How to Misdirect a People Strategy! Part C

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?     Part 27c

CFO financial and accountant skills can provide a great benefit in helping People leaders quantify their sales, profit and savings benefits through their accounting systems and setting up measurable data points and corroborating statistics.  It’s just that people’s sensitivities, personal and professional problems, challenges and their solutions are not well suited to a typical financial education, training, personality or strengths.

 

Always remember: People are not numbers.  Numbers don’t feel, can't be motivated to excel, have no heightened sense of company, friendship, team work, accomplishment or loyalty.  That's what a great culture and HR brings to the table.  A vast majority of an individual’s decisions are guided by their feelings, perceptions, gut and instinct.  Numbers don’t spread rumors, complain, send tweets, chat or post their everyday experiences on Facebook or similar.  Numbers don’t quit, can’t be fired, can’t be counseled and, above all, are not your customers.  Addressing these people centered issues are what a great culture and great HR leadership brings to the table.

Today’s social media means younger people are equally guided by their friends’ and acquaintances’ feelings, experiences, perceptions, gut and instincts.  If there was ever a more perfect time for the saying, “bad news travels like wild fire”, we have arrived with Snapchat, Tweets, texting/instant messaging, Facebook, Glass Door, etc.

Having already covered the costs to sales in part 18, “When the Black Hole application process tick customers off so much they will never again buy your product or services it reduces sales…”, the negativity of the Black Hole application and hiring process spreads from every applicant’s negative experience to virtually every one of their connections or friends - other potential applicants – like wildfire…..How does one calculate the costs of re-attracting a potential customer to you website or store vs. keeping the ones you already have????  Ask your marketing/sales department.

 As the great poet, Maya Angelou, said "I have learned people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

HR/People/Talent leadership is best matched to the CEO/President/COO, depending on structure.  Most importantly, People Leadership in partnership with all C-level leadership, including financial, is required for organization-wide success.

What is being said about your company???

Next: Do You REALLY Want An “Employer of Choice Plan”?  Part A

How to Misdirect a People Strategy! Part B

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?      Part 27b

This section is especially directed to the HR organization led by the typical financial type…….. The typical CFO type usually believes they are right and ONLY their financial results are relevant and count and have the data to prove it.   The major obstacle to financial education is it can only educate and train accounting principles and quantifiable knowns.   However, as stated numerous times, being unaware and neither knowing of the problems nor what to look for and measure means the problem doesn't exist and therefore a solution never contemplated let alone found. 

How often we hear praise regarding a leader who worked their way to the top.  Why are these same values not required of or sought for the leaders at the very top…especially the CEO, COO or CFO?  How unfortunate for all concerned!

The recent example of GM ignition fiasco illustrates how an extreme focus on $.90 in costs can wreck havoc on a reputation.  As Stephen Pascoff, Esq., writes for ELI, “Is My Life Worth a Buck”, “…it appears that GM looked at costs primarily from the perspective of direct out-of-pocket expenditures. For organizations committed to quality ……this is a myopic, dangerous business view. But cost control as a primary business driver makes sense [only] as long as the full range of critical metrics is considered.  The true cost of …….aberrant workplace cultures is the resulting damage caused to brand reputation and trust when the public or an organization’s own team members suffer injury.” 

http://www.eliinc.com/blog/bid/196250/is-my-life-worth-a-bucksource=Blog_Email_[Is%20My%20Life%20Worth%20a%20B

At this point, the cost is 13 lives and many injuries.  Any guess what the financial impact will be in the future?  How will this effect customer loyalty and trust ?  Mega-dollar-settlements will soon be forthcoming.  All this for saving an estimated $.90 on the price of a car????? As of this writing it ate up all $1.2Billion 1^st quarter 2014 profits for GM.  Fixing the recalled cars hasn’t yet started and the more time the dirty laundry is aired the more it will cost.

Steven is addressing the aberrant workplace culture fostered by a financial only focus.  There are sizeable unknown costs, soft and hard, when people policies fail to recognize the value of the company’s own employees or public consumer, your customer.  If you don’t understand what a financial focus does to a people culture, talk to your people…. They are already talking to each other via any means at their disposal when you don’t ask, don’t listen and/or don’t do anything about it.

