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Workforce Management, November 2010, p. 14 — Subscribe Now!
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Three top human resources leaders were among nine executives ousted by Tribune Co. as the Chicago-based media giant continued its housecleaning after the October departure of CEO Randy Michaels, the central figure of an unflattering front-page New York Times story depicting a corporate culture run amok.
A Nov. 2 memo e-mailed to employees announced that the human resources department was being restructured and senior vice president of human resources Barb Buchwald along with HR vice presidents Ken Perry and Louise Sheard were let go. Tribune Co. owns TV stations and newspapers nationwide, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
The memo, which was written by the four-member executive council that temporarily replaced Michaels, outlined plans to “restructure the company’s human resources organization in a way that will allow us to share best practices and leverage the HR expertise residing in the corporate office and in our business units. We want employees to feel connected not only to their individual business units, but to Tribune as a whole.”
The executive council named three company leaders to head the reorganization of human resources: Gwen Murakami, senior vice president, administration for the Los Angeles Times; Janice Jacobs, vice president of human resources for the Chicago Tribune and Mike Bourgon, vice president of human resources for Tribune Co.
Tribune Co. spokesman Gary Weitman declined to comment on plans for the division, saying only that “HR will not be outsourced. Other than the e-mail, no one will be commenting about the changes in HR.”
The developments have left some HR professionals wondering what role Tribune Co’s. HR department played in what has been described as a fraternity house atmosphere. Michaels resigned Oct. 22 amid reports of boorish behavior from top Tribune executives and an unprofessional corporate culture.
Mary Lynn Fayoumi, CEO of the Management Association of Illinois, a not-for-profit organization that provides human resources service to employers, said that as a longtime Tribune reader and a human resources professional, she has followed the company’s internal struggles.
Fayoumi said she was surprised by revisions to the employee handbook made by Michaels, which was included in the New York Times story.
“Working at the Tribune means accepting that you might hear a word that you, personally, might not use,” the handbook stated. “You might experience an attitude you don’t share. You might hear a joke that you don’t consider funny. That is because a loose, fun, nonlinear atmosphere is important to the creative process.” It added, “This should be understood, should not be a surprise and not considered harassment.”
“Did HR write that? Did they approve of it?” Fayoumi said, adding that she’s received a lot of feedback from association members who were equally aghast. “Typically, the HR department, in addition to establishing and enforcing policy, is also responsible for helping organizations assess risk and make sure they are within the line legally. Given the long list of employee concerns, it appears that HR had little or no power or influence on senior managers, or they were part of the team.”
HR leaders at the Tribune were most likely “between a rock and a hard place,” said Ed Lawler, director of the Center for Effective Organizations at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Lawler said HR’s role in the decline of the company’s culture depends on whether the HR department was a victim or a perpetrator.
“It’s an issue of how front and center HR should be when there are sweeping changes within the organization,” he said. “I don’t think HR should be portrayed as being responsible for it. They should coach management as to what to say, but ultimately they should not come forth and say, ‘Here’s our strategy.’ ”
Lawler didn’t know the details of what happened at Tribune, but after reading revisions to the company’s employee handbook said, “If I was in HR there, that’s the point where I would get my résumé out.”
Dear Salvage Job:
Most organizations have a process called “corrective action” that guides managers on the proper steps to take when addressing an employee’s poor performance. To persuade the employee to improve, however, focus on the coaching aspects of performance improvement. It positions you to address the root causes of performance difficulties and inspires employees to take ownership of the issues.
Coaching is designed to improve the work of the employee, the team and departments. The idea is to engage employees to take accountability for improved performance, relying on your support to make it happen.
Persuasion is about getting people to want to do what you want them to do. It’s how you tap into their values and needs, and link your goals to the realization of their dreams.
To be persuasive, three key ingredients must be mixed in the proper proportions:
1. Trust. People trust you when they can rely on you. They may grant you a certain level of trust because of your position, your credentials or your reputation. But trust is built through relationship consistency. Trust in oneself is also an important ingredient in persuasion. Self-doubt can undermine employee achievement. You reduce employees doubt by building their confidence through consistent, achievable successes.
2. Logic. To persuade someone to adopt your goal, it must pass the test of reason. If a goal does not make sense, you’ll have a hard time persuading the employee to take it on. So be reasonable in your expectations.
3. Emotion. Your goal must appeal to the employee’s imagination and sense of purpose. By understanding the employee’s interests and needs for success, you’ll go a long way in persuading the employee to take on the goal. By treating your employee as someone who wants to achieve extraordinary results, you show good faith and respect. To understand what it is that individual employees need and care about, listen to their words and observe their body language and emotional expression.
See how the Chatfield Group’s 7-Step Coaching Process fits with your leadership style:
• Engage the employee. Express confidence in the employee’s ability and willingness to solve the problem. Ask the employee for help in solving the problem.
