Blue Collar HR

Two Types of Employees

2011-04-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

Look, I am all about being honest. This especially comes to my high potentials. I am not going to BS them, and in return I hope that I am the first one they run to when they start getting the eventual offers from the outside. So here is the deal, there are two types of employees:

1. Employees with options
2. Employees with no options

Nuff said, that is all there is to it. I don't care what industry you are in or what your "niche" is. Employees with options reap the rewards of "choosing" to stay with their current company (until they inevitably leave) and employees who have no choice but to stay get nothing (or less) than their counterparts who have options.

Cold you say? I am definitely putting on the Darth Vader Mask here, for sure. But do the mental exercise for me just for fun. Which of your employees have options and which don't? Then adjust your retention efforts accordingly. I was at the BCHRMA conference today and had a speaker say that younger people don't expect to work for a company for 35 years anymore. I found this amusing because I don't expect people to work for me for more than five years (I think I can keep people around for that long) after that I expect them to move on without a promotion or significant change of some sort.

Keep it fluid my brothers and sisters.

Just Letting People Know Etiquette of Applying online

2011-02-21T18:55:00.000-08:00

I know that navigating company websites to apply can be a daunting task. I also know that many of my readers (all 10 of you or so) will have no patience with people who do not intuitively know that someone has to navigate through multiple resumes and cover letters to decide on a group that is "best qualified" to be sent up to a interview. Here is the truth of the matter, on the administration side of things cut and pasted resume's and cover letters are extremely hard to read. In fact, while there may very well be a person whose qualifications are so "right" that I can decipher a resume that is cut and pasted into a little box erasing any formatting that helps me to zero in on experiences that could help my organization, I have not found one yet. I have to try very hard to decipher these and reading them is not easy.

Bottom Line: The site gives you the attachment option for a reason, use it.

Dealing with a Union Environment: "There is no Spoon"

2011-02-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

Matrix - The spoon
Uploaded by Deepsound. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

"Do not try to bend the spoon...That is impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth"
"What truth?"
"There is no spoon."
"There is no spoon?"
"Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."

When dealing with a Union environment there are two types of organizations. The type that is wringing their hands and wondering what the Union will say about every decision they make and the type of organization that has won all of the policy battles and is actually managing their employees performance. This is what it is all about people. The more you pretend the Union does not exist the more you win. This is more for the line supervisor. Don't get me wrong, good Union reps will get you second guessing yourself all over the place, but that doesn't mean you roll over. Keep fighting the fight. Keep doing the right things for the right reasons. You have to drive the business and in the end they want that too.

All of the policy battles are just white noise. Policy is fine and it certainly makes it easy to make decisions on attendance and other such nonsense that should be taken care of already. But the real holy grail (the part that is in the management rights section of every contract), is the fact that you have the right to manage employee performance. The problem comes when you actually have to measure and have some sort of semi-objective means of evaluating that performance. But seriously, why else are we here?

I will tell you right now, you have no idea how many organizations have not made the leap to actual performance management. They are stuck just trying to get people to show up to work or complying with some other kind of basic policy. If you are doing this type of thing you are failing. That stuff should all be black and white. The real work starts when you raise the bar and say "Who is doing a good job and who is not." That is when your talent level really starts improving and that is something that, as long as you can back it up, the union has absolutely no say over.

"There is no spoon"

Super Bowl Sunday in the Real World

2011-02-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

When working in a 24/7 operation sometimes your shift workers miss things.

For instance Steel workers in Pittsburgh having to miss the superbowl.

The memorandum that was circulated through the management ranks has all the trappings of a Jedi Mind Trick. I have not seen their collective bargaining agreement, but I assume attendence is addressed. Most people will tell you it is hard to deviate from any attendence practice and terminate for one missed day or even two.

Unless you want to call it a wild cat strike, work stoppage, or some other kind of unfair labor practice, in which case well played sir (you will never win, but you get style points). Scorched earth approach to labor relations is always an interesting lifestyle choice.

The problem is that most of the arbitrators will probably be Steelers fans (Hmmmm do you think you could sneak an Eagles fan in there?).

You have to put this kind of stuff on your line supervisors to create a sense of belonging and responsibility to each employee's fellow co-workers. Healthy crews do not have these kind of issues.

1. Supervisors work with employee's to ensure everyone gets a fair shake.

2. One someone does get the shaft they have the knowledge that they will get a fair shake in a future scheduling because they are taking one for the team.

Honestly, if I want to see who my good line supervisors are at US Steel, I will see who works with a fully covered shift on Superbowl Sunday. If I want to see who my best supervisors are, I see who can work a fully manned shift without overtime on Superbowl Sunday.

Hazards of Being New

2011-01-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

HR people new to an organization have a double whammy of hazards. First of all figuring out the plethora of new processes and ways of doing things is difficult. In addition the hows and why's are an unknown. Everyone would like to think they are a No BS HR person who uses a machete to cut through red tape . But every organization has their own politics and drama. Sometimes it is very hard to figure out the dramatics (also paranoids or people who view risk takers as some sort of leper) from the people who are just trying to help you out ("You know the COO is the approval authority for that and he is specifically looking for..."). Until you figure the political atmosphere out you have two choices:

1. Take refuge in the protective embrace of corporate HR and become the operational spy that narcs and circumvents your operational leaders at every turn.

2. Trust your operations guys and go along for the ride, make mistakes learn (maybe get thrown under the bus), but learn with your operations guys (you know the guys that actually make stuff and drive profit) and hopefully bond with them to create a solid relationship for the future.

Of course I choose #2. I see no problem going on an early ill advised jihad against corporate with your operations guys support, even if you know you will lose. It is call team building people and OPS guys need to know that you are no pansy that you wont be the one to constantly nag and harass them out of any out of the box idea they try to implement. Once they see you don't mind bleeding a little for them you would be amazed at the respect you get from them. This you can cash in later when you are coaching them to have more patience before they terminate that person who hasn't had a below average performance evaluation in his life and no write ups in his file ("Don't you think you should tell him what he is doing wrong in a formal setting before termination?").

I have always been an all or nothing type of guy and, in the end, I don't mind sacrificing a little bit of my early credibility with the corporate types to solidify my position within my team of people who actually drive profit.

So my advice, be prepared to bleed a little or go home.

But...Sometimes You Take the Money

2011-01-09T19:15:00.001-08:00

In my last post I talked about how Jim Harbaugh would stay at Stanford because of the ownership he has of the Stanford team. Later that day, It was announced that Jim Harbaugh would be taking the head coaching position for the San Francisco 49er's.

So what does that say about my previous analysis? Well, it says that I have never been faced with a choice that had personal earnings of seven or more zeros attached to it, for sure. However if you look atmost of the news stories Stanford was always in the running. Jim Harbaugh was negotiating out of a pure strength position. He was happy at Stanford, but was open to other opportunities if, and only if, it was the perfect opportunity for him. Notice some of the earlier NFL teams were turned away. My guess (although no contract terms have been specified as of yet) is that Harbaugh was looking for the grand slam and, if he did not find it, would have been content to stay at Stanford until he did.

So Stanford, being the most prestigious academic school on the West Coast and not only landing, but making a good play at keeping the most sought after football coaching talent in America we salute you. It means you have something going very right in your athletic department. You don't win them all, but my guess is that Harbaugh will set you up for success and even help you with the search for his replacement.

Employee Loyalty and Owning a Team--A Hidden Retention Tool?

2011-01-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

Jim Harbaugh is the kind of talented up and comer that makes corporate America drool. Certainly ready for the next step his accomplishments at Stanford speak for themself. He has taken an institution that was nowhere in the BCS discussion and high academic standards that probably have their own recruiting issues (no dummies at Stanford) and put them in the discussion their one loss is to either the national champion or the runner up. He has also mentored and trained the premier quarterback recruit of the 2010-2011 season. So when is Harbaugh going to make the jump to the NFL? He certainly has plenty of options with the Dolphins, 49er's, and Broncos chomping at the bit to sign him. Money, fame, and power are all within his grasp. Why would he stay at Stanford with so much to gain on the outside?

Andrew Luck.

Relationships matter. Often in business when someone is given the opportunity create their own team and has been recognized for success with that team a true leader wants to play out that success till the end. Very few people have so little ego that with the pinnacle of accomplishment (BCS Championship) so close they would give it all away for monetary gain or simple external rewards.

