HR Strategic Focus Part 2: Are You Part of the Problem or Are You the Solution?

In part 1 of this series we asked the question about what is the HR role- Is it transactional or transformational in nature. In this second installment we are going to expand on that question.

We present a 45 minute program entitled In Plain Sight: Hidden Wastes that Affect the Viability of Your HR Organization" in which we begin by posing to the audience a scenario to be worked through. The question we pose is that you are sitting at your desk and you receive the latest financials for the HR department, what do you do with the numbers?

Our suggestion is that the way you respond to the question will determine whether you are part of problem or are part of the solution. Let me explain more in detail. First of all the majority of HR professionals tell me they never see these types of reports. That is a problem in itself which I will touch on later. Of those who do see the reports, the most common response is that we review the numbers.Review the numbers for what? Are you checking that the numbers add up? Are you verifying that the computer did not err and assign the wrong numbers to the HR account? We would suggest that if this is all you are doing, then stop looking at the financials. Go down to the local business supply store and purchase a wall calendar and begin to cross off each day with a big red X. Incidentally you are counting off the number of days until you do not have a position. If this is the route you take then I am sorry but you are part of the problem.

On the other hand, if you take the time to work through the numbers to see what they are telling you then you are part of the solution. We need to ask ourselves why we are getting the results we are. In example if you see that the numbers are telling you that the cost of payroll has escalated over the previous period . do we understand why? Are the numbers up due to an increase turnover rate which should drive us to ask why are so many FTE's choosing to leave our employment? Are the benefit costs escalating because we have allowed to many exception to benefit guidelines increasing our costs?

In every situation such as these you should make it a priority to challenge every decision with a minimum of 5 why's. Why do we do this? BY the time you get to the last of the five why's you will understand what the problem is. With knowledge and understanding of the problem we can begin to work on the solutions, thus transforming the human resource function.

HR Strategic Focus Part 3: Voice of the Customer

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HR Strategic Focus Part 1: What is Your Role?

You are sitting in your office and a colleague enters the office and asks you to please explain what the role of the Human Resource professional is both inside your organization and in the business marketplace as a whole.How would you respond to the question?

There are only two responses that you could provide to your colleague. The first is that your responsibilities are to ensure that the organization stays out of trouble. You assist the organization with benefit questions and handling personnel problems. I would suggest to you that 90 percent of your colleagues would respond in this manner. If they do so they are involved in the transactional role within the HR world. While what you do is important to the organization at the time it is not forward thinking.

The second response is that you as a human resources professional work with the line management and upper management to explore the human aspects of their decisions. These decisions can look great on paper but if you do not take into serious consideration the impact of these decisions on the human capital assets of the organization the path down the road is going to be a nightmare. In this response, the human resource professional demonstrates that they are involved in a transformational  role within the organization.

The decision is clearly yours. You can either be part of the here and now or you can be part of the future projection of the organization. Being in a strictly transactional role places you within a silo who looks at only what the immediate demands are being placed on you. You do not operate from the macro view of the organization. Being in the transformation role places you at the format of the strategic decisions on where the organization is headed as we progress through these economic times.

HR Strategic Focus Part 2: Are You Part of the Solution or Are You Part of the Problem?

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Found new resource

Every day we find or hear about new questions regarding social media and the legal ramifications of its use. In one of the emails I get every morning I was directed to a site where lawyers talk about social media and technology in the workplace, Interesting read this morning on the new Missouri law which bans teachers in very broad terms of interacting with students in the social media world. To find out more visit http://www.networkedlawyers.com

 

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Help Needed

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc. is beginning the process of releasing its first research based white paper. We would like those of you who read this blog to help with the data collection. Here is the question.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that for the second quarter of 2011, the productivity rate had dropped in this country 0.3% from the first quarter. Companies calculate and then brag of productivity being at an all time high since they brought about reductions in force. The BLS calcualtes a somewhat less-than optimal description of the same factors. Ina ddition to the impact on productivity, increased workloads and increased stress the qulaity of the business decision solutions has also been less than optimal.

We are not talking here about the unemployed. We are referring to current internal human capital assets. We can't accurately question what we don't measure. So how do we measure the affect of the increased workloads, the increased expected time expected, and the increased stress on the productivity outcomes of our organization? Please send your comments and input to dan@dbaiconsulting.com.

We will gladly provide those who respond with first copies of the final conclusions and the white paper when they are finalized.

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In addition to the impact on productivity, increased workload and increased stress - another consequence of the down turn and the turbulent times has been the quality of decisions in business solutions.  

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Productivity decline wake up call for business organizations

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the second quarter productivity rates for the non-farm employment showing a decline in productivity of about 0.3 percent.  This should be a wake up call for business enterprises worldwide. 

Corporations in these difficult economic times, have resorted to trying to save costs by laying off great numbers of employees. They claimed that the result was that they were reporting higher level of productivity in years. This was achieved on the backs of their human capital assets. Heavier workloads. Longer hours. What has happened is that the stress levels have come back to haunt.

It is time for business organizations to realize that they have gutted their human capital assets by drastically cutting their staffs in the name of austerity. When they can then return by reporting high profit levels while gutting innovation and collaboration the only ones they are hurting in the long run is the reputation of the organization.

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I am Your Life Blood Revisted: Two sides of the Coin

The other day I posted a blog post entitled Hey, I am Your Life Blood.One of the readers sent me a comment back with this reply:

I recently read an interesting piece on a management decision at Starbucks. The CEO started a program to raise store revenues by $100,000 a year, He pushed for a solution that recognized the value of employees which turned on paying their baristas and managers more than the going rate in the food service industry. This policy recognized the value of those well-trained people who served as the direct conduit to the customer. What a smart idea it turned out to be as in store revenues increased by an average of $150,000 a year

So it got me wondering what the other side of the spectrum might look like. A member of the DBAI Advisory Board turned me on to the other side of the coin. It seems that a franchisee of Pizza Hut is embroiled in a national class action suit because they said under state law the pizza delivery men and women should be paid as tip workers and the fact that they drove their cars for work did not change the requirements. So they were not paid the required $.51 per mile for their driving time thus bringing their take home pay under the minimum wage level of $2.13 per hour. What makes this issue worse is that in 2004 the issue arose with the same circumstances and resulted in that franchisee being fined $5,100,000.

I realize that we are in tough economic times but if one food retail establishment makes some changes and receives a huge uptick in revenue and another one faces a dire fine, why would you make the decision not too treat your employees with respect and recognition of their value? Let's keep the dialogue going.

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Sorry, You Can't Eat Your Cake and Have it Too!!!!!

Over the past several weeks we have listened to the rhetoric coming out of Washington, DC about how this action or that would lead to job killing legislation from the people we elected to represent us at the federal level. We further have over the past several years witnessed an ever growing level of unemployment in this country and also in countries around the globe. 

