Resources for HR Professionals

Bootstrapper put together a great list of 100 articles that are useful resources for HR professionals. Link over to see it now.

Measuring Engagement - a humorous look

In Beat the Odds: Avoid Corporate Death and Build a Resilient Enterprise by Robert A. Rudzki proposes a tongue-in-cheek measurement of employee engagement. You may want to do a quick survey of your workplace to see what this looks like for you...

The "Take This Job, Please" Index

On a humorous note, one of my former colleagues suggested a new index as a true leading indicator of employee alignment, commitment, and morale. It was to be based on the prevalence of office lottery pools. The suggested title was "Take This Job, Please"--a more refined form of the reaction to be expected from someone who had just won the big one. The TTJP Index would be measured by the number of office lottery pools established when lottery prizes exceeded a predetermined level--$50 million, say. Two or more office workers pooling their purchase of lottery tickets would constitute one office pool. The metric is particularly interesting in a multifloor office building or a multibuilding office campus. If you noticed a growing number of lottery pools at your organization, what might that indicate? After some watercooler debate, a refinement was suggested for the TTJP metric. Add this additional dimension: After the participants of a lottery pool are notified (by e-mail or phone) to contribute their share for the next round of the lottery, how much time elapses before the first person shows up with cash in fist? The metric and its analytical conclusions could be tabulated as follows:

First Person Arrives >> Comment

(a) Next day: >> Not to worry.

(b) Within one hour: >> You have reason for concern.

(c) Within 10 minutes: >> Your employees are desperate to get out.

(d) The participants prepay: >> Don't you wish your employees were similarly energized and committed to your company?

Using Investigative Negotiations to Build Your Influence

We often think about internal politics as a bad thing. I propose that rather than thinking about building political skills, you think about building skills that will allow you to "Influence with Integrity".

Negotiating is one of the skills in this area, and a Harvard Business Review article by Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman suggests a technique called Investigative Negotiation. In this technique, when you encounter a roadblock, rather than focusing on your position, spend energy on trying to learn "why" behind the other parties constraints, interests and needs.

The more you learn beforehand, during and after a negotiation about the other person's interests, the more likely you will be able to craft a direction forward that meets most of yours as well.

Building Morale When Times Are Bad

Catching up on some blogs published in December, I came across one identified by HBR Online as one of their best for 2007, namely Building Morale When Times Are Bad by John Coyne. With a focus on the US economy, Coyne forecasts the biggest leadership challenge of 2008 being retaining and motivating the best people in the midst of layoffs and reductions.

His point that "good morale does not require people to be happy" is well worth pondering. In fact, walking right up to the distinction between good morale and happiness could lead to some sound policy choices. Wordreference.com defines morale as

the spirit of a group that makes the members want the group to succeed

and

a state of individual psychological well-being based upon a sense of confidence and usefulness and purpose

Interesting words to ponder in light of reductions. Adversity can increase the spirit of a group, when there's a direction and desire to succeed. So when faced with business adversity, what can the leader do to work on such things as "spirit of the group", "want to succeed", "sense of confidence, usefulness and purpose"? Involve people, not in commiserating or worrying, but in defining real solutions to the problems. Make sure everyone is clear on the role that they have in delivering the business strategy. Give them, as best you can a sense of confidence in the mission.

Coyne makes an excellent point that you refute concerns about the possibility of future promotions. Even if there are fewer positions to vie for, there are fewer people vying for those positions - the odds haven't changed much.

We might quibble with Coyne about helping people to see the truth of "the misery will be temporary" and "tomorrow will be brighter." Far too many people in US industry have lived through cut, after cut, after cut. Meanwhile senior leaders cash ludicrously large paychecks and the average earner's paycheck doesn't get much brighter.

Perhaps if the truth is that the work contributes to making people's lives better AND people's opinions are valued AND it's temporary, then it's incumbent on the managers to focus on those messages. No, no one is happy when there's an economic slowdown in a business, cutbacks and reductions, but yes, there can be a team spirit if there is a clear, vibrant and true mission to the business.

Building HR Skills

What do you read to stay current in the areas of Human Resources?


Dear HR Reader,

Congratulations to you in recognizing the need to stay fresh and current in this field. First, if you haven't yet read, the book that should be on every HR shelf is Human Resources Champion by David Ulrich.

