Back to School

Start a teaching position on HR management tomorrow at local college. Will try not to tell too many stories about prior employers, good or bad, as not to discourage students who may want to enter HR as a career. But there are no guarantees.

Honoring A Local Hero

Yesterday, my wife and I attended a visitation for a young marine, RJ Newton, killed in Afghanistan. We did not know him, or any of his friends or family members. It was my wife's idea, and at first, to be honest, I was reluctant to go simply because I did not know him or his family.

Yet, afterwards, I did know him. Not personally, but as a young man who volunteered to serve his country and two days after his 21st birthday, died in that service. I knew him for something that I wish I had, the courage to do the hard work for the rest of us. When looking at all the photos spread around the funeral home, those photos were of me...and just about any other young American man or woman. The difference is, he took the stand. He took the steps that many of us won't do...and he made the ultimate sacrifice. There was sense to me of both pride..and guilt. I may be too old to serve in the military, but not too old to serve my country in some capacity. I knew a hero, but never met him. I'm glad my wife wanted to go. I'm glad I went and met his parents, to shake their hands, and all I could express was my sympathies and a thank you. What his parents did not know is their son taught me a very important lesson. It's not necessarily who you meet that will make an impression, it is more important to know the character of the individual..maybe from a distance, yet, in some way, we all know RJ Newton. He is what we aspire to be, a man who made his country the top priority in his life, so we can live our lives.

So next time you hear complaints about today's generation (and don't we hear that about EVERY generation), think of our men and women who wear the uniform in 120 degree heat, with 60 pounds of gear, fighting in places like Anbar province, Fallujah, or Kandahar. There is a greatest generation in all of us. It's what we do with the steps we take that will impact the lives of others. RIP Mr. Newton. You showed at least one man that he can some more steps forward to serve. Semper Fi!

Supervisors

My son started his first FT job with a local manufacturer as a saw operator cutting metal materials. He is not the fastest worker, but seemed to get to like the job, and according to him, received little feedback from his supervisor about his job performance. Well, today, just after three weeks, he was let go. No information on why, just told it was not working out. If he did not give notice of two weeks to his previous employer, he would have been assigned to a different department (this was told to me by the HR manager), and may have been able to stay on. Instead, he got a semi-skilled job and was given just three weeks to succeed, without knowing where he stood?
Yeah, this simply sucks. High unemployment, so they can toss you out and hope they can find a better replacement who may..just may.. be a bit faster. Also, by cutting him loose before 30 days, employer avoids unemployment. And employers wonder why employee loyality is not as strong as it use to be. Every employee deserves to be told where they stand regarding job performance, but when inadequate supervisors are placed in position they are neither trained, or have the people skills necessary, this is why we end up having third party representatives in the workplace.

The Social Media

In looking for new career opportunities, I have become immersed in the new social media sites, though I've barely scratched the surface (just like Blogging). The business LinkedIn is generally a free for all kind of networking with about any group of people you like (or don't).
Usually, posters will place questions on line, mostly in the form of "if you could describe a CEO in one word, what would it be?" Hundreds of responses will follow. My choice was "ethical". My second choice, was "why in the hell am I bothering to answer these questions?"
In my 25 plus years in business, I've unfortunately encountered few quality leaders running companies. Most think they are some form of gods based on their job title and refuse to listen to differing opinions from managers they've hired and pay huge salaries. Frankly, in my non-psychological opinion, these type of leaders are insecure in their abilities. Ruling as tyrants or worse, trying to be liked by every employee, just causes the organization to gradually deteriorate in anarchy. Pushing their own agenda without obtaining other opinions, no matter how divergent from their own beliefs those other opinions might be, just sets up the company for failure. If managers don't have that "fire in the belly" attitude in their jobs, it's basically because their boss doesn't, because their input is relegated to their spouses when they come home from work every night.
How many times have I heard the CEO say to employees: " I have an open door policy." Makes me want to hurl. What they do NOT have is an 'open listening policy' once you enter their open doors. Use more of those two objects on the side of the head, they're called ears...they're not just on your head to hold your glasses. Listening is the most critical aspect of a successful leader in my opinion...something I also need to learn and improve. It's not easy, but it can be a learned attribute for all CEO's and managers.

ROI on Employees

Over my 25 years in HR management, I have worked for several employers, so I do have the experience in working with different types of cultures. Some work environments were run on fear, and others more on indifference, when it came to employee relations. Actually, my experience in the public sector with local government was probably the best ER culture, maybe due that the workforce was primarily union and they had nothing to fear from management.