The rhetoric bemused the fact that we have a large number of ready willing and able individuals who want to work but corporations are turning their current situation against them causing individuals to look for work even longer. Congress keeps turning around and stating that despite all the viable evidence, that if we continue to lower taxes then the unemployment problem will be solved. It has never worked the way they expect it too. Look at the employment picture globally and we find that there are jobs out there, but they are not in the United States. Every organization looks at their operations from four perspectives which become the basis for their budgetary decisions. First and unfortunately the primary concern is how much return on investment are we returning to our stakeholders. We will talk later about how this may not be the area that should hold the primary focus. The second factor becomes the cost of sale. How much does it cost us an organization to get to the point where the client or customer says yes they want to purchase our product or service.The third factor is that of the margin under which we make our sales. We can sell X for so much and it costs us so much to produce. The difference is critical in our pricing strategies.The fourth and final factor is the profit we earn from our business operations. Based on these four views of the business operations we rush to judgement as to the best way to meet the goals. Major corporations decide that the best way to achieve these goals is to do the majority of their hiring overseas. There is absolutely no incentive to keep the jobs in the US. Lowering the tax rate is not going to change this. It will however change when the corporations understand that there are factors that they do not take into consideration that could meet all their goals. Listen to your customers. You saved money by sending your work overseas but did the customer service level remain at the same level? From personal experience I would say probably not. From Starbucks to AT&T to Radio Shack there corporations who have come to the realization that bringing the work back to the US would resolve several problems. One it lowers the unemployment levels. Two, it brings back a concern for the reason you are in business-to acquire and maintain customers. Three it may in the long run lower your costs because of the shorter problem resolution durations. It is time that this government takes the necessary steps to show our business enterprises that in the long run it makes more sense to keep the jobs stateside rather than sending them overseas. I was at a HR conference last year where one of the presenters stated he was working with an IT company who wanted to open a customer service center in Wisconsin because it was cheaper then running it in India.  So if you want to at least attempt to eat your cake and have it too, consider ways to revise your internal processes so that they run faster, better and cheaper and hire or maintain your workforce locally. It is possible if you think out of the box of business think that you have always done. New world, new methods, new focus. Employees are assets and you can utilize them to your advantage.

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Hey I am Your Life Blood!!!!

CNN Money this morning ran a post regarding the corporations who are job killers because of the number of people who are being forced into the job market along with the rest of the world. When you review the lost it is a sad view of the marketplace. One, HSBC, actually reported increased profits. How did they do that? The are doing it by laying off 25,000 worldwide. I hear the line that corporations must be able to do the things they must to satisfy their stockholders, but they seem to be leaving out one factor out of the mix.

Mr, Corporation, those employees are the life blood of your organization. They are no longer an expense item, they are corporate assets. They are the ones who have all the knowledge of how to run your organization better, faster and cheaper. Cheaper does not mean laying people off, it means streamlining your processes so that you can reduce the time to complete thus raising the revenue level of the organization.

The workplace has changed and we succeed based on the innovations we can create. To do this you don't need machines. You do not need necessarily immense factories, We need the brain capacity of the human capital assets to see the world not as it is, but see the world as it might be.

Our employees are the life blood of our organizations. Stop before you decide that the path to profitability only lies in cutting employees. Take a moment and picture in your mind what would happen if your customers called the organization and no one answered the phone. Take a moment and consider what would happen to your business if a client had a problem and no one knew how to solve it. As the late Edward Kennedy said at his brother's funeral "some men see things as they are and say why, I dream things that never were and say why not." As one of your human capital assets, the employees job is not to see things as they have been but to see where the future can take us. This view is based on what is int heir heads from the acquisition of data, ideas and projections into the future. They are the ones that will propel our organizations to greatness as we come out of these economic times that we are facing today.

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It is a sad day in Bookville

If you were not keeping up with the news today, today began the end of a journey for an organization called Borders Books. By agreement with the Bankruptcy court the company began the liquidation of its operations. During a period when consulting assignments were on the dry side, I spent some time working for the company both in the retail end and in its former Corporate Sales Division.

While it is sad to see the organization gone, it also provides us with some clear indications on how not to run our organizations. In its efforts to become the premier bookseller it lost sight of several directions which would have upped its chances to survive.Lets look at some of those misjudgements:

1. Failure to correctly focus on the customer: The company failed to live up to its goal which was to acquire and maintain customers. Picture a client making a special trip to the store to pick up a much needed order and the store had no idea where the order was. When questioned later the store's response was that the store operation came before the customer. Wrong answer.

2. Failure to listen to the voice of the customer:  Borders was one of the last book stores to sell e-book readers. By the time they got into the market, the I-Pad and the Kindle or the Nook were far outpacing the space. When you begin to listen to the customer after everyone else has solved the customer concerns then you are doomed.

3. Change of Value Statement - Instead of talking about customer needs they began to concentrate on providing the best price. They in essence reduced the customer experience to the lowest common denominator - price.

I know you are saying that is retail. But let me take these lessons are carry it over to a business organization as a whole. If the organization is to survive in this global marketplace then there are some clear strategic directions that need to be undertaken;

Strategy #1: Create a Value Statement which focuses on the customer

Forget what the CEO says the Board's direction is. Your value statement must be centered around the needs and expectations of your customers. They are the ones that determine whether the doors stay open.

Strategy #2: Listen to the voice of the customer

Get out of your corner office. Visit your clients and customers, whether they are inside the organization or external, and learn what their problems are. Learn what they expect from your human capital assets. Learn what they expect from the organization in the way of services, customer service, and employees. Make the necessary changes to your processes in order to meet the customer requests.

Strategy #3: Remember who pays the bills

The only way you keep your operations going is to acquire and maintain your customer base. Remember it is less expensive to keep an existing customer than it is to find a new one. Your customer service levels must be at the top of the field. Your operations are NOT more important than the customer demands. Remember the mission statement of the Wegman Supermarket Chain.

• Rule #1: The Client is always right
• Rule #2: If question whether the client is right, refer to rule #1

Make your processes as customer friendly as possible and ensure that anything that holds the process up is removed so that they run as cheaply, fast and better than your competition. Follow this advice and you will have a better chance to not follow the Borders path to oblivion

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Hey Houston We Have a Problem

Like a number of us, we have been following the drama out of Washington regarding the raising of the debt limit. If you have not we are faced with the possibility that the US will go into default on its loans because a group of congressmen are so determined to have it their way or no way. They have forgotten the lessons learned from the past that have shown that the way to solve our problems is through compromise and finding common middle ground that we can all agree on.

We have that same problem in many corporations. These organizations still operate under the assumption that the only way to run an organization is to do what the CEO edicts down the chain of command.  They operate under the concept that as senior management they are the only ones who knows how to run a company. What happens in the long run is that the hardline turns your most important asset into individuals who lose engagement.Who come to work for the paycheck and not to enhance the organizational place in the marketplace. The employees take on the attitude that they are just children with no voice in their existence.

The key to the success of an organization in the global marketplace is the level of innovation and collaboration that goes on between the organization and its customers- internal and external. So yes we have problem Houston when we forget that the employee that is int he trenches may know better what needs to done to meet the customers requirements than the executive sitting in the ivory tower.

The World English Dictionary defines collaboration as something created by working JOINTLY with another or others, The definition does not say that you created something because the CEO says this is the way it will be done.

So yes Houston we do have a problem. We have many organizations out there who consider their employees as turnips and try to get every last ounce of blood out of them, forgetting their role in the vitality of the organization. They forget that the road to success down through time has always been characterized by compromise towards the middle of the stream in which both sides gain in return for the giving up some steadfast piece of ground. In the Industrial Revolution this prevailing attitude may have worked fine. Today it just plain won't work whether we are talking about the corporate boardroom or the floors of congress. Move your organization forward and open the discussion to find that middle ground. We will all be better off in the long run.

