Achieve Greatness - Each Employee has a Major Impact on the Bottom Line

Today I visited several companies of various sizes in a variety of industries and I would like to tell you that it is not a very bright picture for Strategically-Oriented Human Resource Professionals. The majority of executives continue to have an “accountant” attitude toward business. . .cut costs. . .cut expenses. . .cut people. . .more cuts.

I even heard of one CFO that feels people development is a waste of time and doesn’t have any understanding of the ramifications of almost 65% of his management team is retiring in less than 24 months! Forget succession planning; let’s just go with massive hiring and selection without talent development. Other HR Professionals that I visited today are now back to only performing a variety of administrative duties and no longer have a budget for people development or anything else for that matter. On my next to my last call, I visited with an HR professional whose executive management team anointed her the saver of the company. She was told that they wanted her to be part of the executive leadership team in the development of a new management team that would take the company to the next level. I cannot tell you how much fun it was to sit and listen to her plans and ideas for accomplishing her goal.

Upon arriving home, I became I read on an article titled, "Alignment Drives Employee Engagement and Productivity" available from Taleo Research. It points out that the HR role is key in driving the process and selecting the tools needed to achieve alignment. It also demonstrates that statistically most managers do not see HR as being up to the task. In the majority of companies I visited today, their managers felt that way as well.

The fact of the matter is HR cannot execute the strategy without the commitment of the front line managers. Most HR professionals would also agree that aligning talent to business, providing current job roles and responsibilities, and measuring performance creates an environment where the employee’s passion for the business can grow and drive the overall performance of their company.

Isn’t it time for the executives and cave dwellers to wake up? Numerous studies have proven that goal alignment and engagement improve productivity and company performance. When your employee is engaged, and aligned, each employee can have a major impact on the bottom line of a business.

Engagement improves productivity, creates top performers, and improves employee retention while alignment ties the business strategy to personal goals, improves engagement and promotes achievement. But we must be forward thinkers and align the two; it provides focus and a clear line of sight for all involved while decreasing lost productivity and increases revenue per employee. The impact of all of this lies in productivity and process improvement, risk reduction and organizational impacts.

So what’s left for us to do; train the management and employees to be better goal setters? It is believed that only 15% of all employees really think that their goals will help them achieve great things. An employee achieving great things will impact the bottom line and insure that the company is achieving great things. Your front line managers define the culture for achievement and the employee demonstrates that a results-oriented company will achieve greatness.

HR is Missing a Great Opportunity

Isn’t it about time that HR Managers change the hiring and selection event to a process that can provide a significant return on investment for their company?
Now, the question is what is the best way to start developing a process?

These 5 points will help guide you to a well planned out process.
1. Evaluate each job position and get familiar with the roles and responsibilities associated with the position. Know the skill sets and behaviors that need to be exhibited on a daily basis for someone to exhibit outstanding performance in that position.

2. Select the Assessment instrument or series of instruments that supports your needs. Assessment instruments are not usually a one-size fits all type of product. When selecting, make sure that it is appropriate for the company’s needs and will produce the necessary ROI.

3. Develop a process that provides consistency in application, scoring,
utilization, monitoring, and results.

4. Develop the metrics that “matters most” to the organization and provides the desired results

5. Learn to evaluate the results and outcomes and use the data to drive improvements in the process and the ROI.

One of the greatest challenges for all HR professionals is to create a partnership with the CEO that drives productivity and performance to align HR with the business strategy. The implementation of a cost-effective hiring and selection process that can also contribute dramatically to the bottom line might just be the best way to enhance that relationship.
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Leadership Newsletter (April Issue) by Innovative Leadership
Richard Hohmann is a management consultant who focuses on people development and organizational effectiveness using consultation, training and development including the use of assessment instruments, and coaching. He is a partner of Innovative Leadership of the Delaware Valley, LLC. More information and contact information can be found at www.ILDV.org.

Chewing Gum and Band-aids

I just received the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey’s Board Council’s on Responsible Government Report – Phase III – Meeting the Challenge: Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Adopting Best Practices”. The publication pointed out the differences between the Private Sector Practices and that of State Government followed by recommendations to the State for improvement by implementing these best practices.

This publication focused on the following: Job Classification Systems, Hiring Practices, Employee Assessment & Pay for Job Performance, Professional Development, Disciplinary policies, Human Resources and Personnel Management.

This is not a political commentary but when hasn’t the private sector had to focus on hiring and selection, retention, performance management and people development. What I questions, is, “How many companies in the Private Sector do anything more than acknowledge the need or focus on the concern?" Most companies today are aware of the employment statistics facing us today and many have moved on to the planning stage and have started to develop Succession Plans, Behavioral Interviewing Scorecard, utilization of an Assessment Process, implementing some type of “three strike rule”, retention of Key Employees or Top Producers, and a Career Management program.

