2012 Checklist for People Management

Annual physicals are a must for good long-term health. The same applies to your organization’s people management. To start the year off right, here is your checklist:

1. Are your employees coming to work everyday, being productive, making few mistakes,  rarely getting hurt, and always willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done right?
2. Are your policies, systems, and procedures consistently being applied and compliant with state and federal employment laws?
3. Have you reviewed your employee handbook and policy manuals? Do your managers know what’s in it and are they following it?
4. Do  your supervisors have the skills and knowledge to confidently confront  most workforce issues?
5. Are you properly classifying your employees as exempt or non-exempt? Have you checked all independent contractors?
6. Have you reviewed your workers’ compensation program? Are injured employees returning to work quickly? Do you have up-to-date loss runs? Is your experience modification rating less than 1.0? Are open claims being closed?
7. Have  you provided annual sexual harassment prevention training for managers and employees? Have you distributed your policy to all employees? Do employees understand that harassment will never be tolerated? Do supervisors  understand their responsibilities? Are complaints being properly and promptly investigated?
8. Is  your performance management program working? Are you seeing an improvement  in employee’s performance? Are employee goals being met? Are supervisors trained to give appraisals? Are employees educated to receive appraisals?
9. Are you growing and developing your people? Are training programs in place?  Are skills being developed? Are employees being coached? Is performance  improving?
10. Are  you successfully recruiting star performers? Do you have a recruitment brand that draws candidates to your door?
11. Are your compensation programs working? Are you getting value for your payroll  dollars?   Are your wages competitive with the market?
12. Do  your employees know what is expected of them? Do you have clear accountability systems in place? Is performance consistently improving?
13. Are you confident that your employees are doing the right things when dealing  with your customers?
14. Are you retaining your best people? Do you have a plan in place to ensure that your stars will not be poached by outside recruiters?
15. Have you put in place succession plans in case you lose a key employee?
16. Are  you confident that things will be better this year than they were last year?

Fostering an environment where employees are “willing to give their all” to guarantee the success of your organization is paramount.  When managers take care of their employees and inspire them and when employees believe in their boss and their organizations, then success is guaranteed. This is pragmatic, uncomplicated, bottom line approach to business and the right medicine for 2012 and beyond.

 

Stop Hoping & Start Acting

 (This article is part of regular series of business articles I write for the York County Coast Star)

In this difficult economy, we all hope things will get better. Business owners hope to finally make a profit, while sales managers hope sales will increase, and line managers hope disengaged workers will improve their performance.

Hope is one of those virtues we all cherish and hold tightly. With it we can endure difficult circumstances because we believe tomorrow will be better, righting today’s troubles.

While hope alone may give us momentary peace, it is a lousy business strategy, for it is not enough. Profits and sales don’t just happen and employees never simply get better. Successful managers take control and make things happen.

 The recession battered many organizations and as sales and profits tumbled, managers hoped for a speedy recovery, looking to the government, banks and anyone to throw them a life line. Most are still waiting. Others realized hope was not enough and took positive actions to both endure and even thrive during this trying time. For example, one local manufacturing firm made the tough decisions most firms made to save their business, cutting costs, labor and expenses. But they didn’t stop there. Seeing the recession as an opportunity, the ownership acted. Even though their customers stopped or reduced orders, this management team aggressively reached out to both their customers and their competitor’s customers, forging new alliances, investing in new programs, and cementing new relationships that are today bearing positive results. This same company also used the downturn to recruit star performers away from other companies who might not otherwise been receptive to a change, strengthening the company’s overall bench. Another organization, a human service organization, used the downturn to redefine their business model, expand into new geographies, and minimized their dependency on government funding for their revenues.

 Each of these firms realized that merely hoping things would get better was a recipe for disaster. Instead they created a plan to both endure the downturn, but also to position themselves for the recovery. For them, it was not a time to be passive. Strategy and execution were employed. While hope was not discarded, the executives running these two operations embraced another virtue—courage. Courage to ignore the doomsayers who cautioned them to not act; courage to take a risk, realizing failure could be risky, but not acting could be fatal; courage to act when conventional wisdom advised against it.

 Great leaders never shed hope. But they know it is not enough.

Success in the business world depends on having the courage to act, regardless of your position and circumstances. Whether it’s in finding a new job, going for a promotion, or addressing a problem employee. There is nothing wrong with hoping things will happen as you want, but without the courage to act, you may be waiting a long time.

