by D. Kevin Berchelmann | May 28, 2007 | Brazen Leader, Human Resources, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Organizational Effectiveness
So, what does 2007 hold for the human resources community? More of the same (fortunately and unfortunately), and some new things to consider. Using my Kreskin-like powers (age-check…?), my crystal ball, and reading the Earl Grey leaves in the bottom of my Costa Maya coffee cup…
E-Learning will finally take hold. Content is rich, lower lost productivity costs are necessary and reasonable, podcasts and videoblogs make distribution inexpensive.
The war for talent will get worse. Executive talent is in high demand for the fourth consecutive year; companies must continue to add more incentives, including bigger bonuses, to their compensation packages in an effort to lure top talent from competitors and keep key leaders from walking out the door. Developing existing managers, via succession planning and professional growth initiatives, will be crucial.
Increased focus on non-executive staff development. In the face of the growing war for talent all industries, companies are spending more money to develop formalized training programs to ramp up staff more quickly. These programs can also help improve the odds of retaining employees, make companies more attractive to potential recruits, and can help firms get as much productivity as possible from a staff that may not be as large as they would like.
Outsourcing will continue to increase, particulary specific Business Process Outsourcing. Big market, getting bigger. Mid and small markets are underserved (or not served at all) by the big players, yet cost efficiencies are greater there.
Demographic issues will become even more important. Hispanics are our largest minority, immigration non-reform is emotion-laden, boomers are retiring (the workforce is aging), generational issues continue to grow, and work-life balance is becoming more important — all of this in the face of the second prediction above. Medical cost increases will continue at a double-digit clip.
Continued M&A activity will lead to further downsizing/talent shifts, and significant bankruptcies will continue.
Employee productivity must increase. Talent shortages, earnings demands, heavy M&A activity… add to that a growing need for a positive link between pay and performance, a demand for flextime, and idiotic CA laws that potentially mandate additional time off. All point to the need for increasing indiviual employee productivity.
Ethics and social responsibility are replacing “cutthroat” as the official corporate badge of honor. Transparency in dealings, pressure on corporate socialism and philanthropy… ethics are no longer “soft” skills relegated to those who can afford them. They now include CEOs, sales people, and others previously exempt. The world is watching…
HR strategy will become a business unit objective. HR has become too important to be the sole purview of human resources. Strategic-focused HR initiatives — staffing, development, succession, and performance — will become part of general managers’ lexicon. Corporate HR staffs could shrink accordingly, caught between increased strategy ownership in the GM’s office and outsourcing at the transactional levels.
Measurement of all things — including people-focused initiatives — will become a necessity, not simply a differentiator. Someones’ got to explain why we should do this over that, and when I can expect to see a return on my investment of limited capital. Measure or die.
EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW
I interviewed several hundred senior executives — all C-levels, and over 20% were CEOs. In order of significance, their top-5 short-term priorities came in as:
1. Talent management & acquisition.
2. Revenue & earnings enhancement.
3. Performance management, employee productivity.
4. Management/leadership development, performance and motivation.
5. Market pricing, share, and new product/service development.
I don’t offer these things as private or special knowledge of mine; undoubtedly, many of you have arrived at some of these same thinkings. I wanted to put this in writing since that helps me, and maybe offer as help to you as well.
Pay attention to what’s happening around you, your company, the country. It’s not important whether you agree or disagree with my predictions; just arrive at your own thinking by using something other than simple “hope.” As the author said, that’s a lousy business strategy.
Stay alert, focused, and continue to add value.
Happy New Year…!
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Feb 5, 2007 | Brazen Leader, Miscellaneous Business Topics
Penelope Trunk is a freelance writer with a column in the Boston Globe, and calls herself “The Brazen Careerist.” She recently wrote an article that was published on Yahoo!’s personal finance page, entitled Steer Clear of Bad Job-Hunting Advice.
The article lists 8 currently “Bad Rules” for job hunting/hunters, and includes some known HR staples such as resume misspellings, complete disclosure, etc. Then, a littany of comments follow her article, likely many of them from human resources professionals. As Penelope has given me her permission to do so, I’ll list the 8 “Bad Rules” here for convenience:
Bad Rule No. 1: Draw a clear picture of yourself
A résumé is not an autobiography, it’s a marketing document. So the goal is not to tell every single thing about yourself, but rather to get an interview. This is why a résumé should be a tease, not treatise.
Bad Rule No. 2: Don’t be too narrow
If you’re not narrow, then what are you selling? If you want to stand out, you have to stand for something. This is your unique selling proposition…
Bad Rule No. 3: Don’t job-hop
BLS reports that people under 30 switch jobs every 18 months. …who cares about loyalty? You know what it got the baby boomers? Layoffs. Job-hoppers are generally happier in their work. They have more passion for their career because their work changes before it gets boring.