I still would bet that those same companies have not implemented formalized plans or more importantly, designed processes to compliment the needs and focus of the company. Band-aids and chewing gum are being used to cover the gaps created by the “good to great” employees that are bailing something better or we are doing everything in our power to keep the baby boomers from jumping ship. I really feel that this “quick fix” mentality will not hold for long.

We are loosing a talented management pool that we are not training and developing at a speed equal to that of the exodus from the workforce by the baby boomers. We will find ourselves with a inexperienced, non-communicative, non-inspirational management team that can only lead by example because they will not have the skills to move the workforce upward and onward. They will have to be task-masters to gain the knowledge that the exiting management team declined to share.

There is only one Best Practice out there that satisfies the needs of any company in the areas of productivity, performance, and passion. It can eliminate the worry about employee engagement or motivation and it can provide the foundation for performance management. The Best Practice that needs to be embellished by both the private and public sector is to spend the time and money on your middle management. In simplest of terms, train the immediate supervisor because he or she is the one that is going to make the difference in hiring and selection, personnel development, performance management, positive discipline, and more.

The ROI for the training and development of your management team will easily be satisfied when you look at turnover, key employee retention, knowledge sharing, cross training, and behavior in the workplace.

Talent Management Means Competent Leadership

Talent Management is an entity that has been slowly evolving within many corporations. Most corporations list the following practices as part of their overall program:

• High potential employee development
• Leadership Development
• Professional Development
• Succession Planning
• Career Planning
• Learning and Training
• Performance Management
• Competency Management
• Retention
• Employee Engagement

Talent Management should concern itself with competencies. Companies should focus on the competencies that make a difference today and will continue to make a difference tomorrow. It means fitting the “right person” to the “right job” and then measuring their impact on the company’s strategy or goals.

In simplest of terms, Talent Management is people development associated with organizational effectiveness. Most companies do not have a clue about what Talent Management means to them and what competencies will provide sustained growth and success. It is important that they focus on their Strategic Development plan now and don’t wait until it is too late. It will be too late when they do not have the people who are able to learn and perform the roles and responsibilities needed for sustained growth. Do we have the people that can respond to the rapidly changing, highly competitive marketplace?

Most companies have not yet assessed the talent within their organization. How can the learning and training components be applied when you don’t know what is needed to develop the people. People are starting to talk about succession planning only because a lot of key people are leaving the workforce for retirement or alternative careers. I joined a pharmaceutical company in the late sixties and within three weeks, the company has decided that I was a “High Potential”….an HP as we called it back then.

A fast track of combined learning and training programs were laid out before me while at the same time, my performance was monitored as if I was under the microscope. It appears that many companies have strayed away from labeling “high potentials” and providing a program to accelerate their careers within the company. Now, I know some companies have accelerated programs and call these designated potential leaders something, like top producers, achievers, or whatever.

It just seems like the same old story. We have been concerned about this problem for many, many years but we have done nothing to provide a fully integrated set of human resource functions that can be called a people development process. We hesitate to assess anyone or anything because it will cause conflict and we can’t have conflict when we need to retain good talent.

Is Talent Management really meeting the needs of most companies? What are we waiting for? The leadership of our companies must step up and focus on a Strategic Development Plan that includes people, processes, and performance. The integration of those three entities often results in employee engagement, motivation, and success.

Human Resources in many companies is defined as the human capital experts. So, when are these so-called experts going to jump up and down and give their leadership team a real assessment of the culture, the people, and the potential to more forward while sustaining growth and reaching goals? It will probably be when all the Talent has left.

The Battle Cry for Employee Engagement

I had read an article written by Chris and Mel Wildermuth, titled the 10 M’s of Employee Engagement (Training and Development, January 2008). The subtitle noted that Workplace Learning and Performance Professionals need to be engagement champions. The article demonstrated 10 M’s of engagement to help create engagement-friendly organizations. It appears that consultants and the management experts have turned this engagement crisis into a movement and should be uttering a battle cry much like “Remember the Alamo”. It seems we are losing the battle of employee engagement and have the American worker is now totally apathetic in their jobs. Also, it appears that we are fighting for our lives to keep engagement strongly entrenched as a core value of any company or organization. It is now our responsibility to make sure that our employees, leaders, and customers are engaged. But wait, hasn’t that been our responsibility for decades?

