The Carnival of HR: Back to School

This months version of the Carnival of HR is up at the HR Maven. So go take a look to learn about some HR social media use, how to spend HR dollars wisely, how to energize your team inexpensively, owning your career, the best day to fire someone, and more.

Carnival of HR for July 8th

Well darn! The day after I get a top 25 ranking I find out I missed yesterday's Carnival of HR. But you don't have to... here it is at Effortless HR. My good friend Cathy Martin has a great post about employee engagement and my blogger friends Sharlyn Lauby, Dan McCarthy, Wally Bock, and Mike VanDervort also have great posts. So check it out!

Carnival Chaos: 30 HR Blogs

Over at Recruitment 2.0 you will find the Completely Random Carnival of HR. This carnival presents 30 blog posts on a wide variety of subjects including learning, metrics, strategy, swine flu, "the apology crutch" and more. Check it out by clicking the link above.

Getting A "Seat at the Table": One Man's Perspective

“Your place at the table.” How many articles, conversations, blogs, moaning sessions, crying sessions and musings have occurred around this topic? Countless, yet the question continues to be asked. So I figured I would put in my “two cents worth.”

In my mind there are professional characteristics and personal characteristics that enter into this discussion. The professional characteristics include:

• You must be knowledgeable in HR. Yeah I know, obvious. But I mean more than just a cursory knowledge. This means you study. Be it in school (Masters degree), be it in continuing educations (SPHR) or be it on your own (reading books, magazines, websites, blogs.)
  
• You must be knowledgeable in business, both business in general and your industry in particular. This means more education. Understand how your company makes money and what it does with it. Assets, liabilities, debt, income statements, balance sheets and the other language of finance and accounting. Understand operations issues. Supply, demand, inventories, scheduling. You get this two different ways. Read! There should be several industry journals on your reading list. Relationships! Spend time with the finance and ops people.
  
• You must be knowledgeable in the world. This means you pay attention to and understand the impact of globalization, localization, politics, social trends, economic trends, legal trends and more. This means you are an environmental scanner.
  
• You must be knowledgeable in people. This means you are a student of psychology. You understand behavior and the principles of motivation and reward. You know group dynamics and team building.
  
• You must be knowledgeable in strategy and planning. Knowing “stuff” does not do any good if you cannot apply it to the current and future direction of the company.
  
• You MUST be competent and good at what you do. If you can’t keep a file straight or keep track of a new hire why in the hell would I want you at my side advising me, if I were the president of a company.
  
• It helps if you have worked in some other area other than human resources. Sales, operations or finance will all work. That gives you great perspective on the problems departments face on a day to day basis.

The personal characteristics you must have are:

• You have to be smart. Sorry, but it is the truth. There has to be the “horse power” in the cranium. There is a lot of stuff to know and apply and if you don’t have it you won’t make it to the top. You have to be able to see the big picture and read the future and that takes some brains.
  
• You have to be a hard charger. You don’t make it to the Vice Presidential level by coming in late and leaving early. You also don’t gripe about how hard it is. You eat the stuff up. You want more. PASSION!
  
• You have to have some “backbone.” If you are afraid of making decisions you don’t have the “right stuff.”
  
• You have to learn from your errors. Don’t be afraid to admit a mistake, but move on once you have.
  
• You have to have DESIRE. You want to have that VP role then you have to ASK for it. In this case the meek shall NOT inherit the earth.

Ok. That is my take. In my experience I have met few HR professionals that meet this standard. Nothing wrong with that. There are limited jobs at the top and the rest of us will be gainfully employed in some aspect of HR. But if you want to be the “lead dog” then you need to work for it and I hope this helps.

Feel free to leave me your comments, opinions, additions or suggest a deletion.

Divorces and Terminations: Lessons to Be Learned

I was reading an article on divorce (just reading, I am not getting divorced- whew!) and I was amazed how similiar much of this was to terminating an employee. The article was about things you should not do to disrail your divorce. These included:

1. Not paying attention to taxes.
2. Being too generous to win back your spouse.
3. Making agreements outside the settlement papers.
4. Having sex with your ex.
5. Using your child as your messenger.
6. Not keeping a journal.
7. Not being prepared.

(Note: There were some others but they did not fit as well. Hey I said it reminded me, not that there was a 1-to-1 relationship.)

So how do these reflect the termination process you ask?

