Enlightenment Incorporated

I wanted ed to share with you my impressions of a book written by 2 colleagues, Scott Lochridge and Jennifer Rosenzweig of Dragonfly.   The book is titled  Enlightenment Incorporated and focuses on the the emerging trends that will impact the Workplace. 

The book is terrific and is a useful read for those of us who focus on employee engagement and take the immediate view that not only is it problematic the “old rules” post recession will not prompt an improvement.

Ths solution set contained in the book I found to be of particular relevance.

Tom

The Three Ls of Talent Readiness

By Tim Donahue

Perfecting the Talent Readiness formula for “Right People, Right Place, Right Time” involves many complexities, from shifting global demographics to the role of rapidly-evolving technology. But the business case boils down to the Three Ls – Leadership, Leverage and Legacy.

Leadership

The ever-shifting competitive landscape means that with leadership, mastery is a long-term goal. A colleague of mine once said: “As a leader, you will often be called upon to demonstrate leadership when you feel least ready to provide it.” Inevitably, all eyes and ears will turn to you, the leader, for the answer. As President Harry Truman put it, “The buck stops here.”

There is a particularly urgent link between leadership and safeguarding an organization’s future. This can mean everything from helping capable managers transition to leadership roles to shaping succession plans.

Of particular importance is Generation X, the smallest of the three predominant age groups in the U.S. workforce. The bulk of that segment – mid-30s to early 40s – is the traditional feeder pool for the leadership pipeline. Yet that same segment is the only age group that will shrink in the coming decade. The leadership pipeline may very well become a trickle.

 This demographic phenomenon is one key reason why leaders need to model effective leadership as well as extend a helping hand to show this next generation the way.

Leverage

Leadership means many things. When it comes to talent readiness, it means finding ways to increase the capabilities and impact of those who occupy spots in the org chart. If you doubt the strategic importance of leaders leveraging the abilities of those who work for them, consider the following:

•  The Adecco Group North America’s latest Workplace Insights Survey released in September 2009 showed that slightly more than three-quarters of employees surveyed were not satisfied with their career growth opportunities at their companies.
•  Recent research by Bersin Associates revealed that nearly 40% of line managers do not feel they have the training and skills to effectively manage employee performance. Yet when companies have highly effective talent management strategies, their average revenue per employees is 26% higher, Bersin’s research shows.

In short, what leaders need to do is what their people want them to do: Help them grow.

When leaders make talent development a key strategic priority – when they personally invest in developing the talent around them – they build organizational capabilities and leverage the full potential of their human capital.

This raises an important question: Do your leaders have what they need to help others grow?

Legacy

Leaders who commit to self-development as well as the growth of their people make an investment that yields a long-lasting dividend: a legacy.

Developing tomorrow’s talent is a job that must begin today. There are no quick fixes or silver bullets – no substitutes for the hard work and commitment necessary for passing knowledge and expertise from one generation of leaders to the next.

If this recession does prompt many Baby Boomers to delay their retirements, there may be a silver lining: Additional time to engage younger employees, transfer knowledge and groom successors.

To appreciate what’s at stake, consider the following:

• In an era rife with downsizing, it is sobering to consider recent research findings that 30% of companies retain knowledge poorly or not at all when workers depart
•  A June 2009 study by the Sloan Center on Aging and Work showed that since the recession, employee engagement decreased among Generation X and Y employees – yet hardly changed at all for employees in their 50s and 60s
•  In her 2008 book “Retire Retirement,” Tamara Erickson says the idealism of the Baby Boomer generation will motivate many Boomers to make a positive difference in the later chapters of their careers – which can include leaving a legacy in one’s organization

Perhaps Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen said it best in her farewell column, “Stepping Aside,” published earlier this year. “John F. Kennedy (said) that the torch had been passed to a new generation,” Quindlen wrote. “But torches don’t really get passed very much because people love to hold on to them.”

Are your leaders holding onto their torches, or preparing to pass them? Is your next generation ready to pick up the torches?

Following the three Ls of Talent Readiness will help you do right by your leaders, your employees and ultimately your organization.

Employee Engagement

Employee Disengagement During Economic Crisis

As the end of the Global Recession looms, and despite less than desired unemployment numbers, it is now necessary to address an insidious problem…..Employee Engagement is at all time low!

 

If you choose to focus on the data it is compelling, before the recession globally those who categorized themselves as “Highly Committed” to their companies was 14% and domestically 21%.

