HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

New Years Resolution for Human Resources

Every year people make resolutions for the new year but how many really follow through with them? For those of you in human resources I would make the following resolutions and stick with them if you want to continue to sit at the table or even be invited.

• make a concerted effort to ensure you are managing talent;
• be totally involved in the business from the ground floor up;
• hire with passion and intensity;
• interview candidates with deep questions, touch their EQ;
• visit creative communities and see what may fit into your business model;
• use employees as resources not just as workers;
• advertise creatively using all social networks as a basis;
• counsel the CEO, be his/er right hand on everything;
• celebrate failure as the basis for new innovation, there is no strike out in innovation and creativity;
• lead don't follow.

I hope that these new years resolutions resonate & will help you be the HR exec or CHRO you want to be and should be to be successful. Feel free to add to the list by emailing me or commenting on this post. 

Employee Down Time Review for 2014

If you have been keeping up with the news about overworked workers then you should consider reviewing your paid time off. This year surveys have indicated that employees are over worked, stressed out and have had trouble keeping up with all the communications from workers, managers, customers and the like. So the question is what are you doing about it? 

One company has turned off emails on Fridays and turned it back on on Monday morning. Drastic but it tells the employee that the company cares about his/er quality of life.  Another company is only communicating with its employees during work hours and nothing after the close of business. Drastic again considering if there is a disruption in business continuity. 

Well, what are you doing for 2014 that is the big question. If you care about your human capital and their well being you may want to review your time off policies and make accommodations for employees so they have more off hour down time.  

At the end o the day this is not a cost issue but a return on investment issue!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Career Creativity

Companies on this year's Most Admired for HR list are encouraging employees to take more control of their professional development and consider less-traditional, better-fitting career moves.

By Mark McGraw

Monday, December 9, 2013

Like many others, Robb Webb's career path hasn't followed a perfectly straight line. 

"I stumbled into the HR field when looking for a job while I was still in college," he says. "When I registered at a Canadian federal-government student-jobs center to find work, they ended up hiring me to work at one of the centers, finding jobs for others."

Webb, who has served as the chief human resource officer at Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. for the past six-plus years, began his post-college career working on a United Way campaign. His campaign chairman was a Westinghouse Electric Corp. executive, who subsequently hired Webb into the manufacturing company's HR department. Webb has also spent nearly 20 years in the financial-services sector. It was while he was leading Citigroup's international HR function that the company acquired Avco Financial Services in Australia, in hopes of expanding its presence in that market, he says.

"After one year, the integration had not progressed, so the business-unit president asked me to move to Australia to manage the integration," says Webb. "And this was after he had asked me to manage a project to open a business in Hong Kong. He told me he wasn't going to let my title limit me!"

This diverse experience ultimately helped Webb transition into his role as CHRO at Hyatt. He sees parallels between his career trajectory and that of countless co-workers at Hyatt Hotels, an organization that embraces a career-lattice concept offering employees multiple paths upward. Workers help chart their own courses -- getting experience in and collaborating with different disciplines, making lateral moves that uncover new interests and talents, revealing strengths and weaknesses, and gaining more depth and breadth of experience.

Employees seeking these types of opportunities would do well to see the organizations on the 2013 Most Admired for HR list, where Hyatt Hotels finds itself ranked No. 23 overall. (See chart.)

Since 2005, Human Resource Executive® has partnered with Hay Group to compile the "Most Admired for HR" list, culled from Fortune's annual "Most Admired Companies." (See sidebar for methodology.)

Among this year's crop, "I would say I see more organizations trying to define career paths specifically," says Mark Royal, senior principal at Hay Group Insight, the survey research division of the Philadelphia-based consultancy.

With today's employees desiring more responsibility in managing their own careers, "organizations are increasingly [creating] and communicating specific definitions of what career development means in the organization," says Royal, "rather than letting development be defined uniquely in the minds of individual employees."

Leading employers, for example, "are clarifying where employees should expect career development to happen -- in their day-to-day roles versus formal development initiatives -- as well as the roles and responsibilities of employees, managers and the organization in career-development processes," he says.

