NEHRA News

Rights of Passage

Do you remember what it was like when you were first promoted into management? I do. I compare the experience to an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Lots of people swirling around, yet few stopping long enough to offer assistance.  Like many new Residents, I was tossed into my job and was left to fend for myself. After all, no one trained my boss nor did it appear that anyone trained her boss. It was a rite of passage that one was expected to go through on route to the C-Suite. It’s been over twenty-five years and from what I can tell, little has changed in terms of the way we develop and support our new leaders.

Now for a moment, imagine how much more productive people would be if they entered into their new roles with a clear sense of how to do their jobs. You do not have to be a large company in order to do this. In fact, being a small company actually may give you an advantage. Newly minted managers can work directly with senior management, without the middle layers getting in the way. Organizations can quickly establish training and or mentoring programs without having to seek three levels of approval. You can begin small with brown bag lunch and learns or you can go big with a off-site meeting facilitated by a management expert who can quickly get people moving in the right direction. What are you waiting for? Get started!

Management Circles

Quality circles were all the rage in the eighties. This is where companies assembled volunteer groups of employees to support one another as they looked for breakthrough ways to improve quality. Next came the CEO circles; a place where CEO’s could go to share their most intimate challenges with other like minded CEO’s. But nothing to date has been done for those people with the title of manager. These people are a group of people without a group to call their own.

I believe the time has come for organizations to assemble management circles. This would be a place where managers would come together to support one another. These groups could be run by an outside facilitator or an experienced professional who has a track record of helping people thrive in management roles.  Benefits to the organization include reducing the amount of time it takes new managers to become productive, decreasing the amount of stress usually associated with a change in management and increased employee retention as workers realize the company is really willing to invest in their people.

Some of you may be thinking that your organization won’t be able to participate because you can’t make a circle when you only have two managers. For these companies, I would recommend joining up with other firms, who are not in competing businesses, and pooling your resources to create a management circle. I’m so excited by this concept that I will help you get started. This idea sure beats sending your people to some $1,500 generic management seminar with the hopes they will return as experienced managers.

Deforestation

Have we learned nothing from mistakes made during previous recessions when we eliminated entire levels within our organizations? Or in some cases, we’ve outsourced entire departments, forcing our customers to repeat themselves twenty times as they try to explain to why they are calling.

Do you have anyone left who can be groomed for positions that will be vacated by the aging Boomers? Most likely it won’t be the receptionist you hired to replace the Office Manager, no matter how talented she may seem. Are you prepared to send out your twenty-something rising star sales representative solo to your top client when her boss leaves for a better offer? Will he have matured enough to take on this responsibility?

I believe it is time to stop with the massive layoffs. They are harmful to most environments and they still result in dead wood being left around. Case in point. I was speaking with the spouse of a general manager of a well-respected communications company and she was sharing with me how her husband resisted laying off a marginal worker because he thought he could turn his performance around. Eighteen months later and the guy’s still hanging on, even though his performance has declined. Wouldn’t it have been better if the decision was made to weed out the non-performers (including this guy) rather than letting the negativity spread like wildfire? Or is the general manager hoping and praying there will be another round of layoffs so he won’t have to confront this employee about his performance?

Hmmm...maybe looking back is a good thing after all. That is if we learn from our mistakes and we vow to make things better for people as we move forward.

About the Author: Roberta Chinsky Matuson is President of Human Resource Solutions and has been helping companies align their people assets with their business goals for over 20 years. She is also considered an expert in generational workforce issues. Roberta’s forthcoming book, Suddenly in Charge: Managing Up, Managing Down, Succeeding all Around, will be published in January of 2011. She can be reached at Roberta@yourhrexperts.com.

The critical first step in aligning your LD efforts to your business strategy is to understand that strategy. It might sound funny, but this important step gets missed often. I don’t mean a passing glance at understanding the business strategy. Rather, you need to understand it thoroughly. Get at the characteristics that define it; be able to describe it in depth and in terms of decisions. A good test or two of understanding would be to list at least five decisions your organization has made that define the strategy or be able to describe how you business strategy is different from a competitors. Once you have a good description of the strategy, you can begin to align your LD efforts to it because you will know where and how to make alignment choices.

