What is your legacy?

On December 12 my father passed away at the age of 92 after a career that took him to the level of  Vice Chairman of the Board of a Fortune 500 corporation. In thinking back over the time we had together I was presented with a picture with two sides to it. If you listen to his friends and neighbors they talked about how involved he as in the community and the business world. I can't dispute that in any fashion. Over my life he had been involved in local politics including serving on the town commission. He was greatly involved ,along with my mother, in the UN Association.In his business environment he traveled over to Europe on many occasions.

If I flip the coin ,if you were, to the father side I get an entirely different picture. I remember very few events in school that he attended because work always came first. He overly pushed us to achieve based on his educational record. So why write this piece?

I am not looking for sympathy. Rather I am suggesting that there may be a large number of parents out there who fall into the same track. whether it is by choice or the culture of the organization they worked for, families were left for second place. The result is are we  leaving a legacy as a great business person or a great parent?  Or even more important have we found a way to meld the two. Is the legacy we leave behind that we have helped the world be a better place through demonstrations of compassion for all aspects of their lives.

The impetus to achieve this goal is as much the responsibility of the organization and HR as it is on the individual. We seek to get our talent engaged within our organizations,but we can't accomplish that without a balance between work and outside life. we do not prepare our children for a future in the workplace when the model they have is that the primary expectations is work. Work at the expense of the rest of our lives.

So take a moment, as I have over the past several weeks and consider what legacy you are leaving behind. Think of ways how you can be of benefit to the organization and to your families at the same time. Think of ways to present the kind of model that considers the needs of the organization in balance with the needs of your offspring. The world will be a better place if you do.

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Driving the HR 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma 2012 Dates

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. will be presenting its look at six sigma for the HR space at the following locations at this time during 2012 with more dates coming:

February 7-8  Pensacola State College Pensacola, FL

February 22-23    Santa Fe College Gainesville, FL

March 22-23      Human Resource Association of Cental Ohio    Columbus, OH

                    This class is half full at this time

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Help possibly on the way

Associated Press reported this afternoon

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN | The Associated Press
Published: December 15, 2011
Updated: December 15, 2011 - 4:41 PM

» 10 Comments | Post a Comment

NEW ORLEANS --

A Chinese drywall manufacturer has agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve court claims by thousands of Gulf Coast property owners who say the product corroded pipes and wires and otherwise wrecked their homes, the largest settlement of its kind so far.

The deal announced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon calls for Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. to create an uncapped fund to pay for repairing roughly 4,500 properties, mostly in Florida and Louisiana, but also Alabama and Mississippi. A separate fund capped at $30 million will pay for other types of losses, including those by people who blame drywall for health problems.

Russ Herman, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the settlement is worth between $800 million and $1 billion, although an attorney for the Chinese company disputed that estimate.

"We're very thankful for our clients," Herman said. "What we've given them, hopefully, is a happy holiday season."

Knauf attorney Kerry Miller said the company "decided to step up and settle these claims and do the right thing."

"They want to get this unfortunate incident behind them so they can focus on manufacturing first-class building products," he said.

Herman said around 55 percent of the people who would benefit from the settlement live in Florida, while roughly 35 percent live in Louisiana. The deal would resolve cases filed in both state and federal court.

Chinese drywall was used in the construction of thousands of homes, mainly in the South, after a series of destructive hurricanes in 2005 and before the housing bubble burst. The problems it has caused range from a foul odor to corrosion of pipes and wiring.

Steven Roberts, a plaintiff who built a home in Boynton Beach in 2005 with Knauf drywall, said the first sign of trouble was a foul odor that smelled like "bitter sulfur." His family didn't suspect a more serious problem until electrical appliances started failing and corrosion formed on mirrors and bathroom fixtures.

Roberts, 37, a veterinarian, said he can't afford to repair all the damage or move his wife and daughter out, so he hopes the settlement can finally end their ordeal.

"It would be a huge weight lifted off our shoulders," he said. "It's been extremely challenging for my wife, very stressful. It's definitely a relief to potentially have the end in sight."

Virginia homeowners also filed many claims over drywall damage, but Herman said few of them would benefit from the deal because most received their drywall from other Chinese companies that haven't responded to lawsuits.

"They're the victims, innocent victims, of corporate malfeasance," Herman said. "To them we pledge, `Keep the faith.' Our journey does not end here."

Fallon must sign off on the settlement before any money is distributed. Although the judge could give his preliminary approval to the deal in January, it will likely take several more months for money to reach homeowners.

Knauf agreed to initially deposit $200 million in the repairs fund, which would be replenished as needed. Greg Wallance, an attorney for the company, said Herman's estimate that the deal could be worth up to $1 billion is "pure speculation."

"It isn't going to be anything approaching that," he said.

Attorneys' fees and costs paid by Knauf are capped at $160 million and will not be deducted from homeowners' shares of the settlement money.

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was one of the plaintiffs in the Knauf litigation. His attorney, Daniel Becnel Jr., said Payton already has fixed the suburban New Orleans home his family had to vacate. Knauf reimbursed him for the repairs.

Fallon presides over more than 10,000 claims involving Chinese drywall. The cases were consolidated in the New Orleans federal court in 2009.

Thursday's settlement isn't the first, but it offers the most to homeowners, so far. In June, plaintiffs reached a $55 million settlement with Banner Supply Co. — a Miami-based supplier of Chinese drywall — along with several related companies and Banner's insurers.

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IRS releases 2012 Mileage Rates

For business use of an automobile remains at 55½ cents per mile. For medical or moving expenses, it is 23 cents per mile (a half-cent decrease from the second half of 2011). For services to charitable organizations, the rate (which is set by statute) is 14 cents per mile.

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Back to the Future

I opened the paper today and read where several organizations announced that they were cutting staff in order to control costs. In the same time span I saw several posting in the social media space which stated that C-suite office holders are saying that their greatest challenge in 2012 is going to be centered around talent issues especially talent retention. I must be missing something here. We can not state that we are concerned with retaining the talent e have at the same time discharge them in order to maintain costs.

Jeff Cox in his book Velocity tells us that unless the organization is on the verge of bankruptcy or closing its doors then there is no excuse for cutting headcount. Part of the dichotomy here is how the organization views its human capital.The majority of American corporations treat their employees a a commodity. When you are considered in this track, then the natural assumption is that  employees can be cut or hired based on the economics of the time However if you consider your employees to be valuable assets like Toyota does, then the solution to freeing up funds for headcount is not to cut heads but rather to deep dive your operations with the goal to remove as much non-value added activities as is possible. This in turn we will free up revenue that can be used to maintain headcount.

Jim Collins tells us in his book Good to Great that the key is to get the right people on the bus. I don't argue that point at all. What I  do argue is that all too often we get rid of the wrong people in trying to reach where we think we want to be. As a result we either eliminate people or screen candidates out because we are still working off of an ancient formula for assessing talent.

Think you have a talent problem going into 2012? Learn to think out of the box. I recently heard of a local car dealer who could not identify quality technicians for his dealership. Reach out to the training institutes in the area that are training mechanics and see what talent you can grow. I also heard of law firm that posted a position for a paralegal and out of 100 applicants could find only three that fit their mold. How about talking to the local Universities that have Communication programs. Get somebody who knows how to write and teach them the legal parts after they come onboard.

Talent is what you make of them. If you show them that you care and respect their input you will have a vibrant organization. If you show them that they are just an inconvenience then you get what you paid for.

We have been there before when talent was a luxury. It is plainly not prudent to in this knowledge/service age to approach your talent needs by cutting heads when there are better ways to control costs. Look at what you  do not have to do to meet client demands. The answers are right in front of you. They are hidden from your perspective because in many cases you have been too hesitate to look.

