What Can Human Resources do to Develop a Meaningful Succession Plan?

Change is constant and with many companies lacking the expertise to deal with an evolving business issues such as global competition, changes in technology and the need to reexamine business models are factors that contribute to a very complex work environment.  To meet this challenge organizations will often determine that the best way to plan for their future is to create succession plans for key positions throughout the organization.  By implementing these three succession plan initiatives companies will ensure that there is no interruption in service, innovation or customer support.

Hiring the Right Talent

With unemployment at record lows companies today face a variety of challenges with hiring the right talent for the job at the top of the list.  Companies today not only need to offer a competitive wage, top-tier benefits but they also need to build a strong employer brand that allows their employees to feel proud of where they work.  HR departments as the gate keepers for the talent pool need move as quickly as possible to ensure that the hiring process does not get side-tracked.  Many companies will lose excellent candidates because of a very slow hiring process.  Key to the hiring of staff in key positions is the process of thinking beyond the current job that is being filled.  Do your candidates have strong critical thinking skills, exceptional communication attributes and high ethical standards?  These are the questions HR professionals need to evaluate when considering the candidates qualifications.  Also, the candidates are not only applying for the current position that they are applying for but also for their next job.

Improve the Company’s Bench Strength at the Management Level

Executives today are uneasy about their organizational leaders’ ability to manage unexpected challenges.  There is a lot at stake as new managers already have a high rate of failure in the first 12 months of being promoted to a management role.  These leaders often have a difficult time assessing the demands of business, processing and sharing information in a timely manner and talent management.  Human Resource departments can play a pivotal role in helping these new leaders succeed in their job by offering personalized training programs targeted to their particular needs.  HR can also ensure success by developing learning programs that are skill based, that can be applied immediately and are tied to future business challenges.  As part of the process HR will also need to evaluate the gaps in leadership skills in order to determine where training is needed, necessary and applicable.  The goal for the future should be to enhance strategic and creative thinking throughout the organization so that management can focus on how to better position their company for success and ensure that there is no interruption in the talent pool.

Build a Succession Plan that is Flexible and Targeted

One of the key functions of an HR leader is to hire right, create depth in the organization and secure the company’s success by building a succession plan that is both flexible and targeted.  Succession plans are a tool to create an immediate candidate pool of qualified internal employees when a key employee departs the organization.  Succession plans should initially be developed around the C-suite staff followed by more detailed plans around key managers, supervisors and individual contributors.  The goal of “purview” or key personnel is to ensure that they receive training, developmental tools and mentoring so that they are ready to assume a bigger role when a position is identified.  The criteria for purview employees are that they need to exceed job requirements, have been with the company a minimum of 24 months and have the skills, knowledge and ability to assume a great role in the future.  These employees may be unaware that they have been targeted for development; however, HR should take an active role in their career.

By hiring the right talent from the beginning, developing employees that show promise and building succession plans that encourage internal career development through a formal program, companies will mitigate potential gaps in leadership.

Will there be HR Generalists in the Future?

Recently there has been some discussion in social media as to the future of the HR Generalist role and is this type of position needed today?

Organizations are constantly reviewing whether to centralize their HR professionals or decentralize the Human Resources function.  There are typically three approaches regarding the structure of HR.

Decentralized:  If you have talented individuals that are resourceful, knowledgeable and are skilled in the process of explaining the HR programs and policies then the closer they are to support the business the better it is for the company.  Decentralization is the optimum approach with respect to building a partnership between HR and the business.  It is also the costliest from a budget perspective.

Blended:  If the HR staff lack the depth of experience then the goal is to train these individuals and hire “specialists” that can share their knowledge with the newer employees.  While these employees remain close to the business their lack of skill can often be an impediment to their success.  This structure also takes time to build and commitment from the leadership team is critical to maintaining this type of organizational platform

Centralized:  A centralized structure is a skilled and talented staff that are pro-active, reach out to the business units and provide sound advice from a call-center or centralized corporate office.  This approach is being used by an increasing number of companies that have 500 employees or more.  With employees becoming familiar with the self-service approach to obtain information about pay, benefits, promotions and career paths the need to have an intermediary is becoming less necessary

Today, organizations are looking for cost effective talent to support and partner with the business.  With budgets being scrutinized and HR metrics becoming an even more important part of the performance process the future of the HR Generalist, particularly in larger organizations, is very uncertain.

