In this economy, most organizations will greatly slow down their hiring. They have to be more cautious about extending themselves. Yet the talent crunch is not going to go away. We will recover from the recession, and then we'll face the looming reduction of employees available for our growth. Our projects, product design, sales initiatives, and innovations go onward; their success is more important then ever. And that brings us to knowing and caring for our current people.

Head count reports of various types are the most requested reports into HR. They are even more important now - if they're the right reports being used the right way. We need to know our employees. Who are they? How many of them are there? What are their competencies? What jobs do they do? We need to make sure we hang on to the right people and get them into the most productive roles possible. We must create efficiencies within innovation. We need sparks of creativity to ignite new ways of doing business. This is how America has pulled out of tough economic situations before. But we can't innovate our way to greatness if we let the great employees go.

In a poll this month conducted by the Conference Board, a global independent membership organization working in the public interest, about layoffs, the focus is directed toward precision layoffs. This means fewer voluntary packages will be offered to leave a job. Companies can be very selective about who they let go. HR must be very careful about their selection of who they let go. You don't want to be the person responsible for letting an A Player go and keeping a B Player. Retaining great talent is critical. Business Week's recent article, "Career Advancement in Tough Times," says 'the time to shine' in your career is now. It's a good idea to watch for individuals who bring answers and great ideas to the table. Who is bringing value to the organization? Great ideas, not just great cost cutting, will move companies into the thrive stage of this economy. This has to be done with the people of an organization.

If you're facing employee layoffs, I suggest you be VERY careful and help your company be very careful about the selection of who exits. There may be positions in your company that need the players you're considering cutting. Do you know where those positions are? I recommend that you filter and sort your people in many ways to get the sense of which positions they could succeed. Make sure you build your succession plan deep into your bench with the employee base you have now, so that before you cut employees, you know who you're planning as best successors in the future. Make sure you don't cut rising stars and high potential employees. Your attention to detail in HR will be more important now than ever.

Cheers,
Lois

When I was 18, I volunteered to help with a local judging competition of ad agency work. I wasn't qualified to be a judge. I was qualified to be the hostess for our out-of-town judges. I made a connection with one of the judges, Rich Flora, with whom I have since enjoyed a relationship which has evolved from career mentor, to vendor, to informal life coach, to dearest of friends for the last 24 years. What I learned from him about Dallas even had an influence over my decision to move here. Rich is a writing genius, yet I believe his leadership skills are his truest calling.

Rich taught me how to be a mentor, although I don't think he knows it. Rich has asked me deep questions that make me really think. He leads me to make my own decisions, because only I know the answers to those big questions for myself. He never tells me what to do, but I walk away from our conversations wiser and ready to make my decisions. The leadership and mentoring skills he has shown me, have shaped my life as I have progressed from the bottom of the organizational chart to the top of my own organigram. 

I now try to use his techniques of questioning, guiding, and leading in my parenting, mentoring, and corporate leadership. Finding the needs and concerns of my colleagues through questions that don't put them on the spot, reading between the lines but not making assumptions, and truly caring about the outcome of each conversation because every interaction matters, are the traits Rich has taught me. I am still being mentored by Rich in life lessons as we occasionally meet over Indian food and great laughs. He likely doesn't realize it, but I leave each of those lunches recharged and feeling like a million bucks. I have not refined my mentoring skills to his level, yet. But I'm working on it.

I have been on the receiving side of many mentoring relationships and am doing my best to 'pay-it-forward' as I mentor others. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the best leadership I provide is when I go into the mode of mentoring others through achieving their objectives.

Thank you, Rich!

Cheers,
Lois

Do you work with HR technology? Do you have a need to share that technology work with others in order to support HR functions within their organizations? When we are in the company of those who share our needs, our hassles, our strengths, and our goals, we often find that we can excel even further. This is why we join organizations that can provide us with a network of like-minded colleagues.

If you work in HR technology, I highly encourage you to explore IHRIM.org, the International Association for Human Resources Information Management. To give you an idea of the organization, here is the IHRIM Vision Statement: The Recognized Authority on Human Resource Systems and Technology. This is the  IHRIM Mission Statement: To Be the Leading Professional Association for Knowledge, Education and Solutions Supporting Human Capital Management.

IHRIM is where you can receive education about technology, project management, implementations, and all things around Human Resource Information Technology. Succession Planning, Talent Management, HRIS Upgrades, Payroll, Workforce Metrics, Balance Scorecards; all of these topics are shared within the IHRIM association. Webinars, training, a social networking tool for members to connect, and a conference for education and networking are all benefits of membership.

It's important to network with those who can help you do your job - and that's what you get when you network within IHRIM. I must disclose that I have recently been elected to serve on the IHRIM board starting in 2009. I agreed to support this organization because, during the last 13 years, I have met some of the greatest people and had the most wonderful professional relationships within the IHRIM membership. It is my privilege to support the organization. These comments are mine and not part of my role as a board member.