That said, recent research indicates many employers haven't yet warmed to this concept.

Hay Group employee-opinion norms -- determined from data collected in a series of employee surveys -- reveal that only 57 percent of employees hold favorable views of their opportunities for learning and development in their organizations, and just 44 percent rate their opportunities for advancement highly.

A recent survey by Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based Lee Hecht Harrison also finds employees lack career-planning and development support. In a poll of 379 U.S.-based workers, just 6 percent said their employers "nearly always" use career planning and development to prepare employees for roles. Only 10 percent said their companies do so "frequently," and 19 percent reported their employers "sometimes" use career planning and development to prepare employees.

Perhaps these statistics also help underscore part of what makes Most Admired companies so admired. Whether driven by a still-shaky economy, scores of baby boomers delaying retirement and affecting Gen Xers' and millenials' advancement opportunities, or simply a desire to flatten out their organizations, many of the companies comprising this year's Most Admired for HR list excel at redefining career arcs -- taking an open-minded approach to career development and encouraging employees to do the same. HRE spoke with HR leaders at a few of those companies, to get a better look at some of the programs and practices that helped earn them this honor.

Personalizing Career Paths

In the past, top-performing companies excelled at professional development "because they could offer a fairly straightforward career-development track," says John Bremen, managing director and leader of Towers Watson's talent and rewards segment in the Americas.

Not anymore, he says.

Towers Watson has "had experience with many" of the organizations on HRE's 2013 list, says Bremen. "And when I look at these companies, I'm trying to think of one that doesn't take [a customized] approach to developing their people. And I can't do it. Tailored career development is a consistent practice among them."

At Oakbrook, Ill.-based McDonald's Corp. -- a Most Admired for HR perennial that ranks No. 25 this year -- high-potential employees are strongly encouraged to develop themselves by taking stretch assignments and working in various functions, says Richard Floersch, executive vice president and chief human resource officer.

With 1.8 million employees and operations in 119 countries, the organization offers plenty of room for movement -- throughout varied geographic areas as well as job functions. Yet, while most employees are eager to receive cross-training and acquire diverse experience and skills, it may be tempting for some to view a lateral move as a step in the wrong direction, he says.

To conquer the latter, "we've taken away some of the negative stigma around lateral moves, by treating them almost as promotions," says Floersch.

For example, "if we believe someone's got strong potential, and they're moving into a new function, we treat their offer package the same way we would [treat] a promotion," including salary, he says.

"It's about making sure people don't feel it's a side step, but feel it's an investment for the future," says Floersch. "The experience the employee gets [in a new market and/or job capacity] will, over the course of the next 10 to 15 years, likely differentiate him or her from peers who haven't gotten that experience."

McDonald's also boasts a "fast track" operations program designed to help high-potential employees stretch their skills while gaining experience in all facets of the company, says Floersch. Typically, these are employees from corporate staff functions "who aspire [to] and are judged to have strong leadership capabilities, results orientation and influencing skills," he says. Candidates "are evaluated by a panel of line leaders and HR against those dimensions. If they pass, then they start out working shifts in the restaurants and progress in an accelerated fashion.

"If you want to become a line leader and you're in the staff area, you have to start as a shift manager and work your way up," he says. "That could take 18 months or so. So that's a sizable investment. But if that's what an employee wants, then we help them get there." Employees selected for the fast-track program are assigned career coaches who help them map out career-development plans, says Floersch.

At Hyatt Hotels, employees aspiring to get on a similar track historically required very specific experience, says Webb. He and his HR team have helped change that.

"For example, it used to be that there were two paths to becoming a general manager -- through the food and beverage division or through the rooms division.

"When I got here, I had come from banking," says Webb. "I was told you come up through one of those divisions to reach management. I said, 'What about HR? Wouldn't some of the fundamental traits of an HR person fit well in a GM position?' "

A typical response, he says, was that HR -- along with other staff functions, for that matter -- weren't "typically where general managers came from. So there was this notion that, if something's worked for a long time, then why [should we] change it?"