The future of the HR Generalist in larger companies (employers with 500 employees or more) will ultimately go away and be replaced with experts in a call center or corporate office.  The business units will only have an HR Generalist if they are willing to pay for this personalized support.  In our opinion, the business leader will determine that the HR Generalist is redundant and unnecessary.  Furthermore, the laws are changing rapidly at the state and federal level and with many companies having a global reach the need for “specialists” is even more important in today’s work environment.  The HR Generalist role is often one of sharing information that is provided by the corporate HR function anyway.  The timely sharing of information is critical to meeting the needs of the business and any follow-up action is often delayed as the skills of the HR Generalist are at times not as strong as the specialist.  This requires that the HR Generalist reach out repeatedly to the skilled expert in the corporate office to obtain clarification.  This takes time and costs the organization additional expense.

The future of the HR Generalist in smaller companies (employers with 499 employees or less) is a very different story.  These skilled professionals will continue to be relied upon, typically report to the CEO or COO and have significant influence on the organization.  They will also have between 3 and 5 subordinates who provide specialized services to the company.  Further career opportunities in this area will continue to grow and expand.

To learn more about what is best for your company Human Resource departments are often conducting employee surveys to evaluate department performance, establish year-over-year metrics, review the success or failure of the established programs and policies and finally how to best meet the needs of the organization and staff.  Consider conducting an employee survey to discover what your employees are thinking.

How Will the Work Environment Change after COVID-19?

Starting in early March 2020 business in the United States changed dramatically.  We have gone from low-employment and a robust economy to a work environment where 30+ million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance over the past 7 weeks and those that have jobs are working remotely.  Congress has addressed this issue by offering workers expanded unemployment insurance and for businesses; grants, payroll protection programs and low-interest loans which can be forgiven under specific circumstances.  More support from Congress is planned for the future.  While Federal support is critical for the economy, the States are also offering programs to help their citizens

Given all of these changes what will happen to the American worker when we are finally able to return to normal.  I would suggest that we will never return to “normal” but rather there will be changes in how we work in the near term along with long-term challenges.

Short Term Changes

The short term effects of COVID-19 may include some of these challenges:

§  Office workers will not be following the normal 8 to 5 work schedule but rather a more flexible schedule will need to be adopted by companies, not-for-profits, and governmental institutions.  Employees will work in modified shifts which will stagger their hours to ensure social distancing.  Testing for COVID-19 will be administered on a weekly basis and this cost will be a burden shared by the employer and government.

§  Office workspaces will need to be modified to ensure that physical distancing between employees and customers is adhered to and that barriers to physical employee inter-action will need to be constructed.  Certificates will be given to those employees that have acquired COVID-19 anti-bodies which will ultimately be their passport to avoid future testing.

§  Manufacturing, production, and line employees will need to adhere to the social distancing guidelines which could mean that production may not be at peak for the near future.  Protective gear will need to be assigned to employees and replaced on a frequent basis.  Testing for COVID-19 will be administered on a daily basis and this cost will be a burden shared by both the employer and government.  Similar to office workers certificates will be given to those employees that have acquired COVID-19 anti-bodies which will ultimately be their passport to avoid daily testing.

§  For those employees where working remotely is an option, companies will encourage staff to set-up home offices.  They will only be required to visit their physical office on a very infrequent basis.  This will create significant challenges for management to hold employees accountable to verify that performance and productivity standards are maintained.

§  Technology will become even more important as a tool to maintain the communication channels between the leadership team and rank-and-file employees.  Video conferencing will be the future of most meetings and serve as the key communication tool.

Long Term Challenges

The long term effects of COVID-19 may include some of these challenges:

§  Less office space requirements will depress the commercial real estate market and the result will be a declining inner-city.  City versus suburban infrastructure financial resources will put pressure on the HR professional as additional unemployment in this industry will occur.  A perfect example is retail space in shopping centers and the potential bankruptcies of big retail companies.

§  Management will need to develop tools to keep employees appraised of the company strategy, successes, and challenges through nontraditional means.  The days of “all-hands meetings” are over.  Conferences and large professional events maybe eliminated until a vaccine is developed.

§  While working from home worker injuries will need to be evaluated and policies developed to ensure that workers and the employer are both protected.

§  Employee communication while always difficult will need to be further enhanced to ensure that managers are successfully supervising their staff to guarantee that they have the tools to be successful.

§  High unemployment will be a significant challenge for the future with many people looking for work in industries that no longer exist.  Examples include retail, restaurants, hospitality, and travel.  Until a vaccine is developed and widely distributed, human psychology would suggest that these types of industries will not bounce back quickly.  People are scared and do not want to put their health at risk by shopping, going out for dinner, going to a hotel, or boarding an airplane.  Companies will play a key role in supporting these former employees through outplacement services and technical training.

While the challenges of COVID-19 are many, human ingenuity and resourcefulness has not changed and there will be a vaccine which will protect all of us.  The key question is how long will it take to develop and what intervening factors will change how we work in the future between now and then?