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Expectations vs. Real World

I just returned from a hurried flight to New York due to a family medical emergency. I flew out of Tampa on Delta on a typical plane leaving the airport non-stop. Coming back we flew on US Airways and expected the same type of aircraft. When I arrived at the airport yesterday morning I found that the first leg of the trip to Florida was on a plane run by Air Wisconsin. It was a plane with four seats across and 14 rows and the typical carry on luggage did not fit in the overhead racks. The last leg was on a "normal" plane.

So here is my question to you, do you as an organization set up the environment for expectations on the part of your current and new hires as to what they think they are going to receive from your organization? In reality does the expectation meet what really happens?

We continually hear corporate management talking about the lack of commitment from the talent they hire. Have they stopped to consider that the message sent to the employees is I know what you expect but this is what really is going to happen.

Dictionary. com tells us that the word expectation can be defined as the act or the state of expecting, or the act or state of looking forward or anticipating or a mental attitude. So here is what happens, We interview that great candidate and essentially sell them a bill of goods and then they join the organization. One of the first things likely to happen is that some current employee gets into a casual conversation with your new hire and they talk about the workplace environment and the current employee tells the new hire that the promises made to them in the hiring process are just that promises with no teeth. So how does that new hire feel. I would bet pretty much like my thoughts when I boarded that puddle jumper" at 8:30 am yesterday.

We look at the average length of employment of the Generation Y and it runs somewhere around 18 months. The primary reason is that what they were told by the organization is not what they find when they start. It is imperative that the organizations begin to identify the discourse between the two messages. We need organizations that are comprised of dedicated human capital to achieve the things our organizations need and just as important what the talent needs. The lack of achievement is what brings about the many internal human capital problems we see.

I am currently reading Liker's Toyota Culture in which he stresses the involvement of the entire organization to encompass every employee and put them on an even playing field with every other employee including management. They talk about the Kentucky plant where there s no corner office or executive dining room. The workplace is organized around cross-functional teams which are designed to problem solve. The solutions are shared with the entire organization. There is no such thing as departmental competition.

As a consultant if I was hired to advise your management team on how to improve the workplace environment, my message would be simple and precise. It is one thing to try and tell a potential candidate how great your organization is. It is a totally different thing to tell the employee that this is the organizational world in such terms as to raise their expectations to a level where they are designed to fail. Unless you as an organization are determined to not create incorrect expectations on the role of the human capital assets within the business. Make the decision which road you are going to take before you begin the interview process.

Remember that the employee's view of the world is to them reality. Are you going to meet their view or continue to provide false promises? Your call. Your decision. Define the state of your workplace.

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Circle the Wagons, the Indians are Coming!!!!

President Obama at a press conference in Hawaii referring to a question about the scandal at Penn State made the observation that protecting the innocent was more important than shielding institutions or organizations. I took in the premise and then looked at the daily RSS feed I receive from the EEOC and began to question the strategic moves many corporations are making in the marketplace.

I totally understand that as an organization you have a brand that you need to protect but when your managers are making stupid mistakes and are circling the wagons instead of taking the right path to resolve issues in the marketplace, you begin to wonder why organizations can complain about the lack of engagement and then provide the proof in their actions.

Since August 26, 2011 the EEOC RRS feed is reporting nearly 200 settled complaints or new actions regarding situations where an employee has a legal right to complain about working conditions and the organizational response is how difficult can we make their lives to the point of having them leave the company. Maintain the brand at all costs and the heck with supporting the individual who is being harassed or discriminated against.

Consider the case of  an acute care facility in California who will pay $530,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging the sexual harassment of its staff.  According to the federal agency, several of the female targets of the harassment were either retaliated against or compelled to quit after their complaints were ignored by hospital management.Is the brand that important that you tolerate a workplace where you demean the employee base.  That is an attitude from an era way gone from reasonable in today's workplace.

Look at your list of the best places to work or the companies founded on the principles of the Toyota Production System and they recognize the worth of employees to the organization. Look at the organizations being hit by the EEOC and you see organizations with the attitudes that we are doing the employee a favor by allowing them to work here and they need to take what ever conditions we want to expose them to.

In the 21st Century this is not how we encourage engagement. This is not how we encourage employee loyalty. This how we tell our employees that they are chattel, not valuable parts of our organization. So if you must circle the wagons, do so around the worth of all parties. Protect the organizational brand by telling the world that you value the employee and their contributions to the brand.

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we have met the enemy and they are us!!

Many of you who are old enough to remember this quote, will remember that it came out at the time of the first Earth Day. It was a call for improvement in the world we lived in at the time. I bring it up for you and a newer generation because I fear that we have met a new enemy and it is not environmental quality.

Read the newspaper or watch the evening news and you can't escape the circus centered around Herman Cain and his circumstances surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace while he was with the National Restaurant Association. Many of the local SHRM chapters hold an annual diversity and inclusion meeting and management calls for more employee engagement.

So tell me how do you preach diversity and inclusion when your walk says that we accept employees to be less then people? How do we send the message that there a certain levels of behavior that corporate policy condemns and then we let management, co-workers and suppliers openly violate the stated corporate policy.

To get an eye-opener, subscribe to the RSS feed from the EEOC and see the barage of charges that are behind the complaints. They clearly show a pattern with in our organizations for treating employees as less than the individuals they are. Some of the charges spank of a long go workplace environment where employees were treated as property rather than human capita assets.

Consider theses examples:

• well known medical company decided that a pregnant worker did not belong working for the company as an area leader because it did not fit their image.
• Sears just got fined for age, sex, and race discrimination of a 40 yr old African-American employee.
• Companies who got rid of the trouble maker who reported sexual harassment but left the employee who who took the actions in place despite the problems.

To make matters worse in many cases the person who made the complaint has shortly there after been dismissed from their jobs because of making the complaints. we conduct a seminar entitled "Who Am I- The Role of Human Capital in the Global Workplace" in which we talk about the new paradigms that come out of the work environment when employees are considered assets and not expenses.

One of those paradigms suggests that our human capital assets expect that they will work in an environment that is free from both harassment and violence. They expect that they will be treated as valuable part of the organization they represent. As a member of management you have the responsibility to ensure that the workplace is free of circumstances that could be considered harassment in nature whether they are brought about by management, supervisors, fellow employees or outside vendors and customers. It is your duty to route out these behaviors when you see them.

If you need a real picture of the aftermath consider hat could happen to Joe Paterno over the charges that someone who worked for him was guilty of harassment against children who were under his supervision. Paterno reported it but it still could come back to haunt his career.

So the next time you hear about a complaint of harassment in your workplace be sure you take the following strategic efforts:

1. Don't automatically dismiss the complaint under the believe that the person who the complaint is about would not do something like that.
2. Completely investigate the complaint, talking to all parties involved and any witnesses.
3. Document your findings without judging the outcomes.
4. If the complaint is substantiated, take concrete steps to find a solution which will make it less likely that this kind of behavior will continue.
5. Provide comprehensive training to both management and the rank and file as to what constitutes harassment in the workplace.

You have the tools in your hands to decide whether your organization is one of the best places to work or is considered a place where people go to just for the pay. You decide whether the workplace is one that is conducive to professional collaboration devoid of pressure to do a job based on what you are willing to tolerate. In this hard economic climate we are in, employees who feel that they are less than valuable assets will not be inclined to stay as part of your organization.

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CRP 2012 Boot Camp Dates Announced

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. will present it's 22nd Annual Review Seminar for Certified Relocation Professional examination facilitated by the worldwide ERC.This 3 day review seminar will be presented May 6-8, 2012 in San Antonio.
More information can be found at http://www.dbaiconsulting.com/pages/crpreview.php or by emailing us at crp@dbaiconsulting.com

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What is My Generations Impact on Business?

