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Talent Management Articles
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Thinking of Cutting Staff to Save Cash? There are better alternatives.
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During these recessionary times, with a fluctuating Canadian dollar, it may be tempting for Canadian technology companies to cut performing staff to reduce cash burn; before taking this step however, leaders would be well advised to consider alternatives, since the negatives associated with staff reductions are substantial and long-lasting.
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Outsourcing: A Zero Sum Game
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Everybody is doing it. Regardless of industry, regardless of functional role, there is a constant pressure for organizations to at least consider the notion of outsourcing pieces of their business (and the roles and people that belong to these).
The reasons for considering outsourcing are many, and often-times this decision does make economic and business sense.
But not always.
I have seen companies outsource functions to their great detriment.
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Looking At Employee Benefits? You May Want To Read This
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Employee Benefits, depending on your orientation, constitute either one of the biggest costs or the biggest investments an employer makes and therefore merit a bit of strategic thinking before introducing or making changes to these.
Benefit dollars, expressed as a percentage of Base Pay can range from between 12 % to greater than 25% and can be used to fund such offerings as: Vacation, Health Benefits, Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Retirement Plans, Dental Benefits, Employee Stock Purchase Plans, Sickness and Short-Term Disability Benefits, Tuition Refunds, Transit, and Employee Assistance. Benefits vary by industry and by employer and in a previous article of mine, you would have read about how these can form a powerful part of any Company's "EVP" (Employment Value Proposition).
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“It's The People Of Course"
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People are the currency of today's business. We have, to a large extent, exited businesses where people were simply hands and feet and occasionally asked to think, as they performed their parts. Today, it doesn't matter what business you are in, you are not long for survival unless your people are engaged and utilizing their many talents and most importantly their thinking and reasoning skills. Of course, you say, that's common sense. Well then, why is it that in survey after survey, a majority of employees say that they are not fulfilled in their work and are not utilizing their talents fully? At a recent conference I attended, in fact, the survey results for close to 500 major North American Companies showed that only 12% of employees believed that their talents were being fully utilized, and this percentage was down from 14% two years earlier.
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HR: Friend or Foe?
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When I started in HR many years ago, a lot of companies still referred to the function as "Personnel". The name did not have a good connotation. The function's mandate back then was to act as a controller. In fact, it was often difficult to distinguish between HR and Finance at the time. Finance was perceived as the guardian of the company's physical capital information and the place where spending and project budgeting requests went to die. HR was perceived as the place where hiring, promotions, and salary increase requests went to die. HR was a power of sorts, for HR could and often did have the final say in terms of decisions affecting people's careers. And all was secretive and information was closely guarded. HR was also often times identified as a "tool of management" with the sole goal of carrying out the corporation's wishes. HR was disliked and distrusted. In fact a former CFO colleague of mine said that prior to my joining the team, he had always defined HR as standing for:
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Employee Surveys: Diamonds Or Just A Lump Of Coal?
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Every company I know of that says that it is serious about employee satisfaction does them. So why then do most employee satisfaction surveys actually drive employee satisfaction down?
There are many reasons for which surveys fail. I would suggest however that they fail principally due to failures in the following broad categories:Commitment, Design, Communications,Execution
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Contemplating Tinkering With Your Organizational Structure…Remember The Golden Rule
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"The golden rule of organizational design is that structure always follows strategy"
Too often, organizations take shape based on the strengths and personalities of the leaders. While with strong leadership, these structures can be made to work, on occasion during the good times, and more often during tough times, the weaknesses are exposed.
Why? Because organization charts drawn up separate from and in many cases without thought being given to how these align with and actively contribute to the longer-term success of the organization expose the organization to risks of sub-optimal productivity; difficulty in recruiting new talent, and the potential loss of key talent already in place.
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Compensation As A Winning Strategy
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How do organizations figure out how much to pay their employees, and how do they know that what they are paying is appropriate?
The long answer would qualify one to work for a compensation consulting firm or teach a college/university compensation course.
The short answer though is one that combines science, art, and reasoning
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An Oxymoron: "Managing" Performance
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Isn't it ironic that in a day and age where we as employers say we understand that our one true competitive advantage, in market segments where competitors abound, is our people, we still talk about "managing" performance.
Somewhat akin to the search for the Holy Grail, consulting firms sell to willing buyers, systems and processes that are promoted as being the answer to an organization's performance needs.
CEOs and/or HR leaders champion new performance management systems, and organizations spend countless dollars and management and employee time in implementing these.
And the results are less than impressive.
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Efforts in Onboarding Pay Off in Retention
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Recruiting talented individuals for your business is just one aspect of the hiring cycle. Although important, recruitment is only successful when efforts are made toward integrating new employees into a corporate culture, once hired.
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Why Smart CEOs Partner with HR Professional Services Firms
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In last week's blog, I wrote about why employees sue their employers and suggested ways for employers to mitigate this risk.
A component of mitigating the risk involves engaging a Career Transition (or Outplacement Firm) as a partner when terminating employment.
It turns out that there are a number of HR Professional Services firms that HR people work with to effectively contribute to a company's longer term success that CEOs of smaller firms without an HR department should know about and consider using when appropriate.
Following is a short summary of some of the kinds of HR Professional Services firms out there, and the role they play in the marketplace
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Why Employees Sue Their Employers
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Increasingly, when employer and employee part company, there is the risk of litigation.
Not so many years ago, employers would sever the employment relationship; offer up some form of severance package; and the employee in question, either on the spot, or more commonly, after a few days of deliberation would accept the proffered package and the employment relationship would be terminated.
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What Is Your "EVP"?
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What is your Employment Value Proposition ("EVP")?
When the candidate that you're trying to attract to your firm asks you (or asks themselves): "Why should I consider joining your firm?" What is your answer? Would a candidate get a consistent answer if they were to ask the same question of your colleagues? Would your statements be corroborated by your employees throughout the company?
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