Sometimes Micromanaging Is Good--And Necessary - Forbes.com

But not for long. Here are the times you have to do it.

Micromanage. A dreaded word. The dictionary defines it as "to direct or control in a detailed, often meddlesome manner." Most popular management books call it something to avoid at all costs and give decisive tips on how not to do it.

As a professor of management, I often talk about empowering employees and avoiding micromanaging them. Sometimes very bad things happen when you micromanage your employees with too much attention to detail.

Click on the link below, for the complete article:

Sometimes Micromanaging Is Good--And Necessary - Forbes.com

Are Companies Beating Talent Away With A Stick? | Glassdoor.com Blog

I saw the funniest job ad. It said “Office Manager needed. Must be willing to work hard and juggle numerous high-pressure tasks. Overtime mandatory. Pay is not great to start but will improve as our company grows. No complainers.” I appreciate the hiring manager’s candor, but I don’t think the phone in that company’s offices is ringing off the hook right now. Low pay! Hard work! Overtime! What more could an Office Manager ask for?

That job ad is an over-the-top example of a phenomenon that’s abundant everywhere you look. Maybe the rough economy is to blame, but way too many large and small employers seem determined to beat talent away with a stick. Their job ads are unfriendly (“Candidates lacking two or more of these qualifications will not be interviewed or contacted” where we can interject the missing words “you vermin,” undoubtedly left out by mistake).   Their careers sites are like stone-walled fortresses. Their interviewing manner is cold, and their overall hiring processes signal to candidates, “Go away and die.”

For more, go to:

Are Companies Beating Talent Away With A Stick? | Glassdoor.com Blog

Kerry Kramp keeps Sizzler relevant - How to adapt your brand as customer expectations change

The key to engaging employees and getting feedback from them is getting past formal processes and talking to them, says Kerry Kramp, president and CEO of Sizzler USA Restaurants. "There's absolutely a place for employee surveys and formal methods of getting information," he says. "... But I don't know of any good decision that was ever made out of a boardroom that wasn't better made in the dining room or in the kitchen of a restaurant."
For the complete article, go to:
Kerry Kramp keeps Sizzler relevant - How to adapt your brand as customer expectations change

Fistful of Talent: Money Talks: Our Problem of Paying for Problems

No huge surprise - BP announced today that Tony Hayward will be stepping down as CEO as of October 1st.  After the disaster in the Gulf killed 11, falling stock prices, numerous failed attempts to stop the oil leak and even more numerous ill-placed comments and responses from Tony (including a yacht racing episode), it was inevitable a change would be made.

As I heard the news though, my first thought was to wonder if Tony asked to be cut loose, and if not, if he is actually pleased he is being released.  After all, he'll get a $1.6 million dollar payout which is equivalent to about a year's salary, he'll be able to draw from his pension which is reportedly worth another $17 million and retain his rights to shares under a long-term performance program that could be worth a hefty amount assuming BP's stock recovers.  Additionally, he is being recommended for a non-executive board spot over at BP's Russian joint venture, TNK-BP (which, depending on who you ask may or may not be a choice appointment).

For the complete article, go to:

Fistful of Talent: Money Talks: Our Problem of Paying for Problems

Confusion About The War For Talent | Rehaul by Lance Haun

I was at a family reunion this last weekend and we were talking about recruiting issues. They were mentioning that despite unemployment numbers, they still had a hard time finding the right people for the most critical positions that were open. And it isn’t a question of technique, or pay or anything along those lines. It’s a situation where there is a genuine labor shortage. Only a few people could do this job in the country. They’ve done research and it is under 1,000 people.

This company has spent millions of dollars on talent acquisition alone in this one critical area of their business. Their problem isn’t going away anytime soon. And they are doing things to help but it isn’t enough.

So I asked who is going to blink first: the people that need to hire or the people that need the jobs? Whose will is going to break in order to make the tough decision that maybe it is time to retrain the workforce since many of the positions that existed a decade or two ago aren’t coming back.

No response.

Is there a third option? As I discussed with someone else, there is a short term solution. Importing talent has been going on for quite a while. The person I talked to said his company got 5% of the temporary visas they asked for though. And they certainly didn’t advertise that fact.

