The Hidden Upside Of Downsizing

People are getting fired. Profits will never be the same. It's 1929 all over again. The guy on the corner tells you, "It's a recession. Times are tough."

So why is Stephen Covey , the best-selling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, feeling all upbeat? Because he believes that a positive cultural shift is occurring as we speak, and that firms that empower their employees are about to blossom (see my previous post dated 7/1/08, 5/28/08, and 5/23/08).

"We've never had such opportunity as we do today," he says. "People can create. They can adapt. They can make sacrifices. This is a really an opportunity for creative businesses to gain competitive advantage."

Covey has built a publishing and consulting empire teaching people how to be the masters of their own destinies. While the emphasis these days tends to be on all the pain the financial crisis is causing, he's much more interested in the change it is permitting. Agonizing about having to lay off workers or worrying that your own job may be on the block doesn't fly with him. "People are too much a product of their conditions, and not of their decisions," he says.

When profits dwindle, many organizations make the mistake of letting people know as little as possible, he says. "I find that people are very capable and resourceful when they're not in the dark. Open the books, show them what's happening. If you get them involved with the problem, they'll be a part of the solution. They may come up with ways to cut costs other than cutting people."

To get employees to trust management when mass firings are more common than rainstorms, leaders need to be open, authentic and real, Covey says. "If there is no real trust and genuine integrity, then it just becomes a kind of fake program of fake democracy, which will worsen it. People will say, 'We were manipulated again.' "

What are your comments?

When Right Is Right Where Others See It Wrong

I am sure each HR practitioner has experienced a situation where they made a decision and some senior management person did not agree. There are so many variables that I thought it would be appropriate to bring this up as a thought provoking question/issue. I do not like to make sports analogies but seeing last weeks playoff games in the NFL brought one to light. A play was called on the field in a snow storm that looked right from every camera angle shown. It was challenged and the play was reviewed in the booth and was called differently and it was a turning point in the game. Well, a player who was interviewed afterwords was asked about the play and his comment went like this; "the refs are here on the field feeling the game and the weather conditions how can someone in a heated booth feel the same tempo".

So many decisions are made based on the unique circumstances that reside at the time and those decisions are sometimes backed up by senior management and sometimes not. What senior management fails to realize is that those unique circumstances do not flow to instant replay or Monday morning quarterbacking. The decisions that are made are in good faith, have unique circumstances, critical interaction between employee and HR, understanding of state & federal regulations, one-on-one dynamics, and are not necessarily made by shoot from the hip decisions. Good quality thought goes into this at the time. Managers and senior managers need to consider this in their decision to back or not back the HR persons' decision. Unfortunately, many HR careers are set back, promotions denied, lost confidence, and even career ending terminations. Every senior manager needs to consider, in detail, the at-the-moment circumstances when calling the HR person into their office to review their decision.

What are your thoughts & have you been in this situation?

HR Work Is No Longer HR’s Work - From an HR Strategy Perspective

I attended a dinner function in the last week with a couple of colleagues. During the evening we got onto discussing my favorite subject .... HR strategy, and were having a debate about the usefulness of HR departments. The chap I was chatting to was in a typical mid-management line function and was complaining about the lack of HR support he was receiving and how much “HR work” he was doing.

I immediately said to him that this was a good thing, which took him by surprise. I continued to put my argument forward that it is not HR’s role to be managing his staff, and that the concept of HR being the department that deals with “People matters” is old and not contributing to organisational growth.

His counter argument was that he is there to make sure his business unit achieves its output goals and all this other HR mambo-jumbo is wasting his time. I did concede that if HR is dumping a lot onto him that is not value adding then he may have a point and should push back on doing stuff that fails to help him achieve his outputs. But, achieving his goals involves people, and he could not abdicate this role to HR or anyone else. Management of a business includes effective management of people. I asked him about his HR department in some more detail and how they had got to this point.

