In Plain Sight: Hidden Wastes that Affect the Viability of Your HR Organization Part 5: Solutions

Every organization and every business enterprises is comprised of processes that they use to conduct the business of their organization. As we stated in Part 1 of this series, organizations like people strive to be the best that they can be. In their way are obstacles which are a natural tendency of processes which slow those processes down. The root causes of these slow downs are the types of wastes we presented for discussion in parts 2-4.

In this final part to the series we turn our direction not to those wastes but strategies that have been used by other organizations to remove the wastes. The final objective is to create a standard of work which will  eliminate those wastes and overtime be repeatable within the workforce.

Strategy #1: Redesign the work flow

Take a careful look at your processes. Ensure that as much as possible that everything that your human capital need to complete their assigned tasks are within easy reach. If they require constant access to a fax machine make sure there is one within arms length. If they need access to a particular file make sure it is in a file cabinet next to their desk. After reviewing the waste categories remove any unnecessary steps in the processes.

Strategy #2: Voice of the Customer

The wants and needs of the customer are paramount to the success of the organization. If the organization includes within their processes steps not required by the customer get rid of them. If you have accumulating files which have no bearing on current projects or processes, where ever possible get rid of them.  We would suggest that HR go to the sales and marketing  team and request that you go with them on sales calls to the customer. Use this opportunity to gain a better understanding of the qualifications the customer wants to find in the employees they deal with. Reduce the number of reports by not sending information through the pipeline except where it is specifically requested by a customer (internal or external).

Strategy #3: Simplify movement through your organization

Seriously look at your organization and reduce movement of information and human capital as much as possible. As we already suggested above, redesign work cells to reduce the required movement by your human capital.

Strategy #4: Learn Your Organization

I hear the comments now, I already know my organization. But I would suggest that you may not truly know what you do and why you do it. Initially process map your organization. Follow up that with a value stream map of the organization. The process map provides a macro view of your organization and its process steps. The value stream map adds every document and every time period between the steps. It can be an eye opener to problems within your organization.  The two mapping exercises allow an organization to find ways to reduce the time gaps between process steps. It allows you to limit requests to exactly what the customer says they need.

Strategy #5: Reduce overproduction

Begin by implementing the lean tool and asking the 5 Why questions. Each time you ask the question you get closer to the root of why you do things the way you do. From this eliminate useless data collection and non-value added required steps in those processes.

Strategy #6: Reduce overprocessing

Look at your approval routes. Is it really necessary for the VP of HR to get a job requisition and approve it before the assigned recruiter begins the talent management effort? What if you gave the recruiter the requisition with a copy going to the VP? Move from a system where you continually push candidate information to hiring manager to waiting until they ask for the specific requirements for a specific job need.

Strategy #7: Eliminate the Obstacles in Your processes

Where ever possible automate your process steps. Ensure that every department within your organization adapts the standard of work that the organization has created. If a department thinks they have an idea to improve a process. let them show the entire organization why it is better. Do not let a single department stray from the standard work model.Utilize the DMAIC model from the six-sigma methodology to improve the way you do things.

Strategy #8: Create Skill Benches

Take a page from the playbook of IBM and create skill benches within your organization, When a specific department needs the skills from the bench, the bench assets are sent to the department on a project basis. When the project is complete they return to the skill bench. If there is no new project beginning, then the downtime is used to gain the necessary continuing education to do their jobs better, faster and cheaper.

Strategy #9: Change Your Hiring Metrics

Change your standard of work on hiring from one where the various department managers exercise discretion on manpower needs and adjust resources as needed to one where the organization's manpower capacity is optimized via priorities, scheduling and monetary resources.

Strategy #10: Utilize maximum materials throughout the organization

Review the creative processes within the organization and make sure you are using all available materials. Ensure that unless absolutely necessary e-mails are not printed and kept for eternity. when you create marketing pieces or reports or forms make sure you use all available material resources.

Our premise throughout this series is that in order for your organization to optimize your processes, you need to identify the obstacles to that optimization. Once you have found the roadblocks remove them. The results are that when you have removed the non-value added activities and you have created the standard of work we will increase the bottom line. The very direct result is that you will lower your organization's carbon footprint in the sand. You therefore have made your organization more sustainable - socially, environmentally and economically.

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In Plain Sight: Hidden Wastes that Affect the Viability of Your HR Organization Part 4

As stated previously hidden wastes occur in every process undertaken by our organizations, whether we are looking from the production side or the transactional side. In part 4 the final three types of waste or muda that exist in your  organization are reviewed. These will lead us into the final part which offer possible solutions that would assist your organization in removing the non-value added steps to your processes.

Waste or Muda #7 Defects

We as individuals get highly upset when we purchase something and it is not what we expected because something does not work. Our customers get  highly upset when our processes do not provide exactly what they expect. When looking at the human resource operations these defects can be present in several ways.

The first defect is tied to a great degree with our earlier discussion of the waste found in Motion within the organization. When we expect our employees top make extra trips to retrieve what they need to complete the tasks their position calls on, we are reducing productivity.  You ask an employee to retrieve a file for a project but to do so means they have to go to the other side of the building. A client send a fax to your department but the person who is supposed to receive it can't verify that it arrived without leaving his/her desk and going to the mail room. Every time you waste time by not having the materials needed to complete tasks right at their finger tips you are creating waste for your organization.

 The second example of waste within your HR department is when you produce either hard copy forms or online forms with items that are illegal in nature. When we spent some time seeking a full time human resources position we observed questions on application in example which were either against the law or had no bearing on a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification. We are talking about questions such as date of birth, date the candidate graduated form high school. Probably the most out of the box question was an application that contained a mandatory yes or no response to the question "Are You a Visible Minority." These types of questions create waste due to the fact that you can't utilize them in your hiring decisions so why ask them. Have you ever sent out offer letters with wrong start dates or compensation information? Have you ever sent out letters or documents which were critical for the completion of a project only to get them questioned because of misspellings?

 Waste or Muda #8: Unused Employee Potential

The United Negro Fun for years ran a commercial in which the tag line was it was a shame to waste a mind. In this age when our employees are corporate assets,to place them in a position where their full potential is not utilized jeopardizes the organization and is waste to the operation. We do this by not planning our staffing needs correctly. If we hire too much or we have processes that have to wait on a previous step, then we have employees sitting idle and spinning their wheels until they have what they need to continue. We also introduce waste to the human resource process when we under staff the operations leading to  work overload which leads to less than maximum productivity because the employees can not possible get everything done which leads to shortcuts which leads to the potential for defects in the output.

Waste or Muds #9: Material Underutilization

Every day we produce materials out of our processes which end up nowhere. When was the last time you received an e-mail and just to make sure that you did not lose it, you printed a copy?  When was the last time you were printing a 3x5 postcard and you only put two on a page instead of four? When was the last time you scheduled a tele-conference only to have a person who was supposed to be in attendance show up 15 minutes late? What do you do with the information generated by your department? Each of these lead to process waste because the results of the above examples are non-value added steps in a process.

To this point we have provided you with a macro view of the wastes that can appear within your processes. Every organization is guilty of these non-value added steps to one degree or another. The last part of this series will take the HRCI Body of Knowledge and suggest to you solutions that you can use to eliminate the types of waste that we have discussed to this point in this series. we hope that we have at least gotten you to begin to look at your own specific HR processes and considered where you are wasting non-productive time within those processes.

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Just when you thought you had a handle on social media issues

I opened my email to see a post from fellow blogger, Steve Boese (http://steveboese.squarespace.com/joural). It provided a new twist to the HR concerns with the use of social media in the workplace.

Freedom of Choice in Workplace Technology

Posted: 21 Apr 2011 05:21 AM PDT

There is a growing technology trend in workplaces both large and small called 'Bring Your Own Device', sometimes abbreviated as BYOD. Bring Your Own Device simply means that organizational IT departments are allowing individual employees to use their personal or preferred 'devices', (smartphones, tablets, laptops), to access the corporate systems and tools they need to accomplish their work.

BYOD, while certainly more complex for centralized IT teams to support and administer, is an admission and realization that often an individual's attachment and bond to their personal productivity tools is so powerful, that forcing them to adapt and adopt to the corporate footprint is counter-productive and even deflating.  Think about it, if you hire a new sales executive, that has years of his or her industry and corporate contacts resident on their iPhone, or saved to a cloud-based service they access via an Android app, does it really make sense to hand them a new BlackBerry and tell them to 'deal with it, because that is what we support.'