How to Make the Employee Survey Process Successful?

Potential clients will often approach our firm and indicate that they want to conduct an employee survey to find out what the employees are thinking.  The motives of the Human Resource leaders in making this inquiry are based upon a need to discover what is happening in the trenches and take action where necessary.  Even though the HR leaders want to do what is right they often get lost in the process and don’t take the long-term perspective.  In order to have a successful outcome we recommend that our clients follow a four step process to determine if an employee survey is the most appropriate means of evaluating satisfaction and engagement.  Here are the recommended steps to ensure a successful survey:

Step #1:  Define engagement and inform the employees what this means and how engagement supports the business.  Our definition of engagement is as follows:  “Employee engagement is the relationship between an organization and its employees.  An engaged employee is one who subscribes to the values and goals of the organization and works to ensure success.” Engagement varies by industry and employer and much like a mission statement, engagement should have the support of the organization by being published and marketed through-out the company.

Step #2:  An engagement index is a numerical value that quantifies engaged employees that are aligned and fully support the success of the organization in contrast to those that are disengaged.  Organizations that score high are typically successful and have a dynamic leadership team with high employee engagement.  They also have a clearly defined operational succession plan, a supportive administrative infrastructure, and programs and policies to support enhanced productivity.  These engagement indicators are interdependent – good leaders make good business decisions; progressive compensation and benefits programs attract and retain employees; employee engagement drives income and productivity.  Ensure that the leaders of the organization understand how these values impact productivity and the bottom-line.  Only with the leaders buy-in of an engagement index with the survey process be successful.  

Step #3:  An engagement survey is not an isolated event but rather the process to improve employee satisfaction and make your company an employer of choice.  While measurement is key to the program’s success the action planning process will make or break the initiative.  If managers are not held accountable, assume responsibility and be held accountable for improvement this program will not be successful.  HR needs to transition from “running a survey” to supporting the needs of the business by working with key leaders to develop action plans and accountability measures based upon the data collected during the survey process.  

Step #4:  Ensure that a process for following-up on the agreed upon action plans is adhered to and becomes part of the company culture.  If a consistent process is not established the survey process will be lost by newer initiatives, a business crisis or change in personnel.  Our experience has shown that if quarterly meetings are scheduled to ensure accountability the process is much more successful.  In addition, follow-up surveys to evaluate trends and long-term employee satisfaction and engagement will support progressive business practices.  

In conclusion, employers today face extraordinary challenges with respect to managing the business and at the same time meeting the needs of their employees.  Human Resources leaders need to take the long-term perspective with respect to engagement and the survey process.

What is Leadership?

People strive to be engaged in meaningful work and most of us seek out experiences that help us grow professionally. Companies that recognize and support this basic human goal are on the path to become employers of choice.

After our basic needs are fulfilled, an employee searches for meaning and a sense of purpose in a job.  People want to believe that they are providing a good or service that will help others.  If, in your role as a Human Resource professional, you aren’t articulating what you care about and how you plan to make a difference, then you will need to make changes in your approach in order to inspire your employees to ensure their full engagement.

Many leaders have a wrong idea of what constitutes true engagement as it is not attained through self-gratification but through developing a sense of purpose to support the broader good.  Once company leaders have identified and clearly articulated what they stand for, it’s up to the leadership team supported by Human Resources to build a bridge between the business’ purpose and the values of the employees.  When leaders communicate their ideas and values, listeners filter the message and decide whether to trust their management team. When the values and purpose resonate with your employees, they will be a partner in the company’s success.

Leaders and more specifically the HR department are the stewards of organizational energy as their purpose is to ensure organizational performance, direct talent and focus and invest energy from all the individual contributors in the service of the corporate mission. A purpose-driven leadership team ensures that the energy of each individual contributor is aligned with the organizational purpose.

One of our goals since we started our firm in 1999 has been to share information to assist HR professionals in making quality business decisions by providing current information on what is happening in the work environment.  Sharing how progressive companies deal with their challenges will hopefully offer you solutions for the future.

To learn more about our survey tool, reporting and analysis please go to our website at:

http://www.innovative-hrsolutions.com

What are Three Challenging Issues Facing the HR Professional Today?

For the Human Resource professional challenges include evaluating the health and welfare plans, establishing productivity metrics and measurements to ensure that employees are meeting job expectations and attracting talent in an environment where finding the most qualified candidates with the right skill set is becoming more difficult.  How each business deals with its specific human resources issues depends on how effective the HR team is.  No matter what approach a business takes, addressing these issues is an ongoing process.

