Where Have all the Managers Gone?

Ha!  I made it before midnight, my second blog post for the new year!  I almost missed it because I've been bogged down in research. 

You see, I'm working on developing two new management training courses.  The first will be a course on how to talk to employees about career development and progression.  The other will cover how to provide effective ongoing feedback and perform performance appraisals.  Two things that I know are not always "easy" or "comfortable" things to do, but that I simply consider part of a manager's job.

Last week someone told me that the reason I was having such a hard time getting managers to complete their performance appraisals because it was "like going to the dentist."  To which I responded, "yes, but you have to go to the dentist twice a year."  (Apparently, there are a lot of people that aren't taking very good care of their teeth.)  I've worked at many different organizations from military to nonprofit to law firms to government contractors and in all of those places performance appraisals were just a part of life and were done once or twice a year - usually without too much fanfare.  Some were more effective and useful than others, but managers accepted this task as part of their jobs and I think that employees appreciated the feedback.  I know I did. 

However, it occurs to me that most of the managers (if not all) were Baby Boomers.  Those managers taught me how to be a good manager.  My career development mattered to them. Perhaps because they expected to be working with me for awhile.  I wonder in our new world order where employees don't stay with companies for the life of their careers, but tend to look at each new company as a career step, if the number of managers who have great management skills will continue to decline. 

My other theory is that these days everyone wants to be a leader and we talk and talk about training and developing leaders and we forget that people are crying out for good managers.  Great management skills seem to be valued less and less and, well, I think it's quite a shame.

There will be more to come as I continue to develop my seminars.

What are your thoughts?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! As one of my resolutions, I've decided to pay attention to my blog again and to try to post something every day.  So, that's the topic for today...resolutions - specifically as they apply to work.

I had my performance review on 12/31. And yes, that does make one think "New Year, New Job?" But it did help me set some resolutions for myself.  For this year, they are:

• (As stated above) Blog more.
• Get out of the office more and talk to other HR Professionals - especially at companies I admire
• Read more non-fiction.  Plowing through business books is not my idea of fun, but if I treat it like a "job" and something that I have to do, I'm likely to be more successful.
• Quit trying to force initiatives that I believe are important, but that aren't fully supported (waste of time and effort and total source of 2009 frustration).
• Have more fun.  This is actually a tough one for me.  I've been such a hard worker my whole life that I don't know how to goof off very well.  But, I'm going to give it a try!

What are your New Year's resolutions?

Hey, Have you Heard? The Economy Stinks!

It's Friday and thank goodness it is finally sunny out. As of Wednesday, I thought I just might jump off a bridge! (The weather was that depressing here in Alexandria.) However, it looks like the weekend is going to be beautiful, so I'll be just fine.

The economy stinks and everyone is feeling it. We are entering our new Fiscal Year and budget cuts are coming down hard. Not in terms of personnel, thank goodness. But, possibly in how happy we'll be able to keep them. If you've read some of my previous posts, you might be able to tell that we're just a little bit spoiled here.

I think that the real trick, though, is going to be how to convince everyone that we are confident that we are making the right decisions to spend money on certain things. After cutting some benefits, how can we convince them that certain things (like snacks in the office) are necessary to sustain our culture, and that those things don't have a big enough impact on the bottom line to really impact the business anyway?

It has also been hard to convince certain members of the Executive ranks that HR is an area that can be "massaged" quite a bit when it comes to cost. Not everything needs to be so black or white; all or nothing. In fact, anything in HR usually is. So...don't just chop one of my programs, give me the opportunity to see what I can do to modify it to reduce the cost. I have now been allowed to do that - but it was quite the battle.

I'm certain that we're going to come out on the other side of this recession just fine. But, it's going to be a long road ahead. Wish me luck!

Let's Get Down to Business

Well, it has been a turbulent month (or quarter) hasn't it? Your employees are reeling with the recession news. They may be reeling with the things that are happening in their personal lives. You probably are too. I know that even though I truly believe that my company is in a good place, when I come home and watch the news, I get nervous all over again.

