Equity Skills News & Views
Volume 5, Issue 4, 28 February 2006
Registered as an electronic newspaper: ISSN 1684-5722

In This edition:

1. Why The Human Capital Institute (HCI) In South Africa?
2. What Am I Doing Here, Exactly?
3. Managing Change: Garden, Sandcastle, Mountain, And Spaghetti*
4. Participate In New HCI-Aberdeen Survey & Receive The Report @ No Charge
5. Book Review: Results: Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, And Unlock Great Performance
6. Case-Law & Legislation Review: Whistle-Blowers’ Act Rides To The Rescue Of Honest Workers
7. Downloads: HR’s Role In Strategy Implementation: Leading The Human Side Of Change
8. Unsubscribe & Moving Soon

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
www.equityskillsweb.com
jeffs@worldonline.co.za
 

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1. Why The Human Capital Institute (HCI) In South Africa?*

By: Jeff Sacht, Publisher-Editor Equity Skills News & Views who can be contacted at jeffs@worldonline.co.za

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From Industrial To Knowledge Economy

Talent and other intangibles increasingly define market value. In fact, less than 20% of current Standard & Poors (S&P) 500 values are based on physical assets today. The balance is comprised of intangibles including brand, technologies and human capital. Of these, the human capital asset is by far the most powerful. 

That means strategic talent management is the most important competitive lever in the global knowledge economy, yet most organizations are still operating with industrial-era practices in HR and line management. The Human Capital Institute is the only professional association dedicated to advancing the business science of human capital management through innovation, education and action. 

The Human Capital Institute welcomes forward-thinking executives and future leaders who realize that finding, capturing, developing and empowering highly talented people are the activities most linked to future success. Increasingly, organizations are competing on the basis of intellect, innovation, agility and execution. As a result, a solid understanding of the fundamentals of human capital management is critical for today's leaders throughout the enterprise. 

From HR To Human Capital Management

Effective human capital management is the most vital determinant of market success, and in many organizations, human resources professionals are being offered the opportunity to lead the way. But human capital is not an extension of the traditional HR function, nor an administrative process. It is a new business science based on a paradigm shift from cost to asset-based talent management, and requires an entirely new mindset and skills. 

Increasingly, HR is being outsourced and taken offshore, because one company's pension plan is no more strategically important than another's. As a result, HR professionals with purely administrative and soft skills are increasingly at risk. As the human capital paradigm gains traction, great organizations cannot afford to delegate acquisition and development to administratively skilled HR departments. Acquiring the best and brightest people and unleashing their creativity are not "by the book" processes. They rely on risk-based decisions that require mature business judgment, sound financial skills and decisive action. 

This sea change presents a crisis for many HR practitioners, and a welcome opportunity for others. HR professionals have an opportunity to move front and center to the strategic table and contribute on the front lines. But to do so requires entirely new competencies that are not being addressed by traditional education or HR organizations, because they simply do not understand them yet. The Human Capital Institute is the only organization that is focused entirely on the knowledge-era skills required to build the talent-driven market leaders of the future. 

From Best Practices To Next Practices

Today's business structures are changing rapidly. The traditional advantages of scale, physical assets and financial capital are eroding as new technologies and networks level the global playing field. New advantages are emerging, and the human attributes of intellectual curiosity; innovation and decisive action are at the edge of competition in the knowledge age. 

Management is changing from the hierarchical line, to the collaborative network model. Attracting, aligning and empowering knowledge workers and "creatives" requires new skills for line managers and executives alike. The Human Capital Institute offers the new ideas, education and actionable strategies that transform industrial-era best practices into high performance, talent-driven next practices. 

From Search To Strategic Partner

If talent is the key to knowledge economy success, then companies who focus most effectively on talent acquisition will lead their markets. Recruiting is a strategic sales and marketing activity, yet in 90% of organizations it still reports into the administrative HR cost center. Recruiters are managed to deliver interchangeable skill sets at the lowest cost, not identify and woo the most talented individuals. The first organizations to attack recruiting with the same strategic focus their sales force applies to their product market will simply sweep up the best candidates. 