I hope you will look at the benefits of IHRIM for you or for your team members who want to - and should - benefit from the collective knowledge pool of such a talent filled organization.

Cheers,
Lois

My grandma has an amazing social network, all of it in the real world, not electronic. This month is Grandma's month; she turned 91. 

She still lives in her own home. She is alert, peppy and the most pragmatic woman I have ever met in my life. I have tremendous respect for Grandma. She has taught me many life lessons. One of them is that a little bit of risk is really worth taking. At 88 she fulfilled a dream of getting a ride on a 4 wheeler. "I just always thought it would be fun" she told me. She had a blast.

Another thing she has taught me is how beautiful the care and feeding of your social network is. The majority of the family gathered this weekend in rural Iowa for Grandma's birthday. All through the weekend friends and family who live near by stopped in, dropped off cards and flowers, told all of us that Grandma is such a wonderful person, and shared in the celebration of her birthday. For her 90th, we had a birthday party in the small farm community where she has always lived, and over 125 people showed up. (The only gathering that big in Iowa in 2007 that didn't have a political candidate in attendance, I'll bet.)

All of this happens because Grandma has always taken care of others. Her calendar is full of people's birthdays and anniversaries, and up until a few years ago, she always acknowledged every one of them somehow. She would share the wealth of her garden and her time with anyone that wanted it or had a need. She was an ER nurse into her 60s and helped with Hospice care for people all over the county. People know she has a great heart and has done so much for others. They, in return, are always willing to help her out in any way they can.

This is an important lesson as we build our connections within our social networks (in person and on-line). If you want to tap into your social network at sometime, you need to care and feed the relationships you have. Make introductions to people who need to know each other. Send articles of interest to somebody who may not have caught it. Remember people's birthdays; ask how you can help them. Then you truly have a network, not just a rolodex.

Happy Birthday, Grandma! It was a wonderful weekend!

Cheers,
Lois

Hopefully, every manager is a leader. Certainly not every leader is a manager. I have mentioned The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner previously in this blog. Their #7 of the Ten Commitments of Leadership is, "Set the example by behaving in ways that are consistent with shared values." I strongly believe that the "Attitude Starts at the Top." If leaders set a good example with the decisions they make and the way they communicate those decisions, then the behavioral tone is set for the whole organization. If you need great leadership, then you must cultivate leadership all the time!

As I talk with people about their succession planning and the assignment of competencies to a role, I'm surprised at the assumption that the competencies designated as leadership or representing leadership are so often confined to the position of managers. I went through an entire index of competencies designated for a sales organization and, other than persuasion, leadership requirements were missing from the job competencies. Leadership has to be fostered throughout an organization. It needs to be developed for individuals and teams so that everyone can progress. When people lead they are usually more positive and display a better attitude.

Please review your expectations within your performance reviews and your job competencies. Look hard for the opportunities to build leaders and attitudes by setting the bar for what you expect of your individuals. If you set the bar high, they'll rise to the occasion. This will, in turn, help with team projects, future succession planning, and every day in the progress of the company.

Oh, and as a leader, your attitude is being observed, especially in trying times.

Cheers,
Lois

Many companies take their succession planning and talent management more seriously these days. One challenge I often hear from our customers is that the bench for leaders may not be deep enough for the future. This should send a strong message to the recruiting department and hiring managers throughout the organization. I encourage our people to hire for the job they have today and the leaders they want to have in the future, even when not hiring a manager.

The cub scouts have this great way of rewarding boys for doing good deeds during a cub scout event. They give the boys a brightly colored bead to hang from a leather strip on their belts. The promise of this small prize can turn a wild batch of 7- and 8-year olds into a camp cleaning machine just to earn the beads. Sometimes I wish we had a visible award system for the decisions our people make. 

I can see it now. Every time you make a decision for the business, a bead is added to the jar on your desk. If a manager's employees don't have very many beads then you know that manager is not empowering his/her staff to make progress. Their leadership is in question. You could ask people how many beads they earned in their last position, and how they earned them. It would be quantitative. It would be, let's face it, impossible. This is not practical, but an interesting thought exercise.

Are you hiring people with the right behavior that exhibits past leadership and decision making? (If you don't know how to find their past behavior, I recommend Top Grading by Geoff Smart.) Are you empowering your employees to flex their decision making abilities and deepen your bench of leaders in the organization? Are you building quality successors within the organization? Are you encouraging your team to "earn their beads" today?

Cheers,
Lois

In one of my previous blogs, I wrote about the skills gaps in our workforce and raised the issue of the stripped out middle management level of our organization charts where development toward senior leadership often occurs. I received a lot of feedback. One of my friends, who must be kept anonymous because he does consulting for management in India and doesn't want to offend anyone, described some real nightmares of flat org charts.

