Volume 4, Issue 13, 15 July 2005

Equity-Skills News & Views
SOUTH AFRICA'S most widely distributed & read INDEPENDENT HUMAN RESOURCE PUBLICATION

Equity Skills News & Views
Volume 4, Issue 13, 15 July 2005
Registered as an electronic newspaper: ISSN 1684-5722

In This edition

1. Latest From Dave Ulrich: The Work of HR: Flow of People & Performance Management
2. Assessments: Connecting Employees With the Performance Improvement Process
3. Employee Survey Process Contributes To Improved Business Results
4. Leading Diversity: An Invitation to Leaders Everywhere
5. Case Law & Legislation Review:
6. Book Reviews
7. Conversation As Technology
8. Unsubscribe & Moving Soon

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Jeff Sacht: Publisher-editor

www.equityskillsweb.com

jeffs@worldonline.co.za

'A MUST TO PRINT & READ'

30,000+ AND STILL GROWING!

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1. The Work of HR: Flow of People and Flow of Performance Management

By Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank, Partners, The RBL Group and Professors, Ross School of Management, University of Michigan

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Editor's Note: Dave Ulrich Article

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Equity Skills News & Views is pleased to have secured the right to publish their latest article directly from Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank. Dave Ulrich regarded as an HR Guru has visited South Africa a number of times. In the first of two articles, Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank examine the ways in which HR adds value. Here, they present menus of ways HR can add value for investors, customers, employees and line managers in two key areas: people and performance. In their next article they present menus for the areas of information and work.

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A colleague from another discipline once asked us, "What is the work of HR?" We proceeded to talk about how HR creates value, to investors and customers outside the firm and to line managers and employees inside the firm. Our colleague was impressed, but asked again the question, "but what does HR do to make this value happen?" We suggest a simple typology of four general groupings of HR practices that follow the flows or processes central to organization success:

1. Flow of people: What happens to the organization's key asset-its people-including how people move in, through, up, and out of the organization. Proper attention to people flow ensures the availability of the talent the organization needs to accomplish its strategy.

2. Flow of performance management: What links people to work-the standards and measures, financial and non-financial rewards, and feedback that reflect stakeholder interests. Proper attention to this flow promotes accountability for performance by defining, noting, and rewarding it-and penalizing its absence.

3. Flow of information: What keeps people aware of the organization and their collective knowledge resources. Proper attention to information flow ensures that people know what is happening and why, and can apply themselves to what needs doing to create value.

4. Flow of work: Who does work, how work is done, and where work is done combine individual efforts into organizational outputs. Proper attention to work flow provides the governance processes, accountability, and physical setting that ensure high-quality results.

This article deals with the flows of people and performance management, more traditional areas for HR practices. In a companion article, we will cover the flows of information and work-emerging areas for HR attention.

For each of these flows, HR professionals need to create an HR menu of choices. Menus in restaurants present what is offered and what can be selected, but obviously not all items are selected at once. HR professionals create menus of choices. Seasoned HR professionals can skim these menus and affirm that they are competent in each HR practice and identify areas to improve. Less experienced HR practitioners can use these menus as a baseline for HR practices they should master. From the menu, HR professionals and their clients can select those items that will create the most value.

Flow of Talent

The war for talent may rage or simmer, but it's always there. Any position from executive level to front-line employee that is difficult to fill becomes a potential battleground. Simply stated, firms with better talent will be more successful than firms with lesser talent.

Talent comes from the flow of people in an organization, how they enter, develop their skills, and move through (up or out). Talent management involves not only getting and keeping the good, but identifying and removing the nonessential and outright bad.

It's useful to regard the range of available people practices as a menu with six sections: buy, build, borrow, bounce, bind, and boost. Your job in HR is to prepare this menu of choices, then to help managers chose items from the menu that will work best for their situation. Below, we present templates for these menus.

Buying: Choices in Staffing

Staffing brings people into the organization. It is probably the single most fundamental HR practice, because if you have inadequate personnel, all the training, incentives, and communication in the world will not complete their makeover. Your people must have the abilities needed for today's job as well as tomorrow's. Staffing involves three major processes: expanding the candidate pool, hiring the best candidates, and orienting them to the work.

Expanding the candidate pool improves your firm's chances of getting the employees it needs. You can expand the pool by building relationships with key sources of talent (e.g., campuses, search firms), using referral hiring, having an Internet hiring presence, and targeting special employees. No matter how large the pool, it's still critical to fish out the right candidates and keep them hooked. Ideas for increasing the hit rate include interviewing with an intent to hire, offering financial assistance, being persistent, paying attention to personal issues, forming relationships, t, and communicating realistic but enticing opportunities.

Once someone is hired, orientation is crucial in getting the candidate quickly up to speed and productive. Sample orientation efforts include dealing with the administrative details, providing early feedback on performance, finding early assignment successes, orienting the new employee to the entire value chain, assimilating the employee to your culture, and listening to ideas from the employee.

