Archive – Page 533

September 1, 1998July 10, 2018

I Would Like to Go as Far as I Can Go

Imagine driving somewhere you’ve never been and having to guess which exit to take. Or ordering the same item at a restaurant every time you go there because you can’t read what else is on the menu. And think about the embarrassment of relying on co-workers to read your daily assignments to you.

These were all everyday scenarios for John Brown, a 43-year-old custodian with the City of Phoenix, Arizona. Even though Brown graduated from high school, he couldn’t read much beyond simple letters. “If I was driving, and I would need to turn on Grant, I’d see a name that started with G and guess that was the right street,” Brown says. At work, Brown felt like a burden whenever he would ask someone to read instructions to him. But the worst frustration of all for Brown was not being able to help his four children with their homework as they were going through school.

That’s all behind Brown today. Shortly after he joined the City of Phoenix eight years ago, he learned about a literacy program offered by HR. The Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County (LVMC) program started as a pilot in 1988, after the City of Phoenix learned through a citywide training-needs analysis that many of their long-term employees weren’t promotable because of a lack of basic skills. More than 950 employees from 13 different departments have participated in the program, which Donald E. Walsh, personnel director for the City of Phoenix, says “improves the quality of life for employees—personally and professionally.”

“When I first heard of the classes, I knew they were for me,” Brown says. But while he wanted to better himself by learning new skills, he gave the literacy program a lot of thought before signing up. “Was it really going to help? Would I accomplish anything?”

He answered those questions a year later when he graduated from the program. Not all people who start the literacy program see it to the end, but Brown did. “I motivated myself to take this program,” he says. “If I can’t motivate myself, it won’t get done.”

He also gives credit to his supervisors and to his family. “When I was going to the school, the supervisors took time out and had patience and pushed me to do well.” As for his family, Brown gratefully says, “My wife is someone who will always back me up [when it comes to] anything to upgrade me. She’s happy with what I did.”

Indeed, Susan Shoemaker, manager of the city’s Employee Development Division, relates that there was overwhelming joy and even a few tears from Brown’s family members when they watched him graduate. “John beamed with pride when he told us about how he can now read the mail, street signs and the notes his wife leaves for him,” says Shoemaker.

Involved with the program for almost 10 years, Shoemaker has seen many success stories like Brown’s. It’s Brown’s enthusiasm toward the program that sets his accomplishments apart from the rest as extra special in her mind. “He has seemed so thankful to have had the opportunity to do this,” Shoemaker says.

And Brown says he is thankful. “I would like to go as far as I can go. If I can better myself, I can better my family. I don’t want to feel sorry for myself—there’s no reason for that when they have places [where] you can get help.”

Shoemaker is impressed by Brown’s newfound self confidence and desire to constantly find ways to use what he has learned. Brown’s supervisors now sometimes ask him to put together, give out and explain assignments to others. That feels good to someone who used to “learn by listening and by just doing what others were doing. [The program] has changed my life a lot,” Brown says. “I feel wonderful, like I really accomplished something.”

When a program that’s meant to impact the bottom line has this type of personal impact as well, it should surely be deemed a success. Shoemaker certainly agrees, and considers it somewhat of a personal triumph. “It’s a wonderful feeling to know that we helped make that happen—that because our program is in place, John is making a difference for the city, for himself and in the lives of his children.”

Workforce, September 1998, Vol. 77, No. 9, p. 112.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

How Starbucks Impassions Workers to Drive Growth

You can’t help but appreciate a company that routinely begins meetings with a coffee tasting. Or a corporate work setting where traditional conference rooms are replaced by parks resembling contemporary Euro-style cafes, where associates pour themselves a double tall latte, easy on the foam, and sit on a cozy couch alongside their “partners” and colleagues.

Welcome to the Starbucks Support Center, Starbucks Coffee Co.’s headquarters in Seattle. There’s an energy here — not induced by a caffeine rush — but from associates drinking up a robust blend of teamwork, sense of mission and challenge. As one of Fortune magazine’s 1997 “100 Best Companies to Work For in America,” not to mention one of the world’s fastest growing purveyors of indulgence, Starbucks has been giving its employees a daily lift since 1971.

Woven into the company’s Mission Statement is the objective to “Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.” But it takes more than company declarations to motivate and inspire people. So how does a young, developing company on an aggressive growth track motivate more than 27,000 people and inspire balance and camaraderie?

The answer is what Starbucks refers to as “a special blend of employee benefits” and a work/life program that focuses on the physical, mental, emotional and creative aspects of each person. This dynamic company developed an innovative work/life program to brew a committed coffee culture — and a passionate partnership.

Everywhere you look, there’s Starbucks.
Since Starbucks arrived on the scene, coffee isn’t just a morning ritual. The ubiquitous Starbucks Coffee Co. brew has defined a fast-spreading trend from North America to Asia and beyond. Starbucks has met its goal of becoming a $1 billion company by the turn of the century. Its stock is up more than 800 percent since going public in 1992. And there’s no question the company is one of the more phenomenal success stories.

Indeed, the Starbucks philosophy and the loyalty of its people have built a company with more than 1,700 stores worldwide, including a recent unveiling in the United Kingdom. The Starbucks blend can be found in restaurants, hotels, offices and airlines. The company also operates a mail-order business worldwide. Its retail sales exceeded $966 million in the 1997 fiscal year.

In little more than a decade, Starbucks elevated a routine “cuppa-joe” to its current supreme status. It operates in nearly every major U.S. metropolitan area, serving more than 5 million coffee lovers each week. Starbucks opens virtually a store a day. Turn on the television and witness “Frazier,” “Seinfeld” and medics on “ER” sipping Starbucks in the course of their prime-time adventures.