Ulrich is the leading thinker in Human Resource Management and provides a strong model for building and executing human resources strategies that support the delivery of business results.

The Society for Human Resource Management is a very strong HR organization that is slowly expanding their presence from just the US into some of the rapidly developing markets. You can find them at www.shrm.org; and if you qualify for an international membership, it provides full access to all of the online materials.

The Human Capital Institute www.humancapitalinstitute.org has a lot of information and webcasts available with the free community membership.

Workforce Management at www.workforce.com provides a free and paid memberships with up to date information and practices. You'll find quarterly articles on this site by Ulrich; the most recent being The New HR Organization.

Susan Heathfield publishes a weekly e-newsletter with a huge range of topics. You can find this at humanresources.about.com.

You can stay current on global employment laws by subscribing to updates through Baker & McKenzie at www.bakernet.com/BakerNet/Practice/Employment/default.htm. For more in-depth articles on global employment law, see the publications by Donald Dowling of White and Case at www.whitecase.com/publications/List.aspx?Professionals=8f1e98b7-575d-41e6-b6f1-05bc9daa24ad&year=2007.

Hewitt will deliver various alerts and research reports into your inbox with subscriptions at www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/NA/en-US/KnowledgeCenter/ArticlesReports/Articles.aspx; and a subscription to news alerts from Mercer can be subscribed to at secure.mercer.com/registerEvent.jhtml?idContent=1197210.

For a broader strategic perspective, email updates are available from Harvard Business Review Online and INSEAD, not to mention publications like Business Week.

Evil HR Lady has a great blog going at www.evilhrlady.blogspot.com.

And for a continual refresher on management tools, take a free or paid subscription to www.mindtools.com.

What do you read to keep current on management and HR issues?

What about the money?

"I know, I know that I should focus on what makes me happy and not worry about the money, but...."

Dear Money Worrier,

Of course, you worry about the money. It would be wonderful if we could all just throw up our hands, focus on what we love to do and know that the money will follow. It's that KNOWING part that throws me.

Rather I believe that when we look at those things in our lives that important to us, that which drives our choices on how we spend our time and energy, finances is normally one of those areas. On the list might be career, health, relationships, children, hobbies, community, giving. And then it's a rare person who can comfortably leave off the money.

The trick is what is the main thing you are looking to the money for. Is it a symbol of achievement? A measure of success? Is it to be able to provide comfortable for immediate or extended family? Is it to allow retirement in the next 5 years? Is it to buy freedom?

The reality is that how you go about your work (often a key driver in the finance equation) is strongly linked to your convictions around the finances.

Don't walk away from the question. Rather get clear on why money is part of the equation. Then use that to help you gain and keep balance in your life.

What's in a standard (US) expat package?

Dear Curious Expat in China,

I know you are wondering whether you got a good deal with your expat package or not. Well, let's look at what you might normally find in today's expat package.

Normal cash compensation (base, bonus, incentives) - at a more senior level, some arrangements may be made on the structure of long-term incentives for tax effectiveness. Typically, your base salary will continue to be tied to the company's US pay scales or grades. The challenge you will have here is convincing whoever grades your job that it is the appropriate size (or at least, what you and your boss here think is appropriate). Frequently the scale associated with organization size and/or revenue is smaller than your peers at home. The challenge is that the complexity and performance demands are much higher. The complexity comes from the number of countries and regulatory environments, the range of cultures being managed across, and untold matrix layers. Growth targets are normally far in excess of home country requirements, travel and work hours long, and requirements to exercise your independent judgment, much steeper. Only you will be able to put together the argument on the scope of your role relative to your nominal home-country peers. Keep in mind as you do so that the challenges are obvious here, the results true accomplishments in a difficult environment; but seen from a distance, they look like normal accountabilities.

Foreign service premium - typically on the order of 10% to compensate for disruption in life, spousal job loss, etc. Paid net. Some companies pay on a monthly basis. Some in one or more lumps.

Hardship allowance - This is location dependent and is nominally based on amount of English spoken, level of medical care, safety, pollution, etc. Many companies are no longer deeming China tier 1 cities hardship locations, due to the availability of medical care, imported goods, comfortable housing, education, etc. If you don't want this to happen to you, be sure that you get your visitors out of the 5 star hotels, and even your housing, and expose them to some of the challenges of living and communicating in China.