In all these employers, the one thing that stood out was the notion that employees were not the same in terms of investment as opposed to capital parts of the budget, such as equipment, and other parts of the "overhead" business. Yet, employees are an investment, not just in salaries and benefits, but more importantly, in TIME. Employers I experienced had the money to pay for employees, but when it came to the investment of time, well, that seemed to be too much of a precious gem to give up on.
Recently, articles have been written about whether performance appraisals are a necessary function of a business. In my experience, if performance appraisals are used solely as a tool to gather negative information over the past 12 months, or as a discipline tool, well no wonder both management and employees dread the annual review. We lost the meaning of communications to employees, including myself, during my career. Appraisals should be done everyday, not in a literal sense of writing up an action plan for each employee, but discussing with employees about what they are doing and how are they going about doing their job effectively.

I once worked with an owner of a business that stopped by my office everyday and asked me "How's progress?" I usually responded by saying things were OK and that was pretty much it. Finally, one day I asked him if he wanted me to implement a formal PA program for our 150 employees, including myself. He replied that he had been asking for job review everyday by walking by my office and asking 'how's progress'. I replied I did not want to bore him with the mundane aspects of my job and concern him with minor problems. He stated that he hired me to not only see the problem, but to bring the solutions of the problem to him. This was one of my first positions in HR management and in made sense. He knew his business would have problems, and hired me to identify the issues and create the solutions to solve them. He provided the trust in me to get the job done.

Unfortunately, as I gained more experience after that position, my employers would not accept new approaches to issues, becoming either micro managers of all departments, or worse, not really caring about most operations unless serious problems arose. The employees they hired, not just management, but the employees in key positions, were not allowed to integrate their concerns and advice to the overall business operations. In other words, the employer ignored their investment in their people, causing poor or untimely decisions that created a bad work environment, which will inevitably transfer back to the customer. I am not a business writer or professional consultant, but from hands on experience in the business culture. If senior management fails to recognize the employees as a true, most vital investment within their operations, they will eventually lose their business customers, and worse, the trust of the workers.

Standards have changed

If you purchase a health policy, and the insurer pays the required claims when needed, is this considered outstanding service, or going beyond what the insurer is required under law?

Actual marketing program going on. Have consumer standards sunk to the new low that basic service is considered outstanding? When an employee comes to work and does a good job, is that considered an excellent rating?

I guess standard service has become "outstanding or going far above what is needed to do".

Let me tell you of outstanding service. True story:

My father went to a local grocery store to shop. Because of his age and health, he did not have a lot of energy to stand for a long time. Once he paid for his groceries, he sat down with his cart of groceries at the front of the store. An employee came up to him and ask if he was OK. Dad replied he was tired and needed to rest a bit. She asked him if he gave her his car keys, she would have someone come drive his car to the front door and load his groceries in the car. Dad was reluctant at first, but the employee convinced him for their assistance.
So an employee drove his car up front door, and loaded his groceries in the trunk of his car and backseat. Dad thanked the guy and drove off.
End of story? Not hardly.
Unknown to my Dad, the first employee who asked him if he was OK, followed him home from the store (about 4 miles), and unloaded the groceries from his car and took them inside his house and placed them in the kitchen. Now, that is customer service that definitely goes beyond what anyone is expected a company to do.

"Would you rather be Vice President, or right?"

The above statement was made to me by a senior executive at a former employer. Needless to say, since I was told this by another CEO at the same company a few years earlier, I did not believe the statement. And I was right!

Ethics in the workplace is more rare today than in the past 30 years. Once, you were told where you stood regarding one's performance in the workplace. Now, that tends to be more 'behind the back' comment. Seeing managers, supervisors, and worse, the people of the company that should be leading by example, the executives, lie to employees or worse, never tell them what they can do to improve their work performance.

What about saving the company money? Employees at one employer I once worked for, suggested to senior execs about how we should book company travel flights online, instead of going through a travel agency. What most of those employees were not aware, the travel agency the company used for all company flights, was operated by a relative of a former President of the company. Instead of saving the company thousands of dollars a year (and saving the employee taxes for spousal travel), the employer ignores the suggestion. The former President has been retired for years, but they continue to book flights via agency and pay the associated fees. But, ah, at least the relative of the former President is making money...and a lot based on the number of travel assignments that go on at the company.

Is this ethical? You decide.