Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Mary Ila Ward

  • Top Takeaways (so far) from #SHRM18

    Top Takeaways (so far) from #SHRM18

    So far, #SHRM18 has proven to be an inspiration of ideas and people.  My top takeaways from the Windy City include:

    “Drama is emotional waste.”  @CyWakeman

    I love Cy Wakeman and her book, Reality Based Leadership.  In her presentation, Cy described how our brains are binary.  We toggle between the lower order brain, our ego, where drama exists and our higher order brain.  Our higher order brain allows us to focus on reality in order to respond in creative, innovative ways.   Cy’s message is that a leader’s main job is to toggle people up to the higher order brain by focusing on facts and eliminating drama that comes from gossip, venting and assumptions.  We toggle people up by getting them to self-reflect.

     

    Jeb Bush was the opening general session keynote.  He challenged the audience to consider what you would focus on if you were the head of HR for the United States.   His three key focus areas, which I agree with are:

    1. Comprehensive immigration reform and policy as an economic development strategy.
    2. A change in how we see learning and education to focus on career readiness, personalized learning and reform in higher education costs.
    3. A second chance society where people who have made mistakes (like having a criminal record) can contribute meaningfully through work. SHRM is focused on this.  A great white paper to read on this from SHRM can be found here.

     

    Key takeaways from my session on ROI as seen through the live tweets activity were:

     

    Shared by Coretha M. Rushing, SHRM Board Chair, CHRO at Equifax:

     

    From Paul Endress @paulendress about Reflective Listening:

    “The less you talk and the more you seek to understand meaning from others, the better communicator you will be.”

    The key thing I took away to set yourself up for reflective listening is body posture/physiology.  Don’t cross your hands across your chest or put them back above your head.  That is not setting yourself up to listen.  Instead nod your head, put your hands on your desk or on your knees in a neutral position or have a reflective posture where one hand is on your chin and the other propping up your elbow. Maintaining these postures while you speak is just as important when you are listening.

     

    The session I have been the most excited about is Neuroscience in HR. Led by David Rock @davidrock, Director of the NeuroLeadership Institute, his biggest reminder for me was something we often ignore when it comes to connecting brain science to individual and organizational behavior and that is the issue of capacity.

    Capacity of the brain is the first issue that people ignore. For example, how many numbers can you add in your head?  Once you get past adding three numbers at once, most people reach their capacity.  Following this rule in the workplace is important.  If you try to get people to focus on more than three things you lose them.  Identify the fewest possible paths to drive individual change (through habit creation) that can drive organizational change.

     

    What are your Top Takeways (so far) from #SHRM18? Have you been inspired too?

  • 6 Ways to Build Energy

    6 Ways to Build Energy

    “…every movement of your body, every emotion you have, and every thought that passes through your mind is an expenditure of energy. Just as everything that happens outside in the physical world requires energy, everything that happens inside requires an expenditure of energy.” From The Untethered Soul

    “Coach, I’m tired,” said one little boy to my husband on his 7-8 year-old baseball team. Practice had only been going on for ten minutes and they hadn’t even been running.

    To which my husband asked, “Why are you tired?”

    “Well, I played at the trampoline park all day.  I’m wore out,” he said.

    This humorous encounter led my husband to set guidelines for the team on what activities were okay for them to engage in prior to their first All-Star tournament game on Saturday.

    Swimming? No. Riding your bike or running around the neighborhood all day?  No.  And definitely no trampoline park.

    My husband’s goal is conserve his players’ energy so they have enough gas in their tanks for a 5:30 pm game in the summer heat.

    He may take baseball too seriously, but I think this encounter holds an important lesson for us all.

    We all have a finite amount of energy to give. Whether it is physical energy as in this example or emotional or mental energy, we often expend it on things and people that do not lead to positive outcomes or results. We come to things that we need to be fully engaged in totally drained.  And it’s not because of the activity in the present, it’s the activity in the past.

    I know I struggle with this, do you?  In thinking about ways to combat it:

    1. Examine your commitments and tasks by things that leave you drained, energized, or neutral.   I’ve seen planners and time management systems organized around this mindset.   It makes a lot of sense.   Also, I would encourage you to analyze your relationships or people by this mindset as well.
    2. Get rid of most of the things that drain you. We’ve all got to do laundry in our life,  whether is actual laundry or metaphorical laundry, that no one find particular energy in. We also have relationships that leave us at a net loss in energy for a period, but dedication to this person(s) is important.  Hello, anyone that has ever been sleep deprived because of a newborn at home. However, much of what drains us is optional.  I would encourage you to eliminate at least two things this week that drain you.  Say no to something.
    3. For the draining tasks you just can’t abandon, chunk them together and schedule time to get them done. Often being able to check off multiple things on your to-do list at once, even if they are tasks you dislike, can lead to increased energy.
    4. Add one thing to your week that builds energy for you.  It could be a workout, a good night’s sleep, or a particular activity (like what I’m doing now, writing energizes me) that leads to more energy.  Schedule a time to do this each week like it is any other appointment you can’t take off your calendar.
    5. If you are a part of a team at work and/or a team at home, make your draining, energizing and neutral list as a group.   You’ll probably be surprised to find that you aren’t assigning responsibilities based on what builds energy for individuals and thus the team.  Swap tasks around as needed and appropriate.
    6. Realize everything you do is an opportunity to shine your light. Light requires energy. Ask yourself regularly, Am I shining or am I not?