2012 Trends: Focus on Talent

2011 was another trying year, but signs continue to point toward recovery. We have experienced nine straight quarters of positive employment growth in the U.S.and we can expect this trend to continue. At the same time, many employers continue to struggle to find prospective employees with critical skills. This skills mismatch is preventing many employers from making hire decisions, impacting their organization’s productivity and growth while contributing to the nation’s high unemployment rate.

 In 2012, manager’s focus must be on two matters of concern: 1) finding candidates with the right skill set and 2) training of their workforce to raise their level of competency. New recruitment strategies will be need to find and attract hard to find talent. The traditional techniques will no longer be effective. And training must be relevant and focused on organizational objectives.

The new year always enters with promise. The challenges before us will be significant. A focus on your workforce will ensure prosperity in 2012.

Recruitment Brand: The Magnet That Draws Candidates

Every employer dreams of having a steady stream of highly qualified applicants knocking at their door, hoping to be hired–applicants, who are skilled, fully engaged and who mesh with their current employees and fit within their culture. And as idealistic as this sounds, companies with a strong recruitment brand enjoy this benefit. Just ask the folks at Google, Johnson & Johnson and Apple. They understand the value of a strong brand.

So what is a recruitment brand and how can you develop one? A recruitment brand is a message that communicates what it’s like to work at your company. It tells the world who you are and what you believe in—your mission, culture and values.  It’s your way of telling applicants “this is who we are and individuals who believe and think like us are welcome.”

 Whether it’s Zappos that promises to “deliver happiness to the world” or Southwest Airlines’ focus on the “power of relationships to achieve high performance” or J&J’s family friendly environment—a positive recruitment brand attracts candidates who identify with their beliefs and culture.

 With a strong recruitment brand, candidates will seek you out, saving you time and money on recruitment initiatives. But even more importantly, your brand is the glue that holds your current works together, increasing employee retention, engagement, loyalty and productivity.

 Building a brand takes three uncomplicated steps:

1. Understanding  who you are. To fully understand this, ask yourself and then ask your employees  why do you want to work here? What kinds of people are successful here?  What kind of people fit it? And what kinds of people are not successful  here? Getting the answer to these questions will help you define you   company’s brand. Listen to how your employees respond.
2. Profile  your ideal candidates. Creating this profile allows you to target, find  and recruit your ideal candidates.
3. Communicate your message about what it’s like to work at your company. Get your employees to offer their stories. These compelling stories of why people  want to work in your company provide you the insights into who you are and   your recruitment brand.

Communicate your brand consistently and with clarity in all your recruitment pieces. And as your brand evolves, listen to hear how it is echoed by former employees, customers and the public.

A positive recruitment brand will attract your targeted candidates to your company like a magnet, ensuring that you always have a steady stream of candidates drawn to

Harassment Claim: 1st Circuit States Employee’s Failure to Notify Employer of Repeat Harassment Fatal to Claim

( Moulison North, a Dacri & Associates ,client, was successful in this case because, when faced with an employee complaint of harassment, the CEO, Ken Moulison, did all the right things to address the problem. Having in place an anti-harassment and discrimination program, developed by Dacri & Associates and following the guidelines set forth in the program, resulted in a winning verdict for the company).

 An oral reprimand was an adequate response to an initial report of racial taunting, and a complaint of continued harassment made to a nonsupervisory leadperson did not trigger a duty in an employer to take further action or render it liable for harassment, according to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.

Employers may be held liable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if they are responsible for creating or tolerating a hostile work environment. To recover for employee harassment by co-workers, an employee must show the employer knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take prompt, appropriate remedial action. The answers to the questions of when knowledge is imputed to an employer and what constitutes appropriate remedial action depend on the circumstances.

Shortly after Arthur Wilson began working for the electrical utility contractor Moulison N. Corp., his co-workers began taunting him with racial epithets. The leadperson on the crew overheard and told them to stop, but the conduct continued.

Following the company policy as stated in the employee handbook,Wilson reported the conduct to the company’s owner and chief executive officer. The next day, the CEO visited the work site and berated the harassers, who did not deny making the racial slurs. The CEO warned them that repeat conduct would result in their dismissal. The CEO then apologized to Wilson for their conduct and told Wilson they would be dismissed if the conduct continued and to report any further problems to him without delay.

One of the employees continued to taunt Wilson, and his work relationships with others deteriorated. However,Wilson reported this only to the leadperson, and the leadperson took no action in response.