Andrew Luck is coming back to Stanford and so will Harbaugh. Ownership is the most powerful retention tool you can use in any organization. Harbough owns his success at Stanford, no one will dispute that he is the single most dominant force behind their success. Andrew Luck is giving up millions of dollars by coming back to Stanford next year and so will Harbaugh, just simply to finish what he started.

Let someone build there team and taste success and they will find it very hard to leave it behind for the unknown, no matter what is offered to them.

New Role, new challenges

2010-12-27T20:33:00.000-08:00

Man, being new to a organizations is a pain! I was once told that no company is perfect and I accepted that on face value without really thinking about it. In reality, there are two types of companies. Companies that are can change course easily and companies that can't. I think one of the worst things about HR is that the first 6 months is spent learning all of the transactional procedures that get stuff done. Really, to me, this is a necessary but painful evil in an HR career. You need to be the expert on how an organization moves forward on a daily basis, but your job is not to provide transactional support for the operational guys. I just feel like I am wasting time learning this stuff however necessary to get to the good stuff like changing attitudes and processes toward talent and development. If Kris Dunn has taught me anything, it is that every minute you spend on transactional work is a waste of time. But, yet you must learn, so that you can teach others.

Part of my problem with the new organization (which is great, really), is that they are growing so fast they seem to be going overboard to create some semblance of organization as they rapidly expand. The result is a heavy handed attempt at an extremely hierarchical structure from a former marine (Oh, how I want to say ex-marine just to piss you guys off...Marines and military folk will get this).

As an HR guy who knows where his paycheck comes from, my number one goal has always been to increase my operational boss's authority. I firmly believe that the more decision making you push down to the lowest level the more flexible and effective you will be as an organization. However, I now find myself in a position where the organization is going the opposite way.

So, I now find myself in the role of insurgent. I need to convince people who get paid more and have worked for the organization longer than me that their path is wrong, and while structure is important, it is not what has made them successful in the past.

So, the question I have been pondering this week before the new year, in a two month old job is how ballsy should I be, and who can I afford to piss off to make my point.

Overtime and the Hourly Employee

2010-11-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hours in a growing industry is always a challenge. In established industries it is simply a math problem where a certain amount of overtime equals another full time employee. In a high growth company, it is much more difficult. Employees become reliant on overtime pay for their daily expenses. A person who should only be making $2.5K a month starts bringing in $3.5k a month and their lifestyle becomes dependent on making that kind of money. However, in the end people who are putting in that kind of overtime will only want to put in that kind of time for so long. Once you realize that you have employees putting in 300+ hours a month you have to realize that these peoples lives are not "typical". Retention is also an issue over the long term. People do not want to work those kind of hours long term. While with the economy the way it is you can get away with it for a while, after a year or two employees will even take a pay cut to get a more family or lifestyle friendly schedule.

Really these type of situations should never happen. While their will be time frames of a month or so where increased hours are necessary in a production environment, if you go more than a quarter with this type of overtime you need to seriously consider adding shifts. The danger you are facing if an hourly workforce gets used to gross amounts of overtime is a complete change in the demographics of your hourly workforce. If you are looking specifically for guys who will work 200+ hours a month, they will never be happy when told that they only get to work 180. They have car payments and mortgages based on the high hours. They will leave and you will be forced to find people who have more realistic hour expectations. While you always want to hire people who will work a high amount of hours, too many of those and you create a situation where it is an entitlement. A proper mix is needed. For retention purposes you need at least a 70 percent hourly workforce that is happy to work 40 hours a week. Then you can leverage the other 30 percent to fill in the gaps. There will always be employees who will take whatever hours they can get, but creating workforce that is entirely composed of "hour whores" is a recipe for failure. In a Union environment you also get people that are on the watch for percieved seniority violations as it pertains to overtime.

Bottom line: Create a sustainable production pace and find a metric that tells you when to add people. For people in a more static and established industry you need to get with your controller and figure out what those metrics are.

Talk to a safety guy about the myriad of safety issues associated with long hours as well.

1st Step in a new Blue Collar HR job: Who to make Friends with

2010-11-16T19:40:00.000-08:00

While I haven't had too many changes in jobs there is one truth that I am sure of in the line blue collar HR field. Make friends with your finance person. While in the white collar world with a proven structure this may seem anathema, the comptroller, controller, accountant, or whatever you call it, is an extreme asset in the management of an hourly workforce. Look, I have to many employees to be absolutely groundbreaking in everything I do. Maybe that is admitting defeat. But in my world simple victories stand out. Victories like making sure labor gets charged to the right account so that the proper supervisor or manager can be held responsible. Also, when you are looking at big picture, assessing manning levels and adjusting using overtime as a metric doesn't work when your maintenance account is getting not getting charged because of the production people they are using on overtime for fire-watch.

The person who knows all of these things is your financial guy (gal). Their frustrations are your frustrations when it comes to managing 200+ employees. Simple oversights or errors over the long term can hose you big time when you try to do that "big boy" analysis to actually better your organization. First step when you enter a new Blue Collar HR job is to ensure that labor is being charged to the right account ever time and employees are classified correctly. The easiest ally to that purpose is the finance person. They almost always feel under-appreciated and they already have a long list of issues about how labor is charged (without full perspective) that will make you look like a star.

Solve that issue and the finance guy will come to you with issues rather than suffering in silence. Which for some reason is what they tend to do without acknowledgment.

Admin Recruiting....Where it's At

2010-11-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

While it is certainly a daunting task to have multiple admin requisitions come to me within my first few weeks at a new job, I am appreciating the challenge of building a staff from scratch so much. While I have had some experience with building the hourly ranks with solid performers and feel that I am successful at it, salaried employees have so much more complexity and fit means so much more to the organization. The human resources function feels so much more rewarding to me now that I have sole control of who to show my operation guys and can control the how applicants are recruited so much more. While I don't think I could ever become a recruiter without a master, I really enjoy building organizations from the ground up. I have always liked buying into a vision and then selling other people on the promise of an organization that I belong to. Especially when I am given a free reign to go ahead and experiment with raw talent as well as seasoned professionals. While there are a host of other aspects of the HR generalist role I enjoy, the recruiting part seems to be the lynch-pin between running a successful organization and building a successful organization that makes you feel more responsible for organizational outcomes. There seems to be so many good hires around the corner right now in this economy. It is truly exciting. Now if I can just find the time to learn how to write status reports correctly I may just make it into my second month. Google "Terrible" Terry Tate: Office Linebacker.....the horror....

Geneology More Than Your Wife Discovering Herself

2010-10-15T16:11:00.001-07:00

Let's talk skilled craftsmen. Not just mechanics or Millwrights, but the ones that are truly hard to find. I think every blue collar industry has one or two of these type of jobs. Take Sawfiling, in the sawmilling industry it is a specialty unto itself. It is not millwright or electrician, it is a mix between machinist and voodoo (it is, indeed, often referred to as black magic....no joke). It is a craft that is so specific in it's skill set that very few people choose to do it and, as a result, the few people that choose Sawfiling as a profession, are good at it, and show a spark of leadership ability become well compensated very quickly.

Normally, the answer to a lot of problems in finding leaders for this type of niche craft is to grow your own from within. If that fails you find yourself having to decide if your geneology has gone wrong. I am not talking names, ethnicity, or what royal family members you may or may not have been related to in the past thousand years. I am talking about a line of training that puts niche craftspeople into a school of thought, philosophy, or overall attitude.

Specialized craftspeople operate in tight circles. Rumors fly quickly through these groups and almost everyone knows everyone, at least by reputation. If you are looking for a change in philosophy, technique, or ability pay attention to where your current craft philosophy is coming from. You can often trace who was trained by who until you get to some common denominators, that can show you the true differences. Of course, individual ability still comes into play.

I am truly curious if anyone has come into contact with searches of these kind. It has been one of the most interesting searches I have ever done, because of it's complexity and difficulty. Any niche crafts I need to be aware of?

Do You Know Who You Are?

2010-10-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

I am going to brag a little in this post. The struggle will be to not get annoyingly egotistical. But, I believe that my experience will give people something to learn from.

The economy sucks, there are no job opportunities, especially in manufacturing...Dear God I hope you don't want a job in Manufacturing.

WRONG!