This past week I had been invited back to a MBA Leadership class to discuss the topic "Who Am I: The Role of Human Capital within the Global Workplace.I spent about 40 minutes discussing the new roles of human capital within our organizations and then asked if their were any comments. One student in her 20's, asked me how realistic was it to think that employees would in essence no longer be considered just a number (i.e. an expense item). She had a valid point and our response was that you need to continue to present evidence to the workplace that you bring skills beyond the number on a balance sheet. The second question that struck was a more direct one, I guess.

I had a student, probably in his mid-20's, who asked me what I thought the contribution to the business world would be of his generation. I had to stop and think about it for a moment but the response came fairly quickly. I believe that when you take their contribution down to its bare essence, their contribution is going to be one of truly defining what collaboration means.

We all play the collaboration game. Whether you are a traditionalist, a Boomer or a Gen X'er we all say we want to consider other idea and views in our organizations. But if you look at the proof in the pudding so to speak, we are fine with new ideas and views as long as they do not rock the boat. When I was looking for a full time HR position I heard more often then not that the reason I was not considered was that the likelihood that I would fall into the meld, and go with the flow was slight because I worked as a consultant. As a whole we don't like surprises.

My response to the student was that I believe that Gen Y will teach corporations what the true meaning of collaboration is. They know. They have been involved in collaboration their whole lives. Need an answer to a problem, they will ask the world. Need some supporting data for a project, they know where to find it. Hey, I admit that is not the way the other generations were brought up, but it is the new reality. The only way for our organizations to survive in the new business word is through innovation. Innovation only come about by collaborating with everyone (management, fellow employees, vendors, internal and external stakeholders) to find new solutions to existing problems. This comes from an influx of new ideas as how to do things, how to resolve conflicts within the business world.

So what is their impact? Gen Y will lead the business community into a new world. One that is based on rocking the boat where it needs to be. Saving the boat when it is fine. But with some changes within the organization, they will show us the path to greater operational results going forward. They are truly corporate assets, we just need to adjust ourselves to the new reality. The old processes such as annual performance reviews are from the era of Authority and Control not this new environment. Every employee should be able to have a clear picture of how they are contributing to the organization on a 24/7 basis not once a year. They will change us.We just have to determine whether we are going along for the ride or are going to try and say hey your ideas are nice, but that is not the way we do things here or you have not earned your dues as yet?

Your choice, Your future.

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Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and Your Organization

There are two topics that I never discuss in public- religion and politics. However there are some lessons to be learned for our organizations. Each of the two uprising movements were centered around actual or perceived inequities within the appropriate systems at that point in time and at that place.

Look at the most recent surveys about the workplace and you see numbers bantered around from 60-75 percent of our human capital talent assets are ready to jump ship. So the question needs to be posed what is the underlying conditions that brought around these events. Further we need to understand that we can not just brush them off thinking they will go away.

Arab Spring - The citizens of the Arab Countries rose up because they were tired of being oppressed by leaders who said in no uncertain words that it was a time for the employees to do it this way or take the road. They were tired of not being able to sustain a standard of life for their families.

Occupy Wall Street - Like the Arab Spring they were and are tired of the way we operate in this country and around the globe. They see the leadership totally ineffective based on the involvement of other influences. Their slogan insists that for the most part they are neither seen nor heard in the workplace.

Your Organization -If you are still operating under the business model of I am the manager and this is what you will do because I said so, then you are laying the groundwork for your very own Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street to occur within your organization. The business model that is succeeding today is one where the worth of every employee is recognized and cherished. I am not taking about worth based on the dollar signs on an expense report.We are taking about being respected for their contribution to the success of the organization. Look at your organization and tell me why survey after survey tell us that 60-75% of our talent assets are ready to jump ship. I know you despise the hiring process but there is a better way by changing the way we treat the citizenry.

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Reminder: Driving the HR 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma Seminar coming to Tampa Bay in November

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. has introduced a proprietary course for anyone dealing with the management of Human Capital. It is entitled Driving the Human Resource 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma.  It is designed to show HR professionals how to utilize continuous process improvement to enhance their human resource processes and explain HR in terms of organizational strategy. The class lasts for two days and has been pre-approved for 13  strategic continuing education by the Human Resource Certification Institute.
 
Nov 7 & 9 at Polk State College Lakeland, FL For more information call 863-669-2326
 
Nov 14 -15 at St Petersburg College Clearwater, FL For information or to register click on the link
http://spcollege.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&...
 
Hope to see you at one off the sessions

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I Got the Message: An Educational Manifesto

Over the past couple of weeks we have posted and received a wide variety of responses to our post about "When Are You Going to Get the Message." Some have contended that the educational system was never designed to prepare students to function in the workplace. In response this post will propose a manifesto for improvement of the educational system in this country. We are not going to propose some quick fix but rather some common sense suggestions.

So I have heard the reports that managers can not find talent with the right skills to increase their hiring so here is what we need to do, starting tomorrow not at some indeterminate time in the future.

Manifesto #1: The educational system needs to halt the emphasis on the only way for schools to remain competitive is to raise the level of research. The Parsons Plan showed the fact that if teachers/professors are there to teach they will have an equal affect on the student population. Need more proof - Google the Parsons Plan and find out how really effective a different educational model can be.

Manifesto #2: Remove the politics from the situation. The reliance on the old boy club by he various accreditation boards are not directed toward improvement of the skills o the future workforce but rather to maintain the status quo. Make the standing of educational institutions base don how ell they are preparing the workforce.

Manifesto #3: Change the curriculum to lower the reliance on test results but rather focus on guiding students on how to effectively use their cognitive skills. We will never remain the land of innovation when we allow our future workers to believe that everything should be just handed to them.

Manifesto #4: If we want to have a workforce with an increased level of skills we need to expose them to a greater view of the skills they need, increase their exposure through apprenticeship type activities. We believe this should be for all areas not just building trades or the like.

Manifesto # 5: A number of corporations have learned that amazing things happen when we let the minds run free. Allow our students to do the same thing with the classroom. There is not a single educator who can predict who is going to be the next Steve Jobs. Give them the chance to show what they can do within the frame work of the subject fields. When I taught science and gave them the opportunity to work on science projects with minimum guidelines we received some lofty responses, some of those went on to win regional firs. We are not talking bout the Volcano types, we are talking about sincere high level science inquiries.

It is as a collaborative we can improve the educational efforts which will prepare our students for the future.But only when we strive to meet skill needs not test needs.

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Relocation Announcement

Caliber Collision Centers will relocate its corporate headquarters from Irvine, Calif., to Lewisville, Texas next month.

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Health Care Coverge and Older Workers- The Challenge

Wolters Kleuwer in their weekly HR psoting discussed the problems with cancelling health care coverage for those reaching 65 years of older. See below:

A recently released U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) informal discussion letter reminds employers that the regulatory exemption from the ADEA that permits coordination of retiree health benefits with Medicare eligibility does not apply to current employees. The question of whether the age-based action may be justified by spending more on another benefit for older workers turns on the employer’s ability to satisfy the ADEA’s “equal benefit or equal cost” defense. However, notwithstanding the ADEA, such actions may be precluded by Medicare rules, according to the letter.

The EEOC letter, dated August 2, 2011, notes that the EEOC’s ADEA exemption for coordination with Medicare applies only to retiree benefits, not to the benefits of current employees.

