HRCleanUp

Friday Fun Facts

Consumer Products

Top 10 consumer products companies, 2007

1. Altria (Philip Morris)
   

2. Hewlett-Packard

3. Samsung

4. Nestle

5. Matsushita

6. Procter & Gamble

7. Sony

8. Toshiba

9. Dell

10. Nokia

Source:  Deloitte

Out of Work--Try Something Different!

Today I went to my neighborhood dry cleaning shop.  As the clerk was writing up my ticket he got a phone call.  I heard him say "so I'm getting a paycheck tomorrow?, Good!".  I then said "Pay is always good, isn't it?" and he let me know that he was a victim of a layoff and this job at the dry cleaning shops was all he could find.  He then went on to tell me that he was spending every minute of his free time applying for jobs, any job, via the web.  I then asked him "How's that working for you?" and he let me know "It isn't." 

Then it is time to change tactics.

In a down economy, all of a sudden, you are competing with people that you never thought you would compete with.  The jobs are few but the jobs are there.  It is all about how you go about tackling the project.  Applying on line is safe, quick, and it give you the feeling of accomplishment.  However, for most people, it doesn't lead to employment. It leads to cyber-nothingness.

Why?  Because people hire people.  Machines don't hire people.

Networking is still your best avenue towards finding employment.  Having lots of conversations with interesting people about their jobs gets the ball rolling in the right direction.  So here is the advice I gave my new friend at the dry cleaning shop:

1. Connect with everyone you know.  Find out what they are up to.
2. Create a kick-ass Linked In profile.  One that you are proud of.
3. Get on Facebook.  Go to a MeetUp group.  Join a gym near a group of office buildings.
4. Ask everyone you know for the names of two people that you don't know but who have interesting jobs at interesting companies.
5. Take them to coffee (they will probably pay), learn about them and their jobs,  and get two more names.
6. Don't ever ask for a job or expect them so find you one.
7. Send a thank you note.  Follow up on every single lead--even if it sounds boring
8. Repeat steps 1-7 over and over and over again

Somewhere out there in the friends of friends of friends lies your next opportunity. 

HR Student's Point-of-View

By Sharon Woodward

Gaps in Employment

All HR professionals know that gaps in employment can be a big red flag.  Article after article warns us to look out for resumes in which employment has been inconsistent.  The premise is that there is something inherently wrong with the individual and hiring this person may cause trouble for the organization down the road.

But consider this thought…many gaps in employment are actually positive.

Someone who takes time off to care for a loved one demonstrates responsibility, reliability, and often courage.

Someone who takes time off to travel indicates an adventurous, intellectual, and open-minded being.

Someone who takes time off to pursue a lifelong goal, such as writing a book, is likely goal-oriented, determined, and a risk-taker.

To recruiters and hiring managers: next time you come across a qualified applicant with a gap in employment, don’t dismiss the resume solely due to the break in employment.  Passing up the person may be passing up an employee who not only has positive character traits, but who is also eager, rested, relaxed and can offer fresh perspectives for the company.  Don’t dismiss him/her and drive him/her right into the arms of your competitors!

But don’t forget to ask about the employment gap at the interview!

Coaching the Uncoachable by Guest Blogger Bobby Pruitt

Bobby Pruitt is my collegue and all-around great guy at Profiles International.  He is Vice President for Enterprise Solutions at can be reached via email at bobby.pruitt@profilesmail.com. 

Coach the Uncoachable
...What happens if they just don’t get it??

By a show of hands, who has ever coached the uncoachable... come on, be loud n’ proud! It's can also be referred to as:

• The immovable force
• Who made that hiring decision, HR?
• The 80/20 rule or some variation of the 80/20 rule...

Or most widely referred to as...

… a waste of my time!!!

As "fair" and equally grounded as we typically say that we are, there's no getting around it -- some of our team members can “appear” to be a waste of “our” valuable time (said as if we are sharing the only unique asset we have complete control over), Having said that, we typically stop doing it the second we make the realization that the “light’s on, but nobody is home”!
To quote one of my favorite lines in a movie (Tombstone): “It’s like playin cards with my brother’s kids”!

Perhaps they were mis-recruited/mis-hired to begin with; perhaps they were promoted well past their ability to effectively lead others just like themselves; perhaps they simply don't want to do what's required; or perhaps we are totally wrong about them all together... I don't know nor would I spend a ton of time analyzing the "why." The "what," is "I'm spending my time for no return, when I could be spending it on someone else for a recognizable value."

Not really much of a choice, is it? On the other hand, it might be our choice all together.
“They” say (They=Consultant somewhere...) that we spend 80% of our time on those things that deliver us 20% of our total goal. I would argue that, when discussing employee performance, motivation, and one-on-one development or coaching, that figure is much closer to 90%.
So, be honest with yourself: How much time do you spend with your Top Performers... your top 5-10%? Don’t consider face-time, drinks after work, or breakfast get-togethers. I'm talking about working with that A-player, investing your personal time and expertise, and making sure that the "A's" receive more emphasis than the "C's."