I am a Manufacturing HR guy with only two years of industry experience. I recently started testing the waters to see if there were other opportunities out there. I stuck with large manufacturers of various products and started submitting resumes via the SHRM website. At one point I was in the middle of 4 different searches only six months after submitting my first resume. I was picky, I told companies I wasn't interested after learning more about the job/organization. I declined offers. I did not take a job until I felt it was the absolutely perfect opportunity for me. No compromising, no regrets. I know there is more to it than that, and there was a lot of hard work along the way, but my main point is that there is plenty of opportunity oout there.

How? I know who I am and what I want to do with my life and can articulate it clearly and concisely to hiring managers. I do plenty of hiring and the amount of wishy washy answers I get to the simple question of "What do you want to do with your life?" is insane. Par for the course would be: "I hope to be successful in [insert position you are hiring for here] for x amount of time and hopefully have an opportunity to move up in your organization." Ok, that gets you through the question without follow ups, but I am going to forget you the moment you walk out the door. Here is my answer to that question:

"I love HR (I actually do). My long term goal is to become an expert in manufacturing/industrial human resources issues. For me, that means that I would like to spend some time as an HR Director and move into a VP level as quickly as possible (important to note that those are not the positions I am an applicant for). I work hard because I love what I do. I do HR for fun. Long days don't matter to me because I have found my calling in life and it is good.

Amen.

If you don't like me because I won't be wasting space in your office for 5 to 10 years adding little if any true value to your organization then I will not be the right person for your job. If you can't keep me challenged I will move on...fast. OK enough crowing, I will get back to the issues.

When It's Time to Move On

2010-10-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

I am starting a new adventure. For the last two years I have been learning manufacturing HR from the school of hard knocks at a Lumber Mill in Dillard Oregon. The experiences and development I have recieved from the many great people I have worked with are too many to count. The reasoning for my leaving is relatively simple:

1. I have an inherent love for the HR functional area and wish to specialize in this area (Currently I cover safety and environmental compliance which for development purposes has been good, however is becoming more and more of a distraction to where I want to be).

2. I looked at my goals for the upcoming year and realized that I wasn't invested in any of them (Namely all safety and environmental goals and no HR goals)

3. The culture of my organization is based on "putting in your time". This permeates everything from compensation and benefits to how you are treated on a personal level. I have worked hard over the last couple of years to become an expert on this organizations HR processes and feel that those skills really are not valued because of my short tenure.

4. About a year ago I started getting a sneaky suspicion that I could get paid more to do less work. Now, if you are a 12 hour a day guy you can't just become an 8 hour guy, but my wife and I have made the decision that she would stay home with our two small children and focus on my career. If I am going to be missing that much time with my family there is a compensation number that needs to be reached for me to be comfortable.

Having said all that I really do like my current organization. If I was the type of guy who wanted to wait around for my shot and "put my time in" this would certainly be the place to do it. Good people both in the managerial and hourly ranks. However, I also chose this company because I felt that I could make an immediate impact that would better my organization. Lately, due to economic conditions and managerial changes I have felt less and less like I have the ability to impact my organization for the good. I probably could have kept the plates spinning for another couple of years, but in the end, I want to be fully engaged in what I am doing. I am proud of the achievements and projects that I have worked on here, but it is time to move on.

A note to people in the same boat, you would be amazed what opportunities are out there at this time. I was in the fortunate position of being pursued by three different organizations. I believe the key to this is that I truly love my chosen profession of HR. Good people always have choices. I chose to move on.

I also hope to be restarting blogging regularly. stay tuned.

Mom...Can you find me some Candidates

2010-09-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

My parents live elsewhere now, but the often return to the ancestrial homeland (Puyallup, WA.--don't try to pronounce). It is easy to get caught up in a conversation about Billy, you know your younger brothers friend who used to live across the street, and what he is doing now. Usually it is focused on the normal stuff like how many kids he has, or where he is living etc. Normally I pay about half attention to this stuff and move on. However, here is a recent phone conversation I had with my mother:

Mom: So do you remember Billy?

Me: Kinda (Staring at the computer screen)

Mom: He is expecting his third kid.

Me: Sweet...good for him (spacing out on facebook).

Mom: He works for a sawmill in Colorado. Summary of what I hear: He is specializing in this ultra niche craft that you have been banging your head against a wall to fill. His organization is in trouble and he is really looking for something different. He would also like to be closer to family in the Northwest.

Me (yelling): What's his NUMBER!!! GIVE ME HIS NUMBER!!

Mom: Oh?! I don't think I have his number. Ummm, I suppose I could give Julie (Billy's mom) a call and get an e-mail or something.

Me: That would be awesome, thanks mom. You are the best mom in the whole world.

Never mind that I had not spoken to this guy since he was in Jr High. He was about to become my new best friend.

I think more than anything the above...very sad yet telling scenario, shows how hard it is to find people wanting to take a risk in this economy. Organizations who aren't willing to pay 90th percentile or above are having a hard time filling key roles within their organization. People are stuck in their homes. Mediocre seems ok right now until the economy gets going. I have been extremely underwhelmed by the responses I have gotten to my openings. This is even with the assistance of various recruiter types.

In the end (with all due respect to recruiters out there), nothing beats having the HR manager or Operations guy call up someone out of the blue and sell a passive candidate on a opportunity. It is unfiltered and it starts or restarts a relationship that will prove very valuable during the selection process.

Wanna Take a Risk on an Up and Comer? Don't throw them under the Bus at the First Sign of Failure

2009-10-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is not familiar with this saga you can get a good refresher here. The short version that applies to HR pros is this: Up and comer gets the next step up from supervisor to middle manager with a boss to be named later. He knows that there is some C level dysfunction in the organization, but figures that he will be able to just do the job and make the most out of the opportunity. Manager search goes bust. Many of the top level candidates are bailing because of the dysfunction within the organization. Many decide to stay where they are at in lesser positions with only minor incentive from the potential losing organization. Warning sign? The CEO is frustrated, and since his options are limited, rather than look desperate he hires the up and comer already within the organization to the big spot. The season begins, everyone had low expectations and many people both within and outside the organization doubted the wisdom of the hire. As those expectations start to become a reality the CEO does:

a) Supports new hire with references to "Rome wasn't built in a day" etc.
b) Stays silent on the topic while pushing/allowing his intermediaries to support the new manager.
c) Stays silent on the topic, hires an outside consultant to take a major role in the organization stripping the new hire of much of his authoriity. When intermediaries attempt to support the new hire puts out a strong message that their job may be on the line as well.

If you picked C then you could very well be Dan Snyder the owner of the Washington Redskins!

Look, if you choose to take a risk on someone who shows promise, has the personality, but just not the resume you have some obligations to set clear limits on when you are going to bail on him. I am not saying you just resign yourself to failure, but a little due diligence at the outset would go a long way in minimizing the chaos this has caused in the Redskin's organization (For instance why the 5 year contract if you were even a little bit unsure you think they would have gone a little shorter). The press is now starting to catch on that Jim Zorn is a scapegoat for many larger issues going on in the mediocre football team.

I think many of us have had a chance to "step up" beyond our normal progressive career path in our lives. Usually, I have done it because a need was there and I felt that my leaders had faith in me and would support me and aid me in tough times. That is the obligation that leaders have in these circumstances. If I thought for a second that they would pull the rug out from me as soon as a little heat starts coming I wouldn't volunteer for anything.

Good luck finding your next Head Coach Mr. Spencer. You thought it was tough last time, you haven't seen nothing yet.

Why Blue Collar??

2009-10-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

As I try to start blogging again, I thought I would begin with the back story to my adventure in blogging. A good way to introduce myself again to the blogging world at large and also to inform HR types in the blogosphere why you NEED me.

I am blue collar HR. That means that HR is only part of what I do. If I were to put all of my titles on a business card it would not fit. I am HR Manager, Safety Coordinator, Environmental Coordinator, and Training Manager. If it has personal liability as a punishment for incompetence I am usually waist deep in it. I either report or take direction from 4 different upper managers (Plant Manager, HR Director, Environmental Affairs Manager, and Safety Manager). My rating and goals only involve 2 of the above titles, however, I know that a failure on any of them would most likely be a terminable offense.

I deal with a Union. Every personnel decision I make is filtered through a document of which is more about what is NOT included rather than what is specifically written down. The first six months of my job I was told where to find it in the contract (with only a slightly condescending tone). The next six months of my job involved interviews with various union and non-union personnel to find out if indeed there is a "past practice" which invariably leads to a grievance in which the VP of HR (3 step grievance process for the uninitiated, no binding arbitration in the contract) may or may not support me based on what he had for breakfast or larger picture issues of which I have no visibility. Good ideas once filtered through this prism often turn to mediocre or bad ideas. I still love the struggle.