For more, go to:

Confusion About The War For Talent | Rehaul by Lance Haun

Employee morale tops health care on list of HR challenges … really? - Articles - Employee Benefit News

New data from EAP provider ComPsych shows that HR pros say employee morale and productivity are bigger challenges for them over the next six months than health care costs and reform legislation.

Anyone else dubious?

According to ComPsych, 31% of HR managers say morale and employee productivity is their top challenge, compared to the 26% who say health care costs and new legislation. Among the other responses were finding qualified candidates (16%), handling organizational change (14%) and retaining top performers (14%).

For the complete article, go to:

Employee morale tops health care on list of HR challenges … really? - Articles - Employee Benefit News

The HR Capitalist: When In Doubt: Hire the Best Writing Skills...

That's right.  I'm taking the stand that all other things being relatively equal, hiring the best writer is always the right thing to do when faced with a tough choice between worthy candidates.  I was reminded on this last month when my CEO gave me "Rework" by the gang at 37 signals, an interesting software company that's dedicated to writing productivity software that's easy to use.   Rework includes a brief chapter that speaks the truth - hire the best writer.

Why does hiring the best writer make sense? Follow the link to find out":

The HR Capitalist: When In Doubt: Hire the Best Writing Skills...

Employee Benefit News Presents Benefits Forum & Expo

Management gurus have long exhorted employee benefit professionals to "get a seat at the table" with the company's top executives. Why wait for an invitation? Beverly Beattie, founder and CEO of Selden Beattie Benefits Advisors, tells you how to summon the C-suite for a critical meeting to hammer out a long-term strategic plan for employee benefits in support of the company's overall business goals.

For the complete question and answer session; follow the link:

Employee Benefit News Presents Benefits Forum & Expo

Spherion Emerging Workforce Study

Portrait of the American Workforce

Different Breeds of Workers

• — In 2009, the workforce is 22% emergent, 50% migrating and 28% traditional.
• — Emergent workers are highly educated - 45% have graduate degree, 27% college degree.
• — The mean age of emergent workers is 42 years old and male to female ratio is 57%:43%.
• — The average emergent employee works 44.3 hours per week.
• — Emergent and traditional workers have varying definitions, values about workplace:

Workers Have Inherent Desire for Efficiency and Innovation

• — 95% of workers today prefer a job that allows them to think creatively
• — 88% of workers prefer a job that allows them to think of new & better ways to do things
• — 94% of workers strongly agree that employees should seek their own career development opportunities, wherever they might be

To read about the complete study,  go to:

Spherion Emerging Workforce Study

The Associated Press: CEO Interview: Salesforce.com's eclectic leader

SAN FRANCISCO — Whether he's swimming with dolphins in the Pacific Ocean or drawing inspiration from rappers, Marc Benioff has broken the CEO mold while running Salesforce.com Inc. for the past decade.

Some of his antics seem calculated to make a point about the importance of daring to be unconventional, a method that has worked well for him.

Benioff, 45, wouldn't be a billionaire and Saleforce.com wouldn't have emerged as an even better investment than Google if he hadn't been able to persuade so many corporate decision makers to change their ways.

Salesforce.com rents software for managing customer relationships and delivers its product exclusively over the Internet. The concept, often called "cloud computing," is hot now, but it was considered a pie-in-the-sky notion when Benioff started Salesforce at the height of the dot-com boom in 1999.

Back then, companies preferred to install all their software on computers sitting on their own premises. They bought prepackaged software so they could own the applications, even if it meant paying huge fees for installation and maintenance.

That mindset was so deeply ingrained in corporate America that Benioff was worried Salesforce.com might fail two years after he started the company.

There's no such worry now. Saleforce.com has more than 77,000 customers, nearly 5,000 employees and steadily rising revenue that's expected to hit $1.5 billion in the company's current fiscal year.