With a firm understanding of your business strategy, the next step is to look at the different parts of your LD efforts and the decisions you can make to each one. By adjusting your LD efforts, you can bring them into better alignment with the business strategy. Here are five strategies that will increase the alignment between your LD efforts and the business strategy. The key question to ask is "How can we bring our LD efforts into better alignment with the business strategy?"

1) Tailor Personal and 360°Assessments to the Business Strategy

The first place to start with is the assessments you use in any LD program, as these are the front end of leadership development work. For example, modify your 360° assessment so more of it is directed to the strategy. At a minimum, as it might be too costly to change your competency model, you can have the analysis of the 360° highlight certain strategically related items. Another choice is to select personal style assessments that tie directly to elements of a business strategy. For instance, maybe "change" is an important implication of your business strategy. Identify parts of existing assessments that can be emphasized and related to change. Or, identify and use a particular assessment that focuses directly on change.

2) Select Development Goals Related to the Business Strategy

Another good area for increasing alignment is to have people’s development plans incorporate goals that align to the strategy.  When people identify goals, have them describe on their plan how the goal ties back to the business strategy. This activity gets people thinking about how goals relate to the business and why they should tackle a particular development goal.
You could take this even further by having a common goal specifically related to your business strategy. Each person’s development plan that comes from an LD program would have this common goal.

3) Tie Training to the Business Strategy

In general, you have a choice of training topics and the design of the training. Based on your understanding of the business strategy, pick training topics specifically related to it. With the topic choice made, you can design the training to be based on the business strategy. For example, have any training open with a review of the business strategy and vision: explicitly say how this training ties back to the business strategy. Have a senior leader kick off the training. He or she can describe exactly how the training relates to the current business strategy. At the end of the training, have participants identify their personal takeaways and how they relate to the business strategy. 

4) Select Action Learning Projects directly related to the Business Strategy

Many organizations use Action Learning as part of their LD efforts. These can be successful as places where participants can practice their development goals. The key decision is selecting the projects. Select those that best fit and push forward the business strategy. Work with your business leaders to identify the best projects.

You can imagine a senior leader kicking off an Action Learning session describing how the chosen projects directly tie to the strategy. That would be a powerful alignment instance.

5) Create a Hybrid LD Strategy

The prior four strategies are independent. That gives you the opportunity to string them together. Depending on your particular situation, you may be able to combine all four strategies and take action in each area. Or, maybe it is just tackling two of them. The key point is to look at each of your decisions in the above strategies and depending on your budget, the organization’s particular state, and the appetite for change, choose an overall combination that maximizes alignment to the business strategy and is doable.

From the above strategies, you have many choices that will increase alignment of your LD efforts to your business strategy. The good news is that many of the choices are low cost. By going through each part of your Leadership development efforts, you can make decisions and modifications that will create an LD program much more aligned with you business strategy.

About the Author:  Robert Hewes is a senior partner with Camden Consulting, with oversight for leadership development and management training. A skilled strategist, facilitator, and coach, he designs and delivers executive coaching and leadership development services for Camden clients. He can be reached at bhewes@camdenconsulting.com.

Talent management has a huge impact on customer satisfaction, with HR playing a key role in ensuring an effective service workforce.  Join us to learn from a stellar lineup of executive presenters, headlined by Robert Stephens, Founder, The Geek Squad, and Chief Technology Officer, Best Buy. His keynote address focuses on building a customer-service oriented culture that extends into a company's entire eco-system.

Other presentations include: "Service Partners in Workforce Management: Collaborating with HR to Ensure Employee Engagement," by Pitney Bowes executives who provide a roadmap for HR and service leaders to work together to impact customer satisfaction and overall service goals. "A Connected Service Oriented Culture" will feature JetBlue, elaborating on steps that can be taken to infuse a customer-centric culture across the organization.

HR executives are invited to apply for a complimentary pass* by clicking HERE. Questions? Please contact Bill.Burns@Aberdeen.com or call 617.854.5377. 

