SOUTH AFRICA'S most widely distributed & read INDEPENDENT HUMAN RESOURCE PUBLICATION
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News & Views SOUTH AFRICA'S most widely distributed & read INDEPENDENT HUMAN RESOURCE PUBLICATION
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Equity Skills News & Views ------------------------------------ In This edition: 1. New Elites In South Africa And The Role Of HR
Management NB: If your Internet service provider (ISP) or server administrator filters incoming e-mail, please add Equity Skills News & Views to your list of approved senders to ensure you receive this e-journal to which you are subscribed. Jeff Sacht: Publisher-editor ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. New Elites In South Africa And The Role Of HR Management By Norbert Thom & David Luethi, Institute Of Organisation And Human Resource Management University Of Berne, Switzerland who can be contacted at www.iop.unibe.ch ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It is a trivial but important truth that the continued existence of any business organisation depends on the skills and motivation of the people that keep it running. Employees are accordingly recruited and selected with care, are put through development measures in order to exploit their resources to the max, and are courted and indulged to make them stay with the company. Particular attention in this regard has lately been paid to those talents among an organisation's workforce who have hopes to become its future leaders. High Potentials, as they have come to be referred to, are a massive asset – which makes for a correspondingly severe loss when they leave: immediate costs of termination or replacement are above average, and considerable indirect costs can add to these resulting from diminished staff motivation and reduced productivity. Moreover, High Potentials are often direct superiors to numerous employees and as such pass their impressions on to their subordinates. For all these reasons it is crucial for companies worldwide to think about how to care for their High Potentials in proper ways. In the case of South Africa, the issue of talent development and retention has additional import due to socio-political implications. One of these concerns the alarming brain drain that the country has suffered from over the past two decades. As Jonathan Crush shows in his illuminating report ("The global raiders", Journal of International Affairs, 56/1, 2002), it is economic and personal safety considerations that are mainly responsible for the drastic outflow of the country's educated population. Nevertheless, job aspects also play a significant role: 30% of white and an impressive 60% of black skilled jobholders are dissatisfied with income levels, and roughly a third of the overall skilled population criticises prospects for professional advancement as insufficient. It is thus very much in the interest of both South African business and the country's economy as a whole to improve the situation with regard to the mentioned preoccupations – and HR departments in companies obviously have a very direct opportunity to take the necessary action. One essential measure here will be to set up adequate incentive systems for skilled and talented employees. Another and more delicate grander scale issue is the more and more frequently voiced fear that South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy might turn out just to substitute the former racial segregation by social classes – that the former white elites are replaced by a racially mixed aristocracy, while a fundamental inequality of opportunities remains in place. This possible development has been the subject of much recent comment from observers of very different political hues, ranging from leftist academics (such as Alan Lester, South Africa's current transition in temporal and spatial context, Antipode 32:2, 2000; Patrick Bond, Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa, London, 2000) to conservative journalists (compare for instance Robert von Lucius' various contributions on South Africa in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2001-2004). What South African HR departments are called upon in this connection is to ensure that their organisations support the nation in cultivating what may be termed elites of performance and in counteracting the formation of new elites of mere privilege. Some clarificatory comments may be required here in order to prevent misunderstanding. Initially, the distinction between performance elites and elites of privilege is reasonably simple: membership in the former is grounded in some respectable and objectively measurable accomplishment; in contrast, members of elites of privilege have their special status due to uncontrollable circumstances (e.g. kinship) or one-off feats rather than repeated or constant performance, and tend to regard themselves as naturally entitled to exclusive monetary or power privileges. In practice, however, the distinction between the two categories is not always so clear-cut, as illustrate the angry debates recently sparked in Europe on whether or not the luxurious salaries of certain top managers are still justifiable with performance arguments. Nevertheless, while it is not always easy to draw the line between the two kinds of elite, it is usually possible to identify true performers within the workforce of firms and organisations at lower than top hierarchy levels, where talents and future leaders are to be found. The purpose of the following paragraphs is to provide helpful and empirically grounded advice to South African HR professionals on this identification process and on the subsequent handling of high performers in their companies. Identifying performance elites Some of the characteristics that distinguish those with potential for development and leadership from the mass of a company's employees have changed fundamentally over the last decades. The no doubt most crucial development in western countries in this respect is an increased demand for social skills and competences. Thus the recent international survey on culture and leadership GLOBE (special issue of Journal of World Business 1/37, 2002) revealed attributes like team-orientation and an