We are at the ground level of many processes that larger businesses have been doing the last decade. Modern performance management system? Employee/Supervisory Training? I feel included in all of the discussions and if I choose to be a part of or even spearhead an initiative I can. While frustrating that these things are not in place I get to shape the future based on how I want it to look.

I deal with REAL people. People I would like to drink beer with. People who have real problems. I have a heartfelt belief that what is best for my company is best for my community and vice versa. The community I live in is small, but that makes the business decisions that I am a part of take that much more importance. Relationships are important here. While we don't have much a system for developing people, it tends to happen just because of the many good people around which is why we have excelled up to this point. This is an hourly union workforce the "heartbeat" of America.

There are many issues that are important to me that do not seem to be covered in the HR Blogosphere. This stuff isn't rocket science, but it is where the rubber meets the road in our economy.

Everyone is a staffing professional

2008-11-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

Just a thought since I haven't posted in a while. The market is down and will be down for a while, so that means boomers who where going to retire in the next year and a half or so will be holding off while their 401k or IRA recovers. This means that instead of a gradual transition of workforce replacement we will instead have a mass exodus of boomers retiring once the market comes up again. I would put the clock at two years for organizations to invest in training, outside recruiting and succession planning before you start to feel the pain. Even then old succession planning models will not be enough. You wont just be able to plug people into slots like before and slowly work to get the right people in the right spots, instead you will need to be two or three people deep as the quick movement upward will cause some of your personnel to fail and you will readily need a bench for the bench as people move in and out of positions, also outside recruiting will boom as some companies who have not prepared for this scenario will attempt to "buy" their way out of the problem stealing YOUR talent. I don't care what your niche is in HR you will be focused on training, recruiting, and retention whether it is compensation, benefits, or training. I admit this is a nightmare scenario. However, I am preparing. How prepared are you? More to come on this; I need to think on it more to post more effectively. Might be time to move into the recruiting feild though.

On Discipline

2008-10-13T17:29:00.001-07:00

As I was moonlighting as a manufacturing supervisor an interesting issue came up. Often times union contracts will have supposed "deadly sins" usually there is a number associated with them i.e. 8 deadly sins (we have 12 I think). Supposedly these are violations of company policy, law, or simple good conduct that would not have a requirement for progressive discipline. Usually fighting on company property and harassment are on there as well as others depending on your company culture.

There is a fine line between being a jerk and harassing people. I am not sure many people would even be able to define where that line is. My definition is when a person's behavior creates an intolerable/unsafe/hostile environment for another employee. When someone has been talked to about being a jerk to more than one person, it should shoot up red flags in supervisors minds. Maybe he gets one get out of jail free card (they should still record the incident though), moves and acts like a jerk so much that again it is brought up to a supervisor. Now, I would say you probably have harassment of some sort going on. When you throw in employees moving to different shifts or crews this can become infinitely more complicated. Honestly, I would hate to tell supervisors to not use disciplinary discretion with their employees. If supervisors believe it is a one time thing or just a bad mix of personalities I can see some coaching going on to fix the situation. However, if it happens over and over with different supervisors you are asking for trouble as an organization in the form of broad harassment claims from multiple people.

So there you go blue collar supervisors. Some form of documentation allows your brethren to put the pieces together later if they need to while no documentation may keep a jerk on the job longer than necassary. I personally like problem discussion forms. They also help organize your thoughts before you talk to the employee. Get over the fear of "putting something in his/her file". In the end that is what it is there for...to tell you the past of the employee. In other words CYA.

Development Obsession

2008-10-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

I have been absolutely submerging myself in development and training literature for the past few days. I am wondering if I am getting a little obsessive about this program I am creating. Today I created a draft leadership competency model for my organization and began to create a developmental model using a mix of 360 degree feedback, goal setting, mentoring, and classroom curriculum. Right now, I think I am at the point where I can shop this for input from various leaders. Then it is just a matter of figuring out how to sell this thing.

Part of me is wondering if I am getting too into the details. I am so new to the organization that I don't feel like I can create those lines that get specific decision makers ears perked up. I also need to re look at the proposal and decide what the most important parts are to include in some sort of future presentation to the executive team. That is all after I see if it is even feasible for the local community college to get involved as facilitators of the classroom part of the curriculum. If you have any questions about my whole process at this point let me know. I might post the whole plan once it is complete just for kicks.

Leaders Made not Born

2008-10-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

A quick one to stir up some thought. The age old question of whether leaders are made or born has always struck me as quite asinine. While there may very well be people who are more outgoing or have a higher aptitude in leadership type tasks, people never seem to think about character when they bring up this question. True leaders are servant leaders and it takes more than a silver tongue and charisma to pull that off. Leading by fear and lies can only hamstring an organization in the end. To me, the real question is whether you are born with character or it is made within you. I think that most people will agree that character is a product of experience and upbringing rather than being born as some sort of shining light. I could not follow a leader without a good amount of character. Maybe when I was young I might have, but as I get older and gain responsibilities of my own I want to know that I will be taken care of and my efforts will be rewarded. If you look at your leaders and do not respect their character my advice would be to run as fast as you can away from the situation. A person like that cannot be convinced or persuaded past their own ambition and will leave you in ruins without a second thought. Better to take less money and be happy (although I believe you can have both). I have been blessed in my life to be surrounded by people of character...not perfect, but good. If you aren't surrounded by these types, you might want to re-evaluate your situation.

First OSHA Audit

2008-09-29T17:02:00.001-07:00

Interesting experience today. I was able to take part in my first OSHA impromptu Audit. Here are a few lessons I gained from the experience.

1. Your attitude during an OSHA audit should be dictated by your relationship with the local compliance officers and your company's history with OSHA issues. If you have had a somewhat combative relationship I would suggest you make things more organized, while at the same time being open with the inspectors. If you have a freindly relationship or simply a good history with OSHA related issues you might be able to get away with less organization and make it into more of a tour like visit.

2. Understand quickly if your compliance officer is out to get you or one of the ones that is a true believer in making people safe. Do not overly fear or overreact to the audit this will be seen as concealing behavior.

3. While being open and honest is good, don't feel like you need to show him every corner of your business. If he looks like he is going to pass an area by there is no need to bring this to his attention. They WILL charge you for non-compliance issues so lets not air out all of your dirty laundry.

4. I would rather even a surprise visit be organized. Have a plan. If they will need to visit more dangerous areas make sure proper precautions are planned for and ready to be executed. Having an organized meeting before the audit begins in a conference room can buy your supervisors time to make things organized (for example a look at rolling stock having vehicles staged and ready for the inspector). Plus it is nice to give your supervisors a heads up during that time.

5. Your front line supervisors should be involved in the audit process since it is their areas. They don't have to lead the tour, but they should be listening and taking notes on what is being discovered.

6. A safe work environment is the ultimate goal...even if you have a gotcha auditor who is being a jerk, plaster on that smile and thank him for making your workforce safer and giving excellent feedback on your plants safety program.

7. There are programs through OSHA that relive you of being on the Audit list. I highly recommend that you look into these programs (i.e. SHARP or VPP). Even if you have a GREAT relationship with your local OSHA, audits are still a pain.

I am sure there are more things I learned today, but I am still partially digesting, but these are the things that stood out.

Yah my last post....

2008-09-24T17:14:00.001-07:00

Apparently I am now in charge of creating a development strategy for talent within our organization...This was not my intent at the beginning, but I guess I will take it.

Thoughts Going Through My Head

2008-09-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about talent development. I don't think my company has an overall strategy for this. This is frustrating because when I come up with my "great" ideas I am having a hard time deciding if it fits with our company culture and attitudes or not. Discuss......

Have You Given Up?

2008-09-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

It is interesting in my line of work how many different types of people I get to talk to in all stages of life. Most interesting to me are the ex-high performers who for some reason or another have simply given up on fighting the "good fight". They are most likely near retirement or have had some bad experiences that have tainted their desire to attempt change of any sort. Plenty of HR professionals out there who would tell people that you need to get rid of these people and replace them. For me, I am more interested in how these people are created and how to break them from the mold and push them to perform again. It is not just for the company either. These are most likely the people, who at an earlier time, took great pleasure in their work. In one of my college english classes I was told that "mysogenists were almost always disallusioned romantics". In many ways it is the same way with disallusioned high performers they end up not coping with stress well and hating their work because the pleasure they once recieved from the work is no longer there. All they have is the bad aspects of their job with no intrinsic reward.