There are a number of interesting take aways from this discussion that took place:

1. this is not a unique situation and its been an ongoing debate for many years. What it does tell me is that the role of HR in that organisation in not understood or positioned properly. Even though HR is trying to do the right thing by getting line management to take accountability for their staff in a holistic manner, they are fighting an uphill battle and will continue to do so until the executive reposition the HR department correctly.
2. the HR department does not realise the long term damage they are creating when they execute an approach without the proper backing and strategy. It backfires like we have seen with this line manager. His view of the HR department is not positive and he sees them working against him. Correcting this is now going to be a bigger problem than before.
3. this does highlight a major concern with the level of strategy knowledge within HR departments. HR folk tend to be good at designing and executing activities inside the “HR space”, but can do with some support in executing programmes into the larger strategic realm. It points typically to the lack of business understanding and how to position HR strategically.
4. the forth point is about line managers themselves - I personally think that most of the push back to managing all aspects of their staff is related to fear and uncomfortableness with dealing with difficult people situations. This highlights the need to select management correctly, and not just appointing the good salesman into the sales manager role. Not all people are good and dealing with people matters, but it must be a requirementfor management and supervisory positions, and training and development in this space is a necessity.
5. finally it is also senior managers responsibility to measure people correctly to achieve particular behavior changes. If this line manager is rated on how he achieves his output goals, then that’s what will drive his behavior, however, if he is also measured on how he effectively manages people and gets the best out of them then that will drive another set of behaviours - but its all part of a well thought out HR strategy.
   
   Some of you may be thinking whether there is a need at all for an HR department if line management become super proficient in managing people. The answer is not as simple as a Yes/No, but I do think that you can get rid of the HR department as we know it today. Concepts such as HR shared services and other components that are administrative and transactional in nature can be owned by an inclusive services division. But HR strategy and expertise groups would still need to exist, but could be intertwined into the organisation in other ways than a separate department. Sounds like a good topic for a later discussion.
   
   Tell me your thoughts.

Finding Money for Innovation: Develop Those People Skills

Innovations typically involve trial, error and outright failure before turning into successful products or services. Thomas Edison, for example, conducted approximately 10,000 failed experiments before perfecting the incandescent light bulb. For decades, leading businesses have willingly shouldered the expense and the risk of innovating as the price of staying ahead of competitors.

But innovating has become a lot tougher lately, according to a panel of technology experts who recently spoke at the University of Pennsylvania's Executive Master's in Technology Management program. With R&D budgets shrinking and markets retrenching in a worldwide economic crisis, the panelists noted, technologists will need more than lab expertise to convince their employers to keep the research funding spigots open.

Indeed, the ability to communicate well and other "soft skills" are just as important as technological expertise when it comes to selling new ideas to investors or senior management, suggested several members of the panel, which was titled "Street-Smart Innovation to Align Emerging Technology and Business." In addition, future scientists, researchers and program managers should focus on aligning innovative projects with company goals. As panelist Nicholas D. Evans, vice president of the innovation division at Unisys, pointed out, it's much easier to justify budgets for speculative projects that show an obvious commercial benefit to the parent company.

That lesson became painfully obvious this past summer to employees of the storied Bell Labs research group, based in northern New Jersey. Alcatel-Lucent, owner of Bell Labs, all but gutted much of the non-commercial "basic research" performed by the lab. The product of a rocky 2006 merger, struggling Alcatel-Lucent sought to align Bell Labs' operations more closely with the parent's commercial interests in wireless, optics, networking and computer science.

So, how do organizational entrepreneurs keep innovation alive in companies looking to slash costs? And how do start-ups and growth companies attract investors when the rest of the economy is melting? That's another place where those soft skills come in handy. Several of the panelists suggested that while technical people are generally not known for soft skills, those individuals who desire funding to continue their work would do well to acquire them.

Anthony P. Green, a vice president with first-round funding group Ben Franklin Technology Partners, said he frequently sees entrepreneurs stumble because they lack such skills. All too often, entrepreneurs come across as rude, dismissive and disrespectful to audiences of potential investors, thereby "infuriating the investment community." Panelist Eric F. Bernstein, a laser surgeon, dermatologist and technology entrepreneur, echoed that point. "Business is all about relationships. They need to like your idea, but they also need to like you."