ear for subordinates' inputs as essential elements of modern leadership, in South Africa as much as everywhere else in the west. This same tendency towards social competences can also be gleaned from a comparison of two older studies on preferred manager characteristics carried out in Switzerland, one in the mid 1980s, the other in 1994 (Hans Hollenstein, Spitzenmanager in der Schweiz [Top Managers in Switzerland], Berne, 1987; Norbert Thom and Roman Gattlen, Traineeprogramme für Absolventen der Wirtschaftswissenschaften in schweizerischen Unternehmungen [Trainee programmes for business administration graduates in Swiss companies], University of Berne, 1994) . In the earlier survey, empathy with employees got the lowest rating among nine measured features; by the mid 90s, social competences like team-orientation and talent for communication and conflict resolution had become indispensable assets. Besides these changes, there are also a number of "eternal" characteristics that successful managers are expected to possess. It goes without saying that high intellectual achievement from elementary education onwards will have to play some role in identifying high performers; however, one should be aware that school or university grades often do not reflect an individual's current intellectual capabilities and must therefore be treated with caution. Someone's general intellect and share of common sense are not easily assessed by standardised means; here only prolonged personal acquaintance can provide a reliable picture, which however in many professional environments will be difficult to establish. A more readily testable virtue of candidates is geographical mobility or, more generally, the open-mindedness necessary for adapting to new environments, so that foreign assignments may turn out successful. Indeed, this kind of intercultural flexibility, along with competences related to social interaction, is now a central criterion for the company-internal selection of future leaders. Overall, the performance elite of a company is made up of individuals who combine a firm intellectual basis with skill in dealing with other people and indeed other cultures. Whereas intellectual potential in the narrower sense and motivation for learning surely may be presumed of a majority of ambitious South Africans, one might expect there to be more room left for development in the area of interpersonal and especially intercultural skills. This of course must not come to serve as a pretext for withholding attractive positions from the candidates in question; rather, it suggests where personnel development measures will have to lay particular emphasis on in their case. Caring for performance elites Once the most promising talents in a company are identified, HR management will have to engage in two immediate follow-up tasks with regard to this employee group: development and retention. The initial step must be to take appropriate measures so that the potential of high performers can be fully realised, to the maximal benefit of both employer and employee. Nothing more will be said here on development, apart from the point just mentioned that special attention may be due to social interaction skills. Rather, the focus below is on retention: what does a retention management scheme tailored to high performers have to look like in general, and what specific issues in this connection pertain to South Africa? Some answers to these questions can be drawn from a recent survey by the Institute of Organisation and Human Resource Management (IOP) in Berne, Switzerland, which collected the views of more than 500 High Potentials from two multinational concerns, a chemicals company and a financial services provider (Regine Moser and Andrea Saxer, Retention Management für High Potentials [Retention management for High Potentials], IOP, University of Berne, 2002. Available as pdf-file (in German only) from www.iop.unibe.ch). The survey shows that the talented first and foremost demand meaningful tasks involving a variety of activities, and that they like to have ample scope for action in carrying them out. Nearly as important are leadership styles of superiors, who should challenge and foster High Potentials to an optimal degree; in this connection, it may be a particularly delicate task for South African managers to find the right level of assignment complexity and responsibility, so that challenging won't be perceived as exploitation. Next in importance follow colleagues, and in fourth position figures pay. This fairly low ranking of remuneration relative to job content indicates that tedious work cannot be sufficiently compensated by exceedingly high salaries to ensure a thorough commitment of the employee in the longer term. Two further crucial incentives for High Potentials are coherence of corporate culture – that is, fit between words and deeds – and quality of internal communication: identification with the company will yield cooperative behaviour, and transparency of information and communication enhances trust in the company. A striking fact about the overall results of the survey is that the ranking orders of the most effective constituents of job attractiveness are identical in the two companies, despite the very different sectors; it seems that High Potentials' job preferences tend towards universality and all-inclusiveness. In sum, then, job content is of outstanding, and the immediate working environment (superiors and colleagues) of very great significance to High Potentials. Again the latter might be particularly important to those members of the up-and-coming South African performance elites who have vivid memories of past discrimination and animosities. Material incentives must not be neglected, but it is hard to say what role they play for aspiring South Africans. The power of money generally tends to be overestimated by western HR managers (see for instance Adrian Blum et al., Sustainability in Human Resource Management, European Association of Personnel Management, 2001: 21 f.), but since part of the new South African performance elites start from a lower material level than their counterparts in the rest of the western world, their case may well differ. What seems clear is that also in South Africa, immaterial