Proponents of BYOD will contend that allowing employees to bring their own devices can reduce training costs as well as the amount of IT support calls on an ongoing basis. Despite supporting 'more' devices, the argument is that each employee already knows how t use and manage their preferred device. As in the example of the new sales rep above, not having to transition from a device and set of tools to a new 'official' platform, can make employees more productive, and reduce time to achieve desired performance levels. Finally, they make employees happier. People LOVE their iPhones, Androids, iPads, whatever. Making them break those ties when they come to the office is painful for many.

The arguments against BYOD typically center around data security, lack of resources to deploy and support a myriad of devices and platforms, and cultural drivers that tend to resist the kind of openness and freedom that BYOD programs foster.  But it does seem likely that as we see the major shift in consumer preferences towards iPhones, iPads, and Android devices; and away from the traditional enterprise deployments of BlackBerries and Microsoft-based PCs, that progressive organizations and IT leaders will simply have to embrace these shifts, and figure out a way to support what their employees really want, while balancing their need to maintain IP and data security.

Recently Clorox, an 8,300 person strong maker of consumer cleaning products adopted a kind of modified BYOD program, by offering its workers a choice of corporate-supported smartphone. Previously, BlackBerry had been the corporate standard. Workers could choose from iPhone, Android, or a Windows7 device. The result - "the company has issued 2,000 smartphones, 92% of which are iPhones. About 6% of the smartphones chosen were Android-based while 2% were Windows Phone 7 devices."

This isn't a knock on BlackBerry, I personally am a happy BlackBerry user, but rather an observation that prior to having a choice of device, almost all of the employees at Clorox were not happy with the 'provided' device, and given the opportunity to move to something more aligned with their preferences, they jumped at the chance. Clorox didn't make this decision to be nice or kind to staff, they balanced the value of the increased effectiveness and engagement of staff against the cost to procure and support the suite of devices and have determined that rather than being a perk to employees, it is simply just a good business decision.

I think we will see more BYOD programs taking hold in the coming years as new entrants to the workforce carry in their tools and preferences and expect them to be supported in the workplace.

I wonder if the next trend might be BYOHRT, Bring your own HR Technology? What might that look like?

Thank you Steve for your input to the dialogue

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In Plain Sight: Hidden Wastes which affect the viability of your HR organization Part 3

In the previous part to this series we began to look at the various types of wastes which could be hidden within your organization. In part 3 we continue that review with a look at the next three types of wastes.

Waste or Muda #4: Waiting

Waiting of any kind means that the process has slowed down. Maybe even stopped. When we make the customer wait for something we have created waste. Waiting can take many different shapes within our organizations.

The IT Manager tells the HR manager that he/she needs that new analyst in three days and now we are looking at 3 months and you are no closer to filling that position then you were when the IT manager said he need the person in critical fashion.

Your organization's policy is that all job requisitions must go through the HR manager before a recruiter can begin sourcing the position. The HR Manager due to their workload forgets to give the job requisition to the recruiter for 72 hours. That becomes 72 man hours of wasted effort.

Voice of the customer is critical in seeking out the needs of the customer. So when a department manager tells HR they need certain metrics to complete a project, then that is what they expect. HR decides that in order to make sure that the manager has everything develops reports that provide the information requested and then some. The result is that the manager has to delay their report because they have to get through the noise before finding exactly what they need,

Waiting can also occur when HR sets up interviews at the wrong date and time or the offer includes the wrong salary information.meaning until the errors are corrected the new hire can not start in the new position.

Waste or Muda #5: Over production

Have you ever heard of the term "overkill?" This area of the non-value activities is the optimum of overkill, overproduction can be found in everything we in HR do. You ask a recruiting source for their best 5 candidates and they send you 20. The department manager asked for a spreadsheet showing the past month's recruiting results and they are sent the past quarters results.Another example is when the department manager requests a report for a specific piece of data so the HR department send them the report every month. In that same scenario, the department manager asks for a specific report on a specific metric and HR prepares the report and also send along the various accompanying support data.

Waste or Muda #6: Overprocessing

As you go shopping tonight or try and call customer service, look around and see how many steps it takes to get you to where you want to be. You call customer service for your favorite store and go through call hell as you are asked to push this number on your phone to continue the process. The other night for instance I called the customer service number for a book store and the CSR was refusing to help because their records said that the credit card number on the account was not the number we have been using to order titles, so she would not let me talk to a supervisor.

Overprocessing can occur when you respond to a hiring manager's request and not really understanding the real needs or wants of the customer. The result is that you deliver something to the hiring manager and because it is the wrong information, the system bogs down until you deliver the right metrics.

Ever look at your recruiting process in detail. HR sources, screens, recruits and interviews potential candidates and refers the best candidates to the hiring manager. That is the way the system is supposed to work, Then comes the hiring manager who states that they want to see all the resumes and re-screens the candidates and schedules interviews just like the HR department already has done.

Non-value added actions are never a good thing for the organization, but as the next three waste types have shown they can especially be detrimental to your HR strategy. In the next part of the series we will look at the final three types of wastes and what they mean for the HR function. The last part of the series will look at possible solutions to remove these wastes from your processes.

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In Plain Sight: Hidden Wastes which affect the viability of your HR organization Part 2

In Part 1 of this series we discussed the fact that every process has non-value added activities as part of the process. They are there because we have not looked for them and in order to be part of the solution we need to begin to look at our organization with the sole purpose in mind to locate, identify and remove the obstacles to us operating our organizations faster, better and cheaper.

If we talk to many of those who operate in the quality space they will identify nine specific types of wastes that occur in every organization. Part 2 will examine the first three of these waste definitions,

Waste or Muda #1: Transportation

Typically when we think of transportation we are concerned with moving people or materials from one place to another. In this case we are more concerned with the movement within your organization. Take a look around your office space or if you are in manufacturing look at your shop floor. Where does an employee have to go to get their required materials to complete a task? Can they turn around and pick up the item or do they need to go across the building to get what they need? Do you move the same piece of equipment multiple times to get it to where it is needed? Do you meet the needs of your customers or do you get a request for some data and what you send the client far exceeds what they asked for?

Waste or Muda #2: Inventory

We as humans and organizations have a tendency to think that we are pack rats. We consistently order what we think we will need for a specific time period even if we know we are more than likely going to change to a different form or model in a short period of time.  You create a new form and instead of ordering what the process tells you will be needed for say 6 months, you order two years worth of forms. When you change the form the excess gets added to the trash.  You maintain on hand permanent job requisitions for every position within the organization whether a hiring manager tells you it is needed or not.I know we don't need that job requisition now but we MAY at some time in the future. Your hiring manager calls you and tells you he needs a critical position filled within 3 days and due to department processes the recruiter does not get the position request for 48 hours. What happened to the voice of the customer?

Waste or Muda #3: Motion

Ever take a pedometer to work and see how far you walk in a day? How many steps do you take that repeat previous steps in order to complete a task? You are given an assignment to produce a report for senior management and in order to get it to the right place nine sets of hands touch the document instead of sending it directly to the manager who requested the report in the first place. I have a friend whose employer moved her desk from the second floor to the first. No big deal right. However they left all of her files on the second floor. By the time she walks the entire length of the building, goes up to the second floor and retrieves the file that is needed and returns to her desk, the organization has lost 25 minutes of productivity. If she makes that trip four times a day, the organization has lost the equivalent of 433 man hours per year. If we assume that she is being paid $15.00 per hour, that lost productivity has cost the organization almost $7000 annually in lost productive activities. Another common occurrence, in this area is the scenario where the management asks for a report and the HR staff throws all the numbers together and for what ever reason the report never leaves your department - the manager says after you complete the report that they don't need it after all or for some reason they report never gets delivered to the client.

These categories of waste and the others to follow, add costs to your operations, They jeopardize the future of your organization. What is obvious when you begin to explore these wastes is that they have been there all along, you just did not see them. Really look at these types of wastes and see how many of them exist in your organization and the affect on the organization because of them.

Part 3 and 4 will look at the remainder of the Muda types and what they do to the organization. Part 4 will return to this area and look at solutions for removing wastes from your HR process and the organization as a whole.

