Category: Technology

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6 Ways to Retain Your Tech Talent

31 core competencies
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Attract the class of engineers who are sold on your mission, not just the number of digits on their paychecks.

When it comes to recruiting and managing talent, there’s a pretty basic concept that everybody seems to agree with: You want to keep awesome people around. After all, the better your employees, the better your company, right?

Retaining your top performers isn’t quite so cut and dried, particularly when it comes to keeping technical talent on your team. When you’re up against everything from small, trendy startups to well-paying tech giants like Google and Apple, inspiring your engineers and developers to stick with you can seem like a constant uphill battle.

But, it doesn’t need to be that complicated. In fact, there are a few key things you can do to not only retain that much-needed technical talent, but also foster an amazing work environment while doing so. These tips will help you ensure that your very best people always want to stick around.

Focus on What’s Important

Money talks. However, in regards to retaining the technical talent you really want, it’s important to note that salary isn’t everything.

Staying competitive with compensation is likely the first thing most people think of when trying to keep people on their roster. And yes, salary and monetary incentives are an important consideration, but they won’t be the deciding factor for the kinds of people you actually want to hire and keep around. Need further proof? 52% of engineers would actually take less money to work in a great culture or for an awesome brand.

Remember, you want to attract the class of engineers who are sold on your mission and excited about what you’re doing — and not just the number of digits on their paychecks. Those are the people who will be more inclined to stick with you for the long haul, which means you’re setting yourself up for success right from the get-go.

Find What Makes You Different

Zoning in on those key cultural elements that set you apart from the crowd (and, no, your free snacks alone don’t count) is key for recruiting and retaining talent — including those technical roles you’re eager to keep filled. And, while those points of differentiation won’t help you attract all talent, they will help you attract and retain the right talent.

The critical part here is to identify all of those different nuggets that make you a stellar place to work, and then actively promote those to both existing and prospective employees.

Be Selective

There are a few main points that come into play during the actual hiring process that will help to ensure you’re truly bringing on the people who are the best fit for your company — meaning they’re that much more likely to stay on board.

For starters, be selective. Remember, you’re aiming to find a really solid fit between who you hire and your organization.

Diversity in backgrounds and experiences is another key to look at when hiring. Don’t just search for engineers who happen to know the same technologies you’ve already settled upon, but rather those who show clear curiosity and self-determination to pick up new technologies.

Engineers are curious by nature, and an organization that is willing to hire outside of the company’s immediate competencies tends to create a more stimulating environment — an environment that people truly want to be a part of.

Provide a Sense of Agency

Provide a great sense of agency and independence to engineers. Ensure that technical team members are able to have a seat at the table for major decisions — be they architectural or product related.

Fostering a blameless culture is also key to ensuring all of your employees — but particularly those in technical roles — feel supported and encouraged at work. A culture that won’t turn around and place blame or point fingers ensures that engineers aren’t afraid to take risks without deferring, further preserving their agency.

Bugs and issues are bound to crop up. And, when they do, don’t beat someone over the head with them. Learn from the experience and prevent those mistakes in the future, but never use them as punishment — that only incentivizes a slow pace.

Detail Clear Paths for Advancement

We’ve all heard that famous sentiment, “The only way up is out”. Of course, you don’t want to fall into this trap. Nobody wants to feel limited in their careers — a cap or expiration date is never appealing. In fact, a reported 76% of engineers would leave their job for career growth opportunities.

Detail explicit paths for advancement to avoid technical talent from heading out the door for greener pastures. Create a career ladders document, which transparently shares minimum requirements for every level of engineering, as well as management roles. Salaries are made more objective by tying ranges to the various levels outlined in that document.

Additionally, make clear paths of advancement for both people interested in management and people who are interested in individual contributor roles. Not all stellar developers make stellar managers, but both types of roles are important.

The main point is to make it clear what employees can expect moving forward. It’s human nature: People are much more likely to stay the path if they know where it’s actually heading.

Offer Continuous Educational Opportunities

Finally, make an effort to incorporate as many learning opportunities into your work environment as possible. Send people to conferences and meetups, encourage them to write and speak, organize internal lectures, and give them chances to explore other projects.