incentives such as corporate culture, transparency of information, career opportunities, and so on are essential to motivating top performers. Putting these insights in the broader social and political perspective adopted at the beginning of this article, there's no doubt that South Africa hosts enormous resources of motivated and ambitious individuals and thus has a huge potential for success in a globalised political and economic order. The trick will be to establish the right kind of elite in each of the corresponding spheres of activity. The above observations and suggestions are intended to support the process in the area of business, by helping HR managers to identify their companies' true performers and to care for them in ways that make optimal and prolonged use of their resources – with a view to the maximal benefit of employers, employees, and ultimately South Africa as a whole. The authors Norbert Thom is full professor of business administration and director of the Institute of Organisation and Human Resource Management at the University of Berne, Switzerland (www.iop.unibe.ch). He has wide-ranging experience in teaching, research and consulting, among other fields in the area of personnel management. David Luethi is a translator and publications assistant at the IOP and a PhD student in philosophy. ------------------------------------ IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: EMPLOYMENT EQUITY COMMITTEE TRAINING ------------------------------------ An Intensive 2-Day In-Company programme For ELECTED EMPLOYMENT EQUITY (EE) MEMBERS & CHAIRPERSON To Competently & Confidently Represent Co-Workers. Contact Jeff Sacht to request a workshop flyer and to arrange an in-company workshop customised to your requirements. Facilitation is charged on a realistic daily rate and not a per person cost. Also available as a web download for self-delivery/in-house use under license agreement. Contact jeffs@worldonline.co.za ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Getting New Managers Up to Speed* By Lauren Keller Johnson who can be contacted at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The usual employee-orientation process needs to be retired. In this article from Harvard Management Update, savvy companies explain how to jump-start the success of new managers. Tip: Set up meetings, use technology, and coach newcomers. When Jacqueline Lopez, a new program manager at Intel's Mobile Platforms Group, arrived for her first day on the job, Jessica Rocha, her boss, handed her a calendar bursting with already-scheduled meetings. These meetings had nothing to do with the usual employee-orientation process, through which new hires learn about Intel's values and HR procedures. Rather, Rocha had scheduled face-to-face interviews with people across Intel who had the technical expertise, cultural lowdown, and political "juice" Lopez would need to accomplish her work. Thanks to Rocha's foresight, "I ramped up quickly," Lopez says. "I accomplished strategically important work"—such as developing key training initiatives—"and provided my deliverables faster." Lopez also swiftly built trust and established credibility with people throughout Intel. "My boss set me up for success," she says. A vital new tool As Lopez's story reveals, new managers who are rapidly "onboarded" are poised to generate value for their organizations much more quickly than colleagues who follow a slower or more casual orientation path. Rapid onboarding has become particularly vital as workplace turnover rises. Citing the U.S. Department of Labor, Keith Rollag, Salvatore Parise, and Rob Cross write in "Getting New Hires Up to Speed Quickly" (Sloan Management Review, Winter 2005) that "more than 25 percent of all workers in the United States have been with their company less than one year." In addition, internal restructuring, new competitors, and technological advances are reshaping workplace roles and responsibilities—further pressing new managers to learn the ropes quickly. Without some initial support and a framework for learning, many managers find it difficult to reach out to new colleagues themselves. But, despite the increasing importance of a fast start, new managers face daunting obstacles in getting connected. For one thing, many senior executives assume that new managers have the social skills and understanding to tap the organizational network themselves, so they invest little time in introducing new managers around. But without some initial support and a framework for learning, many managers find it difficult to reach out to new colleagues themselves. Greater cultural and generational diversity in the workplace often presents additional challenges, says Vincent Brown, a managing partner of Global Lead Management Consulting in Cincinnati. For example, "an older manager who's just starting out at a new company may hold the traditional belief that you only go to higher-ups for advice and information." Thus she misses out on making connections with knowledgeable peers and subordinates. And managers of all ages "worry that by asking certain questions, especially about [things such as] marketing processes, accounting practices, and budgeting, they'll be seen as incompetent," Rollag says. Many new managers feel they simply don't have time to cultivate a broad network of contacts—forging relationships with their direct reports is time-consuming enough. Stymied by these obstacles, new managers often don't establish the networks they need to excel. To address this problem, senior executives must play a more active role—accelerating new managers' onboarding enough to get them started, with the understanding that they will build on those early contacts themselves later. The most effective executives apply these rapid-onboarding practices: Provide jump-start coaching One way to get managers off and running is by providing intensive feedback and coaching, says Leigh Branham, author of The 7 Hidden Reasons People Leave (American Management Association, 2005). During the manager's first week, executives should provide detailed expectations for the first 90 days and ask him to summarize these objectives and measures in a performance agreement. In a similar vein, Branham suggests conducting "entrance interviews" with