Effortless HR
Do We Need Succession Planning?
I was the VP of HR for a fairly large organization several years ago when the terrible unexpected happened.You always think, “This can’t be happening to us” only to find that it can and does happen. What is it that happened?
The second in command, who had been brought in to run the company when the founder retired, was killed in a terrible car accident. No one was prepared for the aftermath of that tragedy – especially the owner of the company as he had to regroup and rethink his retirement plans. The rest of the company also had to regroup and come to grip with a terrible loss and uncertainty as to what would happen next.
Can organizations prepare for this type of loss? You can never be fully prepared for a tragic loss, however a succession plan will go a long way in minimizing the effect of loss. The loss in this case was an untimely death, but many organizations today face the risk of losing a seasoned executive through age, retirement, and even hiring away by a competitor. It is therefore important to consider the issue of succession NOW rather than later. This will help with staffing changes and minimal disruption to not only the internal business operations but even to the external marketplace.
Understanding Employee Turnover
Many employers are facing turnover issues that they may not have had to deal with in the past. Some of the turnover is downsizing due to a tough economy. That type of turnover is not the common turnover that employers deal with consistently. It is usually a one time issue and hopefully will go away as the economy turns around.
The turnover I’m talking about is the “revolving door” of employees being hired, staying for a little while, and then leaving. This type of turnover can be symptomatic of a deeper, organizational problem. Some employers say, “So what. Turnover is inevitable and if the employee doesn’t want to stay, they should leave.” These employers don’t seem to understand how costly turnover is or care about the reasons for the turnover – which can also be costly.
Turnover affects your bottom line, whether you see it or not. Turnover is a silent but effective profit killer.
There are two areas of costs associated with turnover – Hard Costs and Soft Costs. Some of the hard costs that you can fairly easily identify are:
- Wages of employee that is leaving
- Cost of advertising
- Cost of benefits of departing employee
But there are also other hard costs associated with the departing employee:
Moonlighting
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 7 million – 5.3% of the labor force held more than one job. People work at multiple jobs for a variety of reasons. In today’s economy, people are often compelled to work two jobs just to make ends meet. Others may “moonlight” to gain skills in another profession.
What guidelines can employers set regarding employees working at other jobs?
Employment lawyers and consultants disagree on whether a specific policy addressing moonlighting is needed. Those not advocating a policy believe that job performance and conflict of interest policies cover the bases. Others say that a distinct moonlighting policy clarifies what the employer expects in this regard.
If you choose not to have a separate moonlighting policy, be certain that you address other employment in your conflict of interest, confidentiality or non-compete policies.
Building Your Own “Field of Dreams”
When I first started my own consulting business, in 2001, I was a sole owner/worker and thought I was on top of the world! I was really ready to have people knocking on my door, ready to use my incredible services. As any first time business owner will tell you, this is not an uncommon phenomenon, but it is most likely not reality.
That passion to be my own “boss” and to have my own business is still there. The difference is that now I understand how to build my specific “field of dreams”. In the movie, “Field of Dreams”, the famous line is, “If you build it they will come.” Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of merely putting their business together (building it) and expecting customers to flock to them.
Carnival of HR for July 08
EffortlessHR is honored to be hosting this week’s Carnival of HR.
Thanks to HR Minion for keeping track and organizing the carnivals! As this is our first time hosting the carnival, please forgive any mistakes.
Plenty of posts came in this week, so without further delay, let’s get going:
- Jason Seiden was the first to submit his article and writes about how social media is blending our personal and professional lives, making it harder to hide behind corporate facades in his post entitled “Ethics, social media, and… “profersonalism”
- Susannah from Advorto chimes in with her 15-minute guide to recruiting graduates in a recession
- Cathy Martin from Intellectual Capital Consulting wants us to ponder if Engaged Employees can Sell more Soup
- Sharlyn Lauby from ITM has an excellent post on business agility
- Erik Samdahl of i4cp would like us to think about How High-Performers Support Employee Engagement
- Mark Stelzner, who hosted the previous HR carnival over at the Inflexion Point Blog has some Observations & Conclusions from SHRM 2009
- Drew Tarvin shows us how to Team-Build Through 3 Pictures
- Jon Ingham explains about developing people management strategy and the value of templates in this process
- Dan McCarthy wants us to Beware of Cult-like Leadership Development Programs
- Mark, Amy, and Meg (The TalentedApps team) discusses social networking in their submission One, but not the same
- Marie Adams has 2 very good posts this week: Are “lunch and learns” bad for business? and When cookie-cutter sexual harassment training just won’t cut it
- From the G.Neil HR Forum, some insight on Employees putting your data security at risk
- Lisa Rosendahl writes about Easier Federal Job Applications
- Trisha McFarlane has an interesting article entitled Yo Adrian! You Don’t Have to Win to be Great (yes you have to read it to understand the title!)