1. Not paying attention to taxes. Believe it or not there may be actual tax consquences to terminating an employee depending on the level of the employee. Severence agreements that are paid out over time may be considered deferred income and be regulated in public companies by Sarbannes -Oxley. So be aware of these consequences for both you and the employee.


2. Being too generous to win back your spouse. Sometimes when we have a valued employee submit a resignation (divorce) we go overboard and try to throw money at the employee, or offer promotions, or title changes or benefits. Whatever will keep the employee from leaving. The problem with this is it may not be the solution to the problem that caused the employee to leave in the first place. But you have gotten so generous the employee would be a fool not take the money. You may then still have a delayed problem. So investigate why the employee is truly leaving before you throw money at the problem.


3. Making agreements outside the settlement papers. Once you have written a termination don't agree to anything else unless it is in writing.


4. Having sex with your ex. Once an employee is gone, it is best to let them stay gone. Don't contract with them to do work. Don't hire them as consultants or contractors. The IRS doesn't really like that and you will end up with potential tax ramifications and penalites.


5. Using your child as a messenger. Sometimes you don't want ex-employees contacting your employees. In some cases they may be barred by a non-compete from doing that. You certainly don't want to use your employees to pass messages back and forth to the ex. Don't put your current employees in the position of go-between.


6. Not keeping a journal. The mantra of HR is documentation, documentation, documentation. That applies double for terminations. What leads to them, what occurs during and what follows after.


7. Not being prepared. Before you ever sit down with an employee to terminate them have all your "ducks in a row." Know when, why, how, what was said, what needs to be said. Investigate. Nothing is more embarassing than sitting down in a termination supposedly prepared only to find out that it is not the way things went. Be aware of potential biases of supervisors and managers. Be aware of previous history. This is especially important when HR is remote from the worksite and there is no day-t0-day knowledge.

Most divorces go pretty well. But some are very, very messy. (Ask Christie Brinkley's husband.) Terminations are the same way. Most go pretty well, but some are very messy. And most messy ones occur because of mistakes that are made.

Birthdays and Work: Not As Easy As I Thought

Today (July 7th) is my birthday. (No need to send notes, that is not the purpose of this post. Though cash would be good.... Just joking!) Here in our office we wish each other happy birthday, and once a month we have a birthday cake and card for everyone who has a birthday that month. We are a small office, so it doesn't really involve a lot of time or expense. But we consider it important to recognize a day that many people consider important. I have found that with friends and employees that most people like to get a little recognition on that "special day."

However, as I was doing research on birthday celebrations at work I found that there is a wide variety of methods of recognition and some problem areas in recognizing birthdays. Here are some of the ways companies recognize a birthday:

• The employee gets the day off (found in many union contracts)


• The president of the company calls the employee and wishes them happy birthday


• HR sends a card to the employee


• Monthly celebrations for everyone with a birthday that month


• A celebration on the person's actual birthday that is paid for by the company


• The boss or fellow employees take the person to lunch


• The person's name is posted on the intranet, company newsletter, bulletin board, etc.


• The person having the birthday brings their own cake

Here are the problem areas associated with recognizing birthdays at work:

• Some religions don't celebrate birthdays, such as Jehovah's Witnesses


• Some cultures don't recognize birthdays, but do recognize things such as "naming day."


• Some people don't like the attention of a birthday

As I first started to write this I was going to weigh-in on saying that I think it is important to recognize someone on their birthday (and I will continue to do so with people I know) but after reading about it I am not so sure the birthday is the best day to have some "official" recognition. Official recognition should be work related. Recognize someone for their performance.

As a boss it is important to understand the diversity of your employee group. What works as recognition, what doesn't? As an HR department it is also very important to understand that diversity. Are we treading on thin ice with sanctioning official birthday celebrations?

What do you think? Too "politically correct" or a valid concern? What do you do?

Toxic Employees: Some Are Like Atomic Waste and Never Go Away

Toxic employees. We have all had them or have them now. They serve as a constant reminder of our mistakes. Mistakes? What mistakes you ask? Here are the mistakes you have made to get that toxic employee and the reason you still have them. Here is how you got them in the first place:

1. You did not clearly understand what you needed in a new employee.


2. You did not clearly understand your corporate culture.


3. You allowed time pressure to outweigh your common sense.


4. You did a rotten job of interviewing because you did not know what you were looking for.


5. You "sold" in the interview instead of "asking."


6. You got "wowed" by a school, a degree, a title, a company.


7. You did not do your due diligence and do a thorough background check.

Here is why you still have them:

1. When you realized they were "bad news" you did nothing about it, hoping they would get better.


2. You did not measure their performance.


3. You did not document their poor performance.


4. You did not act to stop their "bad mouthing" the boss/other employees/the company/etc.


5. You ran scared because they were (in no particular order): over 40, female, black, asian, hispanic, pregnant, Islamic, Jewish, Baptist, Catholic, diabled, etc.

