.
6. Reinvent the Small Business Administration so the rate of new businesses skyrocket.
7. Do whatever it takes to bring back manufacturing to the U.S. (I have more ideas for this one).
8. The Chamber of Commerce drives a massive “pro-business” marketing campaign.
Pure fantasy…
9. Hollywood has an epiphany and starts making movies that are favorable towards business.
10.Executives turn down golden parachutes and crazy high bonuses when their companies aren’t making a profit.
“Rome” is burning. The “Rome” I am talking about is the private sector of the U.S. economy. Last month, the only job sector that grew was government jobs. I get this feeling that we are pulling a “Nero” watching this thing happen and are hopelessly standing by not doing anything about it. I read HR Blogs, including my own, and think, we’re walking around an elephant in our proverbial living room. Our own jobs in HR are in jeopardy if businesses don’t flourish. If something is not growing, it is dying. If we don’t fix this humongous problem, we won’t have to worry about engaging our employees, there won’t be any employees. I really don’t think I’m being Chicken Little here by expressing my concerns.
Yesterday, we heard from the automobile industry that if they go under, three million jobs or more will be eliminated and the unemployment rate will double. When those three million people drastically reduce their spending, more companies will have to cut back, and so on. We have just seen the beginning of a downward cycle.
What can we in HR do? Well, recently there was a huge Recruiting Expo that many Human Resource people attended. That was fine and dandy and we will sure need all that great information when we start hiring people again instead of planning layoffs. Just, maybe, we should have a “Save our Private Sector Expo” and bring together the finest minds of the Human Resources community and brainstorm capitalistic ideas on how to reignite the economy. Bailing out inefficient companies is not a capitalistic solution. What did Ireland do years ago to attract high tech companies to set up shop there? Gee, I think it had to do with making it easy for companies to be in business. How about ideas on how to become a business friendly country again? Am I smoking funny cigarettes when I propose that HR should lead the way? You tell me.
We wonder about the work ethic and how different generations approach work. I was recently talking to someone about their teenagers and how that they weren’t working and how many of their friends weren’t either. I heard some talk show hosts commenting about the same issue. They believed that many parents don’t want their kids to work. It is not that these young people aren’t busy, because they are. They are participating in sports and many activities after school. Also, in California, most of the schools are now year-round, so that there is no opportunity for summer employment.
I’ve been here on earth for some time now and I have never seen a time like this and I’ve been through several recessions. Economically speaking, I’m scared, but being in Human Resources, I don’t have the luxury of showing it. I must be a model for being positive, calm and confident. I am not going to sit in my fear.
Here are my three solutions to stop being scared:
You have to bail me out. I haven’t sold enough books on my blog site here, so I need to be bailed out. I going to make it easy for you - instead of going to the government and ask for my handout, I’m coming to you directly. Just send me money and lots of it. Come on… I’m not asking for billions like the rest of them; just a million or so.
How many times did I receive a personnel requisition with the instructions from the hiring manager to find someone from the outside? A lot. This happened even when we had a formal Succession Plan in place. The excuses I would get were, “Well, she is not ready yet,” or “I have to have someone who can do X and there is no one in the company who can do that.”
Everyone meant well when we instituted the Succession Plan. We all believed that it was the right thing to do. The managers filled out forms providing names of the employees who could replace them and other key roles. We felt good - our employees were being groomed for advancement and our Promotion From Within Policy would be honored.
Most of the time it did not happen. It didn’t happen because we treated succession planning as a stand- alone process. Succession Planning has to be an integral part of the whole system which includes Performance Management, coaching, personal development, and individual goal setting. The managers should also be evaluated on how well they develop their people for future opportunities and the actual results (promotions).
I was reading a trade journal earlier today and it was mentioning how most Human Resource Departments focus on keeping their companies out of trouble (abiding by the law and avoiding lawsuits). I remember a GM telling me, “Your job is to keep me out of jail.” I don’t know about you, but this was never my favorite part of HR. I didn’t sign up to be a labor attorney and enforcer of rules.
Although I always tried to spend more time on the other side - the fun side of HR: Employee Engagement activities, Management and Leadership Development, Employee Relations, etc. I did make sure that I wouldn’t have a mishap on the other side of the equation. ( I only had one major issue in all of my years - a wrongful discharge suit - and we won that, even in California!).
I kept my boss and the rest of the staff “out of jail” using these principles:
1. I made sure that all interviewers only asked job related questions during the interview process.
2. We instituted a “clean” culture. There was zero tolerance for informal or formal sexual advances, language, gestures, off color jokes and the like.
3. I made sure that we participated in “outreach” opportunities and, then, documented everything.
4. I prepared an EEO/Affirmative Action Plan to the government specifications (actually, I had one of the best experts in the field as a consultant). I also purchased a service that supplied me with specific demographics tailor made to our industry and job classifications so I wasn’t constricted by the Fed’s numbers). I also kept a tally of our results to ensure we stayed on plan.
But, these four items pale when compared to the what I did on the other side of HR. When the employees are engaged, excited and passionate about their jobs, the company, the mission and the vision, the furthest thing in their minds are calling their attorneys or contacting the labor board. I still believe that 80% or more of our time and effort should be on the fun side of HR.
By the way, I have nothing against red pants. The bad hire just happened to be wearing red pants to his interview that day. We hired Mr. RP prior to the advent of Behavioral Interviewing. Today I would have used this technique to screen him out.