 

A reasonable assumption is that this degree of highly committed has gone down.  In proof of this assertion I would offer the recent HBS study that indicated that despite the recession approximately 20% of those categorized as high potentials left their companies.

 

For those of us not driven by data we can rely on the war stories of our friends, colleagues, and in some cases ourselves to recognize that for the most part the commercial sector did not take the long term view on employee morale during this downturn.

 

Stories such as memos to departing employees “don’t be ashamed to be seen going through your neighbor’s garbage if there is something there you want”. Or “today is your last day, we are sending you a document that has to signed and returned right away or you forfeit all rights and entitlements” in other words sign or starve, abound.

 

Unfortunately, the above stories only touch the surface of the dunderheaded practices employed by a number of companies.

 

So where does this leave human capital and executive managers?

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Engagement is abysmal whether you come from a data or anecdotal point of view
• The productivity of “Survivors” is higher because they have assumed the responsibilities of the displaced
• The impending demographic crunch of retirees and labor shortages although slowed down has not disappeared
• There is a whole new generational cohort of worker coming of age who will demand respect and career clarity
• Our methods of tracking engagement are suspect as who would complain overtly at a time such as we have experienced
• There is a high level of cynicism and distrust of senior managers and human resource professionals

 

The question now becomes to prosecute a business strategy how do we re-engage the disenfranchised?

 

We could start by saying a collective “We Are Sorry”: but candidly that is insufficient based upon the damage caused.

 

There is a folklore vignette of President Roosevelt being wheeled into his first Cabinet meeting during  the REALLY BIG DOWNTURN and saying “now what”?  When his Cabinet collectively shrugged he supposedly said “go back to your Departments, be bold and creative, if something doesn’t work try something else”.

 

We are in similar circumstances as our challenge is not only to once again prosper, but as importantly to re-engage our employees.

 

If we abdicate on this challenge or possibly even worse fail to be innovative, I would stipulate that enterprise success is likely an illusion.

The Emerging HR Demands from the C-Suite

Among the questions Discussion Partner consultants are receiving from C-Suite clients is “what can I reasonably expect from HR?”  When we probe the current state of affairs the C-Suite answer is “not much”.

 

Discussion Partner Collaborative have been turning the tables somewhat and asking “what do you need”?  The below are the Top 10 responses:

 

1. 1.      Cost Efficiency- The baseline expectation is to manage the HR function, inclusive of the costs of Employee Benefits, in a proactive manner
2. 2.      Progressive Processes-Pointing to the elegance and comprehensiveness of the HR processes will earn a blank stare.  What our clients are telling us is they assume the processes are designed to be effective.  The 2 substantive questions we hear are 1) “do they work”, and 2) are they externally validated or “are we legends in our own mind”
3. 3.      Increasing Employee Engagement-The pre-crisis studies indicated that the % of highly committed globally was 14%, in the US it was 20%.  Given the turbulence in the markets it is reasonable to assume that the number has gone down.  This is a consultant way of stating the obvious.  One of our CEO clients put it more succinctly “I don’t need HR surveys to tell me Engagement sucks……I want to know what we can do about it”?
4. 4.      Leveraging Social Networks-Very few CEO’s spend their time surfing Facebook or Linkedin: but they know they exist and are “powerful”.  They want to know what can be done to leverage these tools to promote the enterprise.
5. 5.      Demographic Shifts-A nameless client recently fired their CHRO because they  had “no plan to deal with impending retirements, and clue as to how we could fill the vacancies”.   The C-Suite is very aware as to how the Demographic shift is affecting their markets.   Yet if the most recent SHRM survey which indicated that approximately 70% of those surveyed were not aware and/or worried about this phenomenon.  It is somewhat like watching a car accident happen in slow motion.  The C-Suite does not believe HR is prepared to address this eventuality.
6. 6.      Innovative Pay Practices-The crisis should focus on the need for a re-think of pay practices.  The old ways just will not work.   For example it will be hard to motivate a Generation Y incumbent with an Incentive Stock Option Plan.   They do not plan their careers with a 5 year “vesting” horizon
7. 7.      Rack and Stack-We in HR have elegant terms such as Succession Planning, Continuity Planning, etc. to describe how performance and potential are tracked.  For those in the C-Suite it is more fundamental, they want to know, “do we know who our best and worse people are and what are we doing to address both extremes from a program point of view”? Moreover they want to know how the B Players are being dealt with in such a manner as to increase engagement
8. 8.      Competencies-This is a trying conversation to have with the C-Suite regardless of what words we use, it appears any discussion of the topic is a cure for insomnia.  The feedback we have received is that there is a need to reduce all of the plotting, surveys, tests and the like to the bare essence of a solution, “what are we doing to improve the employees performance while improving their commitment to the enterprise”?  DPC would actively encourage a job security posture of what as HR professionals your going to do vs. confuse the issue with the facts by articulating the determinant issues
9. 9.      Retention-The recent HBS research that indicated that approximately 20% of those designated “high potentials” have transitioned during the crisis should give HR a message that the Retention posture which had been deteriorating before the crisis will only be further complicated by the anticipated decline in Engagement and shifting Demographics