• Get clear about the problem. Describe the performance challenge as you see it, and ask the employee to help clarify relevant issues. Use effective questioning skills to get the employee to provide specific examples and describe the desired outcome. Help the employee estimate what the problem is costing him or her.
• Identify the barriers to performance. Listen carefully to determine if the problem is because of a lack of skills and ability or a lack of interest and motivation. Typical barriers to high performance are time, tools, training and temperament. Check with the employee to determine what is getting in the way of top performance. With the employee’s involvement, determine how to remove or sidestep performance barriers.
• Create an action plan. Agree on a plan for improving the situation. Put the plan in writing and share it with the employee. Remember, work performance should never be a mystery, so make the plan a working document and be sure it reflects the employee’s input.
» What will you do to help the employee accomplish goals within desired time frames?
» What will the employee do to facilitate improvements?
» Are these items reasonable and achievable?
• Inspire success. Create a picture of what success looks like that captures the employee’s emotion. Coaching is about helping to unlock the employee’s true potential by encouraging creativity and ensuring development.
• Follow up frequently. Don’t wait too long. Check on progress to be sure necessary improvements are taking hold. Offer your help when it’s needed.
• Celebrate success. Offer encouragement and positive feedback when things go well. Support the employee’s can-do attitude and express appreciation for the employee’s contribution
SOURCE: Patsy Svare, managing director, The Chatfield Group, Northbrook, Illinois
LEARN MORE: Please read how Motorola used training to change employee behaviors.
Workforce Management Online, November 2010 — Register Now!
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.
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Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said Oct. 27 that North Carolina workers’ compensation insurance policy loss costs will increase an average of 0.6 percent, effective April 1, 2011.
The North Carolina Rate Bureau had requested an average increase of 1.2 percent in loss costs. But a settlement between his office and the rate bureau will result in $7 million in savings for North Carolina business, the commissioner said.
The settlement also resulted in a 4.1 percent increase for assigned risk market accounts. In 2009, the commissioner ordered a 9.6 percent decrease in voluntary market loss costs and no change in assigned risk loss costs.
Filed by Roberto Ceniceros of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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Ford Motor Co. contributed $100 million to its worldwide defined benefit plans in the third quarter, according to its earnings report released Oct. 26.
The company’s total contribution to its defined benefit plans year-to-date as of Sept. 30 was $800 million, confirmed John Stoll, a Ford spokesman. Stoll said Ford will provide a geographic breakdown of its pension contributions at the end of the fiscal year.
Ford had $38.6 billion in U.S. defined benefit plan assets as of Sept. 30; the global total could not be learned by deadline.
Later this week, Ford will use cash to pay off the remaining $3.6 billion of debt it owes to the $45 billion UAW Retiree Medical Benefit Trust, said Robert Shanks, vice president and controller, on Ford’s analyst call on Oct. 26.
Shanks said the move to pay off Ford’s debt to the VEBA retiree health care trust “will lower (Ford’s) ongoing annual interest expense by about $330 million.”
Eric Henry, chief investment officer of the UAW VEBA, did not return a call seeking information about how the cash infusion, which the trust will receive on Oct. 29, will be invested.
Filed by Christine Williamson of Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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A law requiring fired employees to file workers’ compensation claims within six months of their termination is unconstitutional, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving cumulative trauma.
A trial court in Ponca Iron & Metal Inc. vs. Jackie Wilkinson originally found that Wilkinson was entitled to medical care and up to 52 weeks of temporary total disability benefits beginning in August 2006, court records show.
She was terminated in December 2005 from a job that included keyboard use and filing work.
A Workers’ Compensation Court upheld the trial court’s finding, but a Court of Civil Appeals reversed and remanded the case. On remand, the trial court denied the employer’s argument that a six-month statute of limitations applied to the case.
The trial court held that the statute of limitations in the law cited by the employer “unreasonably singles out employees who have been terminated and have sustained cumulative trauma injuries.”
The trial court also said the law is in direct conflict with a general, two-year statute of limitations for filing cumulative trauma injuries.
Oklahoma’s Legislature enacted the law cited by the employer to curtail fired workers from filing retaliatory workers’ comp claims, court records state.
In ruling on the case Oct. 19, the Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed that the state law is unconstitutional. It ruled that “the classification of injured employees on the basis of continued vs. terminated employment is a false and deficient classification of the larger class of injured employees because it creates preference for members in the continued employment group and results in unequal treatment for certain members of the terminated group.”
The temporary total disability benefits award was sustained.
Filed by Roberto Ceniceros of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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Caterpillar Inc. increased its “flexible workforce” by 9,000 people so far this year, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings announcement.
The flexible workforce includes workers from staffing firms as well as part-time and temporary Caterpillar employees.
The Peoria, Illinois-based equipment-maker also added more than 6,000 full-time employees.
“I am pleased that we have put so many people back to work this year, and with continued global economic growth, we will add people in 2011 but remain keenly focused on cost control,” Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman said in a news release.
