What is your Gay Index?

The term Gay Index was coined by Richard Florida in Fast Company severl years ago, but it brings up an ongoing issue I hear in the marketplace. When we are writing policies and procedures regarding discrimination aand harrassment in the workplace we know that we have a group of protected classes that are singled out in thesse policies as having their rights protected in the workplace.

Yesterday the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission just made your job a little bit harder. In a case which pitted and employee against the Department of Justice, the EEOC rulled that transgender employees are a covered class under Title VII.

In a landmark ruling, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that Title VII, the federal sex discrimination law, protects employees who are discriminated against because they are transgender. In its unprecedented decision, the EEOC concluded that “intentional discrimination against a transgender individual because that person is transgender is, by definition, discrimination ‘based on … sex’ and such discrimination … violates Title VII.”

Based on this ruling it would be in the best interests of your organization to review your policies to ensure that you have updated them for the new requirements.

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

That's Just the Way We do things here

I was watching the local news herein Tampa Bay the other night and a story came on that made we stop to think about how we do things within the HR arena everyday.

There is a local man who was scheduled to fly to NJ to be with his daughter who was undergoing a medical procedure. The problem is that he has been fighting cancer for a number of years but he went to an airline and purchased a non-refundable ticket for the trip. Then during a conversation with his doctor, he was told he could not only not fly but he had only about two months to live. He went to the airline and explained the situation and offered full medical documentation. The airline's response was if you died we would give you a partial refund, barring that our policy is that the ticket you bought is non-refundable.That's our policy and we will not make any changes.

I am a strong advocate of our policies and procedures having a standard of work, a set number of steps required to complete the process. But I also realize that in between we have migrated to a world which thrive on flexibility. This leaves us with two options within our organizations. One is to be like the airline and state that this is our policy and we are sticking to it. Or we can introduce the policies and procedures as guidelines and allow your organizations and its managers to use some judgment as to whether the organizational stability is really harmed by inserting some common sense to how we deliver those policies and procedures.

Being lock step into this is the way we do it within this organization does not service the organization nor your human capital assets. Within every policy and procedure, there should be room for some creativity in how we utilize them to resolve issues in the workplace.

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

That's Just the Way We do things here

I was watching the local news herein Tampa Bay the other night and a story came on that made we stop to think about how we do things within the HR arena everyday.

There is a local man who was scheduled to fly to NJ to be with his daughter who was undergoing a medical procedure. The problem is that he has been fighting cancer for a number of years but he went to an airline and purchased a non-refundable ticket for the trip. Then during a conversation with his doctor, he was told he could not only not fly but he had only about two months to live. He went to the airline and explained the situation and offered full medical documentation. The airline's response was if you died we would give you a partial refund, barring that our policy is that the ticket you bought is non-refundable.That's our policy and we will not make any changes.

I am a strong advocate of our policies and procedures having a standard of work, a set number of steps required to complete the process. But I also realize that in between we have migrated to a world which thrive on flexibility. This leaves us with two options within our organizations. One is to be like the airline and state that this is our policy and we are sticking to it. Or we can introduce the policies and procedures as guidelines and allow your organizations and its managers to use some judgment as to whether the organizational stability is really harmed by inserting some common sense to how we deliver those policies and procedures.

Being lock step into this is the way we do it within this organization does not service the organization nor your human capital assets. Within every policy and procedure, there should be room for some creativity in how we utilize them to resolve issues in the workplace.

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

The Global Marketplace changed, but did your organization?

I recently posted a blog entry entitled "open letter to the CEO" and one of the readers took me to task for posting something with a misspelling because I used the term Stakeholder instead of Shareholder.

While we might be talking semantics here, I thin for every organization there is tremendous potential to change the focus from shareholder to stakeholder. It encompasses a greater audience for the success of the organization. But assuming we are talking just semantics only let's look at the definitions of the two terms.

According to Dictionary.com, a shareholder refers to one who holds or owns shares of a company. In essence this means that the individual or organization holds a financial interest in the organization and looks at all decisions from a return on investment perspective. Every decision that is made is from the view of the effect on the bottom line.

According to Dictionary.com again, the stakeholder is a person or group that has an investment, share, or interest in the organization.