The question of whether the ADEA would otherwise permit an employer to terminate a current employee’s eligibility for group health insurance based on Medicare eligibility depends on the circumstances, the letter advises. “Since workers typically become eligible for Medicare at age 65, eliminating group health eligibility for current employees when they become Medicare-eligible is an age-based action. As such, it would violate the ADEA unless it satisfies the statute’s ‘equal benefit or equal cost’ defense,” the letter states.

Equal benefits. The defense, outlined in the Commission’s regulation at 29 CFR Sec. 1625.10, is set forth in the EEOC’s letter with respect to the equal benefits prong:

(e) Benefits provided by the Government. An employer does not violate the Act by permitting certain benefits to be provided by the Government, even though the availability of such benefits may be based on age. For example, it is not necessary for an employer to provide health benefits which are otherwise provided to certain employees by Medicare. However, the availability of benefits from the government will not justify a reduction in employer-provided benefits if the result is that, taking the employer-provided and Government-provided benefits together, an older employee is entitled to a lesser benefit of any type (including coverage for family and/or dependents) than a similarly situated younger employee. For example, the availability of certain benefits to an older employee under Medicare will not justify denying an older employee a benefit which is provided to younger employees and is not provided to the older employee by Medicare. (EEOC’s emphasis)

Equal cost. However, the letter points out, an employer that cannot satisfy the equal benefits prong may still avoid ADEA liability by satisfying the equal cost prong of the defense. “Equal cost” is usually calculated in one of two ways – on a “benefit-by-benefit” basis or a “benefit package” basis.

Under the benefit-by-benefit approach, according to the letter, an employer “most likely cannot prove that it expends an equal amount on health insurance for both younger and Medicare-covered workers where it eliminates the health benefits available to Medicare-eligible employees.”

As for the benefit package approach, the letter explains that Section 1625.10(f)(2)(iii) precludes justifying the elimination of a health benefit by spending more on “another benefit” for older workers as an alternative to the benefit-by-benefit analysis for purposes of eliminating health benefits based on age:

(iii) A benefit package approach shall not be used to justify reductions in health benefits greater than would be justified under a benefit-by-benefit approach. Such benefits appear to be of particular importance to older workers in meeting “problems arising from the impact of age” and were of particular concern to Congress. Therefore, the “benefit package” approach may not be used to reduce health insurance benefits by more than is warranted by the increase in the cost to the employer of those benefits alone. Any greater reduction would be a subterfuge to evade the purpose of the [ADEA].

Medicare rules. The Commission’s letter also questions whether terminating the benefits of Medicare-eligible current employees “would comport with Medicare rules.” The EEOC understands the Medicare program to require that employers “offer current employees who are at or over the age of Medicare eligibility the same health benefits, under the same conditions, as offered to younger current employees.” If this continues to be true, Medicare laws may prohibit employers from eliminating health coverage for Medicare-eligible current employees, irrespective of the ADEA, the letter observes.

The EEOC letter is merely informal advice pursuant to 29 CFR Sec. 1626.20(c) and may not be relied upon by an employer within the meaning of section 10 of the Portal to Portal Act of 1947, incorporated into the ADEA.

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Don't You Understand, We are At War?

Before you jump to conclusions this post has absolutely nothing to do with the current military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This deals with the perception on the part of certain parties that corporate America is at war. In posts and conversations we hear that the business world is seeing a shift to a pro-employee basis which is going to lead to the destruction of our corporate way of life. The protesters across the country are saying that corporations have forgotten the value of its employees.

Some corporations like Southwest Airlines and Netflix have understood that there is a better way. It is time, as a matter of business strategy that we take the example of the Southwest's of the world and gain a true partnership within the organization between management and the employees.  In this day and age, innovation does not happen from authority and control. It will only happen when we truly understand that our organizations work as a cross functional team.

Employees do not necessarily want to destroy the business institutions, they want to be accepted as individuals who can make a vital contribution to the health and welfare of the organization. They expect in return for this contribution to be treated fairly. Look at the RSS feed for the EEOC and see what the complaints are all about. Since August 26, there have been 159 settlements or suits by the EEOC and the vast majority deal with organizations allowing harassment, retaliation, discharge because someone filed a complaint. Have you truly taken the time to realize that if you were as vigorous inn your efforts to control this behavior compared to some other efforts you put in to the organization this headache would go away?

Instead of fueling the discourse of class welfare, remember we are all citizens of the same country and organization. War is what we are involved in today. Collaboration on a honest basis is what we need to be working on if we want to improve the reputation of our organization in the global workplace of the 21st century. Develop the true partnership which will enhance the organization from all aspects. Authority and control is passe as a management style. Your organization's need to move on and generate a coaching environment which respects the talent as the assets that they are to your company. How you do that is dependent on your individual corporate cultures. If your culture is still dominate and not nourishment then change.

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New Book on High Performing Organizations

I received a pre-publication version of the book, High Performing Organizations for review from the author. Mr. Glazer opens up with the unique perspective of comparing the way we run our companies to the flight of an airplane. The more drag you put on the airplane the harder it is to fly. He carries that analogy over to the business world by equating the drag of compliance and bureaucracy to the drag on an airplane - slowing the operation down.
While written for the C-suite executive I found it written in more an engineering mode than a strictly business approach which might be of more interest for the C-suite office holder. You can also follow the book further at Mr. Glazer's blog at http://www.hillglazer.com. It can also be reached through @hi11e1 and #HPO on Twitter.

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When are we going to get the message?

Robert Half  just released the results of its Finance and Accounting Survey in which 36 percent of the CFO's who responded said that the number one reason that new hires don not work out is  poor skills. I would suspect that if you talked to operational executives you would get the same feedback. So, if this country is so great why do we get this type of response to such surveys?

NBC is in the process of conducting its 2011 rendition of Education Nation and they have pointed out that despite the presence of  No Child Left Behind, our level of proficiency of students in school is dismissal as a whole. Granted there are exceptions across the country. But the results are still there.

As human resource professionals and citizens of this country,we need to take the time to speak out and tell our elected federal, state and local officials that it is time that eduction not be the sacrificial lamb it has turned into. I spent 6 years of my work career in the classroom and I can tell you from first hand experience we have forgotten how to challenge our students so that they have the necessary critical thinking skills to survive in the workplace.When I have an educational professional tell me that if he taught today's children the way he taught when he started teaching 25 years ago he would have to fail every student, there is something wrong with the picture. I taught middle school science and I can tell you  that the majority of the exercises that we gave the students, today would not be tolerated. Never mind that I had students for the first time in the history of those schools went on to state and regional science fairs with projects which were mor complex then building a volcano.

We are confronted with talent without the appropriate skills for the workplace because we teach to tests. We are confronted with talent without the appropriate skills for the workplace because Gen X parents have pushed for placating the students. No homework, it might hinder their social development. No pushing the envelope on in classroom activities because it might push against the grain due to narrow views of the world. Never mind that diverse opinions is what makes this country great.

If we want to regain the status in the world, we claim we want, then we need to return the educational experience back to the systems of the 1960's where as students we were challenged everyday to think and critically explore the issues that were real to the world. We were challenged by the material not by what test we were going to take at the end of the year. Other countries in the world are turning out larger numbers of students who can critically look at the fast changing world in which we live. Are we going to regain that status or continue with this failed view that when budgets are tight that we cut programs that benefit the students over managerial programs and salaries.

We have the ability to push our agenda to return the US to greatness in the innovation arena, but not when the first thing we cut is the very programs that will get us there. Not when we tell students through our actions that education does not mean anything. Not when we teach to tests that have no real bearing on the workplace of tomorrow or even today. So unless you are willing to take up the challenge and change legislative minds, do not complain that you can not find talent with the proper workplace skills.

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What is Your Business Environment?