Webb helped launch Hyatt's career-lattice program to assist employees interested in getting on the general-manager career track, and promote other opportunities throughout different divisions.

"The concept is not new," he says. "We simply adapted it from how other [companies] have applied the mind-set."

Webb himself seeks out employees from different divisions to apply for open positions. He cites an HR generalist he and the HR team recently recruited from Hyatt's IT department as an example.

"His technical skills and general interests and inclinations suggested he would meet a need within the HR function at our corporate office," says Webb. "He has been helpful in some of our [technological] communications, and I hope we are helping him develop expertise in the HR space."

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Finding a Cultural Fit

The Hyatt Leadership Forum is yet another Hyatt initiative designed to help future leaders advance "beyond a linear career path," says Webb. Hyatt has offered the Leadership Forum for the past three years in partnership with nearby Northwestern University, which co-created the forum and helps modify it based on participant and leadership feedback.

Each year, Hyatt handpicks a group of about 25 high-potential employees -- ranging from general managers in the Middle East all the way to HR and communications directors from right in Chicago -- to take part in the 10-day program. In addition to performing community service throughout the city, participants take a bus trip to Hyatt Chairman and CEO Nicholas Pritzker's farm on the outskirts of Chicago, where they enjoy lunch, discuss the company's history and listen to Pritzker share his vision of Hyatt's future.

While the Leadership Forum "remains in its early days," says Webb, he and the HR team have begun to seek input from participants. "We're trying a number of things to measure each cohort, including tracking engagement results through an annual survey. Anecdotal feedback is also important, and we have participants self-reporting as to the experience," he says, noting an employee who recently told him taking part in the Forum         " 'will change the way I lead and look at my role.' "

In addition to leadership development, a primary goal of initiatives such as the Hyatt Leadership Forum is to instill a sense of responsibility for maintaining the organization's unique culture, which espouses "thinking in terms of advancement rather than promotion," says Webb.  "Strict swim lanes that define career paths can be limiting, and may not always communicate opportunities in the future."

This type of open mind-set is ingrained in the culture at Fortune's Most Admired and HRE's Most Admired for HR companies, many of which use the hiring process to gauge an employee's willingness to tackle diverse roles throughout the organization, says Mel Stark, vice president and regional reward practice leader at Hay Group. In fact, 73 percent of the organizations on Fortune's list test job applicants for cultural fit as part of the recruitment process, according to Hay Group figures.

"There are operational attributes that fit with a company's culture," says Stark. "The better companies look and test to make sure there's a good fit between the employee and his or her work environment."

Count Deere & Co. (No. 16 on the HR-specific list) among them, says Marc Howze, vice president of global human resources at the Moline, Ill.-based manufacturer of agricultural machinery.

Deere's HR team conveys the organization's four key cultural values -- integrity, quality, commitment and innovation -- in its recruiting materials and reinforces the message to employees once they join the company, he says.

"Deere's recruiting and staffing processes are rigorous. Clearly, we seek to have technically competent people working throughout the company. Additionally, we use the process to ask questions of our candidates," says Howze, such as where they feel they thrive as an employee and what accomplishments give them the most pride, for instance.

"By paying close attention to how these questions are answered, we can assess whether individuals will work well in the John Deere culture."

In terms of career development, the company is looking for those who crave disparate work experiences in terms of locale as well as job description, says Howze.

"We offer challenging assignments around the world, with significant responsibility, and we are known for our leadership-development programs," he says.

"We have continued to grow our employment brand in these regions, not simply as a great company to work for, but also as an organization where an individual can achieve [his or her] development goals and career objectives."

At McDonald's, Floersch has his own way of evaluating how much a prospective employee values the flexibility that's such a part of the company's culture. All McDonald's employees are required to spend at least two weeks working at one of the organization's franchises -- manning the drive-thru, tending to the grill, working the cash register and so on.