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In Plain Sight: Hidden Wastes which affect the viability of your organization Part 1

As individuals we all strive for perfection to some degree. Our organizations are no different. The goal of many organizations is to be the best at what they do. The problem is that we are so set in our ways that there obstacles presented to us that stop this effort in its tracks.

In the title to this post we discussed hidden wastes., These wastes which are in every process that your organization undertakes are there for one reason and one reason only. You have never looked for them.

Let me begin with a brief scenario to which I would ask you think very carefully on your answer. I am not concerned whether it is on a monthly , quarterly or annual basis, however your financial people have just handed you the financial reports on how your department is performing. Here is my challenge to you:

What do you do with the reports?

Many people to whom we have posed the question to respond by we check the numbers.What are you checking the numbers for? Do you look at the numbers to see if they are calculated correctly? or Do you look at the numbers to see where they came from? Your response tells us whether you are part of the problem or part of the solution.

We would suggest that instead of just checking the numbers to make sure the numbers are correct, approach the process with the utilization of a series of why questions. The purpose is to identify why we do things the way we do. Typically when you ask the question why the response is usually because that is the way we have always done it. So ask why again. This time the answer will change to because John Smith many years ago decided that this was the way we should do something. So why again.

The third why usually leads to a response like they heard it at a seminar or the owner of the company suggesting it. The course usually extends out to five whys which will at the end lead you to the real reason why you do something. It is the first step in uncovering wastes within your organization.

Our goal in doing this is to run our human resources processes faster (leaner), cheaper ( at less cost) and better (with less errors). We achieve this by introducing the six-sigma methodology to your transactional services. Our goal is to continuously improve the transactional services and process quality, getting the services to the customer faster, and reducing costs while improving the price to the customer.

The question is who are our customers? In order to achieve this process improvement our customers include both internal ( hiring managers, upper management, stakeholders) and external (recruiters, sourcing professionals,social media).

 Part 2 of this post will look at the nine types of waste or muda and some examples of how they can affect your organization.

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Did you here we threw a party and someone forgot to turn onthe lights?

Many of us spent the last week keeping an eye on the happenings in Washington with the threatened shutdown of the government as of last night at midnight. No matter which side of the political spectrum you are on, we understand that the government overspends. But we can take the discussions in Washington and carry it over to our business environment.

One of the difficulties of the discussions this past week were that they centered around a number and gave no concern to the underlying environment. We have done the same thing during these tough economic times. Organizations cut for the sake of cutting. They never looked at the after affects on the organization of the decisions. We can't dispute that organizations are reporting that they are more productive now then they have ever been. But at what cost? Workloads have increased. Stress levels have increased. When you add stress to the equation the organization's health care costs go up.Management operates under the premise that when the economy turns around they can just go out and hire another commodity. I truly believe that they are going to be in for a rude awakening when the talent shortage rears its head once again.

The reason behind this change is that organizations have begun to look at their human capital assets as commodities. When you make the change from viewing employees as commodities rather than a live person, your decision basis changes. You no longer take into consideration how your decisions affect the work/life balance of your employees. You no longer take into consideration the needs of the employees to create an environment where they they are becoming engaged with your organization. Recent surveys have suggested that as many as 85% of your current staff is considering jumping to new employment opportunities when the economy improves. Are you ready to deal with that mass exodus?

It is not too late to change your perspective. Remember that if you implement continuous process improvement tools you can add to the bottom line by removing non-value added activities. When you look at your human capital as expendable you will never look at them in any way as a commodity. James Womack in this book Lean Thinking, says that unless you are ready to close the doors of the business there is never a reason to conduct large scale layoffs as we have seen during this past economic downturn.

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Corporate Mobility Benchmarking

CNN Money.com is reporting that JPMorgan forked over $421,458 last year to compensate the CEO for moving costs incurred as he moved his family from Chicago to New York. Yes, moving is hell, but you don't know the half of it. This is the second time in three years that the bank picked up a six-figure sum for the CEO's relocation – which ended up taking five costly years from end to end. The bank has kicked in $617,734 since 2008 to cover the move.

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Recruiters, are you really servicing your clients?

I can hear some of you saying what do you mean “are we really serving your client?” Of course we are, otherwise we would not still be in business. In response I would ask when was the last time you asked your client what they really needed. When was the last time you took the time to sit down and really listen to what the needs of their organizations are?

The focus of this white paper, number seven in the DBAI White Paper Series, is a look at the question of whether you as recruiters are really serving your clients to the ultimate level that you can. Are you really earning the fees you collect for your services? Are you ethically performing what you think the client is asking for in return? When does your responsibility as a recruiter really end?

We have seen many changes occur in the global workplace over the past several decades. Unemployment has been on a roller coaster ranging from very low to record heights. A question of loyalty to our organizations on the part of our human capital assets has been paramount in many businesses. We have also seen an increase in the number of employees jumping to new opportunities because it looks good in their portfolio of skills. We fully cognizant of the fact that as time goes by, things will change.

Read any number of professional journals within the organizational environment – from CFO to HR magazine- one continuing theme is that C-level executives are having trouble sleeping at night over the concerns as to where the talent of the future will come from. They are concerned with locating the right person for the right position at the right time and in the right location. This does not mean ruling candidates out, it means finding attributes among possible talent that can enhance the organization.

In 1973, Allan Cox wrote a classic work entitled “Confessions of a Corporate Headhunter” which laid out the entire process of sourcing, recruiting, referring and collaborating on the hiring of new executive talent. Mr. Cox was an executive with one of the largest retained search firms in the country. In his book he defined your role as that of a mediator between executives who don’t understand their problems and candidates who are out for the fast buck. Assuming Mr. Cox is correct in his views the techniques and resources that are used may have changed, but your primary function has not. As an executive recruiter you are charged with the responsibility to assist your clients in locating, reviewing, and selecting the best possible candidate for the client’s talent capital vacancies. One aspect of this process should be ensuring that both the client and the candidate are well informed as to the total picture of the process. The only party to the process that can readily inform the parties is the recruiter.

We have talked to many recruiters who tell me that despite the definition above, all they do is receive the position requisition and send over the most likely candidate. We do not dispute the intention, however when you confine yourself to a narrow perspective, you have not assisted your client in finding the best person for the job.

Consider these real life examples,

• Where a recruiter made the statement that she would never send on to a client any candidate with grey hair.
• Sony Ericcson and others made it clear to the workplace that if you were unemployed you should not waste their time by applying for the position.
• Recruiters who are set in their silo that they won’t look at functional resumes which better describe the breadth of experiences that they have.

Your client has a problem. They have an open position in their ranks that is costing them dollars. Remaining staff must make up the workload. They are incurring the costs of recruiting new talent. The difficulty maybe that they may not understand what their problem is. You as the recruitment specialist are the route to solve their problem but only if you have a clear idea of what the problem is.

Having been on both sides of the desk we would suggest that to better serve your client you need to change your perspective on your role by following the strategies below:

Strategy 1: Stop playing the game of musical chairs

As children, we all have at one time or another attended the birthday party of a friend where the height of the party was the game of musical chairs. While it was a party standard, it also got old fast as the number of players dwindled. Here you are years later and you are still playing the party game. The difference now is you are not playing based on music but just moving people from place to place with no regard to where it all ends. Take Mary Smith from ABC Corporation and place her in ABD Corporation. Move John Smith from XYZ Corporation and put him in Mary’s position at ABC Corporation. Eventually you will run out of people to move. Whether you want to or not eventually you will have to take talent from one client to fill a position in another one. Where is your sense of ethics regarding your clients?

Strategy 2: Become a true partner with your clients

You receive a call from a client regarding the need for an executive. What you do next determines whether you are service provider or a true partner. Using the tools of the voice of the customer you need to get a complete picture of the needs of your client. Do not settle for a preliminary picture of the need. Work with your client to understand why the position is really open. Understand why they are going in a certain direction. Do not be afraid to question why a decision was made. As we suggested earlier it is time for you to sit down with your client and understand what the expectations of your clients are regarding the open position.

Strategy 3: Recognize the value a candidate brings to the picture

Every person has their own attributes that they bring to the table. As we have moved deeper into the information age, the candidate’s knowledge skills are more important than where he/she has worked. You have taken the time to really understand the needs of your client. Look for the skills that will solve the problem. Take the time to match candidates to positions based on those skills, not some assumed picture of what you think the client wants.