new hires to help uncover their strengths and learn which talents they are most interested in developing. Map out your new manager's network "Managers' effectiveness derives directly from their web of relationships," says Rollag. With that in mind, "map out" your new manager's network before she starts the job. Ask yourself whom she needs to know to carry out her responsibilities. Think about work processes: From whom will she need certain types of information? To whom will she need to provide information? Also consider organizational history: Who has always known how to move projects forward and solve thorny problems? Managers' effectiveness derives directly from their web of relationships. Some executives also emphasize company values when mapping out a new manager's network. For example, retailer Limited Brands (Columbus, Ohio) holds understanding the customer experience as a central value. To that end, newly hired leaders get assigned to educational stints in retail stores and call centers. There, they see how merchandise flows through the system and how cross-selling works, as well as other aspects of the customer experience. "These assignments immerse our executives in our corporate culture," says Sandy West, the company's executive vice president of human resources. With this immersion, executives can better formulate strategies that support those values. Also consider network members' tenure as you build your map. The best networks comprise a blend of longstanding and newer employees, explain Rob Cross and Andrew Parker in The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). Why the blend? You want new managers to benefit from seasoned employees' wisdom and recent hires' fresh perspectives. Finally, set the stage for meetings between your new manager and network members. For example, while scheduling Lopez's meetings, Rocha explained to the interviewees what Lopez most needed to learn from them. She also explained how they could benefit from Lopez's background and expertise. For instance, Lopez had extensive experience in developing retention initiatives, which Rocha encouraged her network members to leverage. Follow up Once the new manager has met all the people you've recommended, reinforce these relationships through follow-up. "Build discussion about the network into regular conversations and status updates," Rollag says. "Ask, 'Who have you talked to? What have you learned from these people? How have you helped them?'" If the manager has failed to sustain a connection with an important network member, ask why and develop a plan for restoring the link. During Lopez's first weeks on the job at Intel, her boss sat in on her networking meetings—making formal introductions and observing. Then Rocha suggested that Lopez begin meeting one-on-one with interviewees. Rocha followed up on these early meetings, regularly recommending additional people for Lopez to contact and asking her to document what she learned from each meeting in monthly status reports. As another follow-up strategy, invite the new manager to meetings outside his work responsibilities. Through these encounters, he'll gain a sense of the organization's political dynamics and see how the company operates as a whole. "Encourage him to notice who gets mentioned most often during these meetings," advises Patti Hathaway, CEO of The Change Agent, a consultancy in Westerville, Ohio. "These are often the doers—the people who make things happen but who aren't on the org chart." Take advantage of technology In global organizations, ensuring that your newly hired manager forges connections with the right network members can be especially difficult. Technology can help. When you bring on a new manager, use e-mails to announce his expertise and interests to others. Sign him up for the online discussion groups and mailing lists he'll need as he ramps up. Show him how to use expertise locators. "Sure, face-to-face meetings are magic moments," says Chris Newell, vice president of knowledge and learning at Boston-based IT solutions provider Keane. "But in a global company, you also need technology to connect people." Keane has fifty-seven locations in the United States and more overseas. To sustain conversations among newly hired managers and geographically dispersed members of their networks, Keane uses a "high-touch, high-tech" strategy. For example, new managers will soon use an online discussion forum and expert locator link to find individuals whose insights they need to solve a problem or move a project forward. People who have met face-to-face or online soon after starting their jobs—and who might hail from any of Keane's locations—can use online forums to be reminded frequently of one another's existence and share their knowledge. Use social bonds to fuel collaboration When new hires discover that they share interests with others in the organization, they often collaborate more effectively on professional matters. For that reason, when introducing your new manager to members of her network, consider including some personal information about her that she's comfortable sharing, advises Rollag. "Emphasize outside interests or hobbies that might interest other people who aren't in her group and who do very different jobs." San Francisco-based biotechnology firm Genentech created cross-functional "diversity groups"—each focused on a specific interest—to encourage socializing among staff at all levels. At quarterly networking gatherings for new employees, it encouraged participants to join one or more groups that were of interest to them. The social bonding in Genentech's diversity groups has inspired valuable work-related collaboration. For example, when participants in one group learned of an innovative mentoring process developed elsewhere in the company, they implemented a similar process in their own team. If you're tempted to assume that the sharp manager you just hired can handle his own onboarding, remember the unique obstacles he'll face. Though he should—and will—eventually shoulder the responsibility for his own networking, you can vastly accelerate the process. Your reward? A leader who generates better business results faster—and who can strike out on his own sooner. * Reprinted under license agreement with Working Knowledge the online journal of Harvard Business School http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Drop The "Old Think": It's Time For HR To Become "Champions Of Performance" * By Dr. John Sullivan who can be contacted at www.drjohnsullivan.