Whose responsibility is it to do that? Is it the Human Relations or Resources Manager responsibility? OR is it the CEO and the senior executive team that should do that? Like the article noted in the previous paragraph, it starts with an “M” or “MM”, which of course stands for manager or middle manager. The most critical ingredient for employee engagement is the front-line manager. It has been reported that a 5% increase in employee engagement results in a 2.5% increase in growth. In this era of “do more with less”, the employee who freely gives that extra effort if most valued by their manager.

It’s time for HR Professionals to march directly into the C-Suite and state that they need to train and develop their front-line managers and tell them that these people are the most important component of our plan for sustained growth. We must get our managers to connect the dots between strategy, culture, performance, and motivation. These front-line managers are the future leaders of the company and they will make the difference in the future of the company.

We have to allow our front line managers to:

• Be responsible for employee development and talent management


• Be able to challenge the employee’s abilities and teach them the skills to expand their strengths


• Be able to communicate openly providing clarification for the employee


• Be goal-oriented and provide focus on their contribution to the overall success of the organization by coupling the outcome to the strategy

The skills and competencies of the front-line manager will provide the sustained growth and innovation need in this highly competitive marketplace. Communication, forward thinking, prioritization, and other skills must be learned and applied in the workplace by managers if we can expect to improve employee engagement. Employees need a manager who is willing to provide an “open” communication platform that includes feedback in a timely fashion, candid discussion on performance and appropriate behavior, a willingness to clarify expectations and use metrics to measure results, and to include the employee in the awareness and planning stages for the company’s vision.

We have to get away from telling the employee what they have to do, but why the company’s success is so dependent on them performing at the highest level of commitment. Train and motivate the manager, and the employee will be part of the team.

Join us May 19 12-1pm for a Lunch N Learn on Employee Motivation. Registration is free and we provide lunch. More Info.

Confusion in the Ranks

I have read article after article regarding the importance of employee retention. I have also read in a recent survey the American Society of Training and Development that the following are ranked according to how the best companies measure performance; 1) Productivity Improvement, 2) Ability to Retain Essential Employees, 3) Quality of Products and Services, 4) Customer Satisfaction, 5) Employee Satisfaction, 6) Sales and Revenues, 7) Overall Profitability, 8) Cycle Time Reduction or Improvement and 9) Other.

In another article, “The Hidden Talent Retention Strategy” by Michael Laft, which appeared in Training and Development (December 2007 Issue) stated that 75% of managers are unaware of a retention strategy in their office. Appearing in the December 2007 issue of Training and Development, it has been shown that even when companies are making an effort to engage workers or make them happy, the managers are not aware of the company’s actions and this is not being communicated to them.

The number one non-financial reason why workers leave their jobs is an opportunity for advancement, followed closely by work-life balance and more interesting work. This was noted in a survey conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators.

Even though most articles written for the HR circles are telling everyone to align your people with your business strategy, they are not telling the management team of the respective company to do the same. Almost every article on employment is demonstrating that there will be an imminent shortage of executives and that most companies expect competition for talent to intensify. Senior executives have frequently acknowledged their failure to pay attention to these issues and now seem to understand that their retention strategies cannot focus solely on the top performers but all employees. We need to engage workers of all ages, nationalities and genders who want to work for your company and remain there for as long as they can.

The problem is that managers treat talent in a most reactive manner. Managers and companies alike must think of the workforce as a collection of segments that actively create or apply knowledge. Companies need to make sure that performance reflects the workplace expectations of both the worker and the company. Companies need to instill a deep commitment to its employees. A commitment must start at the top and should cascade downward through the ranks. Managers must try to integrate a hiring and retention program with their strategic business plan and communicate this integration to all employees on a daily basis. These employee retention strategies must be incorporated into the culture of the company and be expected in terms of core value or competency.

When we find that talent is being nurtured at all levels of the organization or company, we can be reassured that we have been successful in creating a real retention plan that exhibits the real values of company and its commitment to its people and their values.

Contact Innovative Leadership at your convenience for information on our integrated Hiring and Retention Process that can make a difference in motivating, retaining, and even hiring your next top producer or “star” employee. www.ILDV.org or 609-390-2830.

The Weather Outside is Frightful!