"When I'm interviewing someone, I ask him or her about working in one of our restaurants. And if they start to look at me funny, then the interview is essentially over," says Floersch. "The only reason we're here is because of the incredible work being done in our restaurants. If [an applicant] doesn't get some sense of why we're here, and how challenging those jobs are, then [he or she] has lost an opportunity to fit in with our culture."

Copyright 2013© LRP Publications

Best Business Smartphones: 10 Top Handsets for Work

UPDATED A round-up of the best smartphones on the market for business users

By John McCann

Once upon a time there was only one firm on the lips of any business' IT team when it came to company phones – BlackBerry (formerly known as Research In Motion or RIM).

BlackBerry is still a big player in the enterprise market but the rest of the pack is hot on its heels, with the likes of Apple, Samsung, Nokia and HTC all eager to get a piece of the business pie.

In no particular order, here are the top 10 smartphones for business use and business users:

BlackBerry Z30

We're kicking off our top 10 with the latest handset from the firm once synonymous with business handsets – the BlackBerry Z30.

BlackBerry has always been a firm favourite in the business arena, but recently people have begun switching en masse to Apple and Android offerings.

The Z30 builds on the BlackBerry Z10 which was used to launch the firm'sBlackBerry 10 operating system, aimed at winning back the business market with an excellent messaging hub.

Offering up a larger, 5-inch fully touch display the Z30 is a more convenient size (compared to the Z10) for many, allowing you to get more information on screen at once. The big advantage with the BlackBerry Z30 is its excellent support for business users.

IT departments can take control of the handset using BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10), with security provided by BlackBerry itself ensuring all your emails and messages are fully encrypted.

The Z30 has a feature known as BlackBerry Balance which allows you to flip quickly between work and personal profiles on the handsets, allowing you to keep the two separate with work controlling the business side while you have full control over your own area.

• Read: BlackBerry Z30 review

iPhone 5S

More and more businesses are turning to Apple's smartphone offerings, and while it produces great looking, powerful devices, they certainly come at a price.

The iPhone 5S is the latest in Apple's line up, and while it only builds fractionally on the iPhone 5, it continues to turn heads in every circle.

Apple offers a wide range of enterprise resources on the iPhone 5S with support for SSL VPN and data protection APIs, enabling third party app makers to produce fully secure solutions.

There's even a fingerprint scanner hidden beneath the home key on the iPhone 5S, adding another layer of security to the handset.

On the topic of apps, the iPhone family is best placed when it comes to business focussed software, with thousands of applications available on the App Store aimed at making work easier - not to mention Apple's own suite of business software which is now available for free.

You also get Siri, your own personal digital assistant who listens to your voice and brings you whatever you need, from meeting reminders to the latest footy scores.

The iPhone 5S runs Apple's latest software, iOS 7, which features a fresh new look allowing it to keep pace with the rapidly evolving Android platform.

If your company has already upgraded to the iPhone 5, there really is now need to make the switch to the 5S, you're better off waiting for the iPhone 6at least.

• Read: iPhone 5S review

HTC One

If you're looking for all round smartphone perfection look no further than the HTC One. It's only the third ever smartphone to pick up a coveted 5 star TechRadar rating, and it fuses superb design with excellent functionality.

It's not a business minded as the BlackBerry Z30, but the One's full metal body puts it up there with the iPhone 5S in terms of premium style and boardroom presence.

The full HD, 4.7-inch display is the most defined in this list and the punchy quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM ensures you'll never be short of power.

There are plentiful amounts of bells and whistles on the HTC One and theAndroid Jelly Bean operating system allows for a wealth of customisation - although HTC has heavily skinned it with its Sense overlay.

You may find that overlay gets in the way of core business functions, so it's worth checking out the HTC One before hand, but if the interface is manageable you'll be more than happy getting this out in meetings.

• Read: HTC One review

Nokia Lumia 925

The Windows Phone 8 toting Nokia Lumia 925 turns up with Microsoft's backing, which will sound attractive to businesses that rely on the firm's Windows software for its computers.