10.  Measurement-Dr. John Boudreau’s recent book, Beyond HR, pointed out that a strategically useful “dashboard” remains elusive for the function.   C-Suite clients would concur.   With all that is going on, be advised HR that the creation of a meaningful way of keeping score is now a necessity

 

It is a great time to be in HR!  It is now obvious that the function is essential to promote enterprise viability. Yet we should be mindful of Einstein’s definition of Insanity “Continuing to do the same things in anticipation of a different result”.

Leadership Effectiveness

Leadership Effectiveness

2 of the 7 Critical Questions Discussion Partner advisors are being asked during the economic crisis are “do I have the right people to effectively navigate the crisis”, and “after the crisis has abated do I have the right people”?

 

Unfortunately in our client work the answer to both of the questions is NO!

 

The economic crisis has brought out the best and less than attractive in many managers and organizations! 

 

The common denominators DPC has seen that we feel are inhibitors now and in the future are as follows:

1. There is no objective mechanism in place that realisticly assesses and compares the proficiencies of managers.   DPC takes the position that “Peter is a good dude”, may be lacking the necessary rigor to provide reassurance that you truly have the best.
2. When the crisis started virtually all developmental initiatives were postponed.  The short and medium predicament this posture promotes is self evident.   How can you be assured of the best talent when you are abrogating the need to invest in skills enhancement?
3. We have dropped back to the “new best friend” model of assertively hiring during a time when the perception is  there are “better people now in the market we need to get them quick”.   This leap of faith in our experience is misplaced and also has the unintended consequence of alienating your current leadership.
4. The crisis has been at the expense of the “good citizen”.  Every organization has them.  These are the folks who really drive the enterprise and do not receive the accolades or perks of the high potentials.   Be advised that as the crisis ends, in tandem with the shifting demographics, this alienation will be problematic for engagement purposes.

 

 

 

1. Transcending the now to the soon the reason the answer is a congruent NO is that the benign neglect for development,  differentiated recognition and reward that existed before the crisis, and during  exacerbated, has not prompted the degree of planning we perceive as necessary to mitigate the situation as the crisis ends.

 

As we begin to see the crisis diminish, now would be a reasonable time to begin thinking of innovative practices that have been forsaken, or barely received lip service in the recent past. 

 

The crisis postponed but did not eliminate the impending challenges of talent shortfalls nor managing a differentiated demographic workforce.

The Social Networking Phenomenon & Talent Acquisition

One of the 7 Critical Questions Surfaced by CSuite incumbents relates to how to leverage Social Networking.   Seth Stein of Discussion Partners has authored a terrific summary of today’s realities.

Social networking is hardly a new concept in the realm of talent acquisition. However, the explosion of technology-enabled social network sites (SNS) has changed the playing field forever.

Profound change can be realized almost instantaneously. Witness a recent occurrence where massive “Twittering” in the aftermath of a disputed national election in Iran has exposed a repressive regime and the lengths it will go to quell its people’s thirst for liberty.

The explosion of SNS since 1997 is staggering. This graphical depiction (1) is revealing.

 

Something that grew out of a want for folks to be connected to friends and natural associations has become part of everyone’s daily regime: log in, log on, and connect with one’s networks.

Executives must necessarily recognize that SNS are a major tool in their talent acquisition tool box. This is particularly true with the entry of Generation Y into the job market. Discussion Partner Collaborative recently published a demographic analysis on the changing workforce. DPC illustrates (2) that Generation Y now composes about a third of the talent pool almost evenly divided amongst Generation X and Baby Boomers. This new generation of talent, coming to age in the last 10 years, has been raised in and upon the SNS structure.

