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Six good things that happen to HR pros during recessions
Kris Dunn is vice president of human resources for SourceMedical in Birmingham, Alabama.
[Seriously though, my HR brethren, did you hear the news? Home Depot just threw a fastball at your head, announcing the layoff of more than 1,000 HR professionals. When’s the last time you heard of a triple-digit HR layoff, much less
one that rang up more than a thousand displaced human capitalists? The simple answer is, you haven’t—which should give you pause. There is good news and bad news related to the role of the HR manager/director during an economic slowdown. Let’s get the bad
news out of the way first. If your company has to cut headcount, you’ll more than likely be front and center in delivering the news. That’s a tough spot, and most of us have been there. On the plus side, you likely have the best skill set to handle this
task in a way that treats employees with what they deserve—class and respect. Now, let’s focus on the good news. There’s an opportunity in every crisis, and this one is
no different. You just have to squint to see it. With that in mind, here’s my list of Six Good Things That Happen to HR Pros During Recessions...]
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Culture shift: The ultimate hiring blunder
INCENTIVE online "Culture Shift" columnist Paul Levesque is an author, seminar leader and public speaker with two decades' experience as an international business consultant specializing in the connection between employee motivation
and customer satisfaction. He is a senior consultant with Boston-based Novations Inc., and is also founder and CEO of Customer Focus Breakthroughs Inc.
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Hint: It has nothing to do with hiring candidates with the wrong qualifications or experience.
The Good News:
"We needed someone with solid technical computer skills in this department to sort out all our local network headaches. I was extremely lucky to find a whiz-kid who knows
this stuff inside out. The guy’s technical savvy just blew every other job applicant out of the water."
The Bad News:
"Turns out everybody in the department finds the guy too abrasive and cranky to deal with, so they continue to try and fix their problems themselves. Now I have as many computer problems as I did before, plus one more person on the payroll who basically
does nothing all day." It's the most costly and damaging hiring blunder of all—yet, sad to say, also the most common. It's the "temporary amnesia" that sets in during hiring interviews—when interviewers are so busy making sure each applicant has the
right technical qualifications for the job, managers forget all about checking to see if any of the applicants also have the kind of personality or value system that will
strengthen the organization's culture. [How to interview and hire for cultural alignment...]
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Why does talent walk?
Myra White teaches managing workplace performance and organizational behavior at Harvard University and is a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road: A Harvard Psychologist's
Guide to Becoming a Superstar", a book based on her research into how over 60 well-known people became superstars.
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Retaining talent is a serious concern for organizations. Each time a talented knowledge worker walks out the door, they take valuable expertise and organizational knowledge with them.
In the past this wasn't a concern. People were considered replaceable. Organizational assets consisted of tangible things like the property and equipment that an organization owned. Not any more. Now people, particularly talented ones, are often an
organization's most valuable present and future assets. So why are organizations having so much trouble hanging onto talent? Why do talent become so disillusioned and leave? At the core of the problem is the fact that...
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HR & the slump: The 3 big trends affecting employee relations
Percentage of Americans who said the economic slowdown has led to the following becoming a “serious” problem for their families:
| Problems paying for gas | 44% |
| Problems getting a good-paying job or a raise | 29% |
| Problems paying for health care or insurance | 28% |
| Problems paying rent or mortgage | 19% |
| Problems paying for food | 18% |
| Problems with credit card or other personal debt | 18% |
| Source: Kaiser Family Foundation survey, April 2008 |
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While all economic cycles share certain features, they also have unique effects. What’s different for HR in the 2008 downturn versus the last one?
Here are three distinctive characteristics of the current economic slump that are affecting your employees—and potentially reshaping your HR programs...
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Of MySpace & money: Don't try to muzzle millennials' salary talk
You’d never discuss how much money you make, right? Dude, that attitude is so 20th century!
The 20-somethings you work with eagerly dish about salaries, bonuses and other work topics you might consider taboo. Managers tempted to forbid such talk? Don’t let them! Here's why. Younger employees of the Millennial generation don’t share the reticence
baby boomers and Gen-Xers have about discussing salary, according to a recent New York Times article. Whether bragging on MySpace.com about their raises, swapping negotiating strategies at happy hour or even comparing bonuses in the break room,
young workers aren’t shy about talking about pay. Older staff (read: management) often worry that salary talk hurts morale—and could raise awkward questions about pay equity
and fairness. So it’s understandable that they might want employees to keep a lid on it. That’s a bad idea...
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The best managers are the best listeners
5 bad habits to guard against
To be an effective listener, you must pay keen attention to the speaker. Seems like common sense but, too often, we don’t walk the talk. As managers, it’s important to model this behavior for employees
and teach by example. To check your own effectiveness, take the following listening quiz to make sure you’re not guilty of these bad habits...
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Managers spend a good part of their workday listening to other people. But bear in mind, there’s a big difference between “passive” and “active” listening.
In many cases, managers are too busy thinking about their response rather than listening to the employee’s full statement. In a business setting, this lack of attention can result in costly mistakes, wasted time, poor service and management
failure. By listening fully and in a way that shows understanding and respect for the speaker, you develop a rapport and build trust. That’s the true foundation from which you can manage and influence others. Effective listeners use a four-step process to
ensure understanding: Managers spend much of their workday listening. But too many focus not on what employees are saying, but on what they are going to say in response. That's bad for business. Share this “Memos to Managers” article with your supervisors.