Benefits

Virtually all companies offering some benefits to employees, either to appear competitive or to comply with local, state or federal regulations including the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Human Resources will need to determine how their company is impacted and what they need to do to respond legally.  Offering maternity/new-born care, pediatric care, rehabilitative care and preventative care are key components of each plan that need to be available.  Measurement is also critical and as some low-income employees may be better-off by going through the state or federal exchanges to obtain credits and subsidies.  HR departments working with their brokers and benefit specialists will need to create benefit policies and packages that are compliant in order to meet the needs of a diverse workforce.

Productivity

A primary goal of a HR department is to consult with the leaders of the organization and department managers to organize the work flow so that managers and their subordinates can be as productive as possible. Using typical metrics such as cost per FTE, revenue per FTE and examining overtime as a percent of labor cost allows HR professionals to think critically.  Examining the number of people per shift, team assignments and the need to bring on additional staff is a very important role for HR to play.  This role can be very challenging as it encourages the HR department to play a strategic role and plan for the future.

Talent Management

With a very tight job market, talent management will be even more challenging as the old methods of  attending job fairs, listing positions on career management websites and college recruiting are not the only way to generate interest.  New methods of attracting the right candidates may include expanding the company’s presence on the social media sites and matching managers with similar outside interests and potential candidates.  These alternative recruiting options can create a bond between the company and new hires.  Furthermore, candidates want to see a balance between employment and life experiences.  A reasonable work - life balance is a key driver for new employees entering the work force.  Companies will need to respond to these new ways of attracting talent and retaining key members of the team.

How can HR Professionals Create a Climate of Civility?

Human Resource professionals deal with many issues in the work-place from coaching employees, integrating new hires into the organization to placing struggling staff members on a performance plan.  One of the most important values that is currently under attack is the value of respecting one another and treating fellow staff members in a civil manner.  HR leaders are often charged with being the role model for the larger organization.  As HR professionals, we must focus on supporting four key areas to ensure a “climate of civility”.  Here are the four pillars to assist HR professionals create this new climate.

Listen Rather than Talk

Many of us do too much talking and not enough listening.  We treat conversation as a one-way communication where our goal is to influence the other person and convert them to our point of view.  Most people tend to treat conversation like a competitive sport, in which the person who says the most, makes the cleverest point, persuades others to adopt their opinion, or even speaks the longest and loudest is the winner. Many of us fall into this trap every day.  All of us find ourselves interrupting and coming up with alternative ideas to support our point of view.  If you stop and think about it, though, this approach is the opposite of the one we should actually take. In most conversations, the person who speaks least benefits the most and the person who speaks most benefits the least.  When you focus on what the other person is saying and listen to their ideas you will be in a better place to add value to the conversation.  The key take-away is listen rather than talk.

Respect  Different Points of View

Ask anyone in your workplace what treatment they most want from their manager and colleagues and they will more often indicate that what they desire most from their employer and co-workers is to be treated with respect. Our employee survey data also indicates that respect for differing perspectives and points of view are critical for job satisfaction and engagement.  Without a high level of respect among the employees conflict and job challenges may increase. Employees who have little or no respect for others and do not consider differing points of view can engage in behavior that illustrates lack of respect for the person as well as their contribution to the organization.  The key take-away is respect different points of view.

Be Open to Change

Have you ever tried to implement a new change in your company and found you have hit a road block? The executive team is supportive, your plan is thoughtful and you have secured the financial resources to make it happen; however, your employees simply didn’t want to change. Companies can encourage change and bring their employees along for the ride by communicating and sharing the vision and the strategy behind the proposed change.  Transparency with the staff will alleviate concerns and encourage buy-in for the new processes.  Having an engaged workforce that is open to new ideas is important and will allow the organization to respond to changes in the ever-changing market.  Eliminating the fear of change is as important as improving communication and encouraging employees in become a part of the decision-making process.  The key take-away is be open to change.

Challenge Inappropriate Behavior

Behaviors that are considered to be inappropriate in the workplace include being angry, exhibiting aggressive communication (both verbal and/or written) being disrespectful,  belittling, abusive or threatening another person.  Inappropriate behavior impacts morale, employee satisfaction and workplace cohesion.  Today is it very important that not only managers take action to limit this behavior but also individual contributors need to recognize that they have a responsibility to notify management or challenge the inappropriate behavior immediately.  Employees who are disrespecting their co-workers will often times only cease this behavior if they are informed that this behavior is unacceptable and that if it continues disciplinary action my result.  A work environment that supports respectful behavior will ensure productivity, creativity and innovation.  The key take-away is challenge inappropriate behavior.

These four principals if supported, encouraged and acted upon will help companies safeguard a work environment that will promote a climate of civility with Human Resources being a champion of respect.