News & Views

March 23, 2011 from CFO.com – “The U.S. economy has undergone a massive shift over the past several decades as value creation has migrated from manufacturing to services…To win in this environment, companies need to change their thinking. The ability to efficiently and effectively leverage people is what separates the winners from the losers…”

180 View – The article is self serving as it was sponsored by WorkDay which provides solutions that could potentially help optimize performance. However there are some interesting points in the article, which is why it was included. I was immediately struck by the graph that showed the percentage of US Workforce Employed in Service Jobs from 1960 to 2009. The chart starts with 65% in 1960 and climbs steeply to over 85% in 2009.

May 1, 2009 from Industrial Distribution – “Robert H. Schuller wrote a book titled “Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do.” Rarely has the title of a book so inspired me.

In tough times, one of the first things to go is your attitude. According to a recent Gallup survey, nearly two-thirds of American workers admit to struggling with stress due to the economy. The American Psychiatric Assn. found that half of all Americans worry about providing for their loved ones in this economy…”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – In this article, Tom Reilly talks about four actions that can be taken to not only ‘weather the storm’ during these difficult times, but to even prosper from opportunities that exist in this struggling economy.

Tom talks a lot about the impact a positive attitude can have on even the most challenging reality. We’ve been taught that with the right attitude we can ‘make lemonade out of all lemons’. And we’ve all heard that ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’.

But how do we overcome our fears? Fear of failure? Fear of change? Fear of hurting people’s feelings? After all, as the article points out, ‘tough times demand a great deal from us’.

Our experience tells us that there really is no substitute for positive thinking when the chips are down. And positive thinking starts with the person you are, or perhaps want to be. So, what kind of person are you? Remember, there are only three types of people in this world:

1. Those who make things happen
2. Those who watch things happen
3. Those who say “what happened?”

November 26, 2008 from the Financial Post – “Weathering a prolonged economic downturn will be a challenge for many organizations, human resource experts warn.

A shrinking labour pool means this time around, workplaces are going to have to think twice about laying off staff and instead preserve their bench strength for the future…”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – Remember the famous words in the opening sentence of Charles Dickens’ classic novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”?

Well, it’s getting harder and harder to find something good, let alone best, about these times. And the $64,000 question that’s undoubtedly on every one’s mind these days, manager and employee alike, is: ‘IS MY JOB SECURE?’

This article by Daryl-Lynn Carlson gives some valuable food for thought on how to deal with what some people perceive is the ‘perfect storm coming at us’, and how companies need to understand what their workforce requirements and realities are before implementing what otherwise seems to be ‘the obvious’ course of action – organizational restructuring, layoffs, hiring freezes and a slowing rate of salary increases.

The author quotes one expert who advises employers to develop a business plan to address cost reductions that includes an assessment of competitors, the market and regional demographics. “Now, more than ever, organizations need to look at what they’re trying to do internally, but also what’s happening externally. They may make choices today in order to hit cost reduction targets, but that could have a negative impact on the future because of the job shortage, as those people may not be available in the future.”

Finding the balance between short-term cost cutting and long-term positioning is never an easy balancing act. But in these unprecedented times, caution is well advised before one acts on what appears to be ‘the obvious’. In some respects, the difficult time ahead may be amongst the ‘best of times’ to get the corporate house in order.

If your employees will have free time during the economic downturn that is upon us and not going away any time soon, then consider capitalizing on this rare opportunity to upgrade the skills of your workforce, retool the enterprise with new software and re-engineer your business processes. Doing so will equip your company to both weather the current storm and to seize the opportunities that await those that will be ready when the current storm subsides and is replaced once again by calm seas under a sunny sky.

September 11, 2008 from Canadian Business – “As a business owner or manager, you know how tough it is these days to recruit the right people and keep them happy so they’ll stick around. The war for talent rages on, even if a bit less intensively in the past few months due to the slowing economy…”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – In this article, the author shares with us the five most common hiring mistakes made by companies. According to his experience as a human resource strategist and recruiter, these mistakes are made repeatedly, and they can be somewhat easily avoided.
The article points out that the five most hiring mistakes made are:
• Human resource strategy is lacking
• A poor ‘candidate experience’ is offered
• The hiring process begins when there is a vacancy
• The interviewer fails to create some ‘buzz’
• Managers aren’t properly taught how to hire
Gagne then gives us some practical advice on how to avoid making each of these five mistakes. So if you find yourself making the same hiring mistakes over and over again, this article is a must read for you.