A global player, the company plans to continue expanding at 35 to 40 percent in coming years — an achievement possible only with committed, stake-holding associates. But Starbucks isn’t just about a great cup of coffee. It’s about people — and a humanistic approach to doing business that produces bottom-line results.

Ask Joan Moffat, the Starbucks manager of partner relations and work/life. A member of the HR team, she’s responsible for the company’s work/life program, which includes on-site fitness services, referral and educational support for child-care and elder-care issues, an Info-line for convenient information and the “Partner Connection” — a program that links employees with shared interests and hobbies.

Moffat, who worked in part with a benefits management organization, Portland-based Working Solutions Inc., says the investment pays for itself, and that many of the programs cost very little to implement. Starbucks has comparatively low health-care costs, reduced absenteeism and one of the strongest retention rates in the industry. “Our turnover rate is 60 percent, which is excellent as compared to the restaurant and retail industry,” says Moffat. Moreover, employees reap the benefits of the company’s ongoing success.

A shot of equity in every cup.
“Seize the day” is a perfect motto for Starbucks. The company empowers its employees — or partners as they’re regarded — to do just that. Starbucks is committed to providing an atmosphere that breeds respect and values the contribution people make each day, regardless of who they are or where they are within the company. All partners who work a minimum 20 hours a week receive full medical and dental coverage, vacation days and stock options as part of Starbucks BEAN STOCK program. The awarding of stock options to every level of the organization was unprecedented in the service industry a few years ago.

“We established BEAN STOCK in 1991 as a way of investing in our partners and creating ownership across the company,” explains Bradley Honeycutt, vice president of human resource services. “It’s been a key to retaining good people and building loyalty. Naturally, the level of our customer service is favorably impacted, as a result,” she adds.

For those involved early on, the rewards have been especially generous as the company has grown and the price of Starbucks stock jumped from $17 to $46. In the process, the term “partner” was introduced throughout the company.

Just as with the BEAN STOCK program, all employees who work 20 hours or more a week are eligible for a universal benefits program. It’s not just reserved for the corporate or managerial level. Eligible partners can choose health coverage from two managed care plans or a catastrophic plan. They also can select between two dental plans and a vision plan. Because of the young, healthy workforce, Starbucks has low health benefit costs. According to Annette King, HR benefits manager, the company’s health-care costs are approximately 20 percent lower than the national average.

The company also provides disability and life insurance, a discounted stock-purchase plan, and a retirement savings plan with company matching contributions. The benefits provide a powerful incentive to stay with the company, particularly among part-timers, thus reducing Starbucks recruiting and training costs. “We have historically had low turnover, most of which can be attributed to the culture and a sense of community,” says Moffat.

As anyone in the service industry realizes, finding and keeping good people is more difficult than ever before — and more important. Much of the company’s ambiance — what makes its coffee experience particularly special — is its enthusiastic staff. Starbucks has discovered that when partners are actively involved in the company, the customer benefits and the bottom-line grows.

That’s why the statement “Bring ideas to the table” has real meaning at Starbucks. For example, the idea of a cold, coffee blended beverage, such as a Frappuccino(R) blended drink, was the collective brainchild of a few partners. And when one of the store managers began experimenting with customized in-store music tapes, the idea evolved into Starbucks-branded CDs, explains Moffat. That sense of contribution has translated into retention.

Some “baristas,” or espresso drink makers, have been with Starbucks seven or more years, which is particularly unusual for part-timers whose ranks annually turn over 300 percent at more conventional restaurants.

HR’s challenge into the next millennium.
Like many other U.S. companies, Starbucks is expanding in an era of corporate downsizing and economic belt-tightening. Its challenge is to meet customer expectations, while not diluting the company’s culture and the contribution of every person.

Human resources’ challenge is to ensure that the company’s partner-based values survive its ambitious expansion into the new millennium. Therefore, HR takes stock in being a democratic operation, inviting ideas and solutions, and sharing in the rewards. To nurture open communications and innovative thinking, several Partner Relations mechanisms exist:

Mission Review is a forum that encourages partners to tell the company how they’re feeling and ask any questions. “Promote a very open environment … here’s what you’ve told us and here’s what we’ve done,” says Moffat. “We provide supportive action out of their comments.” Partners always receive a response to their inquiries within two weeks. The goal of such openness: a feeling of internal respect.
Open Forums are regularly held to examine performance, recognize achievements, plus look at the future. It’s also another opportunity for partners to freely question upper management.
The Warm Regards recognition program was developed to spotlight outstanding achievement that embodies the guiding principles, mission and goals of Starbucks. Specific awards include “The MUG (Moves of Uncommon Greatness) Award,” “BRAVO!,” which recognizes partner achievements and also “The Spirit of Starbucks,” which honors passion and action.

None of these initiatives, of course, could gain hold without support from the top. Heading the java empire since 1987 is chairman and CEO Howard Schultz. What Wall Street and stockholders view simply as business acumen, Schultz sees as building a solid business with heart and soul. “We’re profitable because of the value system of our company,” says Schultz. “American companies have failed to realize that there’s tremendous value in inspiring people to share a common purpose of self-esteem, self-respect and appreciation,” he says.

He draws on his own personal experiences growing up in a rough, blue-collar neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The title of Schultz’s best-selling book about the company, Pour Your Heart Into It, is no accident. It’s an article of faith at Starbucks: How people are treated motivates a unified and committed operation.

Work/life benefits are part of the blend.
Providing balance only makes sense to Schultz. To do so, the company must constantly evaluate employees’ needs and wants by using opinion surveys and maintaining an open ear to partners. Such diligence is an intrinsic part of the culture Starbucks seeks to create.