For more, go to:

The Associated Press: CEO Interview: Salesforce.com's eclectic leader

Why Are Organisations Interested In Employee Engagement?

by Dr Anton Franckeiss at ASK

Avoiding a history of broken engagements

Employee engagement is currently a hot topic, partly 'helped' (to use the wrong word) by an economic downturn where organisational leanness and occupational insecurity lurk like wolves at the door. Although the economy has focused attention, it has always been important for a simple reason. Employers want engaged employees because they deliver improved business performance - increased sales, profits and productivity, and reduced attrition.
Try looking at the issue from the other end of the telescope: what would be the benefits of having a disengaged workforce? What are the advantages of a workforce of clockwatchers who resent every working moment? Few that I can see - and it's a situation that can be avoided, with a bit of effort all round.
One key point in employee engagement lies in that 'all round'. Research has repeatedly demonstrated the links between the way people are managed, employee attitudes and business performance. And 'the way that people are managed' is more - and more subtle - than statements of terms and conditions and contractual rewards. The psychological contract - and maximising its positivity - plays an important part in driving engagement.

For the complete article, go to:

Why Are Organisations Interested In Employee Engagement?

Managing Yourself: Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want - Harvard Business Review

A 30-year-old midlevel manager—let’s call her Fatima—is struggling at work, but you wouldn’t know it from outward appearances. A star member of her team in the marketing division of a large multinational foods company, Fatima consistently hits her benchmarks and goals. She invests long hours and has built relationships with colleagues that she deeply values. And her senior managers think of her as one of the company’s high potentials.

But outside the office, Fatima (who asked not to be identified by her real name) would admit that she feels stagnant in her job, trapped by the tension between day-to-day demands and what she really wants to be doing: exploring how the company can use social media in its marketing efforts. Twitter, her cause-marketing blog, and mobile gadgets are her main passions. She’d like to look for another job, but given the slow recovery from the recession, sticking it out seems like her best (and perhaps only) option. “I’m still working hard,” she tells a friend. “But I’m stuck. Every week, I feel less and less motivated. I’m beginning to wonder why I wanted this position in the first place.”

Sound familiar? Over the past several years, we’ve spoken with hundreds of people, in a variety of industries and occupations, who, like Fatima, are feeling stuck—that dreaded word again. According to a recent survey of 5,000 U.S. households by The Conference Board, only 45% of those polled say they are satisfied with their jobs—down from about 60% in 1987, the first year the survey was conducted.

For the complete article, go to:

Managing Yourself: Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want - Harvard Business Review

The HR Capitalist: OUT: Buzz on the 4-Day Work Week. IN: Discretionary Effort...

The four-day work week.  A sucker's play.

Lance Haun revisited the topic of the 4-day work week late last week over at TLNT.com.  Lance remembers that Utah ushered in a 4-day work week policy a few years back, with the move getting a ton of hand-wringing and pontification that other states and even (gasp!) private industry would follow suit.

What happened? Public sector employers have continued to make the 4-day work week grab.  Lance points to Winston-Salem, NC, Effingham County, GA, and Franklin (VA) City Public Schools as having recently implemented four-day work weeks. Lance also identified more cities like Westminster, CO and Indio, CA as considering using the four day work week.

Of course, that tsunami of 4-day work week adoption never came in the private sector.  Why not?  Lance thinks in government offices, even exempt employees work fairly rigid schedules, and in most of the white collar, exempt employee world, that rigidity doesn’t exist.

Read more at:

The HR Capitalist: OUT: Buzz on the 4-Day Work Week. IN: Discretionary Effort...

Schumpeter: Profiting from non-profits | The Economist

THE members of the Village People, a pop group founded in the 1970s, are dismayed that the organisation that inspired their greatest hit is to change its name after 166 years. The American branch of the Young Men’s Christian Association, known to arm-waving disco mavens as the YMCA, announced on July 12th that it would become plain “The Y”. This is part of what the outfit describes as a “major brand revitalisation” intended to make it seem warmer and more welcoming. It may turn out to be a misguided rebranding exercise on a par with Coca-Cola’s launch of New Coke and British Airways dropping the Union Jack from the tails of its aircraft.

Non-profit organisations such as the one formerly known as the YMCA are commonly advised to become more like for-profit businesses. Management experts and consultants view them as horribly inefficient due to the absence of the concentrating power of the profit motive. The negative reaction to the Y’s rebranding suggests that non-profit outfits are not all that good at emulating business even when they try. There has been barely any reciprocal pressure on for-profit firms to learn from the non-profits. Yet this is what Nancy Lublin, one of America’s most successful non-profit leaders, proposes in a new book, “Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business.”