Next: How to Misdirect a People Strategy! Part C

How to Misdirect a People Strategy! Part A

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?      Part 27a

A high level of awareness, insight, wisdom and commitment has to be cultivated, rewarded and achieved in order to successfully develop and implement a positive employment culture or change. Chances are it will not succeed from the bottom or middle up.  It will not succeed if it is only the mission of People Services and Talent Development.   It must be committed to and take place organization wide, from the very top down to everyone and everywhere within the organization.

While developing a positive employment culture a significant financial pay back is gained by knowing where you are, what you can change and changes to track.  As you begin to end the endless churn of employee turnover and training, you will be able to free internal funds while positively adding to your top line sales/revenues and, most importantly, your bottom line profits.

 

Warning!!!  Culture change for financial gain alone will result in a misdirected strategy; people will recognize this and the strategy will fail!  

Does anyone grade the employee’s reception and/or feeling regarding the constant tightening of production requirements, whether manufacturing or in office environment, of LEAN, SAP, Continuous Improvement and other metrics???  Or…is it,  Meet the Expectation or Else???

Many call centers, insurance help lines, billing departments, sales departments, claims departments, warranty departments and outsourced versions of the preceding
have become the modern day equivalent to a sweat shop….paying bottom dollar for ever increasing expectations and requirements to remain employed. This is just another example of “My way or the highway” management.

In a great recent article from the Guardian, Eric Lowitt , managing director of Nexus Global Advisors and author of The Collaboration Economy wrote on the nine tips for success…

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/tips-success-collaboration-economy

In another LinkedIn post, “Frustrated By A Lack Of Collaboration? Fire Your CEO”. 

He also posted a video interview on LinkedIn with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO:

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140410171335-14841229-frustrated-by-a-lack-of-collaboration-fire-your-ceo?trk=tod-home-art-list-large_0

Unfortunately, I’m just not certain how that translates to any but Boards of Directors.   How about you??? J

Next: How to Misdirect a People Strategy! Part B

Why Do Top Leaders Need A Real HR Leadership Partner?

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?     Part 26

The following are again from Jon Bell, former CEO Kraft, and others:

1. HR’s most important role is to influence the CEO on the corporate culture. This is especially important in “revolving door” environments….

2. An adept HR executive is the CEO’s window. HR can be an excellent radar screen for “reading the tea leaves” amongst the work force with regard to organizational health. The individual should be on top of changes to business plans and how they are being accepted. Key to success is the HR executive’s ability to instill trust at all levels. The “window” begins to close when HR becomes a bunch of cops. CEOs must watch for that.  They must be the early warning system within the organization.  Therefore they must also provide a “safe and neutral” for internal employment communication and problem solving. Without this perceived neutrality problems will go elsewhere and communication will stop.  This is the HR business environment employees deal with today and it elicits distrust vs. trust in the company.

3. HR ensures an effective system to pinpoint high-potential talent and probable successors. This brings me back to culture and this is why Procter & Gamble and Walmart are very good succession planners. By the time an executive rises to the top, he/she will have spent several years within the organization. The CEO [and all other key leaders and management] must be a “believer” in the culture that makes their company great.

4. On a personal level, a strategic HR team can be instrumental in helping the CEO realize a leader’s greatest sense of gratification—that gratification is encouraging, nurturing and allowing human beings to reach their full potential personally, professionally and economically.

Look at the perennially successful companies. Often, they have a “way”—a distinctive culture that works for them. The custodian of the “way” is the CEO and the CHRO. It is time to use the HR group strategically and bring their leader into the board room….. the only person who can do this is the CEO.”

Where does culture come from? It usually comes from the founders of the group. For whatever reason, they value certain things and behave in ways that seem to help the group succeed. Success is key, so it seeps into the group’s DNA.”

Creating a great employment culture and communicating it is all about the message, how it’s relayed, role modeled and its expectations.  This is not a tweet moment!   Far more time and effort must be spent on how that message is worded and received than on the message itself!  It takes far more damage control and effort to undue a poorly communicated plan or change than to do it right the first time. 

Great People Department Leaders must have exceptional people, sympathy, empathy, intuition, business, negotiation, employment and labor legal, organizational, management and management influential, financial and statistical, big picture HRIS/HRMS/ATS software integration, education and training, motivational, possibly Union Labor Relations, verbal and written communications skills and qualities plus patience.   These are hard and soft skills as unique to Talent and People Leadership as those required for CFOs, COOs, Legal and possibly CEOs, and most likely the only position having this unique blend of attributes and qualities in the organization.