Strategy 4: Don’t stereotype your candidates

In line with the strategy above, each candidate brings a unique mix of experiences to the table. Eliminate from your vocabulary any decision based on pre-conceived thoughts. Just because a candidate has grey hair, doesn’t mean they are past their prime. Just because someone has lost their source of employment during hard economic times does not mean that their skills are no longer of any value to the workplace. Just because a candidate has not remained with one or two corporations for their entire work career does not mean they have lost the skills that your client needs.

Strategy 5: Be willing to take a certain level of risk

You need to determine whether you are a paper pusher or true consultant. Be willing to explain the business case why a particular candidate is the one to solve your client’s problem. Do not settle for working within the narrow view that your client might be imposing. Remember that if you don’t ask the why questions you may not have the real needs that the organization has.

Strategy 6: Gain a sense of ethics

By no means am I lumping every recruiter in this fishbowl but a fair number of recruiters have begun to tell candidates that before they apply for a position they should call the recruiter in order to see if the recruiter has a contact at that employer. Many use this as a source of leads for open positions. Think about how you would feel if someone used you in the same manner.

Strategy 7: Be prepared to present the cost benefits of talent acquisition

Be aware of the cost of various scenarios in the hiring process. In the long run it might be more cost beneficial to offer mobility services then to hire someone, have them stay two months and then have to go through the hiring process all over again. The common assumption is that if you hire someone and they leave within the first year it will cost your client 175 percent of the annual salary to replace, train and get the replacement up to full productivity.

We have tried to present the business case for a new model for the recruitment industry centered around the voice of the customer and understanding the true needs of your client. Your pursuit of this changed model determines whether you are a paper pusher or a true partner with your clients to place the right person in the right place, in the right position, at the right time. Whether you positively respond to the opening question depends totally on how close you come to completing the strategies we have outlined. We totally understand that our suggestions are not human nature as you operate today. Only you can understand how important serving your client’s needs are to your organization and your career.

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Changes from the Healthcare Law

Both the House and the Senate have passed legislation and sent on to the President a repeal of the provision in the Healthcare Law that would have required 1099's be issued to all vendors paid over $600. While the intent was good to make up for lost revenue to the coffers of the country, it would have been a nightmare for businesses during the operation of their businesses.

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New ADAAA regs: the untold story!!!

The law firm of Constangy, Brooks and Smith posted this discussion about the new ADAA regulations rules released by the EEOC.

As most people in the Human Resources and employment-law worlds are aware, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued its final rule interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act.

The ADAAA, which took effect in January 2009, was enacted toward the end of the administration of George W. Bush, with the support of disability rights advocates as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Society for Human Resources Management (both of whom were trying to head off a version that would have been worse for employers). The ADAAA dramatically expands the population that is considered "disabled" within the meaning of the ADA but does not change the ADA's provisions on, for example, reasonable accommodation, medical examinations, or confidentiality.

There has been a lot of commentary about the new regulations, but here are some points that I have not seen anywhere else:

1. The 40-or-so pages of dense preamble and regulations, and the EEOC's "Interpretive Guidance," can be summarized in one sentence, as follows: It is now unlawful to discriminate, not just against individuals with "disabilities," but against anyone because of a medical condition, whether actual, past, or perceived. (Please note that "medical condition" also includes mental/psychiatric conditions and learning disabilities.) The only exceptions might be, for example, a person suffering from the common cold or the flu, or someone who wears eyeglasses or contact lenses. But not necessarily. The new definition of "disabilities" in the ADAAA is as loosey-goosey as the definition of "serious health condition" in the Family and Medical Leave Act. 

2. Individuals who are "regarded as" being only impaired are protected. The only perceived "impairments" that don't count are those that are both transitory (duration of less than six months) and minor. Because it's going to be so easy to qualify, the EEOC is actively encouraging individuals to always sue under the "regarded as" prong as long as they aren't challenging an employer's failure to provide a reasonable accommodation. (For obvious reasons, reasonable accommodations do not have to be provided to individuals who are only "regarded as" being impaired, so an individual seeking a reasonable accommodation would have to establish either an actual "disability" or a record of a "disability.")

3. Thanks (but no thanks) to this law, I expect to see some class action lawsuits alleging ADAAA violations in connection with post-offer medical examinations and terminations at the end of extended medical leaves of absence. Under the prior version of the ADA, these cases were normally unsuccessful as class actions because an individualized analysis was required to determine who could be a member of the class (that is, who was "disabled"). But now that the determination of who is "disabled" is virtually automatic, disability discrimination cases will be more susceptible of class treatment.

4. Most ADA case law on who is "disabled" is no good any longer. The ADAAA explicitly overruled some excellent Supreme Court decisions, including Sutton v. United Air Lines (1999) and Williams v. Toyota Manufacturing of Kentucky (2002). However, our court system is slow, and so we are still seeing ADA decisions that take a restrictive view of who is "disabled." This is nothing to be excited about, unfortunately. Be sure to read the fine print: If the facts alleged in the case occurred before January 1, 2009, then the court is applying the old ADA, which really was a pretty good and reasonable law. (On the other hand, if you see a pro-employer decision based on facts that occurred after January 1, 2009, then you may have reason to open a bottle of champagne.)

So, what should an employer do to comply with the ADAAA?

*Always assume that everyone has an ADAAA "disability." You will be right 99.9 percent of the time, and the rest of the time you'll be erring on the right side.

*Brush up, if you need to, on your legal obligations concerning reasonable accommodations. You will have to consider reasonable accommodations in many more cases than you did in the past. 

*If you think a "medical condition" disqualifies a person from performing the job, go through the full-blown ADA/reasonable accommodation analysis. If you think you will be unable to accommodate, consult with counsel before making any irreversible decisions.

*If you require post-offer medical screening, review what you are doing and make sure that your medical department (or outside physician) is not automatically rejecting everyone who has certain conditions. All medical rejection decisions should be considered "preliminary" until they have been reviewed and approved by someone in Human Resources and/or a lawyer. (This may require the offeree to sign a HIPAA authorization that will allow the medical department to share relevant information with HR/Legal.)

*Review your medical leave/termination policies and practices, and be especially on the lookout for any provisions that seem to call for "automatic" termination without an individualized assessment or consideration of reasonable accommodation options.

*Make sure your "paws" know the laws. Now that we have the potential for cat's paw liability, be sure that your front-line supervisors and other managers know at least that the ADA has been amended and that it will cover significantly more people than before.

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Can you answer "YES" toe ach of these questions?

Do you have a seat at the planning table?
Do you know your total business operation?
Do you know how to improve your processes for positive results?
Can you make the cost ratio presentation on your human capital processes?

Everytime I attend a HR conference a recurring theme I hear is that HR needs to learn the language of business in order to continue to be a thriving part of your organization now and in the future. So, just what does that mean? Either by design or just evolution many departments within our organizations have become silos or islands unto themselves. The problem is that when we do this we lose the grasp ont he bigger picture --our organization. Some of you are probably already saying but this does not apply to me or our department. However if you turn to the writings of Dave Ulrich (HR Transformation) he will explain to you that this is a dangerous way to go.

The business world we liv ein changes on a daily basis, The new world calls for us to be proactive not reactive to events in the workplace. It calls for us to function as part of cross-functional approaches to our trials and tribulations. Mikel and Schroeder in their work "Breakthrough Management" suggest that we don't know what we don't know and if we don;t know what it is that is causing the problems then we can't act on the solutions.

Manufacturing for years has used the six-sigma methodology to improve their processes. These same tools can be used highly successfully in the transactional world where HR resides.The methodology will enable you to know your total business. It will enable you to observe the problems in your processes. We are not asking oyu to use it to lower your FTE levels, this is not about pointing blame on an employee and saying this is the solution (although in some casses it might) but six sigma suggests the problem lies within your process.

Corporations like GE Healthcare, Cummins Engine, XCek Ebergy, IBM and others have seen the benefits of the six sigma approach and have used it to great improvement on the bottom line.

So, do you wat to answer yes to these five questions? Check with your local insitutions of higher education and see if they offer six sigma training and bite the bullet and enroll to learn the ins and outs of how it works, It will literally be the first day of the rest of your career, if you have one going forward.