So to avoid toxic employees avoid hiring them in the first place. If you have one act on doing something right away. Otherwise if they stay they poison everyone. And sometimes even when you do get rid of them they keep coming back and back and back. They threaten lawsuits, they file lawsuits, they harass you and other employees, they "bad mouth" your company, they steal your employees and generally make life miserable for you in anyway they can. They end up costing money, time and energy.

So get some backbone, make good decisions and don't procrastinate. Just a thought. What can you add to this discussion? Other tips or reasons I missed?

The Carnival of HR: Great HR Reading and Easy to Find

The Evil HR Lady has hosted this session of the Carnival of HR. In JUST ONE location you have links to posts on:

• ADA


• E-verify


• Leadership


• Mojo


• A Seat at the table


• 5 Skills for success


• Honest job references


• Competition


• Trust

and much, much more. So shut your door, explain to your boss you are doing research on a problem and read away.

Does HR Bureaucracy Get In Your Way?

I had a discussion with a department head the other day about his frustration with one of his employees and with the lack of help he is getting from HR. His frustration results from an employee who is frequently and consistently late. He is required to be there at 7 am and work until 4 pm. However, he often does not make it until 7:30 or 7:45 or even 8:oo am. Yet he leaves right on time everyday at 4 pm. The department head sat him down and said "you have to be here on time." Guys response was I can't I have children I have to get to school. DH respond he understood, but the employee needed to make other arrangements because the job required he be there on time, otherwise the systems needed by everyone else would not be up and working. So the employee cannot be late anymore or he will have to write him up. The employee says that the DH is making it an unfriendly place to work and goes and complains to HR. DH makes a note for the guys file and sends it to HR. (A note: the employee as been there a long time. The DH is relatively new and was hired to "clean up" the department left by the previous and fired manager.)

HR comes back and says to the DH you cannot put the note in the file. The DH asks why and HR tells him he has not verbally warned the employee. DH responds, duh, what do you think the note was about. HR asks how many times the employee has been late. DH shows them the attendance record of numerous absences. They tell DH he needs to sit down with the employee and ask "What do you think you can do in order to get here on time?" So frustrated DH sits down with the employee and asks the question. The response he gets is "I don't want to get to work on time." BTW, the employee wrote that down on paper and signed it.

DH, very frustrated by this time, takes this signed document to the HR department and says "I want to get rid of this guy." HR asks if there is anyone else that can be assigned to that job or can the hours be changed. The answer to both of these questions is "No." No one else has the training and the company doesn't run correctly if the work does not get started right away. (It is the Department Head who has to take up the slack when the employee doesn't show up.) HR then tells him he cannot terminate the employee, the DH has to put him on a 60 day "get well" program.

The DH leaves, totally frustrated, hating HR because he cannot rid the company of a poor performing employee, who has openly expressed his lack of desire to do the job correctly. The attitude of the DH is that he is being saddled with an employee for life and that he will never be able to fire this employee because HR's bureaucracy is in the way. He has given up, hopes the employee will leave for another reason before he, the DH, leaves out of frustration.

So my question to you is "Do you have a similiar bureaucracy?" Are you the point of frustration? Do you hinder more than help? What would you do to change this situation?

Carnival of HR #35- Making HR Sexy

The new Carnival of HR is posted at Jon Ingram's Strategic Human Capital Management blog. This is an opportunity to quickly connect to the best of HR blogs posted in the last week or so. The posts this time deal with making the field of Human Resources "sexy". (For those of you upset by this analogy sexy=interesting.) So check it out!

NASCAR Sued For Harassment: What a Wreck for HR

The headline screams Former official sues NASCAR over harassment claims. Is anyone in HR surprised by this? A black woman official suffers multiple incidents of both racial and sexual harassment. She complains and then is fired. So now there is retaliation as well. This is going to cost NASCAR big time!