Three years ago, human resources began examining how it could become more attuned to its partners. For instance, some employees who started with the company when they were in college are now buying homes and managing the realities of child-care and elder-care issues. Starbucks has responded by providing flexible work schedules as part of the work/life program. “Our environment lends itself to meet multiple life demands. By virtue of our strong sales and accelerated growth, flex schedules have not hurt productivity in the least,” says Moffat. “Flexibility is particularly inherent in our stores because of our extended hours of operation and the diversity of our workforce — from students to parents — who need to work alternative hours.”

HR also has engaged Working Solutions to offer a range of integrated benefit services that address the modern climate and culture of corporations — referred to as “non-traditional” benefits, or emerging needs. Working Solutions has trained life-event specialists who can help solve issues that require health, social, educational and counseling resources. In addition, Working Solutions offers online employee support anywhere in the world, 24-hours a day.

Recent studies have shown that 60 percent of American workers have child- or elder-care responsibilities. Starbucks recognized — as many other companies have — that partners less encumbered by personal stress and obligations are more innovative and productive. Working Solutions helped Starbucks implement several programs that specifically address the life stages and personal needs of its workforce. “Working Solutions’ style of caring and support complements our work/life program, and helps ensure the quality our partners deserve,” says Moffat. “And, as a company, we see a high rate of return.”

Help juggle life demands.
To help deal with the fast-paced and demanding environment at Starbucks, Working Solutions also provides referral services for partners and eligible dependents enrolled in the medical plan. It connects them with information that helps make extraordinary life issues more manageable. Moffat recently put the program to use when she needed elder-care advice for her grandmother. In another case, a partner needed emergency child care for his ill son. Working Solutions made prompt arrangements for a certified in-home caretaker, no work was missed, and Starbucks covered half of the cost.

Another example of Starbucks corporate caring: Three years ago, a Starbucks partner suggested a company-sponsored soccer team. The recommendation inspired Partner Connection, a program designed to link partners with similar interests, whether they be social, recreational, art and leisure, parenting or volunteerism. The Wonderful World of Food — a group that shares a common interest in great food and dining out — produced “The Partners Table,” a cookbook whose sale benefits Fare Start (formerly Common Meals), a non-profit program that provides skills training to the homeless. A surge of interest in baseball resulted in a Starbucks softball league. Now, there’s even a Starbucks choir. The New Parent Network, which offers such activities as CPR training for new parents, is especially active, given the significant number of Starbucks partners who are first-time parents.

As part of the New Parenting Network, Anne Rauh, Starbucks administrative assistant for Learning and Partner Development, feels a special kinship with other Starbucks partners. “It’s great to network on a consistent basis and share parenting issues with my colleagues,” says Rauh. “Parenting isn’t just something you do after 5 p.m., when you go home; you think about the things that are important to you — like your family — during the course of your workday. We’re parents 24-hours a day.”

The Partner Connection program, which requires little company cost, has flourished because the partners run it, and it stays responsive to their interests, company officials say. After partners were initially queried, it didn’t take long for the program to gain popularity — almost immediately, 25 groups formed in Seattle. Similar partner programs operate throughout the company’s regions.

Encourage a passionate partnership.
As Starbucks pursues its coffee quest, the social and personal climate of the company continues to evolve. HR strives to stay abreast of its partners’ needs and life-stages by periodically conducting opinion surveys. Its mission is to respond accordingly with effective work/life solutions. Starbucks provides on-site services that motivate a healthy mentality and allow for management of daily and extraordinary life demands. The company invites creative and innovative thinking through open communications, as well as established criteria for awards and recognition.

These elements, combined with a comprehensive benefits package, make for a passionate partnership between the company and its most vital resource. Being at the forefront among U.S. company benefits is central to Moffat. “We have the best and the brightest, and our success in the marketplace is directly related to our people,” says Moffat. “We will ask our partners constantly what’s important to them and consider these things as we plan into the year 2000 and beyond.”

CEO Schultz had a mission since day one. “I wanted to establish the kind of company that gave people an opportunity for equity (ownership) and for comprehensive health insurance, among other things … You can empower people with money and responsibility, but what about the person?” asks Schultz.

Starbucks answers that question.

Workforce, August 1998, Vol. 77, No. 8, pp. 60-64.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

Team Mentoring Boosts Employee Development

Despite a long history of being a good employer, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Fuller Company began seeing high turnover among its most strategically important human resources. In the early ‘90s, young men and women who had been with the company for only two or three years, including high-potential managers and engineers, were leaving at rates that reached 20 percent per year, taking with them skills, talents and experience that represented a lost investment to Fuller.

In effect, the company had become a training ground for its competitors, just at a time when global growth was putting new demands on the company for technical and managerial excellence.

Fuller is an engineering firm that supplies everything from complete plants and machines to parts and services for the cement, mineral processing and chemical industries. Thus, retention and development of technically skilled managers are critical priorities. (The company was founded in 1926, and net sales reached $529 million in 1996.) Fuller operates as an autonomous company within the F.L. Smith-Fuller Engineering Group, and employs nearly a quarter of the Group’s 3,900 employees worldwide, with a high concentration of specialized engineering professionals. Therefore, senior management was forced to take a serious look at how they were building our employee pipeline.

From this came the Targeted Employee Development Program (TEDP). Announced in 1995 by Fuller CEO Ib Jacobsen, it’s a human resources strategy developed by the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based WMS and Company Inc., a management consulting firm. This mentor-team program assures the cultivation of key managers and technical leaders required for the future of our company. Its name describes the process: Potential leaders are targeted by management and coached through the development of critical leadership and technical skills. Their progress is then carefully followed by senior management. An added benefit of the program is that participants recognize their importance to the future of the organization, and are more likely to remain with the company.