Suzanne Taylor, portfolio director of corporate operations for Unisys, pointed out that budget handlers are also more inclined to favor innovation if it can be shown to cut costs. Innovation department heads must become adept at "making the case for maximizing productivity and reducing waste," Taylor said. This requires excellent communication skills, she added, including the fine art of schmoozing. And the higher up the case is made, the better for the innovator, added Sanjoy Ray, director of global application engineering for pharmaceutical giant Merck. "Executive sponsorship is very powerful. It provides 'air cover.'"

Do you agree? Send me your comments and thoughts on this issue.

Sweat the Small Stuff

When it comes to company culture and having a reputation that attracts and retains quality people, the small stuff is the important stuff. If the boss adds a little to the expense account, maybe the CFO adds a little to the balance sheet. If the person in the cube next to you treats a vendor poorly, then maybe that vendor adds a little extra to the invoice next time - or tells 100 people not to do business with you. In November, CBS on line had an article entitled "Bad Behavior Contagious, Study Finds" - highlighting some of the research on this phenomena. For me and others I am sure, steeped in social psychology and the impact of the social norms - it's a no-brainer. But most folks blow off the effects of small behaviors.

Keeping your eye on the small stuff is probably the single biggest thing a company can do to influence culture.

Incessant Change is the Norm

You have to read this white paper on change. It is exactly what I have been talking about for the last 20 years as companies go through evolution and economic change. some do and some don't. The ones that don't will not be a company you should either invest in or work for.

Change is permanent – it does not matter what industry you may be in, how large your enterprise, or your organizational structure. Globalization, technology advances, complex multinational organizations and more frequent partnering across national borders and company boundaries – these are just a few of the enablers and accelerators of change.

How would you rate your organization when it comes to executing change? Most CEO's consider themselves and their organizations to be executing change poorly, yet a few outperformers do excel at delivering and benefiting from meaningful change. You need to become an outperformer to learn to manage change well, so you can get ahead of, and even be the driver of change. To accomplish this, you will need to abandon outdated notions of change. You no longer have the luxury of expecting day-to-day operations to fall into a static or predictable pattern that is interrupted occasionally by short bursts of change.

Where do you see your enterprise in the next few years? Leading your competition in growth and revenue? Developing a highly new innovative product or service? Re-inventing and redefining your industry? Or will your organization remain static, struggling to keep up with your competitors, and staying afloat?

For its very survival, the Enterprise of the Future must better prepare itself as the pace, variety and pervasiveness of change continue to increase. Discover how to become a "student of change" in a world of total flux.

To download a copy of this new research paper, please click here:
www.ibm.com/gbs/makingchangework

The Leadership Skills Needed in Global Companies

I think this article that was published on TalentBar December 22nd has great value to anyone who manages a global company as you look to identify and grow managers and leaders.

The Challenge: Increased Globalization

In today’s borderless marketplace, it is becoming more and more common for managers to have responsibilities that include teams in multiple countries, regions and even continents. Besides the obvious logistical and technical challenges this poses, there are also numerous people–related challenges. Fostering collaboration, aligning organizational objectives with departmental and individual objectives, and motivating others to perform is hard enough when you see the people you manage every day and speak a common language. When you don’t, the task can feel impossibly daunting.

Key Leadership Skills:

The Ability to Manage Remotely
In a globalized business environment, leaders must learn the skills necessary to manage from afar. The most successful leaders understand that micro–managing employees is counterproductive. With a geographically dispersed workforce, it isn’t even an option. As such, global business leaders must have the ability to manage, develop and empower others to make business decisions that are not only sound but closely aligned with over–arching organizational goals.

It is fundamentally important that remote employees understand what they are working to accomplish and how it relates to the larger organization’s objectives and strategy. Culture and language differences increase the likelihood of miscommunication, and distant employees don’t have the luxury of walking down the hall to seek clarification. It is therefore imperative that global leaders be skilled at surfacing and testing assumptions in ways that encourage active dialogue rather than passive compliance in an effort to ensure understanding and foster agreement before they ask employees to execute their plans.