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Six Sigma for HR Course comes to Clearwater FL at the St Petersburg College Corporate Training Center Aug 11-12

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

 

To enroll visit http://spcollege.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=18001&int_category_id=9&int_sub_category_id=29&int_catalog_id=0

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Relocation Announcements

From Welding Magazine:

1. Welding equipment developer Fronius USA LLC is relocating its North American headquarters to Portage, Ind., from Brighton, Mich.
2. Thermadyne Holdings is planning to relocate its Thermal Dynamics manufacturing operations in West Lebanon, N.H., to plants in Denton, Texas, and Hermosillo, Mexico. Thermal Dynamics develops and manufactures plasma arc cutting systems and welding equipment. The New Hampshire location will continue to house Thermal Dynamics’ engineering and technical services. About 100 workers are expected to be affected by the move, though some will be offered new positions within the organization. The move should be completed by the end of this year.

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The ability to lie is a liability

It has been an interesting week producing two different events that made me stop and examine the state of our business organizations. The first event was the publication of an opinion piece by a professor from Columbia University who expressed the view that the standard practice of mandating that all MBA students take a stand alone ethics course was a waste of time for both the students and the professors. Instead ethics needs to weave through every course. The second event is the unfolding drama surrounding the underhanded methods that were used to acquire the "facts" for news items by an over eager News World Corporation.

As if to enhance the questions rising out of these two events, I was driving back to the office from completing some errands when I happened to drive by a local church. In front of the church was a sign which announced that the title of Sunday's sermon was "The Ability to lie is a liability."

In this global marketplace we are confronted with organizations trying to compete with the rest of the world for delivery of their products and services. The corporate culture will dictate how and when the organization delivers its message to the market. The problem is that we can take two different paths. One will send the message that we are sincere in the promises we make or the other message says we will promise the world but deliver way short on delivery.

Take a moment and think back through your work career. I guarantee that we have all been involved at one time or another where we have been exposed to the kid of situations we are discussing. As an example let me tell you about a situation I found myself in decades ago but is still relevant today.

Family friends were predominantly C-level officers of major business organizations. I was at the time the VP of an executive recruiting firm ad had been given the authority to talk with one of the C-Level officers about working with the staff that was not being promoted to partner but rather released.The stipulation was that the recruiting firm would not steal staff away from the clients place of work. We agreed and wet back to the office and held a firm wide meeting where we stated the terms of the agreement. Within 30 minutes one of the recruiters did exactly what we said we would not do. When I approached the Division President about the situation, the response was that if I had any business ethics I did not belong working for the firm. What kind of message were we delivering to the market?

Human resources is the guardian of the corporate culture. We are the ones that can impress on management and rank and file that we understand the pressures on the corporation to be successful but the pressures do not permit making statements that are inherently false just to get the sale. We do not permit making decisions for the organization which are ethically, morally and legally indefensible. We are the ones that need to show the organization that there are liabilities from taking actions that are plain wrong.

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From our partner: Jon Veilie on I-9 compliance

Have you received a letter from Immigration Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) that your company must produce its I-9 forms for inspection? If so, you are not alone. The Government initiated a new round of immigration investigations on June 14, 2011 targeting 1,000 companies across the country. The companies will be facing government audits of I-9 forms and documents filed by employees indicating legal working status in the United States.“The inspections will touch on employers of all sizes and in every state in the nation, with an emphasis on businesses related to critical infrastructure and key resources,” ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement. The names of the companies were not released, however, ICE stated they include large and small businesses in 17 sectors, including agriculture and food, financial services, commercial nuclear reactors, drinking water and water treatment, postal and shipping, health care and transportation. “Ultimately, our focus on businesses related to critical infrastructure and key resources aligns with our priority as an agency to first and foremost minimize threats to national security and public safety,” Christensen said.The Obama administration has made workplace investigations a key part of its efforts to enforce immigration laws, unlike the Bush administration, which relied more on high-profile raids and worker arrests. In all, ICE has initiated more than 2,300 employer audits since the start of the federal fiscal year in October.

It conducted 2,196 audits during the 2010 fiscal year, leading to the criminal arrests of 196 employers and 119 convictions.Questions employers face when audited are:

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

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

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

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

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

If an employer is being audited, one of the best things it can do, is hire an outside group to audit the forms and related documents immediately. We spent last week auditing forms and documents, training employees, interviewing employees for a company who received one of the thousand letters. We discovered technical errors with virtually all of them. However, we reached out to ICE and informed them we were conducting an audit. We requested some additional time and corrected all the technical errors. We included audit notes and met with the Inspector to identify our issues. It was very well received. Our client would have surely received a lengthy report from ICE indicating non-compliance with virtually all employees. We discovered in our interview process a discrepancy that resulted in termination of an employee. We divulged the issue and solution to ICE at the initiation of the process. The company officials decided to join IMAGE, an initiative that requires an ICE audit and outside audits going forward. But for my client they were being audited anyway and we were performing the outside audit. Additional requirements are joining E-verify among others. Taking these actions are good faith or mitigating steps that may save the Company massive fines, potential criminal prosecution or shutting down operations.

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

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

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

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

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

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If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it is

In a possible first in the country, the Governor of Hawaii has signed legislation effective immediately which allows Real Estate Brokers to charge for their Broker Price Opinions. Some may question this but from experience I can tell you that many of the BPO forms are as complex as an appraisal. For those of you who have been around long enough to remember Relocation Realty Service Corporation ( Sold to Empire which was sold to Coldwell Banker which was converted to Cartus). But they used a six page BPO form. When I was considering earning my Appraisal Certification I was told that if I added a cost approach to the RRS BPO they would count as appraisal experience.

This new cost of doing business will be carefully reviewed by the RMC's of the industry.

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Relocation Announcement

CIGNA announced today they wer emoving their headquarters operations from Philadelphia to an unnamed Connecticut location

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Hey I Can Do That!

According to the Delawarw Law Blog, the Federal Trade Comission has said that it is within the regulations to use an outside vendor to complete a background investigation of a candidate in the social media world.

Employment-related background searches are commonplace today. For the past few years, there has been quite a bit of controversy over background searches that include searches of social-networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, for information about potential job candidates.

Personally, I’ve spoken to only one employer who outsources social-media background checks to a third-party vendor. I talk to a lot of employers about this topic, so I’d guess that there aren’t many engaging in this practice and probably for good reason. One of the features of searching online for information about candidates is that it’s free, which would be eliminated if outsourced.

Of course, there are risks that come with these searches, too, particularly if not done properly. I’ve written about the risks and benefits extensively and have detailed the best way an employer can conduct these searches with minimal legal risk. A different way to minimize risk is by outsourcing these social-media searches.

This idea may seem even more attractive—despite the added costs—thanks to the Federal Trade Commission. According to Kashmir Hill’s blog on Forbes.com, the FTC investigated a company that performs these social-media background searches, Social Intelligence Corp., and concluded that its background checks complied with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FTC determined that Social Intelligence Corp., as a vendor for employers, may continue to search for Facebook photos and profile information, provided it continues to do so in a way that complies with the FCRA. In other words, the “old” rules still apply—even in the world of new media.