    “The more you stay open, the more energy flow you can build…it starts flowing out of you…..What’s more, the energy [flowing out of you] affects other people.  People can pick up on your energy, and you’re feeding them with this flow.  You become a source of light for those around you.” From The Untethered Soul

     

  • The 2018 Edition of HR’s Biggest Pain Points

    The 2018 Edition of HR’s Biggest Pain Points

    Each year at the Alabama SHRM State Conference, we survey participants to gain insights into what their biggest pain points are. Before I even looked at the data this year, my guess was that recruiting was at the top of the list or has at least risen to the top of the list. With the unemployment rate now lower than 4% national wide, the pain of finding talent is real.

    But what we saw in the results left talent sourcing/acquisition in the middle of the pack:

    Tied for the highest pain points were leadership training and employee development.  If we look at the data over the three years that we have done the survey, these are both still the top two, with employee development being the highest and leadership training coming in a close second.

    Maybe these are the focus because of the need to retain top talent so that recruiting doesn’t have to become a pain point.

    Of course this is in no way a scientific study and the sample size was small, but it is interesting to consider if these are the biggest pain points, what can be done about them?

    I would suggest the following:

    Radical Candor

    Work Rules

     

    • Create a structured Leadership Training/Development Program.  You can customize this for your company with a reputable vendor or you can select an off-the-shelf program that is right for you.  The key is to make sure the program:
    1. Builds self-awareness in participants (a good program incorporates some type of validated assessment)
    2. Builds understanding of others and helps participants connect their self-awareness to influencing others through self-monitoring
    3. Helps people to think differently and ultimately behave differently
    4. In order to drive home positive behavioral outcomes, incorporating some type of action plan/homework should be required post-training
    5. Should gather individual and organizational metrics to monitor the success of the program

     

    Some resources to consider through Horizon Point to help you with designing or purchasing a leadership training program can be found here:  Key Training Topics. This also includes information about a few of our leadership training partners and their programs:

    I also like these providers/programs:

     

    Sometimes we neglect employee development and leadership training because we just don’t know where to start.  Hopefully these resources will help to get you started if these two things are your biggest pain points.

    What are you biggest pain points?

     

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    What are your biggest HR Pain Points?

  • Do You Need to Raise Your Wages?

    Do You Need to Raise Your Wages?

    Steve Boese had a great blog post recently titled “CHART OF THE DAY: Your semi-regular labor market update”. In it, Steve shares charts that show the unemployment rate dropping below 4% for the first time since 2000 and the average time to fill for positions continuing to trend upward.  It’s a great post, read it.  If you’re a business owner, HR pro, recruiter or anyone that remotely has a pulse on hiring, it gives credence to the pain you are probably already feeling.

    Where can we find good people to fill positions?  Heck, I had someone tell me the other day, “I don’t know where I am going to find the bodies?” Forget great or good employees. This guy just wanted people that have a pulse!

    Of all the information in Steve’s post, I found the following quote most relevant:

    There is more to this story, and I need to take some time to look at what is happening with wage data, labor force participation, and the openings and quits rates, but these two charts and their data are both pretty revealing.

    By the number of calls we have been getting recently for compensation studies and an increased rate of participation in the ones we typically conduct, I will tell you wage rates are being considered as a part of this equation, and I think they should be.

    In general, wages have not risen in comparison to cost of living and especially productivity.  Many people will argue that this is contributing to the erosion of the middle class and the widening of the gap between the have and have nots.  Some will even say this wage problem will cause our next economic and social collapse.  You can read more about this and find more resources related to this topic here: Economic Policy Institute: The Productivity- Pay Gap.

    This isn’t a post to exert a specific economic philosophy, but a post for business leaders to consider how much pain can you bear?  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing you’ve always done- i.e.- paying the same thing you paid during the recession, which is now ten years ago- and expecting a different result.

    You can change a lot of things when it comes to increasing your competitiveness for people, but one of the most cut and dry things you can do is raise your wages.