As I stated in the past two issues of 180 Systems’ News & Views, it never ceases to amaze me how much money companies invest in inventory, plant and equipment, and technology, yet how little they invest in human resource management, especially in the hiring process.

August 27, 2008 from PC World – “As a topic, time management is about as exciting as watching flies buzz around a no-pest strip. But would you be interested in learning about time management from someone with only months to live?

The time management expert in this case was Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon who passed away on July 25 at age 47 from pancreatic cancer. Along with his now-famous “last lecture” about achieving your childhood dreams, Pausch also delivered a lively, inspiring speech on time management to the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science in November 2007. You can watch a video of the lecture or read the transcript.”

180 View – Randy was as funny as he was wise and inspiring. We recommend you watch at least one of his videos.

January 2008 from The McKinsey Quarterly – “Companies like to promote the idea that employees are their biggest source of competitive advantage. Yet the astonishing reality is that most of them are as unprepared for the challenge of finding, motivating, and retaining capable workers as they were a decade ago…”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – In this article, the authors talk about making talent management throughout the enterprise a strategic priority, and the fact that executives must constantly rethink the way their companies attract, motivate and retain employees. Unfortunately, this challenge is easier stated than met! A global survey conducted by McKinsey in 2006 revealed that business leaders ‘regarded finding talented people as likely to be the single most important managerial preoccupation for the rest of this decade’.

As I stated in the August, 2008 issue of 180 Systems’ News & Views, it never ceases to amaze me how much money companies invest in inventory, plant and equipment, and technology, yet how little they invest in human resource management, especially in the hiring process. From what I’ve observed in the field, those making hiring decisions often knowingly hire ‘B’ and ‘C’ players due to short-term constraints, such as lack of time and insufficient budget to name but a few.

Of course, not every hire will always be an ‘A’ player. That’s why, as this article points out, it is so important to pay appropriate attention to the ‘B’ and ‘C’ players in the company:
“Companies must therefore address the needs of talent at all levels of the organization. Unsung segments—frontline staff, technical specialists, even the indirect workforce, such as people who work for suppliers, contractors, and joint-venture partners—are often as critical to overall success as ‘A’ players. Experience suggests that an exclusive focus on top players can damage the morale of the rest of the organization and, as a result, overall performance.”

So, if you are truly committed to attracting, motivating and retaining the talent your company requires in order to operate with more control, less stress and greater efficiency, my advice to you is simple – STOP TALKING ABOUT IT AND START DOING IT!

Make sure that talent management is a strategic initiative that is embedded throughout the organization’s human resource practices, and then commit the energy and dollars to turn this cornerstone of the strategic plan into reality. I promise that everyone will come out a winner, and shareholders and employees alike will wish that you had done it sooner!

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – In this article, author Sherry Fox talks about ‘talent management’, the process of attracting, hiring and retaining highly skilled employees for your business.

While the term talent management may be new to you, the problem it addresses is surely not. In fact, as the article points out, a 2007 survey of 500 executives of small and medium-sized companies revealed that talent management is their greatest business concern after revenue.

And from where I sit, it should be. As the article states, “And whether companies are willing to admit it, at the end of the day, it’s their people that are going to make the difference to their bottom line”.

It never ceases to amaze me how much money companies invest in inventory, plant and equipment, and technology, yet how little they invest in human resource management. Over the years, I’ve heard more than one entrepreneur tell me “why should I spend money training my employees on this new software when eventually they’re going to quit and go work for my competitor?” And then they wonder why they don’t see the benefits they expected, and should have gotten, from their new computer system!

A word of caution-some of what this article talks about, like an ITM solution, may be overkill for some companies. But there is plenty of good advice in this article that should be heeded by companies of all types and sizes – for example “companies that tolerate employees who continually underperform-especially in the area of management-can pay the highest price of all”.
And the last paragraph of the article that talks about your “star performers” couldn’t be truer –“letting them walk out the door is like shooting yourself in the corporate foot”.

May 2, 2008 from an article by Robert McGarvey published on internet.com – “Keeping key employees really comes down to finding out who they are and what they like. And it’s more important than ever.”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – If you are Canadian, you undoubtedly have heard of the giant steel maker Dofasco. Why if you’re Canadian-because Dofasco always ends their radio and newspaper ads with the byline “Our product is steel. Our strength is people”.
I must say that this catchy phrase has always stuck with me, and in part is responsible for Human Resource Management being one of the areas of specialty in my consulting practice. And the more I advise companies on how to attract, manage and retain great people, the more I realize that for the most part, HR management is all about doing the simple stuff.