Building on its predecessor, the Lumia 920, the Lumia 925 sports a premium metal chassis and slimmer design making it more manageable in hand and in your shirt pocket.

Unsurprisingly, Windows Phone 8 plays nicely with its computer-based brothers – although companies running Macs may want to opt for the iPhone instead.

The unfussy Live Tile display on the home screen keeps things simple, allowing you to access your emails, messages or call log quickly, and the intuitive interface makes it an easy system to learn.

The Lumia 925 has one of the largest screens in the current Windows Phone 8 line up at 4.5 inches, which comes in handy when viewing documents and long email chains.

Microsoft's fully functioning Office Suite for mobiles - something which is currently only available on Windows Phone – is installed on the handset, making last minute amendments on the way to a meeting easy.

It may not have the same wealth of apps as Android or iOS, but if you can cope with that you'll enjoy the Nokia Lumia 925's powerful offering.

• Read: Nokia Lumia 925 review

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Working on your smartphone can be problematic due to the restrictive screen size, but manufacturers are looking to ease the issues with supersized handsets.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 arrives with a huge 5.7-inch, full HD display and its very own S-Pen stylus, merging the line between smartphone and tablet.

If your business is creatively minded then you may find the accuracy of the S-Pen and the ability to draw a real advantage.

You can also annotate documents, emails and anything else on screen using the stylus, allowing you to provide instant feedback to colleagues.

Multitasking has always been tricky on smartphones, partly due to the screen size and the fact that it's not really possible to have two apps on screen at once.

Samsung has overcome this problem on the Galaxy Note 3 by allowing you to run two apps side by side on the screen, so you could be looking at the latest financials while tapping out a quick email to the shareholders.

Of course, the size of the handset may hamper some as it isn't the most pocket friendly of devices, nor is it the lightest.

Also, some of the applications, especially those designed for use with the S-Pen, are overly complicated in places so intensive training may be required for some staff.

• Read: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 review

Nokia Lumia 1520

Fancy a bigger screen and super slick Windows integration? Then the 6-inch Nokia Lumia 1520 has you covered.

The Lumia 1520 has the biggest, highest resolution display of any Windows Phone device and its 2.2GHz quad-core processor also means it's the most powerful to rock Microsoft's mobile platform.

Once again you get Microsoft's Office software which sync wirelessly to the cloud, allowing you to easily move work between computer and phone and the increased screen size makes editing easy on the Lumia 1520.

There's little needed in the way of training, as the Windows Phone 8interface is incredibly intuitive and doesn't offer up the multitude of confusing options that Android does.

Size and weight were always going to be an issue with the Lumia 1520, but considering it can replace the need for a tablet, and even at times a laptop, for a lot of tasks it's definitely a handset you should be considering.

• Read: Nokia Lumia 1520 review

BlackBerry Q10

The traditional QWERTY keyboard still has its fans and the BlackBerry Q10 offers the best one on the market.

Fully touchscreen smartphones are great for numerous reasons, but when it comes to the simple task of typing you won't find anything better than a physical array of keys.

With a premium style, 3.1-inch 720p display and the new BlackBerry 10operating system the Q10 is built for business.

As with the BlackBerry Z30 we've already mentioned in this round up, the Q10 comes with the BES 10 support and a top notch messaging hub ensuring all your communications are secure and easily managed.

When it comes to watching videos, playing games or using apps the Q10 isn't quite so useful, as its square screen makes these exploits rather tricky.

If you're in need of a business handset for predominantly messaging and emails you can't go wrong with the Q10, but if you require your phone to offer a broader range of abilities look elsewhere.

• Read: BlackBerry Q10 review

Samsung Galaxy S4

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has more features than you can shake a stick at and it's no wonder that this is the best selling Android smartphone of 2013.

Its slick Android Jelly Bean interface, responsive, bright 5-inch full HD display and powerful quad-core processor means the Galaxy S4 has the vital statistics to make it a great business tool.