At the recent HR Florida Conference, the Keynote speaker Dan Pink suggested to the audience that they should read The Progress Principle by Teresa Amberlie.As I write this post I have read the first 160 pages of her book and it has made me think about some of the situations I have been in during my work career.

Back in the late 1970's we worked in the recruiting industry in which a manager told the recruiters in the firm that if they had any business ethics they were working for the wrong firm. For many of the recruiters it did not seem to think anything was wrong with the view.

In the 1980's we worked for a real estate broker who had the operating philosophy that the firm's managers were supposed to serve at the needs of the agents rather than the firm's clients.

In the early 2000's we worked in the retail field as an area corporate sales manager with no reports. If we had a client request we used to have to funnel it through a local store. On several different occasions the store felt that the corporate orders took a back seat to the other business. The regional sales manager rode rough shod over the area sales managers who were managers in name only. They had no one reporting to them per se. To add to this the regional managers expected a whole team conference call for an hour every Monday and an hour one on one call every Friday. We also were required to submit a weekly call log of everything we had done during the week.

I am not trying to give you a mini resume, but rather to point out that what we as managers do has a direct return on the productivity of our organization. Give them the impression that it is my way or no way and you imbed the belief that there is no reason for the employee to go out of their way to improve the business. Give them the impression that their ideas are of no value and we lose engage employees. Give them the belief that the voice of the customer is secondary in nature and we develop employees who do not believe in excellent customer service.

As human resource professionals and managers we are the organizational canary. We are the ones, who in our daily dealings with the rank and file, can observe managers who do not recognize the value of the organization's ran and file. We are the ones who can help the organization develop engaged employees who are working in a business environment that excels and exceeds everyone's expectations.

Your organization's business environment is predicted on how the inner work life is for your employees. Do we respect their contribution or do we feel they are there to take up space and go through the basics of running the organization. You decide what environment is present for your human capital assets.

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L'Shana Tovah

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. will be closed September 28-30 in observance of the Jewish New Year. Best wishes for the New Year to our Jewish clients and friends.

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Dawn of Economic Diversity

Those of you who have followed this blog since its inception in 2006 know that I very rarely if ever use someoneelses material for the blog entries. However I got up this morning to read my morning mail and found this post from Sharlyn Lauby and the HR Bartender. It really hit home so I chose to share it with you.

There’s this thought floating around in my head and I’d like to share it with you.  It involves all the recent media coverage about the shrinking middle class and the rise in poverty.  Regardless of your political persuasion, the stats seem to suggest the wealth gap is widening.

As a society, we’re generally not too comfortable talking about money.  Our parents told us not to talk about how much money we have or don’t have.  We only talk about our salary with people “in the know” – our boss, human resources,  family, etc. However, at some point, we have to get real and discuss the fact that 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty.

Think about that the next time you’re at a conference, in a work meeting, attending worship services, etc. 1 in every 6 people around you could be living in poverty.  That means maybe you can afford a Starbucks every morning, trendy shoes or a big fancy vacation, but not everyone in the room can.

Now let’s apply this idea to the workplace.  1 in 6 employees might be living in poverty.  Companies and managers need to understand it’s unacceptable to judge people based upon their economic status.  For instance:

Clothing:  I know, I know.  The whole dress code thing again.  I promise not to get on my soapbox, but when we advise colleagues to ditch the 80’s fashion or not wear their engagement ring to an interview aren’t we in essence pointing out just how superficial we are?  That your attire trumps your abilities?  And the real question is, what happens to those employees who are brilliant but can’t afford the latest trend in sneakers?

Internet:  Fran Melmed at Free Range Communications shared some information about internet access across America not being equal.  It’s really fascinating.  But it raises the question: do companies make the assumption that all of their employees have computers with high-speed internet at home?  So they can take work home to finish? If I have to choose between feeding my family and DSL, which do you think will win out?

Cell phones and equipment: I’ve been hearing about this new trend in business called “BYO” – bring your own equipment.  Obviously, this is great if you have better equipment than the company is willing to pay for.  I can’t help but think about the reverse.  What if I don’t have the best and fastest computer technology?  Does this mean I don’t get the job?  Or if I do get the job that I’m doomed to fail because I can’t possibly perform at a high level because I can’t afford the equipment the company won’t pay for?

Training and professional development:  The trend today is for employees to contribute in some way to their professional development.  And I have to say I support this trend.  But I’m starting to struggle with what “contribute” looks like.  I know of many companies that will give an employee time off to attend a conference but the conference expense is the employee’s. What happens if an employee’s personal budget won’t allow for it?  Are they becoming disadvantaged in some way due to lack of professional development?

I’m sure there are more examples but this gives you an idea of what we face if we don’t embrace economic diversity.  If it isn’t happening already, I wonder how many managers are offering career advice like:

You need to look the part to be taken seriously in meetings.  Go buy some new clothes.

Whatever you do, don’t tell the vice president you live with your parents. He’ll think you’re a loser.

Even if an employee wants to attend the conference, would love to buy new clothes and give anything not to live with mom and dad, the reality may be they just can’t afford to change the situation.   Businesses and their leaders need to sensitize themselves to the fact that smart, hard-working people who can deliver big results for their companies not only have  different genders, skin colors, and religions but different sized bank accounts.

When you get to the office this week, stop and think what impact your policies might have on your employees.

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New HR Related group

As part of our two day class, Driving the HR 500, we expose the participants to a great tool called the Business Model Canvas. We have created a specific group on the Business Model Hub group specifically for those who either use the canvas or would like to learn more about it. It will require a FREE registration. The group can be found at http://businessmodelhub.com/forum/topics/hr-business-models

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Driving HR 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma course comes to Lakeland, FL Nov 7 & 9

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Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. has introduced a proprietary course for anyone dealing with the management of Human Capital. It is entitled Driving the Human Resource 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma.  It is designed to show HR professionals how to utilize continuous process improvement to enhance their human resource processes and explain HR in terms of organizational strategy. The class lasts for two days and has been pre-approved for 13  strategic continuing education by the Human Resource Certification Institute.

 

For more information contact David Woodward  863-669-2329

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Communication and Engagement: What message are you sending?

I have been recently asked to repeat our presentation to a local university's MBA leadership class on the role of human capital in the global workplace. Except this time the instructor has asked me to touch on the role of conflict and conflict resolution during the presentation

When I began to think about this, I was returned to the recent HR Florida Conference and the presentation of Dan Pink who brought up some interesting points in this area. I believe that we would almost all agree that the nature of our ob requirements have changed over the past decade or so. The vast majority of our work involves cognitive skills rather than purely manual labor This change has brought about a fundamental change in the way we deliver our messages

Management can no longer afford to take the role of the overbearing parent. Governess by edict no longer has a viable place in the workplace. Instead this means we need to move to a more collaborative message to the organizations we are involved in. So what has changed in the method?

We are working in a new world which demands new resources It no longer is a viable plan of action to turn to our human capital assets and say that the organization is making some changes and this is the way we will do it. We can no longer ask them to arrive at a new way to deliver a process and tell them thanks but management has made the decision to go off in another direction. As managers we need to change our focus to one of turning to these same assets and representing the requests - not from how we are going to do something but rather to one of explaining to them not only how but why we are doing it. We are in an age of transparency. We are in world where we value what employees think and dream. Give them the courtesy of giving them the information they need to understand a) what the problem is? b) what caused the problem? and c) to correct the problem we have had to make some changes and what you expect the outcomes will be because you implemented the changes.

As managers you have a direct influence on the level of engagement of your employees within your organization. Your communication message will determine whether you achieve the level of engagement that you seek for your organization. Explain the reason behind the How and you will have a better organization.