Ms Lublin dismisses the common charge that non-profits are inefficient. Some are, but many of them are not. She also dislikes the use of “non-profit” to describe the sort of organisation that she once founded (Dress For Success, which gives smart suits to poor women to wear in job interviews) and that she now runs (DoSomething.org, which encourages social activism by young people). “Non-profits include loss-making companies like General Motors,” she explains. “We’re a not-for-profit, as we’re not even trying to make a profit.”

Read more at:

Schumpeter: Profiting from non-profits | The Economist

Is this thing on? - Articles - Employee Benefit News

The statistics speak for themselves: Employees are staying put, seemingly trying to wait out the recession.

A survey from employment placement firm Manpower reveals 81% workers are not job hunting, even though 51% feel their career growth chances in their current position are poor.

The latest Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows some 70% of employees doubt they'll ever retire.

Employees' entrenchment seems to have rejiggered employers' priorities. MetLife's eighth annual "Employee Benefits Trends Study," reveals that 53% of employers, when asked to list their three most important benefits objectives, said controlling heath and welfare benefits costs; 47% said retaining employees, while 42% cited increasing employee productivity.

For the first time since 2006, controlling benefit costs edged out employee retention as the top concern facing employers - not a good stat for succession planning experts, already struggling to get employers' attention.

Yet they continue to press on, knowing that putting off indefinitely what employers should be planning for today may cost them dearly in the long run.

Read more at:

Is this thing on? - Articles - Employee Benefit News

Facebook | Employee Engagement: A Roadmap for Creating Profits, Optimizing Performance: Creating Engaging Collaborative Communities

Engaging ones employees is important; so important, in fact, that Gallup recently did a study on employee engagement and presented their data in a report entitled “Employee Engagement: What’s Your Engagement Ratio?” And many companies have taken the bull by the hornswhen it comes to engaging their employees. They have set up intranet sites that have become active and vibrant collaborative communities for their employees. These sites are similar to Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter in that employees can create profiles and others in the company can view these profiles and create discussion forums to enhance collaboration on team projects.

When taking the first steps to create and implementa collaborative tool, it is important not to overlook the process of understanding who will be using the site. Many organizations quickly assume that because their site is an intranet, only employees can have access to it. Consider bringing your business customers into the community in some fashion. If a customer has had multiple, valuable experiences with organization, they will likely be very willing to engage in your intranet. This is particularly true for business customers who utilizeyour business frequently. When customers feel engaged, they are going to be better stakeholders in all aspects of the relationship because they feel a greater responsibility to the organization.

The goal of an online community is, ultimately, to improve business. But because users of collaborative work tools can do anything with these tools, including voice their negative opinions, some companies have paranoia and are afraid to create intranets because they might disseminatenegative news. This fear is the reason that the use and success levels of social media tools in the workplace vary greatly. Some companies create collaborative areas but do not follow through to make them successful. On the other hand, some companies have assembled specific personnel to support their efforts and fully embrace social media.

For more go to:

Facebook | Employee Engagement: A Roadmap for Creating Profits, Optimizing Performance: Creating Engaging Collaborative Communities

Medieval Multitasking: Did We Ever Focus? | Culture | Religion Dispatches

Maybe Nicholas Carr is right: the internet is just so much catnip in a world already filled with too many distractions. And, like any such drug—even those that seem relatively harmless, especially in relation to the benefits they seem to offer—my freewheeling engagement with the internet is slowly but surely reshaping my brain so that, eventually, I won’t be capable of a sustained reflection.

Now, Carr and Clay Shirky have been sparring for some time over the relative merits of digital connectedness and information access, and I’m not unmoved by the cautions Carr raises in The Shallows, the extension of his 2008 Atlantic article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” But, I’m generally more persuaded by Shirky’s analysis in Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age, that the opportunities for access, sharing, collaboration, and positive global social change have clearly been the result both of the internet and rapidly developing digital social media on portable computing devices. This morning, however, as I started to work on a review of the two books I had to wonder if maybe I’d gotten it all wrong.