Today, many HR services are correctly perceived to be non-core activities and, along with other administrative functions, are being outsourced to specialist companies in South Africa. and overseas. But strategic recruiting is not only a core discipline, it is one of the most important activities for companies that now rely on creativity and intellectual performance to create competitive advantage and market value. The Human Capital Institute offers recruiting professionals the new skills required to step up and become strategic partners responsible for shaping corporate performance. 

ABOUT THE HUMAN CAPITAL INSTITUTE (SA): The Human Capital Institute is a global think tank, educator, and professional association dedicated to the advancement of human capital and talent management practices. Through research and collaboration, HCI collects original, creative ideas from a field of the brightest thought leaders in talent management. Those ideas are then transformed into measurable, real-world strategies that help its members attract and retain high-performing people to build a diverse, and inclusive workplace.

HCI (SA) is committed to maintain and enhance its reputation as a South African membership services organisation capable of providing a continuous stream of membership services that cannot be rivaled for the sheer quantity, quality, and price of its ever-growing array of products, services, and information available in South Africa.

Become a Professional member today and save 30% on your first year’s subscription (this amounts to a 50% saving off the International price of membership). For more information, please contact Jeff Sacht at jeffs@worldonline.co.za; www.humancapitalinstitute.org Purchase your subscription online at http://shop.workinfo.com.shopdirect.co.za

*Sponsored by HCI Global: www.humancapitalinstitute.org

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2. What Am I Doing Here, Exactly?

Author:  Management Issues News who can be contacted at www.management-issues.com 

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What am I doing here, exactly? Despite all the talk of "employee engagement" and the "importance of people to the bottom line", this seems to be the question on the minds of the majority of workers as research from the U.S. revealed last week that two thirds of employees turn up for work every morning in blissful ignorance of their employer's business strategy.

According to the research, by Right Management Consultants, only a third of employees at a typical company are fully engaged and daily "walk the talk". The remainder are unsure what it is that their organisations are trying to achieve

And little wonder - because the overwhelming reason for this ignorance is that employers simply do not bother to communicate their business strategies to their people.

But the main reason why most employees are disengaged is the failure of employers to communicate their business strategies to their people.

Almost one in three organisations (28 per cent) limit such communication to only their leadership teams. A further quarter have not yet communicated their strategy to all their employees and one in seven (15 per cent) are uncertain of the best way to do this.

"Management's effective communication of the vision of the business to all employees, and how it can be lived in their daily jobs, is one of the biggest differentiators between engaged and disengaged work forces," said Right Management Consultants' Chris Gay.

"Engagement and commitment improve dramatically when employees know what is expected of them, and how they fit into the total picture."

Communication should comprise a two-way dialogue between management and employees, he said.

"Input, storytelling, recognition, and reward are critical elements in building an engaged work force. Employees should have opportunities to provide feedback and strategies to improve operations, and be recognized and rewarded for contributing to the organisation's success."

Another way to improve employee engagement is to ensure that the organisation's managers are fully involved in and committed to their jobs.

"Many employees follow the actions and behaviours of their immediate supervisors, so having a fully committed management team is one of the best ways to extend engagement throughout the organisation," Gay added.

But as a global study published last year by consultants Towers Perrin revealed, while many people are keen to contribute more at work, the behaviour of their managers and culture of their organisations actively discourages them from doing so.

The vast majority of the 85,000 people surveyed by Towers Perrin were moderately engaged at best, and a quarter of them were actively disengaged.

*Reprinted by permission of Management Issues

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3. Managing Change: Garden, Sandcastle, Mountain, And Spaghetti*

By Jonathan Byrnes who can be contacted at jlbyrnes@mit.edu; http://hbswk.hbs.edu 

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When I think of managing change, four images come to mind: a garden, a sandcastle, a mountain, and a plate of spaghetti. Let me explain.

A Garden

The first image of change is a garden. My mother-in-law, who is very wise, introduced me to this image. She told me that a marriage is like a garden. A garden requires constant care and work, or it gets overgrown with weeds.

As a gardener, I know this is true. Behind every beautiful garden is an amazing amount of hard work: planting, fertilizing, and endless weeding. And a really great gardener always contemplates how to improve the garden. He or she periodically changes the garden’s look and composition, moving plants around, introducing new ones, and taking old ones away.