It is an executive imperative therefore to manage the human capital aspect of the corporate business model. The sustenance and growth of every organization begins with its people. It is an organization’s continual quest to augment, supplement, replace and refresh the pool of talent.

In the area of human capital the social networking phenomenon is a disruptive technology. To be ignorant of it is to doom one’s business to mediocrity- to sound its death knell in the global marketplace. What was once a nascent forum principally launched as a late 20^th century vehicle to become “connected”, has become an early 21^st century instrument for identifying, pursuing and acquiring talent.

 

Sources: 1. boyd, d. m., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11.  2. Entry Workforce Generation Shift, Discussion Partners Collaborative, http://www.discussionpartners.com/

The 7 Crisis Driven C-Suite Questions

As we are seeing some daylight in respect to the economic crisis my Discussion Partner  colleagues and I have identified the top questions we are hearing from our C-Suite Questions.

1. What am I missing?
2. Do I have the right people to get me through this crisis?
3. After the crisis, what type of managerial skills should my executives possess?
4. What do I do to plan for the shifting demographics?
5. How do I exploit the Social Network phenomenon to improve Employee Engagement?
6. What will the future HR model look like?
7. Do I have the right skills to be a CEO? During the next several weeks we will communicate our findings via this blog on the above questions.

Question 1-What am I missing?

The CEO community has been heads down for the last 18 months on coping with the economic crisis. In our Executive Advisory work we are finding our CEO clients becoming less focused on restructuring, stock price, and governance pressures. Our discussion has now shifted to address issues of growth and globalization. The common theme among all of the CEO’s whom we have been working with is that the economic crisis has changed the business fundamentals. This has led to our response when addressing the question “what am I missing” by replying “it is hard to say…..we are all navigating as yet unchartered waters” The growth and global issues are interrelated for self evident reasons. To level set expectations in an environment that is at best unclear the determination of strategic intent is focused on the following questions:

• Do we focus our acquisition efforts outside our host country
• How do we manage a truly global workforce
• Given the parochialism of Americans…..how do we promote a sense of enterprise community
• What is a reasonable ROI in the context of forecasted turbulent stock market conditions
• Will the ultimate measurement of intangibles be a benefit to our enterprise

These 5 filters are leading he CEO’s to be highly reflective as they ponder their next steps. An additional finding from our client work is that the consideration of the above will promote improvisation and creativity in human capital strategy

Tapping into Employee Passion

By:  Karen Warlin

Strategy / Tactics

Employees are extremely passionate about what they do – we need to tap into their passion and competitive spirit to get them jazzed again.  We need them to pull together as a team, and refocus on making the best products in the industry, which means helping them understand the business strategy, how the company is following the strategy and including them in the success of the organization. For example,

·         Key Messages:

o        Think about what you want employees to remember about this time and frame your messaging and actions around that.  This shouldn’t be a time of reactionary communication – employees want to understand the long-term view and see it played out as outlined.  

o        Identify your audiences and determine if there is different messaging for each (leaders, managers, employees, Europe, Japan, etc.)

·         Process: will you go directly to employees or try to cascade the information?  If going directly, try to build in a “heads up” for leaders / managers, perhaps a day before it goes out more broadly, so that they have time to prepare and ask questions themselves

·         Following a change communication approach (announce, educate, adopt and sustain), we can help employees get up to speed on the current state as well as what’s going to happen. The announcement about the current state of business has already been made.  Now we need to help them understand why the decisions were made and how the business will turn around.

·         Educate:

o        Design your early communications around the business strategy and what’s been done to manage to the strategy, including the purchase of the other brands.  It sounds like the purchase was announced, but there was little follow up to help employees understand the value to the business, so now they see these as negatives.  Highlight how these businesses have done, and how they’ve contributed to the success of the company.

o        Provide a global view – how does Europe and Japan impact the overall business?  

o        Also create a link between macroeconomics and impact to your business.  Given the current economy, highlight media reports that might impact your business so employees understand what influences the success of the company.  This is not a doom and gloom effort – just something that helps employees understand the bigger picture as well as help them understand that the current situation was unforeseen, but that you have a strategy in place to manage through it. Perhaps also include competitive information?

o        A tactic might be the monthly meetings you mentioned or perhaps some type of a brief communication campaign that gets employees up to speed quickly. A video on the intranet might work —