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I am so Sorry

I placed a call to a friend on her birthday and during our phoen conversation she asked me for my opinion on a situation she is involved with. It seems that a large national big box store has made the decision that it makes business ssnese to provide spanish lessons to all their exempt and non-exempt employees. During this training program they are shown a video in which one of the actors who is made out to be a WASP in appearance as possible, turns to a customer who is of hispanic descent and says " I am sorry that I do not speak your language,"

The causasian employees and the jamaican employees are highly offended at the scenario and have made their views known to management. In one north American city, the employees have been approached by spanish speaking customers who have said if you do not learn my language you are out of a job.

Diversity initiatives are vital to organizations in this global workplace that we find ourselves in, but is it really necessary in the name of diviersity to alientate the rest of the workforce. I would suggest not. In most deveoped countries of the world, English is the language of business and whether we are speaking about diversity of language training it serves no purpose to the organization as a whole to satisfy one block at the expense of another.

I am not suggesting that learning a second language is an adverse thing in any means. I wish I could do so myself. I took two semesters of spanish in college and do not remember any of it. But when in Rome do what the Romans do, and leanr the language of hte workplace. It hinders our organizations when we try to force feed one way of doing things on the rest of the workforce.Instead of trying to change everyone in to a fluent spanish speaking employee make sure that you have employees on staff who do and can be referred to when a fellow employee has a language problem with a client.

What are your thoughts?

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Canadian Court hands down technology decision

An Ontario Court of Appeals issued a ruling in a case where a school teacher was issued a laptop that he was entitled to take home to use on non-scheduled work hours. During his spare time he was looking at pornographic images which were uncovered during a police search of the computer. The Court of Appeals decision stated that if you issue a employee a laptop or a smartphone and let them take them home or on vacation, the employer has given the employee explicit  permission to use the devices for personal use and thus they have the right to expect a reasonable amount of privacy.

While we recogize that Canadian law is not viable in the US, we would suggest that part of your corporate policy needs to clearly state the expectations you want from employees that you have on 24/7 status. Clearly delineate what they are able to do with those devices. If you don't want them usig the devices for personal use say so. You decide the direction your organization goes in this social media world we are living in.

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You are our greatest asset!

For over 30 years we have been a customer of a chain of coffee shops (not Starbucks) and part of their offerings has been a loyalty program for frequent customers. We would get a punch for each drink bought or each pound of ground coffee purchased. Last weekend we stopped in one of their stores and was informed that as of the end of April they were discontinuing the loyalty program. Whe asked why after 30 years they were doing so, the response I got was that the business had to stay in business.

As a coffee shop or your organization your primary purpose is to acquire and maintain customers. You acquire customers in your business by hiring the human capital and by providing the services that meet the requiremets of your hiring managers. In order to maintain them as customers you need to take steps to listen to the voice of the customer. Google the term voice of the customer and look for a six-sigma tool called the voice of the customer matrix and complete oe for each customer segment. Based on the results, make changes in your service delivery to match their needs.

Many managers lament about the lack of engagemet on the part of our human capital assets-i.e.our employees- but what have you done for them lately. Are they treated as an afterthought or do you treat them as vital parts of your organization? Do you as human resource professionals treat managers as customers and fellow team members or do you treat them as an imposition who are there to make your life miserable.

The quality of your workplace is in direct relatioship to the level of your customer satisfaction deliverance. That means satisfied employees and satisfied hiring managers. And while you are at it, do't forget your outside vendors.

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Supreme Court issues ruling in FLSA arena

Petitioner Kasten brought an antiretaliation suit against his formeremployer, respondent (Saint-Gobain), under the Fair Labor Stan-dards Act of 1938 (Act), which provides minimum wage, maximum hour, and overtime pay rules; and which forbids employers “to dis-charge . . . any employee because such employee has filed any com-plaint” alleging a violation of the Act, 29 U. S. C. §215(a)(3). In a re-lated suit, the District Court found that Saint-Gobain violated the Act by placing timeclocks in a location that prevented workers from receiving credit for the time they spent donning and doffing work-related protective gear. In this suit Kasten claims that he was dis-charged because he orally complained to company officials about thetimeclocks. The District Court granted Saint-Gobain summaryjudgment, concluding that the Act’s antiretaliation provision did notcover oral complaints. The Seventh Circuit affirmed.
Held: The scope of statutory term “filed any complaint” includes oral, aswell as written, complaints. Pp. 4–15.
(a) The interpretation of the statutory phrase “depends upon read-ing the whole statutory text, considering the [statute’s] purpose andcontext . . . , and consulting any precedents or authorities that informthe analysis.” Dolan v. Postal Service, 546 U. S. 481, 486. The text, taken alone, cannot provide a conclusive answer here. Some diction-ary definitions of “filed” contemplate a writing while others permitusing “file” in conjunction with oral material. In addition to diction-ary definitions, state statutes and federal regulations sometimes con-template oral filings, and contemporaneous judicial usage shows thatoral filings were a known phenomenon at the time of the Act’s pas-sage. Even if “filed,” considered alone, might suggest a narrow interpretation limited to writings, “any complaint” suggests a broad inter-pretation that would include an oral complaint. Thus, the three-word phrase, taken by itself, cannot answer the interpretive question. The Act’s other references to “filed” also do not resolve the linguistic ques-tion. Some of those provisions involve filed material that is virtually always in writing; others specifically require a writing, and the re-mainder, like the provision here, leave the oral/written question un-resolved. Since “filed any complaint” lends itself linguistically to thebroader, “oral” interpretation, the use of broader language in other statutes’ antiretaliation provisions does not indicate whether Con-gress did or did not intend to leave oral grievances unprotected here.Because the text, taken alone, might, or might not, encompass oralcomplaints, the Court must look further. Pp. 4–8.
(b)
Several functional considerations indicate that Congress in-tended the antiretaliation provision to cover oral, as well as written, complaints. Pp. 8–14.
(1)
A narrow interpretation would undermine the Act’s basic ob-jective, which is to prohibit “labor conditions detrimental to themaintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health,efficiency, and general well-being of workers,” 29 U. S. C. §202(a).The Act relies for enforcement of its substantive standards on “infor-mation and complaints received from employees,” Mitchell v. Robert DeMario Jewelry, Inc., 361 U. S. 288, 292, and its antiretaliation pro-vision makes the enforcement scheme effective by preventing “fear ofeconomic retaliation” from inducing workers “quietly to accept sub-standard conditions,” ibid. Why would Congress want to limit the en-forcement scheme’s effectiveness by inhibiting use of the Act’s com-plaint procedure by those who would find it difficult to reduce theircomplaints to writing, particularly the illiterate, less educated, oroverworked workers who were most in need of the Act’s help at thetime of passage? Limiting the provision’s scope to written complaintscould prevent Government agencies from using hotlines, interviews, and other oral methods to receive complaints. And insofar as the provision covers complaints made to employers, a limiting reading would discourage using informal workplace grievance procedures tosecure compliance with the Act. The National Labor Relations Act’s antiretaliation provision has been broadly interpreted as protecting workers who simply “participate[d] in a [National Labor Relations]Board investigation.” NLRB v. Scrivener, 405 U. S. 117, 123. The similar enforcement needs of this related statute argue for a broad interpretation of “complaint.” The Act’s requirement that an em-ployer receive fair notice of an employee’s complaint can be met byoral, as well as written, complaints. Pp. 8–12.
(2) Given the delegation of enforcement powers to federal administrative agencies, their views about the meaning of the phrase should be given a degree of weight. The Secretary of Labor has con-sistently held the view that “filed any complaint” covers both oral and written complaints. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commis-sion has set out a similar view in its Compliance Manual and in mul-tiple briefs. These views are reasonable and consistent with the Act. And the length of time they have been held suggests that they reflect careful consideration, not “post hoc rationalizatio[n].” Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Assn. of United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co., 463 U. S. 29, 50. Pp. 12–13.
(3)
After engaging in traditional statutory interpretation meth-ods, the statute does not remain sufficiently ambiguous to warrantapplication of the rule of lenity. Pp. 13–14.
(c)
This Court will not consider Saint-Gobain’s alternative claimthat the antiretaliation provision applies only to complaints filedwith the Government, since that claim was not raised in the certio-rari briefs and since its resolution is not a “ ‘predicate to an intelli-gent resolution’ ” of the oral/written question at issue, Caterpillar Inc. v. Lewis, 519 U. S. 61, 75, n. 13. Pp. 14–15.
570 F. 3d 834, vacated and remanded.

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What will they think of next?