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's face facts, the current state of our economy is forcing many organizations to radically rethink the way they do business, yet in HR, most are just reacting the same way they always do. Some industries are expanding, others contracting. Some firms are conquering new markets, others struggling just to maintain their dominance in existing markets. Looking back, it is safe to say that in the last decade, the business world has undergone significant change, while HR, on the other hand has been changing "at the speed of a rock." The time has come to “blow up” the current iteration of HR and throw out the old way of thinking, a form of thinking I dub "old think." Despite economic growth in many sectors, CFO's continue to pressure HR to trim the budget or continue to make do with what they have, something most HR professionals have become accustomed to doing. However, the "old think" way of trimming the budget has got to go away. Sizing down benefits packages and forgoing new program development does not demonstrate leadership or strategic thinking. Now is time to seize the opportunity to really make a change. In short it's time to drop the "old think" programs and get rid of the "old think" people within HR and develop a radically new HR platform that it is ready to handle whatever the emerging global economy may throw at it. What Is "Old Think" In HR? "Old think" is a form of thinking dominated by the capstone view of HR as an overhead function with no direct impact on productivity and profits. It focuses on preserving antiquated processes, reporting about what has already happened, administering benefits few employees use and other non-strategic processes. In “old think” HR departments each HR function operates as an independent silo, each continuously “doing things” without measuring the bottom-line impact on the business. Many excuses can be made for why the silos have come to exist, but none stands out more than the lack of a unifying incentive that rewards HR people for working together or for producing an overall measurable HR output. In addition, "old think" HR relies on building relationships to get things done while other business units rely on data to make their decisions. It also defends the "politically correct” instead of focusing on tearing down the bureaucracy. What Is "New Think" HR? "New think" represents a change that to many will seem radical. It has but one simple focus and only one goal, that is... "To give our firm a sustainable competitive advantage through increasing the productivity of our people (which is measured by output per dollar spent on human assets) until it is the highest in our industry" I am not trying to be subtle here, so if you are reading this article in order to find ways to improve HR by only five percent stop reading now, that's "old think" HR. Old thinking dictates a conservative approach with no dramatic changes and little risk-taking. HR currently changes gradually because it spends too much time on "benchmarking" and copying others. There is no attempt to develop HR as a source for gaining competitive advantage. If HR is to prosper, it needs to develop "new think" HR, where HR attempts to make dramatic impacts, rather than just incremental changes. "New think" HR looks at people as an asset, a business tool that is no different than any other business asset. Now before any of you "old" HR thinkers start whining, bear with me for a minute. It's time to face facts, CEO's and CFO's invest money in resources, whether it be marketing, R&D or people, they have no pre-set preferences. They expect all assets to demonstrate a return and naturally they invest the most dollars in those assets that provide: >> The highest rate of return >> That requires the least upfront capital >> That have the lowest risk and >> That has the shortest payback period It's time to stop fooling ourselves by believing that "human assets" have some special standing. It's time to realize that HR’s primary job is to prove: 1) That investing in people assets has the highest return of any business investment option and 2) That the professionals in the HR department know which tools, programs and strategies will get the highest performance from our people assets. Treat People Like Resources "Old think" HR people will immediately respond by saying "but people need to be treated differently" or "what about the human element"? Well, I say that is "old think" and that these HR people are out of touch with business reality. Remember we changed the name of our function from personnel to "human resources" because that new name more accurately reflected what we do, manage resources! Well what we should be doing is trying to get the most out of these "human" resources, and make no apologies for it. If you want CEO's and CFO’s to invest in "human" resources, rather than in physical or financial "resources," then we need to drop the antiquated "old think"! Investment dollars go to the assets with the highest rate of return. CEO's and CFO’s generally show no "human" bias and shareholders, without a doubt, show little particular favoritism for the human element. If you don't believe me, just watch how the market responds to news of a decrease in headcount (layoff.) They all just want high returns from their investments whether they be people or financial. An example may illustrate the point. Recently a CEO from a major computer firm explained how they were increasing their investment in R&D while simultaneously reducing their headcount by over 4000 people. What clearer example do we need to demonstrate that HR can fail to make the case that investing in the people is more important than investing in technology? Filters For Assessing The Difference Between Old And New HR Think Once HR faces up to the "return on assets" reality, identifying "old think" approaches and the old thinkers within HR becomes relatively easy. "New think" programs, ideas and people in HR fit each of the following 6 