Getting managers to manage HR!
August 29, 2008
I’ve just read about yet another piece of research that goes to show the importance of the role of managers in the implementation of human resources policy and practice. As we in HR all know, any initiatives, policies or procedures that are created by HR teams are pointless without being executed properly, which means that people managers within the company need to understand and live the HR strategy throughout every day.
In this example, a ‘talent survey’ carried out by the consultancy Hewitt Associates found that although talent management had become a top priority in 88 per cent of the 240 companies surveyed, this was not being carried forward because managers either didn’t have the time (84 per cent) or the skills (60 per cent) to manage talent within their teams. Nick Warren from Hewitt said:
“we have seen a renewed interest in talent management as companies seek to secure competitive advantage. But companies and HR departments need to work much harder on implementation”
This could be said for many areas of HR management, with senior management approaching their HR teams to come up with new ways of increasing the value of the human resource of the company, but then not allowing the benefit of these initiatives to be realised because the time and effort required to make them work is not forthcoming. My theory on the reason for this problem is that too many managers still spend too much of their time ‘doing’ rather than ‘managing’. This is a very difficult habit to break and means that managers are always too busy to be fulfilling the most important needs in their role: to get the best out of the resources available to them through effective planning, delegation, reviewing, communicating and thinking. HR professionals have a difficult job in assisting managers in this change by helping them to let go of the every day ‘doing’ and adapting to the new skills needed to manage. If you’re not thinking about this on a constant basis, then any new initiatives or strategies, such as how to manage talent, will go no further than the end of your desk.
What do you think about this? Do you have similar experiences with managers in your organisation?
Designing the office space
August 28, 2008
The physical working space of an organisation has big effect on the corporate image of the Company for clients, but can also affect the happiness, productivity and general effectiveness of the workforce. When re-designing an office space or relocating to new premises, the look, feel, layout and general comfort of a place needs to be carefully considered so that the company portrays the desired image, or even ‘brand’ to clients and employees, whilst at the same time ensuring staff have the most appropriate working environment in order for them to feel safe and satisfied in their work.
What image are you trying to portray?
The office says a lot about the type of business to customers, and is clearly an important factor in portraying the purpose and ethos of the company. Whilst you may see antique desks and big leather chairs in a legal practice or in a Director’s office in a company with quite old fashioned hierarchies or values, a more fresh and modern look is probably appropriate in newer industries such as media or internet related companies.
The other side to this is the image you are portraying to employees. If you wish to break traditional hierarchies and reflect a flatter, more open and democratic ethos, then managers and employees should have similar furniture and if possible, sit in the same open space. Open plan offices are now more common with different organisational structures meaning that better and more frequent cross-team communication is required.
In a previous role of mine the external and internal image threatened to clash at one point. This was a non-profit organisation which had resided in a grotty old building for years, employees were squashed in, the age of the building meant that the central heating was dodgy, the lighting was terrible and the floors were so uneven you sometimes found your chair sliding to one side at your desk. Then the company relocated to a brand new office which was spacious and airy, modern and had huge windows which provided fantastic light. Obviously this was a great change for the employees, but I remember at the time people worrying about the message that was sent out to funders and partners with a non-profit organisation moving to a swanky office space that was also occupied by interior designers and architects, and was obviously expensive. The fears never materialised and everyone could see what a difference a good working space made to the staff, but the story just goes to show how office image can have an effect on organisational image.
Lots of organisations use their office space as a continuation of their corporate brand, by selecting a colour scheme and style that reflects the themes of the company logo, published materials or company website. This is a good way of cementing the company brand and image, but beware, because if the company decides to have a re-branding exercise or becomes part of a merger/acquisition, this could turn into quite a costly exercise to change!
So, designing an office space isn’t straightforward. It’s a matter of getting the balance right between an external corporate image and an internal image that reflects the desired ethos of the company, as well as ensuring the space is ergonomically well designed so that employees are kept safe, healthy and productive.
Have you been involved in an office design exercise? What were the different issues you faced and what did you end up doing?
M&S Redundancy package to be reduced
August 27, 2008
Looks like we can expect some redundancies at retail giant M&S in the next few months or couple of years. The company is currently consulting with staff representatives on the redundancy package, in order to reduce the payouts available to its workers. Currently redundant workers over 41 are entitled to 3.75 weeks’ pay for every year of service, but the company proposes to reduce this to 3 weeks, and hopes to do so by 1st September. Staff aged between 22 and 40 would see their entitlement reduce from 2.5 weeks per year of service to 2 weeks. This came out when a staff memo was ‘leaked’ to the times newspaper, and there are now fears that job cuts are soon to follow, despite M&S insisting that this is not the case.