Creating Trust and Commitment
For a long–distance working relationship to succeed there must be a great deal of trust and commitment between both parties. These attributes must be earned over time through consistent and deliberate demonstration. Being a leader of a global business requires the ability to foster trust and credibility in ways that do not depend on having proximate relationships. This ability requires a deep understanding of individuals since intuitive skills are not enough. Managing from afar, global leaders cannot rely on ‘reading’ someone’s reaction. They must be able to understand and anticipate universal, but often unspoken, needs and interests. They must also be skilled at communicating in ways that resonate deeply and assure employees that their interests are being considered and protected.

Self–Awareness
Self–awareness is the foundation for any leader’s development and is critical to their ability to achieve success. Leaders who are responsible for motivating and managing people on the other side of the world must possess advanced leadership ‘soft skills’ – skills that are not mastered by reading books or attending seminars; skills that are sustained through continual feedback and reflection. Leadership ‘soft skills’ are developed through hard work that begins with self– awareness. Leaders who understand and are honest about their own needs and interests as well as their strengths and weaknesses will be far more able to convincingly speak to others in ways that build and foster trust and commitment. To develop these competencies, many organizations are leaning heavily on tools and systems that provide immediate feedback. These tools, such as 360–degree feedback, break through powers of denial and help leaders align their self–awareness with others’ perceptions. Unfortunately, these tools, which can be extraordinarily beneficial to leadership development and overall organizational strength, are typically used too infrequently.

Giving and Receiving Feedback
It is no longer sufficient to receive an annual performance review that vaguely links our actions over a 12–month period to the organization’s performance and results. These reviews fail to teach us how our behavior directly impacts others – and the organization – on a daily basis. In an era when organizational change is constant, feedback should be equally constant. To truly develop self–awareness, leaders need opportunities to receive feedback about their behavior and management ability in ‘real–time’. The power of this ‘in–the– moment feedback’ is well documented in psychology and has proven to be one of the most effective ways of evolving behavior. Many people don’t feel comfortable or skilled enough to freely give and receive candid, and often personal, feedback. Yet, fortunate leaders receive it frequently in more structured, albeit less natural, forms designed to build their self–awareness and further develop their interpersonal skills. Leadership development programs provide opportunities for leaders to practice giving and receiving feedback through videotaped interactions, role plays, and candid discussions. There is perhaps no more powerful reality check and learning tool than having a group of peers stop a videotape of their manager talking to a subordinate and say, “There! Do you see what you just did? When you do that, it causes people to not want to follow you.” The more opportunities leaders have to give and receive this kind of feedback, the more likely they are to model it for others in their organizations. Over time, this can transform an organizational culture and help equip individuals with the self–awareness and interpersonal acumen they need to perform and succeed, which ultimately benefits the organization.

Do you agree or disagree and what are your opinions on this subject?

What HR Will Look Like in 2010

Earlier this month I indicated that I would identify 5 major changes to HR that will dramatically change how HR professionals do their work. Some are top of mind, some on the cusp of change, and some you have not seen yet. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Administrivia will reside fully with managers and employees through self service and HRIS systems will be a thing of the past for HR. There will be no such thing as an HR assistant or administrative assistant in HR.
2. HR as we know it will become a profit center and be measured on profit success.
3. Entire benefit packages will totally be outsourced to third party vendors and employees will have an a la carte menu. Health care providers will provide light workout equipment that is ergonomically designed to fit in the workplace so workers can get exercise and work simultaneously.
4. There will be at least 2 senior HR professionals today that will run companies in excess of $100M by 2010.
5. All data will flow through handhelds on the go rather than through desktops/laptops and the typical HR department as you know it today will not exist.

You will notice that I did not mention talent management or succession planning. Those topics will be dealt with early in 2009.

What do you think of these changes and do you agree or disagree? I would appreciate your opinions. Please send your comments to wgstevens2@gmail.com.

Eight Worst Things to Say in an Interview - Is This Millennial Centric

I read this on the MSN page today and had to laugh. Granted some of these things are common sense but when you as HR professionals deal with the Millennials Generation do you think all or most of these are still wrong. Given my expertise in managing the 1st onslaught of Millennials these need to be modified for them. As for Gen X, Y, and Boomers most of these would apply. Tell me what you think based on your experience? You should review my post on Millennials dated 5/27/08.