 

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"But Kris, That's the Way We've Always Done It!"...

Does this sound familiar? How many times have you heard within your organization a member of management or an employee tell you that a new idea won't work because it is not the way we do things around here?

I read several HR related blogs on a daily basis, and the other day the HR Capitalist posted a blog entry with the above title (http://www.hrcapitalist.com/2011/06/nsfw-hr-but-kris-thats-the-way-weve-always-done-it.htm)which discussed this very issue.

As a human resource strategist we respect the past way we have done things. We recognize the value in what those procedures brought to the playing field. However times change and we need to begin to think out of our silos that we typically find ourselves in. I have a business friend who if he had just resorted to the title of this piece he may very well not be with us today. His name is Ed Hubbard (Colonel USAF Retired) who during another time had the chance to spend 2420 days in Hanoi Hilton as a guest of the North Viet Namese back in 1966-1973. If he followed silo thinking there very well may have been no reason to believe in the future.

Our organizations today are very much like Ed's prison cell. We confine ourselves to certain ways of doing things. We do so because some executive suggested that you change your procedures to match this great idea. The source of the idea may be a book he /she read, a suggestion that arose out of a seminar somewhere or even just out of the conversation between two management peers. If you press the organization on the whys for doing it the response is the title of this piece.

If we want to thrive in this new global workplace it is critical that we follow Ed Hubbard and escape from the box of our thinking. We need to escape from the narrow view we see our organizations in. We need to take an escape from the box attitude towards how we treat the human capital of our organizations. We need to throw away the silo thinking when we secure and develop the talent within our organizations. We need to be willing to adopt a mission that says that every process can be improved and needs to be done so consistently. This may be once a year or it may be once every three months.It really does not matter the frequency. What counts is the understanding that if we see a problem with our processes we fix it. We do not forgo the improvement because the old system is the way we have always done it.

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Has Hollywood met reality

Turn on most of the talk shows these days and almost everyone in recent days has had Tom Hanks on promoting his new film Larry Crowne. For those of you not aware of the plot,Tom Hanks plays the part of an employee who often has been rated by management and fellow employees as the best employee of the month for a big-box retailer. He has worked for the company since he got out of the Navy and  is now in his 50's. He gets a request to come to the manager's office and is told he is being let go because he does not have a college degree.

With the knowledge that EEOC and the Department of Labor are cracking down on injustices in the workplace, have you stopped to look at whether or not the requirements you place on positions are actually bona-fide occupational qualifications. I would suspect that the retailer would have a hard time justifying that Larry Crowne coul dnot do the job because he does not hold a college degree.

We realize that in these tough economic times corporations are doing what they can to beef the quality of the workforce for the coming changes, but the Larry Crowne scenario opens a couple of concerns. First, in the movie Tom Hanks plays an individual who is obviously a hard worker and in his 50's. So the question that come sot mind is did they violate the ADEA regulations and potentially discrimination laws by releasing Larry Crowne. More important, the exit of Larry Crowne represents a knowledge drain from the store since his knowledge of how best to do his job goes out the door when you send him on his merry way.

So I leave you with two suggestions. First from the trailers it looks like a fun movie and it hits the theatres tomorrow. Take time over the weekend to go enjoy it. (By the way I get no compensation from the production company and Tom Hanks and I are both related to the 16th Presidient of the US). Second really review the requirements of your positions and think about whether requiring a college education for a position such as Larry Crowne is a necessary requirement to perform the duties of the position or does it just make your organization look good int he eyes of the public?

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Wednesday Morning Hodgepodge Beware

welcome to hump day and here are some Wednesday tidbits for your consideration:

According to TLN Blog

A woman's husband had sued AT&T for Workers Compensation over the death of his wife from a blood clot. For the record she weighed over 300 pounds and worked from a home office three out of the five days per week. THe argument was that due to the fact that she was expected to be seditary in a desk chair to complete her work, the direct result was the creation of the blood clot which got into her lungs and killed her. The Mayo Clinic has completed studies which indicate that are seditary lifestyles could be hazardous to your health. A Judge has ruled that in fact her estate is eligible to receive workers compensation payments. Yhis could be a warning to look at your work evironments and ensure that employees have the time to get up and move around through out the day.

From one of the legal blogs I receive daily

In a Facebook with a twist. We had reported earlier about the case of the Connecticut woman who was fired because of what she posted on Facebook about her employer which the company considered to be derogatory in nature. The National Labor Relations Board came back and said that what she said was covered free speech under the National Labor Relations Act. Now the issue has arose again, this time with information that was put on Twitter. IN this case however the employee was warned that the use of social media was against company policy and the employee continued to ude the media. As a result the company fired him. In this case the NLRB said that the cases were different in that the employee was warned that the actions were against company policy and therefore he was not covered under the same conditions and they upheld his dismissal.

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Untitled

From DCI Consulting

Effective June 14, 2011, OFCCP released a much anticipated new FAAP directive, outlining the application process to seek approval for and develop an affirmative action plan by a business function or unit rather than establishment. The OFCCP Director (Director Shiu) will determine final approval of the Functional Affirmative Action Plan (FAAP) agreement and written approval will be provided to the federal contractor. Expiration of the functional AAP agreement is now three years and, similar to establishment based AAP(s), FAAP(s) will be exempt from another compliance evaluation for 24 months from the date of closure of the previous compliance evaluation.

Requesting a Functional AAP agreement

The directive outlines specific protocol to follow when requesting a FAAP agreement. The federal contractor must submit a written request to the OFCCP Director explaining why it believes that use of a functional AAP would be most appropriate with timeframes in which it will take to move from establishment based to functional. The contractor must identify a corporate representative, name and contact information, responsible for overseeing the FAAP request. Also, the following criteria of a function or business unit must be met in order to be considered eligible for the FAAP program:

1. Currently exist and operate autonomously.


2. Include at least 50 employees.


3. Have its own managing official.


4. Have the ability to track and maintain its own personnel activity.

The request must be received no later than 120 calendar days prior to the expiration of the current corporate headquarters AAP or within 120 days from the award of the Federal contract if this is a first-time contractor or else the agreement will be denied by OFCCP. The OFCCP FAAP unit will provide a written acknowledgement of the request within 10 days, but this receipt will not constitute approval. OFCCP will send a letter requesting a conference within 30 days of receiving the request. The federal contractor must provide additional information on the people representing the contractor during the conference and must submit documents outlined in Attachment B of the directive. Additionally, Attachment C in the directive outlines discussion points the corporate representative must be prepared to discuss during the conference. Past compliance will be reviewed for determining if corrections have been made or if there are recurring violations. The OFCCP Director will review and approve the agreement once the federal contractor and FAAP Unit reach agreement. Until approval is granted, contractors are required to create establishment AAP(s) and if an establishment based AAP compliance evaluation is scheduled prior to final approval of FAAP agreement then the contractor must undergo the establishment based AAP compliance evaluation.
Additional key items to note that will be taken under consideration by the OFCCP when applying for FAAP approval:

1. Current reporting structure under the requirements of a conciliation agreement.


2. EEO violations of the requesting contractor for the past three years from the date of the application, including EEO violations from other local, state and federal government agencies.