According to employee representatives, the memo has apparently led to ‘an unprecedented level of feedback, concern and anger’, especially with the fact that last month Steven Esom, the ‘Food Director’ was given a £500,000 payout to leave the business because he was ‘not delivering’. However, even with the proposed changes, the chain will still have a redundancy package that is double the statutory entitlement and it will still compare favourably with most other high street chains. I’m sure this is little comfort to those long standing employees who now feel that their job is at risk, and their potential payout could be reduced by thousands of pounds.
One thing’s for sure – M&S are going to take a big hit to their reputation if they change their redundancy package and subsequently start making large scale redundancies within a short period of time, after promising that this exercise was simply to ‘update’ the policy in line with industry standards.
What do you think of this latest story?
Skills shortages and pay rises in the IT sector
August 26, 2008
A shortage of technical graduates and off-shoring schemes for low level IT work are both to blame for skills shortages within the IT sector and rising salary expectations for mid to high level IT professionals, according to recruitment consultancies and Incomes Data Services (IDS), the HR research organisation. This situation is leading to a skills gap, where IT graduates cannot find their first position out of university because much of the entry level work is being outsourced to countries such as India or China, and therefore cannot gain the 1-3 years’ experience required for the roles that many organisations are struggling to fill. This has led to a reduction in IT graduate numbers – applicant numbers for technology degrees have fallen by 48% since 2001.
This is proving to be a big problem for technology related companies and IT departments, not only in sourcing good quality candidates, but also in retaining the mid-level staff, who have perhaps gained a couple of years experience with the company, and are now being enticed away by higher salaries elsewhere because their skills are so much in need. I have experienced difficulties in recruiting staff in this area with more than one year’s experience, yet I don’t have the same difficulties in recruiting new graduates. This isn’t too much of a problem as long as the company is able to provide the appropriate training and support to these staff, who may have never had a job before. All of the new graduates come with the necessary technical skills, but may need close supervision or strong direction in terms of company policy, client management or commercial awareness. Further down the line, it is necessary to be on the ball in terms of retention of these individuals that the company has put a lot of time, effort and money into, as there are so many positions out there and not enough people to fill them. I am constantly plagued by recruitment agencies that find out the names of key staff in my organisation, call them under the guise of a client, and then offer them interviews for jobs with sky high salaries that we cannot compete with. Fortunately most of the time the staff let me know when this happens so that I can contact the agency to complain, but I have lost some staff because of this problem. Understanding the needs and desires of existing staff to retain them is a continual effort, covering all aspects of the employment experience including salary and benefits, career progression, learning and development and general happiness/interest in the role. Here’s some more ideas on how to manage staff retention.
With the continuing decline in IT graduates and increasing pay requirements, companies need to be quite innovative in their approach to recruitment and retention in this area. If you have any advice or experience to share regarding this issue then please leave a comment.
New helpline to tackle bad employment practice
August 22, 2008
The government has announced that a new helpline is to be introduced through which employers and employees can report illegal and bad practice by companies. This is part of new measures to protect workers’ rights and identify employers who mistreat their employers. Another part of the measures will be an awareness raising campaign.
This is a good idea in my opinion. It’s good to see the government introducing new ideas to protect workers that don’t involve more complicated legislation that sometimes has perfectly fair employers feeling as though they are jumping through hoops, and doesn’t necessarily protect employers since it can be quite difficult to make a claim to a tribunal.
Gambling at work
August 21, 2008
I’ve been asked about a particular issue at work today, relating to gambling in the workplace. You’d think this was a pretty cut and dry issue, i.e. all types of gambling should be completely banned. But there’s a couple of different areas to think about:
- Online gambling. This has become a bit of a national obsession in recent years, with literally hundreds of thousands of sites devoted to blackjack (such as this one), poker, bingo and other games. As with social networking, this can pose a big problem for organisations in terms of distraction and productivity, but has the added dimension of the morality of accepting a ‘vice’ within the working day. Many organisations are now adopting acceptable internet usage policies and will normally completely ban gambling sites. I reported ages ago on a (slightly dubious) report that found that allowing employees a reasonable level of personal internet use could increase productivity, and that an alternative if you’re not able to fully trust your employees could be blocking certain sites except for designated break and lunch times. However it’s quite unlikely that a company will include gambling sites within these arrangements because of the more problematic nature of the content and the obvious links to addiction and debt problems. Personally I wouldn’t even feel comfortable including access to these sorts of sites on PCs that have been designated specifically for personal use, if your company has this provision. I think it’s just asking for trouble and a risk not worth taking.