Interviews are nothing if not opportunities to drive yourself crazy. Just remind yourself to look good, appear confident, say all the right things and don't say any of the wrong ones. It shouldn't be so hard to follow these guidelines except you'll be on the receiving end of an endless line of questions. Factor in your nerves and you'll be lucky to remember your own name.

If you walk into the interview prepared, you can make sure you know what right things to say, and you can stop yourself from saying the following wrong things.

1. "I hated my last boss." - Your last boss was a miserable person whose main concern was making your life miserable. Of course you don't have a lot of nice things to say; however, don't mistake honesty, which is admirable, for trash-talking, which is despicable. My question is did he/she understand how to manage Millennials
2. "I don't know anything about the company." - Chances are the interviewer will ask what you know about the company. If you say you don't know anything about it, the interviewer will wonder why you're applying for the job and will probably conclude you're after money, not a career. "With today's technology," Moran says, "there is no excuse for having no knowledge of a company except laziness and/or poor planning - neither of which are attributes [of potential employees] sought by many organizations." My opinion is there is no excuse not to know the company
3. "No, I don't have any questions for you." - Much like telling the interviewer that you don't know anything about the company, saying you don't have any questions to ask also signals a lack of interest. Perhaps the interviewer answered every question or concern you had about the position, but if you're interested in a future with this employer, you can probably think of a few things to ask. "Research the company before you show up," Moran advises. "Understand the business strategy, goals and people. Having this type of knowledge will give you some questions to keep in your pocket if the conversation is not flowing naturally." I wonder how many HR people really know the company outside of benefits and general HR practices. Chances are most interviewees know more than the interviewer.
4. "I'm going to need to take these days off." - "We all have lives and commitments and any employer that you would even consider working for understands this. If you progress to an offer stage, this is the time for a discussion regarding personal obligations," Moran suggests. "Just don't bring it up prior to the salary negotiation/offer stage."
   Why?By mentioning the days you need off too early in the interview, you risk coming off presumptuous as if you know you'll get the job. My opinion is Millennials want time off and this will become common practice prior to any salary negotiations. Don't miss out on a good person. Millennials cherish their time off.
5. "How long until I get a promotion?" - While you want to show that you're goal-oriented, be certain you don't come off as entitled or ready to leave behind a job you don't even have yet. "There are many tactful ways to ask this question that will show an employer that you are ambitious and looking at the big picture," Moran offers. "For example, asking the interviewer to explain the typical career path for the position is fine." Another option is to ask the interviewer why the position is open, Moran adds. You might find out it's due to a promotion and can use that information to learn more about career opportunities. I agree don't put the cart before the horse.
6. "As Lady Macbeth so eloquently put it..." - Scripted answers, although accurate, don't impress interviewers. Not only do they make you sound rehearsed and stiff, they also prevent you from engaging in a dialogue. "This is a conversation between a couple humans that are trying to get a good understanding of one another. Act accordingly," Moran reminds. I agree.
7. "And another thing I hate..." - Save your rants for your blog. When you're angry, you don't sway any body's opinion about a topic, but you do make them like you less. For one thing, they might disagree with you. They also won't take kindly to your bad attitude.
   "If you are bitter, keep it inside and show optimism. Start complaining and you will be rejected immediately," Moran warns. "Do you like working with a complainer? Neither will the interviewer." I think keep your thoughts to yourself and stay on point.

Anthony Balderrama is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com. He researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.

What are your thoughts?

The Future of the Internet III (3.0)

A survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves.

They disagree about whether this will lead to more social tolerance, more forgiving human relations, or better home lives.

Here are the key findings on the survey of experts by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that asked respondents to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020:

• The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.
• The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.
• Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.
• Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.
• The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.
• Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.

More predictions about the evolution of mobile communications can be found here

More elaborations about the evolution of intellectual property law and copyright protection can be found here

More elaborations about the evolution of augmented reality and virtual reality can be found here

More elaborations about the evolution of the internet's user interface can be found here

More elaborations about the evolution of the internet's architecture can be found here

More elaborations about the evolution of the internet's impact on work and leisure can be found here

(12/14/2008 Report Janna Anderson Lee Rainie)

So what are your thoughts on Internet 3.0?