All levels of management are reeling with how to deal with the current economic crisis. My challenge to you is to focus on the things that we've always wanted - that we still want.

We still want:

• Engaged employees who are excited to come to work every day.
• Managers who are excited about the propect of where our business can go.
• To be innovative and forward thinking.
• To change people's lives for the better.
• To add value to our organizations.
• Good communication - organization wide.

Therefore, I challenge you to do some encouraging reading, even amidst this current crisis and stay positive. Think about the ways that you can still bring positive actions inside your companies.

I had a meeting with some of our most respected managers today who didn't once mention the economic crisis. We were talking about new management training and we discussed:

• Different ways of motivating employees
• Managing generational differences
• Explaining career paths in a flat organiztion
• Providing effective feedback
• Managing and communicating organizational change
• Preventing and recognizing employee burnout
• Deploying employees according to their strengths
• Coaching and mentoring

I would challenge each of you to stay focused on the things that we want, rather than the things that we don't want. We all know what we don't want, but if you show a positive attitude, I think that we can all realize the things that we do - even in these tough times.

How to Motivate Me

So, another New Year is here and most likely, you've got some new resolutions. One of mine (surprise, surprise) is to tone up and lose some weight. Not any specific number of pounds or inches - just enough so that I like what I see in the mirror. To help me along, The Motley Fool is starting a wellness contest utilizing Shape Up The Nation's contest. The program will last for 12 weeks and teams will compete on hours of exercise, pedometer steps and weight loss. Teams can compete on any of those areas, some combination of two of them or on all three. My team will be doing all three.

So, what does this have to do with the title of this post? You see, I was always one of those straight A students. If I have to perform publicly, I'll tend to do much better. I've decided to be a team Captain...so I hope I can keep my troops motivated!

We've been thinking about other ways to keep people motivated in the workplace and at least in our environment, the answer that seems to keep coming back is "public recognition." Our tech team takes one day a month to focus on innovation. They give small monetary cash prizes for the best results of innovation day, but top management says that some of those prizes have gone unclaimed. Those Fools are much more motivated by the opportunity to present their work in front of the team than by the prizes that they get for doing it.

Has anyone else tried the Shape Up The Nation program? How were your results?

Is anyone else doing a form of "Innovation Day"? If so, how often? Is it company-wide or only certain groups?

Tag I'm it!

I'm pretty sure that this is akin to those chain emails, but okay, I'll play along. This seems kind of fun.

I was tagged by Breanne Potter at MBTI and found out that she and I have A LOT in common! Like owning more pajama pants than work clothes and becoming completely addicted to Sims. Breanne, I might even be able to one-up you there! I used to play Sims on the PS2 and online AT THE SAME TIME getting about 2 hours of sleep a night. It lasted about a month until my husband said that for the sake of our marriage, he was intervening. And, I love uncommongoods.com.

So anyway, here are the "tagging rules."

Here it goes...I must:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
  
• Share 7 facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
  
• Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Facts about me:

1. I've eaten turkey sandwiches twice a day since Thanksgiving. I stayed home by myself (don't feel bad, I wanted it that way) but cooked a turkey anyway just so I could eat turkey sandwiches for a week.
2. I'm 38 years old and can still do a perfect Cartwheel.
3. I can pick out a good wine about 98% of the time.
4. I was a Structural Aircraft Mechanic in the Navy from 1993 - 1997.
5. My new favorite song is "All Summer Long" by Kid Rock.
   
6. I've rather recently become a really good cook (not sure how that happened).
7. Facebook is my new addiction.

I'm tagging:

Dan Schwabel at Personal Branding Blog
Lisa Rosendahl at HR Thoughts
Sharlyn Lauby at HR Bartender
Maren Hogan at Marenated
Alexandra Levit at her Water Cooler Wisdom
Laurie Ruettimann at Punk Rock HR
Ryan at Concrete HR

Helping Employees through Difficult Financial Times

I've been thinking about different ways that we might be able to help our employees through these difficult financial times. Even if your employees' jobs are secure, it could be that their spouse has been laid off or is worried about being laid off.