An Employer's FMLA Nightmare? Hooters Offers Fake "Doctor's Notes" to Skip Work During NCAA Tourney

Posted by Jeff Nowak on March 17, 2011

Over the upcoming weeks, when Carl the Custodian is missing from your workplace, you may want to give your local Hooters Restaurant a call.  He just might be there watching the NCAA tournament. 

Hooters has unveiled a marvelous marketing ploy to get customers through their doors during the NCAA tournament -- the Company is offering doctor's notes excusing employees from work on March 17 and 18 for any one of a number of basketball-related "medical" issues.  Of course, the doctor's note, entitled "Hooters National Hooky Day," is fake and nothing more than a ploy to rake in a larger share of college basketball fans.  In fact, Hooters' official Rules (pdf) make it clear that the employee should look for alternative employment if he/she submits the doctor's note as "an actual excuse to stay out of work."

But Hooters clearly is onto something.  According to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an outplacement firm, employee time spent viewing NCAA tournament games online during the work day will cost employers 8.4 million hours in lost productivity which, when multiplied by “the average hourly earnings … among private-sector workers [makes] the financial impact exceed $192 million.”

Take your best guess as to how FMLA leave will be impacted by the NCAA tourney.  Suffice it to say, however, that HR professionals and leave administrators may have a busy next couple of weeks.  To combat Family and Medical Leave Act abuse during the NCAA tourney (and throughout the year), feel free to browse our previous posts on the topic here and here.

From Franczek Radelet P.C via Employment Law Information Network

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Ultimate Improvement Cycle: A Six Sigma Approach to Human Capital Management Course Offerings expand

We are have now scheduled our unique course on the role of Six Sigma in HR in several locations:

March 21 and 23, 2011  Hillsborough Community College Institute for Corporate and Continuing Education Tampa, FL

April 4 and 6, 2011        Polk Corporate College Lakeland, FL

July 21 and 22, 2011     North Central Florida SHRM Gainesville, FL

July 26 and 27, 2011    Hillsborough Community College Institute for Corporate and Continuing Education Tampa, FL

August 2011 (TBD)       Strategic HR Partners Columbus, GA

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Has your organization evolved with the times?

In a conversation recently with Russ Moen, VP of Human Resources at ExpressPro, he suggested that I should pick up a copy of the book Intellectual Capital by Thomas Stewart. The book looks at the new role of human capital within the business community. If we still look at employees based on the "position they hold" rather than the skills they bring to the table, we are suffering from a death spiral. Released in paperback in 1999 it is still very timely looking at the world we are operating in.

Stewart presents some guidelines for us to consider:

First, he discusses new signs of trouble to show us that our jobs might be in trouble. They are 1) Are you learning? 2) If your job were open, would you get it? 3) Are you being milked? 4) Do you know what you contribute? 5) What would you do if your job disappeared tomorrow? 6) Are you having fun yet? and 7) Are you worried about your job?

From these seven questions, Stewart discusses the new career model for the coming journey. Has your organization changed with the times? Have you recognized the tenants of the new career model? Let's look at the tenants:

1. A career is a series of giigs, not a series of steps - When you look at your human capital assets, are you viewing them from the pervue of a ladder or are you looking at what new skills they bring to your organization separate from what department they report to?
2. Project Management is the furnace in which successful careers are forged. We are looking at organizations that have learned that corss-functional teams are what generates innovation. In doing so the old model of silo mentality and rising within your silo is gone.
3. In the new organization, power flows from expertise, not from position. There is an old adage among professionals seeking new employment that it is not who you know, it is who knows you. Part of this is being recognized for the knowledge that your human capital assets have gained over their working career. When you are recruting new talent are you looking for their previous position or for the knowledge assets they bring to your organization?
4. Most roles in an organization can be performed by either insiders or outsiders. If you are hiring based on expertise, then the talent does not have to be working within your doors today. They could just as easily be a consultant who comes in for the project and moves on to the next project and client when yours is finished.
5. Careers are made in markets, not hierarchies. Charles Handy suggests that all of your human capital assets should be self-employed. If this is so the way you approach your human capital assets has to change. You do not hire them nor own them. They are leasing their services to you on a project basis for the nature of their intellectual assets.
6. The fundamental career choice is not between one company and another, but between specializing and generalizing. The new human capital assets are loyal to what they do not to your organization. If asked they do not begin by saying they work for your organization, They talk about what they do. This means they are far more concerned with the expertise they have rather than the industry you are in. The expertise crosses industry lines as easily as water.
7. Intellectual capital is the source of wealth for individuals as well as for the organization - and it is held in common between them. Your organization is valued on what you bring to the marketplace. That value is derived from what your human capital assets bring to your organization. The resulting inte4raction means that you need to change the position they play within your organization.

Your organization needs to make the decision whether you play a vital role in the marketplace or are counting the days until you disappear. A major part of this decision will be based on the position you place your human capital assets into. If you still function with the department hierarchial arrangement where the management tries to drive the organization down on the human capital you will fail. On the other hand, if you recognize the value of the expertise that is housed within your four walls in the minds of your human capital then you have a running chance to evolve as the marketplace evolves. The human capital assets will dictate whether you have the ability to  grow and introduce new innovation to the future business world.

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Using Facebook at Work? Bay Area IT Consultants Say Change These 5 Account Settings

From PRWire 3/10/11

As it becomes more common to access Facebook in the workplace, the way IT consultants monitor computers within a company has also changed. Security risks to the networks, and therefore to the individuals who are using them, have increased. People 1st, a Bay Area IT consulting firm, recommends making five changes to protect the security of the network and the identity of the user.

The default privacy options for Facebook tend to be loose; information is made available to other users, third-party apps, and advertisers. One of the first things any Facebook user should do to help protect network security and their own privacy is access their account settings and change the default privacy options.

Bay Area IT Consultants People 1st explain how to make five important settings changes people need to make on their computer before accessing Facebook at work.

1)    Applications being used. To view these settings, go to "Account" > "Privacy Settings." Under "Apps and Websites," click "Edit your settings." Click the "Edit Settings" button next to "Apps you use." All the apps that are authorized to interact with the account are listed. Users can select which info they want to allow their apps to access, or delete unused apps entirely. People 1st recommends limiting access to profile information and friends' information as much as possible.

2)    Information friends can share. Many games and third-party apps on Facebook can pull information from a user's friends, even ones who don't use the app. To disable permission for other people's apps to have access to personal information, to "Account" > "Privacy Settings." Under "Apps and Websites," click "Edit your settings." Click the "Edit Settings" button next to "Info accessible through your friends" and uncheck all boxes.

3)    Social ads. These are generated by actions of a user or their friend, and will pop up on the right-hand side of a Facebook page. To turn off this setting, go to "Account" > "Account Settings," click on the "Facebook Ads" tab and choose "No one."

4)    Instant Personalization. When enabled, this feature allows external partner websites like Pandora and Yelp to use Facebook information to personalize their website for the viewer. To disable this feature, go to "Account" > "Privacy Settings." Under "Apps and Websites," click "Edit your settings." Click the "Edit Settings" button next to "Instant Personalization." Uncheck the box under "Enable instant personalization on partner websites."

5)    Remote sign-out. Left work and then realized that Facebook was still open on the computer? This nifty feature allows users to sign out of a computer from a remote location. Go to "Account" > "Account Settings." Click the "Change" button next to "Account Security." Under "Most Recent Activity," computers that are logged in to the account will be visible. To disconnect a remote computer, click "end activity."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/03/10/prweb8196854.DTL#ixzz1GJLuKJET

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What would the Founding Fathers Think?

Every business enterprise is continually seeking that next big event that will push the organization to the next plateau in its evolution. One of the center features in this quest is to honor the role that diversity of thought and actions play in this quest. 

If we look around the globe at this place and time, we are confronted with constant reminders that the world at this moment has forgotten about the role of diversity in making our organizations great. You tell me that you want your employees to become  engaged in your organizations, but then you send them the message that this is the way we will think and act. If you have differing views in this regard live with it. Our elected officials in their recent actions have sent the same message to the populous- "There is only one way we can act, My way."

  Our founding fathers came to this country based on the belief in varying views. It was their anticipation that we would be tolerant of others views. We send the wrong message to the citizenry and our organizations when we act and behave differently. Our employees are now in a different role then they were even 20 years ago. They are vital assets to the success of your operation. When we send the message that we know we need you but you are needed on our terms not yours you lose the investment that employees  can bring to your organization.