What Breakthroughs in HR will Occur by 2010

In my next post, I will predict what breakthroughs will occur in human resources and what all HR practitioners will need in their toolbox to remain competitive. In the meantime, read the latest edition of Workforce and let me know what you think will be 5 great changes in our industry.

Please let me know your thoughts at wgstevens2@gmail.com.

Don't Fear the Whitewater- Don't Use a Life Vest Either

Change is the new status-quo, and success at work will require agility, talent and the ability to learn from -- rather than fear -- failure, according to Gregory Shea, adjunct professor of management at Wharton, and business writer Robert Gunther. The two recently co-authored a book titled, Your Job Survival Guide, a Manual for Thriving in Change. The authors compared the economy and job market to a whitewater river in which every kayaker is certain to spend a significant part of the journey under water.

If you look back at my post regarding job retention you will notice parallel thoughts on flexibility, agility, innovation and strong business understanding. Check them out. This has been the new world since 2000 in case anyone has been sleeping.

Appalling Business Decisions

Over the past 2 months I have had calls from friends in business who have been either laid-off or downsized because of the economy. In one particular case I was appalled to hear that one of my very close colleagues was let go who ran a very successful business with excellent margins and top line growth. Are you surprised to hear that in the current economic environment? Well believe it I mean top and bottom line growth year over year with margins increasing each year as well.

This person ran the business which was a business unit of a larger corporation. She was smart, brought in excellent people and had the respect of the organization. Her leadership skills were exceptional and it permeated throughout the organization. Well, suffice it to say that the parent company was looking to take out additional overhead to shore up its' margins and she was hit.

So here is my dilemma, this person was 1,000 miles away from the parent company, it's business was different in most regards, and was a stand alone environment except for infrastructure and IT development support. How could the management of the parent company come to a decision like that unless it has no regard for business economics and how to effectively manage people. I am appalled at this decision and would love to read the sales and profit statements in 2009-2010 to see the full affect of this stupid decision.

What are your opinions on this subject and have you seen similar decisions made in your company that make little or no business sense.

Employee engagement and the intranet

Employee engagement is often a misunderstood term; to many managers confuse it with employee satisfaction. In short, engaged employees aren’t just happy ones, but have a strong emotional bond to the organization that employs them and proactively look to improve the position of the organization.

An engaged employee is more likely to:

• Understand and support through action a company’s vision and goals
• Recommend the company’s products and services to friends and family
• Work smarter and longer hours without being asked twice
• Enjoy challenges and problem solving
• View their own personal growth as linked to the company’s performance

How do you make an average employee and engaged employee? Well, it’s one of the many topics we’ll cover in a special seminar on October 8th in Toronto, The Employee Engagement Imperative: Proven Techniques for Securing and Sustaining Employee Engagement. This is a 90-minute, breakfast seminar if you are in Toronto or can make the trip.

Of particular note, Intranet 2.0 tools are massively engaging if used correctly. Giving employees a chance to express their opinions – and seeing them count and contribute to change – are tantamount to highly engaged employees.

by Toby Ward on Fri 26 Sep 2008 11:39 AM PDT

Flexible Work Arrangements: A Productivity Triple Play

When flexible work arrangements are understood and used as a management strategy for creating more effective workplaces, they enhance organization performance in three ways: (1) Produce measurable improvements in individual and team performance; (2) Reduce stress on employees and more fully engage them in accomplishing organization goals; and (3) Strengthen a results-focused management culture. When flexible work arrangements are introduced as an employee perk or an accommodation to individual employees, companies often fail to realize these benefits. In contrast, a team-based, results-focused approach to the introduction of flexible work arrangements capitalizes on the shared need of both companies and their employees for increased flexibility. The experience of ten American companies in a variety of industries proves that, when flexible work arrangements are introduced with the two-fold purpose of enhancing performance and creating more flexibility for employees, everyone wins.

You should refer back to my articles/posts earlier this year regarding this subject. Being on the cutting edge of innovation is what I have been know for over my 25+ years in HR.