Don’t let this holiday song provide a foundation theme for 2008! You certainly can tell it is winter by the methodology being used by the weather forecasters to panic the local residents into spending hours at the grocery store buying all the necessities for a mid 1950’s blizzard. I sit there listening to them tell me that the potential for the front moving rapidly from the South up the coast colliding with the Arctic air being driven down by a Canadian high located over some Lake near Michigan should produce a tremendous snowstorm that supposedly we have all been waiting for. I wake up the next morning and I find a “dusting” if anything but the result of the forecast is that WAWA has sold more milk and bread compared to previous snow storm announcements (for those not in the Philadelphia market, WAWA is the leading convenience store where you buy milk and bread) We are starting to hear the same thing about a global recession. After conducting their annual S.W.O.T., it has now become part of everyone’s strategic plan to list an economic recession as the major external threat that may affect their business success for the upcoming year. I guess we better get in line at your local WAWA to buy cost reduction measures, recession-proof armor, revenue producing fairy dust, and more. Unfortunately, I can feel the cost-cutting measures starting to unfold as I am writing this article.

There is no question that the economy may more than likely turn “chilly” in the upcoming year and the predictions for the real estate market continue to appear “frigid”. Forecasters are predicting that there is a heightened interest in career development and paying down personal debt. Business leaders have learned in 2007 that employee loyalty is waning as employer commitment begins to weaken. The generational shift in ownership in small businesses and the retirement rush is the corporate environment has begun and will accelerate in 2008. Economic trends are being characterized by shorter job tenures, changing generational values, scarce talent, and a surplus of vacant positions.
Statistically it is well documented that these trends are real. These trends are affecting all levels within an organization and we need to focus on the acquisition of talent, identification and development of leaders within an organization, and the retention of good employees. Survey after survey demonstrates that most businesses believe there is a current shortage of quality leadership talent in the workforce and they measure personality or behavioral styles when identifying future leaders. It is also well documented that most companies have not implemented an adequate leadership development plan and not focused on the emotional intelligence of the future leader.
The real concern for me is that most companies still do not realize that their people offer them the most competitive advantage in any economic climate.
First, it is important that you do not let the business weatherpersons scare you into a cost-cutting frenzy in that areas of business that means the most to your employees. Second, leadership and career development cannot be achieved without an effective training and development process. Not a program, but a process! I ask you to be innovative in the selection of your tools and products for this process and of course, make sure they are cost – effective but most importantly, produce the desired results or behavioral change that your company needs to be more competitive in 2008. Don’t let the forecasters scare you into cutting the processes that will mean the difference for your future.


Innovative Leadership offers training and development for all levels of your employees. Executive Coaching, Manager Training, and even Customer Service. Get more competitive and make a difference with these programs and processes. Contact us to get started today!

Bah Humbug - Talent Management

It has been over ten years since McKinsey & Co. coined the phrase, “War for Talent”. We certainly have had the opportunity to research the subject, develop a plan of action, implement the plan and now reap the rewards of our actions. Wrong! We have said, “Bah humbug” to the program and done nothing.

A new a survey offered these key findings:

• Talent acquisition planning is sorely lacking – less than 18% of the respondents report to have a plan implemented.
• Talent management will have an impact on all levels within every organization.
  Identifying and developing leaders within organizations is as important as attracting new, top-flight talent.
• 71 percent of the respondents list retention as a major challenge for 2008
  Other countries are better prepared than we are in the United States.
  
  These findings are based on the “Talent Shortage Survey” conducted by Equation Research on behalf of Stanton Chase International and Birkman, International during the 3rd quarter of 2007.
  
  Maybe it’s frustration or just the timing of the Holidays, but I have contacted over 1000 HR Professionals and no one appears interested in focusing on the development of a Process that can help their organizations with this talent management concern. Is it reality or perception? Are we just saying that we are willing to let our successors worry about solving that problem?
  
  The winning formula is very simple:
• Engage the top level for attracting and hiring talent from all age groups as a routine and ongoing process
• Make a company wide commitment starting at the top to:
• Attract new talent ahead of the crisis of exits
• Retain valuable talent already in the company
• Rapidly develop processes for recognizing and developing leaders within the organization
• Utilize an assessment instrument(s) to aid in both leadership identification and development coupled with coaching/mentoring programs
  
  Bah! Humbug! Nobody’s listening, if you are listening are you acting on it?

…twas the night before…

Be Careful What You Ask For...

It was noted in a study conducted by International Association of Business Communicators that the top three non-financial reasons why workers leave their jobs are 1) opportunities for advancement, 2) work-life balance, and 3) more interesting work.
Why as a society, do we never get it right until we are hit over the head with a sledge hammer? We just don’t get the fact that the American worker no longer wants to do what management wants them to do. We are trying to teach them that as individuals it is the degree of which you understand self-leadership and your own growth potential predicts how you will foster your own success, as well as the success of others.

We are asking people to continue to search for things that are meaningful to them and things that help them manage themselves. People are trying to find the “right” work environment that compliments their beliefs, values and competencies. Isn’t this what EQ is all about? We basically tell people that if they want to play a vital role in the transformation of others or in the transformation of an organization as a whole, they must lead their own development. We tell them that they need to invest in themselves and to find joy in the journey.