I found out about Angel Food Ministries this weekend which has become a Godsend to my sister and her family. They buy food in bulk so they can get it at incredible prices and pass that savings onto you. The food is distributed at churches nationwide. There is no low-income requirement to use it; anyone can.

So, if you know anyone who wants to save some money on groceries, I highly encourage them to check this out. What are some of the ways that you are helping ease your employees' financial worries?

Is the Economy Keeping Folks at their Desks?

Myself and my team had a chat today about employee participation in company fun. You see, we are a very fun oriented organization and we like to do a lot of events, happy hours, games during the workday, etc. but participation seems to be declining lately.

Where is everyone? Are they concerned about having fun in today's economic environment?

Any ideas? Have any of you had similar experiences in your organizations since the economy tanked?

Unions have had their time

I'm interested in seeing what other HR professionals have to say about this title. I think that it should spark some controversy (and controversy is almost always good).

Although I don't live in Michigan anymore, the rest of my family does. My professional HR career started here in Northern, VA where I had to take a lot of Union Relations classes to get my graduate degree in HR, but I've never actually had to deal with Union Relations personally - other than through my former spouse who was an Air Traffic Controller.

Personally, I think that unions have run their course and are no longer good for the country. In my very humble opinion, I think that they had their place before the DOL and the FLSA, FMLA, ADA, Workers' Compensation and a myriad of other government regulations on how employers must treat their employees came into being.

I applaud the unions for representing the employees during those times. However, I think that now they tend to lend themselves to abuses of the systems put in place to protect workers and are destroying the very industries (and therefore workers) that they were designed to protect. So many companies and industries are now restricted by union contracts that they can no longer be competitive.

If you look at similar non-unionized workforces (Toyota for example), they tend to be more engaged ( which has a direct impact on productivity) than unionized workforces. Although I'm not going to take the time here to post the several studies that I've read on this...I do know that from listening to my unionized family members, that they are definitely disengaged and are are just doing what they can to skirt a system that doesn't work for their "true" workforce (meaning 'those that actually want to work') anymore.

I'd love to hear more commentary on this. I'm sure it could be a heated discussion. Please post your opinions!

Long Distance Relationships

I now find myself in the dreaded long distance relationship. My boyfriend has been moved from the D.C. area to CA by his company for an unspecified period of time. And, since he's here on an H1-B Visa working for an Indian based company, his probability of staying in the U.S. is uncertain. I recently found out that a few other co-workers are also in long distance relationships and if we want employees to stay with our company, perhaps there are things we can do to make this hard situation a little easier.

At The Motley Fool, our vacation policy is pretty liberal, as long as you get your job done. But, that can be tough from afar, especially if you are Sr. Management.

So, does anyone else have any ideas about how to make these situations easier for employees? The fact is, that as the working world becomes more global that this is a trend that we will continue to see in increasing numbers.

A good side for employers is that when people are in their "home base" other activities are probably reduced leaving more time for work. But, these same employees are probably going to want to travel more frequently to see loved ones. How do we make this easier on them so that they aren't tempted to "jump ship" and move?

Any thoughts? Please share them by posting a comment!

11:11 - Make a Wish

I just looked at the clock and it's 11:11 pm Est., the time I've been told to "Make a Wish", so I'm putting my wish out here. I wish that we could find a new name for our Human Resources Department.

I kind of like "Human Resources", it seems to embody everything that we do. I think it has come a long way from "Personnel", but maybe there's something missing?

I met with our department today to brainstorm this idea that I've blogged about before. We came up with a couple of names that we'd settle for, but found nothing that we were in "love" with. It's hard to come up with a name for a group of people that are selfless, smart, knowlegable, people people, thoughtful, caring, mom (or dad) like, and basically held responsible for the happiness, caring and development of the entire employee (and potential employee) population!

At Disney, they're called "Casting, " but that doesn't really fit our online media environment and we don't want to leave out the people that aren't our named newsletter "talent." We have so many talented people in our organization. So what do you think?

End of the Line

Seperations are never easy. Whether voluntary or involuntary, you always walk away asking yourself if there were things that you could have done better. The answer is usually, "yes". We all learn something from these events.