In fact, the two bestsellers of all time are my guiding lights on HR management. The Bible tells us to ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. And Dale Carnegie’s 1936 book called “How to Win Friends and Influence People” tells us to ‘Put yourself in the other guy’s shoes and ask yourself what’s in it for him’.

In this practical, down-to-earth article, Robert McGarvey says us that ‘the secret to retaining your best employees starts with knowing who they are’. HR expert Beverley Kaye suggests that we get to know them by proactively doing a ‘stay’ interview instead of reactively doing an ‘exit’ interview. She suggests that ‘when stay interviews are part of the culture-and this a practice in very few companies-attrition of the people you don’t want to lose plummets’.

So what do you ask in a stay interview? The simple stuff. Ask your employees simple questions, like ‘what can we do to keep you?’ Ask them what they like and don’t like about the company and their job. And be honest with them. ‘If the employee asks for things you cannot deliver, be direct in acknowledging it but also indicate what you can do. Know too that that just by talking to employees in this way you are scoring points because it’s something that just does not happen in most companies’.

At the end of the day, human resource management comes down to this – you either believe, like Dofasco, that one of the greatest strengths of your company is the people you employ. Or you don’t!

If you are a believer, then continuously do the simple stuff. Show your valued employees that you care about them. Treat them with respect. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. And above all, make it easy for them to tell you how they feel, and listen to them with an open mind.

And if you are not a believer, then…good luck to you!

April, 2007 from the McKinsey Quarterly – “By our reckoning, nearly 40 percent of leading US industrial companies toppled from the first quartile in their sectors during the 2000–01 recession, and a third of leading US banks met the same fate. At the same time, 15 percent of companies that had not been industry leaders prior to the last recession vaulted into those positions during it…”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – I’d like to preface my thoughts by making one thing perfectly clear – I’m not knocking economists! I for one fully understand that nobody’s crystal ball provides 20/20 vision.

But are you as confused as I am when you read the newspaper these days? One well-respected economist says the cost of oil could hit $200 a barrel by year-end; another says oil is going to drop back to $90 from its current level of about $115. The prime rate has been cut twice over recent months, but now the word on the street is that rates may rise in the not-too-distant future. Oh well, like Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson aptly said “Economists have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions”.

While economists may not agree on everything, they all seem pretty convinced of this-tough times lie ahead! Some feel the United States is in a recession now, some say a recession is coming, and some don’t believe the timing of the next recession is imminent. But the ‘R’ word aside, an economic downturn in the short-term seems to be a given to all pundits.
So what do corporate managers do now? Simply take a ‘weather the storm’ attitude? If history repeats itself, as it always seems to, fruitful opportunities await those who are willing and able to ‘seize the moment’ when the opportunities surface on the rocky road that lies ahead.

So what can a manager do today in order to exploit these opportunities down the road? This article, published a little over a year ago, reported on the study of the performance of some 1300 U.S. companies before, during and after the recession of 2000-01.

In short, the research clearly showed that three kinds of corporate flexibility can significantly help managers embrace opportunities that emerge during a recession. And insofar as human resource management prior to an economic downturn is concerned, gains in employee productivity today will go a long way to increasing a company’s flexibility when times get tough.

We all know the old saying ‘timing is everything’. Well, now may be the best time of all to seek out productivity improvements in your work force. Equip your workers with the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently. Run ‘lean and mean’ by re-engineering your business processes to cut out the fat. And as this article concludes, ask yourself today if you are ‘building the financial, operating and product flexibility to make the most of the next downturn’.

March 10, 2008 from bMighty.com – “Of course a great idea, a solid business plan, and careful spending are important ingredients in a successful company. But as an incendiary blog posting (unwittingly) revealed — and what all smaller businesses need to always remember — is that great employees are what make it all work. Make sure they want to stick around.”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – In this thought-provoking article, Naomi Grossman writes about the responses received to a blog posting by Mahalo CEO and internet entrepreneur, Jason Calacanis, who had provided ’17 tips to save money while running a startup’.

One of Calacanis’ tips was to “Fire people who are not workaholics”. Needless to say, most of the nearly 200 people who responded to this suggestion were quite irate at Calacanis and his perceived ‘scrooge’ approach to human resource management.