Within the last three years, we’ve faced less than a 2 percent turnover rate. At Fuller’s Bethlehem-based U.S. headquarters and nearby manufacturing plants, a uniquely vigorous mentor-team approach has not only stopped the brain drain among high-potential professionals, but has turned professional development into a way of life in the organization.

As a side effect, the 30 or so participants in the program are themselves mentors for TEDP aspirants among the company’s more than 1,000 employees in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, developing leadership skills that focus on HR development. During an intensive 12-week orientation program, TEDP participants meet on a regular basis with newly hired professionals and establish themselves as resources for continued guidance for the employees during their first two years with the company.

Individual development is a team effort.
None of the specific characteristics of TEDP are necessarily new to human resources management, although their combination and the level of team participation in individual development are probably rare. These characteristics include:

Senior management’s initial commitment and continuing involvement in the process — something much talked about in annual reports, but rarely practiced in most organizations. Each quarter, Fuller’s senior management teams review the development program and progress of each TEDP participant. Senior managers often make suggestions for field assignments or job rotation to help broaden the experience base of a participant. Senior management’s regular review of each candidate’s profile results in our senior management team knowing each participant better, which allows our senior managers to encourage the development of the participants in day-to-day interactions with their managers.
A supportive team made up of department heads, HR professionals, an outside consultant and senior managers. At any given moment, we have approximately 30 teams.
A process that was openly communicated to all employees, but managed from the top to assure that team members could spend quality time on individual development. We started with six participants and gradually added participants over a period of two years to get to the current level.
A two-track approach to development — one technical and the other focusing on people-management skills — with participants given the choice of which track to pursue.
Developmentally-oriented performance assessment, in which department heads and other team members focus on the next steps in an individual’s growth rather than past performance, and help TEDP participants match their interests and goals with corporate requirements.
And perhaps most importantly, the individual is continually reminded that he or she is never alone in professional development, and that his or her growth as a corporate asset is a strategic business goal.

HR is part of the team.
From the start, the program has been presented to all salaried employees as an HR development program with strategic importance to the organization — not just a succession plan designed to groom high-potential managers and professionals for specific jobs. No promises are made about future promotions or other job changes. Instead, management’s commitment focuses on assurances that TEDP participants will not be expected to fly solo in their own individual development. Each team member has a specific responsibility:

The manager or department head conducts performance reviews and is responsible for an individual’s day-to-day performance. He or she recommends candidates for the TEDP, monitors progress and addresses problems related to operational needs, such as scheduling conflicts between an individual’s job and off-site development activities.
An HR professional is responsible for assuring that individual development matches corporate goals, for creating and delivering appropriate developmental activities and for overall management of the program.
An outside consultant conducts in-depth, objective assessments of the individuals selected for the program, helping them and the company identify strengths and developmental needs that correlate with successful performance in different kinds of careers or work.
The individual undergoing development commits extra time and effort. While continually reminded that he or she is not alone in self-improvement, TEDP participants know that more is expected of them because they were selected for the program, and their developmental activities may at times represent a second job with no immediate rewards.

Initially, we selected two people each month for admission to TEDP, nominated by their department managers and approved by their vice presidents and senior management. All salaried, exempt employees were eligible, with the only prerequisite being that the nominee had worked for Fuller Company for at least two years.

One size doesn’t fit all.
Another key to the success of the TEDP at Fuller has been the recognition that development must be a highly individualized process, and that the interests and proclivities of individual participants should be key determinants of the type of development undertaken. This balancing of the company’s need for certain kinds of management competencies and individual interests is achieved in two ways: First, an in-depth assessment of newly admitted participants helps match individual potential to corporate needs. Then, participants are given a choice of two general types of development to pursue, one focusing on people management and the other on technical proficiency.

In terms of individual assessment, each new participant in TEDP spends a full day with WMS and Company, undergoing a battery of psychological, intelligence, and other tests designed to identify strengths and developmental needs. Conducted by a professional business psychologist, the tests and other assessment tools used for TEDP participants were developed on the basis of information provided by Fuller, including profiles of the characteristics of successful Fuller managers and professionals. WMS consultants interviewed key managers and HR planners at Fuller so that assessment is effectively tailored to meet the company’s needs. Soon after the assessment, the consultant meets with the individual at Fuller headquarters in Bethlehem, where findings are reviewed in detail. The climate of these meetings is deliberately positive, setting the stage for individual commitment to the developmental activities that will build on unique strengths and address development needs.

In one of the early mentor team meetings held to help TEDP participants shape a development plan, the company’s two-lane turnpike approach to development is presented to the participant, and a structured interview is conducted to help the individual decide which lane best suits his or her interests and goals. From the company’s perspective, both technical proficiency and the ability to manage people are crucial management competencies — engineers need people skills, and managers need technical expertise and knowledge.

But there are business-based reasons for distinguishing the two types of development. Because of the importance of technical leadership and innovation at Fuller, the company wanted to avoid forcing technical people into traditional career paths aimed at assuming department managers’ roles, which are limited in number. While it may be desirable to improve his or her communication skills or other management competencies, the real focus on development should build on the strengths of the individual. Structured interviews conducted by the HR department team members help TEDP participants select the type of development that best suits the individual’s immediate and long-term goals. In addition, the participants may change lanes later if they feel they’ve made the wrong choice, and remain in the program.

Focus on continual improvement, not ratings.
Performance management for participants in the TEDP at Fuller is a matter of managing developmental progress, and focuses on continual improvement, rather than traditional ratings based on operational measures alone.

Participants formally meet with their mentor teams every six months to review progress, and an annual meeting offers the opportunity to set new goals and possibly a new development plan. But participation by department heads is ongoing, focusing on problem-solving and continual monitoring of the individual’s progress in development.