Maybe there was a way we could have saved that "star " employee, maybe there was something more that we could have done to help that struggling employee along, maybe there was something that happened during the actual termination process that could have been handled better, or maybe we've determined that we didn't have our requirements defined as well as we could have when we hired the person. But, alas, we are human - we are all in a constant state of learning.

I was just reading a passage from "HR From the Heart" by Libby Sartain and I liked her suggested questions for exit interviews from the section entitled, "The Inevitable End of the Line":

1. "If you had the last three months to live over again, what do you think you would do differently?"
2. "What have you learned that you can take with you to your next job?"
3. "What are you proud of from your time here?"
4. "What goals did you meet?"
5. "What accomplishments will you be able to take with you?"

I like these questions for a couple of reasons. First, they let departing employees know that you view them as valued individuals that did accomplish goals and learn things during their employment with you. Second, it helps them prepare their thoughts for the work that they're going to have to do on their next job search (if they don't already have another opportunity).

I try to remember that as employees depart, what they did for us is in the past; they have their own futures to think about now. We eventually will find someone to fill their shoes - no one is indispensible - we will find a replacement. But, regardless of whether their seperation was voluntary or not, they now have the rest of thier lives and the welfare of themselves and their families to think about. Respecting those concerns is key to being a great HR professional.

We also might want them back someday! Even if a seperation is involuntary, there are times when an individual who was let go, might be a great fit for a new opening. If we treat people right when letting them go...maybe they'd consider coming back for that new, perfect opening.

Consider your database of former employees that weren't a good fit for the job they were placed in at the time. You hired them for a reason; you saw value in them at the time, right? Perhaps they fit in well culturally and were great employees but not for the role that they had at the time. Could they be utilized elsewhere now? If you let them leave the company with their dignity, they may be very open to rejoining the company in a different role at a later point in time - usually with new skills, talents and insights than what they possessed when they left. It would be a shame to lose that talent pool.

My current employer has hired back many people that could not be utilized most effectively when the company was smaller (myself included), but that we've found can add tremendous value as the company grows (I'd like to think that I can include myself in that group too) and I know that a huge part of the reason that I came back is because I was treated like a valued contributor when I left the company the first time. And, I think that the others feel exactly the same.

What are your thoughts on exiting employees, exit interviews, or otherwise related issues?

Pivotal Employees

We do a lot of thinking about the employees that we consider "Rising Stars" within the organization, and I've often wondered if we were missing something. I don't necessarily mean here at The Motley Fool, but at every organization I've ever been. The tendency seems to be to see people doing a great job and then reward them by giving them a promotion. The sad part of the story is that not everyone works out so well in the position that they were promoted to. They would have been better off if they were left to stay and excel in their old positions and most of the time, there's no way to go back.

In the current issue of Human Resources Executive, author Julie Cook Ramirez, talks about a group of employees that are "Pivotal" to the organization. Unlike the so called "Rising Stars" they don't want hefty promotions, they just want to be recognized for their contributions. Two of the organizations highlighted in the article are PricewaterhouseCoopers and Trinity Health who have both recognized this group of people as extremely valuable to the company. They are defined as people that are in positions where having a bad employee in the role could be devastating to the organization.

The article states that at Trinity Health, employees can give their promotions back if they find that they aren't suited for their new positions and, "opportunities to apply their skills in different settings." At PricewaterhouseCoopers, they created a role below the Partner level for individuals who were ready for promotions but, "did not have the inclination or the qualifications for partnership."

Has your organization recognized this group of employees? Are you doing anything special to retain and/or recognize them?

What Makes You Feel Special?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what makes people feel appreciated. Of course, we want our valuable employees to feel like thier work is being recognized and I’ve been to countless seminars on ways to recognize and reward employees. But, I’ve been wondering what really makes the difference. Is it the dollar amount of the gift you give, how personalized the gift is or the fuss you make over the person?