Let me suggest some strategies for taking your corporation to the next level:

Strategy #1: Place your one mind view on hold and listen to the voice of your employees. They in many cases have a better understanding of your organization then you do.

Strategy #2: Remove all opportunities for silo mentality thinking within your organization. You have a decision to make or a new direction to move into, Get the help of a cross-functional team to assist the travel down the path to success.

 Strategy #3: Take the time to understand the results of your decisions both pro and con so that you totally understand the outcomes of your decision. While a decision may look good on paper, in reality it may have a completely different result once it is introduced. It is just possible that by the time you realize you have made an error in judgment the damage may have already been done.

It is your choice as business enterprise management whether you are able to succeed or fail in this global workplace. It is your choice whether you send the message to your human capital assets that you recognize the contribution that they make or do you tell them that as far as you are concerned they are just another number on the balance sheet.

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Are you taking a wait and see attitude towards Health Care reform?

SHRM has advised that this is not the right direction to go in order to not being behind the 8 ball in the log run. Today a federal Judge in Penacola, who previously ruled against the health care overhaul, said the states must continue implementing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul even though he has declared it unconstitutional.
He says Obama administration attorneys have one week to appeal.If they don't meet that deadline, Vinson says the states can consider the law invalid. The case is one of several challenges to the health care law, which is almost certain to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. In his ruling, Vinson says it's in the best interest of the nation to continue with the massive health overhaul while the cases work their way through the legal system.

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Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. announces organizational commitment to new ISO Standard

The International Organization for Standardization, the organization resposible for establishing a series of standards which gover how we operate as a business organization has released a new addition to its growing list (18500 so far). In November 2010 they released ISO 26000 covering the area of Social Responsibility, While voluntary in nature, may countries have signed on to agree to its tenants.

ISO 26000 demonstrates that social responsibility can have a direct positive impact on both the organization operations and more important to the bottom line. It is described as a multi-faceted approach that should be integrated into how we conduct business. It establishes a proactive midset that crosses across planning, execution and stakeholder interaction. It calls for applying the lens of social responsibility across the organization based on seven principles of the standard.

Seven Principles of Social Responsibility

ISO 26000 sees social responsibility from the point of view of seve distinct interdepedent principles:

• Accoutability to those affected by our corporate decisios
• Complete transparecy of our policies, decisions and activitites
• The organization is based on ethical thinkig across the board withinthe organization
• Respect for the iterests of all the stakeholders from employees to our cliets and partners
• Respect for the rule of law
• Respect for the iternational orms of Behavior

Respect for huma rights both within the organizations we serve and our own house.

In return we feel the benefit for Daniel Bloom and Associates, Inc. will be in the areas of:

1. Better decision makig, kowledge of risks, and risk management
2. Enhancement of public trust and strog organizational reputations in the marketplace
3. The development of positive stakeholder relationships
4. Introduction of innovation through exposure to new perspectives and contact with a diverse range of stakeholders
5. Increased employee safety, loyalty and morale
6. Enhanced recruitment and retetio efforts for additional staff
7. Bottom-line savings due to icreased efficiency of resource utilizatio, decreased waste ad reuse of valuable by-products
8. Reliability and fairess of transactions, fair trade and the absece of corruption
9. Enhanced long term viability of the orgaizatio through sustainable atural resources and environmental services
10. Add our voice to the public good, civil society and institutions

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Two US Supreme Court Decisions that Could Affect HR

Daniel Bloom CEO of Daniel Bloom and Associates, Inc. is not a licensed Attorney or a member of the Bar and our views do not constitute legal advice. If concerned with any of the issues i this post you should obtain legal advice from your corporate legal cousel.

On March 1 the US Supreme Court released two different decisions that could have a direct impact on HR decisions:

The first one was involving an employee who was disciplined by his supervisors because they did not like his serving in the US Military reserves:

Since a supervisor is an agent of the employer, when he causes an adverse em-ployment action the employer causes it; and when dis-crimination is a motivating factor in his doing so, it is a“motivating factor in the employer’s action,” precisely as the text requires. JUSTICE ALITO suggests that the em-ployer should be held liable only when it “should be re-garded as having delegated part of the decisionmaking power” to the biased supervisor. Ibid. But if the inde-pendent investigation relies on facts provided by the bi-ased supervisor—as is necessary in any case of cat’s-paw liability—then the employer (either directly or through the ultimate decisionmaker) will have effectively delegated the factfinding portion of the investigation to the biasedsupervisor. Contrary to JUSTICE ALITO’s suggestion, thebiased supervisor is not analogous to a witness at a benchtrial. The mere witness is not an actor in the events that are the subject of the trial. The biased supervisor and theultimate decisionmaker, however, acted as agents of the entity that the plaintiff seeks to hold liable; each of them possessed supervisory authority delegated by their em-ployer and exercised it in the interest of their employer. In sum, we do not see how “fidelity to the statutory text,” ibid., requires the adoption of an independent-investigation defense that appears nowhere in the text.And we find both speculative and implausible JUSTICE ALITO’s prediction that our Nation’s employers will sys-tematically disfavor members of the armed services intheir hiring decisions to avoid the possibility of cat’s-pawliability, a policy that would violate USERRA in any event. We therefore hold that if a supervisor performs an act motivated by antimilitary animus that is intended by the supervisor to cause an adverse employment action,3 and if that act is a proximate cause of the ultimate employment action, then the employer is liable under USERRA. 4UnderBoth Mulally and Korenchuk were acting within the scopeof their employment when they took the actions that allegedly caused Buck to fire Staub. A “reprimand . . . for workplace failings” constitutes conduct within the scope of an agent’s employment. Faragher v. Boca Raton, 524U. S. 775, 798–799 (1998). As the Seventh Circuit recog-nized, there was evidence that Mulally’s and Korenchuk’s actions were motivated by hostility toward Staub’s mili-tary obligations. There was also evidence that Mulally’sand Korenchuk’s actions were causal factors underlying Buck’s decision to fire Staub. Buck’s termination notice expressly stated that Staub was terminated because hehad “ignored” the directive in the Corrective Action. Fi-nally, there was evidence that both Mulally and Koren-chuk had the specific intent to cause Staub to be termi-nated. Mulally stated she was trying to “‘get rid of’” Staub, and Korenchuk was aware that Mulally was “‘outto get’” Staub. Moreover, Korenchuk informed Buck, Proctor’s personnel officer responsible for terminatingemployees, of Staub’s alleged noncompliance with Mu-lally’s Corrective Action, and Buck fired Staub immedi-ately thereafter; a reasonable jury could infer that Koren-chuk intended that Staub be fired. The Seventh Circuit therefore erred in holding that Proctor was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. It is less clear whether the jury’s verdict should be reinstated or whether Proctor is entitled to a new trial. —————— view as to whether the employer would be liable if a co-worker, rather than a supervisor, committed a discriminatory act that influenced the ultimate employment decision. We also observe that Staub took advan-tage of Proctor’s grievance process, and we express no view as towhether Proctor would have an affirmative defense if he did not. Cf. Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, 542 U. S.

The secod one involved the question of whether certain corporate documets could be shielded from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act

