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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