- Company sweepstakes. This is a little less clear than the online issue because it does not pose the same anti-social or personal risks as other types of gambling, and a bit of fun around the office when there’s a significant sporting event taking place can arguably enhance morale and strengthen employee relationships. We ran a sweepstake in my company for this year’s Euros and I have to admit that it did add a more enjoyable dimension to the finals since all the British teams were absent, even though I was doomed from the beginning with Greece! I think what needs to be considered here is the frequency of these sorts of activities, and their effect on the workplace whether positive or negative. To ensure that this can be monitored and controlled, perhaps it is best to state that employees should not run sweepstakes without the permission of management. The employee who ran our sweepstake actually asked my permission before announcing it and I thought it was fine at the time (although he didn’t fix it so that I drew a good team as per my request!)
I think as long as you are clear in policies and handbooks, the issue of workplace gambling can be handled well without having to restrict everyone having a bit of a laugh every now and then. What do you think?
BP drops flexible working arrangement
August 20, 2008
A few weeks back I was discussing the issue of awarding salary increases and bonuses in the stretching economic conditions, and suggested using flexible working arrangements as a less costly alternative to these options when times are tough. Well now it seems that this is not necessarily the case. An employment expert has warned that the next area to be affected by the ‘credit crunch’ may be flexible working arrangements, as BP has announced that its current 9 day fortnight arrangement is to be scrapped to improve efficiency. At the moment workers at many of BP’s offices can have every other Friday off as long as they work the required number of hours every week, but this excellent benefit is soon to be lost. I can only imagine how annoyed the workers will feel at losing this arrangement, I would be livid!
I don’t really understand why changing this working arrangement will save money, as long as the same amount of hours are worked each week. In personnel today Julie Quinn, the employment expert that commented on this issue explained that:
“Many organisations have headcount statistics which do not support part-time working or job sharing. Someone working three days out of five is not three fifths of a full headcount. The benefits costs are often the same, for example healthcare cover, therefore more part-timers or atypical arrangements directly feed into greater headcount at a time when many employers are looking to reduce headcount and save costs.”
However I don’t see how this affects the people working 9 day fortnights. Surely they are still full time workers and therefore headcount costs are the same? If someone can explain BP’s financial reason for changing this arrangement then I’d love to hear from you.
Sourcing time and attendance software
August 19, 2008
Yesterday I was discussing the benefits of using up to the minute technology to manage the timekeeping and attendance of employees within organisations. Using a good system can help HR to manage tricky areas of employment including working hours, overtime and annual leave and also means that vital management information can be generated easily and quickly. However, if you make a decision on your choice of system and provider too hastily, you may find further down the line that the product does not fulfil some of the needs that you didn’t anticipate at the time but now realise are vital required elements. Here are some of the things to think about:
- What information do you need to access on a regular basis? Make a list of all the functions you think you will require from the system, and then put it to one side. It’s impossible to think of everything all in one go and over the course of a week or so you will add to the list of functions needed as you go about your day to day work and come across new elements that will be required.
- You need a system that is quick and easy to complete. Nobody will thank you for introducing a system that means they have to spend half an hour a day completing timesheets. Make sure you see demonstrations of the system working when you are choosing, and if possible ask for a second opinion from those who will use it on a day to day basis.
- Work out what reports you will need to generate, and how often. You may already produce reports from existing systems but there may also be reports that you would like to generate but do not currently have the time or the capability with the existing set up. You should look for a system that has in built reports with the ability to collate your own data in a straightforward way.
- What do you want it to link to, now and in the future? Some systems will link to a clocking in system, and will also provide quick data in a rush, which for example could be useful in providing a register of who is in the building in the event of a fire. If you use specific systems for payroll, then it makes sense to get a time and attendance system that will synchronise with these, to avoid having to duplicate data. Think about whether you need to cost time to projects, do you have existing project management systems and do these need to link? Some of these things might not be relevant now, but if they are likely to be in the future then don’t dismiss this element now, as it will cost more in a few months or a year to replace loads of systems because you want one that links them all together.
- Seek demonstrations and quotes from more than one provider. I think three is a good number, and getting one low priced quote, one high priced and one in between will help you to see what you can get for your money.
These are just a few considerations when looking to implement time and attendance software in your organisation. If anyone’s been through this process before and have any additional thoughts or tips, then please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.
Time and attendance systems
August 18, 2008
HR professionals are constantly being asked to produce more detailed and in depth management information, which more often than not includes data on attendance, sickness and timekeeping. In addition to this, many companies are introducing more flexible working options which include schemes such as flexitime, which is undoubtedly an attractive option for most employees, but can be a nightmare to monitor.
A lot of companies now use the latest technologies available to handle these complex processes effectively. Time and attendance software is available from a range of providers, a lot of which is now web based, and you can choose from either an off the shelf package (normally a bit cheaper and good for smaller companies), or a bespoke system designed especially for the needs of one company (obviously tailored to your exact needs but normally expensive and requires a lot of time to work out the details of your system).