Building: Choices in Training and Development

Building means unleashing latent talent by focusing on either training or development. To make informed choices about training, HR leaders should address the following questions:

· Who should attend the program? Employees at one level or multiple levels, alone or in teams, customers, investors, or suppliers?

· Who should present the program? Professors, consultants, line managers, customers, investors, analysts, or others.

· Who should design the program? Professors, consultants, line managers, customers, line managers, or investors?

· What should the program cover? Focus on individual abilities or organization capabilities, content or action planning, results or personal skills.

· How will the program be delivered? On site, off site, with cases or action learning, through technology or face to face, short time period or long time period.

· How will the program change the participants? Reactions to training, knowledge received, behavioral change, actions taken, or business impact.

The other half of the build menu comes from development-from opportunities to learn from experience. Development may take a variety of forms including mobility (new assignments), mentoring or coaching, experiences outside the firm, personal development plans, and temporary assignments.

Borrowing: Choices in Contracting for Talent

A firm need not own all the human capital it uses. It can take advantage of the talents of individuals who are not its full-time employees. Some options for gaining accessing talent without ownership include joint alliances with consulting or other firms, site visits to learn from others, outsourcing work to targeted vendors, and maintaining relationships with former employees.

Bouncing: Choices in Shrinking the Workforce

In the current business environment, a firm needs a workforce of the correct size for its immediate and near-term output. Firms may need to cut back to bring things into balance. And size isn't the only factor: It doesn't matter whether poor performance comes from a bad hire or from failure to keep current, the firm will suffer as long as it is allowed to continue. We refer to both types of cutback as bouncing.

Removing employees for any reason should be difficult. It should be personally painful for the responsible leader and require reflection on what went wrong. Communicating care for the employees who leave and who stay becomes important in any circumstance. The TV-cute tag line "You're fired!" is archaic and destroys employee goodwill. It's necessary to move decisively but to show care by offering performance and outplacement counseling, and by considering the impact on the individual.

Binding: Choices in Retaining Talent

Retention-binding existing talent to your firm-matters at all levels. Senior managers with vision and competence are critical to a firm's success, which is why they are hot prospects for rival recruiting. Many technical, operational, and hourly workers are equally critical. Investments in individual talent often take years to pay back. Often referred to as "A" players, an organization's top talent produces many times the value of average or poor talent. To bind talent, you might think about finding out why talented people leave, offering incentives to keep talented employees, offering non-financial rewards to stay,

Boosting: Choices in Promotion

Promotions not only put people in the right jobs, they show what matters to your firm. Care in this area assures that the right signals are sent to all stakeholders. Some of the choices around promotion include establishing criteria for the new job, having a broad net for potential candidates, evaluating candidate potential, and supporting new jobholders.

You can then audit to make sure that your people practices are consistent with key stakeholders (see audit in Figure 1).

Download a PDF copy of the full text of the article at: http://www.workinfo.com/free/downloads/180.htm

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IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: MANAGING CHANGE & TRANSITION IN THE NEW WORLD OF WORK

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An Intensive and Practical 2- DAY WORKSHOP FOR HUMAN RESOURCES AND LINE MANAGERS TO DEVELOP THE CONFIDENCE AND COMPETENCE TO PLAN FOR AND LEAD TEAMS THROUGH CHANGE & TRANSITION. Enhance your ability to plan for and lead a team through the transitions triggered by a continuously changing world of work. 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

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2. Assessments: Connecting Employees With the Performance Improvement Process*

By William H. Berman, Ph.D., John C. Scott, Ph.D. & David Finch, Ph.D.

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Performance appraisal and improvement are critical to developing and maintaining a strong, capable workforce. Structured performance appraisal systems should incorporate the company's vision and mission into the overall evaluation of the employee. These appraisals typically include conceptual and operational definitions of core competencies and capabilities. Performance appraisal systems utilize standard assessment criteria, dimensional ratings, structured rating scales and explicit criteria for each job category. These components help minimize subjective impressions and conscious or unintentional biases. Sophisticated technologies for performance evaluations (e.g., online ratings and development plans, 360-degree feedback) are well developed and increasingly common in both large and small companies.

Accurate and reliable performance appraisals help companies support and reward their most capable employees. When used in conjunction with performance improvement systems, a structured performance appraisal system conveys meaningful feedback in a useful format, helps refocus employees who are performing below expectations and facilitates career development plans for all employees. Performance appraisal systems increase the fairness and transparency of the evaluation process, and guide individuals and supervisors toward targeted improvement strategies. They also protect both the employee and the company from potential rater bias and ensure that employees receive fair and accurate feedback.

While most corporations use some form of structured performance appraisal system, use of structured self-assessments of performance is much less common. Some systems include an objective self-evaluation as a part of the process. Others capture the data, but do not provide explicit self-other comparisons. Still others offer employees the opportunity to reply in a letter or through open-ended comments. Many do not include self-evaluations at all. Companies that eschew self-assessments have described issues of unreliability, lack of credibility and lack of understanding of how to handle discrepancies as reasons to avoid self-evaluations.