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Have You Considered.......?

Several months ago, I started the practice of calling each individual who either requested a connection or viewed our profile on LinkedIn. In one such call last week I was talking with a fellow HR Consultant and she asked me whether I considered adding executive search to my service package. My IMMEDIATE response was that I am not a recruiter. I have been there, done that and have the T-shirt. I have to tell you I responded without any thought whatsoever.

After I got off the phone call I started to think about how I responded to the question. I heard the voice of a potential customer and I immediately had a response. Now let's turn that around for a moment. You are a member of management and a stakeholder within your organization (internal or external) comes to you with a suggestion or a comment, do you equally have an immediate response for the or do you take sometime to consider the request.

The key to success in our organizations in the global workplace is to listen to what our customers are expressing as to what they want. If we immediately dismiss what they are saying we are not helping either the organization or the cutomer.

Listen I fully realize that the tendency is to respond quickly and decisively on items as they come across your desk, but just sometimes fast is not the best response to the customers who are responsible for our organizational success.

Side note: The new connection then asked me to tell her why I was so quick to respond. In this case I related an situation that happened during my recruiting days which was less than ethical on the part of the firm I was working for. Can you likewise provide an INSTANT response as to why you responded immediately to their request.

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Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. has introduced a proprietary course for anyone dealing with the management of Human Capital. It is entitled Driving the Human Resource 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma. It is designed to show HR professionals how to utilize continuous process improvement to enhance their human resource processes and explain HR in terms of organizational strategy. The class lasts for two days and has been pre-approved for 13 strategic continuing education by the Human Resource Certification Institute.
For information or to register call (352) 395-5269

Driving HR 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma course comes to Gainesville, FL Oct 12-13

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Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. has introduced a proprietary course for anyone dealing with the management of Human Capital. It is entitled Driving the Human Resource 500: Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma.  It is designed to show HR professionals how to utilize continuous process improvement to enhance their human resource processes and explain HR in terms of organizational strategy. The class lasts for two days and has been pre-approved for 13 strategic continuing education by the Human Resource Certification Institute.

For information or to register call (352) 395-5269

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

The Perfect Storm is Coming- Are You Complacent or Proactive?

I went through an ordeal with my 91 year father recently as Irene bore down on the New York metropolitan area. He said he had lived through hurricanes before and this should not be any different. He told me they had plenty of food in the house.

His attitude made me think of some of the members of management in and outside HR that I have crossed path with lately. The corporate world faces a pending storm that in the back of our heads we know is coming. Every survey completed recently have said that as much as 60% of our human capital are preparing to jump ship as the economic picture turns around. Politics aside it will turn around, just not sure how soon.

On August 31 I attended the final day of the HR Florida State Convention and had the pleasure of listening to a friend and a member of my LinkedIn Network, Dan Pink. Dan in his keynote presentation made the exact same point. He suggests that there are two tracks we can go down. The first is the attitude of my Dad, we know the storm is coming but we have lived through this before. There is absolutely no reason to change our way of managing.

On the other side of the coin, are those organizations who have decided that they can lessen the impact by taking proactive steps to change the work environment. Here are just some of the suggestions made by Dan in his presentation:

1. When we ask an employee to change the way we do things we need to explain not only the how of the change. We need to also explain why we are making the change. What circumstances in the organization made us introduce this new way to do things.
2. Learn to be flexible. Dan made reference to Netflix whose corporate vacation policy is they don't have one. Management have told the employees take as much time as you need as long as the work gets done.
3. Realize that you are presenting a mixed message to your employees when you try to do things the way you have always done. Dan posted to the assembled group how many of us had problems with Millenials. Almost every hand went up. Dan pointed out that one of the characteristics of the Gen Y is that they want to constantly be able to determine how they are performing. We then tell them that they can find out the answer to this question once a year in a 45 min session which neither management or the employee like or enjoy.
4. There are many examples of research has shown that when we ask our employees to perform rudimentary constructive skills money is not the answer. Just raising the monetary level will not increase the motivation to complete the responsibilities of the positions we have trusted to them.

So on this Labor Day eve are you representative of my father thinking everything will continue as it has and risk massive knowledge drain from your organization? Or are you ready to be proactive and prepare the organization to lessen the impact of the pending Perfect Storm?

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Is Your Company The Target Of An Ice I-9 Inspection? Strategies That Can Get You Through It

Today's Post is from our partner Jon Velie:

Have you received a letter from Immigration Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) that your company must produce its I-9 forms for inspection? If so, you are not alone. The Government initiated a new round of immigration investigations on June 14, 2011 targeting 1,000 companies across the country.

The companies will be facing government audits of I-9 forms and documents filed by employees indicating legal working status in the United States.

“The inspections will touch on employers of all sizes and in every state in the nation, with an emphasis on businesses related to critical infrastructure and key resources,” ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement.

The names of the companies were not released, however, ICE stated they include large and small businesses in 17 sectors, including agriculture and food, financial services, commercial nuclear reactors, drinking water and water treatment, postal and shipping, health care and transportation.

“Ultimately, our focus on businesses related to critical infrastructure and key resources aligns with our priority as an agency to first and foremost minimize threats to national security and public safety,” Christensen said.

The Obama administration has made workplace investigations a key part of its efforts to enforce immigration laws, unlike the Bush administration, which relied more on high-profile raids and worker arrests.

In all, ICE has initiated more than 2,300 employer audits since the start of the federal fiscal year in October. It conducted 2,196 audits during the 2010 fiscal year, leading to the criminal arrests of 196 employers and 119 convictions.

Questions employers face when audited are:

Are the I-9’s filled out correctly? Typical errors in filling out I-9 forms include:

Leaving fields blank. If there is no answer, such as no middle name or maiden name for a man, fill in with N/A.

Listing more that either the List A documents, ie US passport, permanent residency card or work authorization or List B and C documents, ie Drivers license and Social Security card. An employer should not request all the documents. It is a violation of the employees rights.

Executing the signatures of the employer and employee on different dates. While the documents can be signed up to 3 days apart, the issue is whether the employer viewed the documents when the employee signed the form.

2. Are we maintaining our I-9’s correctly? I-9’s should not be kept in the personnel files of the employee but in separate binders. One binder for current employees and a second binder for employees terminated within three years of their hire date or one year after termination, whichever is longer. Employers should not keep I-9s after the period allocated. Employers should develop a regular purging process. However, it is probably not a good idea to destroy any documents after receiving an ICE inspection notice.

If an employer is being audited, one of the best things it can do, is hire an outside group to audit the forms and related documents immediately. We spent last week auditing forms and documents, training employees, interviewing employees for a company who received one of the thousand letters. We discovered technical errors with virtually all of them.

However, we reached out to ICE and informed them we were conducting an audit. We requested some additional time and corrected all the technical errors. We included audit notes and met with the Inspector to identify our issues. It was very well received. Our client would have surely received a lengthy report from ICE indicating non-compliance with virtually all employees. We discovered in our interview process a discrepancy that resulted in termination of an employee. We divulged the issue and solution to ICE at the initiation of the process.

The company officials decided to join IMAGE, an initiative that requires an ICE audit and outside audits going forward. But for my client they were being audited anyway and we were performing the outside audit. Additional requirements are joining E-verify among others. Taking these actions are good faith or mitigating steps that may save the Company massive fines, potential criminal prosecution or shutting down operations.

The passage of IMMACT unwillingly deputized US employers to take reasonable steps to determine whether employees are lawfully permitted to work. The consequences can be civil fines ranging from $110 to $1,100 per violation or criminal liability.