Cost of living adjustment - The cost of living adjustment looks at the cost of purchasing a market basket of products and services relative to your home country. It is paid on a portion of your earnings - that piece that is estimated to be the amount necessary to buy these normal goods and services for a family of your size. For example, your normal home-based salary goes to a combination of taxes, housing, transportation, savings and then purchases of food, entertainment, medical services, liquor, etc. The COLA is applied to that estimated percentage of your income.

Transportation support - Depending on location, this can be anything from monthly taxi fare, to help buying a car, to a dedicated car and driver. In the latter case, the company may require the employee to contribute to the cost of the transportation support.

Housing support - A budgeted amount for a suitable house. Some plans allow for the employee to share in the difference if the rented home is under budget. Others, don't. Some companies pay for the rental and then take a housing deduction (amount tied to income and often looks something like a mortgage-sized payment). In the latter case then, the company typically picks up all utilities. Alternatively utilities may be included in cost of living.

A lump sum miscellaneous allowance - $5 - 10,000 - is often given to cover the "stuff" of moving. And therefore, bits and pieces of costs are not to be included on expense reports.

Electrical allowance - Another lump sum might be provided to support the purchase of 220 v small appliances. Normally these are then "owned" by the company, to be returned at the end of the assignment, or bought from the firm at a depreciated value.

Education for any kids, including application costs, tuition, uniforms, books and transportation. If you have young kids, be clear on the age where you can start to get tuition support, whether kindergarten, pre-K, or earlier.

Spousal assistance - Something like $5000 once or per year to provide for education, job search support, employment visas, etc. may be provided by companies that recognize that there are often two employees needing to be happy and fulfilled in the move.

Home leave - once per year for family, generally economy. Need to specify whether any extra vacation is used. College students are frequently entitled to one or two reverse home leaves per year.

Depending on location, possibly R&R trip.

How the house is handled stateside comes into play with the housing allowance. More often now, all rent is paid in the host location and the house stateside is your problem (sell, rent, whatever). Upon return, if you end up in a new location, domestic relocation benefits will apply.

Need to specify how big a shipment is allowed to host location; particularly are furnished places common or uncommon? Do people take everything (no storage), or only an airshipment (provide storage)?

Continuation of US service if needed for any pension/retirement benefits. Figure out whether there is continuation of Social Security payments.

Normal benefits, though with an international medical plan, along with a medical evacuation and security system, if needed, e.g., SOS.

And then tax handling, and particularly whether they will be equalized. Note equalization is a strange beast that includes other significant policy decisions affecting your ultimate finances. Will you be held to a state income tax? If so, which state? How will "equalized" deductions be calculated if home sale was one of the options on relocation? This since home mortgage interest tends to be one of the largest deductibles. Understand how taxes will be withheld, and when you are likely to see the first (and last) tax equalized submissions. A good, upfront estimate, of your tax bill is helpful, and this area can be filled with misunderstandings and large tax bills.

What happens if the employee severs the relationship? the company? and under what circumstances?

Any guarantees on repatriation? time of job on return? agreement about the nature of the work?

Many companies have unclear policies associated with repatriation, trying to fit the whole thing into a domestic relocation package. Try to gain some understanding of this up front, but if you fail to do so, influence, influence, influence. If your household goods are on a boat for 6 to 8 weeks, a 30 day temporary housing package will not be enough. If your household appliances have been in storage for multiple years, there may well be items that are no longer functional. Stand firm; this is not a domestic relocation. Ask for what you need.

Finally, relocation binders. Some companies hold expatriates hostage (my term, not theirs!) by requiring the employee to pay back the costs of the expatriation and repatriation expenses if the assignment is not complete, or the employee leaves the company shortly after return. OK, I can understand that if the employee jumps ship while on assignment, the company may be due something. However, holding the employee accountable for the cost of the repatriation is extortion is my humble opinion. Come on, you asked me to put my life (somewhat) on hold, go overseas, work in a challenging environment, deliver results, and then you treat my move home like a domestic relocation? No, not right. So beware if you see one of these, and negotiate before you sign.

Well, Curious Expat, hope you got most of your questions answered. If not, drop me a line at Sherry@ReadSolutionsGroup.com and I'll try to answer your questions.

What interesting quirk or perk do you have in your package?

...Coming soon, what to think about if localization comes up in the conversation.