Bad Rule No. 4: Don’t have gaps in your résumé
This is a good piece of advice if you’re going to make work the only thing in your life.
Bad Rule No. 5: Don’t have typos in your résumé
I’m not recommending that you misspell words on purpose, but I am recommending that you chill out about the typos. How can you possibly send out perfect résumés every time?
Bad Rule No. 6: Honesty is most important
Résumés are marketing documents, so write yours that way. Give an employer exactly what they want without saying something false. The bottom line about honesty: Don’t be more forthcoming in your own marketing materials than the marketing manager for Pop-Tarts would be in hers.
Bad Rule No. 7: Clean up your online identity
Stop stressing about the stupid stuff you posted when you were drunk (or worse, not drunk). It’s out of your control.
Bad Rule No. 8: Treat a job hunt like a project and be a project manager
That’s great advice if you look for a job four times in your whole life. But today, job hunting is so frequent that often there’s no downtime — not even while you start a new job.
I share these with you as a warning — agree, disagree as a matter of personal choice. But please, please don’t be the HR professional today who actually makes hiring decisions in this labor-shortage world we live in by excluding otherwise viable candidates for simple transgressions.
A misspelling is poor form, perhaps. But it isn’t the end of the world. Short timeline gaps, common exaggerations that don’t misstate a technical requirement, a short job tenure or two… these should not be forever auto-exclusionary. Consider the entire candidate first. Grill mercilessly, if you must, to ascertain the details you feel could be problematic. But do not simply screen out — at the resume stage — a candidate who seems otherwise qualified.
Just don’t be a total, narrow-minded schmuck who excludes potentially qualified candidates from hiring manager review merely because of a personal quirk. Get past it, get over it, or simply ignore it. Your organziation deserves that from you.
Look to screen in during the resume phase, not out. Start with the biggest possible pool of apparently-qualified candidates before winnowing; you may find out you were about to toss out a keeper…
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Sep 4, 2006 | Brazen Leader, Human Resources, Kevin Berchelmann, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Organizational Effectiveness
Well, not exactly. But close…
So, you feel that your organization’s culture – its core behaviors, mannerisms, decision-making processes and “way things are done” – is a bit less that desired. How do you change it?
The most effective and efficient way to change and guide desired culture and organizational behavior is through compensation. Not just “pay more, they’ll do more,” since most of us have tried that and know it’s a crock. But behavior-driven compensation does work.
So, how do we go about this? Well, it’s easier than you think, though I must warn you: be careful what you wish for, you may just get it. A basic tenet of compensation is “that which is rewarded is repeated.” I’ll say that again: That which is rewarded is repeated. In other words, you don’t get what you want, you get what you compensated for.
So, compensation is certainly the best route to culture maintenance and change, and behavior modification. But make sure what you want is what you are trying to pay for…
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Jun 19, 2006 | Brazen Leader, Kevin Berchelmann, Miscellaneous Business Topics, Organizational Effectiveness
I recently had a senior-level human resources professional ask me for creative ideas to market and showcase the value that the HR team provides. This executive went on to say how he was fortunate enough to work for a company in which HR works in close partnership with Operations. However, he thought they could do a better job of marketing their successes and accomplishments.
This is a great topic for HR folks, so pay attention…
If you’re really serious about it, approach the marketing effort strategically as would any business.
First, determine your market. This is absolutely the most critical step. It’s unlikely that your primary market is a bunch of employees unless you are solely an employee relations and benefits provider. In fact, if you still believe you are there as a simple resource for employees, you probably shouldn’t be reading my blog. You’ll just get frustrated.
Your primary customers may be a dozen executives or a couple hundred managers. Determine who your true customer is, and start there.
Then, as Tom Peters likes to say, “Do something really strange… TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!” Find out how your customers want to be updated, communicated, and sold. They’ll tell you – if you are truly of value to them.
Now, if you want to find out what you should be doing, instead of just after-the-fact publicity, go to the next step in the planning process: Do a gap analysis. Determine where you are today, in relation to what your customer(s) want/expect from you. The delta between the two is the “gap,” or your targets of opportunity. This analysis will require substantial thought and time commitment; you’ll want to discuss, cuss, analyze, cipher, ad nauseum with a variety of key stakeholders within your organization.