The Government has shifted a wholly civil fine philosophy to include criminal liability today. ICE may refer cases of numerous crimes such as knowingly employing an illegal alien, harboring an illegal alien, RICO violations, money laundering and numerous others to a US attorney. The number of crimes have been initiated against US employers have sky rocket in recent years.

ICE is a very well funded agency, and crimes prosecuting illegal aliens is now the top body of crime in the country surpassing drug crimes and terrorism. Hispanically Speaking, reported on June 21, 2011, that the top two crimes in the United States are immigration crimes. One, illegally re-entry will comprise approximately 50% of all crimes prosecuted in the United States in 2011. The current administration will prosecute approximately 37,000 individuals on illegal re-entry. This is a massive upswing from George Bush II’s administration that prosecuted approximately 20,000 in 2008. Bill Clinton’s highest total was in 2000, with approximately 7,500. While, George Bush I only prosecuted approximately 1,000 in both 1991 and 1992.

We are seeing an upswing in deportation as well. In FY 2009 ICE deported more than 135,000 “criminal aliens,”—a 19% increase over FY 2008.

The heightened prosecutions and deportations are indicative of the Government’s hard line policy against illegal immigration and focus on enforcement. The ICE inspection initiative is the largest ever of its kind and clearly shows that the Government will hold US employers responsible if they hire illegal workers. I-9 compliance is a requirement for all employers in the US, it is imperative that you understand whether you are compliant before ICE knocks on your door on gives you a letter with only a few days to comply. But if they do, call an Immigration Attorney with experience in compliance immediately.

My contact information is 405-310-4333, office 405-821-5959, mobile, e-mail me at jon@velielaw.com or visit our website at www.onlinevisas.com.

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Rush to Metricment

Let me begin by apologizing to the English purists in the audience. I fully realize that I just took the liberty of creating a word as if I was playing scrabble and wanted that one big word to win the game. But read on and I think you will get the intent here.

I am in the middle of reading Kaplan and Norton's The Balanced Scorecard and through out the first 100 pages there are numerous references to metrics int he development of the scorecards. I further refer to Mikel and Schroeder in their book on six sigma make the point that every organization is confronted with five conditions that affect the business:

1. We don't know what we don't know
2. We can't act on what we don't know
3. We can't know until we search
4. We can't search for what we don't question
5. We don't question that we don't measure

I am not questioning the value of metrics and measurements. What I am questioning is the rush to rely so heavily on metrics for everything and anything. when we make that rush to metricment we tend to make our case solely on the metrics involved and not the human factor involved within our organizations. So my suggestion is take the metrics for what they are - a way to measure how we are doing on the path to reach our goals. They are not the end all of factors that indicate our successes. Find a middle ground between the human factors and the mechanical metrics that we use to evaluate our organizations.

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HR Strategic Focus Part 5: They are not human capital assets, they are Employees!!! here to set a title.

In this final installment in this series we want to turn to the need for a new perspective on a critical factor in every organization that is operating today. In this space and others on the web we recently posted a request for assistance in developing the support for the affect of stress and overwork on the productivity within the workplace.

One of the respondents returned a rather terse response in which she took us to task in our post by stating "First of all, they are EMPLOYEES, not "human capital assets." They're PEOPLE, not furniture."

While we agree that they are people, we also suggest that they are a valuable asset of the organization. Try serving your clients or customers with no employees. They dictate how successful your are in the marketplace. Part of the problem with the above stated comment can be found in the landmark work of Robert Kaplan and David Norton entitled "The Balanced Scorecard." The authors make reference to the Harvard Business Council on Competitiveness project which stated that "the U.S. system favors those forms of investment for which returns are most readily measurable; this leads to underinvestment in intangible assets - products and process innovation, employee skills, customer satisfaction - whose short term returns are more difficult to measure." (The Balanced Scorecard Page 38)

In order to reach the stages of innovation that will perpetuate our organizations we have to change the way we look at our EMPLOYEES. The nature of our employees has changed that they are no longer valued on what they make or produce. They are now valued for what is in their heads. They are based on the contribution they make to the organization's ability to create new products or services. Their value is based on how they enhance the organization. So from a strategic perspective organizations need to begin to recognize the value brought to the business. This means they are not truly just expense items on a balance sheet. They are the future of the business.

So how do we change the perspective? Consider these strategic directions when dealing with employee issues:

Listen to the Rank and File: Instead of necessarily introducing benefits because they are the current fad ask your employees what they need and want. Create benefit package centered around both your corporate culture and the voice of your employees.

Flexible Work Arrangements - Many organizations, with great success, have found that being willing to explore new work arrangements have benefits to the organization and to the customers. Best Buy has allowed their corporate employees to switch to a system in which employees are rated on the results they achieve not on what hours they work. This also allows you to assist your employees in achieving an optimal work/life balance.

Employee Engagement - Management needs to bring everyone into the planning process. Utilize the creative skills of the employees to change policies or procedures. Use the employees to locate the obstacles in your processes to make the organization run more effectively. Make the employees aware that they are a vital part of the organization. Not in image but in reality.

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Tuesday morning trivia

For many years this space has posted reference to the new Mindset List from Beloit College. Released at the beginning of each new school year, the list discusses the things that characterize the new class. Click on http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2012/ and enjoy. It gives you the opportunity to reflect on how it might affect the workplace in which we will operate under in the coming years.

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What am I supposed to Do?

According to the TLNT blog this morning the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel has released the fndings of 13 cases involving social media and employee actions. The 24 page report can be found at http://tlnt.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=85f2981883cd879c955d5072f&...

The results may provide you with guidance as how to deal with your own social media policies.

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8 Reasons Social Media Policies Backfire from the HR Examiner

On August 10, 2011, In Editorial Advisory Board, Heather Bussing, HRExaminer, by Heather Bussing

Heather Bussing is a California attorney who has represented employers, unions and employees in every aspect of employment and labor law including contract negotiations, discrimination and wage hour issues. While the courtroom is a place she’s very familiar with, her preferred approach to employment law is to prevent problems.  Full bio…

8 Reasons Social Media Policies Backfire

by Heather Bussing

Lawyers and HR live and breathe risk management. One of their favorite tools is the employment policy.  But, before you issue the latest and greatest social media edicts, understand this fundamental principal—the more you control it, the more you will be legally responsible for everything that happens.

Here are my top 8 reasons why social media policies backfire.

1.            Most Social Media Accounts Belong to the Employee.

If it is an account in the employee’s name, whether they use if for work or personal or both—it’s theirs and they get to say what they want.  Trust them, and stay out of it.

Just because employees drive their cars to work and park them on company property, the employer doesn’t get to tell them what kind of car to own, how to drive, or whether to remove those tacky Hawaiian seat covers.

If it is a blog or company page that belongs to the employer, the company is going to be liable for everything in it anyway.

2.            It’s Bad For Your Brand

The effectiveness of social media is that it is more spontaneous and authentic—more real.  If you dictate what can be said or require all posts to be approved, you lose that edge, as well as all the fun.  The more people who have a say in what is and isn’t said, the less personal and interesting the posts will be.

You will also lose any sense of timing, which is essential on fast-moving streams like Twitter

3.            If You Control It, It’s Yours.

If you have a comprehensive social media policy that dictates what can and cannot be discussed, you will have to pay someone to monitor what is being said, demand that inappropriate posts come down and discipline when the edicts are violated.  How much time, money and energy is this really worth?

Under agency law, if you are directing the conduct of employees in social media, the company will be liable for everything that is said.  To the extent something said is defamatory, violates a nondisclosure agreement or just pisses someone off, a comprehensive social media policy is the best way to get the company named in the lawsuit.