Add to that its highly adaptable email and note-taking applications, a host of connectivity options and on-device encryption to make sure all your top secret files are safe and secure, and you'll want to seriously consider this device.

In terms of style, the Galaxy S4 is trumped by the all metal iPhone 5S andHTC One, but Samsung's handset is arguably more versatile, not to mentioned slightly cheaper.

Android is far more adaptable and customisable than Apple's iOS system, meaning that if you have some technical boffins in your ranks, you will be able to tweak the Galaxy S4 to suit your firm's exact needs.

The Galaxy S4 also comes with Samsung Knox, a mobile solution built specifically for the business sector to ensure handsets are fully secure, from application and platform security to device management.

• Read: Samsung Galaxy S4 review

Google Nexus 5

If you want the best features to price ratio from your smartphones then you'll need to take a look at the Android KitKat running Google Nexus 5.

Manufactured by LG the Nexus 5 sports an impressive 2.3GHz quad-core processor, 4.95-inch full HD display and the latest version of the powerful Android OS all wrapped up in a package which will set you back £300.

The Nexus 5 is beautifully designed, has more connectivity than a BT Telephone Exchange and even excels in the simple matter of making telephone calls.

It is slightly hampered by only being available in 16GB and 32GB sizes with no microSD slot and the camera isn't the strongest here, but that's a minor issue for a business device.

Perhaps Android isn't the best mobile business solution, and the Nexus 5 lacks the additional enterprise features Samsung has added to its devices. But at such a low price it is definitely worth considering.

• Read: Google Nexus 5 review

BlackBerry Q5

The Q10 and Z30 are still quite expensive, so if you're desperate for a fleet of business focussed handsets which won't break the bank take a look at the mid-range BlackBerry Q5.

It doesn't look as stylish, nor feel as premium as the Q10 and the isolated buttons on the keyboard are very much a marmite feature, but the Q5 is still a highly capable smartphone.

With the same 3.1-inch 720p display, 2GB of RAM, BlackBerry 10 OS and 4G connectivity as its more expensive brother the BlackBerry Q5 will still make mincemeat of your emails, text messages and BBMs.

Another big advantage of all BB10 handsets are their web browsing ability - pages load in a matter of seconds and it's one of the most fluid surfing experiences you'll have on a smartphone.

As far as affordable smartphones go with a focus on messaging, internet and business the BlackBerry Q5 is one of the best in its class.

Think FLSA’s Confusing Now?

Think FLSA’s Confusing Now? New bill would create the ‘non-employee’

Another day, another crack at cutting down on the improper classification of employees as independent contractors by making life tougher on every employer — including those abiding by the law.

The latest attempt by Congress, and the ninth since 2007, to stymie “intentional misclassification” is called the Payroll Fraud and Prevention Act.

Introduced by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), the bill would make the misclassification of employees as independent contractors a new federal labor offense under the FLSA, which doesn’t currently address the issue of misclassification.

The bill would also create a new category of worker: the “non-employee.”

Casey said the bill’s designed specifically to prohibit the willful misclassification of an employee as a non-employee and is in no way intended to punish those who legally use independent contractors. However, it won’t just punish those intentionally misclassifying workers; even unintentional misclassification would violate the law.

More paperwork for every employer

Many business groups aren’t happy with the legislation. They feel it would create additional, onerous mandates on companies that already have to deal with the complexities of the FLSA, FMLA, ADA, ERISA, as well as numerous other federal, state and local laws.

The mandate that has most dissenting businesses up in arms is the requirement for every employer to provide a classification notice to both employees and non-employees (i.e., independent contractors) performing labor or services for their organizations.

The notices must state:

• a worker’s classification as either an employee or non-employee for whom no insurance contributions, taxes or overtime wages are paid
• the DOL has created a website for all workers explaining their rights under federal law, and
• workers should contact the DOL if they suspect they have been misclassified.

The notices would be due to all existing workers — even contractors — within six months following the passage of the law and to new workers upon hire.

In addition, the bill would impose additional record-keeping requirements on businesses that use contractors and subject them to more targeted government audits to ensure compliance — even in businesses where no violations have been reported.