Dedicating time and resources to continued education might seem like a waste. But, always remember this old adage: The poor manager asks, “What if I invest in my engineers’ education and they leave?” while the smart manager asks, “What if I don’t and they stay?”

When it comes to your technical roles, you want to keep the very best people on your team. Nobody can blame you for that. But, as you already know, retaining employees involves a little thought, consideration, and strategy.

Yusuf Simonson is chief technology officer for New York-based The Muse and Marco Tabini is the vice president of engineering at The Muse.

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Free Speech, Social Media and Your Job

Jon Hyman The Practical Employer

WF_WebSite_BlogHeaders-11One of the biggest misconceptions that employees hold is that the First Amendment grants them free speech rights in a private workplace.
Quite to the contrary, the First Amendment right to free speech grants private-sector employees zero constitutional rights or protections.

Today, I bring you a guest post by Ellen Gipko of HubShout, which takes a deep look at this important issue, with a special focus on online speech and social media.

“According to a June 2016 survey by HubShout, 41.2 percent of American workers say they believe that getting fired because of a social media post is an infringement of First Amendment rights.

“A Google search for ‘fired because of social media’ turns up a long list of results that are packed with stories proving that people have been fired for a variety of bad social media behaviors. The stories would certainly surprise those who believe they have an all-encompassing right to free speech and can’t be fired because of something they’ve shared on Facebook or Twitter.

Social Media and Employment

“Social media has become a valuable recruitment tool. According to social media entrepreneur Natalie Zaft, a whopping 94% of recruiters used social media to find talent in 2015. JobVite reports that 52 percent of recruiters say they always search for candidates’ online profiles during the hiring process. Furthermore, 55 percent of recruiters have reconsidered candidates based on their social profiles, with 61 percent of those reconsiderations being negative.

“The social media scrutiny does not always stop once an individual is hired.

Think Before You Post

“Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder says that, “Social media is booming with networking opportunities and the chance to share your accomplishments. But it could also lead to the end of your career if used incorrectly.” In fact, a survey by CareerBuilder found that that 18 percent of employers say they have dismissed employees because of something they posted on social media.

“People absolutely do get fired because of content they’ve posted on social media.

When an American is fired because of a social media post, has his or her First Amendment right to freedom of expression been infringed?

What the First Amendment Really Says

People who believe that it is against the law for an employer to fire them for an offensive social media post misunderstand the scope of the First Amendment.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference. The most basic component of freedom of expression is the right of freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without interference or constraint by the government.

The First Amendment says nothing about private employers.

State and federal government employees may have more protections. According to workplacefairness.org: Public employees work for the government. So, public employees do have protection from retaliation for exercising certain First Amendment rights. Courts have been cautious in this area, limiting the protection to speech that is on matters of “public concern.”

And, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that using social media can be a form of “protected concerted” activity. Employers have the right to address work-related issues and share information about pay, benefits, and working conditions with co-workers on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media.

“While there are a few exceptions, getting fired for a social media post is typically not an infringement of First Amendment rights.

It Can Happen to You

“Some 34.6 percent of respondents to the HubShout survey are not concerned about employers or potential employers viewing their social media posts because their posts are ‘private.’

“Tom Risen of U.S. News & World Report has found plenty of data that proves that the notion of online privacy is an illusion.

“Scott Kleinberg of the Chicago Tribune writes, ‘It’s easy to overlook potential consequences when you think that all you’re doing is speaking your mind to someone in response to a tweet or Facebook post. Nine times out of 10, what you say is being read by a much wider audience and information about the person saying it is more widely shared than you’d ever imagine.’

“Kleinberg also shares this story that illustrates how a ‘private’ social media post can make its way to an employer: ‘I read a story not too long ago where someone tired of being the subject of abusive Facebook comments reached out and complained to that person’s boss. The company subsequently fired the person.’

Post Freely. Beware the Consequences.

“By and large, American people are free to post whatever they want on social media. They’re free to be provocative. They’re free to offend, insult, and disparage others. They’re free to share videos and photos of themselves that may indicate poor character or lack of judgment. But, American people take heed: do not depend on the First Amendment to save you if you get fired because of a social media post.”

Author Bio: Ellen Gipko is a digital marketing specialist for white label SEO reseller HubShout LLC, and a writer specializing in the topics of social media and digital marketing. She has contributed content to Social Media Today, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal and other industry websites.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

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Saas, PaaS and the Next Iteration of Talent Acquisition Technology

 

 

The HR technology industry has had many different lives since first adopting process automation in the 1990s.

Initially, there were providers creating customized software to address specific employee-centric needs of each customer. This already complicated the HR professionals’ relationships with their software providers, making it extremely difficult to implement necessary updates across the user base and keep up with emerging technology trends. With such complex processes tied to every aspect of employment — from hiring to performance management to learning and payroll — it’s easy to see how this space became very crowded, very quickly.

At the same time, technology as a whole completely transformed, becoming more accessible than ever with the majority of providers moving to a Software-as-a-Service, or cloud-based, model. Some software companies built this way to start; others migrated their on-premise clients onto what’s commonly called SaaS, favoring their newfound ability to host applications and data online and utilize shared computing resources. This brought down the cost of technology implementations and allowed for faster, better software upgrades.

SaaS became the new go-to for technology, but many organizations were already looking around the corner to what was next — Platform-as-a-Service. While SaaS allows companies to more easily manage necessary computing resources like networks and servers, PaaS essentially allows more tools to be brought to market quickly, helping to simplify the actual coding and deployment of applications.

SaaS is a dream for technology buyers, while PaaS is a dream for software developers. The benefit will soon trickle down to end-users because more software products will be available more quickly, and all accessed through a common user interface.

One of the industry’s biggest success stories of recent years is undoubtedly Salesforce.com, a company that has addressed customers’ desires for easy-to-use software that can support a variety of business transactions, from marketing automation to customer relationship management to service ticketing, within one platform via strong integrations with other technology providers. By empowering customers with a third-party marketplace, AppExchange, to select the point solutions best-suited for their unique needs and allowing them to plug into the force.com platform, salesforce.com emerged as the dominant player in the PaaS movement.

The company’s ability to embrace PaaS helped salesforce.com address one of the two top concerns of every CEO: sales. (CEOs’ second top concern? Acquiring and retaining the right talent.)

And while a Platform-as-a-Service leader in sales operations exists — and is thriving — the market is ripe for a platform that can provide similar support to businesses’ talent acquisition efforts. Consider this: The U.S. recruiting market is valued at $130 billion with talent acquisition in particular comprising $8.5 billion of that.

Employers realize the importance of investing in the right people to drive their business strategies, and they want technology that fosters synchronization of HR processes with simple integrations that offer the benefit of a unified software’s look and feel, but with best-of-breed tools behind the scenes to power reporting across different solutions.

Gartner reports that the PaaS segment has shown the most impressive growth across the entire enterprise software market. Talent acquisition leaders are discovering how PaaS may become the new SaaS — allowing HR professionals to identify, test, manage and report on all of the solutions their business needs from one system, one platform of record. Talent data management doesn’t have to be a mystifying process anymore.

The ability to build a PaaS solution or app-style marketplace hinges on each provider’s interest in opening programming interfaces to their platforms and working closely with selected application vendors as partners. Talent acquisition does not live within a silo in the HR industry, and neither should its dedicated technology. With smart, simple user interface design, talent acquisition platforms have the opportunity to become the central starting point for all employee-centric services, creating a much-needed category to address both of the C-level’s top business concerns.

Susan Vitale is chief marketing officer at iCIMS.

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For God’s Sake, Think Before You Email

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I have lots of readers. Thousands upon thousands. Do you know who doesn’t read my blog, however? Former DNC chair (and Congresswoman) Debbie Wasserman Schultz. How do I know? Because, if she does, she would have read this:

Do I really need to tell you not to ever put something like “do we really want an obese Christian” in an email. Some things are better left unsaid, or, more to the point, un-typed. And, for god’s sake, please read those emails (all of them) before you click send. It makes my job a whole lot easier defending you without that smoking gun.

And this:

Unlike diamonds, email messages aren’t forever, but they are pretty darn close. Employers need to train managers and supervisors to be vigilant in their care about what they reduce to writing in emails. Emails, especially those pertaining to the employment (or impending unemployment) of those in a protected class, must be vetted and re-vetted before being sent. Ask yourself this question: “Would I want this email read to a judge or a jury?” Unless the answer is an unequivocal “Yes”, do not send it.

And this:

Email is a powerful communication tool. It’s also very permanent. I’ve been saying this about social media for years, but perhaps it’s time to remind employers that communication is communication, no matter how it’s transmitted. If you don’t want something to appear on the front page of the newspaper, or to be read in front of a judge or jury, don’t put it in writing. Don’t email it, don’t text it, don’t Facebook it, and don’t tweet it.

Please, please, please, please, please … email should not be your default communication tool. It leaves a trail, and you cannot assume that trail is ever private. Just ask Debbie Wasserman Schultz. If anything you are writing gives you any pause at all as to whether it should be in writing, pick up the telephone, or meet for a cup of coffee. You’d think as ubiquitous as email has become we would all know this lesson by now. Debbie Wasserman Schultz reminds us that this is a lesson worth repeating.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

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Candidate Experience Tech Is Ticking Them Off

Job applicants

 

Job candidates, like customers, expect a certain level of service and courtesy when they engage with a company. Yet most companies aren’t even throwing applicants a bone — and that’s not going over well with their talent pool.

A recent study from Future Workplace and CareerArc found nearly 60 percent of job seekers have had a poor candidate experience, and of those 72 percent shared that experience on an employer review site, social networking site or with colleagues and friends. This trend should be concerning to a lot of recruiters.

When candidates post negative reviews for the world to see, it can potentially poison the talent pool, said Dan Schawbel, Future Workplace research director. Today’s job seekers are savvy researchers, reviewing an average of 16 resources when searching for a job, according to CareerBuilder’s 2016 State of Recruitment study. Whether they hear negative reviews from a colleague or read them on Linked In or Glassdoor, it can deter them from applying for a position that may otherwise be a great fit. “Those review can shut off a lot of people who could be good employees,” Schwabel said.

Recruiters may also be surprised to hear what constitutes a negative experience, says Kirsten Davidson, head of employer brand for Glassdoor Inc., the employer review site. It isn’t caused by aggressive interview tactics, or frustrating background check processes. “Most negative reviews come from people who just never heard back,” she said.

And it happens far too often. A whopping 65 percent of job seekers in the Future Workplace survey said they never or rarely receive notice from employers when they submit applications. Similarly, in CareerBuilder’s report job seekers said their biggest frustration is when employers don’t respond to them. “Candidates invest a lot of time preparing an application, yet they feel like the company is investing nothing in response,” Schawbel said. “That sends a bad message about the company.”

Start With a ‘Thank You’

So how do recruiters respond? With many job postings receiving hundreds of applications, there isn’t time for recruiters to send a personal thank you note to everyone who applied. But unless companies have a system in place to at least acknowledge these candidates, employers may be damaging their reputation every time they post an opening.

Even Glassdoor, the company that gives employees a platform to review current and future employers, has struggled to get this one right. A few years ago the site recognized that most of the negative reviews it received were because candidates got no response to their applications.

In response, the company created a checklist of ways to improve the candidate experience, which includes sending some level of response to every candidate who applies. “It was important to find a process that we could scale,” Davidson said. Applicants who are clearly unqualified for the role receive an automated email thanking them for applying and letting them know they are not a good fit but to please stay in touch, while candidates who participate in further screenings and interviews receive more personalized notes with feedback on where they are in the application process and/or why they aren’t right for the job. Since implementing this response process, Glassdoor now has a 73 percent positive interview experience rating compared with the 54 percent average across the entire site.

Taking the time to respond to candidates isn’t just polite; it’s good for the company’s overall image as well, said Robin Richards, CEO of CareerArc. “When you treat candidates well they become net promoters of the brand.” That’s marketing-speak for ‘measuring the loyalty of a firm’s customer relationships.’ When you consider how many people apply for a given job, building loyalty through something as simple as a thank you email can be a powerful marketing tool, he said.

Companies can also use candidate reviews as a way to assess their recruiting process and identify areas that need improvement. And when negative reviews arise, Davidson said she encourages recruiters to respond in a positive and nonconfrontational way. “When you say you are sorry and share what you are doing to improve the process, it can turn a negative experience into a neutral one,” she said. “It also sends a message to the broader talent community that you care about them.” Glassdoor research shows that 62 percent of employees say their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review.

Sending thank you notes to unqualified candidates may seem like an added burden in an already time-consuming job, but taking time to acknowledge people who expressed an interest in working for your company just makes good business sense, Richards said. “In a high-tech, high-volume world, a little courtesy makes people feel valued, and that can have a big positive impact on your brand.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

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8 Remote Meeting Tools That Aren’t a Waste of Time

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While you might see PowerPoint presentations, conference tables and paper agendas as the only way to set up a meeting, I see it as a bad choice.

As a remote worker for most of my life, the least efficient meetings have been the ones I’ve participated in while seated around a table. They’re mostly bantering about sport with a vague pep talk at the end — something about “going out there and making more sales.”

The most productive meetings I’ve ever been a part of have been remote — using video chat software, cloud-based documents and file storage resources. We work better in our own comfortable environment with access to the right tools, so if you’re managing a remote team or thinking about putting an end to physical meetings, here’s what’s worked for me.

Tools for Taking Better Meeting Notes

Let’s put a stop to scribbling, photocopying and overwhelming our desks with printouts. Thanks to tools like WorkFlowy, Dropbox Paper and minutes.io, those tasks are now obsolete.

WorkFlowy

WorkFlowy lets you create sharable bullet-point lists with tags and search, which is perfect for taking and organizing meeting notes. The way I use it is to keep a list called “meetings,” with sublists of dates that have the notes inside. By tagging the action items, I can quickly search the tag and bring up everything I have to do after the meeting.

Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper offers real-time collaboration over cloud-based documents. You can insert code snippets, images, comments and suggestions. For meetings focused on a particular project’s progress, getting your team to draft their ideas and put their resources inside a Dropbox Paper document can be an easy way to get a quick overview and add comments to each section.

Minutes.io

Minutes.io is lightning-fast note-taking software, specifically engineered for taking meeting notes. It features hot keys and automatic emailing to all meeting members, meaning that after the meeting is finished, the person taking the minutes can send it to everyone in the group in one click.

Tools for High-Quality Video Calls

Skype isn’t the only option for video calls. There are plenty of other players in the space.

Screenhero

Screenhero lives inside Slack and offers high-resolution voice, video and screen-sharing. It’s great for when you’re demonstrating your work on your computer without having to have  someone look over your shoulder. However, since it’s acquisition by Slack, you can’t get it as a standalone app.

Appear.in

Appear.in is a video chat service that gives you a permanent room locked to a URL. Members can come and go as they please, but the room remains fixed, making it more efficient than Skype because calls don’t have to be stopped and started. With appear.in, the room is running at all times so the only requirement after setting it up is turning up.

Tools for Storing Meeting Resources

During the employee onboarding process, it’s ideal if you add employees to a platform containing the assets they’re going to need in the future. This could be slides and notes from previous meetings, style guides or to-do lists. Here are some tools we’ve had success using:

Trello

Trello cards are ideal for storing your meeting resources in one place. Make a card for the meeting date, then add in the recording, the notes, slides and anything else you need. Once the meeting notes are attached to cards, you can link the cards to other projects on the relevant boards, centralizing your resources.

Basecamp

Like Trello, Basecamp is a project management tool. That doesn’t mean you can’t . The difference is that you don’t work inside cards, but inside projects. You could set it up so there is a one project for all meetings, and then attach notes and files in there. You can also chat with your team using Campfire — a chat service from the same company.

Google Drive

The advantage of using Google Drive as the go-to place for meeting resources is that it can link directly to your desktop’s file structure. One member can have the notes from their computer saved inside their Drive folder on the desktop, and that automatically syncs to every member. In my opinion, Google Drive is the ideal solution here because it doesn’t stop you from using project management software with it — both Trello and Basecamp can be integrated with Google Drive.

Getting Your Team to Adopt a New Tool

The choice of remote meeting tools can be overwhelming, but there are plenty of options out there. Explore for yourself. Until next time — meeting adjourned.

Benjamin Brandall is the head of content marketing at Process Street, a software as a service company based in California. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

The Career Hackers is a new blog devoted to helping people start their careers and achieve their goals.

 

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HR and IT: The Dynamic Duo in Fighting Cybersecurity Risks

Cybersecurity in an Organization

Companies have undergone significant changes in the past few years. Before, employee would come into the same workspace and be connected via the same on-premise system. Now people can work from almost anywhere, bring their own devices, use cloud-based applications and access work files on their mobile devices. The result? An increase in threats to cybersecurity.

However, just because cybersecurity threats affect, well, cyberspace, doesn’t mean a human element isn’t necessary to mitigate them.

“People often mistake security risk in a company as being primarily a technology risk — making sure you have the right systems in place, etc.,” said David Meyer, vice president of product at OneLogin, an identity management and cybersecurity company based in San Francisco. “But it’s just much, if not more, a cultural risk.”

The information technology and human resources department, together, make a smart team in fighting these risks, Meyer said, because most cybersecurity threats come from inside the company.

This is especially concerning because of the great financial effect a security breach can have on a company. For example, there has been a 64 percent increase in security breaches from 2014 to 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the average breach costs a business $3.8 million, according to a 2015 Ponemon Institute study.

The HR department has the skills necessary to mitigate two potential insider threats, Meyer said. The first threat is well-intentioned employees who make a mistake, such as using a personal email rather than a work email or accidentally sharing something classified on social media. HR can deal with these cases by making sure employees are properly trained and educating them on a regular basis.

The second threat is disaffected employees who have ill will toward the company. Because part of an HR person’s job is understanding employee behavior, HR is the best department to notice early warning signs that an employee could be being disloyal or headed in that direction, experts say.

Meanwhile, the IT department has the technical skills to put certain systems in place — another key ingredient to stopping insider threats. There are systems such as Elastic Search, CloudLock, OneLogin and others that can detect when employees access or download documents they normally don’t and alert HR.

The connection between HR professionals and security professionals needs to be the closest it’s ever been in history, said Pete Metzger, vice chairman at executive search firm DHR International. The chief human resources officer and the chief information security officer, for example, should communicate with each other about important security issues, like securing mobile devices, hiring trustworthy people (more of an HR issue) and implementing good kinds of authentication (more of a technical issue), he added.

“If it’s not an important relationship, it certainly should be,” Metzger said.

Moreover, he added, HR and IT should brief all the company leadership on important security issues, keeping everyone updated on any potential risks.

Once HR and IT team up, they can cooperate to put together an effective cybersecurity training program.

HR should educate employees point-blank on the do’s and don’ts, Metzger said. There are certain things employees should always do, such as calling IT about any suspicious emails.

From an IT perspective, Meyer recommends integrating HR with identity systems. If an employee changes roles or departments, the integrated system will automatically give the employee new access and remove old access. This keeps HR from having to manually take old employees out of systems, and it verifies that employees only have access to files or applications that they actually need. 

“In the modern era where employees are using every app on every device,” he added, security “comes from a combination of good IT systems, which protect employees and give them the right guard rails and effective cultural training.”

Andie Burjek is a Workforce editorial intern. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

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IBM Sets a New Checkpoint

For IBM Corp. employees, performance review time may come with a little less hand-wringing as the global technology and consulting company tapped into its workforce for ideas on how to make a better review system.

With the Feb. 1 introduction of its app-based performance review program called Checkpoint, IBM says there’s more flexibility — employees can change their goals during the year — and a more constant pulse on personal performance with discussions on shorter-term goals and feedback at least every quarter. The system also offers an evaluation against a list of general work priorities that a majority of staff agree on.

To gain insight into employee preferences for the new system, IBM’s human resources department started a conversation about performance management through the company’s internal social media site Connections last summer. Staffers participated in a “continuous, transparent feedback loop of discussions, debates, updates, design iterations and user experience testing,” according to a written statement from IBM.

Workers covered such topics as the nature and frequency of feedback, how individual contributions affect a team’s success and the appropriate basis for evaluation.

“IBM has a long tradition of inviting our employees to co-create on major initiatives. We’ve been doing this for more than decade,” said Michelle Rzepnicki, director of IBM performance management. “So when it came time to reinventing performance management, we knew we’d get lots of dialogue and engagement among 380,000 employees.”

What resounded was a “loud and clear” call for change aligned with IBM’s transformation, she said. Themes that emerged included employees’ desire for ongoing two-way feedback with managers as well as a more nimble, real-time approach to setting goals. Other employees reflected on how IBM works with clients or how to highlight a team-based culture.

Checkpoint replaces IBM’s traditional performance evaluation system Personal Business Commitments, which was in place for more than a decade, according to the company. Previously, IBM employees set goals at the beginning of the year, had a midyear review and were assessed at the end of the year with a numeric rating.

The new system looks at five dimensions of employee performance including business results, impact on client success, innovation, personal responsibility to others and skills. At the end of the performance year, employees are evaluated on whether they’ve exceeded or achieved expectations for their role based on the five dimensions. What IBM calls a hallmark of Checkpoint is that the evaluation of each dimension isn’t combined into one rating.

Aubrey Daniels, president of Aubrey Daniels International, said IBM’s overhaul of its evaluation is a step in the right direction but not enough. In his view, performance evaluations have outlived their usefulness and place blame on employees rather than examine the strength of what promotes their success.

“I tell people all the time, eliminate performance appraisals period,” Daniels said. Data shows they don’t help the performer and they’re certainly not favorable. “Where we’re going is toward a coaching culture.”

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Hotline Turf War: Compliance or HR’s Territory?

As an employer, what would you have if you could train 100 percent of your employees? Or if a direct line of communication with your employees was always open, or if every employee could sincerely attest to the values and principles of your organization?
 
Besides a highly engaged, informed and knowledgeable workforce, you would have an unequaled opportunity to strengthen your organization’s culture. But enhancing culture also takes an air of cooperation.
 
And at many large organizations, the relationship between human resources and the compliance function hasn’t exactly been a cozy one. Yet that connection is crucial to building a successful corporatewide culture. 
 
Every organization involved in health care, defense contracting, publicly traded equities or international trade is required to have a corporate compliance program. While the source of this requirement varies, the recipe for an effective compliance program is a constant. This recipe includes annual training for all employees, an anonymous hotline and attestation to a code of ethics. 
 
Sometimes known as the ethics or integrity function, responsibility for the compliance program usually falls to this team. While compliance functions were rare 20 years ago, they’re now an entrenched part of most large organizations. 
 
If compliance and HR were to work together to meet the requirements of an effective compliance program, there would be a unique opportunity to advance the organization’s culture. But instead of working together, there’s an uneasy peace at best.
 
Accepting this tenuous relationship locks HR out of the organization’s largest sustained culture effort. Compliance is left leading the organizational culture effort with little direct knowledge of how to do so.
 
The antipathy between compliance and HR starts with the handling of hotline calls, many of which concern HR-related issues. Nonetheless, compliance often wants to investigate the reported concerns. 
 
And, of course, HR views this as encroachment, planting the seeds of a bad relationship. In one large organization, the HR staff routinely referred to the compliance department as “Fortress Compliance.” The compliance staff paid them back by referring to “Fortress HR.”
 
No matter who is responsible for the uneasy turf war between compliance and HR, it’s in human resources’ best interests to take the lead in lowering the barrier. It is only by getting a consistent message across to employees that HR will be able to develop the organizational culture. There are three important strategies to bring HR and compliance together. 
 
1. Work Together on Compliance Training.
 
Compliance departments often struggle to meet the requirement that there be (the equivalent of) at least one hour of compliance training annually. Compliance professionals often have backgrounds in audit, law or law enforcement. 
 
The skills that make them successful in these fields ordinarily do not include the design and delivery of training. Even though they often lack training expertise, compliance professionals seldom seek help. They often develop a set of slides emphasizing that employees face dire consequences if caught breaking the rules.
They hope to motivate employees using fear as their primary tool. What they are actually cultivating is a don’t-get-caught mindset. This approach is not likely to promote compliance or the organization’s overall culture, which, hopefully, is not a culture of fear.
 
Because compliance struggles with the annual training, an offer of assistance from HR is likely to be welcome. Were there consultation between compliance and HR and potentially the learning and development department, this universal training could be used to build the organizational culture, including its compliance component. 
 
The first step is to set clear objectives for each year’s training. Too often the only objective for compliance training is to meet the requirement that the training be given. Once it’s clear what you want to accomplish, a training module can be designed that incorporates the organizational culture while conveying key compliance messages. Corporate compliance will make more sense to employees as part of what the organization is about. 
 
The Council of Ethical Organizations has conducted published survey research on compliance programs since 1986 (Editor’s note: the author is the CEO of this organization). This research shows that close to 90 percent of employees of organizations with compliance programs recall participating in annual compliance training six months after participating in the training. However, only 34 percent recall key themes of the training.
 
2. Cooperate on Hotline Calls.
 
No part of a compliance program stirs more controversy than the ubiquitous compliance hotline. This is a toll-free number that employees can call anonymously to report concerns. And they do call. Our data show that the number of hotline calls per year in large organizations is equal to about 3 percent of the total number of employees. And no one disputes that the majority of these calls address HR issues. 
 
A key goal of the hotline is to encourage employees to report concerns internally instead of becoming external whistleblowers. There are huge financial incentives for employees who become external whistleblowers in many industries. 
 
In a recent case, a whistleblower received $2.2 million for blowing the whistle on NuVasive Inc. allowing the government to recover $13.5 million. Some whistleblowers have made tens of millions of dollars by revealing their employers’ misdeeds, raising the stakes for keeping compliance concerns inside the company.
 
So the job is to engage employees in an internal process until you can determine if the concern is real. HR is used to working through issues with employees and can usually do so without turning employees into whistleblowers. If HR can persuade compliance that it can investigate calls to the hotline on HR issues, a great burden will be lifted from compliance. And HR can handle issues reported to the hotline in a manner likely to prevent external whistleblowing.
 
3. Create a Positive Code of Ethics.
 
Another component of a compliance program is the code of ethics. Most organizations require that all employees attest annually that they will read and comply with the code. The reason to have employees attest is to show that everyone is aware of the rules. 
 
However, this attestation is often a meaningless gesture. Why? In many cases, the reading level of the code exceeds the reading level of most of the employees to whom it applies.
 
Council of Ethical Organizations data reveal that while nearly 100 percent of employees acknowledge receiving the code of ethics, fewer than 20 percent actually read it. The document is often long, filled with legalese and HR jargon and contrary to the organization’s culture. 
 
The belief is that if you tell people that they are supposed to follow a few dozen laws, the company cannot be blamed when failures occur. Example: “We told them to follow the Dodd-Frank Act right there in the code of ethics.” A frivolous thought. A signed document that the employee cannot have understood is an ineffective legal excuse.
 
If HR and compliance collaborated on the code, it could be a useful document that fits the organization’s culture. For example, most HR professionals know that you bring a document to life with illustrations of situations that employees may actually encounter. And a code that fits the values and culture of an organization is more likely to make sense to employees.
 
It is time for HR and compliance to get on the same page. Both functions are trying to influence employees in areas that pose risk to the organization. In many cases, compliance approaches its domain of risk in ways that can potentially undermine efforts to develop the culture of the organization. 
 
Compliance gets away with this because there are certain things it must do every year to satisfy external regulatory requirements. It needs to do these things — but it need not do them poorly. Everyone wins when the silos in which compliance and HR so often exist are torn down. 
 
Compliance and HR professionals can also collaborate on internal investigations. Compliance is required to follow up on all credible reports it receives by means of the organization’s hotline or through direct reports to the department. This can be a heavy burden as the number of reports received annually is approximately 3 percent of the total employee population. 
 
Many of these reports — typically more than half — focus on HR issues. Employees try to achieve through the hotline what they cannot through traditional organizational processes. Compliance tends to want to investigate all of the reports, including the reports on HR issues. This is because those who report to compliance are entitled to do so anonymously and to have their concern investigated on a confidential basis. 
 
Compliance is fearful that HR will not honor these reporting conditions if allowed to investigate the HR concerns reported through compliance. But this assumes that HR cannot understand the unique conditions under which compliance reporting operates.
 
If compliance and HR can get past this issue, there is much to be gained on both sides. Compliance professionals often have forensic investigative skills not represented in a typical HR department, and HR often has more insight into the organization’s culture and processes and is also usually more knowledgeable than compliance when it comes to employment law. 
 
Even more important, HR knows how to investigate the many HR reports compliance receives. When compliance insists on investigating these reports on its own, it often creates more issues than it resolves. If compliance focuses on genuine compliance issues, it can do a better job addressing these issues while allowing HR to handle its own domain of concerns professionally.