Yes, we should do an appropriate amount of development for those employees who don't quite "get it," but seem to have the ability, activity and the "potential" to grow significantly with some well-thought out development. But be critical, wary, and skeptical; you should be prepare to “cut the cord” the moment you realize you are repeating yourself, notice issues of ethics or integrity, or that the employee's "light" just hasn't "turned on."

Remember, development equals the sum of all of its parts (coaching, training, appropriate responsibilities) – and is a vital part of growing our future leaders. But they must bring a few things to the table that you simply cannot "train in..." You can't train them to have a work ethic, for example. They must bring that with them when hired. You cannot train them to be honest and ethical -- someone well before you influenced that beyond repair. You should look at Attitude, Activity, and then Skill before you are able to dismiss a “perceived” marginal performer.

As a coach-manager, your attitude toward making a person successful will make up 80% of their success or failure.  ARE YOU PREPARED TO CARRY THAT WEIGHT ON YOUR SHOULDERS? If you understand this concept, you “have skin in the game”! You can look for the good and increase the number of positive encounters. Before you know what is hitting you, you will be embracing the concept of the “Performance Preview*” This Kum-Ba-Yah world is filled with

1. Company initiatives aligning with individual team members goals
2. Open communication
3. Results exceeding expectations

On the flip side, you also eliminate those “mis-recruits and mis-hires” by pointing them in the right direction (and sometimes that direction is right out the door).

*Wall Street Journal article: Get Rid of the Performance Review by Dr. Samuel A. Culbert

Friday Fun Facts

Reasons to Leave:

Percentage of employers reporting top five reasons employees might leave their job and employees reporting reasons to leave, 2008:

Reason	Employer	Employee
Inadequate compensation	36%	27%
Lack of career development	19%	30%
Insufficient recognition	22%	17%
Boredom	7%	11%
Inadequate professional development opportunity	12%	11%

Source:  Salary.com

Is your organization cutting career development programs?  You are at risk of losing your best employees.  We can help you develop your people.  Profiles International focus on tools and programs to help you both select and retain your top performers.  Check us out at Profiles International.

The Sustainable Organization

 Today, I went to a NEHRA seminar title "The Sustainable Organization" that was lead by Robert Kelleher, Chief Human Capital Officer for AECOM. 

I've been to many sessions about the trends that are impacting our organizations including generational challenges, loss of available talent, the power of social networking, the cost of employee disengagement, and the fact that the number of available workers is going to continue to shrink despite our current environment of layoffs.

Bob, however, took all of these seemingly disparate events and brought them all together in his presentation.  For any HR or organizational leader, any of the single events is cause for concern but aggregate them and there is cause for alarm.  Bob's session was food for thought for many in the room.

Bob's 12 trends included:

1. Changing demographics and declining savings
2. Fostering generational harmony
3. The new definition of diversity
4. The World Is Flat (as an aside, required reading for my HR students)
5. Declining ambition
6. The loyalty factor
7. Engagement
8. Are we flexing?
9. Innovate and educate
10. The era of the CFO
11. Corporate social responsibility

I think, however, that rather than thinking about these trends and worrying about them, it is time for HR leaders to step up to the plate and start putting in the policies and programs that are going to effect change.  Not just little bits of change but sweeping change.  Change that will forever impact the way we think about organizations, leadership, and work itself.

Each of these trends, alone, is a project or two.  As an HR professional, which one to tackle first. 

Today I was talking to our department project assistant.  We were talking about something as simple as cleaning up the common file folder.  She told me "it is just such a big task" and I reminded her that "a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.  Let's start by creating a taxonomy and we can go from there".  In fact, let's schedule some time to this this week.

So, HR Leaders...what is your first step?

HR Student's Point of View

Geeta Pathak
The Caste Reservation System in India and its impact on the Country’s Recruiting System

This is an excerpt I did for a research paper in one of my classes last year as part of the MS program. It is an interesting read and I thought I would share.

This is an issue close to every Indian’s heart and has been the bane of a lot of controversy in India’s social, political and economic circles for years. Reservation in Indian law is a term used to describe the governmental policy of reserving a percentage of seats in the Parliament of India, State Legislative Assemblies, Central and State Civil Services, Public Sector Units, Central and State Governmental Departments and in all Public and Private Educational Institutions for the socially and educationally backward classes of citizens who are perceived by the Government to be inadequately represented. Just to give you a quick brief India has been practicing the Caste System for the last 2000 years. Hindu India was divided into 4 castes. Brahmins were the highest caste, considered the priestly caste. Then came the Kshatriyas (warriors), followed by the Vaishyas (traders), and lastly the Sudras (menials). A fifth group known as “the untouchables” (which is what they were addressed as); numbering 200 million now lay outside the caste system. In Ancient India, the untouchables were not allowed to enter the temples. Their touch was considered a sin and it made a caste Hindu impure. Shockingly, even their shadows were considered impure. This discrimination, unlike Apartheid is not based on the color of your skin or your race, but on the caste into which one is born. Brahmins, (the priestly class) were considered supreme and were respected by the other castes as a superior entity.