As an HR professional it is extremely frustrating to talk to these individuals because usually these people are the ones I most respect and admire for their knowledge and experience. They are the people I often go to for advice as well. But, when faced with beauracratic or organizational obstacles, they simply throw up their hands and stop pursuing success. They know that they are being set up to fail and they often know the changes needed to fix things but, somehow they feel like they will be betrayed and punished for attempting such an action. One of the most sad things is that, most often, this is only a perception and not the truth of how the organization will react. There will always be organizational resistance to change, but where some people get energized at the prospect of overcoming these obstacles, these people become frustrated and worn down by it.

I have had the fortunate opportunity to be backed by my leaders as I sought significant change in an organization that I knew was needed or made decisions that were controversial. In return, I have supported my supervisors when they made decisions or changes. When leaders lose that support they simply begin to "go through the motions" and maintain the status quo without adding anything to your organization.

One of the first things I do when I take over a leadership position is talk to my leadership and ask them "What are the biggest obstacles to doing your job?" I do this relatively quick so that I they will see me as not having a stake in the status quo. I talk with them about their issues and when I find agreement with them I act quickly to resolve the problems they are faced with....or task them to fix it and let me know how it works. Most importantly I FOLLOW UP soon after to see if their perceptions are the same or not on what their real issue is. This immediately sets the tone that I will support their ideas and vision and value their perspective. I hope this also allows me to be more approachable in the future when other issues arise. Even small results garner a lot of respect. Food for thought if you are starting a new job or attempting change somewhere.

Reposting because people love me

2008-09-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

I have recently been tagged by Mark Fogel , The Venting HR Guy, and The HR Maven coincidently all of those three have great blogs so this is worth me reposting if you go and read them.
And here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
Six random things about myself
1. Dabbled in Mixed Martial Arts when I was in College and directly after. Fought for minor associations like the Full Contact Fighting Federation and The North American Grappling Association among others.
2. Was an Army Hand to Hand Combat Instructor for part of my military career.
3. Play the Harmonica badly, but I enjoy it.
4. Ashamed to say that I play World of Warcraft.
5. I am not "handy" and usually break something worse than it was when I try to fix it. I prefer to make enough money to pay someone to do it for me.
6. I love, love, love beer.

So here is the thing, I have been tagged three times in the last couple of days, Being so new to the blogosphere all of the people I know have been tagged already as well. So let me know and I will tag you. Hopefully, I will not die in three days or for that matter anyone else......Anyway, I spent too much time in the Army to totally play by the rules.

Developing a Learning Culture

2008-09-17T20:00:00.001-07:00

For some reason I have been fascinated with programs that pair Industry with local colleges to help train leaders within the organization. I feel that these partnerships are extremely advantageous when your geographic area are single industry dominated. In my case, I have been working on a side project at work to develop an Associates degree program that is specific to my industry and basically have it become a supervisor training program. Because we are not the only show in town the local community college will hopefully see this as an opportunity to bring in many adult learners who are on a stable career path and more academically focused. To create the two year program I looked at other business programs and forestry/wood products programs and combined the highlights of both to create a basic level of competency we, as an organization, would like to see our beginning managers have. The ultimate goal of this is to push our younger talent to go back to school if they do not have a degree and begin to broaden their horizons a bit while practicing computer skills and other core competencies they will need if they choose to advance in the company. The program I created has a couple different parts:

1. Basic curriculuum and program philosophy (self directed learning, networking, sharing of information).

2. Mentorship program within our company to track academic progress and encourage participation.

3. Both a pay boost and tuition assistance while enrolled, pay boost becomes permanent once graduated.

4. A plan to communicate the benefits of this with upper level leaders and encourage buy-in.

5. A solid explanation of why this program is needed.

Honestly, the main reason why we need a program like this is because we are in the middle of a culture change that has not been communicated very well. It used to be that if you kept your head down and did your work you would be taken care of. Nowadays the current leaders are looking for people to push to broaden their scope and skills themselves. The lower level managers are used to having development opportunities spoon fed to them without asking and now there is this new expectation that they need to find it themselves. I don't feel like this message is being communicated apropriately. The feeling like they don't really need to develop themselves outside of what they learn at their job is prevalent. I think that the above program will help to create some inertia for leaders to start to seek out learning opportunities whenever possible.

Best of all, the technical work of curriculuum development is done by the college and all we have to do is pitch what we want out of it and give input on the results. Before you start developing some crazy training program it is good to look around and see if someone else can do it better and at a lesser cost to the company. Not to mention the fact that the program will be open to other organizations and students will be able to share lessons learned from a broader perspective than just one particular organization's.

Something to ponder

2008-09-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

We in HR often talk about leadership and even complain about peoples lack of it. However, people on a straight HR track do not often have great opportunities to develop leadership skills early in their career. I look around even in the blogosphere and many of the professionals out there have had other experiences that drive their HR expertise. Experts are not grown overnight, and just because you have taken X amount of classes on teambuilding does not mean you can actually build a team. I know the phrase "Those who cannot do, teach" but shouldn't there be SOMETHING behind what we preach and coach and mentor to our managers? Something I struggle constantly with is not IF I should cross train as an operations leader, but how much? Especially, when I feel like I am giving up educational opportunities in the HR field for operational ones. Personally, I think all HR professionals who are not chest deep in a specialty need to be able to move in and out of operations to keep their leadership competencies current. I like the generalist role for now and that means engaging, coaching, and mentoring leaders and hopefully knowing what you are talking about.

So When Do We Lead?

2008-09-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

As always, my friends over at HRM Today got me all inspired. I participated in this post on the forums and it brought up, yet another one of my pet peeves on leadership issues.

Very rarely in life when dealing with personal issues between employees, and especially managers, are people going to break through professional communication or interpersonal barriers on the first shot. Jenn Barnes from HR WENCH provides the argument that explaining the standard in a forceful and productive manner should be enough to fix the problem without additional oversight or coaching. While I think perhaps that HR managers may often feel that this is enough, I cannot in good conscience begin to coach or counsel someone without additional follow-up or oversight as a manager. Very rarely is having one discussion enough to fix a complex problem and, even if it happens to work out, I have always made a point to follow up even if it is just to "see how things are going". It is way too easy to simply give someone your take on something or issue directives and simply release them to succeed or fail. As a manager, I have always approached failure as not being an option. Therefore, if an employee brings an issue to my attention....I am involved and invested in the outcome now. I need to coach, I need to train, I need to create an action plan to solve the issue so that I can achieve positive outcomes for my organization as well as the parties involved.

Too often I think we forget to follow up on these issues. We let other priorities take control and as leaders forget about the little ankle biter "personal problems" until it comes to a negative climax of some sort. If an employee comes to you with a problem, most likely it is not just to get your opinion or to get some new set of marching orders, it is to get your involvement in some way. With involvement comes oversight.

I am not saying that it is possible to solve every problem that comes across your desk, I am simply saying that when you choose to help an employee solve a problem you now are making a commitment to that employee to see it through to the end. The WORST thing that can happen is for you to simply give lip service to how and what they are supposed to be acting or doing and then not show them or coach them to success in this endeavor you are requiring them to accomplish.

As managers, I encourage all of you to think about your day to day activities and the employees you talk to and start to police up the issues people have brought up to you in the past few days. Check in with the employee and ask questions to see if a situation has been resolved. Just because they have not come back into your office does not mean the issue has gone away, it may only mean they have lost confidence in your ability or will to deal with the situation which is the absolutely worst outcome you could conceive.

Coincidentally, I think this is something that will make all of us better PEOPLE as well as leaders. Write peoples names down on index cards when they come to talk to you about an issue if you have to, and daily and weekly go through those cards to make sure that your advice or action plan was followed and was positive in the situation. Your employees will immediately notice the difference and so will you.

Coincidentally, sometimes the best thing to do is to refrain from helping someone because of a need to show confidence in a person's abilities or to make them more independent....this is another way of giving someone a challenge and learning opportunity, even if it is covert and you still need to take responsibility for that person's success or failure and make sure your original outcome is achieved.

AHH the good things

2008-09-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

I, at first, wasn't going to write about this experience but, Lance Haun's post motivated me to be a little sappy. Please read his post because with so many jerk husbands out there it is nice for the good guys to get some press.