Wilson brought suit alleging a racially hostile work environment and retaliation. The district court granted summary judgment for the employer, and Wilson appealed only the hostile environment claim.

Wilson argued first that a verbal reprimand and warning was too mild given the nature of the conduct. The 1st Circuit held that an employer must be accorded some flexibility in selecting appropriate sanctions for particular instances of employee misconduct. The court offered that, “barring exceptional circumstances (not present here), a reasoned application of progressive discipline will ordinarily constitute an appropriate response to most instances of employee misconduct.”

In this case, the court had before it no evidence that the perpetrators were repeat offenders, that racial discrimination was a long-standing problem for the employer or that the employer had a history of inconsistent discipline. The employer’s response was consistent with its anti-harassment policy and the punishment fit the crime. The employer’s action need not be such as will satisfy the complainant. The court rejected plaintiff’s argument that the warning was inadequate because it was ineffective as “nothing more than a post-hoc rationalization.”

Wilson’s second argument—that his second complaint to the leadperson put the employer on notice and created a basis for liability—failed because the court found the leadperson was not a supervisor. The policy directed employees to report harassment to a supervisor or an owner, and neither the CEO nor the policy had designated the leadperson to receive such complaints.Wilson had many opportunities to complain to the CEO and offered no explanation for failing to do so when the CEO had specifically directed him to report any further problems to him without delay.

Wilson v. Moulison N. Corp., 1st Cir., No. 10-1387 (March 21, 2011).

Professional Pointer Adequate steps to prevent and correct harassment include addressing the possibility it may continue, despite disciplinary action. In addition to the steps described above, employers should check back periodically with employees who report harassment to ask if it has recurred, follow through on any further complaints and document these efforts.

This article was written by Susan M. Schaecher, an attorney with Stettner Miller PC, for SHRM.

Human Resource Department: 10 Tips to Operate Without One

How do you effectively operate your business without a formal Human Resource Department?  After all, aren’t those folks in HR the “people people” who handle all those employee issues while the rest of us do the real work?  Aren’t they the experts on pay, benefits, compliance, and forms—something the rest of us would never dare to touch?

A well run Human Resource Department can provide an organization tremendous value with their expertise.  Having someone to lean on to handle the difficult employee and legal issues can provide any manager peace of mind.  However, some companies are just too small to afford a dedicated department while others believe they can operate just fine without HR.

So how do firms successfully manage without a formal HR group?  Here are 10 tips:

1. Give managers the authority to make HR decisions: when situations occur, managers must be able to act, without the need to have to kick a decision upstairs.
2. Encourage innovation: productivity improvements can only occur with a steady stream of new ideas come from the people closest to the operation.
3. Train managers in their new responsibilities: before you can hold managers accountable for hiring,  retaining, and motivating their staff, you have to train them on how to do it.  These are complicated concepts, so education is key to a successful transition.  You need to prepare your managers first.  If you just dive in, you’ll probably  make mistakes.
4. Hold managers accountable for workforce decisions: without accountability, nothing good happens.  Hold the managers accountable for hiring      quality staff, retaining good employees, increasing productivity, etc.  And when good things happen, reward them.
5. Develop systems that promote consistency: without consistency, productivity, morale and profitability will dip.  Develop good systems and standards, encourage lots of communications between the      managers, and follow your procedures.  When deviations from procedures do occur (and they will), make sure everyone knows why.
6. Know the law: state and federal laws change frequently.  Have an outside expert regularly monitoring regulations that can impact your workplace.
7. Use an outside expert to handle thorny  workforce issues: no matter how skilled your staff may be, there are  going to be times when you need specific expertise.  You don’t want a manager guessing about      how to handle a sexual harassment investigation.
8. Utilize experts to help with problems  and to train and coach your managers: to ensure that your managers  have the skills to do handle their new responsibilities, get them the needed expertise.
9. Address workforce issues immediately: when behavior issues are handled right away, there is far less stress for the managers and fewer concerns for error and lawsuits.
10. Involve your employees: employees are a vast resource that when tapped can offer an abundance of ideas.

Operating without a HR department is not easy.  For smaller organizations there is little choice.  Regardless, preparing your organization and managers to directly oversee their workforce can be positive for all.  Training, systems, accountability standards, outside expertise and the commitment to make it work is the formula to bringing your workforce closer and focusing your managers on your most important asset—your people.