criteria: >> They measure their impact on people productivity, customer satisfaction, profits and product development >> They measure their own return on investment (ROI) and their impact on the company’s objectives >> They continuously shift resources away from low return and toward high return programs, strategies and tools that positively influence the performance of the company >> They provide our firm with a distinct competitive advantage over our competitor firms >> They reward and recognize performance and output that can be mapped to the company objectives >> They reinforce our "performance culture" (all communications, measures and incentives reinforce our emphasis on performance) HR Must Become The "Champion Of Performance" "Old think" HR professionals support the underdog, the “little guy,” calling for and enforcing “equal” treatment. Traditional HR also defends the status quo, the existing culture, and consensus decision-making. Unfortunately, because CEO’s and CFO’s are laser focused on performance these approaches essentially guarantee that HR will never" lead" or be a true change agent in the new world of business. "New think" HR in contrast, champions top performing divisions, programs and individuals. "New think" HR focuses it's time and resources on getting the most out of our people investment. They champion performance and individual accountability and they ”hate ” bureaucracy! Examples of “New think" in HR "New think" HR people are champions of performance. Instead of spending most of their time with bottom performers or spreading their resources equally across the organization, they focus their resources and efforts where they will have the most impact on productivity, profitability and business results. Some of the things you can do to eliminate "old think" and become a champion of performance are listed below (by their traditional HR function). # Recruiting - Increase productivity by hiring top performers in key jobs. Stop treating all positions equally and focus on the ones that have the most impact. Instead of reacting to resumes you receive, proactively seek out (hunt) the best individuals currently working in your industry. Pre-identify them, learn to understand their job "switching" criteria and then, over a period of time, sell them on your job and your company. Create a standard of measurement and collect data that identifies which sources, screening tools and "selling" techniques result in high performing (on the job) hires. # Compensation - Increase productivity by changing the way we pay people. Shift from the "money distribution department" to a function that inventivises productivity and behaviors that increase it. Place significant emphasis and resources on non-monetary rewards and recognition. Identify and educate managers on which kinds of pay, accountability metrics, recognition and incentives have the most impact (per dollar spent) on productivity. Measure and reward managers for great people management and for increasing productivity. # Benefits - Outsource them. The benefits department is the "central headquarters" for old thinkers! Providing pay for "not working" does not make you a performance champion. If you can't prove directly with data that each benefit program increases our ability to attract and retain top performers, you're running the ultimate “old think” program... equal benefits to all based on need! # Employee relations - Improve people productivity by dropping the deadwood. Instead of giving everyone a second and third chance, run the metrics to see if investing in poor performers has a higher return than getting rid of the "turkeys" as soon as is obvious. Instead of crying wolf (we might get sued) quantify the real risks of lawsuits and develop "no-fault divorce" approaches to encourage managers to drop bottom performers quickly. Coordinate with recruiting so that you can “swap” top performing new hires for the deadwood. # Technology in HR - In contrast to what you might think because technology is involved, this is a bastion for old thinkers. HRIT runs reports, tracks headcount, tracks the resumes of people we will never hire and provides a personal portal so that employees can change their own address. Clearly there are no major business impacts here. Instead of running reports HRIT needs to use analytics to forecast future problems for managers. In addition, HRIT should tell managers which HR tools "work" and which don't within our organization. Next they need to provide managers with simple to use desktop tools that provide information that allows individual managers to increase their department's people productivity, without having to go through HR. # Retention - The retention of top performers and people in "hard to replace" key positions is one of the highest ROI activities within HR yet no one is responsible for it. In "new think" HR, retention is a primary HR function. Conclusion - Making HR The "Productivity Consulting Center" It's time to face reality in HR. The "business partner" model has taken us as far as it can go. It's time to stop being satisfied with just being a business partner and instead push to become business leaders and drivers of change. This shift will require us to drop the traditional ways we have approached HR. Of course dramatic change is always difficult, but there is no better time than now because most HR departments are currently being reduced and changed anyway. View this downturn in HR funding not as a negative event but rather as an opportunity to step back and to transform HR into a "productivity-consulting center". The time to start is now. Begin by identifying the HR professionals in your organization that want to become "champions of productivity". Teach them about "new think", make them heroes and drop the "old thinkers" like a used 8 track tape… Any questions? *Reprinted by permission of the author ------------------------------------ IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: MANAGING FOR DIVERSITY (NOW UPDATED & ENLARGED) ------------------------------------ An Intensive and Practical 2- DAY MANAGEMENT/ SUPERVISOR WORKSHOP to develop insight and self-knowledge about intercultural competence and enhance your capacity to work with a diverse workforce. Contact Jeff Sacht to request