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| Volume 8, Issue 9 |
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In This Issue:
 Building your [HR] power from the inside out
 The HR profession-HR at america's most admired companies
Gas Price Crisis Could Revolutionize U.S. Workplace
 10 ways to help ease employees' pain at the pump
17 questions to determine if workers are fully engaged
9 Secrets to Better, More Cost-Effective Benefits
It's time to revamp the way you calculate turnover
Hand out paychecks in most efficient, legally safe way
 Flight of [your] high performers
 Meeting of minds not mindless meetings
Bet [your resources] small to win big
 SHRM's 2008 benefits survey: Employers adjust benefits in a slow economy
Seven self-insurance myths
 Health: The World's Longevity Secrets
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Building your [HR] power from the inside out
I gave a talk recently at a human resources conference. The topic was "Building Your Personal Power." This is one of my favorite topics and one that resonates with
businesspeople, perhaps because they work in environments where symbols of power are everywhere.
Various measures and trophies, from the size of one's cube to business-class travel privileges to titles, roles, and places on the company's org chart indicate our relative power. But as I told the group, the more important kind of power isn't
associated with org charts or budgets or offices with window views. It's a different kind of power, the kind that we cultivate in ourselves. Over and over again, when chief executives and other leaders are asked about their paths to success, we hear
them say, "I stuck to my convictions, and I spoke my mind at critical moments." The power these leaders developed wasn't conferred on them by a higher-level manager or a board of directors or an awards committee. They created it. [Since my background is in
human resources, HR people are always asking me, " How do I become more influential and gain a seat at the table?" HR leaders tell me "I am well-educated and experienced.
I am as competent as can be. What do I need to do to influence the way this organization functions beyond the dental plan and the new employee orientation?" ...]
Read the article. Back to top
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Special report: The HR profession—HR at america's most admired companies
If you stripped out all the dogs and cafes the culture would remain. People are curious. If you respect their intelligence and explain what you are trying to do, they will be far more engaged and aligned with your
business objectives than they would at any company where you simply tell them what to do."
—Lazlo Bock, vice president of people operations, Google
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People say, 'This stuff works at Google, but not at my company.' disagree. The Google answer is not ... for every company, but there are elements of it at can be used anywhere."
—Lazlo Bock
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The top human resources executive at Google—the fourth-most admired company in the U.S., according to Fortune—deliberately moved into HR from a decisively non-HR
background. And every day, Google reaps the rewards of Laszlo Bock’s thoroughly cross-cultural approach to human resources.
Bock, 35, has a Yale MBA, spent four years at McKinsey & Co. and three at General Electric, and now manages the 16,805 employees who keep Google’s stock price well above the Internet industry threshold of $500 a share. In October, Google broke the
$200 billion mark in market value. In the first quarter of 2008, company revenue jumped 42 percent from the first quarter a year ago. Under Bock’s leadership, Google not only took fourth in Fortune’s list of America’s Most Admired Companies, but also
captured the top spot on its 2007 and 2008 lists of the Best Companies to Work For. That status, however, does not ensure financial success or a companywide reputation that commands the attention of investors and analysts. In fact, the overlap between
Fortune’s lists of most admired companies and best companies to work for is minimal. Creating a great workplace does not automatically translate into business results. Among the 2008 top 20 best companies to work for, only four also claim a spot on the
most admired list, which is a better proxy for business success. Google is the only company that ranks in the top five on both lists. The key is not just a responsive HR organization, but one that feeds business objectives at every juncture...
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Gas Price Crisis Could Revolutionize U.S. Workplace
Soaring gas prices top economic and political agendas, so it’s natural that they also are a topic of conversation at the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference & Exposition in Chicago.