3. Federal contractors may still choose to request a combination of establishment and functional based AAP(s) through the functional AAP program.


4. Demonstration by Federal contractor that recordkeeping and affirmative action responsibilities can be managed for all functional or business units regardless of size.


5. Agreement to submit personnel activity in acceptable electronic formats if requested during a compliance evaluation (e.g., Acess/Excel).

Modifying an Approved Functional AAP Agreement

The OFCCP Director and the FAAP Director must be notified in writing within 30 calendar days of any significant changes which alter the original agreement (to determine whether the agreement needs to be modified or amended) or else OFCCP may terminate the FAAP agreement. If the agreement is modified, the agreement will still not extend the three year term.

Updating a Functional AAP Agreement

Contractors are required to report at least once a year within 30 days following the anniversary of its agreement any minor changes and if the contractor fails to submit an annual update then OFCCP may schedule the contractor for a compliance evaluation [emphasis added by author].

Renewing a Functional AAP Agreement

To be eligible for renewal, a contractor must have had at least two functional units undergo a compliance evaluation during the three year term [emphasis added by author]. If the contractor only has one functional unit then that unit must undergo a compliance evaluation during the three year term. OFCCP will use administratively neutral selection criteria to select at least two functional or business units to be audited during the three year agreement term. Must submit a renewal request no later than 120 calendar days prior to the expiration of the current functional AAP agreement. The agreement will expire at the end of the three year term if the contractor fails to request a renewal.

Termination of Functional AAP Agreement

Either party may terminate the functional AAP agreement with a 90 calendar day written notice including a brief explanation of the reason(s) for the termination and the effective date of the termination. Examples of why OFCCP may terminate agreement include violation of the laws and regulations enforced by OFCCP (e.g., employment discrimination, failure to develop and maintain an AAP, failure to maintain accurate records, failure to permit OFCCP access, failure to make good faith efforts, failure to account for all employee’s in an AAP, or failure to notify OFCCP of any modifications). If terminated by OFCCP, the contractor may not reapply for another FAAP agreement for a period of three years and all employees would need to be covered by establishment based AAP(s) within 120 days from notification of termination.

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Ultimate Improvement Cycle: A Six Sigma Approach to Human Capital Management comes to Lakeland, FL

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc, will bring its 2 day class on the inclusion of six sigma process improvement methods to HR November 7 and 9 at Polk Corporate College in Lakeland, FL. For more information contact David Woodward at 863-669-2329 or dwoodward@polk.edu

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IRS Makes mid-year adjustment

The In­ternal Revenue Service is increasing the tax de­duction motorists can take for using private ve­hicles for business, a rare midyear move sparked by high gas prices.

Starting July 1, motor­ists who use their per­sonal vehicles for busi­ness will be able to de­duct 551/2 cents a mile from their taxable in­come, the agency an­nounced Thursday. That's an increase of 4 1/2 cents from the first six months of the year.

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Show Me the Path

I had posted an announcement of an upcoming date of our seminar on applying six sigma to HR and a peer of ours within the HR industry sent back a comment asking what is the validity to a PHR? The response takes me back to the introduction of the Certified Relocation Professional Exam in 1990, when a well known real estate broker asked why do I need to know the profile of a typical relocation buyer because I only sell homes.

In both cases the same response is generated. Everyday when we enter the world of HR (as if we ever leave it) we are faced with two paths we can go down. The first path is to proceed as if you are in your own little world. A world where the only thing that is important is what your department does today. We solved a hiring dilemma. We solved a benefit issue. We resolved a compensation issue. What is important is not what the business enterprise is seeking to achieve as we are our own entity.

The second path is to understand that despite what you were brought up to believe, there is no such things as a silo in today's business enterprises. What you do today as implications for the entire rest of the organization. Your responsibilities are to do what is necessary to enhance the objectives of not HR but of the organization. HR is a vital part of the operation as we show management the path to successfully utilize human capital. without us management could be opening the doors to significant problems. We are the path to keep them out of trouble. That does not mean that we fade into the background. We need to be in the face of the organization and showing the path to success.

So I take you back to the questions posed by the real estate broker and the HR peer- is there validity in thinking out of the box? Definitely. It is a matter of professional survival. It is a requirement for your organization not your department to grow. It is a requirement for you to grow. The rapidly expanding global workforce requires new ways of doing things. This is because what worked in the past may not work today. We have new challenges within the workforce and they call for out of the box thinking.

So when someone suggests a new out of the box direction for what you deliver do not rely on viewing its validity from the past perspective. Look at the methodology being presented and see how it will increase your value to your organization.Look at how the new methodology will allow you to grow as a human resource professional.

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The Ultimate Improvement Cycle: A Six Sigma Approach to Human Capital Management comes to Clearwater, FL. Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc.'s two day workshop on the use of six sigma in the HR function will be presented August 11 and 12, 2011 at the Corporate Training Center of St Petersburg College. For more information contact Sharon Mercer at 727-341-4429. HRCI has awarded 13 Strategic Business credits to this workshop.

The Ultimate Improvement Cycle: A Six Sigma Approach to Human Capital Management come sto Clearwater, FL

Daniel Bloom & Associates, Inc.'s two day workshop on the use of six sigma in the HR function will be presented August 11 and 12, 2011 at the Corporate Training Center of St Petersburg College. For more information contact Sharon Mercer at 727-341-4429. HRCI has awarded 13 Strategic Business credits to this workshop.

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Need help with healthcare costs?

I received this email from the President of the Tampa Bay Executive Forum who owns a benefit consulting firm:

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Hope this note finds you well and in good spirits.

A few weeks ago we came across this web site which helps consumers identify and learn more about market prices regarding various healthcare services in areas where we live and work. With all of us wanting to become more informed and better consumers of healthcare services we thought to pass along this web site for your use. It may help you or people you know.

Please read about and become familiar with this site “Health Care Blue Book” and learn what they have to offer and understand what data they will collect from you.  Also, read their privacy statement and then make your decision regarding using the site.

We use it to help understand markets, services and pricing. There is also a national discount pharmacy program & network which is available free of charge. Perhaps this would be of interest to you as well as other folks you know.

Below is an excerpt from the web site providing a summary statement of what’s available. The web site is http://www.healthcarebluebook.com

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Breaking News

US Supreme Court overturns Walmart Sex Discrimination Award

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Do you walk the HR walk and talk the HR talk?

It is now summer and residents of Florida are once again telling children and tourists about the Stingray shuffle. It is a pure example of risk management. You have a choice either you shuffle through the sand when you enter the water and chase away the stingrays or risk getting stung by the barb in their tail when you accidentally kick one.

The purpose of the example is that demonstrates the power of walking the walk and talking the talk. I hear all the time HR professionals bemoaning that they are not heard, are not at the partner table and are considered second class citizens within the corporate hierarchy. So my question is do you teach and practice the stingray shuffle within your organization?

In this highly competitive, global workplace we function in every day the ground rules are changing. We can no longer say we want a seat at the table and expect we are going to get it. The days when we were judged on what role we play in the organization has basically died. What we need to do is change our focus from asking to showing why we need to be in that strategic environment. We do this by walking the walk and talking the talk.