Then, develop an action plan around that gap analysis, complete with measurements. Determine what your future will look like, then plan the steps to reach that future. Now, you’ve got your marching orders and marketing fodder — the easy part is “how” to get the word out. Trust me, when general managers see you as a resource for operational success, you won’t need to “market”…
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | May 28, 2006 | Brazen Leader, Human Resources, Kevin Berchelmann, Miscellaneous Business Topics
Well, I’ll tell you “so what.” At least from my way of thinkin’…
First, the year started out as good as it could… Texas walloped USC in the Rose Bowl, as Vince Young demonstrated his “unstoppableness” (my word, you can use it) against a team with two – count ‘em, TWO – Heismann Trophy winners. Methinks that the trophy voters should have reconsidered, as should the Houston Texans in ignoring Vince in their first round draft selection. But that’s another story; you don’t want me to start on that…
The rest of these are not necessarily in chronological order, nor are they in any sort of order of importance or significance. I’m just writing them as they come to me…
The democrats took control of both houses of congress in the November mid-term elections. The pundits are at odds on how much was a referendum against the war in Iraq, and how much was a call for “change” in general. Regardless, it’s significant, and will undoubtedly change the business and socioeconomic landscape in 2007.
Post Katrina efforts – wow, has that been crazy, or what?? One FEMA fraud after the other, tons of rebuilding efforts that have stripped down the supply of construction workers throughout the gulf coast, and likely much of the nation. It has certainly created an incredible demand around Houston for qualified workers. Most of the blaming for Katrina’s effects have subsided, finally, so people can focus more on the efforts necessary to put it back together.
Now, if New Orleans and the state of Louisiana could just marshal some credible leadership…
How about those one-quart airplane baggies? Do you hate them as much as I do?? I don’t know what bothers me more: that I have to put all my newfound miniature liquids in a one-quart zip-lock baggie (that must be zipped shut), or the fact that some rocket scientist really and truly believes this is somehow staving off a terrible incident. Let me get this straight – if I carry a 12-oz plastic bottle in my pocket, the metal detector we go through will never pick it up. But we believe the bad guys will somehow use a one-quart zip-lock bag so we can ensure there’s nothing bad going on?? Hmmm…
Immigration do-nothing. Non-reform. Whatever you want to call it. We have an issue; both sides of the debate acknowledge that we have an issue. Yet our lawmakers (on both sides of the aisle) are incapable of creating any legislative responses to the issue? Even, “we choose to maintain status quo” is an answer. This problem will not get better with age, and it’s here to stay. Big impact for 2007 as well.
Corporate malfeasance. I’d use an easier word, but would have to create a lengthy laundry list to cover all the transgressions this year. Seems we’ve finally put most of Enron to bed. Ken Lay passed away after sentencing, but before appeals, so his convictions have been overturned. Jeff Skilling received 24 years for his part in the demise. Andy Fastow, through some divine intervention, had his hardly noticeable sentence reduced between the time he made the deal and the time he was sentenced.
Then, there’s the stock-options back-dating brouhaha. Many a tens of millions have been cast aside or SEC-scrutinized these last several months, including some of the biggest names in corporate chiefdom.
Of course, there’s my favorite: Patricia Dunn’s corporate spying campaign at H-P. What in the world was she thinking?? Was she thinking? Could anyone really believe that was the right thing to do? Right when we start to think that “nothing can surprise us…” SURPRISE!!
Social networking became a household word. Web 2.0 brought us close, personal encounters via an impersonal internet, through such communities as myspace.com and youtube.com. And lest we think it was altruism or the desire to simply “create and online community,” how about the $1.6B (that’s “BILLION”) paid for youtube by Google, the online printer of American currency, who by the way, has a market cap far surpassing Ford Motor Co. Ford, less fortunately, is trading for less than 8 bucks a share… 8 bucks! They stand to lose about $10B this year (again, that’s BILLION”).
They say “billion” is the new “million,” and I’m believing it.
Of course, 2006 in review must include a look at energy prices. Gasoline soared to well over $3 per gallon in places, before settling comfortably, it seems, around the $2-$2.50 mark, a 30-50% increase from this time last year.
Philanthropy was alive and center-stage. Warren Buffet dusted off an old Berkshire-Hathaway stock certificate and walked it across the way to Bill and Melinda Gates to use appropriately within their charitable foundation. A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money…
And finally, the most significant 2006 event… that one single happening that effects us all so deeply and lastingly. Pluto was demoted. Once a fully-tenured planet, it now has been relegated to some odd dwarf status. I’m guessing all the scientific challenges facing us at the time had all been overcome, hence the available time to spend on something so incredibly significant to humanity and mankind. Ok, I’m cynical… but really, this was vital to the world’s survival and continued existence… how??
Hope your 2007 is starting out great…