Finally, senior management continually devotes time to the TEDP and its participants. Such dedication assures that management development is addressing strategic business needs, while staying abreast of the progress of these individuals — the leaders of tomorrow.

Kenneth L. Dockery is vice president of human resources for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Fuller Company. Robert J. Sahl is general partner of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based WMS and Company Inc., a management consulting organization.

Workforce, August 1998, Vol. 77, No. 8, pp. 31-36.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

FMLA What to Do Now

While the politicians work on the future of FMLA, the best thing HR professionals can do for their companies is ensure they?re in line with the current regulations. Here, Dana Connell, a partner at the Chicago office of employment law firm Littler Mendelson, offers advice on the two most difficult FMLA areas.

Definition of serious health condition
In its final rule, the Department of Labor expanded the categories that constitute a serious health condition. Basically, what you have to do to determine whether [an illness is considered a serious health condition] is look at it three different ways.

Look at whether it?s inpatient care. If it is, it qualifies.
Is it a period of incapacity of more than three consecutive calendar days in which the employee either has treatment by a health-care provider twice or treatment once and a regimen of continuing treatment?
The third category is specifically protected situations the DOL has decided to protect, even though they don?t involve inpatient care or more than a three-day absence. These include pregnancy, prenatal absences like morning sickness (for which a doctor?s slip is unnecessary), chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes and epilepsy, permanent long-term conditions or multiple-treatment conditions.

Intermittent leave
Employers need to remember they have more rights on this than they think they have. The employee needs to show a medical need for intermittent or reduced leave. If employers use the form the Department of Labor suggests for medical certification — form WH380 — it has a box on it in which the doctor will indicate whether the condition calls for intermittent leave.

You do have the right to transfer the individual to an alternative position under section 204 of the final rule. The position has to have equivalent pay and benefits, but not equivalent duties. Another thing to keep in mind: If it?s a situation involving the birth of or adoption of a child, the employer doesn?t have to grant intermittent leave. If someone wants to take a pregnancy leave and return on a reduced schedule, the employer doesn?t have to grant that.

Workforce, August 1998, Vol. 77, No. 8, p. 40.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

Putting Online Recruiting to Work

In the beginning, online job recruiting burst into our consciousness. It quickly begot an array of Web sites, each serving as a repository for resumes and job listings.

While venturing online seemed like a huge leap in efficiency, many human resources professionals have come to realize that electronic recruiting has done nothing to automate processes. It has simply been another way to link to applicants and mine resumes.

In that respect, online recruitment has been successful. To be sure, online sites such as CareerMosaic, The Monster Board, E.Span and the Online Career Center continue to prove valuable for many HR professionals. In many cases, they connect a company to applicants better than ads in print publications. But they still haven’t solved how to reengineer recruiting to become less costly and more efficient. “By nature, recruiting is an incredibly difficult and inefficient process,” states Reginald Barefield, executive director of Talent Resources at Humana Inc., a six million-member HMO headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.

In fact, for many companies, adding an online component means getting buried by electronic resumes — in addition to the flood of resumes sent via mail or fax. Even using resume scanning capabilities and sophisticated databases, the time and resources required to manage the process often produces only marginal gains.

“Today, companies have to use the Internet to remain competitive in the job market. The problem is that most don’t have an integrated strategy,” explains John Sumser, CEO of Internet Business Network, which publishes Electronic Recruiting News (www.interbiz-net.com).

That’s beginning to change. Thanks to more sophisticated computer programs, better databases and smart agent software, online recruiting is finally coming of age. Organizations that are able to combine the technological tools with a well-conceived business strategy are finding they’re able to reap rewards they couldn’t have imagined only a few years ago. Says Diane Tunick Morello, a research director at Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Group: “The Internet can be a highly effective way to find candidates. Companies that understand the processes and manage them effectively are at an advantage.”

But developing the right solution begins with an understanding of the capabilities of various electronic recruitment systems:

General Job Sites. All purpose job sites — a.k.a. resume banks — have proven a phenomenal success. According to Electronic Recruiting News, over 2,500 Web sites offer job postings. It’s also estimated that there’s more than 1.5 million resumes online. Many organizations use sites like E.Span, The Monster Board and CareerMosaic to complement existing recruiting strategies because general sites inexpensively and effectively post positions and trawl for resumes. Whereas the Sunday classifieds of the Los Angeles Times or Washington Post can run $1,000 or more per listing, the price online usually costs around $100 per month, per posting.
Also, the Internet helps companies connect with potential employees. Says Pamela James, senior staffing director at Irvine, California-based Taco Bell Corp.: “The Web can extend your reach to people who didn’t know about you or wouldn’t normally think about you. It can help you find high quality applicants who almost certainly would have gone elsewhere.”
Yet general job sites do have a downside. High-visibility firms like Ford Motor Co. and The Coca-Cola Co. frequently find themselves inundated with resumes, while relatively unknown medium and small companies often see only minimal response from their job postings. “For many companies, it’s a case of receiving resumes you don’t want or not getting a volume of resumes to make it all worthwhile,” says Sumser. Another problem: the amount of work involved in formatting and managing ads for various sites. “It can devour an HR department’s time and resources. You wind up with many of the same inefficiencies of paper online,” he points out.
Some sites and services are beginning to address these problems. Junglee (www.junglee.com) now offers the ability to automatically format job listings and content for various Web sites. Meanwhile, Restrac customers can now tap into CareerBuilder Network’s (www.careerbuilder.com) job-postings and import information directly into a database. Finally, Hot Jobs (www.hotjobs.com) has moved to a subscription-based model called Softshoe, in which the fee is partly based on results. The service offers the ability to add, edit and delete jobs instantly, and Web-based workflow to direct responses to a recruiter. For example, a hiring manager can click a button and view resumes submitted for a particular job, or search across a group of resumes for particular education or skills.
Specialized Job Sites. It’s hardly surprising that as on-line tools have become more sophisticated, a greater array of offerings have become available. These days, most major newspapers offer classifieds on their Web sites, and in some instances, Web-based ads are offered free to anyone paying for a print ad.
It doesn’t stop there. Different services have popped up to address the needs of specific segments of the market, including temps and university students. For example, JOBTRAK (www.jobtrak.com) is the largest online job listing service for college students. It offers upward of 40,000 listings, and is linked to 750 campuses in the United States. Advertising costs up to $395 for the ad to appear at all 750 career centers.
“A growing number of sites are addressing specific market niches. It’s important to understand which service can pro-vide the largest pool of qualified applicants,” says Richard Johnson, president of Hot Jobs.
Your Company’s Web Site. Listing positions on your company’s Web site makes sense. Not only is it a way to publicize various jobs, it reminds those browsing the site that career opportunities exist and that they should keep you in mind. Best of all, there’s no fee associated with advertising on your company’s site. The downside? Only those who already know about your company are likely to view the job listings. “In many cases, you wind up getting resumes from people you aren’t particularly interested in targeting,” says Sumser.
Banner Ads. An increasingly popular way to attract attention is to purchase banner ads at job banks and recruiting sites on the Web. When a job surfer enters specific terms — say HRMS or accounting — your firm’s ad pops up. Although it’s a way to break through the clutter, it also can be costly. Depending on the site, banner ads can run from a few hundred dollars a month to several thousand, making it an approach more often used to create long-term name recognition rather than a way to fill an open position or two.
Smart Agents Searching the Web. It’s so leading edge that only a handful of companies are currently using this technique. And unless you have the in-house IT expertise, you can pretty much forget it. However, smart agents — sophisticated software that automatically search the Web for high-quality resumes and then slot them into a database — might well represent the future of online recruiting. Some programs can extract e-mail addresses and send a potential job candidate news of an open position. “It saves money, it saves time, it delivers better candidates, and it automates a process that’s incredibly inefficient,” explains Humana’s Barefield, the developer of the company’s smart-agent software [see “Humana Takes Online Recruiting to a Hire Level,” page 63]. The problem with traditional online recruiting, says Barefield, is that “everyone is hoping the one great resume will pop out of a stack of 50,000 or 100,000 sitting on a particular Web site. You ultimately wind up with recruiters who spend their time handling tasks rather than being proactive and strategic.”
Of course, putting all the pieces together is no easy task. Today, online recruiting involves more than individual tools and components. It’s finding more efficient ways to collect resumes, manage data and automate processes. Indeed, how an online recruiting system integrates with an HRMS and with applicant database and workflow systems, such as Resumix, Restrac and Hot Jobs’ Softshoe, goes a long way toward determining success. And, increasingly, such tight in-tegration is possible. Yet more than anything else, it’s about adopting a well thought out strategy. Says Taco Bell’s James: “The online world is merely a complement to traditional methods. The challenge is to tie it all together effectively.”

Workforce, August 1998, Vol. 77, No. 8, pp. 73-76.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

TEDP Timeline

By using a mentor-team approach to employee development, Fuller Co. has reduced its turnover of high-potential managers. Below is the sequence of events for participants of the Targeted Employee Development Program (TEDP):

Division management selects individual for the program.
WMS Management Consultants conducts assessment of the participant’s developmental strengths and needs (a one-day series of tests and interviews).
WMS meets with participant (one-on-one) to give feedback on the results of the assessment program.
HR, department manager and WMS meet with participant to discuss developmental strengths and needs, and begin planning development steps.
Participant, with support from HR and department manager, establishes developmental plan.
HR and department manager hold regular follow-up sessions with participant to discuss progress and to lend support and encouragement.
Senior management conducts quarterly review of the plans and progress of TEDP participants.

Workforce, August 1998, Vol. 77, No. 8, p. 34.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

Cultivating a Winning Team

People are the most important asset, making HR the most important function—no matter what the business. Find out the unique challenges faced by this HR leader, and some strategies for handling universal HR issues.

Called the “Mt. Everest of sailing,” the arduous, 31,600-mile Whitbread Round-the-World Race presses competing sailors to the edges of their skill and endurance. The race, held every three years, starts and finishes in England. Its nine legs pass south of all the continents except Antarctica, putting the contestants in the wind and sometimes iceberg-laden Southern Ocean. The 12-person crews spend as much as a month at sea, eating and drinking only what food they can carry and water they can make. They race around the clock and often never see any other humans for the entire leg.

The most recent Whitbread finished in May, with the Swedish yacht EF Language romping home with a convincing victory over the other nine entries. Six Americans served as crew on the winning 60-foot sloop, led by San Francisco skipper Paul Cayard. A six-time world champion in other sailing classes, Cayard, 39, won his first long-distance title in the Whitbread, thereby bolstering his reputation as the best sailor in the world. His $20 million campaign set a new standard for preparation and execution, much of which he attributes to effective use of both time and human resources. Cayard graduated with a business degree from San Francisco State University and currently serves as head of the AmericaOne, a $30 million syndicate attempting to win the America’s Cup sailing contest to be held in New Zealand in 2000. Here, he shares some of his views on how to get the most out of people, even under the most difficult conditions.

How did you go about recruiting for your team?
A couple of the sailors came with the boat from our Swedish sponsor. The rest I knew from my own background in America’s Cup and Olympic sailing. Some of them had raced around the world before, but not all. It was important to me to select crewmembers who I knew would work well over an extended period of time and who could handle the stress.

What kind of skills and qualities did you look for in the individuals?
They had to be more than just great sailors. Each of them had an additional area of responsibility that ensured we could keep functioning 24 hours a day for up to a month at a time.