    If you’re struggling with this:

    1. Get market data and see where you fall on the wage spectrum by geographic location, job title and other relevant criteria.
    2.  Based on your comparison:
      1. If you are leading the market, you shouldn’t be feeling as much pain as others. If you are, you need to examine what is causing this.  An employee engagement survey may be a good place to start.
      2. If you are meeting the market, can you afford to move your wages and/or other direct and indirect compensation offerings up a notch to attract the best active and entice some passive job seekers? If you are in this bucket, I would suggest looking at a variable wage component like a bonus structure to move your packages up a notch and tie it to business outcomes.  Do an analysis of what an increase in varying degrees would cost you relative to what turnover and positions going unfilled for a long time costs you.  If you want to talk details about how to quantify what turnover and unfilled positions are costing you, email me.
      3. If you are lagging the market, can you afford not to move your wages up?   Whereas in the matching the market scenario, variable compensation like a bonus structure may be the best way to get competitive, if you’re lagging the market in base wages, something like this probably isn’t going to help you all that much.   Again, do an analysis of what an increase in varying degrees would cost you relative to what turnover and positions going unfilled for a long time costs you.  Again, if you want to talk details about how to quantify what turnover and unfilled positions are costing you, email me.

    There are micro and macro forces that impact your ability to hire and retain people just like there are macro and micro forces at work in whether or not your business is and can remain profitable.

    With the market (aka the macro) strong in economic indicators leading to what should be increased profits for most, it is imperative to examine where you are in wages relative to that macro picture. It will help you make wise decisions that will sustain your profitability through the talent you recruit and retain.

    Are you lagging, meeting or leading the market in wages?

     

    Like this post? You might also enjoy:

    The Conundrum of Incentive Pay

    What You Pay Does Matter

  • 6 Ways to Design Your Performance Management System Around Company Values

    6 Ways to Design Your Performance Management System Around Company Values

    “….In other words, only 10 percent of organizations have be goals (what Andy Stanley means by a set of values that guide our decisions) effectively integrated in their daily practices. Mind you, many organizations write about their mission, vision and values in their annual report, but that’s only lip service unless those be goals are integrated into their recruiting, training, evaluating and promoting. How can an organization claim that its be goals are important when none of its leaders’ performance evaluations or pay is based on adhering to those values.”

    I was recently in a meeting talking about performance management systems, when a colleague told our mutual client that the company she saw do this best was one of her former employers.  She said all people related practices and decisions were designed around the company’s core values.

    She said, it was hard trying to explain to the unemployment office that someone was terminated for “a core values violation”, but they did it every single time because a core values violation was the only reason anyone was ever fired.

    Yet as the quote above states, very few people design their performance management system and practices around values, even when we find that doing things this way, well, adds tremendous bottom line value (pun intended):

    “The surprising thing is that it has been proven that companies with be goals (values) do better financially over time.  If you don’t believe me, read Built to Last by Jim Collins, in which he demonstrates empirically that companies with an unchanging set of core values and behaviors (be goals)- while still being open to changes in their day-to day practices (do goals)- outperform those that don’t have this attribute.”

    So how do you integrate values into performance management?

    6 Ways to Design Your Performance Management System Around Values

    1. First, clearly define your set of values and the competences/behaviors that demonstrate living these values. You can use a case study approach we described in an earlier blog post to design values and tie behaviors easily to them.
    2. Your employee handbook should be designed around values.  The values- be goals-  should be stated first and examples of how to live the values should be given.  Company policies should be linked back to values.   It should be more focused on we do this here or we behave this way here, instead of a running list of what not to do.
    3. Take the handbook case further by designing videos that illustrate actual employees living the company values.  You can embed these videos into your handbook and/or use them on the first day of onboarding to facilitate a discussion about company values.
    4. If you have a formal performance appraisal system, the dimensions should be your values.  Use a three-point scale – meets, does not meet, exceeds – and again give behavioral based examples or anchors to show what it would mean to meet, exceed or not meet expectations.
    5. Design your rewards and recognition system around company values. One of our former clients does this through an annual all company values awards ceremony where peers nominate people for values awards.  At the event the winners are announced and given a gift that directly relates to the value the person demonstrates.  They become the values champion for that year and help others grow in living the company value they demonstrate so well.Another client does this through quarterly values awards that are also peer nominated.  The company owner presents the winners with the award by giving them personalized gifts based on the winners “favorite things” that have been gathered when they are hired.

      If you have another system- whether it is formal or informal, integrated through tech system or not- make sure it is structured around values.

    6. If you think you need to fire someone or put them on a plan for performance improvement, consider how their poor performance relates to a violation of your core values.   When you talk with them about performance improvement or termination, describe the reason for doing so in terms of the value(s) that have been violated.  Designing any PIP forms or tools you may have around values can help facilitate this.

     

    If it is hard to do any of these things around values, you most likely don’t have a comprehensive set of values in place and you may need to reconsider what is lacking as it relates to things that warrant rewards for great performance and the opposite for poor performance.

    How do your company values help you be successful?

     

    Like this post? You may also like:

    What are Company Values and How do you Create Them?

    A personal account of performance management that works… and doesn’t

    Experiences Over Stuff: The Better Rewards and Recognition Strategy

    The Changing World of Work: Is the Policy Going to Die?