Again, per part 24, "organizations with a Chief Human Resource Officer were 105% more profitable than their industry peers."  ‘nough  said.

Next: How to Misdirect a People Strategy! Part A 

One Size Fits All? Part B

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?      Part 25b

The great HR leader will also bring a fresh perspective and awareness of risk, practice and policy analysis every company must undertake.   HR/People Departments - as do all departments - tend to become blind to the legal and practical results of their operations over time, a process related to cognitive or change blindness.  Furthermore, a good HR leader makes certain ongoing due diligence and constant oversight of these functions takes place.

I happen to like what Jon Hyman wrote last year in his 12/12/12 blog:

“The Practical Employer -12 is the Magic Number: 12 Thoughts for Your Workplace”.   As previously stated Jon’s The Employer Bill of Right: A Manager's Guide to Workplace Law. …” should be mandatory reading. 

http://www.workforce.com/article/20130116/BLOGS07/130119964/putting-the-human-back-in-human-resources-redux

These a good places to begin gaining a better picture and understanding of where your people policies and practices are and have led you. Remember, ignorance is never a legitimate legal defense, and bad policies resulting in violation or willful violation of employment laws are never defensible.

http://www.workforce.com/article/20121212/BLOGS07/121219981/12-is-the-magic-number-12-thoughts-for-your-workplace

Next: Why Do Top Leaders Need A Real HR Leadership Partner?

One Size Fits All? Part A

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?       Part 25a

I regularly see leaders and People/Talent managers from large companies (10,000+) brought into small companies (under 500) in an attempt to implement what existed and worked in a large employment population.  Generally it fails.  (We don’t even know if those policies worked well in the larger company!)
 

The organizational maturity and stage of growth, including the actual job responsibilities, is vastly different in a larger more specialized organization than a smaller more multi-functioning one.  Unless the new HR/Talent/People leader has gone through the various stages of growth, versus having experience only in a mature organization, the programs, procedures and policies will not translate and fail.  The most unfortunate outcome of such failure is the smaller organization may think all such plans fail, when in fact plans and strategies must fit the organization, the execution and implementation realities.

As Priscilla Claman, of Career Strategies, also addresses, “All too often, we in human resources benchmark our departments against the greatest or the "best in class." That GE management development program may not fit a growing law firm. That IBM succession planning process may be entirely inappropriate for a billion-dollar bank. Human resources is not a one-size-fits-all world.”

http://www.career-strategies.com/pages/greatTool.html

Next: One Size Fits All? Part B

Why The Need For HR Leadership At The Top?

Your Corporate Strategy:  It Just Doesn’t Matter?       Part 24

“Today with declining loyal and greater job hopping it is critical that CEOs [or organization head] partner with HR.” – John Bell, Former CEO of Kraft

Whatever the top level HR person’s title is, they will, if empowered, act as the organizations moral, morale and ethical compass…. the window into the organization’s culture actuality.  Whether or not you have, or ever thought of having, a top C-level Talent or People Leader, the vital role played by every C-level person and key manager is their leadership example and how that culture of leadership is being translated, monitored and carried throughout the organization…. to EVERY employee.  If you have line, middle or top management creating an employment cesspool, those affected employees view this as the company and how top leadership leads.  Sadly…………………. it is.

According to a recent Success Factors white paper, these are the top 5 impacts highly effective CHROs deliver to business:

“1. Establish a foundation of talent data.

 2. Focus on strategic business issues, not tactical administration.

 3. Position your company to handle growth and manage change.

 4. Build for the future.

 5. Have strategic guidance ready for your executive partners

….many companies are now trying to remedy [not having HR Leadership at the table]. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of all companies with a dedicated talent executive increased from 21 percent to 30 percent.  Even with that growth, only 17 percent of companies with fewer than 1,000 employees have a chief HR officer (CHRO).”

http://www.workforce.com/article/20120629/ROADMAPS01/120629948/how-chros-deliver-business-impact

If cultural shifting doesn’t sound significant, as outlined in part 18, a recent poll by Success Factors of Fortune 500 companies found organizations with a Chief Human Resource Officer were 105% more profitable than their industry peers!  105%!!!! From my perspective this is a known.  I have promoted and experienced these results within my organizations.  

http://www.hrgrapevine.com/markets/hr/article/2013-10-08-companies-with-chros-outperforming-peers#!

Smaller organizations, on the other hand, need organizational strategies more suitable to their size. 

Next: One Size Fits All?