Well-constructed and properly implemented self-assessments offer substantial benefits to companies, as well as to employees. Self-assessments offer the employee the opportunity for increased involvement, greater acceptance of the process and increased alignment between supervisor and employee expectations. They offer companies increased engagement for stakeholders, improved company-employee communication and more efficient collaboration. Design and implementation of self-assessments, however, require careful identification of key performance dimensions, modifications of rating anchors or consideration of inherent self-other rating discrepancies, and thoughtful integration of the self-assessment into the overall evaluation and improvement process.

Opportunities for Self-Assessment

The performance appraisal process offers employees the opportunity to receive structured, constructively framed feedback about their work and growth potential. Employees may feel that they are passive recipients of a process that management forces upon them. In some cases, employees take a defensive stance, viewing the performance appraisal experience as an adversarial process in which they must defend themselves against external criticism. Self-assessment offers a buffer against both the passive and the defensive positions. When employees have the opportunity to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, they tend to be less defensive and more open to critique from others. Self-assessment fosters employee-employer collaboration in the appraisal process and increases the individual's sense of engagement in the evaluation process.

Self-evaluations also ease the process of feedback for both the manager and the employee. Appraisals that have to address areas of weakness are among the most difficult of management tasks. Many people feel uncomfortable criticizing subordinates, and employees can easily become defensive and unreceptive. But consulting and management experience shows that self-evaluations offer a jumping-off point for addressing areas that need improvement. Even when the employee does not address a weak area, beginning with known weaknesses can ease the transition into other areas the employee did not explicitly identify.

The accuracy of any assessment improves with additional sources of data. The self-evaluation provides another source of data that is useful in several ways. First, Prochaska and DiClemente's groundbreaking work on their Stages of Change model demonstrated that individuals work on and change behaviors they see as problematic. Conversely, they are resistant or inattentive to areas they are unaware of or externalize responsibility. As such, personal awareness of problem behavior and its impact on oneself and others is essential before an individual will make an effort to change. Pairing a self-evaluation with supervisor and peer evaluations can bring to light deficits that exist under the employees' radar. Doing so helps employees understand how others perceive them and stimulates a willingness to change.

Self-evaluation encourages a solution-focused, as opposed to a deficit-focused, orientation toward evaluation. Individuals produce self-evaluations that are more accurate when the emphasis is on growth rather than failings. Well-designed self-evaluations allow the employee to identify those areas they want to improve, discuss ways to develop new skills, and clarify personal goals and direction. For example, in the professional services division of The Echo Group, criticism for not taking the initiative to follow up on complementary tasks assigned to other team members did not produce change in one employee. She did make substantial progress, however, once she was refocused on her desire to take greater responsibility for whole projects and the people working on them.

Challenges of Self-Assessment

If self-assessments have so many potential benefits, why are they used so infrequently? Managers, employees and HR professionals all create barriers to the use of self-evaluations. Most of these can be addressed through the correct design and appropriate implementation of the process, but the biases against self-evaluation are difficult to remove.

Many managers in hierarchical organizations see the evaluation process as a unidirectional linear event. Managers set goals for employees, observe their performance and inform them of their successes and failures. The employee absorbs the feedback and takes the appropriate corrective actions. They have little interest in (or familiarity with) a collaborative evaluation process, and see this type of collaboration as a threat to their control and authority.

Both managers and HR professionals can be skeptical of the results of self-evaluation. People tend to remember negative events over positive ones. Thus, managers are more likely to remember the times when employees did not agree with their evaluations. One highly stressful experience dealing with a discrepancy between self and supervisor evaluations can "prove" to a manager that employees are not capable of accurate self-assessments, or that self-assessments are counterproductive.

Employees often fear that an honest self-appraisal will be used against them. They believe that their boss may not be aware of specific weaknesses or limitations, and fear that they will harm their position in the organization if they expose problems. When evaluations are tied to compensation or promotion, this fear is amplified and is difficult to overcome unless there is a history of appropriate use for self-evaluations.

Harold Kelley demonstrated in his 1978 work on attribution theory that people explain their own behavior differently from how others explain it. Most people try to present themselves in a positive light, and minimize their weaknesses or failings to preserve their self-esteem. Observers such as peers and supervisors tend to attribute problematic behavior to stable factors such as personality, intelligence or ability, whereas we tend to attribute our own problematic behavior to situational factors such as luck, chance or context. This difference in perception results in discrepancies between self and supervisor or peer ratings. Neither is inherently more accurate-both are different ways of viewing the same event.

Guidelines for Design and Use of Self-Assessments

The key to success in using self-evaluations is to design them right from the ground up, and implement them according to well-established guidelines. The designer of the self-assessment needs to construct the scale so that it elicits a reliable and accurate assessment from the employee's own perspective but remains consistent with manager and peer assessments. Wording the questions correctly, defining the anchors to coincide with behavior and creating effective instructions all have a meaningful impact on the results.

Self-assessments are much more accurate when individuals are asked to rate themselves on specific, single dimensions rather than broad competencies. For example, people tend to overrate their capabilities when asked, "How well do you collaborate with others?" In contrast, ratings are more consistent with those of peers and supervisors when the employee is asked about specific, behavioral competencies such as, "Seeks opinions and views of others during staff meetings." This means that the employee will need to rate several specific questions to cover a single performance domain, rather than making a single rating of one broad competency.

People typically overrate their strengths relative to others. Most people believe that being average is unacceptable. Self-rating scales that balance equal numbers of positive and negative anchors produce results that are skewed, with self-ratings falling at the positive end of the scale. Positively weighted scales with only one "negative" anchor, however, produce results that are more evenly distributed and maximize the range of possible responses. Figure 1 shows an example of a positively anchored rating scale.

The instructions given on the self-evaluation should explicitly emphasize that the rater's self-awareness is an important quality. Instrument designers should indicate that the results will be compared with those obtained from other ratings and that evidence of accurate self-awareness in the employee will be considered a positive capability. This type of instruction counters the natural tendency to protect oneself from criticism by overrating competencies and ignoring weaknesses.

Successful implementation is just as important as effective design. The goal of the appraisal is to increase the employee's self-awareness and desire to change and grow over time. Recommendations for effective implementation include:

If you do not plan to use the self-evaluation, do not collect the data. Employees are often skeptical about how the organization will use the evaluation. If managers ignore the self-report data, employees will quickly lose interest in the process and respond in a perfunctory manner, if at all. It is essential that managers respond to the data collected, just as if the employee had provided this information in a face-to-face meeting.

Separate self-evaluations from the compensation process. It is difficult for people to make accurate self-ratings at any time because of self-protective biases. If you introduce remuneration into the equation, it becomes almost impossible to be reasonably self-critical. Self-evaluations should be a part of the compensation and promotion process only after they are fully integrated into a culture of growth and improvement.

Integrate self-evaluations with the creation of a constructive personal development plan. Use employees' self-perceptions as an essential element of their growth strategies, as the skills and competencies that they identify are the ones they are most likely to work on. Emphasize opportunities for improvement, rather than the presence of weakness or failure.

Integrate the self-assessment with other sources of feedback. Agreement between self and supervisor on an area of weakness will reinforce the need to improve it. In addition, an employee may be more willing to focus on a problem when peers and supervisors identify it as an issue.

Make self-evaluations part of a longitudinal process. Self-evaluations should review not only the individual's current status, but also progress toward long-term goals. Once an individual has identified a personal area to work on, it is enormously helpful to make subsequent ratings compared to the baseline measure and the long-term goal. The benefits of helping employees see where they came from and their progress toward a goal are critical to the success of any evaluation process.

Conclusion

Self-evaluation can provide substantial benefits to the employee, the supervisor and the organization as a whole when integrated with an overall performance appraisal process. Self-evaluation increases the employee's engagement in the assessment process and ownership of the results. Appropriate measurement and implementation strategies combined with a comprehensive performance appraisal program and clear education about the goals and intentions of the process will counteract the threats associated with self-evaluations. Most importantly, the benefits of incorporating self-evaluations into a traditional performance appraisal process far outweigh any real or perceived weaknesses associated with these assessments.

William H. Berman, Ph.D., is an author and psychologist affiliated with APT Inc., and provides organizational and executive consulting to hedge funds, fast-growth organizations and Fortune 1000 companies. John Scott, Ph.D., is a co-founder and vice president of APT Inc. David Finch, Ph.D., is a consultant with APT Inc. They can be reached at wberman@wpsmag.com.

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Self-Assessments in 360-Degree Evaluation

A multi-site accounting firm requested a 360-degree review of all middle-level managers in the professional services department. Part of the goal of this evaluation was to address perceived difficulties in one recently promoted individual. This employee was seen as having substantial potential, but was not demonstrating the needed skills in early interactions with subordinates and supervisors. Numerous managers and staff members completed evaluations on themselves and others in the department.

As the problem employee's supervisor reviewed the ratings with her, they focused first on those areas that everyone agreed were problematic. On the self-evaluation, the employee acknowledged several areas of difficulty and agreed to work on those problems. For example, she knew she had trouble controlling her frustration level, and would occasionally lash out at others in inappropriate settings. Discussions revealed that she had few skills in regulating her temper. She could easily become angry with someone who asked her the same question more than once, for example. Together, the employee and her supervisor developed a set of questions she could ask people that were designed to help them recall the answer, find the answer themselves or generate possible solutions on their own. The employee openly expressed her appreciation for working on a problem that she thought was an issue, rather than just those issues that her supervisor was concerned with.