We had an on-board water maker and generators to fix and maintain. Someone had to organize the food to make sure we had enough calories to perform well, but not add too much weight to the boat, which would slow us down. We had a navigator who kept us in the right weather patterns. And we had two medically trained crew-members who had to handle such injuries as a puncture wound, a fractured arm and broken teeth.

How does the context of being at sea impact the way you train the crew?
Self-sufficiency is the biggest factor. So is the psychological component. Those of us who are married were sad to leave our families behind. During the race, we were all living within a 60-foot shoebox. After winning the first leg to South Africa, our morale was pretty high, which helped.

What particular challenges does one have to anticipate?
Unlike day-to-day life onshore, we had no distractions. We missed our loved ones for the first few days of each leg, but then we just focused on winning. We also knew that we would only be at sea for a finite period of time. Winners in any endeavor are the ones who can set aside distractions and focus on their goals. Toward the end of the race, when it be-came apparent that we could win, we began to lose focus a bit. As the skipper, I had to remind everyone that it wasn’t our style to slack off. It may have been idealistic on my part, but I pushed for maintaining our intensity.

How did you sustain motivation and morale?
It’s a constant job, and I had to be sensitive to the mood of the crew and adjust my behavior to give them what they needed. I tried to show rather than tell them the level of intensity that I expected. Sometimes, I would trim the sails and do some of the grunt work, which I felt was more effective than yelling at them.

How does teamwork play itself out in this context?
All 12 people onboard were critical, and they all had to respect and appreciate what everyone else was doing. Again, the skipper has to create the environment for that. If one person was doing a job that I felt was going unnoticed by the others, I would commend him in front of the group. I tried to acknowledge everyone and explain all of their roles. It’s a subtle skill, one that you gain through experience. Good leaders pick up on what’s important and what’s not, and impart those differences to the team.

What was the most difficult part of the preparation and race for the team?
Most of my crew had never sailed in the Southern Ocean before, so our biggest challenge was learning how to sail in those conditions, including freezing temperatures, strong winds and big seas. The second leg of the race was our first experience and we didn’t do well at all. Once something went wrong, more trouble snowballed behind it. After we finished that leg, we had a crew meeting at which we detailed how all of us could improve our game. Fortunately, we didn’t pay too large a price while we ascended the learning curve. When we went back into the Southern Ocean on the fifth leg, we won by a huge margin.

What was the most important ad-justment you had to make?
After the second leg, I realized that most of the foul-ups occur at night. Everything’s harder when it’s dark and when you’re tired. So I made the decision that I would stay up every night and be on deck to lend a hand in the fire drills. The other sailors on watch felt more confident with me there, and I brought my experience to help out. I believe that made a big difference for the rest of the race.

How do you think your crew views your management style?
I drove them hard—maybe too hard. We didn’t take as much time off as some of the other crews and we were more regimented. Iknew that might backfire, but Imaintained my philosophy that we were going to go 100 percent all the way. Even on the last leg, when we had an unassailable lead, we kept racing hard. That’s my style.

What lessons have you learned along the way?
Patience is the biggest virtue, especially when you’re at sea. Everything doesn’t happen in ten minutes like it might in a shorter race around some buoys. You can take more time to react, to watch situations come and go and educate yourself to your different options.

What other HR issues cropped up that might be similar to any other work or performance environment?
All of the time that you have in a campaign is valuable and we were always making the best use of our time. After the finish of several legs, we already had our to-do list ready for the shore crew when we docked, so they could get working on the boat to prepare for the next leg. Other crews would kick back and celebrate after each leg, but we realized that maximizing our time in port translated directly into boat speed on the next leg. That was one of the key ingredients to our success.

Workforce, August 1998, Vol.77, No. 8, pp. 27-28.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

Recruiting Books

Follow these links to Amazon.com …

CareerXRoads: The 1999 Directory to the 500 Best Job, Resume and Career Management Sites on the World Wide Web
Written by Gerry Crispin, Mark Mehler
Published by MMC Group, November 1998

Finding & Keeping Great Employees
Written by Jim Harris, Joan Brannick, Phd.
Published by Amacom, February 1999

Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People
Written by Bradford D. Smart
Published by Prentice Hall, February 1999

Employers’ Guide to Recruiting on the Internet
Written by Ray Schreyer, John McCarter
Published by Impact Publications, June 1998

Complete Manual for Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining Quality Employees
Written by Joseph D. Levesque
Published by Prentice Hall, December 1996

Recruiting and the Art of Control: How to Fill More Jobs in a Candidate-Driven Market
(audiocassette and workbook)
Written by Bill Radin, Betsy Smith
Published by Innovative Consulting, September 1997

Staffing the Contemporary Organization: A Guide to Planning, Recruiting, and Selecting for Human Resource Professionals
Written by Donald L. Caruth, Gail D. Handlogten
Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, November 1997

Now Hiring: An Employer’s Guide to Recruiting in a Tight Labor Market
(A BNA Special Report)
Edited by Linda Fernandez
Published by Bureau of National Affairs Plus, June 1989

Workforce, August 1999, Vol. 78, No. 8, p. 91.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

The Top 10 Creative Staffing Methods

Ideas outside the Norm.

Send recruiters to recreational locations where your intended recruits are likely to be, such as ski resorts, summer gathering spots.
Design a “Boot Camp” (with pay) to entice people to develop skills for your organization’s needs.
Create a memorable identity at job fairs.
Go outside your typical target groups for recruiting. Learn which talents and skills can be easily trained to transfer into your organization.
Think “low tech” to find employees. Direct-mail items, such as coupons, postcards and giveaways to targeted demographics, can be powerful recruitment tools.
Don’t forget the international labor market.
Create 12- to 16-hour availability for recruiting and hiring by staggering HR schedules. Accommodate candidates’ needs for before- and after-work interviews.
Have senior managers interview candidates.
Develop and market strong internship programs to promote your company and also find good talent.
Provide an “open house” to showcase your company to the outside world. Promote the values of your company all the time.