It may be any or all of those things, but more than that, I think it’s your time. When someone else takes time out of their busy schedule to really stop and listen, go out for a meal, go for a walk, etc. When they turn off the TV, put down the newspaper and put their attention on you, it makes you feel recognized and appreciated. Think about how you would feel if your significant other got flowers for you after a fight and when you got home failed to rise from their recliner and take their eyes off the 6:00 news and just pointed to your flowers and said, “there they are.” You'd probably be sadder about the situation than if you hadn't been recognized at all.

I think that sometimes this is the way praise is handed out in the workplace. The employee is given their gift card, plaque, movie tickets, etc. and everyone goes about their business. Your time means much more to an employee than the gift. If you pair the “gift” component with spending some quality time with the person - what an impact! And even better than that, add in timeliness...like recognizing an anniversary on the actual anniversary date (rather than the following week). Make a fuss about it in the morning versus having it feel like an afterthought at the end of the day and then go to lunch! Get out of the office and spend some one-on-one time listening to that employee’s aspirations.

What makes you feel special?

Living Hell, Persecution, Torment, Torture

Do you have a good payroll/HRIS vendor you can recommend?

The words above are the synonyms for "hell" according to Roget's II: The New Thesaurus. And I've been in Paychex hell. There are issues upon issues and now I'm fed up. I haven't heard great things about the other major payroll vendors either so we're not sure where to go.

Basically, what we wanted was an outsourced payroll provider who could also supply us with a simple to use, cost-effective HRIS system. We are a "smaller" company after all. We have no need for a $500,000 solution. So, we went with Paychex for payroll and then they sold us their HROnline solution as an HRIS. We're also doing our FSA and COBRA administration through them. So far:

• They say that they are Vista compatible but suddenly, now that we've switched to Vista, or payroll and HRIS systems are not speaking to each other properly resulting in lost data every time we run payroll.
• COBRA administration can't handle simple requests such as, "We're covering someone's COBRA for them for the first three months, so please don't bill them and tell them that they are cancelled for non-payment." The answer was, sorry, we can't do that.
• It is somehow impossible for anyone, anywhere to generate a simple report of all of our usernames out of the HRIS system (hmmm, the data is in there...should be able to get it out of there).
• When people sign up for FSA, they set up the deductions (since the systems are integrated) however, last year a bunch of the deductions were set up incorrectly. We were told that they couldn't do anything about that - since we're the administrator, we need to check them all and make sure that they are correct.
• We're trying to get a report to generate automatically that can be uploaded to our new Performance Management system on a regular basis and basically, can't get any assistance from them whatsoever. First, our customer service rep said that he could handle it and once he realized that he couldn't, passed us off to someone who won't return a phone call.

Maybe I need more lunchtime meditation?

A New Name for HR?

There's been a lot of blogging lately about renaming HR and making HR sexy. And, we just happen to be running a contest at work right now to change our department's name. It is one of our Founder's hopes and dreams that HR will soon be called something more inspiring.

Seth Godin thinks we should call ourselves "Talent"

Marginally Submersive thinks perhaps it should be "Talent Empowerment"

So far our employees have come up with:
People People
Internal Relations
Talent Team
Employee Care
Central Command
Fools Support
The A-TeamB E T R (Benefits, Employee Training, Recruiting)
Fool's Gold
Human League
Foolies
The Awesome
Fool Power
Fanthropologists
Human Capitalists
Foolish Resources
Cruise Directors
The Mortal Refuge
Indi-Wherewithal (indi = individual)
Fool Joys (Jobs Offering You Sunshine)
Fools R Us
Care Bears
BeneFools
Fool Force/ The Force
Fool Raising Group
Ground Control
Mission Control
The Mother Ship
Starship Enterprise
Fool Central
And many, many, many more

I had a hard time with this at first. I've always considered Human Resources my profession. To me, it's not just the name of a department. My Graduate Degree is in Human Resources Management. It's what I do; it's what I love. Mark Willaman says that it doesn't matter what you call us, that companies who "don't get it" still won't "get it" when we have a new name. But, alas...maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe there is something better out there.