Here are some strategic thoughts on how to place yourself in the new environment that is our organizations:

1) Do you hear what the customer hears - Have you taken steps to really understand what the organization's clients expect from the organization. Surprise management and ask as a HR professional to tag along with the outside sales people and while there ask the client representative what they expect from their dealings with the customer service representatives of your organization. May very well change your recruiting efforts.

2) Do you hear what management hears (or doesn't hear) - HR, based on what Dave Ulrich calls the HR deliverables, is a vital part of the organization. But this is only true if you are the voice for the utilization of human capital. We don't mean that you tell management how to handle benefits or compensation. Rather we are talking about knowing and understanding the overall business and its strategic initiatives and how the human capital assets of the organization assist in bringing the strategy to a successful completion. We also do not anticipate that you are the employees best friend. we do expect that you are comfortable enough in your expertise as a human resource professional to tell management when they are right and just as important when they are wrong.

3) Can you measure your deliverable -  The key to the changed role for HR is to be able to document the outcomes through the use of verifiable, accurate data. It is just as important that you be able to present these data points in a way that is easily understood. The data needs to be presented in not only raw data but in terms of financial metrics which clearly demonstrate the contribution of the human capital assets.

So here is your challenge for today and going forward. Are you asking for a seat at the table or are you walking the HR walk and talking the HR talk in order to demonstrate that you need to be at the table. That you need to be at the table not because you asked but because the data you bring to the table enhances the strategic objectives of the organization both internally to the culture of the organization and externally to the needs and demands of the customer base.

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The Ultimate Improvement Cycle: A Six Sigma Approach to Human Capital Management coming to a city near you
July 21-22 Gainesville, FL
July 28-29 Columbus, OH
Sept 15-16 Pensacola, FL
Oct 20-21 Ocala, FL

For more information contact dan@dbaiconsulting.com

The Ultimate Improvement Cycle: A Six Sigma Approach to Human Capital Management coming to a city near you:
July 21-22 Gainesville, FL
July 28-29

Rules of Engagement

 We are all involved in a highly competitive world in the economic workplace. Our success is based on the degree to which our organizations can be the first to innovate a new product, service, or process. This innovation comes out of a high level of collaboration among the human capital assets of our organizations. To further the scenario our organizations are beginning to be faced with the impact of the Generation Y or millenials who have never seen a conversation that they did not like.

The direct outcome is our human capital assets of today and more important going forward depend on the usage of social media to find the answers to their questions and to hold an ongoing conversation. The hidden point coming from the social media world is that it is primarily about the conversation --good or bad.

Ever since Facebook and other mediums came into existence, a great debate has been heard across the land on how we control the usage of social media by our employees. Social Media policies have been created that reportedly created very strict rules about what employees were and were not allowed to say in the social media world.

The came a rash of legal decisions governing the degree to which corporations could control the conversation. This was culminated in the case of a Connecticut woman who spoke out about the working conditions at her employer. The company retaliated by dismissing her from her job.

In the past week I have seen no less than 5 emails from Labor law firms who have warned corporations to be careful on what they do based on the National Labor Relations Board stating that she was fired illegally. The NLRB based their view on Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act:

Section 7, is the heart of the NLRA. It defines protected activity. Stripped to its essential, it reads: Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. Section 7 applies to a wide range of union and collective activities. In addition to organizing, it protects employees who take part in grievances, on-the-job protests, picketing, and strikes.

We need the conversation. We need the collaboration. We need the innovation. We need open and frank discussions about the way we operate. So lets not turn off the dialogue through policies which control the threads. So lets not turn off the dialogue in the name of being overly cautious. Lets not try and guide the dialogue by trying to anticipate what might be said.

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From Constangy Brooks and Smith:The EEOC's 5 warnings about medical leaves and the ADA

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a public hearing this week on leave of absence as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This is a smokin' hot subject, particularly in light of the ADA Amendments Act and its regulations, which expand the ADA's coverage to a dramatically larger population, the "new," more activist EEOC under Chair Jacqueline Berrien, and two recent multi-million-dollar settlements in leave-of-absence lawsuits brought by the EEOC against Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Supervalu, Inc. (Jewel-Osco).

John Hendrickson, the EEOC's Regional Attorney for Chicago, said that these settlements contained five lessons for employers, and that's what I'd like to talk about today because Hendrickson's points are consistent with warnings we've been giving to employers for quite some time.

1. An "inflexible period" of leave will not satisfy ADA requirements. Most of the employers I've worked with have very generous leave of absence policies -- one employer I know offers up to two years of leave for a single medical condition (and possibly more, if the employee contracts a new condition). However, many policies provide for "automatic" termination if the employee's leave exceeds the designated period of time.

Nunh-unh, no can do, says the EEOC.

If the employee needs, say, two years plus two weeks, but then will be able to return to work, you have to consider granting that additional two weeks.

Or, if the employee can come back but needs reasonable accommodations (including reassignment to a vacant position), you have to consider allowing the employee to come back in the new capacity.

And when I say "consider," I mean, seriously. I mean, if you decide to say no, you'd better have a darned good reason.

Your next question may be, Well, if our leave is so generous and we still have to do all this when an employee has been out of work (and probably receiving disability benefits or workers' compensation), then why on earth do we want to offer so much leave in the first place? And my answer to that would be, Good question, and a point that was made by an employers' lawyer who testified at the EEOC hearing. You can shorten the "minimum leave" under your policy, as long as you comply with the requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act. (You should check applicable state laws, as well.)

2. "Appropriate leave" requires an "individualized assessment" when the designated leave period expires, if not before. See #1. The "individualized assessment" would include determining whether the employee needs additional leave beyond the official company maximum, and whether the employee can come back to work with a reasonable accommodation.

Many employers still require employees returning from medical leaves of absence to be "100 percent recovered," or able to return to work without restrictions. These requirements have arguably violated the ADA from the get-go (in my opinion, they have), but there is no question that they should be scrapped in our modern era. If an employee has restrictions, the employer is supposed to assess whether the employee can return to work with a reasonable accommodation. If not, then it may be ok to terminate. But if so, then the employer should allow the employee to return to work.

And, have I mentioned that "reasonable accommodation" includes reassignment to a different vacant position?

3. Keep your friends close, and your leave administrator and ADA decisionmaker closer. Many employers outsource leave administration to a third party. Meanwhile, the person making decisions on ADA accommodations is usually someone in Human Resources, in consultation with the employee's supervisors and managers, and possibly legal counsel.

This is a fine arrangement, as long as the leave administrator stays in close contact with HR or legal counsel, and knows how to identify potential ADA issues. (Which should be a cinch now that virtually everyone on an extended medical leave qualifies for ADA coverage.)

That said, third party administrators, or even in-house leave administration "specialists," should almost never be the ones to terminate an employee for hitting the maximum allowable leave. A best practice would be for the leave administrator to refer these employees to Human Resources or legal counsel for an ADA assessment. The decision to terminate, extend leave, or bring back to work with or without reasonable accommodations should be made by HR/Legal in consultation with the appropriate operations management.

4. Ya gotta talk to the employee. The reasons for this rule are too numerous to mention. From a pure morale standpoint, it's always good to stay in touch with an employee on medical leave because it makes the employee feel that she's still "part of the family" and makes return to work that much easier. But just in case these warm and fuzzy reasons aren't enough to satisfy you, allow me to use more persuasive methods. (Imagine Dr. Evil laugh here. Mwahahaha.)