- Amit Bhagria lets us all think about How to Manage Human Capital
- Lexi Ruben Clifford Junio from PRECEPT has an excellent article on Health Care Reform: The Simple Truth
- Chris Young posts a Book Review on Three Laws of Performance
- Susan Burns has a good article on What’s your Employment Brand Relevancy
- Michael VanDervort authored an article titled Social Media and Human Resources
There you have it.. The last few were fairly late entries so they may have been rushed on here. We’ve been incredibly busy with the launch of Effortless Business Forms and the new pricing model for Effortless HR Software that our blog postings have been slow lately. We’ll be sure to catch up and get some recent posts online ASAP.
EffortlessHR launches “Effortless Forms” for Business and HR
Well.. We finished up our programming and design ahead of schedule and are proud to introduce Effortless Forms.
http://www.EffortlessForms.com has 325 business and HR forms (many of which are free!) , templates, and spreadsheets available at the time of launch. We will be rapidly expanding our database and would love your feedback on what other types and categories of forms you would like to see on this site.
Can You Make an Angry Customer Loyal?
One of the most difficult situations we come across in business, is the “angry customer”. We want nothing more than to slap this person and send them on their way. Please resist this urge as it’s not worth losing that customer or going to jailJ Seriously, fighting will just make the situation worse and you could lose the customer or even lose many customers.
H1N1, Swine Flu, Pandemic – What does an employer do?
With all of the news out there involving the current world news…
Here are some reasonable steps to prepare for a pandemic:
Designate one person as the office contact
Employee Turnover — Any Idea What It’s Costing?
In today’s economy it is more important than ever to avoid turnover. Turnover is extremely costly. These are the factors you need to consider when estimating what the bottom line is when it comes to calculating turnover.
EffortlessHR Introduces Online Employee Handbook Builder
EffortlessHR announces new software which allows a company to stay green by creating and storing HR policy manuals online. Many businesses are too small to have a human resource professional on staff to handle the important task of developing an employee handbook. Now they have access to an affordable online solution that allows them to develop a handbook quickly and efficiently by answering a few simple questions. Written by top human resource professionals and designed to protect against liability and lawsuits, EffortlessHR’s online software explains company policies and guidelines in understandable language. The manual incorporates state-specific laws and regulations which may be applicable to a company’s organizational size and needs.
COBRA Alert – New Rules & Changes from ARRA Stimulus Package
Taming the COBRA “Lion”
The old adage, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” is proving to be too very true for companies across the country. Why? Well, effective March 1st, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) President Obama’s Stimulus package, goes into effect and includes major and significant changes to the current COBRA continuation coverage. This “Lion” is causing business owners and HR departments to scramble to understand and comply with the massive changes in a very short period of time.
Building a Team – How to ACE it
There are many types of teams – there are sport teams, debate teams, dance teams, teams of horses, and there are of course, business teams. There are even more types of teams, which you could probably list if you wanted. Teams can be good, bad, so-so, or great.
Assessments – Tools to Maximize Productivity
It is critical for the success of a company for the right people to be in the right jobs. It is also important that the tools a company uses to make hiring or promotion decisions are reliable and valid.
There has been an increase in employment testing due in part to post 9-11 security, as well as concerns about workplace violence, safety and liability. Likewise, there has been an increase in discrimination claims based on background checks and other selection procedures.
Read More…
Engagement, Performance, Retention – Where do Your Employees Fit?
The economic crisis of 2008/2009 has many companies looking at ways to save money and get through the hard times. What this normally means is that they look to lay off people, cut back benefits (which make good employees look at other opportunities), stop training programs, reduce marketing, and basically “hunker” down.
Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments
The Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act (ADAAA)
Effective January 1, 2009 the law amending the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) goes into effect.
The Act retains the ADA’s basic definition of “disability” as an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment. However, it changes the way that these statutory terms should be interpreted.