Here is his story. Many organizations in India and other countries compete based on efficiency which has led to very, very flat org charts. This means that a single manager could have 50, 100 or, in some cases, 150 direct reports. He said this results in never getting decisions from management on new initiatives for improvement, thus their efficiency advantage is eroding. The model is broken.

Based on my experience, the problems with this type of organizational design manifest themselves in many ways. My consultant friend and a few of my contacts, faced with the burden of a flat org chart, confirmed these problems are real.

The world is not flat; your org chart shouldn't be either.

Cheers,
Lois

While attending the SHRM Strategy Conference in Palm Springs last week I saw a couple of recurring themes. One theme was the huge skills gap that employees have to close before they become leaders, especially senior leaders. The other was the fact that the latest financial crises is moving out the target retirement date for many people as their investment portfolios are ripped up on Wall Street.

First, the skills gap. Participants pointed to many reasons for this gap. Some thought it was largely the demographics changes of the workforce. We have more younger workers in than experienced employees. Others clearly blamed it on generational issues.  I raised a different point that I believe is a strong reason: we don't have the manpower to staff our hierarchies.

How much of this gap, as we have attempted to create very lean organizations, results from stripping out layers of the org chart often called middle managers? Early management positions were the development grounds for senior leaders. This is where people received the experience they needed to make the ever increasingly complex decisions for the business. This is also where we were able to test leaders to see if they had the right stuff to move up in the organization. 

Now we often remove the early management positions in the name of cost efficiencies. We give more responsibility to the individual workers, without giving them the authority of management or even the accountability. This is often called empowerment. This empowerment shouldn't go away; it allows employees to grow. But without adding the accountability and budget responsibility we create a gap of business acumen and miss the chance to develop these individuals.

I don't believe that every department needs to be deep with management. I do believe that many organizations have abdicated management decision making and analysis to consulting firms, and thus never threw their people into the trenches to learn the strategy of the game.

Second, the changing retirement date for employees, a topic requiring our full attention. I am currently collecting stories from anyone willing to share. How are you providing new types of employee arrangements to address the engagement of our workforce returning from retirement, not interested in retirement, or needing a change for semi-retirement? More, with your help, about this later.

Cheers,
Lois

Have you ever interviewed a new grad or spoken to a college-age family member about business or job hunting and been surprised they were unaware of what seemed like basic information to you? The problem isn't that these young adults are lazy or foolish. Rather, what I've found is there are some really large education hurdles blocking our kids' race toward careers. Each and every one of us in business - and especially in HR - needs to help change this. In short, we need these kids in our future org charts.

As a mentor in both formal and informal formats, I find brilliant and ambitious people who are fully intimidated and uninformed about the career hunt they have ahead of them. So I would like to give you some ideas on where and what you can do to help prepare these future leaders.

First, there are many formats for mentoring out there, so take your choice based on what works best with your schedule and knowledge base. Just a few options include:

Second, address the issues most pertinent to students preparing for the job market. The following list includes the type of information students I have worked with needed (in many cases, in their own words).

Third, recognize and reinforce the critical topics that may seem obvious to you, but are still new or unknown to students, such as:

Bringing it all together, Aquire sponsors a pizza dinner for students to run through these topics and answer questions (it's a great way to kickstart a new program, too.) We don't do it to find applicants, but it can obviously be a reward for giving back to the community.

My mentoring allows me to do these things regularly, but I realize not everyone can do them all. The important thing is to do what you can knowing that you are contributing to the workforce of tomorrow - paying it forward, if you will.

Please share ideas you have for helping our future workers or let me know if I can help answer your questions.

Cheers,
Lois

It is so important to find people that fit the culture of an organization. Our employee base is quite eclectic, both in their job tasks and in their personalities. When thinking about my response for a journalist the other day, I found a strong thread that is the underlying success of our hiring/retention at our company. Beyond hiring really smart people, we hire people who share our core values.

Aquire Core Values

We can provide a great deal of empowerment to our employees, because we hire them knowing they share our drive and values. We trust them.

My favorite leadership course I've taken was driven by a book, The Leadership Challenge, by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. It was amazing. Six years later, I still keep the bookmark on my desk with the "10 Commitments of Leadership" and I share them with others. One of the items, #4, is "Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to their values, interests, hopes and dreams." To appeal to their values, you have to know what they are. If you want to build your bench strength of strong leaders and personnel then I encourage everyone in the org chart who has anything to do with hiring, succession planning, or management to understand their employees' and candidates' values, interests, hopes and dreams. This will help you identify the synergy with the company's objectives and thus provide the right seeds for a healthy crop of leaders in the future.

Resources to consider:
The Leadership Challenge
Your own corporate Values Statement.
The Dream Manager to appeal to their dreams. (More on this one in the near future.)

Cheers,
Lois