a workshop flyer and to arrange an in-company workshop customised to your requirements. Facilitation is charged on a realistic daily rate and not a per person cost. Also available as a web download for self-delivery/in-house use under license agreement. Contact jeffs@worldonline.co.za ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Book Reviews: Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men: And What To Do About It ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men: And What To Do About It To buy this book click on: http://www.kalahari.net/e-trader/referral.asp?toolbar=mweb&linkid=5&partnerid=293&sku=28223551 By Evelyn Murphy and E. J. Graff Simon & Schuster, 2005 Getting Even addresses an ongoing injustice in the workforce—the gender wage gap. Even though women have taken great strides in closing the “merit gap” (by equaling men in education levels, years and depth of job experience, and commitment to work), their wages remain a quarter less than those earned by their male peers. Evelyn Murphy, the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1987 to 1991 and current Executive Vice President of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, writes with co-author E. J. Graff that her concern for the gender wage gap began soon after she earned a doctorate in economics and started working fulltime. She accepted the prevailing explanation in those days that the wage gap was due to a merit gap between men and women; similarly, she believed that the wage gap would shrink as women poured into colleges and universities. Since then, women’s wages have indeed risen, but men’s have risen faster. As this merit gap has closed, researchers and analysts describe “finer-grained distinctions” that try to explain the wage gap, such as “Women are less skilled at negotiating, women are not strong leaders, women choose family over work”—all of which focus the responsibility on women rather than on business policies and practices. Murphy and Graff highlight the inherent limitations of demographic data used by economists and researchers. Statistics are collected nationwide by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and these data describe employees according to age, race, gender, educational attainment, and job earnings. By relying solely on demographic data, however, social scientists see only one side of the picture and may lose more nuanced information from the contemporary workplace because internal employment data is hard to obtain. The first six chapters of Getting Even attempt to shed light on what happens behind the closed doors of the workplace. Murphy and Graff discuss recent sex discrimination lawsuits as well as cases in which employers have settled rather than risked going to trial. The second half of the book focuses on “what to do” to ensure that women get paid fairly now and in the future. In the end, Getting Even is a call to action for women to work individually and together to close the wage gap, persuade businesses to change policies and practices, and pay women what they deserve. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Case-Law & Legislation Review: Dismissal - Application Of Sanction By Gary Watkins Who Can Be Contacted At Www.Caselaw.Co.Za; Www.Workinfo.Com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- # Cashlin Randall Nefdt and Winlite Glass and Aluminium Case No: MEWC1331 Award Date: 28 May 2005 Jurisdiction: MEIBC: Cape Town Commissioner: Suzanna Harvey SUBJECT: Dismissal Application Of Sanction ISSUE: The employee had been dismissed after the employer alleged that he refused to carry out a lawful instruction. The employee denied this. The council held that the employer had erred in the application of the sanction, the chairperson failed to consider or to follow the employer’s disciplinary code or the employee’s circumstances. The employer conceded that its internal procedures provide for a written and a final written warning to be given to the employee before dismissing him, however, deemed it reasonable to dispense with this procedure. The council held that the dismissal was unfair. SUMMARY OF FACTS: The employee had worked for the employer as a senior assembler for almost twenty years. He was dismissed on 17 February 2005 after the employer alleged that he refused to carry out a lawful instruction given by Mr. Jansen, who had been appointed in the newly-created position of “process supervisor” 3 days previously. When Jansen gave the employee an instruction which would normally have been issued by somebody else, to do certain work, the employee refused to comply, claiming that Jansen was an outsider and had no experience. He was instructed by one of the other employees to comply, which he still failed to do. The employee claimed that he never refused to comply with the instruction, but as the product that he had to manufacture was a fairly new one, he informed Jansen that he would need assistance with the production thereof. Jansen became infuriated by this request and the employee carried on with some other, urgent work that he had to complete. The following day he was issued with a notice to attend a disciplinary hearing. At the disciplinary hearing, which was chaired by a more senior employee, he was dismissed, despite the disciplinary code of the employer providing for 2 warning for this misconduct before an employee could be dismissed. The Chairperson maintained that he decided to dismiss because the employee refused several times over a period of 2 days to comply with the instruction. The employee had no warnings against him on record. SUMMARY OF JUDGEMENT: The Commissioner found on a balance of probabilities that the employee did refuse to carry out the instruction, as he could have approached someone else to request the assistance that he required. Considering the sanction imposed for this misconduct, the Commissioner held that an employer s bound to follow his own disciplinary code. The failure to issue a written warning before dismissing the employee deprived him of an opportunity to rectify his conduct which had been provided for in the disciplinary code. In addition, the employee had 20 years’ service with the employer with no disciplinary history at all. On this basis the Commissioner found that the dismissal