Don’t hire the guy in red pants. I did. Oh, I didn’t want to. I fought the hiring manager. He, his boss, the VP of Engineering took it all the way up to the General Manager and they won. They hired old “Red Pants” in spite of HR’s objections.
Why didn’t I want to hire Mr. RP? He met all of the qualifications of the job description.
Yesterday I implied that the Culture of We-They is the main enemy of Employee Engagement. I would venture to guess that some of the best organizations have aspects of We-They. Some of these aspects seem to be unavoidable. You might want to create your own checklist…
Do you have any of these?
A guru in our field, used to say that the number one cause for unionization of your employees had nothing to do with money. They would say it was about money, but that was only a ruse. The real reason was: “We-They.” The instant I heard this, I knew it was true. Things in the world of work that cause division between people create an “us versus them” mentality and when we talk about the hip process of, “Employee Engagement,” it is then about one group trying to engage another group.
Yes, America, we have a new driver and we’re taking a new road in a new car and it’s not your grandfather’s Oldsmobile either. And just as America’s President-Elect promised - there is going to be change.
We in Human Resources know that change is difficult even when the change appears to be a good one. Like a sociologist, I watched companies in Silicon Valley change hands. Memorex was a prime example. I remember when they brought in a new CEO who promised change and he quickly implemented it by bringing in his own team at the top. They had worked with him at his prior company and were able to swiftly implement the new changes.
Last time I told you that I would provide a simple tool which helps getting closer to Paying for Performance. Note, this tool is just part of a Performance Management System. It is so basic and so obvious, you may be wondering why I am even bringing it up. Well, Tom Peters said one time, we tend to overlook the obvious, so here goes…
When I devised this simple process (I’m sure I plagiarized it from somewhere!), I selected my best manager, Al, (who also happened to be a good friend of mine) and tried it out with him.
Alfred E. Neuman has been running for president for over 40 years and I’m thinking that it is about time we got serious about this tenacious candidate. When Mad Magazine first discovered Alfred, his slogan was, “What, Me Worry?” I always liked this sentiment since I grew up as an extreme worrier. I’ve learned over the years that worry is not a productive trait to have.
Note: I’m talking about those of us who manage merit pay systems.
Some of us might get close to paying for performance, but no cigar. Why not? A lot of the time it is because of Ron’s 3 Laws of Compensation:
1. Managers are afraid not to give salary increases to those employees who don’t deserve them. They just don’t want to tell one of their people that he doesn’t get a raise and they assume that inflation is around 3%, so they don’t want to grant any one of them a salary increase below 3%. If the salary increase budget is 4%, then the salary differential between the star and the mediocre performer won’t be that much.
I just read interesting comments on a blog about the unintended consequences of a certain bonus program. My experience has been that there is always unintended consequences. When people chase the proverbial carrot, the motivation for the real work gets sidelined. The carrot becomes the goal, not the job itself.
Today, I want to play Miss Manners (in the old days, she was a real person named Emily Post). Anyway… I witnessed a class act yesterday. A Human Resource person called one of his candidates and told him that he wasn’t selected for the final rounds of interviews. “So what,” you say?
I heard an audio clip on another blog recently describing four types of HR people. It was satirical, but I do believe that the author was trying to make a valid point. The four types were: Cold and Analytical (Comp and Benefits folks), Amiable (likes people and works on building company culture), Expressive (Drama Queens who conduct team building sessions like swinging from trees) and, Driven (tough guys who work at keeping salaries down).
In a more serious vein, I would tweak this list as follows:
Hiring someone is a lot like getting married. The recruiting phase is all romance and lust. The recruiter is chasing the new candidate like a smitten teenager. Sometimes, the applicant plays hard to get or sometimes she is calling the recruiter incessantly. As a determined staffing professional, I used a technique that, many times, worked - I sent flowers to the house - what’s more romantic than that? I would continue to “woo” candidates until I got them agree to marriage, oops, I mean, got them to accept my offers. As a good recruiter, I would still keep up my ardent approach until I saw them march down the aisle, oops, I mean, until they showed up for work.
I have heard the initial phase of employment referred to as the “honeymoon period.” I used to have a friend that told me that his love affairs always lasted about six months, then the romance would wear off and reality would set in…. the “warts” would start showing up. Isn’t this what happens after we hire someone? After a few months, employees become “old hat.” They become like that annoying spouse who no longer is as attractive. We stop recruiting. We have forgotten why that person was so attractive to us in the first place.
I have talked to countless managers, who when the times get rough, start blaming their employees for everything. They sounded like bitter spouses who shed any responsibility for hiring them in the first place (marrying them) or coaching along the way (marriage counseling). As a Human Resource person, I used to remind my managers that divorce, oops, I mean…termination should be the last resort. Working on any relationship is hard work no matter whether on the home front or at work. It is important to ”keep the romance alive.”
Wonder if we hired only adults? I mean people that acted like adults. Just think about it - we could throw away our Employee Handbook, our Policies and our Procedures. Adults don’t need these rule books.
We in Human Resources spend a lot of time focusing on trying to control the “kids” that sometimes slip through our hiring screens. We have a whole list of “Don’ts” in our Handbook and an elaborate disciplinary procedure if “they” get out of control.
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