Read more at:

Medieval Multitasking: Did We Ever Focus? | Culture | Religion Dispatches

New Hire Orientation Programs Suck | Punk Rock Human Resources

Have you heard of the welcome wagon? It’s an informal neighborhood welcoming committee that greets you when you move into your new home.

Ken and I bought a home in 1999 and a few neighbors stopped by the house, dropped off a plate of cookies, and delivered a pamphlet with the names of our neighbors and their children, personal phone numbers, and information about local pizza and Chinese delivery.

I suggested, “You can put this on the internet.”

I was thinking GeoCities or a simple email distribution list.

“That’s not very safe,” my neighbor said.

That’s when I learned that the welcome wagon is a stupid concept. Get out of my house. I’m too busy unpacking my stuff and getting acclimated to hear about the best local dentist and the neighbor down the block with too many cats.

*

I think about the welcome wagon when I’m asked about new hire orientation programs. Human Resources departments want to roll out the red carpet and provide guidance, assistance, and advice to new employees. We want to make the transition easier, and we want employees to be productive as quickly as possible.

Read more at:

New Hire Orientation Programs Suck | Punk Rock Human Resources

Survey: Businesses snooped on by ex-employees, IT staff | Security - CNET News

Many IT folks think snooping is on the rise at their companies. They may know best since they're the ones doing some of the snooping, at least according to survey results released Wednesday by Cyber-Ark.

To put together its fourth annual "Trust, Security and Passwords" (PDF) survey, security vendor Cyber-Ark said it questioned more than 400 IT professionals across the U.S. and the U.K., mostly from enterprise-size businesses.

Among those surveyed, 67 percent admitted that they accessed confidential information not relevant to their jobs. In nominating the department most likely to snoop, 54 percent pointed the finger at IT due to the group's power and responsibility in maintaining multiple computer systems throughout their companies.

The 67 percent who tagged their own IT groups marked an increase from the 35 percent who did the same last year and the 47 percent in 2008. But other departments didn't get off the hook. Among the IT admins surveyed, 11 percent chose Human Resources as the department tops on the snooping list, followed by administrative assistants.

Read more:

Survey: Businesses snooped on by ex-employees, IT staff | Security - CNET News

To boost innovation just keep the boss away! « BQF Innovation

Billions of dollars are spent on developing and launching new consumer packaged goods (CPG) products each year, and some companies see tremendous success while others – don’t.  Why?  One secret appears to lie in the degree of senior management involvement in the creative process, according to a study by The Nielsen Company.

Nielsen’s research of the innovation processes at 30 large CPG companies operating in the U.S. reveals that companies with less senior management involvement in the new product development process generate 80 percent more new product revenue than those with heavy senior management involvement.  Companies that employ this and other best innovation practices derive on average 650 percent more revenue from new products compared to companies that do not.

Nielsen’s research shows that simply being physically near corporate headquarters can stifle new idea generation.  In fact, it turns out that having no Blue Sky innovation team at all is better than having a team on-site at corporate headquarters.  The best place for your breakthrough innovators?  Far, far away.  According to Nielsen, companies with an off-site Blue Sky innovation team report 5.7 percent of revenues coming from new products, compared to 4.8 percent from companies with no Blue Sky team at all.  Companies with Blue Sky teams on site report just 2.7 percent of revenues coming from new products.

Read more:

To boost innovation just keep the boss away! « BQF Innovation

Retaining a Workforce That Wants to Quit - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

In each of the past three months, more employees quit their jobs than were terminated, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is good news for the economy but bad for individual businesses: when jobs become more plentiful, the first to exit are often the business's most ambitious employees — the innovators, the risk-takers, the future leaders. The cost of replacing an employee is estimated at up to 250 percent of annual salary.

An AchieveGlobal survey of 738 managers revealed that about one in four employees planned to leave their jobs within a year. A study reported in the May issue of Harvard Business Review revealed that 12% of high-potential employees were actively searching for a new job.

Why are employees walking away from their jobs, even with unemployment still hovering near 10 percent? Our studies show that the three biggest reasons are a lack of growth opportunities, dissatisfaction with compensation, and employees feeling their contributions aren't being recognized. Growth and recognition are particularly important to younger workers, who have higher expectations of their employers than others do and are defecting in large numbers.