Corporations do not have “personal privacy” for the purposes ofExemption 7(C). Pp. 3–12.
(a) AT&T argues that the word “personal” in Exemption 7(C) incor-porates the statutory definition of “person,” which includes corpora-tions, §551(2). But adjectives do not always reflect the meaning ofcorresponding nouns. “Person” is a defined term in the statute; “per-sonal” is not. When a statute does not define a term, the Court typi-cally “give[s] the phrase its ordinary meaning.” Johnson v. United States, 559 U. S. ___, ___. “Personal” ordinarily refers to individuals.People do not generally use terms such as personal characteristics or personal correspondence to describe the characteristics or correspon-dence of corporations. In fact, “personal” is often used to mean pre-cisely the opposite of business-related: We speak of personal expenses and business expenses, personal life and work life, personal opinion and a company’s view. Dictionary definitions also suggest that “per-sonal” does not ordinarily relate to artificial “persons” like corpora-tions.
AT&T contends that its reading of “personal” is supported by the common legal usage of the word “person.” Yet while “person,” in a le-gal setting, often refers to artificial entities, AT&T’s effort to ascribe a corresponding legal meaning to “personal” again elides the differ-ence between “person” and “personal.” AT&T provides scant support for the proposition that “personal” denotes corporations, even in a le-gal context.
Regardless of whether “personal” can carry a legal meaning apart from its ordinary one, statutory language should be construed “inlight of the terms surrounding it.” Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U. S. 1, 9. Exemption 7(C) refers not just to the word “personal,” but to the term“personal privacy.” “Personal” in that phrase conveys more than just“of a person”; it suggests a type of privacy evocative of human con-cerns—not the sort usually associated with an entity like AT&T.AT&T does not cite any other instance in which a court has expresslyreferred to a corporation’s “personal privacy.” Nor does it identify any other statute that does so. While AT&T argues that this Court has recognized “privacy” interests of corporations in the FourthAmendment and double jeopardy contexts, this case does not call forthe Court to pass on the scope of a corporation’s “privacy” interests asa matter of constitutional or common law. AT&T contends that the FCC has not demonstrated that the phrase “personal privacy” neces-sarily excludes corporations’ privacy. But construing statutory lan-guage is not merely an exercise in ascertaining “the outer limits of [aword’s] definitional possibilities,” Dolan v. Postal Service, 546 U. S. 481, 486, and AT&T has provided no sound reason in the statutorytext or context to disregard the ordinary meaning of the phrase.Pp. 3–9.
(b) The meaning of “personal privacy” in Exemption 7(C) is further clarified by two pre-existing FOIA exemptions. Exemption 6, whichCongress enacted eight years before Exemption 7(C), covers “person-nel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” §552(b)(6). This Court has regularly referred to Exemption 6 as in-volving an “individual’s right of privacy,” Department of State v. Ray, 502 U. S. 164, 175, and Congress used in Exemption 7(C) the samephrase—“personal privacy”—used in Exemption 6. In contrast, FOIA Exemption 4, which protects “trade secrets and commercial or finan-cial information obtained from a person and privileged or confiden-tial,” §552(b)(4), clearly applies to corporations. Congress did not useany language similar to that in Exemption 4 in Exemption 7(C).Pp. 9–11.

Our primary concern is with the first case (Staub vs. Porctor Hospital), We fully understand that you cannot control the minds of your human capital assets. The problem comes when you allow those views to guide your human resource policies and actions. As HR Managers we have an obligation to our organizations to insure that any discipliary actions taken in the case of a employee are based on authentic problem areas, not one that is clouded by personal views. It is inherent on HR professionals include this distinction in ongoing management training.

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Relocation Announcement

Site Selection magazine is reporting that their subcribers have reported a umber of expansion and new locations over the past several months. A full list of these projects can be found at http://www.siteselection.com/impact/link_impact.cfm?c=[ID]&a=189

 

 

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Planning on sitting for the 2011 CRP Exam

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc is offering its 21st annual review class for the 2011 Certified Relocation Professional exam on May 15-17 in Las Vegas at the Caesar's Palace. Attended by nearly 1000 professionals since its inception, this three day review covers the highlights of the 2011 ERC Source Materials. Participants receive a 794 question pre-test, a set of overheads, admission to the seminar ad a second 125 question exam on the last day of the seminar. More information ca be found at http://www.dbaicosulting.com/pages/CRPReview.php.>

Early registration fee is valid until March 31, 2011.

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We need to take time and smell the roses

Warren Buffet when asked about the way things work is quoted as telling the following parable. "Let's say that it was 24 hours before you were born, and a genie appeared and said, 'What I'm going to do is let you set the rules of the society into which you will be born. You can set the economic rules and the social rules, and whatever rules you set will apply during your lifetime and your children's lifetimes.' And you'll say, 'Well, that's nice, but what's the catch?' And the genie says, 'Here's the catch. You don't know if you're going to be born rich or poor, white or black, male or female, able-bodied or infirm, intelligent or retarded.' I look at this scenario and wonder whether the politicians really get the idea. Do our members of management really get the idea.

Management and members of certain political leanings have forgotten this idea. We as organizations are dependent on the contributions of our human capital. They become engaged with our organizations when they feel that we are providing the atmosphere where they can function and thrive. You as an organization need human capital that want to come to work everyday. This means you need them to have the skills, the talents, the knowledge that is demanded by the global marketplace. This means in order for us to be competitive we need an educated populous. We need a populous that can look at a problem and critically think it through to solution.

What we do not need to be doing in these times is to cut spending to education, health care, the arts and other programs that enhance the well being of our human capital. Management and politicians ought to be required to walk in the shoes of their human talent and see what they really face in the current economic times. See what it is like to be confronted with circumstances which make them less then optimum talent.

Management has to consider that their previous habits have brought on some dire scenarios for our survival and they should not demand of our officials that we know we have been wrong but don't hold us responsible so make sure that environmental regulations clean up our mistakes.

We are in tough financial times but the rush to cut expenses both in society and in our organizations have to be tempered with what is right for the welfare of our human capital. We need to look at what our superstructure needs to meet their needs. Money is tight so you cut mass transit under the guise that no one will use it. You cut outlets to teach critical thinking like NPR. You cut out access to quality health care for the poor because you dislike the philosophy of the delivery vehicle.

In the log run what you end up with is human talent that is unengaged,are non contributors to society, our organizations and the world.

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

We need to take time and smell the roses

Warren Buffet when asked about the way things work is quoted as telling the following parable. "Let's say that it was 24 hours before you were born, and a genie appeared and said, 'What I'm going to do is let you set the rules of the society into which you will be born. You can set the economic rules and the social rules, and whatever rules you set will apply during your lifetime and your children's lifetimes.' And you'll say, 'Well, that's nice, but what's the catch?' And the genie says, 'Here's the catch. You don't know if you're going to be born rich or poor, white or black, male or female, able-bodied or infirm, intelligent or retarded.' I look at this scenario and wonder whether the politicians really get the idea. Do our members of management really get the idea.

Management and members of certain political leanings have forgotten this idea. We as organizations are dependent on the contributions of our human capital. They become engaged with our organizations when they feel that we are providing the atmosphere where they can function and thrive. You as an organization need human capital that want to come to work everyday. This means you need them to have the skills, the talents, the knowledge that is demanded by the global marketplace. This means in order for us to be competitive we need an educated populous. We need a populous that can look at a problem and critically think it through to solution.

What we do not need to be doing in these times is to cut spending to education, health care, the arts and other programs that enhance the well being of our human capital. Management and politicians ought to be required to walk in the shoes of their human talent and see what they really face in the current economic times. See what it is like to be confronted with circumstances which make them less then optimum talent.

Management has to consider that their previous habits have brought on some dire scenarios for our survival and they should not demand of our officials that we know we have been wrong but don't hold us responsible so make sure that environmental regulations clean up our mistakes.

We are in tough financial times but the rush to cut expenses both in society and in our organizations have to be tempered with what is right for the welfare of our human capital. We need to look at what our superstructure needs to meet their needs. Money is tight so you cut mass transit under the guise that no one will use it. You cut outlets to teach critical thinking like NPR. You cut out access to quality health care for the poor because you dislike the philosophy of the delivery vehicle.

In the log run what you end up with is human talent that is unengaged,are non contributors to society, our organizations and the world.

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

Common Sense or Rule of Law

Before I left this morning to conduct a breakout session at the North Central Florida SHRM chapter's expo, I saw a news piece on the television in which a young girl was sent home from school because she violated a school dress code requirement that forbid the wearing of hats, hoods etc. to school. The weather outside was in the twenties and she wore a jacket with a hood to shield her from the cold.

So let me turn the scenario around and ask you whether this could apply to your organization. Whether they are current or not every one of our organizations have a set of rules and procedures to govern the behavior of our employees in the workplace. We are not questioning the importance of their presence. We are asking whether we are so ingrained in their implementation that we fail to use common sense in the way we apply them to the workplace. Are we so set in our ways that we present the appearance that we have a zero tolerance for digressions from the procedures even when the  employee has a valid basis for the actions they took?

While as an HR professional I am not in favor of a wide open range of options, I am also aware that only under certain circumstances does the way an employee dresses have any direct impact on whether they are able to complete the bona-fide duties of their position. I would suggest that we as human capital managers need to begin to consider whether our rules and regulations so set in stone that we can't  allow for some common sense flexibility in the workplace.Our first responsibility to our organizations should be to create an atmosphere that recognizes the worth of each of our human capital assets. This sense of worth may not be indicated by the way they dress in the workplace.

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