Two key points emerge here. First, a garden that isn’t getting better gets worse very fast. Second, only when a garden is good can the gardener see how to make it great, and only when it is great can he or she see how to make it truly outstanding.

Does your business look like this? Are you constantly weeding, adjusting, and improving it? Or does your portfolio of accounts, products, and services simply reflect "the way we do business"?

A great business, like a great garden, requires constant work even to stay the same. An essential element, one that is very often missing, is the process of constant weeding. As the business evolves and its markets change, accounts, products, and services lose their profitability and potential. They must be weeded away. Only if this weeding process is a constant, ongoing, integral part of the business can new high-potential initiatives be started and grown to keep the company healthy.

At Dell, for example, the process of "sunsetting" products is considered one of the company's most important strengths. It makes all the difference between stunning success and failure. Contrast this with a company in another business whose CEO confided that the product managers were always "one day away from profitability and one SKU away from greatness."

The failure to constantly weed leads to the situation of many companies in which 30 to 40 percent of the company is unprofitable by any measure. Once a company reaches this state, it is hard to give up revenues from the unproductive part of the business, even if profits will improve dramatically. Instead, it is far better to institute an ongoing system of profitability management and constant weeding.

A Sandcastle

The second image is a sandcastle. Think about the process of building a sandcastle. First you pile up sand. Every time you pile the sand higher, some of the sand trickles down, you pile it up again, and it trickles down again. After a while, the sandcastle takes shape. Then one time when you pile the sand, a section falls away. You go to work fixing and changing that section: you pile the sand, and it trickles down, until you've replaced the section. Finally, you have a sandcastle. The sandcastle actually may look very different from the one you started building, because you had to change your vision of what it would look like in response to what happened during the building process.

Contrast this with the business case process in most companies. Most business cases, requests for financial investment in a project, identify a clear set of costs, a clear process for developing value, and a clear payoff. A business case of this sort makes sense in situations where the facts are well known, like investing in a new machine for an existing process. The problem is that the same methodology is often erroneously applied to situations in which key elements are not knowable at the time. These situations look more like building sandcastles.

I recall advising several major telecommunications and other high-tech companies about investment in new technologies in the early 1990s. It always amazed me how our most important innovations could not have passed the business case test at the time they were developed.

Think about cell phones and PCs. Could you seriously see a major company deciding to develop a cell phone network so your teenager could call friends across the high school campus? Imagine presenting a business case to develop PCs based on the assertion that even retired people would use them once or twice a day for e-mail instead of using the phone. What is the implicit value of the customer’s time? What market numbers would you use? Who would believe them?

Instead, the process of getting these enormous businesses off the ground was like that of building sandcastles: piling up sand, watching it trickle down, piling up more sand, experiencing major setbacks, until the market took shape and the investments finally were clearly justified. Here, it was necessary to "prime the pump" on market development for an extended period of time, even without a clear, well-grounded value creation process and calculation of returns. And it was crucial to accept constant minor and occasional major setbacks, and to view them as an integral, natural part of the market development process.

In an ambiguous, uncertain situation, there is necessarily a huge amount of probing the potential market and learning by doing. In fact, the really critical issue is how fast and effectively you can figure out how the market will evolve.

If a market is in your company's strategic sweet spot, it's best to start piling up the sand and to remember that setbacks are a natural part of the process. If you let business cases decide these critical matters, the market will move right past your company.

A Mountain

The third image of change is a mountain. Think about climbing a very high mountain. The most essential part of the process is establishing a set of viable base camps along the ascent route. This involves identifying proper locations, organizing and coordinating logistics, provisioning enough supplies not just for the ascent but for the descent as well, allowing for time to acclimate to the altitude, and identifying alternative routes between base camps so that the climbers can react to the conditions they experience.

By contrast, many large-scale change management processes in companies focus primarily on the objectives and payoffs, and not enough on the process of getting there. Three common errors occur.

First, some teams try to reach the ultimate objective of the change in one step rather than establishing base camps along the way. This, almost always, is neither desirable nor feasible. It is generally necessary to try out new ways of doing business before settling on a final formulation. At the same time, different business functions are capable of changing at different rates. They need base camps in the change process in order to work out new ways of operating and to get realigned with each other, or performance may suffer.