Workforce, August 1998, Vol. 77, No. 8, p. 70.

August 1, 1998July 10, 2018

Get Real– and Ethics Will Follow

Companies pay lip service to ethics, developing detailed codes of conduct, implementing “hot lines” and profiling policies. But when it comes to day-to-day activities, many companies actually promote the opposite of ethical behavior.

Take a look at these examples:

The company espouses that teamwork matters, but gives rewards for individual accomplishments.
“We value families,” is a common sentiment, but those who take maternity/paternity leave lose their places in the queue.
The CEO states in the annual report: “Employee involvement is key,” yet orchestrates a downsizing when the market changes.
Managers are told to hold employees accountable, but are forbid to discipline employees for fear of being charged with unfair practices.
HR tells new recruits that the company provides challenging and rewarding growth experiences to ensure continued employability. When the same employees ask to be released for a developmental assignment, their bosses won’t let them go because “they’re too valuable.”

The gap between what is said and what is done promotes cynicism—and cynicism hatches, then dispatches, mistrust. Why does this matter? What does this have to do with ethics? Cynicism and mistrust breed unethical behavior.

So how do managers succeed at building and rebuilding trust? What really works and what really doesn’t? Follow this advice:

Inspire—but do so concretely.
Managers who are successful at building and rebuilding trust are able to articulate what the organization really stands for. They tell employees what the organization is really trying to achieve and what’s really in it for them. They’re willing to say, “Part of why you’re here is be-cause you’ve got a mortgage, two kids you want to send to college and car payments. You (and I) need to pay for these. And you’re not going to be disloyal if that’s the primary reason why you’re working here.” These managers inspire concretely by telling their employees what the real goal is. They’re able to say what the Promised Land will look like—and it isn’t all milk and honey.

But managers who in-spire concretely go one step further. They recognize that in today’s insecure workplace, some em-ployees fear they may be perceived as disloyal if they ask, “What do I get out of this?” They recognize that some of their employees are not, will never be, and probably shouldn’t be “empowered.” So they tell their employees how they will benefit from whatever new initiative the organization is introducing and what’s “in it” for them. In other words, managers tell their employees the personally relevant benefits of participating. They recognize that their employees ultimately care less about how new initiatives will help the organization and more about how they will benefit.

Acknowledge there is a “reality.”
Managers who are effective at building trust acknowledge reality by surfacing problems (and successes) early, acknowledging and labeling mistakes and ascertaining others’ views of the organization’s reputation and performance.

They proactively communicate organizational and personal successes. But they also say, “I (We) did it wrong,” when this is the case. They make errors discussible, and move on from there.

Good managers talk openly about results, not what they would like them to be. They make criticism okay, and they listen to it, whether it’s accurate or not.

Consider what’s arguably the most famous illustration of this. The Bay of Pigs invasion was, unquestionably, a strategic and tactical error. But when President Kennedy went on network television to say, in effect, “I blew it,” his popularity rose more in one day than any president’s before or since.

But managers acknowledge reality not only by admitting errors and discussing what went right and what went wrong, they also solicit and act on others’ views of the organization’s performance. They ask their employees, “What do you think? What’s your view? Was it a home run, a single or did we really strike out?” They seek out others’ perceptions in an attempt to ascertain and assess reality.

Act on reality and in-corporate it in your solutions.
. Managers who are effective at building trust employ strategies and tactics that are pragmatic, real time, and have a cause and effect relationship between ascertaining reality and dealing with reality. Some of them include:

Asking their work groups to name three realities the work group or the organization is not facing. This approach is an “assumptive close.” It permits the discussion of what previously has been undiscussible. Ironically, it also allows people in the group to say, “There aren’t three realities we’re not facing. Things are better than that.” Because the “undiscussible” is on the table, both sides of the issue can be aired.
Asking their work groups to name three reasons that the work unit or organization won’t meet its goals. Perhaps they have developed (or are saddled with) a well-intentioned, but misguided, strategy. So the manager asks, “What are three reasons why this strategy will crash and burn? And what should we do about it?” Again, the undiscussible is made discussible, and in making it so, the manager seeks out the reality of the situation and adds currency to the trust bank.
Soliciting the reality of their competitive positions—their strength in their markets, their quality and how it compares with others’, what their customers think, why their “non-customers” aren’t their customers, the potency of their competitors, and so on—and then building appropriate strategies to strengthen their position.

Be open—tell the truth.
Finally, managers build trust by being honest. They tell employees what they know—and they tell employees what they don’t know.

They tell employees how they’re really doing and where they stand, especially when the two are not the same. They talk openly about results, not what they would like them to be. They make criticism okay, and they listen to it, whether it’s accurate or not. Managers who are good at building trust say, “It’s really important that I hear your criticism. I realize that in the real world, that’s difficult—so please tell me what I can do that will make it safe for you to tell me what’s real, not what’s Memorex.”

These managers also communicate without “unintended obfuscation.” They speak English, not business babble. So, for example, one manager who was trying to determine why an empowerment initiative had failed said to his employees, “The truth is I don’t have a clue about what this “empowerment” stuff really means. I think it may be a new word for delegation.”

In this day when many employees feel insecure, and when they regularly en-counter stress-producing events that are beyond their control, trust-building managers do one more thing—they recognize and help their employees recognize that nobody on their death bed ever said, “If only I had worked more.”

Workforce, August 1998, Vol.77, No. 8, pp. 101-102.