had been substantively unfair. Regarding the procedural fairness, the Commissioner held that the chairperson was biased against the employee, as he had entered into the argument between the employee and Jansen and reiterated Jansen’s instruction to the employee, which he then still did not comply with. He had formed a view of the applicant’s conduct and he was thus unable to properly chair the enquiry against the applicant, and in fact the employee had complained of this at the arbitration. An impartial chairperson would have given the applicant’s concerns about Jansen a proper airing, would have been able to effectively counsel the applicant, and would hopefully have brokered another solution to the apparent clash between the two employees. At the very least, an impartial chairperson could be expected to have applied the employer’s disciplinary code properly and taken into account the circumstances of the employee when imposing a penalty. The Commissioner commented that it was important for employers to ensure that impartial persons chair disciplinary enquiries, most especially in cases such as this one, where the offence was serious and could result in a dismissal, and where discipline involved an employee of such long standing. The dismissal was held to be procedurally unfair as well and the employee was awarded 13 weeks’ salary in compensation (this being the time period between the dismissal and the conclusion of the arbitration). ------------------------------------ THE IR PROTECTOR ------------------------------------ Is your company spending valuable time and resources handling disciplinary issues? Does your business contribute to the 130 000 cases at the CCMA each year? Is your share of the R14 000 000 000 in South African industrial relations costs affecting profitability? Take the next logical step in people management and protect your organisation. To find out more about "The IR Protector" visit www.workinfo.com/sponsors/irprotect.thm Brought to you by Workinfo.com and Camargue, Hollard's labour dispute specialists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Downloads: The Business Benefits Of Skills By Laurie McBassi who can be contacted at www.mcbassi.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- What’s holding organizations back? A growing body of literature provides increasingly strong evidence that those organizations that develop a superior capacity for managing and developing their employees consistently outperform those that don’t. Yet despite this evidence (and the common sense that it confirms), relatively few firms have put a stake in the ground by treating human capital management (HCM) as a core competence that is critical to their long-run success. This raises the obvious question: why do so many organizations fail to adopt policies and practices that would so clearly be of great value to them? Over the past few years, our work has convinced us that there are several factors that keep organizations from undertaking these beneficial HCM activities. These factors include the following three: 1. Many organizations simply do not have the leadership and managerial skills necessary for successfully managing their human capital. Such skill deficiencies must be addressed first; 2. The dearth of valid assessments that are capable of measuring an organization’s HCM and linking it to business results means that investments in HCM are at a disadvantage relative to other major investments also competing for an organization’s scarce resources; and 3. Many organizations are in a constant search for the latest “silver bullet,” and prefer to pursue quick fixes (such as isolated training programs or the latest management fad), rather than undertaking the hard work of identifying and tackling the weaknesses within the organization that are impeding its progress toward its key goals. Want To Read More? McBassi recently completed a white paper for the U.K. Sector Skill Development Agency that addresses these issues in more detail. Click on http://www.workinfo.com/free/downloads/180.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Unsubscribe & Moving Soon ---------------------------------------------------------------------- UNSUBSCRIBE: Scroll to the end of the newsletter where you will find a code directly linked to your name. Click on the unsubscribe link. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS NEWSLETTER TO UNSUBSCRIBE. MOVING SOON: If you are changing your email address soon and would still like to continue receiving this newsletter, please email us your new or temporary email address to ensure that you do not miss out on the next edition. ------------------------------------ About the e-Journal/e-Newspaper ------------------------------------ Equity-Skills News & Views is a free bi-monthly newsletter for business owners, Line Managers, and Human Resource Practitioners (who support Line Managers) with the implementation of fair and developmental people management systems and practices. The style of this e-Newspaper fits between the traditional email newsletters and printed professional trade journals & magazines. Subscribers will be kept up to date with the latest developments in the world of people management, receive handy people management tips, and feedback about labour court rulings that relate to the implementation of the key Labour Acts. Please add equity skills news & views to your list of approved senders if your Internet provider or server administrator filters incoming e-mail, to make sure you receive periodic e-mail alerts and this newsletter to which you are subscribed. ------------------------------------ Opinions expressed by contributors DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT the standpoint of the publisher-editor of Equity-Skills News & Views. Information published here is for general information, and is not intended as legal advice. The authors, editors, and publishers do not accept responsibility for any act, omission, loss, or damage occasioned by any reliance upon the contents hereof. This message is sent in compliance with the ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSACTIONS ACT. 2002, Act No. 25, 2002 [South Africa] passed on 20 May 2003. 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