Second, the teams may mistake the first base camp for the final objective. Change, like ascending a mountain, is daunting and grueling. There is a strong tendency to perceive progress toward a goal as achieving the goal. All too many change programs lack a clear definition of how much change is enough.

Third, teams sometimes reach an early base camp, and get discouraged by how much change they have left. This can occur if they fail to see or fail to believe that the change process is well conceived and well organized. In a well-structured change process, they will have an opportunity at each base camp to get acclimated and adjust to their new situation before moving on to the next.

The underlying problem in many large-scale organizational change programs is that managers view the change process as all or nothing. They focus on selecting the peaks and envisioning the view from the top. In fact, the process of organizing and meting out change, establishing sound base camps along the route, makes all the difference between success and failure.

A Plate Of Spaghetti

The final image of change is a plate of spaghetti. This is what you get if you neglect the other three.

All too many managers have a plate full of change initiatives that each has intrinsic merit, but together look like a plate of spaghetti. It doesn't have to be this way.

Most change initiatives fall into one of three categories: constant weeding, strategic market development, and large-scale organizational change. Each has a different nature, a different management and control process, and a different sort of outcome. All three types of initiatives are necessary, and together they enable the effective manager to deploy a program of renewing change that positions the company for today, tomorrow, and the evolving future.

*Reprinted by permission of HBS Working Knowledge

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4. Participate in New HCI-Aberdeen Survey & Receive The Report @ No Charge

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Take Aberdeen Survey: Pay For Performance:

Compensation can be one of the most effective levers for aligning behavior such as sales and employee performance with business goals. The goal of "pay for performance" is to motivate and reward top performance, whether it is in sales or any other employee's position across the organization. Participate in the latest research on Pay For Performance and receive a free copy of the final report. Learn more » http://www.aberdeen.com/survey/payforperformance/   

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5. Book Review: Results: Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, And Unlock Great Performance

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# Results: Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance

To buy this book click on: http://www.kalahari.net/e-trader/referral.asp?toolbar=mweb&linkid=5&partnerid=293&sku=28738776 

By Gary L. Neilson and Bruce A. Pasternack, Crown Business, 2005

Being made of the 'right stuff' is often seen as essential to career success. But could it apply to companies too?  Gary L. Neilson and Bruce A. Pasternack, senior executives at international management consultants, Booz Allen Hamilton argue that the key to understanding how an organization performs depends on what they call its organizational DNA.

Based on an analysis of over 50,000 surveys and long experience as consultants in the field, the authors arrive at four building blocks, which they say are fundamental to the success or failure of any organisation.

These are:

>> Decision Rights – how well and efficiently decisions are made

>> Information – the degree to which it is accurate and available

>> Motivators – the level to which staff are incentivized

>> Structure – the extent to which it serves the needs of the other three elements

None of these building blocks stands alone, say the authors: they are interdependent, and making changes to any one element is likely to affect the other three, and the organization as a whole.

Dysfunctional organizations suffer from a misalignment of these four basic building blocks, they argue. Using this model, Neilson and Pasternack identify seven basic types of organization, according to 'personality' types. These range from the healthiest (resilient) to the least healthy (passive-aggressive).

Applying this analysis to the results of the survey, the authors argue that 54 per cent of organizations are unhealthy, with passive-aggressive (27 per cent of the sample) being the most common.

Congenial and seemingly conflict free, these organizations achieve consensus easily, but struggle to implement what has been agreed. In contrast, only 17 per cent of companies are resilient.

Using case studies, from companies such as Symantec, and 7-Eleven, the authors show how this model can be used as a valuable diagnostic tool to first understand, and ultimately to transform ailing companies.

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6. Case-Law & Legislation Review: Whistle-Blowers’ Act Rides To The Rescue Of Honest Workers

From: Sunday Times, 26 February 2006

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Is A whistle-blower protected by the Protected Disclosures Act?

The intention of the legislation is to root out criminal and irregular conduct, both in government organisations and in private bodies. To do this it was envisaged that the Act would create a framework for the reporting of irregularities and for protecting the whistle-blower against the repercussions of such reporting.

Although the Act came into force in February 2001 there are only two Labour Court decisions, which deal with it.