(*subject to approval)

Doing this will ensure that we have the most current information on your:

• Employer
• Job title
• Work address
• Primary email
• Telephone contact information

The process is easy: 

Log in at www.nehra.com. Go to the tab on the left side of the Home Page that says "Update Your Membership Profile."

The new year for NEHRA Community Forums has now kicked off. We encourage you to check out the website and discover an already full calendar of meetings scheduled. If you are not familiar with the Community Forums you should visit the website and explore how they can help and support you.

The Community Forums offer:

• Opportunities to network with other NEHRA members on a regular basis
• Opportunities to develop leadership skills
• Opportunities to share useful information and best practices within the Community Forum content area

Currently NEHRA has nine active Forums (click HERE for more info) and is eager to work with members to create more. Specifically we are looking for members interested in helping to form a Benefits Community Forum. If you are interested in this please contact Pat DiSalvo at pdisalvo@nehra.com.
 
If you have ideas for other Forums and are interested in helping us to pull a group together please contact Carole Edson, Director of Membership, at cedson@nehra.com.

• To become a fan of NEHRA on Facebook, CLICK HERE.
  
• If you are already a member of LinkedIn, CLICK HERE to join the NEHRA LinkedIn Community!

If you are not already a member of LinkedIn, you will need to follow the easy steps to create your profile. Once your profile is completed you can follow the steps below to become a member of the Northeast Human Resources Group.

• Find the tab for "Groups" on your home page and select "Group Directory."
• Use the search function in the upper right and type in "Northeast Human Resources Association."
• Click on "Join this Group."
• This will bring you to a description of the group and you will be asked to make selections about your preferences for display the group logo on your personal page.
• Enter a contact e-mail address, a digest e-mail address, delivery frequency, announcements and messages.
• Once you have made these choices click the button "Join Group."
• Your message will come to the NEHRA Group Administrator to verify membership and approve you for the group.

To Join a Community Forum Subgroup on LinkedIn

• Once you are a member of the Northeast Human Resources Group, select "Subgroups."
• Select all the groups you are interested in joining.
• Your request goes to the NEHRA Group Administrator for approval.
• You will receive a message that you are a member of this subgroup and you can begin to read and post information on the Subgroup page.

Current NEHRA Subgroups

• Learning and Development Community Forum
• Diversity and Inclusion Community Forum
• Consultants Community Forum
• Small Business HR Community Forum
• HR Technology Community Forum
• Talent Acquisition Community Forum
• Flexible Workplaces Community Forum

As you may know, NEHRA is continuing to evolve to better meet the needs of members. Therefore, we have created a new membership category: Group Membership.

This category is created to recognize the need, and often the desire, of many organizations to control spending and manage membership expenses for their employees.

What does this really mean for you? It means that if your company has five or more current members, you could experience a savings of 10 percent or more on the total cost of these NEHRA memberships through Dec. 31, 2011. In addition, the group membership allows you to renew all memberships at the same time—reducing the hassle and workload of individual renewal dates. Finally—and perhaps most importantly—it ensures that all members of your team have access to programming, to our new webinars, to resources and information at our website and to networking and professional development opportunities.

• How does the program work? All current members from your organization are renewed on a pro-rated basis—based on the individual membership type (NEHRA or NEHRA/SHRM), to bring them to a common renewal date, Dec. 31. Any new members are added and pro-rated, based on a Dec. 31 end date. The entire group is then renewed for another full year, based on this common renewal date.
• Can I add new members? New members can be added to your group at any time during your membership cycle, and their membership will be pro-rated to maintain them on the single renewal date.
• What if someone leaves? You can easily transfer that membership to another employee within your team, with one quick call.
• How does the membership work? Each group member is assigned an individual membership number, allowing them to access information on www.nehra.com and to register for events, webinars and professional development throughout the year.

This is an exciting new opportunity for you to expand access to NEHRA and save money!

If you are interested in learning more about the group membership or getting a quote for your group, please contact Carole Edson, Director of Membership and Alliances, at (781) 239-8705 or cedson@nehra.com.