So here is where I part ways with the comment writer. The global marketplace has changed. Our success as organizations is now dependent on a rapidly growing resource base for our success. The correct term in the new arena is that of stakeholder. The investment does not have to be in the form of shares of stock. Consider these stakeholders and see how they differ from shareholders:

• Employees
• Vendors
• Customers
• Community
• Your industry
• Your competitors
• Potential talent resources
• Suppliers

Stakeholders look at our organizations to determine what is necessary for the organization to make them more competitive in the marketplace. We do this through our policies, our products, our customer service levels, the way we treat employees and how we treat the community in which we function everyday. The stakeholder has a vested interest in the success of our organization. Unlike a shareholder, if we are not meeting their needs they can easily pick up and abandon our efforts for someone who will meet those needs. This global marketplace we are now in demands transparency with all parties to the operations from the floor person to the executive suite to the customer and vendor. It demands a new focus on what makes all better not just one segment of the equation.

So next time you are reviewing the operation of your enterprise, consider broadening your focus to encompass the entire market rather then just those who have put their money where their mouth is in the form of a monetary investment within your organization. Consider that those individuals who help you make, sell and service your product or service are just as important as the shareholders.

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Daniel Bloom SPHR,SSBB,SCRP
Performance Institute and DBAI partner to bring Driving HR 500 seminar to Washington, D.C.

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. has introduced a proprietary course 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. In addition all successful participants will receive certification as a Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

Performance Institute classes are scheduled for:

June 12-13, 2012 and October 24-25,2012 For more information visit http://ping.fm/Mpinc

We are also bringing the class to the St Petersburg College Corporate Training Center on April 26-27, 2012 in Clearwater FL
More information visit http://ping.fm/3Pvtq

Performance Institute and DBAI partner to bring Driving HR 500 seminar to Washington, D.C.

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. has introduced a proprietary course 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. In addition all successful participants will receive certification as a Six Sigma Yellow Belt.

Performance Institute classes are scheduled for:

June 12-13, 2012 and October 24-25,2012  For more information visit  http://www.performanceinstitute.org/HRSixSigma

We are also bringing the class to the St Petersburg College Corporate Training Center on April 26-27, 2012 in Clearwater FL
                More information visit http://spcollege.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&...

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

Beware of the Social Media trogan horse

Growing up I heard often that you should be careful what you ask for. Apparently the organizations that thought that asking for social media passwords was a legitamate way to gain information about prospective new employees and whether they fit into the corporate culture are getting more then they bargained for.

Two U.S. Senators have asked the Department of Justice and the EEOC to investigate whether the practice violates both the Stored Computer Records Act and the Computer and Fraud Act. See http://www.dcemploymentlawupdate.com/2012/03/articles/publications/senators-a... for more information.

With the breadth of resumes you are receiving in today's market I fully recognize the need to find the best few candidates for your positions, but taking steps to open the pandora's box is not the way to go about it. Stop for a moment and consider how yu wuld feel if the shoes were on the other foot and you were the one being asked for the release of private information.

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

Are You Still Viewing the World from a MYopic Point of View?

I was in a discussion recently with an individual who I believe is destined to become a real leader within what ever organization they finally connect with. But they expressed the view that HR only meant hiring and staffing.

This point hit home the point Dave Ulrich made in his book, HR Transformation. As HR professionals we can continue to take this myopic view of the world and profess that this is what we do. In our two day workshop where we teach fellow HR professionals how to implement the six sigma methodology the improving the HR space, we suggest that as HR professionals,following this view is tantamount to accepting mediocrity and the eventual dissolution of what we do as a career.

It is time that we as the knowledge base of the assets that our human capital bring to the organization, we need to be involved in every step of the development of the organizational strategic planning. We are the ones that have a clear picture of the resources the organization needs to grow into this crazy global workplace we are so valiantly trying to fit into.

We have definitely not gotten the message across when both managers and the general public have the deep seated view that HR is to be avoided at all costs.The unfortunate part is that we have brought it on ourselves. For some reason we can't seem to get on the right playing page. We tend to be the fireman of the organization rather than the champions for reaching the most efficient and effective organizations possible. We make the outside world wonder where we are coming from. we push the organization to be more in tune with the technological world, then we have candidates apply on line, call them in for an interview and ask them to fill out a hard copy of what they filled out on line.

We have a choice and it clearly is an important one for the organization. Is HR part of the total organization and delivering real value to the operation? or Is HR this silo unto its own, that is the bane to everyone's existence out of touch with the world around them?

In today's global workplace we are more than hiring and staffing. We are the conduit for a wide assortment of data and metrics regarding the nature of our workforce both internal and external. We have the unique position of having our fingers on the pulse of the talent marketplace and their needs. Each of these factors will in the long run determine how successful our organizations are.

Which view do you have- a myopic one or a global one?

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed