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Archive for January, 2012

More on Ethics – Areas for Concern!

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

The search person says to the HR person:  I want to lead a discussion on Ethics in the Search Field.

The HR person responds:  Well that won’t take long!

Sad, but all too true – and these past weeks have given me reason to (at least partially) agree.  I am an HR person by background and still consider myself to be in that broadly-defined field.  HR as a function should strive to be a business partner; that said, they should also make sure certain tenets are followed.  I have found myself responding as an HR person to a few items – and then I started worrying about the search field.

We should know better!

Two different HR leaders . . . . . two different stories . . . . .

1)   An HR leader was asked directly by a respected search consultant (in the Twin Cities) for the year they graduated high school.  (The HR leader was shocked but politely answered the question.  We can argue the merits of that later.)  I give up . . . . . under what circumstance is that pertinent information?  How would one use it?  I can think of only one reason for asking the question.  You can determine the candidate’s age within one year.  Is the search person discriminating?  Were they asked to discriminate?  (NOTE – the search person is an extension of the employer – and I know [or at least hope] that no employer would ‘directly’ ask.)

There’s more . . . . . .

2)   It was suggested by a search consultant (in the Twin Cities) that an HR person (a different person than referenced above) change the date that their employment ended.  It’s January 2012.  The HR person’s employment ended in December of 2011.  The search person said to use 2012 as the date on the resume.  The search person’s concern was that using 2011 could imply that employment ended as early as January of 2011 – a full year ago.  Using 2012 keeps the timeframe more recent in the reader’s mind.  (I know there are other ways this situation can be handled.)

What is our obligation to our client (the employer)?  What is our obligation to our profession?

As I have reported in the past, SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) has a Code of Ethics.  This is its core principal:

  • HR professionals are expected to exhibit individual leadership as a role model for maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct.

Not too specific – but we are paid to make decisions, not simply follow a recipe.  SHRM continues with Guidelines (among other things).  The first of these guidelines left me a bit uncertain:

  • Be ethical; act ethically in every professional interaction.

Search professionals – we can and should be held to a high standard.  Employers – ask questions of your search firm and assure we are meeting your standards!  The Ethics in the Search Field discussion should NOT be a short one – or the punchline to a joke.

Posted in Ethics, Recruiting, Retained Search

Strategic Talent Management: Take Action!

Monday, January 16th, 2012

As you know from past posts, I am a fan of ERE.net’s articles.  Toward the end of last year, there was a wonderful article entitled Why Not Start the New Year by Doing Something Strategic in Talent Management? (see http://bit.ly/seh4Xy).  What is interesting to me is that the conversations we are having with our clients have started to move to the strategic as well – starting late summer/early fall.  Three themes have emerged:

  1. Companies are starting to invest in their business again.
  2. Organizations are beginning to take actions to ‘fix’ managers that are not performing well.
  3. Succession Planning and Retirement Planning are becoming more common topics.

The article suggests actions to consider.

Actually – the article suggests 15 potential actions to consider.  I am a list person so this article was especially appealing.  That said, you can find the full list by following the above link to the article.  There are a few items that I found especially noteworthy – and worthy of repeating here.

  • Reward great people management – people will do what they are incented to do.  Performance management should be ongoing conversations, not the once-per-year dreaded conversation that managers and employees put off.  Make developing, leading and promoting great employees part of the management scorecard.  Reward managers who put their best people up for developmental assignments rather than hoarding them.  Again, people will do what you incent them to do.
  • Identify and fix bad managers - while recent studies show that engagement is highly impacted by the confidence employees have in their company’s senior management, a bad manager (who employees deal with daily) will take a toll.  Organizations know who these people are.  Take action.
  • You need to prepare for a leadership gap – this relates to some of the themes referenced at the start of this post.  The economy is slowly improving; the predictions of pending turnover are growing.  And we finally have demographics to think about – people are using the ‘R’ word (retirement) openly in conversations.  Companies cannot wait any longer.  The need for robust succession planning is staring companies in the face.
  • Update your retention approach – we focus way too much on recruiting and way too little on retention.  Retention programs have been shelved due to the recent economic trends.  It is time to take them from the shelf and make them part of our daily mantra.  What if we re-recruited our current employees?  Interestingly, that would make recruiting that much easier.

My favorite of the 15 is the least expensive!

  • Improve non-monetary motivation – according to most studies and as reported in the ERE.net article, a significant portion of employee motivation comes from (1) recognition, (2) praise and (3) feedback.  These items are low or no-cost.  Managers do need to be trained to do these things properly and sincerely.  (And providing training to employees is motivational as well – you are investing in them.)

It’s a new year – the time for action is now!

Posted in Career Management, Employee Engagement, Multiple Topics, Succession Planning