The buzz portends a fundamental change in the U.S. workplace, according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. Challenger overheard some people talking about their pain at the pump while riding in
an elevator at the show. The thrust of the chat: “How are we going to get around this gas situation?” Such worry is more than a transient concern.“The country is coming to terms with permanently higher gas prices,” Challenger says. Employees are hurting, and
companies are responding by offering compressed work schedules, four-day weeks, telecommuting, gas cards and car-pooling. These are more than short-term fixes, Challenger says. They are the beginning of a revolution in the office that will result
in productivity being the central value of work, rather the number of hours logged by employees. They also dovetail with other trends like...
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10 ways to help ease employees' pain at the pump
Nearly a third of HR pros in a recent survey reported knowing at least one employee who quit in the past year because the high price of gas made the commute too expensive.
Some organizations are addressing the driving dilemma—and revving up their retention programs—by pushing telework and shorter workweeks. But other employers take an even more direct approach: paying for employees’ gas...
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17 questions to determine if workers are fully engaged
Don’t think you can pick out disengaged workers from a lineup.
Employees usually check out mentally long before you spot any obvious performance drop-off. Find out whether your employees are fully engaged in their work by asking them these 17 questions. Plus, read seven tips for keeping your staff passionate about their jobs...
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9 Secrets to Better, More Cost-Effective Benefits
Don’t waste your time and money offering benefits no one cares about. Review all your coverages.
Conduct eligibility audits. Those are just some of the tips comp and benefits expert Gary Kushner has for HR pros eager to maximize the value and reduce the costs of the benefits they provide...
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It's time to revamp the way you calculate turnover
There’s a big difference between losing three slugs versus three stars in your department within a month.
Yet, at most organizations, those losses would be calculated the same—as an overall percentage of employees—when figuring turnover rate. The problem: Such a simple metric doesn’t account for performance differences among departing employees...
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Hand out paychecks in most efficient, legally safe way
Putting paychecks (or pay stubs) in employees' hands is a basic HR chore: No glory, but it must be done right.
What's the best way? HR specialists around the country have chimed in. Here are some of their best ideas...
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Flight of [your] high performers
A new survey finds nearly half of U.S. companies' high performers are actively looking for other jobs. Why are they seeking greener pastures and what are employers doing to keep them?
Human resource executives would be wise to keep a closer eye on their company's high-performing employees. Chances are, a good number of them are inching ever closer to the door. According to a recent survey of 16,237 U.S. workers by Marietta,
Ga.-based consultancy Leadership IQ, 47 percent of high performers are actively looking for new jobs, by posting and submitting their resumes and even going to interviews. Compare that to only 18 percent of identified low performers who say they
are looking for new jobs, and 25 percent of middle performers who are actively searching, according to the findings. This prelude to an exodus of valuable employees is a problem facing many companies, regardless of the current state of the economy. To
avoid the problem is to risk watching your best assets walk right out the door and possibly into the arms of the competition. [Some companies are catching onto the dangers of this negligence and are implementing programs to engage these employees
before they burn out or fly the coop, from better identification and communication of their prized status to allowing them to follow their interests and participate in projects outside their immediate job description. At the Midland, Mich., headquarters
of The Dow Chemical Co., the first step toward keeping high performers around is simply making sure they know who they are. "It would be an absolute shame to have [a high performer] leave without ever knowing that" the company viewed that employee as
such, says Steve Robison, Dow's HR director of succession management. To increase communication with, and better facilitate identification of, high-performing
employees, Dow created last year an in-house, proprietary online tool it calls My Profile. The site allows all employees to...]
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Meeting of minds not mindless meetings
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Max McKeown works as a strategic adviser for four of the five most admired companies in the world. Europe's unorthodox answer to Tom Peters, he is also a a well-known speaker on subjects including innovation and competitive advantage. |
Many meetings are not dialogues.
They do not invite contributions. Their style discourages openness. Their structure does little to capture collective and individual opinions. Many brainstorming sessions follow the form but not the function. You have the flip charts, coloured pens, post-it
notes, tea, coffee, and buffet lunch, but where is the collective buzz? Where is the startling exchange of insights? Here's my recipe for spicing up meetings and making them matter...