Many jurisdictions require that the employer and employee conduct an "interactive process" when discussing possible ADA accommodations, and the EEOC takes this position as well. The "interactive process" is fancy-lawyer-talk for having a discussion with the employee (ideally, face-to-face, but phone or email will suffice if the employee can't come in) about possible reasonable accommodations. In these jurisdictions, the failure to engage in the interactive process is an ADA violation in itself.

Even in jurisdictions like mine, which do not require an interactive process, failing to engage in the process means that the employer "assumes the risk" if there is an accommodation that might have worked but was missed because the employer didn't talk to the employee.

For these reasons, I strongly recommend that all employers, no matter where they are located, discuss directly with employees their reasonable accommodation options and get the employee's suggestions. (Employers with unions will, of course, have to include the union representatives in these discussions.)

5. Better get used to being sued by the EEOC. The agency believes that private plaintiffs' attorneys will not usually have the resources to be able to pursue these "systemic" discrimination cases involving automatic terminations at the end of medical leaves. 

So, to paraphrase all those spam email jokes that we love so much, you may be a defendant in an EEOC lawsuit if

*You have a "100%-recovered/no restrictions" requirement for return from a medical leave of absence;

*You automatically terminate employees who reach their maximum leaves without making "individualized assessments";

*You delegate all of your medical leave terminations to your third-party administrator, or your benefits administrators; or

*You don't engage in "the interactive process" before automatically terminating employees who reach their maximum leaves.

(Sorry that wasn't the least bit funny. Hey - just like the spam email jokes!)

Generally speaking, the EEOC is a formidable plaintiff. Unlike private plaintiffs' attorneys, the agency does not have a strong economic motivation to settle cases early and inexpensively. They'll serve you with aggressive written discovery and requests for documents, and they'll want to take everybody's deposition. They'll file motions and fight every motion that your side wants to file. They dig "systemic" cases, where they can get large verdicts or settlements that they can post on their "Newsroom" web page. This is not to say you can't beat them, but most employers will prefer being in compliance to being a test case.

Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

Posted via email from hrstrategist@Net-Speed

Did You Set Out to be a Legacy?

Was your goal in entering the business world to leave a lasting impression on the world you entered and the world's to follow you? I would suspect that most of us dream of that state but do not realistically expect to reach it.

Yesterday while looking at my daily assortment of e-mails I found the following e-mail in my inbox:

Sixty-four years ago a giant was born.

Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt spent his entire adult life fighting to show that it is possible to make this world a better place. We must have the honesty to see reality as it is, we must have the courage to challenge assumptions, and above all, we must use the gift of thinking. Having applied these principles to various management fields, he created the Theory of Constraints. His concepts and teachings have expanded beyond management and are being used in healthcare, education, counseling, government, agriculture and personal growth - to name a few fields using TOC. His legacy is invaluable.

On June 11th, 2011 at noon, Eli Goldratt passed away at his home in Israel in company of his family and close friends.

The strength and passion of Eli allowed him to spend his last days sharing and delivering his latest insights and breakthroughs to a group of people who have committed to transfer this knowledge to the TOC Community during the upcoming Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization Conference in New York.

It was Eli's last wish to take TOC to the next level - truly standing on the shoulders of the Giant he is.

"I smile and start to count on my fingers: One, people are good. Two, every conflict can be removed. Three, every situation, no matter how complex it initially looks, is exceedingly simple. Four, every situation can be substantially improved; even the sky is not the limit. Five, every person can reach a full life. Six, there is always a win-win solution. Shall I continue to count?"

Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt 1947- 2011

I expect that Dr. Goldratt did not envision that by writing a thin business novel which is used by a large majority of the MBA programs in the country that we would reach that legacy level. Having read all five titles within the Goal series he convinced us that there was a new way to envision the problems that arise out of the way we conduct business in today's global workplace.

We facilitate a two day seminar for HR professionals and Goldratt's Theory of Constraints is the kick off to the study of the material presented. So while we may all strive to be a legacy take stock of someone who had an idea, conceptualized the idea for the masses and in return left a legacy for the ages following him.

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Are Your Employees Meeting Your Expectations?aybe there is a reason if they are not

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Relocation Announcement

Following reports about the planned U.S. headquarters for IQT Solutions, Gov. Bill Haslam, Mayor Karl Dean and state ECD head Bill Hagerty made an official announcement this morning welcoming the company and the 900 jobs it plans to bring to Music City over the next five years. From the Nashville Post

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Ultimate Improvement Cycle: A Six Sigma Approach to Human Capital Management comes to Ohio

The Human Resource Association of Central Florida has scheduled a presentation of our two day course regarding including six sigma within the HR processes. It is scheduled for July 28-29, 2011 in Columbus. For more information or to register contact the chapter at programs@hraco.com

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Reality vs. Reality

For those of you reading this and who are finite thinkers, you are sitting there going how can reality be in a battle against reality? I would suggest that the workplace today is faced with exactly that scenario. Let me explain.

Reality 1

A vast percentage of the populous has become addicted to Reality TV. We enjoy the picture that these shows create, we enjoy the sense of adventure that we can almost picture ourselves becoming involved in.

With the passage of legislation in several states we now have created this surreal world where we vision ourselves in one of these reality TV shows. It is now illegal in 23 states to forbid an employee to bring a loaded weapon to work as long as it is legally registered and locked in their personal vehicle. In Florida it is now illegal for a physician to even ask their patients if they own guns. Certain organizations are saying that it is their right under the U.S. Constitution and we do not dispute they have the right to own reasonable fire arms. I am not trying to start a political argument but rather to point out that our view of the world is horribly distorted. With the passage of these laws we have in fact created a de facto protected class of employees.

Reality 2

Most government contracts and state laws require our workplaces to be violence free. This is whether it is due to drugs physical violence. We are fully cognizant of the fact that due to the tough economic times many of our employees are under stress. We pick up the newspaper or turn on the evening news are hear of situations where someone has walked into a workplace and opened fire for some reason or another.

With this in mind why do we permit the battle of reality vs, reality to exist in our work environments. I have a semi-adopted daughter who every fall goes out hunting wild game which she in turns uses to feed her family. I have in the past done the same thing. But she would no more consider bringing her hunting rifle to work then I would. Reality 1 suggests that we live in such a horrible world that we need to protect ourselves with high caliber weapons such as 16 bullet clips. That we need to protect ourselves in the event that the other person decides to open fire.

Reality 2 suggests that we are making the promise and the commitment to the workforce that they can come to work with the expectation of a violence free work space. The in the same breath we create a protected class where we can not inquiry if a potential worker carries a weapon. We can not stop the creation of a potential cause for an unsafe workplace. With weapons 500 yards out the front door where is the impediment to violence in the workplace?

So here is my thought for the business enterprises in the marketplace. It is time that we as the business community respond by saying enough is enough. We are not trying to stop you from purchasing weapons, just keep them at home. There is no viable reason why our workplaces need to become reality 1. We provide an environment where we become a competitive part of the economic landscape due to our products, services and innovation. We do not provide an environment which is grounded in the expectation that something bad might happen in the workplace so we must put everyone in jeopardy by allowing weapons in the work environment - inside or directly outside the buildings. It is time for Reality 2 to come to the forefront and to pressure the creation of a work space that is based on common sense and the consideration of the type of work environment we want to be involved in.