Tonight I pulled myself away from the blogosphere for a little bit to put my young son to bed. As I talked to him and played with him doing the pre "nite nite" routine I was surprised how happy I was just changing a diaper and exchanging funny looks with him. As I put him to bed and he continued to smile up at me waiting for the blanket I would eventually drape over him in the final ritual, I admit I got a little misty eyed. It is the simple things that make my life great. So fellow bloggers and internet addicts, unplug a bit, turn off your phone, I am sure there are people waiting for you to come join them. God bless you all.

Define Success Before Someone Else Does

2008-09-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

How can you prove to your boss you are doing a good job? While I know most of those in the blogosphere can readily rattle off metrics and measures to define success I still see too many HR professionals floating in the wind as far as their basic HR duties. On the basest level many HR pros simply are reactive to the wills of their partner managers and because they meet their needs after they ask they say they are doing well. Here is a tip: If you cannot define success and how you measure it; YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! While their are many subjective aspects to good HR management, if you have absolutely no measures based on cold hard cash you are setting yourself up for failure.

If you really want to succeed in the HR arena you have to prove that you are saving the company money or adding value in some way. Talk to your manager about what his/her priorities are and add to those priorities your expertise on what HR needs to manage to accomplish or execute those priorities. Some people call this an HR scorecard, I simply call this being proactive verses reactive. Define early what exceptable turnover ratios are and track those numbers, do the same for retention. There has to be someone in your organization who can tell you what acceptable numbers are and, if not, make some up by using your business knowledge about where your organization is in the market and what it's goals are.

Business people like to talk in money. While HR pros tend to opt out of this means of conversation, it really is to our detriment despite any high and mighty ego we have. It takes some work but an ROI can be ballparked for almost anything. Sometimes starting with the goal helps as well, such as wanting to increase employee engagement by %30 thereby (insert study here) increasing profit levels and efficiency apropriately.

If your boss is distant from HR processes develop the metrics you would like to be evaluated on and start the conversation based on those metrics. He/She can never say that you didn't fulfill their expectations if you are that forward with what you think is important and force them to either accept or change those metrics.

It is good to be flexible, but if all you do is react in your HR job you are doomed to failure.

I have been Tagged!

2008-09-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks for Mark Fogel for tagging me although looking around the Blogosphere the pickings for new vixtims are slim. First I am supposed to tell you guys six random things about myself and then I am supposed to "Tag" six other people. I am on the road, so I will start with the six random things and I hope to tag my six people by tonight when I can get home.

1. Dabbled in Mixed Martial Arts when I was in College and directly after. Fought for minor associations like the Full Contact Fighting Federation and The North American Grappling Association among others.

2. Was an Army Hand to Hand Combat Instructor for part of my military career.

3. Play the Harmonica badly, but I enjoy it.

4. Ashamed to say that I play World of Warcraft.

5. I am not "handy" and usually break something worse than it was when I try to fix it. I prefer to make enough money to pay someone to do it for me.

6. I love, love, love beer.

There you go. When I get a bit more time tonight I will tag 6 others if there are 6 left.

Generational workforce presentation

2008-09-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

I had to sit through a presentation of generations in the workforce today which made me want to scream. I usually don't have anything against Boomers, but whenever they talk about generations in the workplace and they don't mention that Boomers tend to be self important and self absorbed you should beware. The guy brushed over the veteran/mature generational description and spent twice as much time on the Boomers and their experiences. He also brushed over X'ers and Millenial/Generation Y descriptions. At the very least I was expecting a little coverage on why Gen X'ers have less loyalty than Boomers (namely their parents were the ones laid off in the 80's). Also none of the sources were any newer than 2000 which is when most of the Millenials were graduating high school and people were only guessing at how they would act in the workplace. If you are going to give a presentation, make sure you can do the subject justice. I might be a bit biased because I have researched this a bit, but I found the whole presentation to be a bit of a waste of time. I mean they didn't even cover communication/motivational strategies which is the heart of the whole issue in my opinion. So frustrating.

Do you have a leadership philosophy?

2008-09-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

There always comes a time when you are expected to know your leadership style and be able to verbalize this during not only job interviews but during meetings with employees as well. For beginning career folks once you have gained a little experience leading people and teams it is important to take note of what works and doesn't work for you and be able to form the successes into a leadership strategy. Here is my leadership philosophy as an example:

I foster continuous learning among my staff. I lead by example, but I also force my staff to work outside of their comfort zones and take on projects focused at least one level up from the position they are currently working. All employees have goals, and I like to structure employee tasks and responsibilities around achieving these goals. I push my employees to engage in outside learning opportunities whenever possible. I do not make learning an option. If an employee comes to me with a problem I will ask them for a solution as well and will focus the discussion on their proposed answer. I expect employees to be experts in their field and treat them with that in mind.

Honestly, if I can do it anybody can do it. The above statement took me about 30 seconds to type, if you can't do the same you might want to think about what you have learned from your career and find some defining values to verbalize the way you treat people. The above statement is a living document and will change as I gain experience and, I hope, become more and more refined.

The point is: If you want to get in a position to lead people you better be able to tell people how you will accomplish that goal. By verbalizing a leadership philosophy you are also making a commitment to yourself to live up to the above values. Nobody is perfect, but at least we should be able to define what our definition of perfection is.

I welcome critiques to the above statement...still learning :)

Career Decisions

2008-09-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

Apparently I will never take a three day weekend again. After a relaxing long weekend at the beach, I received an interesting opportunity today to take a semi-lateral promotion (if there is really such a thing) at a plant in a different town. There would be no increase in pay and it would be much more production focused than my current job. The idea behind it would be to prepare me for a future job at that plant which IS HR focused, namely the plant HR manager position. My company is very focused on giving all of it's leaders production type experience before they put them into staff type positions, which I like, and I would be doing similar work (nicer title though) to what I am doing now. The upsides are:

1. I would be able to learn about an organization I might be taking a key roll in before I do so.

2. Spend some time being more production focused and therefore (hopefully) being more valuable as an HR leader.

3. My current role as a management trainee requires that I have multiple projects in many different disciplines. The new job would be a more narrow focus and hopefully give me more ownership. De facto titles I could currently claim if I cared:

A. Environmental Coordinator

B. Plant Hiring Manager

C. Relief Supervisor

D. Special Projects Guy

4. Boss's boss brought up the idea and thinks it is great.

The downsides are harder to put my finger on and at this point are only guesses:

1. This job would take me away from corporate headquarters where there tends to be more development opportunities for HR types.

2. Not sure if the job fits in with my preferred career path....I can't help it if I like HR and am good at supervising....I spent 6 years as an Army Officer supervising/managing soldiers I have the skill set, people are always surprised by this.

3. I just moved my wife and son (2 years old) in February and would have to ask my wife to move with no promise as far as how long it would be....again. She would do it, but she wouldn't like it....did I mention she is 5 months pregnant? (For those uninitiated in the art of marriage and procreation read: new doctors, new hospital, new friends, new "wiggles and giggles" group, wife has to start picking up random women at the park to be her friends again, etc)

So there it is people, when is a "lateral promotion" ok? I am all about delayed gratification if it makes me more valuable to the company in the long term, but so far I have received some wishy washy answers to that question. Assume my company will take care of me with the move and relocation bonuses...they are pretty good at that stuff.

Blogging will continue until morale improves.

What I Like about HR

2008-09-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

So here is the deal...we are the gatekeepers to the exceptions to policy. What do I mean by that? Too often I hear HR professionals get worn down by the fact that they:

1. Have to enforce policies

2. Have to explain policies to people

3. Have to explain policies to the people who are SUPPOSED to be enforcing those policies

I am sure there are more but they all tend to revolve around those three concepts.

The reason I LIKE HR is that while we are the caretaker and often creator of these policies we are most often the judges of when we make exceptions to those policies. I think many of you forget that often our nagging about precedent can create a fear among leaders that will override their sense of what is RIGHT for fear of hurting the company. You can be the most amazing policy crafter of all time and you will never be able to cover 100% of the circumstances that may arise among your employees.

Create trust in your managers so that when they feel like someone is being treated unfairly or a miscarraige of justice has occurred they come to you and talk about it. THAT is the kind of counselling I like to do.