But no one, especially HR folks should be surprised this occurred. The history of sexual harassment is rife with example after example of women taking on roles in traditionally male oriented fields or jobs and being subjected to countless acts of hostile environment harassment. And the history of racial harassment has been the same way, only there it was both disparate treatment and disparte impact.

Given this history, that is over 30 years long, you would think that when NASCAR, a bastion of white males, has a black female (or female of any race) join the fold they would be prepared for situations. You would think HR would be sensitive and would not only head off situations but would certainly respond quickly and vigorously to any complaint. But apparently not because the HR manager is named in the lawsuit. Shame on them. They should never work in HR again!

The lesson to the rest of us, if you have not learned it before now, is that when you are going to mix races and sexes in areas where they are not traditionally mixed you had better be prepared for trouble. Training, response time, investigation, discipline all need to be planned for and instituted as quickly as possible. If you don't you will probably get what you deserve. In my opinion NASCAR is going to take a big hit, one that it definately deserves.

Carinval of HR #34: All the Best HR in One Place

The Carnival of HR #34 has been published on the Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Blog. This is a collection of the BEST in HR blogs, so nose around and get in some good reading.

Pumping Up Your Employees: No Rah-Rah, Just Help With Gas

When you live in a metropolitan area like Atlanta, being in your car is just a way of life. Atlanta has a notorius commute and terrible traffic jams (and it seems people can't stop running into each other slowing things down even more.) In the past not many people really took mass transit or found alternatives to driving themselves to work everyday. However, with the price of gas rising the way it has people are looking at alternatives. The heavy traffic didn't make a difference, but now combine that with a heavy cost and you see people change. So here in Atlanta there has been an increase in ridership on MARTA buses and trains. There has been an increase in the use of van pools, car pooling, and even riding bikes and walking to work has increased. (I saw a guy the other day riding a bike who was so large you know he would not normally ride. But there he was, riding on busy street. I am sure he is hoping for the weight loss benefits that will come with it. I just hope he does not get run over in the process.)

Sometime however, an employee lives in one area and works in another which provide no main arteries, no public transportation nor any opportunity for ride sharing, or they have a job that requires them to drive during the work day. What then? Well there is an article entitled "Companies Help Employees Deal With Fuel Costs" in the May 20th issue of The Wall Street Journal. It talks about how some companies are increasing mileage rates or they are providing some pay supplement to help cover the cost of gas. One company provides an extra $50 in the paycheck. We at Omega HR Solutions did something similar and gave $50 gas cards to our employees who do not have the opportunity to work from home. And we do allow some people to work from home several times a week ( I do.)

Companies are also looking at reconfiguring sales territories. Those of us in sales/customer service that have to visit customers have looked seriously at our territories or combining calls. Some companies have started van pools or take advantage of other commuter resources such as the Commuter Club in Cobb County which helps businesses and individuals find alternative transportation solutions. One company in Phoenix pays 100% of the employee's fuel cost if they wrap their car in company advertizing.

So are you helping employees? Have you gotten creative with it? Tell us by leaving a comment on the blog so we can all learn.

Cornucopia of HR Topics: The Carnival of HR

The Carnival of HR is a collection of recent posts in a wide range of HR related blogs. It is an excellent resource and a quick way to find a current read on current subjects. Check it out at the Career Encouragement Blog of Peggy Andrews. The subjects this go-around include Why HR Stinks, Talent discussions, the softer side of employment law, generational differences, unions, enthusiasm, leadership and much, much more. You are cheating yourself if you do not take advantage of these great reads.

Carnival of HR for April 16th

This week's collection of the best of HR related blogs is published at Compensation Force.

Take a look an read some great articles... we are talking leadership, worklife balance, business acumen, a world without HR, brain exercise and much, much more. No better place to sample some of the best HR reading you can do in such a short period of time.

The Carnival of HR: All The Best Blogs In One Place

Rowan Manahan, creater of Fortify Your Oasis, is hosting the Carnival of HR. This is a collection of articles from all the best HR blogs. If you are looking for an informative read, and a short cut to a large collection of great blogs then click HERE. Coaching, bullying, leadership, compensation, benefits, discrimination, value of women, hiring employees, employees quiting, and looking good. These are just some of the topics you will find in today's carnival. And of course I am featured too...

Enjoy the reading and pick out some favorites you would like to link to and read all the time.

Carnival of HR

Wally Bock is hosting the Carnival of HR at his blog. So click here to read the wit and wisdom of a good size group of HR bloggers on employee relations, compensation, labor, leadership and management and much, much more.