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Its My Way or No Way, End of Question

I live in Central Florida and one of the local municipalities has passed a new law which goes into affect July1, which states that if you are homeless you either have to go into a shelter or go to jail. Those are your only choices in life.

Please do not get me wrong, I am not totally sympathetic to people sleeping and living on the streets. Having said that I want to use this an example of thinking out the ramifications of our decisions in human capital management.

Every organization has its own peculiar culture which dictates how the organization treats its human capital assets. The question here is whether that organization is as controlling as the local municipality or are they open enough to recognize the value of diversity of thought and lifestyles. The rapidly changing world we live in heavily depends on our organizations to be innovative in their services and products and to change with the business environment.

Innovation means that we take into consideration a wide variety of thoughts, work processes, work styles. If we operate from a sense of iron clad rules and regulations we are in the long run hindering the growth of our organizations. So my question to you is whether the next time an employee comes to work for your organization is the message you are delivering " this how we do it here and it is the only way we do it here" or are you ready to recognize that the employee ho comes off a little strange to you and your management the road to the next great mousetrap in your organization.  Just because they have a different view of the world around them does not mean that they are in some way bad and need to be stored away somewhere out of view from the public or our customers.

The next time you consider chastising someone because of the way they dress or behave becareful that you are doing so for proper reasons, not because they do not fit your picture of reality.

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Chinese Drywall revisited

BP employee sues over relocation, alleged mold contamination

by Glenna Herald | May 31, 2011 2:37 pm

A BP employee is suing after, she says, her participation in the company’s relocation program caused her to purchase a mold-infested home in Katy.  

Fort Bend residents Katherine and Joseph O’Connell filed a lawsuit on May 26 in Harris County District Court against Weichert Relocation Resources, Katy resident Blake Tillack and others alleging, among other things, fraud, negligence and violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The O’Connells say that in 2008, BP required Katherine O’Connell to use the defendants’ services to help her relocate from LaGrange, Illinois, to BP’s corporate headquarters, located in Memorial. Based on the defendants’ misrepresentations, the O’Connells purchased a home in Katy, located at 25419 Terrace Arbor Lane.

According to the brief, defendant Tillack’s inspection report failed to alert the O’Connells to the new home’s many defects, including leaky windows and mold contamination, as well as problems with the foundation, electrical work, structure and roof. The O’Connells claim that the mold contamination sickened their 10-year-old son to such a point that they were forced to send him to live with his grandmother for a few months.

The house was in such poor condition, the family says, that they had no choice but to evacuate the premises on April 2, 2010, leaving most of their furniture and belongings behind due to the mold contamination. According to the suit, BP has adequately resolved other employees’ relocation problems, but they have yet to fairly compensate the O’Connells for their troubles.

The O’Connells are seeking actual, exemplary and punitive damages, as well as attorney’s fees and court costs. They are being represented in the case by Houston attorney Jeffrey Diamond.

Harris County District Court Case No. 2011-32225.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed at the Harris County Courthouse. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.

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Are we missing the message?

We recently offered to present a breakout session for a state SHRM council and was told thanks but no thanks. When we questioned the reason, we were informed that feedback from the membership said it was just not a topic that generated must interest. The presentation was entitled "In Plain Sight: Hidden Wastes that Affect the Vitality of Your Human Resource Organization."

So here is our question if we know that every process within our organizations have hiccups. We also recognize these hiccups can have a very dramatic affect on the organization. This could be as small as missed deadlines to as large as huge wastes of resources.

So lets pose another perspective on this scenario? What if we knew that on the premise of it all that there are hiccups in the process but we have never sought to identify them, does that lessen the impact on the organization? Because the non-value added activities flounder just under the radar does that make it any less real as to the impact on the organization?

We have peers who cringe every time they hear one of our HR professionals talk about gaining a seat at the partnership table. We can understand their frustration, but I would suggest it is not so much taking a seat at the table as it is a manifestation that as HR professionals want to to be judged based on what we deliver to the organization.

So when we hear that the subject matter does not interest the HR audience we are confronted with a couple of thoughts. First, are we as a profession so entrenched in the  idea we are there as administrative gate controls for the organization that we do not care to hear about ways to improve the operations  or we so afraid of being ineffective that we we will fight any opportunity to make the changes necessary to sustain our organizations?

Here is the message as plain as we can state it. Every single organization in the world is performing process steps which are directly holding back the organization in the long run. If human capital professionals can't see that or choose not to look at them then the outcome is of their own doing. Every process has its hiccups and it is the hidden one that will come back to bite in ways that can cause great harm to the organization.

We recently heard one of our colleagues talking about how the organization she works for had moved an employee's desk from the second floor to the first floor but left all her necessary files on the second floor. In order for the duties of the position they had to go bakc to the second floor to recover the filed required at any given moment. To get there, they had to walk the entire length of the office go up stairs and bring the file back downstairs to their desk. The result was a loss of 25 minutes in productivity each time the task was performed. If we figure that the task is performed about four times a day, that means over the course of a normal work year the organization has lost 30,000 minutes or 500 man hours, If we figure that the professional is paid $24 per hour, this means that the organization has lost $12,000 annually in time spent working on non-value added work.

So are wearing blinders or did we not hear the message? If we are so ingrained in the way we do things then we are wearing the blinders that will never get us beyond where we are and a small part of the total organization. If on the other hand, we just missed the message than we need to go back and listen again about how HR can play a vital role in the sustainability and the success of the organization.

The choice is yours. The choice as to your future is yours. The choice as to where the organization is headed is yours.You can either be the ostrich in the sand or you can be the strategist who really considers the role of human capital within the organization.

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Time for some reconsideration

Despite the objections of the ultra conservatives and evangelicals, based on some new research out of 2010 Census suggestes that as organizations we need to refocus how we treat our human capital assets. The 2010 Census indicates that in 32 states the number of traditional households in a decline reaching the point where there are more couples living together outside of marriage then ever before. In seven states the number has reached the point where there are more unmarried couples then there are married ones.

The result is that organizations are going to need to align their corporate culture with the expectations of these couples. Domestic partners are going to demand equal treatment and due to their reaching a point of majority they will expect to get it or they will move on. In the pending talent shortage that os just down the pike, organizations can't afford the knowledge drain nor the potential for your competitors to gain the upper hand.

Take a look at your policies and seriuosly consier whether you want the status quo or are you willing to make the adjust for the new reality.

 

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As the world turns

One of the HR blogs that I read everyday is the HR Capitalist. His blog post for today raises all kinds of different options

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Human Resources and Human Capital Pros:  Listen Up.

Costs are dramatically shifting when it comes to using China to plug in offshore production/outsourcing into your workforce planning model.

Consider this:

"The Chinese coastal region's wages were 48 percent of Mississippi's in 2010 and will reach an estimated 69 percent in 2015.

Read the rest of the detail in a post I did over at Fistful of Talent earlier in the week.

Mississippi is the new China?  Interesting.  And wacky...

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