For the complete article go to:

Retaining a Workforce That Wants to Quit - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Annual Job Review Is 'Total Baloney,' Expert Says

Employee performance reviews should be eliminated, according to UCLA business professor Samuel Culbert. "First, they're dishonest and fraudulent. And second, they're just plain bad management," he says

The problem with the practice, Culbert tells NPR's Renee Montagne, is that periodic reviews create circumstances that help neither the employee nor the company to improve. As Culbert and his co-author, Larry Rout, write in their book, Get Rid of the Performance Review!, annual reviews do not promote candid discussions about problems in the workplace — and their potential solutions.

Instead, Culbert says, when workers undergo a review, "They're going to talk about all their successes — it becomes total baloney."

Read more here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128362511&f=1002&sc=igg2

Your Company Is not a Democracy - Leadership - Entrepreneur.com

The most effective leaders are benevolent dictators who hold employees accountable. 

Most problems that occur in small businesses trace back to one fatal characteristic: lack of adequate ownership and leadership.

I'm a big proponent of the "just view me as god" school of management. Burn your lovey-dovey management degree. Owning a business isn't a popularity contest, and you're not there for a social experience. You cannot be effective as the owner of a business unless you are feared and respected by your employees. Likability is nice but not necessary. You've got to demand what you want.

Small-business owners generally don't do this. They attend seminars and read books on sensitivity and how to make their employees love them. They want to be friends and colleagues. Hard and fast rules make them squeamish. They operate under the mistaken but widely held belief that they'll get more out of their employees if they're loved.

To read the complete article by George Cloutier: The Turnaround Ace  follow the link:

Your Company Is not a Democracy - Leadership - Entrepreneur.com

Google Increases Pay to Help Its Gay and Lesbian Employees - Tonic

The tech giant will up the pay of gay and lesbian employees to help cover domestic partner health benefits.

Google has never been your typical company, which might just be why they're one of the more successful companies out there. This is a company whose core principles include "You can make money without doing evil" and "You can be serious without a suit." If you need further proof about how the company operates, news from The New York Times illustrates how Google takes into account what's fair.

For more: 

Google Increases Pay to Help Its Gay and Lesbian Employees - Tonic

Salaries, career development top ways to retain employees - Articles - Employee Benefit News

Money talks. So does career development. Employers plan to focus on these two areas in 2010 and beyond as they look to retain and engage the right talent, according to new research.

Forty-one percent of employers surveyed for Mercer's 2010 Attraction and Retention Survey cited base salary increases as the reward they believe has the strongest impact on employee retention and engagement.

Next in line were short- and long-term variable pay (cited by 36%) and training and career development (cited by 35%).

One-quarter of organizations report that programs such as work-life initiatives, employee communication campaigns and time-off plans will have less impact on employee retention and engagement going forward.

"Non-cash programs like career pathing, increased communication to employees and work-life initiatives are important in fostering employee retention and engagement regardless of the economic environment," says Loree Griffith, a principal with Mercer's rewards consulting business. "However, as recovery occurs, employers want to revisit pay as a means to staying competitive and retaining top-performing employees."

More than one-quarter (27%) of employers surveyed are expanding their overall workforce, while 3% have instituted broad-based workforce reductions. Almost half (45%) are hiring to replacement levels only, while another 25% are hiring just for critical areas.

For more,  follow the link:

Salaries, career development top ways to retain employees - Articles - Employee Benefit News

Can we sustain the New Normal?

We've been hearing a lot of talk lately about the "New Normal" in business. Heck, I've even used the term myself on The Working Week podcast. I know what people mean when they use it- with all the changes in technology, organizational structure and financing that have taken place, it's the way we do business now as opposed to 4 or 5 years ago.

The problem is that I'm not sure it's normal, and it's not even all that new. Worse, I don't believe it's sustainable and there will be a new, New Normal before we even get the new employee handbooks printed.

While people can harrumph, grunt and whine about the exact details, as far as I can see, the New Normal looks like this:

For the complete article by Wayne Turmel at Management Issues, follow the link:

Can we sustain the New Normal?