"Yawn": Lack of Sleep and the Benefit of a Power Nap

Like alot of other people in the United States, the Spring change to Daylight Saving Time made me groggier than usual. Plus an early wake up call today, the late onset of daylight and exercise all contributed to me feeling like a nap was necessary. A study just released by the National Sleep Foundation entitled Longer Work Days Leave Americans Nodding Off On the Job: Sleepy Americans Doze Off At Work, In the Car and On Their Spouses, showed that "Prolonged work days that often extend late into the night may cause Americans to fall asleep or feel sleepy at work, drive drowsy and lose interest in sex, according to a new Sleep in America poll released today by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). Spending an average of nearly 4.5 hours each week doing additional work from home on top of a 9.5 hour average workday, Americans are working more and are trying to cope with the resulting daytime sleepiness. In fact, 63 percent state they are very likely to just accept their sleepiness and keep going, while 32 percent are very likely to use caffeinated beverages when they are sleepy during the day and more than half (54%) are at least somewhat likely to use their weekends to try to catch up on sleep." (Click on the title to read the entire study.)

I know alot of people who fall into this catagory. And obviously Starbucks, Caribou and others all count on this in their strategic plans. The only good thing I can see in the statistics stated above is with people losing interest in sex maybe sexual harassment complaints will go down. (Said tongue-in-cheek.)

As a result of airplane travel I have become a big believer in the 20 minute power nap. (That is about the time you get to close your eyes between waiting for take off and the drink cart coming around.) Stress management expert Elizabeth Scott, states that "Studies show that 20 minutes of sleep in the afternoon provides more rest than 20 minutes more sleep in the morning (though the last two hours of morning sleep have special benefits of their own). The body seems to be designed for this, as most people’s bodies naturally become more tired in the afternoon, about 8 hours after we wake up."

Scott points out that there are major problems with sleep deficits, "...a ‘sleep deficit’, ... impairs the following:

• Reaction time
• Judgment
• Vision
• Information processing
• Short-term memory
• Performance
• Motivation
• Vigilance
• Patience

Fatigued people also experience more moodiness, aggressive behaviors, burnout and more stress."

An issue of Men's Journal stressed the benefits of the power nap and said that high performers such as Lance Armstrong and Around the World pilot Steve Fossett are regular power nappers. Not only does it make you more alert and productive but also "..Napping in general benefits heart functioning, hormonal maintenance, and cell repair..."

I have read of several companies that encourage naps. What a great employee relations and productivity tool.

So do yourself a favor and go take a nap. But don't make it too long because then you will just be having to take more work home and staying up later. A "Catch-22" situation. (Some of you may have to Google that.)

Ok, time for my snooze....

Do You Want Happy Employees?

"Everyone wants happy employees, right? Happy employees are productive, inventive, and supportive of all you do."

I saw this stated in an article and it got me to thinking. Do I really want happy employees? Or do I want satisfied employees? Or do I want motivated employees? It all depends I guess on how you define those terms. The article talked about happy employees being well paid, but not paid too much. One could argue that a happy employee would be one who is paid to do whatever they wanted to do. Pay me to surf the Internet all day and I will be happy. But that doesn't do much for the company and soon everyone will be unhappy. No company, no paycheck.

The same thing could be said about the definition of safisfaction. Some may be satisfied to do as little as possible and still get paid for it.

No, I think I want motivated employees. But that needs definition too. I want employees motivated to produce high quality work and contribute to the success of the organization. I motivate them through the use of rewards of compensation, learning, challenge, structure, affiliation, involvement and achievement. If this makes them happy and satisfied all the much better. But I am not willing to just settle for happy or satisfied.

What about you?

Performance Management: George Washington Style

With the celebration of President's Day in the U.S. having been this week I was reading some words of wisdom from George Washington. I thought his words would be, should be as applicable today.

"Be strict in your discipline; that is, to require nothing unreasonable of your officers and men, but see that whatever is required be punctually complied with. Reward and punish every man according to his merit, without partiality or prejudice; hear his complaints; if well founded, redress them; if otherwise, discourage them, in order to prevent frivolous ones. Impress upon the mind of every man, from first to the lowest, the importance of the cause, and what it is they are contending for."

Wouldn't all our organizations be better off if all our managers and leaders operated by these words. Performance management might not be such a big issue.

Just food for thought.