They'll learn four strategies for making sure they really hear what employees say...
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Job description self-audit checklist
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The HR I.Q. Test: June '08 Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz...
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Clear, current job descriptions spell out the performance standards to which you hold every member of your staff.
We've got a 13 question audit guide you can use to thoroughly review all your organization's job descriptions. Download it now!...
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Why some presentations … um-ah … stink
Andy Craig is a presentation coach and owner of Elevator Speech, Inc. His clients include Microsoft, CA (Computer Associates), Deloitte, Humana, Reebok, Ingram Micro, Petrobras
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It was 9:15 a.m. on a typical day of presentation coaching.
My video camera was fixed on a software company executive, and I was sipping Starbuck’s. Forty minutes and more than 300 “um-ah” stammers later, I thought: “Why do so many great executives give such crummy presentations?” Here’s why: presentations in
corporate America are created backwards. Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’re assigned a date for a presentation. To customers, partners, employees, analysts, industry peers, whomever. You follow one of three paths: One, you email your marketing
department for a suitable PowerPoint presentation you can use with this group. After reviewing the slides, you think about how you’re going to talk to each one. Two, you...
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The world's most influential headhunters (updated)
Joseph Daniel McCool is a writer, speaker and advisor on executive recruiting and corporate management succession best practices. He is the author of Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive,
Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, which has been recognized as "one of the 30 best business books of 2008" by Soundview Executive Book Summaries.
You can't get to the top without the headhunters. That's as true for businesses as it is for established and emerging leaders. The world's top headhunters control access to the lion's share of C-suite succession and leader-replacement searches for the world's
largest corporations. Their influence also extends to the top ranks of the most ambitious smaller companies, which understand how crucial top talent is and are willing to pay for it. That's why BusinessWeek has introduced its exclusive database
of the world's most influential headhunters, with comprehensive information on 100 of the top global executive recruiters. So what is it that separates these executive recruiters from the rest?...
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10 reasons Gen Xers are unhappy at work
I'm worried about Generation X and corporations.
As far as I can tell, these two have a tentative relationship at best—and are likely headed for some rocky times ahead. Corporations really need Gen X—folks in their 30's to early 40's, who should begin to serve as our primary corporate leaders over the
next couple years. But I fear many current corporate executives are taking this small and therefore precious group for granted. Why are many X'ers uncomfortable in corporate life?...
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BlackBerry bold: No mere iClone
This is a great time for anyone who hates to be away from e-mail and the Internet for more than a few minutes at a stretch. Apple (AAPL), which last year redefined the mobile experience with the iPhone, seems poised to introduce an improved version.
And market leader Research In Motion (RIMM) has risen to the challenge with the BlackBerry Bold. When the phone launches this summer, it should be a potent weapon in RIM's fight to defend its dominance of the corporate smartphone market. Unlike recent
BlackBerry products such as the super-slim Pearl, the Bold is aimed at the heart of RIM's traditional enterprise market. I had only a brief chance to try it during a
meeting with RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, but what I saw was impressive. The Bold's most striking features are the screen and the keyboard. The screen displays...
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The reason for high oil prices
"One of the things I think is very important to realize is that the growth in the world oil consumption is not that strong." —David Kelly, chief market strategist, J.P. Morgan Funds; The Washington Post, May 4, 2008
"...There is substantial evidence that the large amount of speculation in the current market has significantly increased [oil] prices." —U.S. Senate Staff Report, The Role of Market Speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices, June 27, 2006
On May 13, the price of a barrel of oil briefly hit a record of $126.98 on the New York Mercantile Exchange The reason was ostensibly that Iran was cutting oil production. But there is no gas shortage. So why are prices still going up? In late
April the American Association of Petroleum Geologists held its annual invitation-only dinner in Dallas for, as my source put it, "the bigwigs" of the energy industry. During this meeting, influential and knowledgeable CEOs reached the consensus that
"oil prices will likely soon drop dramatically and the long-term price increases will be in natural gas." Of course, despite the pedigrees of those in attendance, their forming a consensus on the direction of energy prices does not mean that it's written
in stone or is even going to happen. The group is clearly bullish on natural gas. But petroleum keeps getting more expensive. [Why ?...]
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Nine ways to reduce stress
Despite all the long hours and working weekends you've been pulling, you had another rough quarter.
While what you really need is a nice, long break, if you’re an executive, chances are that your workload won't allow it. The rigorous schedule simply comes with the territory.But staring at your computer screen all day and night and eating only what
you have time for will take its toll sooner or later--you're likely to burn out. If the health consequences of a lack of activity and focus on your diet aren't a motivator, consider the impact that general exhaustion might already be having on all
your hard work. [Top Techniques Hummingbird health coaches, who counsel hundreds of executives (mostly based in North America), typically work with clients immediately
following their annual physical exams. Cold, hard numbers, such as high cholesterol and blood-pressure levels, can be hard for business types to ignore...]
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