One blogger went so far as to give five reasons why one should fire-the-workaholics, and added: “If your start-up can only succeed by being a sweatshop, your idea is simply not good enough. Go back to the drawing board and come up with something better that can be implemented by whole people, not cogs”.

Allen Stern at CenterNetworks wrote: “In all of my years of management, the best thing I ever did was give my teams more room to breathe. I’d put my hours worked in my career against anyone and I can assure you that I’ve lost a lot of great chances with great people because of putting work first always. Jason should consider it as well if he wants his team to stay on. Short term his strategy works, but won’t in the long run. Burnout comes quick and with all of the current opportunities out there, people will leave when they are burned out. And when they leave, it will be at the worst time.”

Following the hullabaloo of the negative sentiment expressed, can-you-have-a-life-and-work-at-a-startup-companyreeled it in and reconsidered, sorta. In fact, he stated that he really meant to say that employees need to be passionate about their job and the company they work for that, and he suggested that perhaps the headline of his ’17 tips’ article should be changed to”Calacanis fires folks who don’t love their work”.

In my 30+ years in the field, I have often seen managers complain that their employees ‘don’t burn enough midnight oil’. In fact, a number of years ago the owner of a medium–sized distribution business in New York told me that he wanted to fire his Controller since the man went home between 6 and 7pm each day. When I suggested to him that the Accounting department was, to the Controller’s credit, the only well-functioning department in the company, the owner told me that he would prefer a Controller who stayed till 10 pm each night like him even if the work wasn’t done on-time or as well.

Empirical observation has taught me that measuring the hours one works is one of the first and most constantly taken measurements of an employee’s performance. Why? In my opinion, because it’s the fastest and easiest measurement to take. Sure, all things equal, the longer one works, the more one gets done.

But if truth be told, all things are not always equal. Productivity is impacted by many factors that are within the employer’s sphere of control, such as communicating clearly defined and achievable goals, providing the employee with the right tools to get the job done, assigning employees with sufficient skills to perform the task at hand, etc. Of course, there is no substitute for working hard, but one has to be conscious of the line that separates the positive benefits of hard work from burn-out and other negative consequences that often plague chronic workaholics.

By the way, one of my recommendations to the owner of the distribution company was to seek psychological counseling with respect to the anger and resentment he had towards employees who lived a more balanced and productive life than he did. Unfortunately for him, he did not take my advice to heart, and today he is a lonely and bitter individual, albeit a very financially successful entrepreneur. I suppose it all boils down to how one measure’s one’s own success!

January, 2008 from Computerworld, based on a research report in the current Harvard Business Review – “What differentiates the companies you wrote about? They’re part of a shift from command-and-control, rules-based hierarchies to a more open, free-form flexible organization where guidance comes from values and principles supported by templates and IT systems that allow people much more freedom to cross what would have been traditional lines of jobs.”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – In this informative article, Computerworld reporter Kathleen Melymuka interviews Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, whose two year research project set out to discover what’s behind the greatness of companies such as IBM and Proctor & Gamble.

Professor Kanter reveals that what she discovered ‘is simpler and more profound than you might imagine’. For example, she concludes that great companies ‘are very clear about values and principles’. She also discovered that great companies ‘have standardized platforms, templates and processes that give people a common way of doing things’. Finally, she tells us that great companies show their employees respect and give them autonomy in performing their tasks.

Hardly rocket science or mind altering, I’m sure you’ll agree. And if my two cents are worth anything, I can tell you that my observations of corporate greatness over the past 33 years in the field correlate fully with Professor Kanter’s findings.

Need more proof that human resource management is all about the time-proven ‘simple stuff? Then consider this-the two best-sellers of all time are the Holy Bible and Dale Carnegie’s 1936 masterpiece ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’.

The Good Book tells us about God’s Ten Commandments, one of which is ‘Do unto Others as You’d Have Them Do unto You’. Dale Carnegie tells us to ‘Put yourself in the other guy’s shoes, and ask yourself what’s in it for him’.

Empirical observation will undoubtedly show you that an employee’s productivity is inextricably linked to their overall level of contentment in the workplace. Sure, other factors play a significant role too, like organizational structure, tools and processes. But if your employees lack respect and motivation, your company will join the long and never-ending list of ‘me-too’ companies that never achieve greatness.

For a comprehensive study on what makes companies great, you may wish to read Jim Collins’ book entitled ‘Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t’ (Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2001).