We get them going and yet we are not always sure where they are headed. Human Resources, Management or whoever must be there to help them grow plus make sure their growth develops in conjunction with the growth of the organization. We ask them to find a purpose without giving them a purpose. Succession planning and career development are hot subjects in most HR publications, yet it appears that we have no clue on how to and why we should provide a developmental path of our future leaders. We don’t even communicate well yet alone provide leadership for them as demonstrated by their three non-financial reasons for leaving a job.

The management of companies today has to learn to communicate the real message to the employee. We have to share our business strategies with the employee and make sure we have some inkling of their career desires and if they feel our organization can provide them with the opportunities for success. Did you hear me….communicate the expectation or determine the underlying expectation of the employee? Do we ever ask the employee to tell us what “work-life” balance means to them? I honestly believe that work–life balance is a personal choice and should be left up to the employee not to the manager. It is the role of the manager to make sure if possible that we can satisfy that expectation or at least try to provide some measures that will help the employee reach their goals. How do you define “interesting work”? Did we ask in the interview if they were only interested in doing “interesting work”? We could have eliminated the third reason for leaving by just not hiring them.

Why is the management team of so many companies afraid to ask about the employee’s work expectations? Management certainly wants the employee to know what their expectations are……..it’s called performance management. I really think it is a misnomer….shouldn’t it be management performance? Let’s get with it….let’s try meeting on a one on one basis and defining “real” expectations. Interpersonal responsiveness by management should be the number one non-financial reason for leaving a company. It’s time for management to get out from behind their computers and met the people.

What Do Workers Need?

We are starting to focus on the “bottom of the barrel”. In the majority of companies, we have not integrated our business strategies into the culture of our workforce and are not challenging people to learn the skills that will enable them to lead our company long after the disappearance of the baby boomers.

Globally, we are struggling to acquire the employees we need. The demand for workers in the emerging markets like China is outpacing the supply of talent in those areas. The exodus of the “boomers” in the US coupled with the downsizing that occurred in the last fifteen years has left us with a void in talent that is now needed to fill key management positions.

We have not developed the talent that will provide the skills that we will need to achieve our business goals. Linking talent to strategy is something that we must focus on now, not in the future. Companies must focus on their best employees and make sure we give them what they want. We can no longer afford to spend the majority of our time bringing up the “bottom of the barrel”. The top performers in most companies want opportunities for personal development, feedback and positive discipline, and the ability to work with a mentor/coach in a non-threatening environment.

We have to re-energize the “boomers” to become the best teachers of experience and get the younger workers to become the teachers of technology so that the end product will be a high achieving workforce. We have focus on changing behaviors and learn to measure the change…..isn’t that what Human Resources all about?

Can We Change the Environment?

It was noted in an article I recently read by Scott Flander titled, “When bosses go bad and get rewarded”, which appeared on www.hreonline.com that at a recent Management Meeting in Philadelphia, it was noted that in over 45% of the cases, employees noted that offensive bosses got promoted instead of “canned”. In over 19% of the cases, nothing happened to the incompetent boss. I chuckled hilariously when it was noted by John Hoover, author of How to Work for an Idiot: Survive and Thrive Without Killing Your Boss, that “the more incompetent someone is, the faster their career takes off”.

My theory is when we have a glutton of bad managers; we certainly have a great number of bad interviewers. In other words, we already have a glutton of bad managers who do not have the skills to change the culture. I honestly feel that companies need to focus on their interviewing process first, and then try to develop their management team second. I find that very few companies are using assessment tools in either the hiring and selection process or their people development process. I hear comments like, the boss does not like assessments, or we can’t open ourselves up to potential employee relations liability. I also find that they don’t have an interviewing process in place and most interviews for key positions are “winged”. I also hear that the company does not have a succession plan or even a pathway for employee development. No one, including anyone on the senior management team or in HR is focused on anything but the “bottom line”. Who cares about our people, are we profitable? No one is defining the metrics needed to improve the situation so what else can we expect but “bad managers”.

Suddenly a “red” light goes off and HR or Management now realizes that their managers really are not exhibiting the skills and competencies needed to take their company to the next level. The good people are leaving and the retention of talent is becoming a real concern……

So I ask, why are not we pulling out all the stops in talent acquisition and retention….or is it that we just want to wait until we get enough bad managers to warrant the need for training……

I think that if we look at talent acquisition and retention as a process and implement training from their orientation period, we might find ourselves focusing on the real leaders of the future.