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

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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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