Have You Created or Deployed A Digital HR Strategy

Since you are winding down for the year and getting ready for 2009 I am sure each of the HR leaders have deployed their 2009 HR strategy. As a consultant I can always look under the hood and find something that an HR department is not doing but in the case of digitalization and the web here are some things that should be included in your digital HR strategy:

1. Utilizing Web 2.0 to drive HR optimization;
2. Incorporating all the relevant portals that maximize efficiency;
3. Incorporating social networks as part of daily HR life as well as recruiting;
4. Ensuring that your company has governance around social software;
5. Embrace emerging technology as a first responder rather than a follower;
6. Incorporating manager access to web 2.0 & HR activities;
7. Building technological succession planning not manual.

All of these activities leverage you the HR leader as the change agent of your company. The successful deployment of these activities and other digital initiatives should drive business value and performance. This transformation from manual or Web1.0 or 1.1 for HR will help change perceptions and effective management of human capital.

Your comments and options are important to me and our readers. Please comment to wgstevens2@gmail.com

Dignified Reductions & Doing What is Right

If you have heard the news lately or read the morning/evening papers all you hear and read about are company reductions-in-force, layoffs, firings, downsizings, resizings, rightsizings, perfectsizings, and department/office/plant closings. You name it there are a hundred ways to call " losing your job".

Too many companies are just letting people go and not doing it in a dignified manner. That is why you are hearing about plant sit-ins, or employees refusing to leave their work area because companies are not treating employees with respect or letting them go in a dignified way.
what is even more outrageous is companies that are not taking care of people who have dedicated their life to their company's product line, or getting an order out the door to meet a customers need. So what we as HR people need to do is make sure that management does treat employees with respect, dignity, and make sure that pay is taken care of that is fair and just.

Remember these people who you do not treat right will make it harder for you to recruit in the future. The word will got out and we continue to talk about not burning bridges, well for those who only think that this is a one way street you are sadly mistaken it is a two way street as well.

What are you thoughts on this touchy and current issue individuals are facing in the tough economic environment. Email me at wgstevens2@gmail.com

How To Build an HR Business Case

In lean economic times, budgets are reduced, and many senior leaders will push back on budget requests that lack a clearly defined business case. Unfortunately, not all HR professionals know where to begin or how to build a business case. Here’s some help.

A business case is a form of gap analysis. It describes the business problem, the current status, the desired status and an action plan stating how the organization can achieve its goals. A well-formulated business case is a tool that supports planning and decision-making regarding purchases, vendor selection and implementation strategies.

A well-written business case provides a clear statement of the business problem and a potential solution, outlines consequences resulting from specific actions, and recommends metrics for the proposed solution. More important, a business case provides an opportunity to propose options that are based on objective data and that offer an increased sense of understanding and ownership of the solution.

Before you start building a business case, it’s important to be aware of a primary limitation: Each organization requires and uses different financial metrics. For example, senior management at your organization may want to see a return on investment (ROI), total cost of ownership or cost-benefit analysis. If you’re undertaking a business case and aren’t familiar with these concepts, you should consult someone in your finance department.

Similar to most projects, the typical requirements for business case development are time, people and money. Expect to spend at least eight hours writing a comprehensive business case. However, the time spent writing and the number of people involved can expand based on the problem. A more complex or costly problem can extend the time frame significantly. The roles needed to pull the information together include a basic project manager (you), a financial expert with organizational knowledge and good spreadsheet skills, researcher(s) to gather data and perform competitive analysis, and an editor to put the information into an organized format.

The 10 elements of an HR business case include:

1. Problem statement. In one paragraph or less, clearly state the specific business problem.
2. Background. Be sure to include significant information regarding skills, budgeting and performance that contribute to the business problem. Indicate, in general terms, what’s required to resolve or reduce the problem.
3. Project objectives. Use a maximum of seven bullet points to state what the proposed solution is trying to accomplish. Some examples may include purchasing hardware and software or selecting a new vendor.
4. Current process. Identify the current organizational processes that the proposed solution will affect, including the training department, other departments within the organization and relationships with clients, external partners and the competition.
5. Requirements. List resources needed to complete the project, such as staff, hardware, software, print materials, time and budget.
6. Alternatives. Outline at least four other options to implementing the proposed solution. Be sure to include basic requirements for each and estimate project risks, ramp-up time, training costs and project delays.
7. Compare alternatives. Compare and contrast each of the alternatives with the proposed solution and the other alternatives. State similarities and differences, benefits and detriments, and costs associated with each option.
8. Additional considerations. List critical success factors other than ROI metrics; for example, effects on partnership agreements with specific vendors or the potential need for help desk or customer support.
9. Action plan. Propose specific action steps. State your short-term (first three months) and long-term (three months to conclusion) action plans, including major milestones. This section should also include proposed metrics to measure success.
10. Executive summary. Write a clear, one-page summary of the proposed solution. Tailor it to your audience and offer a high-level overview of research that leads you to the proposal.