The employee and her supervisor then turned to those areas where there was a substantial discrepancy between self-assessments and assessments of others. This presented more of a challenge, as the employee had previously seen many of these problems as a specific difference of opinion between herself and her supervisor. The 360-degree assessment showed her that the discrepancies were not just due to personal disagreement, but were widely experienced by other members of the organization. She was forced to acknowledge the criticism, and became more open to making necessary changes.

The two then began tackling these issues. In one case, it became apparent that the employee and her supervisor had significantly different ideas about what it meant to "execute consistent with the corporate mission." Her supervisor wanted more explicit and detailed information about how her work activities benefited the company. The employee, on the other hand, assumed that "no news is good news," so tended to only raise those issues that she thought were problems. They identified several ways that the employee could provide her supervisor with more balanced and frequent information about her activities, such as copying on e-mails, providing a weekly summary and using language derived from the organization's mission statement. The employee showed significant improvement over a relatively short period of time, using her own self-assessment as a non-threatening guide to changing her behavior and her attitude.

*Reprinted by permission of Workforce Performance Magazine. Free subscriptions to the Digital Edition are available worldwide at http://www.submag.com/sub/wk

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IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: MANAGING FOR DIVERSITY

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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

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3. Employee Survey Process Contributes To Improved Business Results

By Maureen Minehan who can be contacted at www.watsonwyatt.com

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Do ask, Do tell. If you ask, you must act. That's the bottom line when it comes to conducting employee surveys.

Watson Wyatt's WorkUSA(r) research shows that organizations that take constructive action based on employee survey results have shareholder returns that are twice as high as those of organizations that don't.

Working side by side with Watson Wyatt organization effectiveness consultants, IKON Office Solutions has taken this message to heart. Through broad employee input, candid communication and a commitment to action, the global company has leveraged its employee surveys to improve its business results.

Big changes, big challenges

Today, IKON is the world's largest independent channel for copier and printer technologies. It also provides outsourcing and professional services, on-site copy and mailroom management, fleet management, off-site digital printing solutions, and customized workflow and imaging application development.

IKON has undergone tremendous change in the past seven years. For two decades, it was a holding company comprising more than 450 copier equipment dealerships and 50 technology services companies. In the mid-1990s, new technologies and products made possible by the digital revolution threatened IKON's business model. Survival depended on making three important shifts - from a holding company to an operating company, from a product company to a service company, and from a customer base of small to midsize companies to one that ranges from small enterprises to Fortune 500 companies.

Keep it simple - and tied to business needs

Take the case of business linkages. As IKON HR executives prepared to conduct the company's 2003 survey, they engaged Watson Wyatt to look at the process, starting with the questionnaire development. The consultants not only reviewed and updated the survey questionnaire; they also streamlined the process through technology and other tools and provided advice on translating the results into action.

"The key to generating results from an employee survey is to view it as the main driver of a data-driven change process, rather than just a set of questions," says Ilene Gochman, national practice leader of organization measurement at Watson Wyatt. "The goal is not to capture a snapshot of employee attitudes at a particular moment, but to identify and implement specific steps that will further business goals."

The IKON/Watson Wyatt team began by simplifying the survey questionnaire used in past years. They analyzed each question to determine whether it should be kept, discarded or revised. To be included, the question had to elicit information related to the company's and HR's core business objectives. At the end of the process, the number of questions had been almost halved. Those that remained mapped closely with IKON's overall and specific business unit needs.

As a result, the survey provides a better picture of the changes that are needed to meet corporate goals. Donna Venable, IKON's human resource director for the Northeast region, explains: "The survey results now help us determine not only what we need to do, but also the best order and timetable for doing it."

New priorities = new HR needs

Accomplishing these goals has required a dramatic change in the way IKON's human capital is managed, and the company's Global Employee Survey has been a key driver in this process. By seeking employee input, IKON quickly identifies potential obstacles to progress. And by acting on the feedback, the company instills trust among its workforce and ensures that employees and processes are aligned with objectives.

IKON's survey success is due largely to its focus on five elements: linking actions to business objectives, communicating effectively, using employee-directed solutions, demanding accountability and leveraging best practices.

Take the case of business linkages. As IKON HR executives prepared to conduct the company's 2003 survey, they engaged Watson Wyatt to look at the process, starting with the questionnaire development. The consultants not only reviewed and updated the survey questionnaire, they also streamlined the process through technology and other tools and provided advice on translating the results into action.

At IKON, every manager is responsible for preparing a detailed plan to initiate change and assigning accountability for each step of the plan. The plan is then uploaded into a tracking and reporting database that executives and managers throughout the company can access. Managers must regularly review and update the plans and discuss them as part of monthly and quarterly meetings with employees.

IKON's senior leaders make it clear that they expect action. Every year, Sexton travels with the company's CEO to different regions to conduct operational reviews. "We inspect the progress made on the survey action plans at every location as part of those visits," she says. "All managers are held accountable for implementing the steps laid out in their plans."