In the matter of Grieve vs Denel the company was prevented from proceeding with a disciplinary hearing. Although the notice calling for a disciplinary hearing handed to Grieve by Denel included charges other than those, which related to the making of a protected disclosure, the court determined that the most probable cause for the hearing was the disclosures, which were made by Grieve.

Recently, in the landmark decision of Pedzinski vs Andisa Securities (formerly SCMB Securities) the Labour Court found that Pedzinski’s dismissal was a direct consequence of her having made a protected disclosure.

The Act defines a disclosure to mean any information regarding the conduct of an employer which was made by an employee, in good faith, and which shows or intends to show impropriety on the part of the employer.

In this case Pedzinski was a compliance officer who was responsible for monitoring the compliance by the respondent of the statutory, regulatory and supervisory requirements applicable to its financial trading business.

In the course of her work she discovered that one of the directors had caused and benefited from certain irregular trading of shares. She reported this to her immediate supervisor as well as to the SCMB Group compliance structure.

Within two weeks of making this protected disclosure she was advised that her position would become redundant.

It was the intention of the company to dismiss Pedzinski, which it duly did . This is an occupational detriment as defined in the Act. The court found that Andisa Securities’ alleged operational requirements were not the true cause of the dismissal but a sham.

In all disguised dismissals, the employer does not volunteer the true reasons for the dismissal. The “probable cause” test is therefore a useful tool to determine the true nature of a dismissal.

The court awarded the maximum amount allowable of 24 months’ compensation to Pedzinski, which translated to R320000, and awarded costs to her.

However, while the Act encourages transparency, it does not go the extra step of protecting an employee while in employment.

Neither does it provide for a punishment or repercussion for the individuals within a company or employer that makes the decision to dismiss the whistle-blowers. These aspects are to be reviewed by the Law Reform Commission in due course. — Tzvi Brivik, director, Malcolm Lyons & Brivik

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7. Downloads: HR’s Role In Strategy Implementation Leading The Human Side Of Change

By Richard McKnight who can be contacted at www.right.com;

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HR professionals have arrived at the strategy-creating table. This is good, but it is time for HR as a profession to move past this objective. HR professionals have a unique set of perspectives and knowledge to bring to the strategy-creation table, but even more important is what they could bring to the strategy-implementation table. HR professionals, often defensive about their comparative worth, need not apologize for not being financial, engineering, marketing, or sales geniuses; they can—and should be—strategy implementation geniuses.  This article sets forth a framework for the work of strategy implementation, argues that HR professionals can and should take the lead, and offers guidance for their doing so.

The marketplace has always punished companies that dawdle in manifesting the promise of their strategic intentions. But today, those beatings come faster than ever. The good news is that the basic work of strategy implementation—at least the human side of strategy implementation—is knowable, and once known, it becomes clear that HR professionals can—and should be—its natural leaders. HR is pre-positioned to make exceptionally valuable contributions to the firm when it comes to strategy implementation. • HR has an organization-wide purview, i.e., unlike other corporate functions, HR is involved in and generally understands the business in its entirety. • Strategy implementation is inherently a human issue; HR by its very title has deep responsibilities in this territory. • The skill set required for strategy implementation and the inclination to use it is more concentrated in HR than anywhere else in the organization. The marketplace has always punished companies that dawdle in manifesting the promise of their strategic intentions. But today, those beatings come faster than ever. The good news is that the basic work of strategy implementation—at least the human side of strategy implementation—is knowable, and once known, it becomes clear that HR professionals can—and should be—its natural leaders. HR is pre-positioned to make exceptionally valuable contributions to the firm when it comes to strategy implementation. • HR has an organization-wide purview, i.e., unlike other corporate functions, HR is involved in and generally understands the business in its entirety. • Strategy implementation is inherently a human issue; HR by its very title has deep responsibilities in this territory. • The skill set required for strategy implementation and the inclination to use it is more concentrated in HR than anywhere else in the organization.

Download a copy of this valuable and insightful Paper at: http://www.workinfo.com/free/downloads/180.htm

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About the e-Journal/e-Newspaper

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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.

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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.

Sender: Jeff Sacht

URL: www.equityskillsweb.com 

E-mail: jeffs@worldonline.co.za

Telephone: +27 011 485 4943

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Publisher-Editor: Equity-Skills News & Views

'A MUST TO PRINT & READ'

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