The 10 elements above provide a basic framework. However, you may still encounter challenges when formulating your specific business case.

The information below outlines some common problems and solutions.

• Problem: Poorly identified business problem - Solution:Ask others, do the math and present your case informally to test the opinions of management
• Problem: Wrong business metrics - Solution:Work with your finance department to get accurate figures and determine proper metrics
• Problem: Wrong presentation format - Solution:Talk to other departments to learn whether there is an existing business case framework
• Problem: Poor estimation of qualitative data - Solution:Be sure to apply a consistent unit of measurement related to a specific unit of cost
• Problem: Poor estimation of project costs - Solution: Work with internal experts to re-evaluate estimated project costs, risks, ramp-up time and training costs as well as foreseeable project delays.

Now you’re ready to get started. But because each organization is different, consider the following suggestions:

1. Make friends with a knowledgeable person in your finance department.
2. Know your audience’s expectations and awareness of the problem.
3. Keep it simple, and get your facts straight.

If you’ve done your homework, you’ll be on your way to eliminating a performance gap within your organization.

Ed Mayberry, Ed.D., is a senior leadership consultant with Kaiser Permanente who wrote this article

From Risk to Opportunity: How Global Executives View Sociopolitical Issues

The environment and climate change rank most highly for executives when they consider what issues will attract the most attention and shareholder value, followed by privacy and data security, according to a recent survey of more than 1,400 executives by The McKinsey Quarterly.

Of the 15 trends McKinsey queried executives about in the survey, executives viewed roughly half (eight) as opportunity rather than risks — up from just four the year prior. "The share of executives who see opportunities has grown for every single issue except job losses from offshoring; however, a few trends remain firmly entrenched as risks," notes the McKinsey October 2008 report. "They include pension and retirement benefits, health care and other benefits, and the high level of executive pay. These are wallet issues that appear negative for executives and their companies, but as noted earlier, the other societal stakeholders assign even greater importance to them. This pattern suggests mounting pressures on business leaders to confront these issues sooner rather than later."

The challenge for executives is how to manage and transform sociopolitical issues into business opportunities, as the report found that the tactics senior leaders often use to handle them don't always work. "The tactics employed most frequently — including media and public relations, lobbying regulators, advertising and marketing, speeches by the CEO, sustainability reports, and philanthropy are not necessarily viewed as most effective."

Instead, "executives see greater effectiveness from less-used tactics, such as implementing policies on ethics, engaging with NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and other stakeholders, increasing transparency about the risks of products or processes, and changing product lines and processes. These presumably underused tactics directly affect operations or reflect an expanding contract between business and society."

Thoughts on HR Spacial Intelligence

In HR we learn about all the different types of intelligences. However, most people in our profession do not know how to distinguish between them. One of the more important intelligence types is spacial intelligence which gets pushed by the wayside for the following:

• EQ, IQ, AQ as well as;
• Linguistic and verbal intelligence
• Logical intelligence
• Body/movement intelligence
• Business intelligence
• Interpersonal intelligence
• Intrapersonal intelligence.

Spacial intelligence is how do you put together a picture that the CEO, or senior HR leader paints for the organization. Does your spacial intelligence see the same picture or direction? So if someone said put sales under marketing how would you picture that on a organizational chart, or better yet how would you realign the placement of departments within the organization? Usually, this is left to department heads and the facilities manager but as HR leaders this is one area that you should really be a part of in your organization. So think about spacial intelligence and how you measure against what you hear and how you see it.

I welcome your comments and opinions at wgstevens2@gmail.com.