Identify and leverage best practices

In 2003, members of IKON's HR team conducted more than 130 interviews with managers at the five top-scoring locations to find out what processes, programs, methods and procedures they were using to achieve their results. More than 170 of these practices were incorporated into a Best Practices Guide and video that is available to all managers.

The action plan database also provides a wealth of knowledge for IKON managers. "Every manager has access to the reports and can use them to track the status of their action items and communicate the status to employees," says Venable. "They also can use the database to identify issues that are similar across IKON and view how other managers are addressing them."

"The idea behind the searchable database and the guide is that you don't always have to look for best practices outside the company," Kenworthy says. "Instead, you can tap into best practices inside the organization and leverage them. In the past, we would benchmark externally, but now we look at our own high-performing units and markets across the country and capture what they are doing."

From action to results

Has all of this action translated into tangible business results? Sexton says yes. "We see a strong correlation between the survey and employee satisfaction, and between satisfaction and business performance. In fact, our highest-performing marketplace also was the highest scorer on the employee survey.

"The survey is the most powerful HR tool we have. It brings rigor and discipline to the development of our HR strategy and helps us quickly and easily close any gaps between employee capabilities and motivation and IKON's goals," Sexton says.

"Today, the survey is an accepted - even expected - part of our culture. This is a competitive organization; everyone wants to be the best, and people recognize the value of the survey and depend on it as a driver of change."

Don't try to do it all. A key impetus for IKON's new questionnaire in 2003 was the HR team's knowledge that all HR practices are not created equal. Sexton says her team knew this intuitively. But it wasn't until they read The Human Capital Edge, a book by Watson Wyatt practice leaders Bruce Pfau and Ira Kay describing the impact of 21 HR practices on shareholder value, that they felt they had a blueprint for better organizing their HR - and the survey's - priorities. "The book gave us the 'aha!' we needed. It helped show us which practices were most important, and those are the ones we seek feedback on," Sexton says.

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4. Leading Diversity: An Invitation to Leaders Everywhere*

By Keith Coats who can be contacted at http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz

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Understanding and leading diversity is complex and demanding territory for leaders everywhere. It also is territory, which in a global economy, is simply unavoidable. In the face of relentless diversity care needs to be taken that leaders avoid the temptation of looking for an easy or simplistic formula. An 'ABC' to leveraging diversity where all you have to do is 'add water' and in an instant you have the solution!

Here is what I am learning about diversity and hopefully these ongoing lessons will provide you with some of the signposts that will assist you in your own unique yet shared journey.

Dealing with diversity is not optional.

There is perhaps no better place than South Africa to help us understand this reality. Though to think that as South Africans we have the corner on this market would be an illusion smeared with ignorance. The Asia Pacific region, to name but one, is a cauldron of diversity. This has become increasing apparent to me as we in TomorrowToday.biz have done work with the East-West Center located in Honolulu. The programme in which we have worked brings leaders from throughout the Asia Pacific region together and amongst the approximately 50 participants, there can be as many as 30 countries represented. Ever tried to facilitate a workshop on self-awareness where you have some Bhutanese monks as participants! Needless to say it is a challenge and is an environment where the learning is mutual.

Squaring up to the challenges posed by diversity is unavoidable for leaders. Accepting this reality is perhaps the first step in the journey to understanding and leading diversity.

Diversity will challenge your own lenses through which you view the world

We all have lenses through which we make sense of the world around us. For the most part these lenses remain hidden from our own view and the quest for emotional intelligence is in part developing an awareness of the lenses through which we view the world. Understanding how 'who I am' impacts on my view of 'reality' is a lifetime pursuit. It requires the imprinting and mastery of both reflective habits and practical skills in order to leverage personal growth from an awareness of my own unique lenses.

There are multiple 'lenses' including those of race, gender, age and experience that come into play. Having some of these lenses challenged can be uncomfortable if not painful but is an essential bridge to authentic self-development. The frightening thing is how deeply embedded some of our lenses are and bringing them to the surface can take time (process), honesty (information / feedback) and a willingness to be vulnerable. In the content driven world in which we live, giving time to process and outcomes often takes intentional effort and activity.

Savvy leaders understand this and they pay more attention to process and outcomes than they do to content. Unfortunately this lesson is one that remains obscured in the blind spot ofmany Business Schools and leadership formation programmes I have encountered. Ironically such institutions are in desperate need to have their own lenses challenges in this regard. This will become an increasing challenge to institutions, which focus primarily on an academic, content driven agenda and curriculum. Paradoxically the worldwide focus on leadership development has never been greater and yet we have a dearth of genuine leadership in so many of the corporates worldwide.

Diversity is the yellow brink road to innovation.