If you are not controlling it, then the company generally will not be liable for things said and done in employees’ personal accounts.  This is because the employees are not acting in the course of their employment and the employer is not controlling or implicitly approving the actions of its employees.  And if there is no deep pocket to sue, the chance of a lawsuit getting filed at all is greatly diminished.

Some employers require employees to post some version of “my opinions are my own and not my employer’s.” For example, see some of these disclaimers on Twitter

But a disclaimer on the employee’s account won’t necessarily protect a company from liability—to the contrary it just looks like the company is trying to control what gets said.  (See Dell’s Social Media Policy: You are responsible for everything you say, but we can discipline you for it.)

While a disclaimer alone does not create liability, the fact that someone is saying “my employer made me say it is not responsible for my posts,” can trigger someone to look further to see whether the employer is also directing the content of the employee’s social media posts, especially if the employer also reserves the right to discipline employees for the content of those posts.

The disclaimer move is also bad for your brand. Why would a company want to look paranoid and untrusting of the people that are representing it in social media?  It’s also bad for recruiting—it signals to potential new employees that the company is run by Legal instead of people with common sense who actually understand social media.

4.            Dictating What Employees Cannot Say Can Violate the NLRA

The National Labor Relations Act protects employees from retaliation by an employer for discussing wages, hours or working conditions.  These NLRA protections apply whether or not your company has a union, because they relate to “organizing” or pre-union actions.

The bottom line is that a social media policy cannot prohibit an employee from saying bad things about what it is like to work at your company.  Protected expressions include being critical of the bosses, the customers or the stupid signs in the kitchen.  If you have and try to enforce a social media policy that dictates what people say, you could end up with fines and a lawsuit from the National Labor Relations Board.

5.            Enforcing the Policy Can Violate Whistleblower or Anti-retaliation Protections

If employees are saying things in social media that relate to a protected status, and an employer disciplines them, the employer risks liability for retaliation under discrimination laws.  Protected information includes anything that relates to the employee’s race, religion, marital status, national origin, gender, pregnancy, age, disability, birthplace, citizenship, military service, ancestry, relatives, health of relatives, medical condition, finances, and sometimes, sexual orientation.  This potentially includes everything.  Even someone’s taste in music and whether they have tattoos can be shown to relate predominately to a particular race, gender or age.

So basically, you can’t control how employees talk about the company and you can’t control how they talk about themselves without risking liability for something. 

But wait. There’s more.

6.            Monitoring Employees Can Violate Computer Hacking Laws

Let’s say you just want to make sure that employees are not violating the company’s confidentiality policy.  You’re just protecting against disclosure of trade secrets.  So you are periodically checking the company Facebook page and doing twitter stream searches.  Okay, that’s probably fine.

But many employers assert the right to get on their employees’ computers and monitor use, history and websites viewed at work.  See this article on Microsoft’s Business site advocating snooping and obtaining evidence secretly.   If an employee has saved social media passwords on the network, it is often possible to sign-in and view accounts the employees believe are personal.

Using employee passwords to sign-in to their social media accounts can violate state and federal computer hacking laws and constitute identity theft.  All 50 states have laws that prohibit someone from unauthorized access to another person’s computer and online accounts, especially if the intent is to change or modify access or content.   This would include deleting an inappropriate post.

A California court recently found a guy guilty of hacking and identity theft when he accidentally obtained a girl’s email address and password, then used the email to change the person’s Facebook password, then logged onto Facebook and starting making obscene posts.

While courts will generally allow an employer to monitor to see if employees are working or contacting the competition with the recipe for the secret sauce, it is doubtful that it would be legal to get employee passwords and log into their personal accounts without their knowledge and permission.

The usual legal answer to this is to create a policy that notifies employees that you reserve the right to spy on them and make them sign it, giving their consent.  While you’re at it, monitor their bathroom breaks and issue dress codes and cubicle flags.  Or you can decide not to be a complete jerk.  (See 2 above.)

7.            Monitoring Employees’ Personal Accounts Can Give You Access to Stuff You Don’t Want to Know.

Suppose the social media enforcer logs onto Facebook and learns that an employee’s spouse has cancer.  This means potentially higher insurance premiums, more absences by the employee and the cost of hiring temps to cover.  This gets back to management who becomes concerned.  As the employee becomes stressed and distracted by her husband’s illness, the performance memos start flowing until the employee is either fired or quits from the hassle.

When the jury learns that the employer knew about the spouse’s cancer from monitoring the employee’s Facebook page, they will add several zeros to the amount they award the employee in the discrimination and privacy lawsuit.  And I don’t care whether the employee and the company enforcer were “friends” or not.  Being nosy and having access to employees’ personal lives is not a “best social media practice.”  It’s stupid.

8.            Disciplining Employees for their Social Media posts Can Violate Privacy Rights.

Some states have general rights of privacy and others have more specific laws that protect employees from discipline for their off-duty, off-site conduct.  So reserving the right to discipline employees for their conduct in their social media accounts can violate the employees’ rights of privacy.

There is often an exception for conduct that directly affects the employer—but it has to be more than people might find out that the employee works for the employer.  The conduct itself has to involve the employer’s name and reputation—for example, the employee posts a photo on Facebook having sex in the conference room under the company name and logo.

What to Do:

The best social media policy ever was written was by Jay Shepherd, one of the most sensible attorneys around.  The policy is:  “Be professional.”

If you are concerned about trade secrets and confidentiality, then teach your employees what is secret and what isn’t, so that they understand and don’t screw up.  Train employees to “be professional.” Letting them know what defamation is and what would violate a nondisclosure agreement.  But don’t direct their specific conduct.

If you are concerned about employees being inappropriate, believe me, you’ll know as soon as someone is, because it will be all over the company faster than “free beer in the conference room.”  Figure out the best way to deal with it and handle it on an individual basis, using your good sense and judgment.

And if that doesn’t work then termination for “being a complete idiot,” has always been a legitimate, nondiscriminatory business reason.

Bottom Line: Social media policies do not prevent problems or fix them.  They generally only create them.

So set the example, “Be professional.”

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

HR Strategic Focus Part 4: It is Not a Talent Problem, Trust Me

Toyota recalls a major part of their road fleet due to mechanical problems. Johnson and Johnson recalls much of the product line due a chemical smell in the pills. For many managers the tendency is to counter these problems with the theory that if they throw out the talent for the replacements will improve the problem.But here is the problem with that perspective. Assuming you have done your selection properly and the talent meet the minimum job requirements (some organizations admittedly do not do a very good job in the selection process), then replacing the talent will not solve the problem.

Eliyahu Goldratt, the author of the book The Goal, in one of his last statements before his recent passing made the comment that "I smile and start to count on my fingers: One, people are good. Two, every conflict can be removed. Three, every situation, no matter how complex it initially looks, is exceedingly simple. Four, every situation can be substantially improved; even the sky is not the limit. Five, every person can reach a full life. Six, there is always a win-win solution. Shall I continue to count?"

The point here is that when your organization encounters such events within your organization it is not the people, Every process within the organization has its hiccups. These hiccups tend to cause our processes to operate in less than optimum levels. The other problem is that many of these hiccups exist because we are so used to the organizational speak that we never look for them.

The real solution here is part of what we discussed in Part 3 of this series. You want to know where the hiccups are? Ask your front line talent. They know better than anyone where the process hiccups are. If asked they will gladly tell you how to improve the process. Your only challenge is to not only listen, you need to be willing to accept the worth of your human capital assets and their insight. You need to be willing to take that voice of the customer and apply it to improving the processes within HR and the other functions in your organization. Forget you are in this supposed HR Silo that knows the ways of organizational development, open up and look at what is good for the total organization.

HR Strategic Focus Part 5: They are not human capital assets, they are Employees!!!

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed