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Don’t Call Us Tales from the Recruiting Front

It isn’t surprising that recruitment has become HR’s No. 1 challenge. But it’s surprising what can happen during job interviews. Here are some of the most unusual experiences you shared.


Given the current labor market, it isn’t surprising that recruitment has become HR’s No. 1 challenge. But it’s surprising what can happen during job interviews. Here are some of the most unusual experiences you shared:


  1. The CEO conducted interviews at candidates’ homes so that he could meet the family. He would ask the candidates’ spouses why we should hire that person.
  2. A management candidate arrived for his interview so drunk he couldn’t stand straight.
  3. A job candidate said that he didn’t use Windows 95® because Microsoft asked him not to.
  4. During an interview, an applicant (who was also a musician) sang a song—and really belted it out.
  5. I was called out of my office during an interview. While standing just outside my door, my colleague and I heard the candidate opening the drawers of my desk and file cabinets.
  6. A candidate explained that she was no longer living at the address on her résumé because her home had been taken over by aliens.
  7. A candidate for a factory job stripped off her pullover sweater during an interview. She wasn’t wearing anything underneath it.
  8. A candidate came in for an interview wearing an ear on a chain around his neck.
  9. An applicant told all her friends she was hired for a receptionist opening, and then just showed up and sat at the reception desk. We had not made her an offer.
  10. A woman came into the office to apply for a job with a 4-inch knife blade sticking out of her purse.
  11. A candidate asked about the salary for a position because he wanted to be sure he would earn enough to have beer money for the weekend.
  12. A candidate brought lunch to an interview because it was scheduled during his lunch time.

Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, p. 42.


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Attract Competitors’ Employees But Keep Your Own

You can try recruiting. You can try retaining. But in this tight labor market, human resources professionals may try a third R—raiding.

Your company may already practice occasional corporate raiding, or it may be something you’re considering. But here’s another thing you should consider: If you’re eyeing your competitors’ people, tread carefully.

Although you may think you’re playing a fair game, your competitors—and the law—may not agree. And then you may face a costly legal battle, or be prohibited from hiring those people altogether. John Siegal, a member of the noncompete and trade-secrets practice group at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York City, offers the following advice to wanna-be raiders.

What is the conflict in a corporate-raiding lawsuit?
These lawsuits are disputes over attempts to hire entire departments, or to quickly create new capabilities through large-scale hiring binges. These are binges in which the target employer seeks court orders preventing further raiding—even in the absence of noncompete contracts with employees.

Describe a general outline of a corporate-raiding lawsuit.
The company that’s losing people claims that the hiring company is interfering with its employment relations, misappropriating its trade secrets, and/or unfairly competing. It can seek a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.

The outcome of the case is likely to depend on a lot of things, including the departing employees’ knowledge of confidential, proprietary information; the safeguards the prior employer has taken to protect its confidential information; the caution of the hiring company to avoid misusing trade secrets the new employee may have; and the evidence, if any, that the new employer acted with bad intent or predatory motives.

So the suits aren’t necessarily about the employees, but about what employees know?
At least from a legal standpoint, employee-raiding cases are often less about people than about confidential, proprietary information and, in some states, customer relationships—how well they’re protected, how vital they are and how much access the transferring employee has. In this context, the law reflects economics: If know-how and know-who create value, then the law protects employees from corporate raiders because they’re valued by the company being raided.

Then how can HR tell whether an employee is off-limits legally?
Whether the hiring will be enjoined often turns on the legal definition of a trade secret. The law defines a protected trade secret as “any formula, pattern, device or compilation of information which is used in one’s business, and which gives an opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know or use it.” If that sounds broad, it should—trade-secret law is not just limited to technical formulas and scientific information.

What kind of information does the trade-secret law include?
While manufacturing processes, like a food company’s “secret recipe,” are often found to be trade secrets, so too is a wide array of commonplace business information that employees at all levels routinely encounter. For example, courts have found that revenue projections, plans for future projects, pricing and product strategies, databases, customer lists, contact information and sales reports can all qualify for trade-secret protection.

How can HR tell if the information possessed by potential employees is the sort of trade secret that can cause a court to enjoin the hiring?
The courts have identified six highly fact-intensive factors for evaluating this decision:

  • The extent to which the information is known outside of the business
  • The extent to which the information is known by employees and others that are involved in the business
  • The extent of measures that were taken by the business to guard the secrecy of the information
  • The value of the information to the business and its competitors
  • The amount of effort or money expended by the business in developing the information
  • The ease or difficulty with which the information could be properly acquired or duplicated by others.

These [qualities] may sound complicated, but it boils down to a couple of questions that are simple to ask, but not so simple to answer: Has your competition done an effective job protecting its information? And could you get the information from sources other than your competitor’s former employees? Using these tests, a great deal of relatively routine corporate information can qualify as a trade secret.

What are other guidelines for hiring from competitors?
Consider these cardinal rules: Act to benefit yourself, not to hurt the competitor, and watch out for what is in writing.

Every experienced litigator can tell tales of uncovering documents you wouldn’t believe people actually created or kept that have blown cases wide open. In one employee-raiding suit, someone at [the raiding company] wrote and distributed a report about an internal presentation of an “action plan” that included as its first item: BE PREDATORY ABOUT PEOPLE in capital letters. The memo actually stated: “Remember, the taking of their people … makes it even harder on them to do business.”

Needless to say, the memo was attached to [the plaintiff’s] complaint as Exhibit A. It crippled the fair-competition defense from the outset and the litigation was quickly settled.

Can the employee bring non-proprietary documents from the former employer?
Urge them to leave the competitor’s documents behind. Any documents that your new employees bring with them from their old jobs will create real problems in litigation. Where there is smoke, there’s often fire, and the existence of any purloined documents—no matter how innocuous—can burn you in court.

Departing employees are not supposed to take company documents with them, and people who do are suspect. The litigation will begin with your competitor requesting documents, so make sure your new hires don’t take any—including their Rolodexes —and eliminate this issue at the outset.

How can a company prove it’s pursuing the employees, rather than the trade secrets those employees know?
Make sure new employees don’t bring any documents with them. Make sure any documents you create in the course of hiring people from a competitor are completely accurate—reflecting your company’s desire to hire the people for their general knowledge and experience, not any specific, proprietary information to which they may have had access when employed by your competitor.

Ask yourself these simple, fundamental questions: Are these people I’d want to have around for the long haul, even if they don’t know any of my competitor’s secrets or don’t have my competitor’s customer list? Can I honestly tell them I don’t want them to use any confidential, proprietary data, documents or customer lists they took from my competitor? Can they do the job for me without misusing the competitor’s trade secrets and customer lists? If you’re not absolutely certain that the answers to these questions are “yes,” you may be in for trouble.

How careful do companies need to be?
Courts will crack down on employee raiding to prevent the misuse of trade secrets, but they are loathe to stop people from taking the job of their choice, especially where there is no contractual noncompete provision. But it still pays to be careful about how you approach a competitor’s employees. If the evidence tends to show that you have predatory intent, it can tilt the case against you.

So courts could prohibit employees from working for a particular company if its actions were ruled predatory?
The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in this country more than 130 years ago, and courts almost never order that people must remain in employment that they wish to leave, but courts frequently do enjoin an employee from going to work for a new employer.

What are the chances of a corporate raider avoiding that kind of situation?
If the new employees sought you out—or even if you identified the group of new hires as part of a broad-based search in which you had interviewed and considered prospects from numerous sources, your chances of prevailing in litigation will be substantially greater.

On the other hand, if the evidence shows that you specifically sought out particular employees in a particular competitor’s operation, it will lend credence to the competitor’s claim of “bad intent”—that you were seeking its trade secrets, not its bodies, or that you were seeking to hurt it rather than trying to help yourself.

What can an employer do to protect itself?
Take several practical steps to avoid liability if you are sued: Include a representation in new employees’ offer letters or employment agreements that they will not use trade secrets from their former employers. Make sure the new employees’ job descriptions differ from their prior posts and leave legitimate room for the employees to operate without using trade secrets. Instruct the new employees’ colleagues in writing as to subject matters that should not be discussed with them. Most of all, make sure in job interviews and initial meetings on the job that the new employees are honestly committed to fair competition, not to misusing trade secrets and customer lists from their prior jobs.

Employee-raiding litigation is a problem that good management and planning can often avoid. However, even if litigation does occur, the same steps you take to try to avoid litigation will help prepare your defense by making a solid record to use in court.

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 legal opinion.

Workforce, December 1998, Vol. 77, No. 12, pp.121-123.

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A Day in the Life of Sue Hagen HR Models Work-Life Balance at Dole

Monday, April 26
Westlake Village, California


Sue Hagen, 37, has what she calls: “A great but somewhat mixed-up job.” Her primary role is that of vice president of HR for Dole Food Co., Inc.’s operating groups, which includes providing support for the business units, including training, staffing and employee relations. The other hat she wears is corporate HR director for the company’s corporate campus based in Westlake Village, California, which houses about 250 people in two buildings—it includes the support group staff, packaged goods staff and the fresh fruit division (primarily the banana business), including salespeople. On this side, she’s responsible for general HR policy, health and welfare programs, plan design, communication (including the HR intranet site) and salaried payroll issues for the firm’s North American operations. She also interacts with divisional HR group and international HR operations. “The corporate philosophy for many years has been to have as small a corporate staff as possible—so there are only about 80 true corporate employees,” she says. “It’s a highly decentralized company.”


The company is set up more from a regional standpoint than from a product line standpoint. The organizational structure includes four divisions:North America, Asia, Latin America and Europe, with regional managers assigned to each. Each division has its own HR organization that supports it. Because her job is so varied, I quickly see it reflected by the many meetings and issues she deals with during her busy day.


5:30 a.m.
Bright and early Monday morning, Sue’s already out the door for an early morning, before-work, 10-mile run. She’s training for an upcoming marathon, and hopes to qualify this year for the Boston Marathon. Then she takes her two dogs, Peanut and Hoover, for a walk before her shower. Then it’s a short, two-mile drive to the office.


7:05 a.m.
Sue arrives at the office a little earlier than usual this morning after taking Friday off for a personal day. She’s a big believer in work/life balance, which spills over into her HR philosophy and the programs she’s helped develop for Dole Foods Co., Inc., where she’s worked for the past 13 years. When I arrive, it’s a short walk from the reception area to the corporate HR department. Sue greets me and ushers me into her large office, which has a view of Lindero Canyon Road and local shops, and rolling hills in the distance. She’s already been catching up on e-mail and voice-mail after her long weekend. “I used to get about 50 calls a day,” says Sue. “As for e-mail, I get 100 e-mails every day.” She seems to take it all in stride, and fires off responses with ease. Many of the questions these days concern the move to the company’s new building being built just down the road, which will be finished later this summer. Most of the other e-mail she gets concerns employee benefits, payroll, policy questions, project work for HR and vendor issues.


8:00 a.m.
We walk down the hall to the company boardroom to meet with the heads of Dole’s packaged foods division. The group is meeting to discuss the division’s results for the last period (there are 13 4-week periods a year) and to discuss forecasts for the next period. With a world map on the wall behind him, Peter M. Nolan, the division president, heads the meeting of seven people. Each executive gives an update for his or her area. They discuss their Thailand operations, pineapple sales, a customer database, the upcoming peach harvest, who their “Broker of the Year” was and a recent promotion. The group agrees the promotion was a great morale booster. Sue asks if they need her group to update org charts with pictures.


While the other execs are giving their updates, Sue munches on a blueberry bagel and sips coffee. When it’s her turn, she begins by discussing a current problem with payroll accruals, then goes on to add that soon Dole employees will be able to access their 401(k) information and make changes directly to their own accounts through their vendor’s new Web site. Sue also talks about pulling some people together to be on a steering committee to coordinate details for the upcoming move. She also wants to pull another committee together to work on parking and security issues. After one other exec’s update, they finish.


9:20 a.m.
Sue meets with the HR administrative assistant, Heidi Hintz, in her office. Heidi’s one of 16 people that Sue manages directly or indirectly. After reviewing Sue’s schedule for the week, they discuss Dole’s wellness program called “Healthy Lifestyles” and their HR-sponsored “Lunch & Learn” seminars. Employees can earn flex-benefit credits for attending these sessions. This week’s luncheon is on self-defense. They talk about other possible topics (such as back health—which they agree would be a good topic because of the upcoming move) and who they might invite to present on these topics at other upcoming events in May and June. Heidi agrees to call a couple of experts and invite them to speak. They move on to discuss Heidi’s performance development goals, and where she needs to adjust the time she spends on certain activities. They agree she needs to spend more time posting information on the company’s intranet so that updates happen once a month.


9:35 a.m.
Sue spends the next 15 minutes checking e-mail and taking phone calls from a consultant and fields a request for Dole to participate in an upcoming local event with the Rotary Club.


10:05 a.m.
Sue and I head upstairs to a meeting with Pete Nolan, head of packaged foods, and Dave Payn, senior HR consultant. This time, they meet in Pete’s corner office to discuss the intricacies of possibly reorganizing one of the company’s divisions to encourage efficiencies. The division currently is organized into “silo” groups, and few, if any, members of the division have crossfunctional expertise within the division. They agree that this could be a problem should senior members of the group leave for any reason. It’s clear a consultant needs to be called in for an objective look at the division to see how and if it needs to be reorganized and they talk about who they might call.


Sue suggests she might begin looking at succession planning within the group related to individuals’ performance development plans and related comp issues. The discussion moves into the tight staffing market. They talk about the longer time-to-fill jobs. Sue says people can be pickier these days, but she’s not sure if the company’s hiring managers have changed their hiring strategies. Some managers are still having just about everyone in their departments meet every candidate. It may be overkill. They talk about the employee referral program. Sue says they upped the ante last year to get employees more interested by doubling the incentive. Sue wraps it up by saying they’ll meet next week to discuss consultants and project criteria.


10:55 a.m.
Sue tackles the pile in her in-box. She explains that she makes a quick assessment of what mail is important and throws away what’s not critical, and she saves most mail to read at home on the weekends. “I just can’t take the time to read some things thoroughly at work,” she explains. On weekends, she catches up on trade journals, business magazines and other industry-related news. She makes a couple more phone calls.


11:05 a.m.
Sue walks over to the payroll department to meet with David Dale, Nashawn Smith and Soccoro Garcia about a payroll problem with some expats’ paychecks. It seems their accounting system was incorrectly withholding the wrong amount of “hypotax.” Sue later explains to me that they were referring to the federal taxes that Dole employees living outside the United States (but still American citizens) must pay on their wages each year, even if they’re working elsewhere. Dole helps employees estimate “hypothetical tax”—how much tax they think they’ll need to pay each year—and withholds the amount. However, the system overestimated hypotax for the last pay period. After the payroll people explain the extent of the problem, Sue helps suggest solutions. She seems to have a calming effect on the group. They agree they need to make manual adjustments right away for those people whose paychecks were affected, and they’ll tweak the system calculation to ensure it doesn’t happen going forward. Nashawn and Soccoro leave, and Sue stays to talk with Dave about another matter of concern to him regarding a co-worker.


11:50 a.m.
Sue and I walk across the street to a local Chinese restaurant. She explains that she often doesn’t take a formal lunch. She usually grabs something to eat quickly and gets back to work.


Between bites of cashew chicken and spicy egg-drop soup, we talk about her career at Dole and how she started as a secretary with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in the HR department at Dole when the corporate office was much smaller and had just moved to Westwood, California. Later, the corporate headquarters was moved up the road 40 miles to Westlake Village. After a few promotions, Sue went back and got her MBA.


“Things just kept coming up under my responsibility in HR, and eventually I was promoted to director of HR,” says Sue. “I never said early on, ‘This is my calling.’ It’s just that the work was very interesting. And it still is. It’s so varied. It requires that you not only have knowledge of legal issues, but you need finance knowledge and you need to understand the business itself. It’s challenging to keep current with everything you have to know.” She keeps current by reading The Wall Street Journal every day. She also reads Fortune, Forbes, Workforce and other HR-related journals.


We go on to talk about outsourcing issues (she outsources as much as possible) and how her job helps directly impact the bottom line at Dole. Sue clearly loves her job, and what she can contribute to her organization.


1:30 p.m.
We return to her office and she makes more phone calls. She receives a call from someone at Levi Strauss who’s aiming to organize a coalition of employers to look at “living wages” and other self-sufficiency issues for workers overseas. Sue also makes a call to one of Dole’s corporate attorneys to discuss drawing up a contract that would bind an employee with Dole for a certain time if they arrange and pay for the costs involved in helping the employee establish permanent residency.


2:05 p.m.
Sue walks to the office of Henry Cassity, who’s the director of purchasing. She tells him about an employee survey she’s implementing (the company’s first-ever). She explains the reasoning behind it: The company’s costs to recruit and relocate keep going up. They want to understand the reasons why employees stay and why they go, and what makes them happy long-term. The survey, which will be administered, scored and analyzed by Hewitt Associates’ office in Newport Beach, California, will look at seven areas, including leadership, quality of life and compensation. Henry thinks it’s a great idea. Sue asks him for his support of the survey and he agrees to encourage his group to fill the surveys out.


2:35 p.m.
One door down from Sue’s office, Jacqueline Hill, human resources consultant, has been working on comparing compensation data against industry norms for two particular employees. Sue walks to her office to discuss what she’s found out and whether the two employees should be eligible to participate in the executive bonus plan. It’s clear from their discussion that the two employees are critical to company operations, but may not qualify as executives. They think they should look into perhaps creating another incentive plan for “mission-critical” employees such as these. Because Dole is a flat organization and highly decentralized, there are many employees who have organizational impact, but not in the “executive, profit-and-loss” sense. Sue asks for copies of Jacqueline’s reports, and they agree to meet at a later date to discuss the possibility of a new incentive plan for these types of employees.


3:05 p.m.
Sue pops into George Horne’s office at the end of the hall. George is a Dole vice president who oversees HR. He asks her how her weekend went and whether she won any money. This is when I learn that Sue’s long weekend was in Las Vegas. She quips that she didn’t win any money, but she had a good time. The joking quickly turns serious as they discuss a job candidate for one of the company’s high-level positions, then talk about transitioning HRMS support from the IS group upstairs during the move to the new building. They talk about confidentiality and security issues, and how to back up the system during the interim. Sue then shows George data on total executive compensation for the past three years, showing the variances in targeted comp and actual comp. Sue also lets George know about the hypotax problem and how they’re resolving it, then has him sign off on some bonus payouts. They discuss their job opening for another HR generalist, and the fact that no good candidates have been identified yet. They joke that they might have to have some former HR people back in as consultants.


4:10 p.m.
Sue spends the rest of her afternoon returning phone calls and e-mails, verifying vacation accruals, checking back in on the hypotax problem, and hunts for a consultant for the divisional design study.


6:10 p.m.
Sue makes the short trip home, and goes out for another run. Then it’s a quiet evening fixing dinner and relaxing. The sun sets on another busy day in the life of Sue Hagen.


Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 78-80.

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A Day in the Life of Sibby Curtis HR in the Drivers’ Seat at AirTouch Cellular

Monday, April 26
Irvine, California


Some things in life are easy to count. Like the number of people you know who say they love their job (and are perfectly suited to the work they do). Or the number of people you work with who have the energy and willingness to get up every morning at 4:30 a.m. to commute two hours to the job they love. What about the list of people you’ve met who have stayed in one marriage for more than 30 years (and appear to be genuinely happy)? I bet that list is pretty short. Most of us know someone who fits one, maybe two of these descriptions, but few of us meet someone who fits them all. Enter Sibby Curtis, vice president of human resources for AirTouch Cellular’s Irvine, California-based Sierra Pacific Region.


Sibby’s one of those intriguing people who after one meeting leaves you wondering, “How does she do it?”—”it” being the schedule, the work, the pace, and the ease with which she appears to balance it all.


Sibby does, in fact, get up at 4:30 a.m. every morning of the week (with the exception of Fridays when she works in the San Diego office), and makes the 80-mile drive from San Diego to the AirTouch office in Irvine. She says her husband helps make the schedule more bearable by also rising early to read her The Wall Street Journal as she gets ready for another busy day at AirTouch. And the days are always busy, especially in light of the fact that AirTouch has recently merged with Newbury, England-based Vodafone, another telecommunications company that, when combined with AirTouch, will create Vodafone AirTouch PLC, the world’s largest wireless communications company—an almost $10 billion enterprise.


The Sierra Pacific Region has close to 3,000 employees from Sacramento to San Diego. Sibby has a staff of 40 HR professionals that include senior HR consultants, employee relations specialists, compensation consultants and analysts, staffing consultants, a training and development manager and multiple trainers, a communications specialist and several administrative staff. She reports locally to Nancy Hobbs, executive vice president and general manager of the $5.2 billion region. Hobbs is the second highest-ranking woman in AirTouch and the person Sibby credits for much of her own success at AirTouch.


Sibby says she really doesn’t mind her early morning drive because she truly loves her job. She said it also gives her time to check her usual 20-plus voice-mail messages in the morning before getting into the office. When I called Sibby to set up our day together, she told me things were hectic, to expect a full schedule that included multiple meetings. She told me her day usually started at 7:30 a.m. I graciously (hopefully) offered to meet her at 8:00 to give her some time to get settled before I arrived—and my body time to absorb some caffeine on my wimpy 2.7-mile commute to her office. But no, Sibby wanted to jump right in at 7:30, bright and early—so that’s when our day began.


7:40 a.m.
Sibby meets me in the lobby and offers to buy me coffee at the kiosk outside. I follow behind her and she immediately sets this brisk, purposeful pace. I’m wondering if the heels I’m wearing are a mistake. She orders a decaf nonfat latte, which surprises me given her early morning schedule and a demeanor that radiates high-octane energy. We quickly grab our coffees and head up to the 11th floor of the AirTouch building.


7:50 a.m.
We settle into Sibby’s office, which overlooks the expanse of Irvine and the surrounding foothills. I make note of a framed saying on her bookshelf that I think captures some of Sibby’s spirit: The most effective way to cope with change is to create it.


I mention the lovely view to Sibby, and she briefly looks up from the Palm Pilot® she uses to manage her busy schedule and gazes out the window. “Oh yeah—it is nice,” she says, almost as though she forgot (or never realized) she had a view.


Within seconds, Kathy McCann, Sibby’s assistant, scoots into the office and gives Sibby a few updates, reminding her of a hiring decision that needs her attention.


8:00 a.m.
Two staff members bustle in with purpose and energy. I get the feeling that Sibby sets the tone for a vigorous pace, and I start to wonder if I’ll eventually run out of adjectives to describe how quickly these people move. Parish Pullen, senior compensation consultant, and Tony Flores, compensation analyst, get right to work on the numbers. Parish is in the middle of implementing a new HRIS system, and Sibby has asked for an update on the metrics the new system will measure for the management reports.


Parish says a few words about their progress, and passes the meeting over to Tony, who’s only been with AirTouch for three weeks. Tony walks us through the management metrics which will capture turnover, productivity, headcount, new hire and training ratios.


The three discuss benchmarking possibilities and other national norms they want to look at to gauge their progress in critical areas. They also talk about how they’ll disseminate the information to management and decide to put the info on one shared drive that management staff can access through the network system, versus HR e-mailing or printing out the data.


One of several themes begins to emerge and is carried throughout the day: All decisions appear to be made with two goals in mind: improving efficiency in operations and encouraging management self-sufficiency.


9:00 a.m.
The meeting wraps up and I take a minute to check out Sibby’s bookcase, which is bursting with top reads from all the management wizards: Peters, Block, Drucker, Ulrich, Booth and more. Knowing Sibby, I make a guess she’s probably read them all—she confesses that a couple of them have escaped her attention. Sibby takes a minute to check her e-mail, which she said was caught up when she left on Friday. She scrolls down a screen of red messages (indicating urgency), and calmly notes that about 31 messages have already come in. We chat about the challenge of managing the daily e-mail deluge.


9:10 a.m.
Michelle Watts, senior HR consultant, comes into the office toting her tissue box (which explains why she’s not moving quite as spryly as her co-workers).


Michelle has HR responsibility for 1,250 employees in customer care and engineering. She and Sibby discuss the HR implications of outsourcing one of their business areas. They talk about potential adverse impact issues if they can’t reassign all of the employees and review severance packages, retraining options and potential legal glitches.


Sibby’s approach with Michelle is very consultative; she listens a lot and mostly asks questions. They both agree the plan Michelle has recommended makes sense. After two meetings, I already get a strong sense of Sibby’s management style.


9:30 a.m.
Out goes Michelle, in comes Maria Powers, director of training and development. I start to think that what Sibby really needs in her office is a revolving door to manage the traffic flow brought on by these back-to-back meetings.


Maria has come in to discuss the revamped new-hire orientation, which accommodates approximately 50 new hires every two weeks. She outlines her vision for the three-day orientation which includes among other things a role-play exercise to reinforce corporate values, and a diversity exercise that has the employee draw a picture of a person based on a profile described by the trainer.


Sibby and Maria talk about the value of extending the orientation beyond three days, and agree to leave it as is for now.


10:00 a.m.
We leave the office with Maria and follow her down the hall for another meeting. I look at my watch and am amazed it’s only 10:00 a.m. and we’re already on to meeting number four. We meet in the conference room with Maria, Michelle and Claire Burns, also a senior HR consultant, to discuss ongoing training for the senior HR consultant team.


They look at a two-day training session that builds skills and competencies for functioning in a consulting role. The discussion eventually turns to the upcoming merger with Vodafone and the fact that AirTouch is currently on a different fiscal calendar. Sibby tells them they’ll have to move all their planning, budgeting and so on to accommodate Vodafone’s fiscal calendar. The team groans at this and asks if Vodafone would reconsider this decision. Sibby makes it clear that it’s not likely, and argues the benefits of moving to a different schedule.


11:00 a.m.
I’m ready for a quick break, but Sibby’s got other plans for us. We stop by Jacqueline Walker’s office. Jacqueline is senior employee-relations consultant for the region. She just returned from maternity leave a week earlier, and Sibby takes time to coo over a stack of new baby pictures.


We quickly move to the purpose of the meeting, which is to discuss the upcoming affirmative action audit. Jacqueline is proud to announce the preliminary numbers look good—no underutilized areas, meaning the AirTouch workforce reflects the demographics of the area. Sibby takes a minute to boast about the diversity of their workforce and the number of women in executive level positions. When I ask about women executives at the very top of the organization, she concedes that some imbalance remains.


Our discussion with Jacqueline turns to the Vodafone merger. In just two days, Vodafone’s chairman of the board, Lord Ian McLaurin, will make his first visit to the Irvine facility. Sibby will be part of the management team that meets with McLaurin. Sibby asks Jacqueline, who grew up in England, for some guidance on protocol. “What do I call him: Mr. McLaurin or Lord McLaurin?” Jacqueline gives her a brief lesson in British etiquette, explaining the appropriate way to address him is either “Lord” or “Sir.”


12:00 noon
Finally, a short break allows us to make a quick (there’s that word again) visit to the restroom. I decide to freshen up with some lipstick, but as I look in the mirror, the reflection I see is Sibby holding the door open, ready to leave—forget the lipstick.


I follow behind, but have to work at keeping her pace. I’m starting to see how she gets her exercise. She indulges me with a quick stop by Juan Rameriz’ desk. Juan is their HR assistant and an avid runner. We chat briefly about his numerous marathons and the fact that he placed 58th in the Los Angeles marathon last month. (I start to think that “fast” must be a job requirement at AirTouch.) He was going to run in the Boston Marathon this year, but had to pass because AirTouch sent him to Hawaii for an all expenses-paid trip, which he earned as a “Service Legend Employee,” a designation awarded for maintaining exemplary performance and living the AirTouch values.


12:10 p.m.
We make a brief stop by Sibby’s office, where she takes a minute to check messages and scan her e-mail. She reviews the file of a potential hire that one of the VPs wants to make. Sibby chuckles and sighs as she notes that the candidate has had 17 jobs in five years. She says the VP has final say over the hiring decision, but she plans on making a strong recommendation against the hire. (The VP takes her advice and agrees to continue the search.) We talk a few minutes about the labor shortage and the difficulties of finding good people, particularly for their Customer Care customer service area, where they’ve had to add 300 new people.


12:40 p.m.
I feel like a kid in school when Sibby tells me we actually have time for a “quick” lunch break. We head across the street to a little deli, and I scan the place for an open table, but I hear Sibby placing her order “to go” and I do the same. “We’ll take our lunch back to the office so we can get in some work.” Of course we will. I’m starting to feel like such a slacker.


1:00 p.m.
Parish Pullen sticks his head into Sibby’s office and reminds us we have a 1:15 meeting with some vendors who are here to provide an update on their services. Parish says he wants to do a “Plus Delta” (a list of pluses and minuses) on their handling of one of their major projects to date. So far the minuses win out. I wonder for a minute how these supplier folks are going to feel about my presence in the meeting. Sibby says they don’t know I’ll be there.


1:15 p.m.
Sibby and I join Parish, Tony and the two gentlemen from the service company, who appear to be happy with my attendance. “Oh, what a perfect opportunity—we couldn’t have planned this better,” the account manager says. I’m thinking he’ll be eating those words in a few short minutes.


Parish proceeds to list the issues that have come up as a result of the project being 20 percent over budget and behind schedule. I can see the sales manager and his account rep begin to sweat. Sibby asks a few questions, and tells the two that she had put effort into talking up the benefits of this new program to the workforce. It’s clear her credibility is on the line if the program is delayed and/or mismanaged.


1:45 p.m.
We’re still in our meeting with these two sorry souls. Sibby told Parish upfront that we have exactly 30 minutes available for the meeting, and out of the corner of my eye, I see her look at Parish and point to her watch. Parish picks up the cue immediately and, even though the group is engaged in a “passionate” discussion of who did what and where things went wrong, Parish abruptly interrupts the conversation, announcing that Sibby and I need to leave.


1:50 p.m.
Back in Sibby’s office we make plans to meet at 5:00 p.m. after she gets out of a “confidential” meeting with her boss Nancy and others on the senior management team, which Sibby is a part of. The meeting agenda includes a discussion about how HR can put their “best foot forward” with their new owners and a plan for Lord McLaurin’s arrival in just two days. This is the only meeting of the day I’m not invited to.


2:00 p.m.
I make the 5-minute commute to my house to catch up on calls and paperwork.


5:00 p.m.
Back at AirTouch again. As I arrive in the lobby, I feel as if I’m about to start my second day at AirTouch. It’s hard to believe it’s just the continuation of Monday. If I’m feeling it’s been a long day, then I think Sibby must really be tired, given the fact that she’s been up and about since 4:30 this morning. Kathy meets me in the lobby and brings me back to Sibby’s office.


Sibby bounces in looking as fresh as a flower, and again I find myself thinking, “How does she do it?”


5:15 p.m.
Sibby and I catch up on the meeting, which she said ended at 4:00, giving her time to check her e-mail and spend 15 minutes with Executive Vice President/ General Manager Nancy Hobbs discussing an upcoming organizational move. We talk a little more about all the changes taking place at AirTouch and the concerns she has about the merger, which are surprisingly few.


Her main concern for the moment is the new corporate vice president of human resources in San Francisco, a Harvard MBA grad who has been in the role for about four months. He’s responsible for an HR organization that supports a worldwide base of 13,000 employees. While he has spent the last 10 years in operational and staff jobs at AirTouch in cellular, paging and international operations, he has nobackground in HR. I see Sibby, for the first time of the day, showing some signs of stress. “I just hope he’ll value and support the strategic business role that HR currently fills at AirTouch.” End of discussion.


6:00 p.m.
Margaret Jordan, communications specialist, arrives with a digital camera to take a few shots of Sibby for our article. She tells Sibby how photogenic she is and clicks away in her office, and we move to the lobby for a couple of different shots.


6:20 p.m.
Marie is back for another meeting, which I think marks meeting number nine for the day. I’m betting we’ll make it an even 10 before I walk out. Sibby and Marie discuss a management training outline that Sibby wants completed for the upcoming HR strategy meeting. Marie was planning on having it complete by next week, but Sibby tells her it has to be in the corporate VPof HR’s hands by Friday.


6:40 p.m.
Bingo! We hit my predicted tenth meeting of the day with Parish. He and Sibby meet to talk about him pulling together information that Lord McLaurin has requested for their meeting on Wednesday. He apparently wants to look at employee info for their division, average length of service, education, etc. He’s also interested in turnover info, local unemployment stats, average household income, etc. Parish makes his notes and heads out about 7:00 p.m.


7:20 p.m.
Sibby and I discuss the day, which she says is for the most part pretty typical. We part company in the parking garage, where Sibby heads for her car to make the truck back to San Diego. I pull out of the garage, thankful that I’ll be home by 7:30. (Sibby e-mails me the next day to tell me she had 25 new voice-mail messages to respond to on her way home—a very productive ride.)


8:50 p.m.
Sibby arrives home and is greeted by her golden retriever, Kelsey, and her husband, Ken, who is placing dinner on the table. “Yes, I’m spoiled,” she confesses in her e-mail message to me.


9:00 p.m.
Sibby and Ken watch her favorite show, “Ally McBeal.”


10:00 p.m.
Sibby dozes off, resting for six and half hours before she starts all over again on Tuesday.


Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 60-66.


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The Days of Our Lives

Response to this year’s “Day in the Life of HR” survey was impressive-we received 848 questionnaires. The following is a summary of the answers that were received, listing the percentages of the selections that were chosen. The majority of respondents were female (75 percent), between the ages of 41 and 50 (34 percent).

1. What time do you usually wake up on workdays?

 

In the pre-dawn pitch black 43%
6:00-6:30 35%
6:30-7:00 13%
7:00-7:30 6%
7:30-8:00 2%
After 8:00 1%

2. Which of the following do you usually do before work? (Respondents were asked to mark all that apply.)

 

Make lunch for yourself 34%
Are you kidding? It takes all I have just to get to work 30%
Watch TV 29%
Get the kids ready for school/day care 27%
Read the newspaper 21%
Exercise/jog 18%
Drive the kids to school/day care 18%
Make lunch for the kids 11%
Run errands 10%
Work on office tasks brought home 10%
Check in with the office 8%
Attend work-related function (e.g., breakfast meeting) 8%
Care for parent or elderly relative 2%

3. Do you usually eat breakfast?

 

Yes 60%
No 32%
There is no “usually” 8%

4. If your answer is yes, what do you usually eat?

 

Cereal 47%
Toast 25%
Fruit 15%
Whatever I can find 11%
Yogurt 8%
Donuts or muffins 6%
Eggs and/or bacon 4%
Fast food 2%
Last night’s leftovers 1%

5. What do you usually wear to work?

 

Business casual 37%
Business attire other than a suit (e.g., shirt and tie without jacket) 22%
Depends on what’s happening that day 20%
Complete business suit 20%
Really casual 5%

6. How many cups of coffee do you drink on the average work day?

 

None 37%
Two or three 29%
One 19%
Four or five 13%
So many that the employees at the local Starbucks raise their arms and sing “Hallelujah!” when I arrive 4%

7. How do you usually get to work?

 

Drive alone 88%
Drive in carpool 6%
Bus or subway 3%
Train 2%
Walk 2%
Bicycle 1%
Chauffeur-driven limo 0%

8. Which of the following do you commonly do during your commute? (Respondents were asked to mark all that apply.)

 

Listen to the radio 85%
Listen to tapes/CDs 36%
Use cell phone for business 22%
Use cell phone for personal calls 14%
Eat 13%
Other (please specify) 11%
Personal grooming (e.g., apply make-up or shave) 9%
Read 7%
The most common activities that were cited by those who marked “other” include planning for the day, praying and talking to family members. Several respondents, however, admit to “cursing at idiotic drivers.”

9. What time do you usually arrive at the office?

 

Between 7:00 and 8:00 52%
Between 8:00 and 9:00 36%
In the dark 9%
After 9:00 3%
There is no “usually” 1%

10. If you drive and park, where do you usually park?

 

Any open spot in company lot 70%
Assigned parking space 18%
Any open space in city lot 5%
Wherever I can find a spot after circling the building several times 4%
On the street 3%

11. When entering the work place, do you pass through a security check?

 

No 66%
Yes 31%
Depends which part of the facility I enter 3%

12. Do you wear a name badge or security badge at work?

 

No 66%
Yes, both name badge and security
badge 14%
Yes, name badge only 12%
Yes, security badge only 8%

13. Where do you, personally, have office space?

 

Private office with door 73%
Open workstation 21%
Share an office with door 6%
I have no assigned work space 1%

14. How much time on an average day do you spend in your workspace?

 

Most of it 43%
About half the day 31%
Almost all of it 21%
Only a couple of hours a day 5%
Almost none 1%

15. What have you done to personalize your office space? (Respondents were asked to choose all that apply.)

 

Photos of family/friends 81%
Calendar 61%
Desk accessories other than what the company provides 60%
Books 59%
Artwork 57%
Plants 51%
Toys 34%
Diplomas or professional awards 32%
Vacation souvenirs 16%
Other (please specify) 12%
Among the items most often identified by respondents who chose “other” were candy, cartoons and inspirational messages. Also mentioned were sports memorabilia, coffee mugs, candles, Disney collectibles and “my whip.”

16. To whom do you report?

 

Senior HR officer 32%
President/CEO 31%
Other (please specify) 17%
CFO 10%
Plant/Site manager 8%
COO 4%

17. Does anyone report directly to you?

 

Yes 61%
No 39%

18. What are you most likely to do after you first arrive? (Respondents chose more than one answer.)

 

Check voice-mail 46%
Check e-mail 42%
Get coffee 12%
Get right to work 11%
Talk with co-workers about work 4%
Talk with co-workers about the week-
end, TV shows, the news, etc. 4%
Check regular mail 4%
Use restroom 2%
Read newspaper 1%

19. When you begin working, what are you most likely to do first?

 

Respond to messages (voice-mail or e-mail) 71%
Begin with task determined previously 17%
Deal with the crisis of the day (unknown to me before my arrival) 12%
Check with direct reports 4%
Attend scheduled meeting 2%

20. Have you ever knowingly violated company policy?

 

No 78%
Yes 22%

21. If yes, which one? What was the reason?

 

Of those who said they had violated a policy, the examples given ranged from using the office copier for personal business to eating at a desk. Most often, however, policies were violated to help employees: medical conditions were kept confidential, extra time was given to employees so that they could deal with personal crises, paychecks were issued early during emergencies.

22. How often does your computer or network crash?

 

Almost never 51%
Once a month or so 21%
Once a week or so 17%
Only when I am depending on it most 8%
At least once daily 4%

23. How many e-mails do you get on an average day?

 

5-25 50%
25-50 24%
1-5 16%
More than 50 6%
None 3%
I stop counting when the computer overloads 1%

24. How long do you spend answering e-mail on the average day?

 

15-30 minutes 34%
30-60 minutes 29%
15 minutes or less 19%
More than an hour 18%
It has become a full-time job; I do the rest of my work after hours 2%

25. How much of your e-mail is spam, jokes, notes from friends, chain e-mail and other non-work mail?

 

Some 68%
None 20%
About half 10%
Most of it 2%
All of it 0%

26. What percentage of your day do you estimate is spent on routine or administrative tasks?

 

Some—two or three hours a day 42%
About half the time 27%
Very little-less than an hour a day 21%
Most of the time-five or six hours a day 9%
Almost all the time 1%
None 0%

27. What percentage of your day do you estimate is spent on strategic or big-picture issues?

 

Some—two or three hours a day 41%
Very little-less than an hour a day 37%
About half the time 16%
Most of the time-five or six hours a day 5%
None 2%
Almost all the time 1%

28. What percentage of your day do you estimate you spend on consultative or developmental projects?

 

Some—two or three hours a day 46%
Very little-less than an hour a day 32%
About half the time 11%
Most of the time-five or six hours a day 6%
None 5%
Almost all the time 1%

29. What percentage of your day do you estimate is spent responding to a crisis or problem presented to you by someone else in the organization?

 

Some-two or three hours a day 43%
Very little-less than an hour a day 33%
About half the time 16%
Most of the time-five or six hours a day 6%
None 1%
Almost all the time 1%

30. How many meetings do you attend on the average day?

 

1 52%
2-3 35%
None 9%
4-6 4%
More than 6 0%

31. How long does the average meeting last?

 

31-60 minutes 59%
1-2 hours 23%
15-30 minutes 16%
More than 2 hours 2%

32. How would you characterize the average meeting that you attend?

 

Necessary but disorganized 33%
Necessary and efficient but uninspiring 30%
Largely worthless with scattered moments of value 20%
Well organized, compelling and productive 19%
A complete waste of time 1%

33. How do you occupy your mind during meetings?
(Respondents were asked to mark all that apply.)

 

Listening carefully 72%
Considering how best to make my point 55%
Thinking about the work that isn’t getting done while I’m in the meeting 42%
Talking 25%
Thinking about personal things (e.g., tonight’s dinner) 14%
Doodling 14%
Playing buzzword bingo 1%

34. Whose numbers are programmed into the speed-dial of your phone? (Respondents could choose more than one option.)

 

None—phone doesn’t have speed-dial option 34%
None-I don’t know how to use speed-dial option 20%
Other (please specify) 17%
Others in my department 10%
Home 12%
My boss 7%
The corporate labor attorney 4%
My secretary 3%
Corporate insurance carrier 4%
Among the examples cited most often by those who selected “other” were branch offices, department heads, emergency services, vendors and spouses at work.

35. For what do you use your company or department break area? (Respondents could choose more than one option.)

 

To get coffee 35%
To store food 33%
To get water 32%
To eat 19%
Nothing-I never use the area we have 18%
Nothing-we don’t have a break area 14%
To get aspirin or other remedies 13%
To catch up on office gossip 8%
To catch up on newspapers/magazines 7%
Other (please specify) 3%
Those that chose “other” cited such examples as having meetings, posting items on bulletin boards, getting tea or soda, and celebrating birthdays.

36. How would you characterize your typical behavior in the break area?

 

I’m careful not to make a mess so that I don’t feel guilty about not cleaning it 68%
I’m the kitchen elf who always straightens things, makes a new pot of coffee or changes the water bottle 27%
I’m a frustrated chef and bring goodies for the office to share 5%
I leave my dishes and trash around for someone else to deal with 0%
I bring dirty dishes from home and leave them in the break area so that they get washed 0%

37. How do you usually spend your lunch hour? (Respondents could choose more than one answer.)

 

I work through lunch 42%
Eating 35%
Reading 10%
Running errands 14%
Working out 4%
In a meeting or business lunch 6%
Other 4%

38. Which best characterizes how you have your meal?

 

I eat alone at my desk 51%
I eat with colleagues at the company food facility 19%
I join colleagues outside the office 13%
I eat alone outside the office 10%
I go home to eat 6%
I meet colleagues for a working lunch 5%

39. What do you usually eat for lunch?

 

Sandwich 29%
There is no “usually” 24%
Hot entrée 19%
Salad 14%
Fast food or junk food 10%
Soup 6%
Cold entrée 2%

40. How many voice-mail messages do you get on an average day?

 

1-10 50%
10-25 33%
None 11%
25-50 6%
More than 50 0%

41. How deep is the stack of papers that are in your in-box right now?

 

Between 1″ and 2″ 29%
2-6″ 29%
1″ or less 23%
6-12″ 13%
More than 1′ 5%
It’s taller than my children 2%

42. Do you have files in your office?

 

Yes 98%
No 2%

43. If yes, what’s in those files? (Respondents were asked to choose all that apply.)

 

Copies of policy manual 83%
Legal documents/correspondence 78%
Training materials 73%
Documents related to company benefit plan 70%
Résumés of job candidates/prospects 56%
Personal papers (e.g., my own résumé, correspondence, etc.) 50%
Employee files from throughout the company 45%
Employee files of my direct reports 29%
Other (please specify) 24%
Among the material cited most often by those who selected “other” were union contracts, project material, payroll data, grievances, budget material and job descriptions. One respondent’s files include “every other paper that ever existed.”

44. How often do you give a formal business presentation or speech to a group of at least 20 people?

 

Several times a year 37%
Once or twice a year 28%
Monthly 15%
Never 15%
Weekly 5%
Several times a week 1%

45. How often do you travel for business?

 

Once or twice a year 37%
Several times a year 30%
Never 18%
Monthly 12%
Weekly 4%

46. What is the most common reason for your business travel?

 

To visit corporate subsidiary/satellite office 29%
Training 26%
To attend trade show or conference 21%
Other (please specify) 10%
To visit corporate headquarters 9%
To visit vendor/supplier 3%
The reasons for travel cited most often by those who chose “other” were recruitment and to attend board meetings.

47. How long is an average trip?

 

Two or three days 54%
Overnight 38%
Five days 7%
Longer than 5 days 1%

48. How often do you telecommute from home?

 

Never 63%
A few days a year 27%
Once a month 6%
More than one day a week 3%
Once a week 2%

49. How long a vacation do you usually take?

 

A series of short (2-4 days) vacations 41%
One week 38%
Two weeks 12%
Three weeks 5%
More than three weeks 3%
I don’t take vacations 2%

50. Where are you most likely to go on vacation?

 

Major U.S. city other than my own 22%
Other (please specify) 19%
Recreation (e.g., ski resort) 16%
Recreation (e.g., ski resort) nearby (within 100 miles) 13%
Tropics (e.g., Hawaii, Caribbean) 13%
My living room 12%
Major city outside U.S. 7%
“I survived another HR crisis … I’m going to Disney World!” 5%
Favorite vacation spots of those who selected “other” include Australia, Mexico, a family vacation home and golf resorts.

51. What’s your ideal vacation?

 

R&R on the beach 37%
Sightseeing 21%
Not being at work 18%
Recreation/sports 14%
Visiting friends/family 11%
Cultural activities 9%
Cruise 7%

52. Whom do you spend most of your time with on an average day?

 

Colleagues in HR 34%
Employees 33%
Line managers 21%
No one … I work alone 11%
My boss (other than the CEO) 4%
The CEO 3%

53. How much time do you spend on the Internet during the average day?

 

15-30 minutes 36%
15 minutes or less 24%
30-60 minutes 21%
More than an hour 13%
None 7%

54. Which Internet search engine(s) do you use? (Respondents were asked to mark all that apply.)

 

Yahoo! 74%
AltaVista 38%
Infoseek 37%
Excite 36%
Lycos 34%
Other 22%
America Online 17%

55. When you’re browsing the Internet during work hours, what do you use it for? (Respondents were asked to mark all that apply.)

 

HR research 78%
HR legal tips/advice 60%
Non-HR sites 52%
HR breaking news 48%
Posting open jobs 22%
Looking for job candidates 22%
HR networking (e.g., discussion forums) 21%
HR humor, surveys, etc. 18%
Looking for another job myself 10%

56. If you were limited to using the Internet for just one thing, which would you choose?

 

HR research 42%
HR legal tips/advice 16%
Non-HR sites 16%
HR breaking news 8%
Posting open jobs 6%
HR networking (e.g., discussion forums) 5%
Looking for job candidates 4%
Looking for another job myself 2%
HR humor, surveys, etc. 1%

57. What time do you usually leave the office?

 

5:30-6:00 28%
5:00-5:30 26%
6:00-7:00 19%
4:00-5:00 16%
After 7:00 6%
There is no “usually” 4%
Before 4:00 2%

58. During your commute between the office and home, which do you usually do?

 

Nothing-I go straight home 48%
Run errands 25%
Stop at grocery store 13%
Pick up children 13%
Stop at gym to work out 7%
Stop at fast-food or take-out restaurant 2%
Meet someone at a restaurant 1%
Stop to visit elderly parent or relative 1%

59. Which of these activities are you most likely to do on a typical evening? (Respondents were asked to mark all that apply.)

 

Eat dinner 91%
Watch TV 76%
Household chores 65%
Read 64%
Cook dinner 58%
Do work brought from the office 39%
Care for children 29%
Exercise alone 29%
Surf the Internet 26%
Help children with homework 22%
Pursue hobby 20%
Go to community meeting, school meeting, etc. 14%
Go out to a movie, sporting event or cultural event 11%
Volunteer 8%
Play computer games 9%
Participate in competitive sports event 4%

60. Which office leash do you use?

 

None-when I’m home, my time is my own 38%
Regular phone 36%
Cellular phone 27%
E-mail at home 27%
Pager 15%
Fax machine at home 8%
Palm Pilot (or similar) 5%
Other (please specify) 2%
Laptop computers were the leash cited most often by those who chose “other.”

61. What do you do for exercise? (Respondents were asked to check all that apply.)

 

Walking 59%
Nothing—I’m a couch potato 17%
Running/jogging 17%
Chase my kids 15%
Aerobics 15%
Participate in organized sports (e.g., softball league) 8%
Swim 5%
Weightlifting 2%

62. What TV show do you most look forward to watching?

 

Other (please specify) 23%
“ER” 17%
“Ally McBeal” 16%
“Friends” 14%
“Frasier” 10%
“Dateline” 8%
“The X Files” 8%
“60 Minutes” 6%
“Touched by an Angel” 6%
Monday Night Football 5%
Other sports telecast 5%
The TV shows that were cited most often by those who selected “other” include “Dharma and Greg,” “Law and Order,” “NYPD Blue,” soap operas, and various cable networks. Numerous respondents said they don’t watch TV.

63. Below are movies that recently were released. Which are you most likely to go see in a theater?

 

“Shakespeare in Love” 26%
“Saving Private Ryan” 22%
Are you kidding? Who has time to go to a movie? 16%
None, I only watch movies on video 15%
“Patch Adams” 14%
“Life Is Beautiful” 13%
“A Bug’s Life” 7%
“Payback” 6%

64. What is your living situation?

 

Live with spouse/significant other and child or children 39%
Live with spouse/significant other 33%
Live alone 16%
Live with child/children only 5%
Live with roommate 4%
Live with parents 2%
Other (please specify) 2%

65. What time do you usually get to sleep?

 

10:30-11:00 26%
10:00-10:30 19%
11:00-11:30 17%
11:30-12:00 16%
9:00-10:00 14%
After 12:00 7%

66. What is your gender?

 

Female 75%
Male 25%

67. What is your age?

 

41-50 34%
31-40 32%
30 or younger 20%
51-60 13%
61 or older 1%

Workforce Extra, June 1999, pp. 1-6.


Posted on

A Day in the Life of Rafiah Salim HR Reform at the United Nations

Wednesday, April 7
New York City


There’s probably no organization whose mission is more noble—and complex—than the United Nations. I first learned of the UN in grammar school in the 1950s. After a class segment on World War II, our teacher ended the world history unit with the UN’s long-term vision of world peace. Today, the United Nations is a global entity of 185 sovereign States that voluntarily works for global peace, promotes friendship among all nations and supports economic and social progress.


The UN came into being on October 24, 1945. A forum for all nations of the world, it is a diverse meeting place that helps find solutions to disputes or problems, and acts on virtually any matter or concern to humanity: refugee protection in Kosovo, starvation in North Korea, illiteracy, eradicating landmines or fighting the AIDS epidemic, among other critical issues.


I had wanted to shadow the top human resources executive of the UN for a long time. But Rafiah Salim, assistant secretary-general for human resources management, was unavailable last year because she was flying back to her native land, Malaysia. Her e-mail then was quick and cordial, “I regret I cannot do the interview at this time. But please call me again next year.” Perhaps she didn’t expect me to remember her offer, but I did.


As fate would have it, I set up my interview this year on the same day Rafiah was submitting a human resources statement to the General Assembly. In preparation for our meeting, her communications specialist, Samsiah Abdul-Majid, had sent me information regarding the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s (Ghana) efforts to modernize the United Nations.


In a recent report to the General Assembly on Human Resources Management Reform, Annan outlined a vision for a new management culture of empowerment, responsibility and accountability. The overarching goal, he says, “is to align our human resources with our global mission of peace, development and human rights around the world.”


The Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) is the personnel arm of the UN Secretariat. As such, it has begun to implement new measures to transform how the United Nations makes use of its staff and management of 8,500 core employees. This “quiet HR revolution” initially began in 1994, when the General Assembly adopted Annan’s reform strategy. In short, the strategy focuses on measures that will alter the delegation of authority, streamline procedures, improve HR planning, promote staff development and ensure long-term transformation.


8:30 a.m.
I arrive by taxi on the corner of 46th Street and First Avenue. In just one 360-degree turn, I can view a microcosm of the world: the UN General Assembly and Secretariat building, Raoul Wallenberg Walk, the National Bank of Pakistan, Allard Lowenstein Square and the formidable United States Mission —and employees of every hue passing the security gate with their ID badges. However, there are no colorful flags of the 185 member States flapping against the morning breeze. Only a UN flag flying at half-mast.


9:00 a.m.
My photographer and I arrive at the visitor’s desk to sign in and obtain our press passes for the day. In the cavernous lobby, we’re surrounded by beautiful works of art: a blue and gold mosaic entitled “Dove of Peace” presented by Pope John Paul II in 1979 and a mohair textile of a woman entitled “Hope” by Edite Pauls-Viguere from Latvia.


Soon we are greeted by Samsiah Abdul-Majid, also a Malaysian, who has worked for the United Nations for 25 years. On special assignment because of the mandate for HR reform, she serves as communications specialist for OHRM. I learn from her that the UN flag is at half mast in honor of the Prime Minister of Kyrgyz Republic, Jumabek Ibraimov, who recently passed away.


9:30 a.m.
We take the elevator up to the 25th floor of the Secretariat building—Room 2527A. The sign beside the door reads: Secretariat of Assistant Secretary-General. Abdul-Majid asks us to wait a few minutes before introducing us to Rafiah Salim, but I can see Rafiah through her open-door office, which overlooks a panorama of the East River.


“Hello, nice to meet you,” says Rafiah, greeting us with a warm smile and a handshake. “Would you like something to drink? Some coffee or tea?”


We talk briefly about the day’s schedule. I’m surprised that she is so relaxed, open and trusting that I will use my best judgment not to publish any confidential matters that I am about to witness.


I ask her about her professional background. A former lawyer, she was Assistant Governor at the Bank Negara Malaysia, responsible for human resources management and legal affairs before her current UN appointment. She obtained her college and law degrees from Queen’s University of Belfast in Ireland, and has written numerous articles on commercial law, evidence and the legal status of women. Rafiah is also married and has four children.


“I’m proud of the fact that I’m a woman,” she says, “but my gender [at work] is irrelevant. Yes, I’m a role model as well as a practicing Muslim woman, which dispels stereotypes of Muslim women being backwards. But the biggest asset that I bring to my job is my global viewpoint.”


10:00 a.m.
Every week, Rafiah conducts meetings with her three senior directors and another extended meeting with the other top directors of OHRM. Today, however, I observe an extended director’s meeting with nine individuals, including Rafiah. The meeting is conducted in English, which is the business language of the UN, but one thing is strikingly unusual. Each director and representative hails from a different country: Malaysia, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Russian Federation, Germany and Uganda.


The meeting agenda includes seven topics: staff development, recruitment and manager accountability, status of exit interviews, family support, action items from a recent General Assembly resolution, Rafiah’s written statement to the General Assembly regarding staff promotions and home leave entitlements for UN staff and their families.


In one discussion, Rafiah and her directors discuss the dilemma of a female employee who’s having problems with her manager. (Yes, the UN faces the same HR issues as corporate entities.) With her left hand resting against her chin, Rafiah listens intently to her consultative team. “This is a complex issue—not just a national transfer.”


Turning to Kevin St. Louis, her special assistant, an American, Rafiah asks, “Can we investigate all the options? Where are there vacancies in other agencies? This employee is a very capable woman, but she isn’t contributing under her current situation. We may have to move her out.”


In another item, the group discusses the General Assembly meeting scheduled later at 3 p.m. The Fifth Committee (the body that handles administrative and budgetary issues), she reiterates, has demanded a new accountability procedure for all managers and staff to report on their activities. “It means the blood will flow!” she says with emphasis and humor. “Hopefully we can meet the desired requirement. If there is negligence, we must consider a letter of warning, demotion, no promotion. I’m just looking at some concepts now. Your role is to say how to legalize them.”


Softly pounding her fist on the conference table, she adds, “Someone should’ve had the guts to say it’s a systemic problem. Right now, the UN only tracks fraud and dishonesty. Our paper has to introduce measures to identify non-criminal accountability performance behaviors.”


12:00 noon
My photographer looks for a spot where Rafiah can be photographed. She poses next to “Non-violence,” a sculpture of a large bronze replica of a .45-calibre revolver with its barrel tied into a knot. A signature landmark at the UN, it was created by Swedish artist Karl Fredrik Reutersward. This gift from Luxembourg is located on the apron of the General Assembly Building facing First Avenue at 45th Street.


Oops! Rafiah has forgotten her ID. The security guard stops her from entering the building. But as soon as she firmly announces her name and position and identifies her small entourage, we quickly pass clearance to reenter the building.


12:30 p.m.
Rafiah, Abdul-Majid, photographer Corky Lee and I are welcomed on the fourth floor dining room by a tall, well-suited maitre d’. In the course of our lunch, we talk about the incredible diversity at the United Nations.


“It’s a way of life for us at the UN,” says Rafiah. “But for me, it’s essentially a matter of respecting all the beliefs. If you believe others’ values don’t conform to the United Nations’ goals, then you have to manage it somehow. And to do that, you try to get as many people on board to accomplish the central value we’d like to live with in the UN. These are our challenges. It’s not easy.”


Abdul-Majid adds: “Generally, the people who come to work at the United Nations are inclined to accept diversity and an international outlook.”


I then ask if the UN has established quotas for employees by country. Rafiah explains that according to the UN Charter, the number of personnel is based on the amount of money a country contributes.


“But the United States hasn’t paid its share for a long time,” quips Lee.


We don’t go into that glaring contradiction because it’s time to head to the OHRM staff meeting. There, Rafiah is expected to conduct an open forum and discussion about OHRM’s latest views on HR recruitment and accountability measures.


1:45 p.m.
A room full of OHRM staff—approximately 100 individuals—already are seated in Conference Room 5 of the General Assembly building. For one hour, the OHRM staff listen to a couple of presentations—with flow charts projected on a screen—about proposed recommendations for greater efficiency and accountability.


Rafiah reassures the staff, “These are just concepts, not the finished product.” Among the goals articulated for an improved recruitment process:


  • Positions filled within 90 days.
  • Empower managers.
  • Match managers’ response for recruiting with the organization’s strategic HR goals.
  • Eliminate self-imposed hurdles and contractual constraints.

The Secretary-General, I also learn, is considering the possibility of setting up a management review panel that will examine specific cases of non-compliance with delegated responsibilities, and recommend appropriate action.


As I sit through this meeting, I’m struck by this thought: If managing change in a company takes time, of course it’s going to take even longer for a global entity like the United Nations to move such a diverse workforce.


“Our core of employees is 8,500. But our workforce can expand and contract at any moment,” says Rafiah, referring to crises such as Kosovo that require physicians, nurses, peacekeeping forces and other humanitarian contingents as needed. “It can change anytime.”


3:00 p.m.
My photographer and I are escorted to the pressroom for journalists. Situated above the General Assembly, we can see Rafiah seated below in the staff section, to the right of the speaker’s podium. The General Assembly meets every year from September to December, with a special session in between.


The blue, green and gold GA Hall accommodates all 185 delegations. Each delegation has six seats—three at the table for senior delegates and three behind them for others. All 1,898 seats inside the Hall are equipped with earphones, allowing listeners to “tune in” either to the language being spoken on the floor or to interpretations into any of the UN’s six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.


For a few seconds, I tune into French. But since I never studied French, I change stations to English.


One of the main HR issues at the UN is staff development. As mentioned earlier, Rafiah has submitted a statement to the United Nations General Assembly. It was excerpted from her statement to the Fifth Committee of the GA, which oversees administrative and budgetary issues for the UN Secretariat.


The statement basically advocates that employees in the General Service category be allowed to move to the Professional category without any discrimination. Excerpts of the statement that seek clarification said:


“Hundreds of staff compete each year for a very small number of posts. Hundreds more each year, at their own expense, continue their education to acquire a university degree with the hope that, one day, they may get the opportunity to sit for the General Service to Professional exams.


“The wording of paragraph 22 [in another recruiting exam called the National Competitive Examination] would mean that some who serve General Service staff would be denied any opportunity for possible promotion because of and by reason of their nationality, which, Mr. Chairman, has never been a criteria for promotion, or a ground to deny promotion. This will be extremely damaging for staff morale since staff in all categories should be afforded opportunities for career growth in the Organization.”


Results of the GA discussion: OHRM was asked to prepare a report that would further elaborate any negative implications of the current wording in the requirement in question.


4:30 p.m.
Rafiah and I end our day discussing the HR challenges she faces at the United Nations. She has been in her position for only one and half years. Her two-year term will most likely be extended. “I’m sure the UN will allow me to stay on and contribute.”


As I leave her office, the phone rings. Behind her desk is a screen of unread e-mails. “When I’m out of the office for a few days, I come back to at least 100 messages. Most of them I pass on, but the important ones I answer right away.”


5:00 p.m.
As I walk toward the exit of the Secretariat building, I’m joined by hundreds of other employees headed for the subway and streets. Most are walking out with the ID badges still pinned to their coats. I should’ve followed them out the door. But the formality of the UN has tempered my bravado. I obediently ask the security guard, “Do I need to hand in my badge?”


He looks at me with baffled eyes. “You can keep it or give it to me,” he says as he extends his hand. With reluctance, I hand it over and angrily stomp my feet on the ground outside. “Darn, there goes my souvenir of the UN.”


Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 54-58.


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Noncompetes A Tale of Two Companies

It was the best of contracts, it was the worst of contracts, it was the epoch of prosperity, it was the epoch of lost sales and despair. One company required its employees to sign well-crafted non-compete agreements, the other did not; one company’s business is thriving, the other company’s business is collapsing. Whether you protect your company’s goodwill and valuable business information can be the difference between the success and ruin of your company-particularly in this time when so much intellectual property can be copied onto a computer disk without anyone discovering the theft until it is too late.


Noncompetition agreements (a.ka. “noncompetes”) are contracts that prohibit departing employees from working in a competing business in a particular geographic area for a specified amount of time. They do not, by themselves, alter the nature of the employment relationship, which, unless otherwise agreed or required by law, is “at will” (meaning that the employee can be fired for any reason or for no reason at all, so long as the basis for such termination does not violate public policy).


Noncompetes Must Be Reasonable To Be Enforceable.
The purpose of noncompetition agreements is to protect legitimate business interests, i.e., a company’s trade secrets, confidential business information and goodwill. Such interests, however, must be balanced against, and accommodate, the employee’s right to earn a living. Thus, noncompetes cannot be used simply to block ordinary competition or to prevent the former employee from using the knowledge, skill or experience gained on the job.


To achieve this balance of interests, noncompetes will be enforced only to the extent that they are reasonable, which varies depending upon the circumstances. Whether the noncompete is reasonable will depend on, among other things, the nature of the company’s business and the position held by the employee. The analysis of reasonableness focuses on the scope of the restrictions, the geographic limitations on future employment and the duration of the prohibitions. Accordingly, each of these three aspects of the agreement should be as narrowly-tailored as possible, while providing meaningful and adequate protection for the company. Significantly, with many companies now conducting their business over the Internet, the geographic limitations applicable to those companies have become less of a factor, with the analysis focusing more closely on the scope and duration of the restrictions.


Regardless of the ultimate proscriptions imposed, the company should consider including several additional provisions to make the document more reasonable on its face. Specifically, the company should consider: (1) identifying the company’s interests to be protected; (2) including an acknowledgement by the employee that the company will suffer irreparable harm requiring injunctive relief if the agreement is violated; and (3) providing the employee with the option of obtaining the company’s acknowledgement that the would-be employer is not a competitor within the meaning of the agreement. To provide an additional level of protection, the agreement should include a clause that, if any portion of the noncompete is found to be unreasonable or not enforceable, the remainder of the agreement should be enforced to the fullest extent permitted by law.


To the extent that the company might desire greater protections than traditionally permitted, it should consider including an “option” to “purchase” additional restrictions. For example, although the duration of a typical noncompete (i.e., noncompetes that do not arise out of the sale of a business or similar transactions) is one to two years after departure, the company can include a clause permitting it to extend the duration for an additional specified period upon the payment of some agreed-upon compensation.


Increase Your Odds With Conduct.
Even if you have drafted the most reasonable and well-crafted noncompete, a court still might not enforce it if your conduct has not been consistent with a need for the protections. For example, if you are going to claim that your information is confidential, you had better have taken adequate precautions to safeguard the material from people who did not “need” to see it. Similarly, by failing to uniformly require a noncompete agreement from similarly-situated employees, and permitting some former employees to violate their noncompetition agreements, you substantially decrease the odds that a particular employee’s noncompete will be enforced, as you have, in the eyes of the court, not adequately sought to protect the information yourself. This is not to say that all employees must sign noncompetes or that noncompetes must always be enforced; rather, each of these issues depends on the particular circumstances involved.


You can also increase your chances of enforcement by reminding all departing employees who have executed a noncompetition agreement of the existence and terms of the noncompete and having them acknowledge that you have done so. Also ask them to disclose the name of their new employer and to affirm that they have no intention of competing and that they have not taken with them (at any time) anything belonging to the company. Likewise, have all new employees sign a written acknowledgement that, by working for your company, they are not violating a noncompetition agreement with a prior employer.


There Is No Adequate Substitute For A Properly-Crafted Noncompete.
In the absence of a noncompete agreement, former employees are basically free to compete against their former employer. While federal law, and many states’ laws, prohibit former employees from stealing or using trade secrets belonging to their former employer, they frequently cannot be enforced without government involvement and, more significantly, require proof that the employee has taken the company’s trade secrets.

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A Day in the Life of Rick Westbrook HR’s Internal Consulting Approach at DHL

Monday, May 10
Los Angeles


A gaping Boeing 727 cargo plane sits about 25 yards from Rick Westbrook’s desk at DHL Airways’ Los Angeles Gateway facility at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). From Imperial Highway, the auto-bound person’s approach to the building, an arriving plane’s wingtip seems almost to clip the structure. Work at this facility is governed by arrivals and takeoffs and time-sensitive deliveries, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.


Inside, parcels from around the globe move through the hands of an equally diverse workforce as announcements blare from a public address system that reverberates from the high warehouse ceiling. Arriving guests must surrender their drivers’ licenses to acquire a visitors’ badge because of Federal Aviation Administration rules, an introduction to a workplace where the FAA, the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Customs all set some of the rules. And they do check visitors’ badges.


As the senior HR person at LAX Gateway, one of seven DHL Gateway facilities in the United States, Rick appears to be in his element. His meetings are like refueling stops: short and busy, with a lot of information exchange and Rick’s clear, careful repeating of the key points at the close. He’s completely involved in every exchange, but when the meeting is over, clear the runway.


9:00 a.m.
Rick’s been up since 6:30 a.m., logging on to MSNBC as his coffee is brewing to check local and international news, and to see how his investments are doing. Rick is acutely aware that events anywhere in the world can have direct impact on the company.


At DHL, HR is a strategic business partner, and Rick makes it his business to know the world news as one of his HR skills. He plans his day, including whatever trades he may want to make during his lunch break, grabs his cereal bar and yogurt and is out the door for a half hour in Los Angeles traffic and arrival just before 8:00. He had been out of town last week, so on Friday he stayed at the office until 8:30 p.m. responding to mail and signing paperwork so he could start fresh on Monday.


Today he leaves the office at 9:00 a.m. to drive north up the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) to Van Nuys for a sales meeting at one of his five field-service offices. At 10:00, he’s ready for the sales meeting. The field service office receptionist gives him a warm welcome, and we settle in.


10:00 a.m.
Rick’s come to the field-service sales meeting to present the new “Drive to Deliver” program, an employee reward plan for extraordinary effort, good ideas and safe driving. His overheads, completed during his first hour at work this morning, reflect his pride in delivering a new reward program based on employees’ previous requests.


This year’s program redesign is based on an employee satisfaction survey, a feature Rick highlights. He closes his informal presentation by pointing out that the revised program is part of HR’s effort to align the culture with DHL’s strategic direction. Members of the sales staff, a productive, wisecracking crew of seven, appear pleased with the program changes.


Less than 15 minutes after it began, the sales meeting is over, and several agents remain with questions for Rick. They want to know when DHL will offer an insurance program for retirees.


Rick responds to them with empathy and honesty: It won’t be in the near future. DHL is financing a new hub and seeking to replace some of its older planes with Airbuses®. Those are the financial priorities. The agent who asked gets the 800 number for the retirement funds manager.


Rick fields questions about retention of sales staff and the cost of turnover, describing those issues as concerns that were expressed at the most recent regional meeting. He also writes down the questions and suggestions, promising to carry them to the senior vice president of human resources.


10:40 a.m.
Rick and the sales manager discuss the draft of a letter terminating an employee who has been out on disability leave for a year, agreeing not to send the letter via DHL so they can avoid getting couriers involved in the case.


10:50 a.m.
An employee has asked to meet with Rick at 11:00, so we wait in the open warehouse where DHL vans load and return. Rick describes how the employees’ concerns come to him directly because of HR’s open-door policy. During a training session Rick led recently, he learned that a couple of employees are frustrated with their supervisor. He wants to strategize with them about solving the problem.


Consulting—making recommendations rather than issuing orders—is the part of his job that Rick enjoys the most. He seems so well-suited to this work that his pleasure in it is unforced. More than once during the day, he says, “I find inspiration in my job.”


As a senior human resource generalist, Rick is a corporate employee, reporting to the senior HR manager at network transportation in Cincinnati, with a dotted line reporting relationship to field services in Tempe, Arizona. Within DHL, human resources is only four layers deep: HR representatives, senior HR managers, director of HR and senior vice president for HR.


Rick has worked for progressive organizations that developed HR staff and gave them respect. His career ambition is either to become the senior HR person at a company like DHL or to consult, with a focus on employee relations, investigations and recruiting. “The jobs I’ve had the most reward from are those in which I’ve learned the most from my boss,” he explains, citing an early mentoring relationship with an HR professional who recognized his talent when he worked in retail during college acquiring his degree in business administration.


And there’s been no career floundering for Rick: His first job out of college was as an HR assistant, and he’s been in the field ever since. He’s now 36. “I work in a diverse environment as an internal consultant. I love my job.”


He has quarterly performance goals that must be achieved, goals set during quarterly one-on-one meetings with his manager. As we move through his day, his actions clearly reflect ongoing awareness of those goals. Rick can wait when necessary, but his gears don’t include reverse.


11:50 a.m.
At last, the meeting with the concerned employee. At first, the employee suggests that he’ll just confront his boss. But Rick realizes that the boss intimidates the employee. “Okay, then that’s not the solution.” He asks the employee to put his concerns in writing and plans an alternate course. Meeting’s over.


12:00 noon
We head south on the freeway back to the LAX Gateway, Rick checks his voice-mail, then we head off to lunch and talk about his reading. He prefers to read business-related books—most recently he read Successful Manager’s Handbook: Development Suggestions for Today’s Managers, written by Brian Davis (Personnel Decisions International, 1996). He finds chapters that he can recommend to managers in his consulting role with them, and relishes the developmental gains they achieve when they follow through.


For his own development, Rick appreciates the choice DHL offers him from a catalog of courses. This Friday, he’ll take Fundamentals of Microsoft Excel®, with the goal of eventually providing all the mandatory training in that application for his region.


“Training is one of the reasons we have such strong leadership and such an effective organization,” he explains. I’m becoming a believer. Next he’ll read Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning by Chip R. Bell (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1998). He eats this stuff up.


2:00 p.m.
Rick needs to meet with Lorna Martinez, import supervisor, to discuss a pending court case the company plans to appeal. Finding the key to the small conference room takes several minutes (only Security seems to have it), and as planes drone overhead, they agree on next steps. Total meeting time: 5 minutes.


2:50 p.m.
We begin a tour of the Gateway, and Rick drops in on a supervisor who has an issue to discuss. They chat briefly about keeping the supervisor’s door locked because of some recent evidence of unauthorized weekend visits to non-business-related Web sites.


2:55 p.m.
Rick runs across an employee who has married recently and wants to know when she can enroll her spouse on the company’s health plan. She has the information packet, but acknowledges that she hasn’t read it.


He tells her that she has 30 days. As they talk, it becomes clear that today is day 29. When she walks away, he reports empathetically that she can’t afford to miss that deadline and have to wait a year, so he’s glad he met up with her. I’m struck by his genuine concern.


3:00 p.m.
We finish touring the facility, crossing paths with employees who all seem to know Rick, and although 300 people work at LAX Gateway, he seems to know all their names.


3:20 p.m.
Rick checks voice-mail and explains that the papers in his in-box are there because they require his review and signature. That will consume the last hour or two of his day, and is his least favorite function. He’s managed to avoid the administrative detail by supplying field service offices with brochures and forms.


I notice that his office is remarkably uncluttered. The pictures of nieces and nephews that adorn his credenza don’t have to share the space with papers.


I ask him what challenges he faces as an HR professional. “To get employees to think internationally. We need more internal marketing on that issue,” he says. “Employees need to learn how volatile the international scene can be.”


His second concern is about the pending union vote among the airplane mechanics. “That one issue can absorb a day easily.”


4:00 p.m.
Rick calls his 4 p.m. telephone appointment—the colleague of this morning’s concerned employee—and he reaches voice-mail. We review his quarterly goals, which are remarkably detailed. “This is the most accountable I’ve ever been in HR. It’s neat.”


4:20 p.m.
His 4:00 appointment calls back. Rick advises the employee on meeting with his supervisor, stressing the importance of writing down his concerns so that he doesn’t get off track during the conversation. After the call, we return to the discussion of HR accountability and how it creates a context where Rick and his colleagues can thrive.


5:00 p.m.
The week’s “slow day” is over. Rick typically heads for the gym, makes a healthy dinner of chicken breast, rice and steamed vegetables, reads, watches the evening news and calls it another productive, positive day. The man loves his work. Clear the runway.


Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 82-87.


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Whoops! Even HR Isn’t Perfect

It’s true: Not even HR is perfect. We asked you to identify the biggest mistake you ever made in the course of doing your job. One defiant respondent said simply, “I won’t tell you!” and several others volunteered that their marriages were the biggest mistake. A few claimed that choosing HR as a career was their biggest error. Hiring the wrong person was the answer given most often. These mistakes, however, struck us as the best excuses to get a drink after work:


  1. Accidentally faxed a termination document to the employee, rather than to his manager.
  2. Called the current employer of a job candidate instead of a reference.
  3. Forgot to transfer money to the payroll account.
  4. Left some paperwork about a layoff in the copier, where employees found it.
  5. Miscalculated the bonus for an underperforming manager and paid him an extra $2,000.
  6. Didn’t read the small print in the group life insurance policy I purchased.
  7. Slept with the boss.
  8. Tried to be a strategic partner in a completely dysfunctional organization.
  9. Canceled an existing health insurance policy before a new policy took effect.
  10. When my boss was feeling like a failure and asked my advice, I told her she should carve out a job she’d be good at.
  11. Didn’t file the S-8 paperwork for the directors’ stock option plan, which made it impossible for them to exercise stock options.
  12. Played with a new HRMS system and gave 850 employees a 5 percent raise. I didn’t think it went through until pay day. It took three people three days to correct the error.

Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, p. 38.


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HR Call Centers A Smart Business Strategy

It’s no small irony that the advent of employee self-service has left many workers feeling frustrated, even annoyed. At many companies, it’s no longer possible to saunter into the human resources department, pull up a chair and casually discuss various benefit options or retirement plans. Instead, employees are forced to confront an interactive voice response system that makes them punch a seemingly endless sequence of buttons on the telephone to get answers. Or they must turn to an intranet that forces them to ferret out their own information using a PC or kiosk.


Whether employees like it or not, self-service is here to stay. For companies, the cost savings and efficiency gains are simply too great to ignore. But what benefits the enterprise doesn’t always benefit employees. As anyone who’s participated in open enrollment or sorted through a 401(k) plan knows, making a selection isn’t always a simple button-pushing proposition. “Self-service can’t replace all human contact. No matter how sophisticated or well designed a system is, people are needed to answer questions and provide guidance,” explains David Link, a practice director for The Hunter Group, a Baltimore-based information management consulting firm.


Increasingly, those answers are coming from specialists working in call centers. By funneling phone calls to representatives armed with the appropriate information, it’s possible to adopt employee self-service as a corporate strategy, but also offer human assistance, when necessary. Today, computer telephony integration (CTI) can create a seamless and efficient way to provide accurate information, track cases, spot problems and provide a higher level of service. It can replace tedious manual processes with a high level of automation.


Computer telephony integration (CTI): Integrates computers with the call center to provide advanced functionality. Typical call center CTI applications include screen pops, network screen transfers, IVR integration, screen based telephony and predictive dialing.


In fact, in recent years, call center technology has matured into a highly sophisticated solution. An employee using a telephone-based interactive voice response (IVR) system can punch in a Social Security number or employee number, and an accompanying CTI system can route the call to an appropriate rep, which might include a third-party provider such as a pension administrator or insurance company. Once the representative picks up the call, it’s possible to automatically view the person’s account, case history and other relevant data—all without touching the keyboard.


Interactive voice response (IVR): These systems allow customers to push buttons on their phones to navigate through menus and make selections. IVRs often handle employee self-service functions and route calls appropiately.


At its most advanced level, it’s possible to integrate phone calls, faxes, e-mail and Web access so that a representative can view the same material as a person sitting in his or her living room or at a desk. Some call centers also allow users to browse a Web site, and if a question arises, click a button on their browser. At that point, a rep calls back using a standard telephone—with more advanced capabilities, he or she can tap into videoconferencing or IP telephony—and discuss the matter with the caller while viewing the same screen.


IP telephony: Transmits voice over a TCP/IP network. This allows an instantaneous phone connection directly through a PC.


“Call centers solve a specific business problem for human resources and the entire enterprise,” says Jim Holincheck, an analyst for Giga Information Group, a market research firm headquartered in Norwell, Massachusetts. “They help people obtain information that isn’t easily available through phone- and Web-based systems. What companies have come to realize is that the same techniques that are used for external customer service can benefit HR. A call center is an efficient way to fill requests for information in a large and decentralized environment.”


Of course, putting together all the pieces is no simple task. Call centers require computer systems, telephone switching equipment, and various types of software. These systems capture data about each call—including numbers keyed into the IVR, hold times, transfers to various extensions, agent IDs and other information relating to the call or customer—by interfacing with CTI middleware or directly to an automatic call distributor (ACD) switch or legacy equipment.


Automatic call distributor (ACD): Processes telephone calls on a first-come, first-serve basis. The system answers each call immediately and, if necessary, holds it in a queue until it can be directed to the next available call center agent. When an agent becomes free, he or she services the first caller in the queue.


However, when it’s done right, the benefits can be enormous. Many companies not only cut administrative costs by creating a more efficient way to distribute information, but they also improve the overall quality of service. Instead of workers having to make an appointment with a person in the human resources department, they can call the system at their convenience. Tapping into relevant data, the call center rep can provide personalized information immediately. And if additional information is required, it’s possible to use workflow systems to route the request to the appropriate person.


“It’s important to think of the HR call center as a key component in an overall human resources strategy. It communicates the organization’s philosophy, mission and image as much as any other employee-communication vehicle,” says Kevin Dobbs, director of the employee relationship management group at Edify Corp., a Santa Clara, California, firm that sells self-service software that can tie into call centers. Adds Jim Spoor, president of SPECTRUM Human Resource Systems Corp., in Denver: “It’s important to pay particular attention to technology, business strategy and culture when building a call center.”


Call centers connect people with knowledge.
Designing a call center is a complex task, even for the most IT-savvy organization. Part of the problem is that a call center relies on various layers of technology—all of which must fit together like pieces of a puzzle. And, as Shirley Pantelleria, director of the employee services center at Whirlpool Corp. in Benton Harbor, Michigan, puts it: “You have to consider all the various components together when making a decision. Everything is interrelated, and how the systems work together affects performance and capabilities.”


Whirlpool began building its call center in February 1997. The facility went operational in September of the same year, with nine reps fielding calls from 21,000 U.S. employees and 7,000 retirees. When employees dial into the TALX Corp. IVR, they can handle benefits enrollment by punching the buttons on their phones—using a Social Security number as the identifier. If the individual requires the assistance of an agent, he or she pushes a button and connects within seconds.


A CTI screen pop automatically identifies the caller and populates the screen with data from a PeopleSoft HRMS and the IVR. The system also can identify where an employee is calling from. At that point, the call center rep can help guide the employee through the decision-making process. The information base that supplies reps with the details on policies and procedures is stored on the company’s intranet site. Agents can conduct keyword searches to find the information they need.


Screen pop: Uses an identifier, such as a Social Security ID or PIN to aggregate relevant contact information from various databases. The information displays on the call center agent’s computer screen automatically. IVR and Web-based systems can initiate screen pops.


At Whirlpool, 65 percent of the company’s employee base taps into the self-service capabilities of the IVR. About 35 percent of those employees opt to speak to a live associate. That translates into call center reps handling more than 34,000 inquiries a year. “The idea was to create a self-service system people would want to use, but if they needed a rep they could easily get to one and have the call handled quickly and efficiently,” says Pantelleria.


The Whirlpool call center runs off a Lucent ACD, an IBM mainframe computer and a DB2 database. At present, the TALX front end provides interactive phone capability, including speech recognition that allows employees to spell their names and input other information verbally. However, Web-based capabilities are on the horizon, Pantelleria notes. The Web component will be accessible from desktops as well as kiosks positioned in factories.


Increasingly, employee self-service and call centers are part of a tightly integrated strategy: Supply individuals with the information to conduct transactions on their own, but provide help when it’s needed. “It’s important to realize that you’re forcing people to do things differently when you implement employee self-service. To gain a higher level of acceptance, it’s a good idea to have a call center in place to address questions, problems and concerns,” says Holincheck.


According to Link, call centers usually rely on three technological components—all dependent on each other. First, there’s the underlying call center server, which routes calls to the proper location and representative. Using ACD, the system can capture revealing data about each call, including hold times, the number of transfers that take place for callers, and the time spent by agents handling various problems. It’s also possible to generate detailed statistics and reports that can be used to create more efficient staffing and information delivery models.


Case management software also provides some muscle. It allows any service center agent to track a caller’s history by viewing a composite file that contains records of employment status and classification, previous benefits choices and selections, and past discussions, among other things. With IVR and CTI capabilities, it’s possible to populate the rep’s computer screen with relevant data from various sources, including the ERP or HRMS, as soon as the call comes in. That saves time and allows the rep to “manage the relationship rather than the transactions,” says Link.


Case management software: Offers the ability to track case histories by documenting dates of contact, issues discussed, information provided and more. Most programs let agents insert pre-defined boilerplate text into the record to document an array of situations. Not only does this make it easier to track the case over time, it also can reduce legal liability.


Call centers can reduce legal exposure.
The capabilities of the software are growing all the time. Some programs now allow a rep to consolidate an array of tasks right on the desktop, including Web, e-mail, faxes and paper correspondence. The HR department can access information quickly and provide better service, but it also can ensure legal compliance. By documenting dates, the exact information the rep provided and a suggested course of action, it’s possible to reduce exposure to lawsuits, says Link. Equally important, it’s possible for reps to provide far more consistent information.


The third part of the equation is knowledge-base software, which lets agents search out needed information—usually with keyword searches. The most sophisticated of these programs can reflect policy changes throughout the entire organization on the fly—and bridge the self-service and call center systems. “It adds intelligence to the update process. It eliminates errors due to reps receiving and giving out-of-date information,” Link explains.


Kknowledge-base software: Allows a call center agent to answer detailed and highlyy customized questions by accesing comprehensive information—often via keyword search. The more advanced programs can update information real-time and mine information from ERP packages such as PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle and Lawson.


In fact, the capabilities of the software are growing rapidly. Some systems, such as Foundation Technologies’ Beneflex, allow an HR department to dynamically publish information so that it can be used in a general way or customized to a single employee, if necessary. It uses a Windows NT server to connect to PC or legacy databases distributed throughout the organization. “That makes it possible to quickly extract accurate information based on life events, employment history, date of hire and an array of other factors,” states Tod Loofbourrow, president and CEO of the Waltham, Massachusetts, company. Moreover, when HR adds or changes information, “it’s updated throughout the knowledge base,” he notes.


Giga Information Group’s Holincheck emphasizes the importance of tying together various components. “Although the idea is to funnel employees through the self-service component, the questions and issues that can’t be resolved by the employee must be routed to a call center. If a rep in the call center can’t resolve the problem, it needs to be routed to a manager. In order to ensure that a system works, it’s necessary to use routing and workflow effectively.” And since there’s no shrink-wrapped solution that can fully run a call center, “a company has to glue together its own solutions from various products in all the different categories,” he says.


A call center presents challenges, but offers rewards.
Ken Millen understands the complexity of building a call center. In 1998, as director of HR services at Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears, Roebuck & Co., he helped the retailing giant introduce an HR call center that now handles benefits selection and 401(k) administration. Using Sun Unix servers, a Siemens ACD, PeopleSoft HRMS, Edify self-service software, Quintus’ case management software, and Foundation Technologies’ Beneflex knowledge-base software, Sears is able to answer questions for more than 325,000 current and former employees in more than 4,000 locations. Altogether, the call center uses 60 customer service reps to handle approximately 1 million calls a year.


When employees dial into the IVR, they push the buttons on their telephones to make selections from within the Edify self-service component. If they have questions or need clarification, they can connect to a live representative in the call center. Using a screen pop, the system automatically pulls the employee’s record from the PeopleSoft database while populating the rep’s computer screen with his or her case history. In a separate window, the call center agent checks the Beneflex knowledge-base. All this has replaced manuals, loose pieces of paper and sticky notes.


“It’s a model for far more efficient delivery of information,” says Millen. And he has the numbers to back him up. Sears forked over about $500,000 to assemble the technology for the call center, but expects to realize about $2.2 million in savings over the first four years—mostly by reducing staffing requirements within human resources. In addition, the system is helping reduce transactional overhead—something that creates gains for both the company and the employees.


It’s important to get beyond the company line.
Call centers aren’t for every organization. They work best, says Link, when a firm has 10,000 or more employees. Below that number, the high cost of a call center can make it a frightening proposition. The various pieces of hardware and software required to build a call center can easily slide past $1 million. The largest call centers can cost double or triple that amount—though many companies achieve a return on investment within 12 to 24 months.


But all this doesn’t mean that small- to medium-sized companies are shut out. The same concepts—and some of the same equipment—can be used to drive improvement at virtually any company. Using a hotline, contact management software and an employee manual residing on the intranet, HR reps can find information quickly, even without CTI. Callers will no longer find themselves explaining their situation over and over again to a seemingly endless succession of reps who have no way of tracking the history of the case.


Contact management software: Although less sophisticated than case management software, programs like Act! And Microsoft Outlookâ offer the capability to keep notes about conversations and actions.


Not surprisingly, the next generation of call centers promises to usher in further gains—featuring live chat, videoconferencing and Internet telephony. The latter option offers a direct phone connection through computer systems, without the added hassle of picking up a standard telephone. What’s more, multimedia customer interaction will usher in an era of streaming video, audio and remote presentations managed by a rep in a call center. For example, New York City-based Sitebridge Corp. has developed software that lets an agent show a customer PowerPoint® slides, an animated product demo, or virtually any other file directly through a Web browser. The program, Customer Now 2.0, also makes collaborative Web browsing possible.


Impressive capabilities, to be sure. Yet Link maintains that developing an HR call center isn’t as daunting a task as it may initially seem. For one thing, advanced capabilities shouldn’t be the top priority. For another, human resources can often borrow on the expertise and experience of other departments that have already built call centers—including marketing, sales and customer service. In some cases, it’s also possible to use technology that those departments have outgrown. “It isn’t necessary to reinvent the wheel,” he says.


Ultimately, call centers are changing the structure of the human resources department. “Just as the ATM brought 24-hour convenience to banking, call centers are bringing greater convenience and flexibility to human resources,” states Loofbourrow. “Many HR departments that implement a call center to complement employee self-service are seeing their costs decline and their customer service ratings jump. The goal is to use self-service technology to reduce transactions, but have live agents available to solve real world problems. That’s the best of both worlds.


Workforce, June 1999, Vol. 78, No. 6, pp. 116-122.