(This article was part of my regular column in the York County Coast Star, November 17 2011 edition)

 

Employee Job Satisfaction

(Post excerpted from SHRM study)

According to the SHRM 2011 Employee Job Satisfaction Survey Report to be released this month, employee job satisfaction in the U.S. reached its peak in 2009 – possibly because employees were especially grateful for their jobs at the height of the recession. But since then, it has been dropping slightly each year. A much-discussed March 2011 report from MetLife found that more than one out of three surveyed employees hoped to be working elsewhere within the next 12 months.

Though any “gratitude effect” — that feeling of relief at merely having a job, any job, during the worst recession in modern memory — was understandable, a slight decline in employee job satisfaction after years of economic stagnation is probably also to be expected. Over the past four years, many employees have weathered layoffs, ever-rising expectations of productivity and the need to do more with less, along with little to no wage growth even as other living costs are rising. A lack of progress in career movement has also frustrated employees — younger employees in particular — and it may be among the reasons older workers tend to report the highest levels of job satisfaction.

To a large extent, the overall trend toward a decline in satisfaction across industries is likely due to forces that individual employers may have difficulty controlling.

But this does not mean that organizations cannot positively influence their employees’ job satisfaction. Organizational leaders, not least HR professionals, have a huge influence on employee job satisfaction. Keeping a close eye on the trends that have the biggest influence on the factors employees say are critical to their job satisfaction is essential for business leaders and HR professionals. Likewise, looking for ways to proactively respond to these outside forces is increasingly necessary to maintaining employees’ satisfaction with life on the job.

Top Job Satisfaction Factors
What do employees today value most? Since the dawn of the recession and even after the recession officially ended, one thing has consistently topped the list: job security. For obvious reasons, the main thing employees want right now from their employer is the stability of a secure job and regular paycheck.

External Forces Influencing Satisfaction
It is not difficult to trace many of the top employee job satisfaction factors back to broader forces and trends, especially in the economy. Employees no doubt value job security — the number one factor — because of the continuing weakness of the labor market. The opportunity to use their skills and abilities (the second most important aspect) can also be viewed as a form of job security because it enables employees to both show their value to the organization and to develop the skills and competencies that make them more employable should they need to seek work elsewhere. Likewise, their organization’s financial stability and their relationship with their immediate supervisor (tying as the third most important aspect) both largely determine how likely employees will be able to hang on to their jobs. In an economy where long-term unemployment is now widespread, employees’ choices for top job satisfaction factors make a lot of sense. They reflect the desire, above all else, to avoid unemployment.

Along with high unemployment, another broad economic trend that may influence job satisfaction is overall wage growth. Economists have long debated the possible reasons the earnings of middle-income Americans have hardly moved since the mid 1970s. Now, new Census Bureau data released in October 2011 shows that from 2000 to 2010, middle-income Americans’ earnings actually fell. Over this 10-year period, income for middle-income Americans dropped by 7%.

HR professionals have a unique perspective on this trend because they experience first-hand the various pressures within the total compensation package that influence wage growth.

The biggest culprit is, of course, the rising cost of health care benefits. It would make sense that as health care benefits rise, they would put pressure on wage growth; fewer dollars are left over for wage increases when health care costs eat up more of the overall compensation pie. However, some economists argue against jumping to this conclusion and note that wages have stagnated most within the job groups where health care benefits are generally not offered. One possibility is that within some job categories, health care costs are indeed putting pressure on wages, whereas other forces such as globalization and automation are more at play within lower-paying job groups.

Along with the economy, broader social and demographic forces could also influence overall employee job satisfaction. The large Millennial generation is just beginning to enter the U.S. workforce in greater numbers. As a generation, it is much larger than the generation it follows, Generation X, and is even bigger than the Baby Boom generation. One theory is that a growing proportion of younger workers in the workforce could influence overall job satisfaction.

A closer look at the findings reveals that the Millennials are actually trending somewhat higher than Generation X in job satisfaction, and some recent surveys, such as the What’s Working survey from Mercer, show the youngest cohorts of workers among the most satisfied. In past years, younger workers were the least satisfied. The new data on the Millennials may indicate that this could change in the coming years.

Only tracking the results over time will confirm if this is, indeed, the case, or if the Millennials’ job satisfaction will eventually decline as more join the workforce. After all, unlike many of their peers, the Millennials that were surveyed had the good fortune of having secured a job and may consider themselves very lucky compared with many others of their generation who are still struggling to gain a foothold in the job market.