The old (Boomer) approach to innovation found expression in coherent teams that were well aligned. Being on the same page sums up this approach and the thinking was that as we then work together we can focus on being innovative and think out the box. The reality is that this no longer works. The ability to innovate, truly innovate, is dependant on the ability to harness and leverage diversity. This makes for interesting 'team dynamics' and requires no small amount of dexterity within both the corporate culture and environment. It is also something that requires leadership as in many instances the gravitational pull is towards homogeneous safety and comfort. A willingness to embrace diversity will inevitably lead to new ways to see and do things. If it doesn't, then the chances are that it was not a 'willingness to embrace' that was the primary driver, but rather a desire to dominate, that led the diversity process. There are times when the domination driver does a good job at masquerading as a desire to embrace diversity. Somehow the outcomes will always reveal the authenticity of the process and one of the outcomes will inevitably be that of innovation.

Understanding diversity is to tell our story

We all frame our reality through stories. Stories will become a dominant theme within leadership and corporate life in the unfolding Connection economy. Dealing with diversity in an intellectual, conceptual way can lead to much talk but little conversation. Talk that doesn't build relationship serves little purpose. The best way to begin to understand diversity is through the willingness to both share and listen to our individual and collective stories. This is too big a theme to unpack in the context of this article but the need for leaders to understand the power of stories and engage with this new territory is compelling. Sharing our story with attentive listeners is a powerful way to begin to understand our own lenses and nurtures an understanding an appreciation for the things that bind as well as the things that keep us apart. I remember someone recalling the story of a conversation she had had with a good friend. The friend had said to her (intending it as a complement) "when I see you I don't see colour" (obviously this was a cross-cultural friendship). The Storyteller had then replied, "...well then you don't see me". The first step to understanding diversity is the recognition that we are different. Telling our story paradoxically highlights this important stepping-stone as it does the extent to which we share our 'sameness'. Stories are the means by which we find our way in the maze that is diversity. Leaders will need to become Storytellers and 'Wayfinders' in the Connection economy, an economy where the new navigation skills and instruments will need to be discovered.

Kindergarten offers lessons in diversity

Leaders need to be learners. Where is it that leaders can learn about diversity? Certainly one option is the kindergarten. Young children often are immune to the things that we as adults use to categorize, label, divide and 'put in a box'. Of course, sadly so, they learn these categories soon enough. However, for a time at least they are not prone to stereotypical judgments and remain disarmingly open to those around them. In Everything I know about leadership I learnt from the kids (Penguin) I explore the magical world of kids and all that we can learn from them when it come to leadership. I won't repeat some of those lessons here (buy the book!) other than to say that we need to explore fresh ways for those in leadership to understand diversity. The theoretical and conceptual models on the subject have a place but so too does learning what it is all about from unlikely sources whatever those might be. When it comes to diversity we need to be 'educated' and as Skinner has said, "education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten". Unlearning needs to precede learning and leaders need to place themselves squarely in the path of experiences from which they will receive an education. Knowing in advance what these are is not always possible and a willingness to try new things, explore and embark on open-ended paths is what it will take. Scared? You should be! I know I often am.

According to Stanford psychologist Claude Steele there are several factors that can leverage diversity. These include optimistic leaders, genuine challenge, an emphasis on learning, affirming the sense of belonging and an appreciation for different values and perspectives. Clearly there is much for leaders everywhere to think about and work on. What is clear is that the world we once knew, a world where the impact of diversity was minimal, is no more. This is not a new message but leaders need to adapt to this changed reality. No longer does the old dance work, a new dance is required. Diversity offers some wonderful opportunities to those individuals and companies intent on growth. Diversity is not limited to a north-south axis but needs to incorporate an east-west perspective. It is not only external, 'an out there' type of focus but needs to incorporate an internal, an 'in here' element. It is the interplay between 'them' and 'us' whoever them and us may be. It is an open-ended invitation...an exploration to which leaders everywhere is invited. It is an invitation leaders dare not ignore: "I'm too busy" simply isn't good enough.

*Reprinted by permission of the author.

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5. Case-Law & Legislation Review

By Gary Watkins who can be contacted at

www.caselaw.co.za ; www.workinfo.com

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# LI YING LI VS. PROTON TEXTILE CC

Case No: FS4057-04

Award Date: 16 March 2005

Jurisdiction: CCMA: Harrismith

Commissioner: MC van Aarde

SUBJECT: Unfair Dismissal Contract of employment

ISSUE: In a claim for an alleged unfair dismissal the onus to prove the fairness of a dismissal dispute rests on the employer party. It is trite law that an employer must observe the requirements set out in schedule 8, item 8 and 9 of LRA. Employer cannot escape the provisions of the LRA by using a fixed term employment contract. Dismissal found to be procedurally and substantively unfair.

SUMMARY OF FACTS: The employee was in the employment of the employer since 4 February 1999 in the capacity of Technician on a fixed term contract. She was dismissed on 14 May 2004 for reasons that she assisted a friend after hours without permission of her employer. The employer further alleged that she was performing poorly and had received two verbal warnings and one written warning dated 20 June 2002 for this. The employer acknowledged that the warnings were issued without any disciplinary hearing being held and maintained that her poor performance entitled the employer to terminate her contract mid-term. The employee alleged that the director of the employer company that she was "Moonlighting" confronted her. She denied this and informed him that she was assisting a friend after-hours.