May, 2007 from The McKinsey Quarterly, a publication of McKinsey & Company – “Nasty people don’t just make others feel miserable; they create economic problems for their companies….”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – In this article author Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, talks about the importance of avoiding having, and if necessary rooting out, any bullies and jerks in the workplace.

According to Sutton, research shows that these undesirable employees ‘not only hinder recruiting and retention, but also raise levels of client churn, damage reputations, and diminish the confidence of investors’.

In our experience, the most successful companies are those whose culture is built upon a zero-tolerance’ towards abuse or nastiness in the workplace from anyone at anytime. Furthermore, best-of-breed companies we’ve seen are those that extend this ‘no-jerks’ policy to customers, suppliers and anyone else who interacts with its employees.

For as the author points out, and as we’ve seen over and over again, ‘persistent nastiness that is left unchecked can create a culture of contempt infecting everyone it touches’.

December 2007 from PricewaterhouseCoopers – “Organizations operating in today’s world are facing some of the greatest people management challenges in the history of business: the talent crisis, an ageing workforce in the Western world, the rising demands for global worker mobility as well as the organizational and cultural issues emerging from the dramatic pace of change in the past ten years. But how will these changes impact businesses over the next decade, and what other social, economic, environmental and demographic factors will have an impact on the world of work?”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – As we usher in another new year, the eighth in this the third millennium AD, it’s only fitting that we look ahead at the year to come. But perhaps we should be looking much farther out in time when it comes to certain trends that will have far-reaching implications on our daily lives.

In this extremely illuminating 31 page report, international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers reports on the results of a major research study that they conducted in July, 2007. Author Michael Rendell, PwC’s Partner and leader of Human Resource Services at PWC, says that the study was sparked by:
1. The rising profile of people issues on the business agenda
2. The talent crisis
3. An ageing workforce in the western world
4. The increase in global worker mobility
5. The organizational and cultural issues emerging from the dramatic pace of business change in the past decade.

Rendell and his team “wanted to explore how these issues might evolve and how organizations need to adapt to stay successful”. So they interviewed nearly 3000 ‘Millennials” – new graduates from the United States, China and the United Kingdom who represent a generation just joining the workforce – to understand their views and expectations on the future of work.
Based on the data they gathered, the researchers saw several strong themes emerging:
1. BUSINESS MODELS WILL CHANGE DRAMATICALLY-the pace of change in the next decade will be even greater than what we’ve seen up to now.
2. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT WILL PRESENT ONE OF THE GREATEST BUSINESS CHALLENGES-by 2020 the radical change in business models will result in companies facing issues such as the disappearance of the boundary between work and home life.
3. THE ROLE OF H.R. WILL UNDERGO FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE-perceived to be at a crossroads today, it is projected to follow one of three very different paths.

Amongst the things that caught our eye was the researchers’ vision that come 2020, three very different worlds of organizational structure and business models will likely co-exist.
While some of PwC’s findings confirm current views on the future of work, a number of themes are clearly emerging that defy conventional thinking. If you want a ‘heads-up’ and some very valuable insight into this critical area of your business going-forward, you must invest some time to read this eye-opening report.

December, 2007 from Loma Resource – “According to a new research study by Towers Perrin, the people in an organization make the difference. Organizations need engaged employees to prosper, and one of the keys to producing engaged employees is providing learning and development, the study emphasized.

Julie J. Gebauer, managing director of Towers Perrin, said the study confirmed that organizations with engaged employees deliver higher performance and produce better financial results…”

180 View (written by Lawrence Young) – When was the last time you wondered what it takes to attract and retain a stable workforce of highly motivated and productive employees? How often do you feel like you just keep spinning your wheels and wasting money when it comes to human resource management?

In this excellent article, author Ron Clark reports on a major Towers Perrin research study which found that learning and development is one of the key factors in increasing employee engagement, which, in turn, is linked to a company’s financial performance.

The article explains that engaged employees “have an emotional attachment to the organization, their job and their work. They have a rational understanding of the organization’s goals, values and how they contribute. And they have the motivation and willingness to invest discretionary effort to perform better.”

Clark then shares with us the five key insights gleamed from the research study conducted on almost 90,000 employees in 18 countries during the summer of 2007. Insightful indeed!

If you want to rid yourself of the stress that comes from managing people that aren’t ‘turned on’, you’ve got to invest a few minutes and read this article from beginning to end. But remember, the theory is only as good as how well you put it into practice.