“While we are expecting positive economic growth in the United States, the recovery is weaker than we’ve seen historically, particularly given the depth of the 2009 recession.”
Filed by Staffing Industry Analysts, a sister company of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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Asserting that passage of a bill mandating paid sick days could have a crushing effect on small businesses in a down economy, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Oct. 14 that she is opposed to the legislation.
Quinn’s long-awaited decision means the bill is unlikely to get to the Council floor for a vote anytime this year. It’s a major setback for a Working Families Party-led coalition that had made passage of the paid sick days bill a top priority, although the coalition vowed to press on with its efforts.
The speaker said attempts to reach a compromise between proponents and opponents of the measure failed, as the supporters would not give ground on “their core goal” that the bill cover all workers in New York City. She said a study by her office showed the bill would cost businesses between $700 and $1,200 a year per worker, adding up to thousands of dollars a year for small businesses.
“At a time like this, those thousands of dollars could be the breaking point for a small business owner already stretched too thin,” she said. “I had to make a choice given the moment we’re in.”
A coalition of the city’s five chambers of commerce had called for an overhaul of Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s proposal that would require businesses with 20 or more employees to provide nine paid sick days per year and smaller ones to give five.
Like Quinn, the chambers argued that the bill would squelch job growth or even put small businesses out of business.
“Given all of the time and effort spent trying to address the issue, it’s really important to us that Speaker Quinn took our concerns into consideration,” said Linda Baran, president of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. “We’re really pleased she recognized that this is the worst possible time to introduce such a bill.”
By blaming the recession, Quinn left the door open to revisiting the legislation once the economy improves. Brewer said the speaker promised her she would revisit the state of the economy every two months. “I’m going to keep on pushing,” Brewer said. “I’m always in everything for the long haul.”
Since the proposal has overwhelming support, with 35 co-sponsors, Brewer could conceivably force a vote over the speaker’s opposition, but she said she’d prefer to work toward a bill that both the speaker and small businesses could support.
The Council’s Progressive Caucus released a written statement saying it would continue to push for passage of the bill.
Brewer rejected the speaker’s notion that supporters were not willing to compromise, saying they had been discussing “major” changes to the number of sick days companies would have to provide and the size of businesses that would have to provide them. A spokesman for the Working Families Party also said proponents were willing to make amendments.
“We were willing to compromise on almost every aspect of the bill, but were not willing to do something that was a completely different bill,” he said. “The need for this legislation is not going away, and neither are we.”
Meanwhile, Quinn denied that her decision was part of a continued attempt to burnish her business credentials for a potential 2013 run for mayor.
“I made a decision that was not easy based on the requirements of the job,” she said. “That’s all I’m thinking about. This is not a decision relevant in my mind to any future race.”
Filed by Daniel Massey of Crain’s New York Business, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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FedEx Corp. will pay the state of Montana a $2.3 million settlement over misclassification of FedEx Ground drivers as independent contractors, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock announced Oct. 21.
The settlement follows a yearlong investigation by Montana that found FedEx Ground drivers are employees, not independent contractors, and that FedEx owed unemployment taxes, penalties and interest, according to the attorney general’s office.
Montana will reimburse drivers $1.1 million for unemployment insurance coverage that was paid by them. The remaining $1.2 million will go to the state’s general fund.
FedEx did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.
“As a result of the investigation, FedEx will change its business practices in Montana,” according to the attorney general’s office. FedEx Ground will “implement a new pickup and delivery model in Montana,” the office reported.
Filed by Staffing Industry Analysts, a sister company of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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Dear Cautious Recruiter:
I can understand why the recruiting of shift work candidates can be very challenging. Without knowing what current methods and strategies that your company is using, here are some thoughts:
• Use real-life case studies to highlight current employees who were hired for shift work and then have progressed upwardly in the company. Candidates will be willing to put up with the difficulties of shift work if they know that the company has a defined, upwardly mobile career path in mind. Putting together real-life case studies of shift-work employees who progressed upwardly in the company would be a very powerful tool in your recruiting.
• Focus recruiting on candidates whose lifestyle fits with shift work. Some candidates may want shift work given their lifestyle. For example, it would be beneficial for two-income families to work shifts to be able to raise their children without the cost of day care. Also, some candidates may not be good early risers and would prefer working a later shift. Therefore, your company needs to focus its efforts on those candidates who truly look at shift work as a plus.
• Emphasize the valuable training and experience offered by shift work. It is important to de-emphasize the shift-work aspect of the positions and emphasize to the candidates the valuable training and experience they will be gaining. Candidates, especially new college grads, are just looking for a start. If the positions allow them to gain great training and experience, they are more likely to focus on the long-term gain than the short-term pain.
SOURCE: Mike Sweeny, principal, MAS Recruiting, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
LEARN MORE: Some companies with nonstandard work shifts are trying to help employees cope with challenges such as juggling job and family obligations.
Workforce Management Online, October 2010 — Register Now!
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.
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