SUMMARY OF JUDGEMENT: The Commissioner held that a premature termination of a fixed term contract has to comply with all the normal requirements for a procedurally and substantively fair dismissal. In addition, where the employee had a reasonable expectation that the contract would be renewed, failure to so would be regarded as a dismissal. In this case, the Commissioner found that the fact that the employee had been employed on a fixed term contract for a period of nearly 6 years, pointed to an intention on the part of the employer to escape the provisions of the LRA. Even where the employer has established the existence of a fixed term contract, the employer cannot terminate this contract at will. It must still follow a due process. The Commissioner found that the written warning that had been issued to the employee in 2002 had expired, and in fact that her contract had been renewed after that. As to the verbal warnings, the Commissioner found that these were hearsay and could not be relied on. The Commissioner further found that there was no evidence that the employee had indeed engaged in "Moonlighting", and in addition, there was nothing in her contract of employment to prevent her from doing work for another employer as well. The dismissal was found to be unfair and the employer was ordered to pay the employee 10 months' salary. No order was made as to costs, although the Commissioner commented that he had considered a cost order against the employer.

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IN-COMPANY WORKSHOP: EMPLOYMENT EQUITY COMMITTEE TRAINING

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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

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6. Book Reviews

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# Investing in Your Company's Human Capital: Strategies to Avoid Spending Too Little---Or Too Much

To purchase this book click on: http://www.kalahari.net/e-trader/referral.asp?toolbar=mweb&linkid=5&partnerid=293&sku=28124950

By Jack J.Phillips, AMACOM, 2005

The importance of an organization's human capital -- its people -- cannot be overstated or overlooked, but like any other asset, it must be carefully managed and monitored. The people in a company reflect the investment not only of money, but also of the time dedicated to developing and executing projects and programs. Investing in Your Company's Human Capital presents five strategies for establishing appropriate levels of investment -- monetary and otherwise -- in workforce initiatives. The book addresses four overarching questions:

* How much should we invest in human capital, and is it possible to spend too much?

* Why is it important to invest (and invest properly) in human capital?

* What measures should be monitored? (the author identifies 24)

* What are the roles of the CEO and other executives and senior team members?

A practical approach to an often-mishandled asset, Investing in Your Company's Human Capital is a valuable tool for driving any enterprise's bottom line.

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7. Conversation As Technology

By David Creelman who can be contacted at

creelmanresearch@canada.com

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In The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith wrote about the specialization of labour in a pin factory. In those days when you watched people working you could see them pushing carts, operating machines and hitting things with hammers. I imagine Mr. Smith would find the modern work place rather mysterious. Walk into any head office and you see people talking in meetings, conversing in hallways, communicating by email, and chatting on the phone. The modern organization pays a great deal of money to people who spend their days talking to each other.

We do not think too much about conversation as a business tool since most people start conversing at age two and never stop. However, the science of conversation is interesting. Conversation analysis (which looks at the details of each segment of a conversation) shows just how complicated the process is and how we unconsciously manage to steer through misunderstandings, incomplete thoughts and disruptive interruptions. Speech act theory suggests that conversation is not just an exchange of information, but is actually a type of action. When a judge says, "I now pronounce you man and wife" something rather important has happened-it's not just words. Similarly when you tell your boss, "I'll have it done by Monday" or a customer forgives a problem by saying, "Don't worry about it" those speech acts have real significance.

It's not only scientists and philosophers who have recognized that conversation is more than just words. All sorts of business thinkers have stumbled upon the idea that modern business is all about conversations. In my article Conversation Against Measurement (email me if you'd like a copy) I quote the following experts:

- Henry Mintzberg observed that managers spend almost 80% of their time in conversation (meetings and phone calls)

- MIT Professor Peter Senge says, "Although systems thinking is seen by many as a powerful problem solving tool we believe it is more powerful as a language".

- Neuroscientist turned management consultant Rick Ross talks about the practical importance of, not just talk, but "skilful discussion".

- Kees Van Der Heijden, of Royal Dutch/Shell describes scenario planning as "the art of strategic conversation."

One of the most serious attempts to take the science of conversation and apply it rigorously to business was in an early email program called "Coordinator" devised by the Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores. This program tried to force people to manage their communication according to speech act theory. It proved to be too restrictive to be popular however that does not mean it was not a step in the right direction.

The essential point in all this is that conversation is complicated and is central to management so we should not take for granted that we can do it well. It's true we are all pretty good at talking, but if we want a great organization being pretty good is not good enough.

I like to think of conversation as a technology. The IT department is responsible for information technology. HR needs to be responsible for conversation technology. It's an enormously powerful tool that we can get more out of if we treat it seriously. Various consultants offer advice on how to have better conversations; the best ones can have an important impact on organizations.

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8. Unsubscribe & Moving Soon

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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.

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