·         Adopt:

o        Once employees are educated about the strategy, continue to reinforce the messaging through your regular channels.  Connect everything you can back to the strategy so employees really see that there is a plan in place and leaders are managing to it.  This would include success stories from your various stores (green buildings, pricing changes) as well as any more bumps in the road – if something doesn’t go as planned, help employees understand why and where it fits into the bigger picture.

o        Remain transparent and share as much as you can about the business, and ask for employee input.  Reach out to employees to get their thoughts on initiatives, and recognize them for any ideas that are put in place. The idea here is for employees to get back to seeing that they have a stake in the business, and help draw a line of sight so they know what they can do to help turn it around.

o        One tactic we talked about was a regular business update that included North America, Europe and Japan, which would provide employees with a global view of the organization, as well as how all three legs support the stool.  Perhaps it could also include any external influences that impact the business.

o        You could also consider some social media venues, like Yammer or a CEO blog, where employees could get real time information.

·         Sustain:

o        This would be the ongoing communication efforts, past when the business has begun to turn around; need to review the communication strategy and build it out again for the next effort (how to start bringing back “takeaways”; maintaining leadership communication, etc.)

o        This is also where you would measure the success of your efforts, and make any necessary tweaks to keep employees interested and invested.

o       

Measurement could be via small group meetings again, or via a survey.  I believe you talked about some survey data that could be used as a baseline.

 

·         Themes

o        Visuals and themes are important in this kind of an effort – they help employees know what the information is about and that they need to pay attention –

o        Rather than using financial information, we talked about using snow as a gauge “We need to get to 15 feet, and right now we’re at 7” and building visuals around that imagery.

 

Critical Position Worker Shortages

Rising unemployment cannot abate workforce shortages for some critical positions.

While March brought a rise in the unemployment rate to 8.5%, the supply of workers for several critical positions continued to fall.

Data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics shows that several occupations may have too few workers to satisfy current demand. In January, the most recent month of detailed data, several occupations recorded an unemployment rate below 4%. 4% unemployment is commonly associated with “full employment,” a term to describe a phenomenon where everyone who wishes to work is employed.

While full employment doesn’t sound like a problem during an economic recession, the reality is that several industries, such as electric utility, mining and oil & gas extraction, are growing. A shortage of critical position workers for an expanding company would have a significant financial impact because these workers hold positions that have a high business impact or mission criticality.

Attracting and retaining critical position workers is a strategic competency for today’s business leader. Below are four groups of critical positions with unemployment rates below 4%. Three groups represent industries. The fourth identifies critical positions within Information Technology. IT is a functional department that two colleges and I maintain is the first corporate area severely impacted by demographic trends (click here to receive a pre-publication copy of our white paper on this trend).

Electric Utility                                          Mining
Nuclear Engineers 0.0%                       Maintenance, Heavy Equip. 0.0%
Nuclear Technicians 0.0%                    Mining & Geological Engineers 0.0%
Power Plant Manager 1.3%                   Roof Bolters 0.0%

Oil & Gas Extraction                               IT Department
Civil Engineers 3.0%                              IT Engineers 3.3%
Maintenance, Heavy Equip 0.0%          IT Hardware Engineers 3.5%
Petroleum Engineers 0.0%                   IT Managers 3.0%

 

What can employers do if they face a shortage of critical position workers? Three things:

Understand the Risk Exposure:  Determine the severity by conducting an internal and external workforce assessment along five risk categories: Supply, Age, Retirement, Turnover and Generational Friction.

Prepare for a Mindset Change:  Change how you think about your workforce. Instead of viewing it as a homogenous labor pool, segment the workers who are in critical positions in a similar fashion as marketers segment consumers. Determine which workforce segments represent growth, attraction and retention opportunities.

Look for Nuggets:  Collect and share success stories where your organization and others are successfully attracting and retaining critical position workers.

Coal Mining Workforce Growth Achieved in Exchange for Retirement Surge

During 2008, workforce growth in the Coal Mining industry came mostly from recruiting aging workers.

 

Surprisingly, while the industry was expanding, younger workers were exiting.

 

This trend is a problem.  While current labor demand is being satisfied, the tradeoff is a future retirement surge.

 

Furthermore, because so few younger workers are being attracted, the labor supply to fill the vacancies will most likely be insufficient.