Using time and attendance software has a number of advantages:
- Can reduce the amount of administration required to work out hours worked, overtime payments, flexitime accrual etc. Is particularly useful with complex contracts such as annualised hours contracts
- It’s a more accurate and effective method of annual leave management, as well as recording sickness absence and other forms of leave. Many HR people will be used to laborious paper based systems for staff booking annual leave. In my previous role each employee had a holiday card they completed but invariably lost, and so the cards had to be constantly re-printed and days already taken were noted. I’m sure this often meant that the odd day here and there was not recorded, and some staff therefore had more days off than others!
- Many systems will link to your HR software and to payroll systems (most are sage-compliant).
- Helps to make sure the company is compliant with working time legislation, this is especially useful for shift work where weekly hours changes each week.
- Lots of organisations, such as engineering consultancies, need to cost consultant time to projects in order to charge the client effectively or ensure the project is on budget. Many time and attendance systems allow employees to do this. Some of them also allow employees to add expenses to the project costs as well as their time.
- Probably most importantly for HR, these sorts of systems allow the user to generate a huge variety of reports for a number of purposes. This obviously helps HR to be more proactive as a function and provide a more strategic level of service to the business. Producing all the information needed on a periodic basis can be a massively time consuming and difficult process without a system that generates a report or summary easily. Having used spreadsheets for HR management information for a long time, I have experienced how frustrating this can be.
So, there are loads of reasons that a HR team should invest in a time and attendance system, especially when working for a company with complex procedures, shift patterns or working practices. But there are many considerations when choosing the right system, and as the company is making a fairly sizeable investment, it is not a decision to be made hastily. In my next article I’ll look at the things to think about when sourcing a provider of time and attendance software.
Designing a development centre
August 15, 2008
Yesterday I discussed some of the benefits that can be achieved by running a development centre to help identify the skill gaps and development needs of a group of employees, and help them to build development plans to get them where they need to be to succeed and progress. Organising and delivering a development centre is a very time consuming and complex task, and should only be undertaken if you have time, resources, buy in from senior management and the necessary skills to do deliver the event. Many organisations use external consultants to plan and carry out development centres on behalf of the company, and, whilst expensive, my guess is that this is a much quicker, more straightforward and even cost effective way of implementing a development centre, because it really is a big task. Some important things to consider when planning a development centre are:
- Identify exactly what you are trying to measure. The outcomes of the tests and exercises will be pretty worthless if they don’t relate to a specific job need. This is where measurable competencies are needed, whether it’s for the jobs the participants presently hold or jobs they may be looking to progress into. Examples might be negotiation, analytical or communication skills.
- Identify tasks, exercises or tools by which the competencies can be measured, such as simulating a real job situation (e.g. in a role play), an interview, presentation or team challenge. This is where the help of a consultant might come in handy. If you want to do something like psychometric testing it is imperative that a trained professional (i.e. occupational psychologist) carries out these tests.
- The activities in the development centre should be organised so that each key competency is measured more than once, in more than one activity, and by more than one observer. This will help to make the final data more reliable and will reduce the risk of a one off brilliant or poor performance.
- Observers need to be fully trained in how to carry out this role. It is good experience for managers to carry out the role of an observer, and helps them to understand the process of self development that they can use themselves. It also costs less to train up internal observers than to use a wholly external team, but it is essential that they are given the skills to observe and assess participants effectively and fairly, otherwise the exercise could turn out to be a waste of time.
- Build into the schedule lots of time for feedback and reflection. This is what it’s all about after all. Participants should be able to discuss with the observers their performance in the development centre, what it means, and options for progressing their development going forward.
- Having a coordinator for the whole event is a good idea, as there’s a lot of different things going on at the same time, as well as observers and participants to organise. There also might be a lot of materials to sort out, and possibly technical things like a projector or TV. The observers need to be left to get on with their job so a centre manager or coordinator will take all the stress of the organisation away from everybody else. I did this role once for an assessment centre and it was a very busy day for me, but the fact that I managed all ‘bits and pieces’ helped the day to be a success.
- Finally, the development centre should not be an isolated event. As I said yesterday the competencies measured fit very well into other HR activities, and the centre will be fairly useless if it does not do this. The biggest obstacles to post centre development are lack of time, resources, and organisational commitment, and thought should be given to the methods by which development will take place and how this will be resourced prior to the centre being implemented.
Sounds complicated? It is, but for those organisations that have the resources and are willing to provide the time, the development centre can provide a good return on investment through accurately pinpointing development needs and the ways in which they can be met, as well as identifying the potential stars of the future. It can also give participants the realisation that a lot of time and attention is being given to their needs, which is obviously another plus point of the event.