Optimum HR Systems

Optimal Knowledge: The Resilience Issue

The new issue of Optimal Knowledge is about resilience. Here is an excerpt from the leading article of Anita Ryan: “At The Crossroads: The Keys to Organizational Resiliency”: “American businesses, large and small truly are at a crossroads. Those organizations resilient enough to have survived the longest economic downturn since the Great Depression are now faced with dual dilemmas that could challenge their continuing success. On the one hand the uncertain global financial situation requires businesses of all types to maintain vigilance related to cash reserves, workforce expansions and internal project investment. On the other hand in certain sectors there has been an easing of recession pressures. An increase in sales has been accompanied by a simultaneous rise in external customer demands and an internal strain on human resources that are already at a breaking point.

The layoffs and hiring freezes that were required at the height of the recession placed an ongoing burden on remaining employees. Increased hours and productivity demands could be sustained for a certain period of time. However, now that 3 years have passed, top employees (and they are the top employees because lower performing workers were cut at the beginning of the downturn process) who have not been sufficiently supported are beginning to respond to the call of recruiters from competing businesses. Suddenly these hard working top-notch people are saying “enough” and considering other options.

Although businesses want to maintain the fast reacting strategies that have enhanced their survival capabilities, now is the time to pull some mid and long terms strategy tools out of their organizational toolboxes.The loss of underappreciated highly skilled key employees is as big a danger to continued corporate resiliency as are poorly constructed or executed sales and marketing plans. So what are these tools?...” Keep reading... 

Optimal Knowledge: The Harmony Issue

In a perfect world, there should be a harmony between what business goals dictate and what compliance requirements impose. This idealistic harmony rarely exists for several reasons. Some companies believe that they cannot afford to make changes in their way of doing business and adjust to a variety of compliance requirements regarding affirmative action, safety regulations, manufacturing processes or other employment related regulations.  Some other companies believe that since they are stellar performers in almost all aspects of their business they probably will not be hit by an audit. Some companies simply don’t know better – they don’t follow changing regulations, trends in auditing, etc.

All these practices can, in the end, be more costly and disruptive than complying in the first place. The goal should be to integrate compliance into every process so that it becomes automatic and you are prepared long before the auditor (inspector) shows up at your front door.

In this issue, Dick Warren writes about the recent OFCCP audit trends and suggests several steps to develop an “audit-ready” Affirmative Action Plan. With several examples of the cost of safety procedures in recent OSHA citations and the steps to avoid them, Vija Kelly stresses the fact that in most cases is less expensive to adhere strictly to the rules out of the gate than to address them after an inspection. Dick Lee speaks about another type of harmony – one that affects us all – the harmony between a costumer-centric healthcare and the business goals of the healthcare providers. His advice applies to any type of organization.

This conversation about harmony should continue at all levels in your organization. Download the Harmony issue.

The Bottom Line Issue of Optimal Knowledge

 The Evolution of HR  - part two

Evolution is a constant in HR – driven by natural changes in employee/employer relationships and accelerated by economic, political and societal change. For the last year, the economy’s effect on enterprises – small, medium and large  - plus dizzying technology advancements have forced HR professionals to take a hard look at their approaches to human capital management. At Optimum HR Systems we encounter these evolutionary changes every day with every client. This newsletter highlights what we’re seeing and learning.  

In a recent survey (Download the file here), 75% of respondents rated “unsatisfactory” U.S. workforce skills for coping with the work challenges presented by our new economy. Yet, in the same survey only 25% of responding companies offer appropriate training programs for their employees. In this issue Anita Ryan discusses how to set training priorities and how to achieve better employee training/development outcomes more effectively than with traditional approaches.

And speaking of employee development (or lack thereof), we’re all familiar with “toxic employees.” But do most bring these “toxic” behaviors in the door with them–or do poorly designed processes precipitate most toxic behaviors? Dick Lee’s articles show why HR professionals should be taking a leadership role in process improvement to curb toxic tendencies, rather than over-relying on “toxic screening” during the interview process.

You are welcome to download the entire "Bottom Line" issue of Optimal Knowledge here.

Poor Office Process, Poisonous Office Environment (at a horrendous cost)

By Dick Lee, Optimum HR Systems Associate

Are engineering and sales pointing fingers at each other? How about customer service and parts? Or HR and branch locations? How about sales and marketing management? Or IT and the rest of the front and back office? Okay, you’re like any other company. But do you have even the slightest sense of what all this dissonance is costing you?

Probably not. In which case you ought to grab or access the April 2009 edition of “Harvard Business Review” and read some sobering data. Very sobering.

April’s HBR features a very pithy one-page abstract by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson, How Toxic Colleagues Corrode Performance, which may very well peel back your eyelids. Their data alone might scare you into action–including running some toxic employees out of town.

You can’t fire the problem

But here’s the irony. Just firing these people won’t accomplish much, because a new set of “bad actors” will quickly fill their shoes. A relatively small percentage of inherently dysfunctional folks notwithstanding, the vast majority of these toxic employees didn’t start off toxic. Instead, their work environment created interpersonal strife by giving people and functions conflicting messages and conflicting goals, and they eventually succumbed to the venal side of human nature. (continue reading...)