Failure to abide by the bill’s requirements could result in some pretty steep penalties.

The penalties

Failing to provide the classification notice would result in a $1,100 penalty for every employee who didn’t receive a notice — regardless of whether they’re properly classified, or whether they’re an employee or a contractor. Second offenses will cost employers $5,000 per affected employee.

But that’s not where the penalties end for violations of the notice requirement. If an employer fails to provide a non-employee with the notice in a timely fashion, the worker will be presumed to be an employee, thus forcing the employer to shell out payroll taxes and other possible obligations for the employee.

The only way to rebut the worker’s new classification is with “clear and convincing evidence” the individual is a non-employee.

Other penalties for violations of the law include:

• triple damages for willful violations of minimum wage or overtime laws resulting from a misclassification, and
• “additional penalties” imposed by the Secretary of Labor on employers that misclassify workers for unemployment compensation purposes.

The outlook

The chance of this bill gaining much traction in Congress is slim under the current regime. But that doesn’t make staying up on the law superfluous.

With so many iterations of this law already having been brought before Congress in some fashion, it’s clear the movement to tighten up the enforcement of proper classification practices has a lot of backers.

For now it’s just a waiting game. Lawmakers in support of more stringent classification regs are likely biding their time until they have enough votes to make a big push to get something past Congress. And when that happens, the odds are good this bill will be the foundation upon which they’ll build their legislation.

Stick To Your Guns

People always ask you can be swayed in your decisions. The answer is yes, given all the information, homework, and what is the right thing to do. But there is also those situations where you have done all that but not been able to sway the leadership team. So what do you do?

My answer is stick to your guns and make the decision to agree not to agree but show your conviction to what is right. In the end of the day it is what is right that should be the guiding principle in business. And that is part of the business of human resources. 

Board Matters: Determining Whether a Board Is a Fit For You

Having successfully conducted several hundred board recruitments, attracting not only qualified director candidates but importantly, those that will truly contribute and represent the shareholders remains a challenge. Ferreting out the best qualified, given a board’s specific circumstances, is really the value that we provide to our clients.

Yet, as important as governance has become, we are surprised by how often Nominating Committees bring forth candidates largely, in the end, on “personal comfort.” While fit is important, charm itself is not enough to determine whether a candidate will effectively contribute to the governance equation.

Let’s flip this discussion and offer a few suggestions if you are a serious candidate for a directorship.

Oftentimes, board candidates during the interview process seek candor and insights into business issues, governance challenges and board culture but don’t ask, not wanting to be perceived as too forward. Yet, deep dive questions, in the end, are the determining factors as to whether a board seat is truly worth pursuing…due diligence requiring a serious deep dive.

Below are seven “starting point inquiries” which we suggest that you ask, in one form or another, to judge if a board fits your interests.

** What are the board’s current major challenges and its highest priorities…succession, compliance, shareholder matters, legal issues, et al? How are these matters being addressed?

**Does the board have consensus agreement on strategy i.e., have a strategic understanding on how its company’s operating model is aligned to value and the levers toward future enhanced valuation?

**Collectively, what is the board’s accountability process for of its own performance and the performance of its CEO? Improvements planned?

** How “open” is the board to shareholder rights and ideas?

** Regarding governance and compliance, what’s working and what isn’t? Why?

** What is the board culture and dynamics? How are decisions made?

** What role/impact do you expect me to play/carry out?

The important insights gained will be invaluable at avoiding the pitfalls of the boardroom.

While board service can be professionally satisfying, be sure that you are comfortable with the answers to these seminal questions, among others.

Our advice is simple…Be Diligent…Be Critical…Check Around.

Thanks to Joel Koblentz - The Koblentz Group is a global executive and board of director search firm specializing in recruiting senior leaders and corporate directors. Over the past 30 years, its Partners have successfully conducted several hundred “sensitive matter” board recruitments for public companies, investor owned and private concerns. The Firm serves its clients worldwide.