Live for these exceptions, learn to encourage people to talk to you about when and when not an exception is apropriate. This is where the leadership comes in. This is also how you begin to give confidence to your managers on interpreting these policies themselves...and hopefully being proactive in the success of their employees.

The goal is not to have a policy that covers 100% of circumstances...neither is it for us to be the moral and ethical arbitor of the workforce...the goal is to interpret you organizations values into a common sense and fair set of policies and train your managers to look at them critically and know when the VALUES and the POLICIES do not coincide.

Applicant Etiquette

2008-09-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

Whoever put the information out there to keep calling a business even after you have initially been told no should die. I don't mind a few phone calls here and there, but most of the time there is a really good reason why we didn't hire you. Recently, out of the good of my heart, I attempted to coach an applicant on what he needed to do to become more competitive. He was a young guy with little work history and it consisted of these comments:

1. Keep working where you are working or find a production type job similar to ours and work there for a bit.

2. Get some letters of recommendation from various people you have worked for (even part time jobs) and have them send them in to us.

He called me the next day with a phone number for some grandma he did small jobs for in high school and proceeded to harass me for the next week asking if I had called her or not.

I was very polite in my responses, but here was what I was thinking:

"Look buddy, if you can't even get someone to write you a letter of recommendation I am not going to take time out of my day to call some lady who may or may not be expecting me only to get "He is a good boy" out of it."

I have had a horrible experience hiring "persistant types". Mostly because the really good ones tend to get fast tracked to hire anyway. I really do hate explaining to people "Why they Suck" as well. Maybe I am just remembering the bad ones. Either way, more than one call and you are becoming annoying.

Lets Talk About Something I Know

2008-09-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

When I got out of the Army I signed up with four seperate headhunting firms to find me a job. Whats amazing about that was it actually worked. After interviews with about 15 different companies over the course of 3 weeks I had about three competing job offers...which was nice.

There is this constant hunger in some elements of the private sector for military type leaders. I am by no means saying I am complaining but, I see very few of these companies having a good idea of what types of military experience mean what and how to compare one military type experience to another. I am going to list some of the most common misperceptions I have seen and how to avoid them.

1. Know what type of person you want and specifically what type of experiences you require. People come into the Military from all walks of life. There are Ivy Leaguers, Academy Grads, Distance Learners and everything in between. Don't be afreaid to be picky. If you want a technical expert an officer may or may not be your best bet. There are some warrant officers out there that have some excellent technical skills that may fit your needs better.

2. Know the difference between an officer, a Non-Commissioned Officer, a Warrant Officer, and enlisted person. Breifly Officers are 95% of the time managers and develop managerial type skills (the other 5% being pilots of some sort), Non-Commissioned Officers as a rule are experts in frontline supervision and conducting training. Warrant Officers are technical experts in some field for the most part. Enlisted people are the employees, the "Joe's", and the entry level positions.

3. Even some officer's with excellent education just decide to get out of the Army without developing a good plan. There has been a rash of military types waffling in and out of the private sector because they find out that the military wasn't really so bad, and they most likely will take a pay cut when they move to the private sector. Ask specific questions during the interview process designed to reveal how they have prepared for this career change. I can use myself as an example: In the Army, as a Captain, I was making the equivalent of $75k a year with tax bonuses and housing allowances. The job I ended up taking paid $60k (without about $10k relocation bonuses) with an automatic $5k per year raise at the end of the first year of employment. In order to prepare for this I went back to school to get my Master's Degree and socked away as much as I could in savings to ease the transition. It was still extremely difficult to take the cut in pay and my family is still wrestling with the impact. There is a lot of Myths out there that all Military types are barely making it. Officers (at least in my experience) get taken care of pretty well.

4. During my Master's coursework I was shocked to have a professor tell me that military types have a hard time getting a job in HR. Since I was already $5k into a Masters Degree in Human Resources Management I was a little perturbed. There are plenty of different types of leaders in the Military we are not all like R. Lee Ermey (*language warning*, but worth a click if you have never seen "Full Metal Jacket"). I was an infantryman, I earned the Combat Infantry Badge and spent a year long tour in Iraq. I never have acted like a cartoon of a military guy and treated my soldiers like dirt.

5. Ask questions about policy decisions they have had to make or programs that they created and implemented. They should have plenty to discuss. The Military is very good about giving practically free reign to relatively young professionals. They should have experimented a little and have a well defined leadership style do NOT be afraid to ask them these questions.

6. Learn what a DD-214 is, you can't get a reference check from the big Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. The DD-214 is in lieu of that. It will tell you everything you need to know about where that person has been, awards recieved, and character of discharge (honorable, other than honorable, dishonorable, etc).

I am sure there are more, but those six are the ones that first come to mind. Let me know what you guys think.

What makes me Upset about How Women are Treated

2008-09-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

I am by no means a feminist (for one I am a dude). I usually am against legislation that attempts to artificially "level" the playing field and would much prefer an education type approach to descrimination at all levels. Here are the issues concerning the recent treatment of Sarah Palin that makes wonder how we are ever going to get equal rights for women in this country.

1. She has already and will continue to be caricatured as a ditz. Some will say this is because she is young, however, I do not see many 44 year old men being caricatured this way (I will grant you MOST 44 year old men have not been a contestant in beauty pageants). Especially, recently after Camille Paglia, a Democrat called her acceptance speech "the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.” Yet, she will be cartooned as a backwater ditz out of her league. I don't agree with her %100 politically. I do NOT find it funny to say she is stupid.

2. People already have seized upon the fact that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. This was released to the public after viscous rumors that Sarah Palin had faked her entire fith pregnancy to cover up her daughter being pregnant. The whole media firestorm about this issue smacks of the whole "if you can't take care of your household, how can you take care of the country" argument that was equally distasteful when used against Hillary Clinton. Women who decide to have a career will never have the confidence to be successful if, as soon as something goes wrong in their homelife, they recieve the sole blame and responsibility.

Those two are my main points, although there may be others. There has fortunate benefit of having some excellent female role models and mentors in this chauvinistic male's life. Frankly, the only time I want to "burn a bra" is when I see these types of stereotypes so prevalent. I would rather people just say she is a bad person....that way she would at least be given the credit of control.

Sarah Palin...Talent Aquisition NOT Succession Planning

2008-09-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

Just to let it all hang out. I am not particularly a Sarah Palin or John McCain fan. My feelings are mostly "lukewarm". There has been a few articles and blog posts that want to try to frame the argument as a succession planning issue, most notably here. Also, I have to give my wife the credit for shifting my thinking on this more than a bit (also to let me know when I get a bit aggressive).

After a couple of days of thinking about this (and some insightful comments by Lance Haun), let me tell you why I think McCain was thinking more about Talent aquisition and development than succession planning. The Republicans are getting old. Some would say that they have always been old, but the George W. Bush presidency has left the party without any talented Bullpen. There are no rising stars or youth to speak of that are particularly setting the party on fire.

So pretend that you are interviewing for your organization and you look around at all the "experts" and all you see is mediocrity and old ideas. When you see someone young and with the kind of grit Sarah Palin seems to have, do you wait for her to get the experience or put her where she can most benefit your organization immediately? Something about her impressed McCain enough to select her above plenty of other options. And honestly, if you were really paying attention to the Republican field in the primary you can see why they started thinking "outside" the box a bit. Most of that primary was just sad.

Americans honestly have always seen the Vice-Presidential slot as a developmental position anyway. Al Gore and George HW Bush have shown this to be true. It was George W. that broke the mold by selecting a VP that had no presidential designs or desire. Even if McCain only serves one four year term Palin would be approaching the leadership "sweet spot" as far as age. Maybe it IS time to think about the future a bit.

Empathy verses Sympathy in your Professional Life

2008-08-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

So there has been alot of talk lately about hearing peoples problems and how to react to people who may share too much. I have been fortunate to learn some important lessons on this front and will share them with you. I was told early in my professional career when hearing employees problems you want to empathize with them and not sympathize. For a refresher here are the definitions of each:

Empathy means the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

Sympathy means in a relationship between persons in which the condition of one induces a parallel or reciprocal condition in another.

There is a difference in identifying how a person is feeling and feeling what that person is feeling. By identifying someones emotions and why they feel the way they do you are able to understand that persons point of view. The key to this is to NOT sympathize with them as well. By giving someone sympathy you are feeling what that person is feeling and losing your objectivity in the emotion-fest that the discussion has become.