HR’s Contribution
Many external forces that could have a considerable influence on overall employee job satisfaction seem to be at an inflection point — the global economy, the passing of the baton between generations, a rise in global social and political movements or even, in some cases, unrest and confrontation, and the unsustainable cost growth in areas such as health care and higher education. It is both daunting and impossible to try to respond to all of these issues from an employee relations standpoint, especially when change is so rapid.

Nevertheless, HR professionals are finding ways to make a difference in their organizations and to keep employee satisfaction levels high. These efforts focus on HR responding proactively in ways that actually are within the control of the organization, even if the causes of change originate in global trends and forces that are out of their hands. Some examples include HR’s efforts to keep health care costs down through the establishment of wellness programs, investing in training and recruiting efforts that help ensure that managers at all levels are effective and ethical, communicating regularly and transparently with employees, especially about the financial stability of the organization, and finding ways for employees to use and develop their skills and abilities through challenging assignments, training and mentoring programs.

These strategies are constantly evolving as new issues move to the fore. HR professionals are moving with them to find business solutions, add value and make their organizations a great place to work.

Getting it Done

Ever wonder why some people accomplish much, while others don’t? Why some things are done well and others are not?

To get things done, 3 elements come into play: 1) knowledge 2) skills and 3) execution. Knowledge means you know what needs to be done (awareness) and conceptually, how to do it; skills means you know how to do it (know-how, including experience); and execution means you actually do it (what my former boss would refer to as a “doer”). Without all 3, you either won’t get it done or it won’t be done well.  Absent any of the elements and you’ll fall short.

Knowledge and skill can be taught. Where many initiatives fail is in execution—for it requires initiative, energy, engagement and motivation.

In my 25+ years of management consulting, I often hear managers respond to potential solutions to their problems with “well, we already knew that.” If they have the knowledge (awareness) and presumably the skills to do it, then they have fallen short with execution. The reply to their rebuke should be “then why haven’t you done it?” Knowledge and skill are not enough—at some point, you just got to do it.

Making Your Resume Work

Your resume is an employer’s first impression of you. Look good and they’ll invite you in. Look bad and they’ll move on to the next one. It’s that simple.

I recently reviewed the resumes of two recent grads who, like many, have applied to many jobs, but were not getting any interviews.

The first was a communications major who had good grades, a relevant internship and volunteer experience. Her resume, unfortunately was poorly written and formatted, contained typos and capitalization errors, and buried her experience. The second was a law school grad with top grades and several internships. In addition, he started a small, successful construction company, hired and managed a crew, while going to school. He had a great story to tell, but it was not evident in his resume. Neither resume reflected the real potential of these two individuals.

Resumes that go to the top of the pile promote a candidate. They focus on accomplishments over tasks—after all, employers hire people who can get things done. Resumes must look good. If your resume presents poorly, why would an employer want to talk?

A crisp, well written resume is essential for any job search. No matter what an individual has to offer, if it can’t be seen in the resume, an employer will never know about it.

13 Tips To Prevent Sexual Harassment Claims

Presidential contender Herman Cain’s reputation has been permanently soiled by the sexual harassment charges leveled against him. Whether or not he did it, there will always be a question in people’s minds. With two settlements in his past, it’s hard to side step the “where there’s smoke there’s fire” issue. Being accused of sexual harassment never goes away. While anyone can be falsely accused, every individual and organization should take proactive steps to ensure that claims aren’t made against you or your company.

 Here are 13 tips to help protect you:

1.  Don’t do it.
2. Treat everyone respectfully.
3. Be careful when mixing business and socialization—particularly when alcohol is involved.
4. Drop using those so called endearing terms such as “dear” and sweetheart.”
5. Keep your hands off others and your body in your own orbit.
6. Look people in the eyes – just the eyes.
7. Don’t feel the need to share those funny, but a bit “off-color” jokes or stories.
8. Don’t even think about asking out a subordinate for an after work drink or dinner.
9. If  you’ve got a problem in the love department, don’t feel the need to share it; and speaking of sharing, no one wants to hear about your dreams.
10. If you need to hug, think spouse.
11. Clean up your language, particularly your adjectives.
12. No texting or emailing anything that is not work related and as for sexting, are you out of your mind even thinking about it?
13. While at work, work!

Final tip: before you do anything, ask yourself “would I do this in front my mother?” Hopefully, that will keep you out of trouble and keep your reputation intact.