As awareness grew and people begun to realize the enormity of the injustice – the deprived classes began to revolt. This sparked huge communal wars all over India in the eighties, thousands of people lost their lives. Families were rendered homeless; there were protests all over the country. India was in the throes of destruction. In a frantic move, the Government stepped in and introduced the reservation policy. However little did they know that this quota system would further divide an already hurting India. Over the next few years the government raised the percentage of reservations in most public and private sectors covering almost all verticals. Educational institutions were hit the hardest, some of the premier league schools were forced to introduce such a high percentage of reservation, that it became almost impossible for a deserving candidate of a higher caste to secure admission based on his merit!

A study done by the IITs (India’s premier technology institute) shows that 50 per cent of the IIT seats reserved for the backward classes remain vacant. And for those who get admitted, 25 per cent are forced to quit, as they cannot keep up to the high academic standards required of the students there. In April of 2006 the Government opened a Pandora's Box by asking businesses to "voluntarily" commit to greater diversity in their work force by including more backward classes. The captains of industry were spooked, seeing in the apparently gentle appeal a precursor to caste-based reservations of jobs. Indian businessmen in the private sector began revolting against this move - on the grounds that introducing factors other than "merit" in the hiring process will hurt their competitiveness just when they are beginning to make a mark on a global scale. Those who support reservations felt vindicated by all the support their people were now receiving. 

A “caste headcount” by HR has been launched among the national workforce of the larger public companies in order to gauge how the various castes are represented companywide. A move most HR pundits think outrageous! They are of the view that for companies that are in the service business and are competing globally, caste quotas in hiring employees is a bad idea. Pointing to the fact that success in the service business is dependent on the quality of people employed, Azim Premji, chairman of the information-technology (IT) giant WIPRO, has ruled out caste quotas in his company. Last year, Infosys Technologies chairman Narayan Murthy rejected the demand of linguistic groups in Bangalore, who demanded quotas for the local population in IT companies. HR managers are arguing that they need to hire the best and brightest, not adopt caste criteria to determine recruitment. They believe that hiring less than the best will erode their quality standards. Jagadish Ramamurthy, chief executive officer and co-founder of Chennai-based Allsec Technologies, believes that if Indian companies don't meet quality standards, "then there is a chance of work being shifted to other destinations". There is fear too that caste quotas will reenergize the “brain drain”, a term that was often used in India earlier to describe movement of skilled and competent labor to countries like the US and UK for better opportunities.

And so the battle rages on…there still exists a huge divide between the supporters and opponents of this system. There are those who think that this policy is a vindication of all the years of injustice that they have been put through and then there are those who see no sense in basing hiring decisions on caste quotas. I am a strong believer of the fact that if India is to get the complete benefit of its large population and big market, then upliftment of the economically backward classes is essential. But that development should be independent of any caste considerations, a fact that seems far away from the reality surrounding this situation currently.

 

Inauguration Day

As we turn our thoughts today to the future of the United States, I find that we arrive at this day weary but hopeful.  Americans are, in my opinion, the most optimistic group of people in the world and I can't help but think it is that optimism that will get us through the difficult days that lie ahead.

As HR professionals, we have a special place in our organizations.  It is our job to make sure that the people resources of the company are well managed and well cared for.  If you were to have your own Inauguration Day, what would your speech consist of?  What dreams and policies would you discuss? 

So today, I challenge you to reflect on the future because it starts today.  What do you want to accomplish?  What do you want to challenge?  What do you want to be?

Happy Inauguration.  I'm weary...yet hopeful.

P.S.  The picture is from the Lincoln inauguration.

Experience Matters--Just Ask Circuit City

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the fact that Circuit City was going to begin the liquidation process for its remaining 550 stores--and, it will be putting 30,000 people out of work.  About a year ago, Circuit City actually fired its experienced associates with the goal of replacing them with less expensive less experienced workers--they figured  that the consumer just doesn't care who sells them a $2,500.00 television set.  I wrote about it back in December, 2007.

I hate to say "I told you so" but...

From Friday's WSJ On-Line..."At one point, the company sacked thousands of veteran salespeople and replaced them with lower-paid and less-experienced workers, believing that sales wouldn't suffer as a result. They did, and the damage to revenue – and Circuit City's reputation -- was never undone."

In these lean economic times, letting go of your most important asset...your skilled, seasoned employees, could be a deadly mistake.  The analysis of the benefits that seasoned workers bring to the organization must be a part of of your overall staffing strategy.  See, people chose Circuit City because of the knowledgeable workforce and because many of us don't want to buy from teenagers.  HR, this is where your partnership and knowledge of the line business is so critical--helping organizations understand the dire ramifications of their people decisions is our responsibility.

The cost--30,000 jobs and a great retailer. 

Friday Fun Facts

HRMS Objectives

Percentage of companies reporting main objectives for their HRMS improvements, 2008:

• Streamline business processes, 53%

• Deploy additional employee self-service, 45%

• Deploy additional manager self-service, 44%

• Utilize additional HR modules, 43%

• Deploy reporting/analytics, 37%

• Upgrade to a new version, 30%

• Implement a new HRIS, 15%

• Consolidate HR systems globally, 13%

• Other, 12%

Source:  Towers Perrin survey of 268 companies