When dealing with difficult personal issues of employees you need to set boundaries within yourself. Be careful not to get so wound up in their emotional state that you start to make decisions on how they are feeling. Understand their emotions and attempt to understand why they feel that way, but keep in mind the objectivity you will need to help them accomplish a desired outcome (whatever that may be). Emotions are a normal part of life, however, if you go through your professional career feeling every single strong emotion that comes through your office you will quickly become burnt out. I sense this alot in HR professionals and Human Service workers in particular.

It is fine to care about your employees and I am not suggesting that everyone become an unfeeling automoton. What I am suggesting is that you acknowledge those emotion, have enough life experience to understand what that emotion feels like, and finally act without those emotions getting in the way of good judgement and solid decision making.

Performance Management and College Football

2008-08-28T20:28:00.001-07:00

Ok, lets talk. I was never a football player in either high school or college. Also, I never started liking football until my mid-twenties. The NFL, to me is easy to analyze, you suck and you get fired. I can understand that. There are some very smart business people that own NFL teams (Even if you hate their guts). Heres the problem, I am a University of Washington fan. Yes, I said it UW Huskies. I didn't graduate from there (although my dad and a bunch of my friends did), but I just inherited a love for the team.
So here is my issue, Tyrone Willingham is the current coach of the UW football team. Even though he has had mediocre success with the three seasons he has coached so far, he has brought a sense of class and discipline that the UW football team has been lacking in the years prior. This season is a make or break season for his job, many pundits say that if Tyrone Willingham does not get a winning season he will not be retained. College football is one of those "semi-businesses" out there. College Presidents feel the pressure to make money with their big ticket sports to pay for a myriad of other extra-curricular activities that the university provides. However, Tyrone Willingham has been set up for failure ever since he took over the team. He was hired for the position with a brand new Athletic Director after many scandals had plagued the UW athletic system:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/victoryandruins/
The above article gives some highlights that are a bit more than bad grades and college tomfoolery (ie rape and domestic violence to name a few). What we had was a culture that was completely anti-social in it's nature.
So the question is: "How long does it take to change a criminal culture into a healthy one?" I think those in business would say quite a bit. Merely creating a culture of respect and discipline in an organization when it has sunk that low is quite difficult.
I find it amazing that since Willingham has taken over the team he has completely changed the attitude and reputation of the team while still attracting big name talent.
So in the case of this college football environment, is a results only metric for measuring Willingham's success fair? Four years in any other culture, business or otherwise, is a short time in which to work. The mere fact that rape and abuse allegations have stopped under Willingham's tenure should certainly count for something. The Athletic Director that hired Willingham was also recently fired. Was Willingham ever given the tools he would need to truly succeed amidst scandal, fines, and leader turnover.
Leaders need to be judged according to realistic goals and expectations. The above story shows that while results and business success certainly matter, long term strategy is also important. When one is facing extreme cultural barriers to success and change, success is the least of their worries and creating a functional organization takes precedence. When the support structure is ripped away from that leader it makes the task almost impossible.
Class is worth something I would hope that supposedly non-profit institutes of higher education would realize that.

Sir, you need to STFU

2008-08-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

I was watching the news tonight and the coverage of tomorrow's impending Democratic nomination of Barack Obama as their candidate for president struck me. Here is a link in case you missed it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080826/pl_nm/usa_politics_obama_stadium_dc_1

I am wondering how many HR pros or other business types out their shudder a little bit when their boss wants to make a big speech to his employees. Obama is making a speech on a stage that was created to resemble an ancient Greek temple or the Capitol depending on who you talk to. This may or may not go over well (we shall have to wait and see). But, I am more concerned with the business community. I have had bosses whom I just wished would not talk at all. I have heard the gamut of campy, meandering, and useless drivel come out of supposedly motivating speeches. As HR people or subordinate managers should we tell them that they aren't connecting to their employees when they speak? Almost as bad as the people who can't string a coherent thought together are the people who want to make sure all the staging, lighting, timing, etc are perfect for them to distribute their pearls of wisdom to the masses.

On the other hand, I have also experienced people who can just jump on a picnic table and motivate the hell out of me and everyone else in attendence. I will admit since I was in the Army most of the time their were a good amount of swear words involved. Interesting to get people's thoughts on this.

Where is this Going to Lead To?

2008-08-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

Read an article from Bloomberg News about Boeing using the internet to begin an informational campaign to convince their machinists not to strike. Address:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=awlihvmtTOCA&refer=homeMore than anything I find this quote indicative of why organized labor in the private sector is on the decline in this country:"Boeing has ``shot itself in the foot'' by involving workers in the give-and-take of early talks rather than letting labor leaders sell a negotiated -- and better -- deal to them, said Wroblewski, president of Seattle's District 751 for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.I am sorry, but when has providing information to anyone who wants it, going around the Union? Granted, the employees need to know that it is the company putting out their point of view. But, the ability to see each offer presented in real time is bad? As an employee I would love to see the process as it unfolds.The fact is, that while we often talk about holding large corporations accountable for their actions and push free flowing information, why don't we expect the Union to do the same? In the future I believe that it is going to be near impossible to hide contract negotiations from employees. No more back room deals or pretending like everything is a victory. Ultimately this strategy might fail for Boeing, but I firmly believe this is where we are all going in collective bargaining.

What the Heck Does one DO With a Daughter??

2008-08-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

So after a long string of boys in my family (I am one of 3 boys and my father is one of 8 boys) my wife and I found out that our second child will be a daughter come January. Besides having no clue what to do with a female child (My hobbies include coaching wrestling, boxing, martial arts, and guns), I am wondering if any successful females have any examples or moments in their professional or personal development that had a positive impact in their lives. Specifically, what in your life boosted your confidence? What hurdles did you have to break through? How many times have you been called "sweetie" in the workplace? I am curious what the difference is between the professional development men and women recieve if any. Any light bulb moment will be much appreciated. I might be able to pass these lessons along.....but.....I will probably just teach my daughter how to kill men with her bare hands and hide the body real well.

Here we go

2008-08-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

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I fell into the blogosphere as I made a recent career change. I read alot and it was natural for me to start to read some of the great philosophies out there by sites like HRCapitalist, PunkRockHR, and many others. I have to say that there is no hate in my relationship with the HR profession. Although there are many people who will say they "love to hate it". I have found nothing but pleasure in my recent HR studies (finishing up a masters degree) even though I recieved my bachelor's degree in Political Science. I like HR because we are the people who are supposed to bring ethics into the corporate world. I also like HR because it is a broad enough field where one can find a niche or not according to personal preferences. I also have to admit I tend to like being an "expert" and HR professionals are expected to be those experts whether they have the chops for it or not. I enjoy having a "plan" and a communications strategy...and not just because someone told me that it is a good idea. But, above all I am entirely fascinated with the idea of organizational culture and how to change it.

One of my current pet peeves and tirades has been on the idea of a push verses pull culture in regards to communication. A push communication culture requires information to be given to you by random overseers who dole out information in their expertise as they see fit. They are the masters that decide who should know what and how much. If you do not know this person (or department) or are not a person considered in the "need to know", you will never get a single piece of information. More importantly once you know that this person has information that you need, you must ask this person to give (push) this information to you which may take some sort of process as he 1. Tries to figure out who you are and 2. Decides if you are worthy of his effort and time.A pull culture is the opposite of the above. Through the use of open source information, company intranet, etc one can create a communications culture where everything is available "on demand". If I need the sales figures from last month I search on the intranet for the data and retrieve it. I do not have to ask for access or request it to be sent to me, I simply grab it and use it.This applies to any large organization that has semi-decentralized operation. Odds are you reinvent the wheel alot. As a leader, do you really expect your employees to struggle to solve problems that other people have already figured out? By sharing information on basic business processes that are similar across the company, the time and effort spent doing the simple stuff will be minimized so that your employees can focus on the specific problems facing your organization. HR people talk alot about a learning culture (hold on one second, I threw up in my mouth a bit)................................................................................................................................... However, I think too often we expect people to just learn what we want them to. By allowing full (to a reasonable point of course) access to all aspects of an operation you are allowing your employees to better utilize their point of view to possibly make connections that you wouldn't have made. I don't want a bunch of people like me working for me (for one, I am lazy). I want different perspectives that force me to conclusions I would not have made on my own. In order to facilitate this, I cannot control the information they choose to use to reach their conclusions.This is a pet project of mine and I welcome comments :) Not very "Blue Collar" to start out but so you know where I am coming from.