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Bet [your resources] small to win big
You've seen the big picture, haven't you? The typical big company wants big products. They want big ideas. If they're big shots with big balls then they place big
bets on a big future. No one wants the small project. Or to be the small project manager. Who wants to do that?
The problem with the big bet approach is that you are limited to a small number of guesses. You are forced to choose too early. Judging winners and losers before the race begins. Putting all your eggs in one big basket. Or worse – putting all your
faith in one egg. Most of us accept the common sense notion that risk should be spread. For some reason it is hard for most companies to spread that risk by sharing out the 'risk dollars' between many small projects. Some leaders seem to find it
easier to bet big on their own hunches than to bet on their people. A few years ago, appliance manufacturer Whirlpool decided to make a big bet on innovation by making hundreds of little bets. Instead of investing half a million dollars each on a few
ideas they learned how to take smaller calculated risks. The choice was no longer all or nothing. It was 20 million dollars in 400 bite-size chunks of $25,000. Enough money to test ideas, engage small teams of people and do enough learning to inform future
funding decisions. The little bets now bring in $1 billion a year. Betting big has other, less obvious, disadvantages...
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SHRM's 2008 benefits survey: Employers adjust benefits in a slow economy
Employee benefits remain stable in 2008, even as the economy slowed down, reveals new data released by the Society for Human Resource Management at its 60th Annual Conference in Chicago.
“Rising health care costs, combined with the state of the economy, are causing more employers to adjust health care and financial benefits," said Susan Meisinger, president and CEO of SHRM. "But in return, employers are offering other valuable but
less costly benefits, such as telecommuting, cross-training for non-job-related skills development, and allowing employees to bring children to the office in emergencies," she added. In the survey, which reflects the responses of 996 randomly selected
employers, the HR association found that employers are scaling back on benefits tied to... [While at the same time, they are beefing up on benefits that allow...]
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Seven self-insurance myths
Fifty-five percent of the employers in the United States with more than 200 employees partially or completely self-fund their health plans. Yet despite the prevalence of self-insured plans, there is still misinformation about them.
Myth #1: Self-funding is too risky for small employers. Self-insurance is not widespread among small employers; just 12% of those with 3 to 199 employees self-fund their health plans, according to the 2007 Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of Employer
Health Plans. That's a shame, some experts say."The myth that small businesses should not self-insure may be the biggest one of all," says Carl Mowrey of SMART Business Advisory and Consulting LLC, a benefits and compensation firm. "If you have 750 or
more employees, self-insuring with stop-loss coverage is a slam-dunk, unless there are extenuating issues. However, I've had employers as small as 50 people self-insure. You have to look at your demographics and the health of your workers to determine the
kinds of risks you'll be taking and design a plan that will protect you," he says."The conventional wisdom among agents and brokers is that you need at least 200 employees to self-insure," says Curtis Donley, president of Donley & Company, Inc., a
third-party administrator and plan consulting firm. "I've also heard that self-insuring with fewer than 100 employees is pushing the envelope. We've found just the opposite - self-insuring is an extremely viable alternative for small groups. We
routinely self-fund groups of 25 and up. Self-funding helps small employers gain the flexibility that only the larger employers get in the fully-insured market."Of course, small employers must find a stop-loss insurer that will take on the risk they're
unwilling or unable to assume. That wasn't always easy in the past."In recent years, however, the stop-loss market has opened up to small groups. I know of two that will
go as low as 15 lives," Donley says. Myth #2: Self-funding makes health care costs too unpredictable...
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Health: The World's Longevity Secrets
It may have seemed like good news when federal officials announced last month that U.S. life expectancy had jumped four months and, for the first time, surpassed 78 years.
But forget about 78. What if someone said that you--not some future generation--should be able to live into your 90s in relatively good health?...
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