Brett Astor says that, "The truth is that this 'HR' is outdated language - left over from a different age - an age in business when machines were the major resources and people were just there to run the machines. Back then it was 'check your brain at the door' and do as you're told."

So, this seems to be a growing theme out there. That we need some "re-branding." But finding a name that covers everything that we do is so hard! I always that that Human Resources kind of covered it...everything relating to "Humans". Some days I feel like a Guidance Counselor. Some days I feel like Santa Claus. Some days I feel like a Tax Advisor. Some days I feel like strangling the....

Hmmm....I think I'll stop there.

Have a great weekend!

Days I Love My Job

Some days just happen to start out making you feel really good about what you do! This morning, I had the pleasure of sending out this email:

"Good Morning Fools!

Our personal trainer is here today and there are appointments available to work with him. To sign up for a personal training appointment, please use the MASSAGE CALENDAR.

Today’s Massage Calendar is actually the “personal training calendar”. If you are signing up for massage today, please sign up on the door of the relaxation room.

And, don’t forget…there’s Yoga at 4:30 in April Fool’s!"

This email didn't even mention that we also have a "Barking with Fools" club Happy Hour with our dogs at The Hotel Monaco in Old Town, Alexandria this evening!

What a day!!

What Matters Most

Today one of The Motley Fool's writers, Tim Hanson, had an article published about "What [Warren] Buffett is Buying Next" where he cites a paper written by a student who had an opportunity to hear Warren Buffett speak. And, while Mr. Hanson's article was definitely interesting reading from an investment standpoint, I found the notes about this student's major takeways from listening to Mr. Buffett even more interesting. Statements like:

"Do what you love, not for the money, do it because it's in your heart."

"Being an inherent optimist is a key trait to success."

and, my favorite...

"Giving unconditional love is the best thing you can do. When you give it out you get it back 2x, you can’t get rid of it."

There are many more golden nuggets of wisdom listed as well. But, it made me smile that so much of what was written were "life lessons" versus simply investing advice. A common theme was surrounding yourself with people that you like to work with. This is one of the reasons that I decided to end my Consulting business and return to The Motley Fool full time; to be around people that I like to work with every day.

In terms of HR, I think that it's a great recruiting tool and maybe one that isn't utilized enough. Recently, I found out about Zappos' company blog which is a really fun read, and, I would imagine - a huge recruiting tool!

Does your company have a similar blog? Do you know of any other's like Zappos'?

Nifty HR Strategies in the News

Since this blog is supposed to be about Inspired HR ideas, I thought that I'd refer to some of the more creative things I've heard of lately.

My "Talent Scout", Kara Chambers sent me this article yesterday. In it, Author Bill Taylor talks about Zappo's program that actually PAYS new employees to QUIT! Yes, that's right after a week on the job, new customer service representatives are presented with an offer to leave right then for $1,000. The company figures that if they take it, the employee didn't have the loyalty to the company that they need to be exceptional customer service people.

Jobpartners in the UK just launched an internal networking tool called ActiveNetworker that could help with the internal communications question I had in yesterday's blog post. I think that this is essentially an ActiveNetworker press release, but it still sounds like a pretty inspired idea. I like the fact that the social network is completely in-house, so employees can feel free to discuss projects that they're working on and managers and HR can take note of what forums employees are interested in shedding light on what their future career goals might be.

I've learned a lot about the career aspirations of three individuals outside of HR that I mentor at work by meeting with them for lunch every other month. Imagine what I could learn from interacting with individuals from all over the company on a more regular basis in a web 2.0 format where, especially some of the younger employees, feel most comfortable socializing!

What are some inspired ideas that you've heard about?

Internal Communications

Without an internal communication department, how do you get the word out?

I think that we have a pretty good system of seperating the "soft" company-wide emails like, "Hey dude, I'm selling my car," from the more important stuff like, "We're starting a new committee and need volunteers." We have an Intranet, an internal "Reportal" that anyone can access and we do monthly company-wide meetings, but people still feel like they aren't getting all the news.

What methods of communication is your organization using to spread the word? How do you ensure that everything that needs to be communicated is shared?