Fired is the New Retired - The idiocy of axing older employees.

By Ellis Cose NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 29, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Nov 9, 2009

This may be the worst time in the last 60 years to be old and looking for work. Some 6.8 percent of workers over 55 are unemployed (not as bad as for younger workers, but still a historic high). You have to go back to 1949 to find employment stats nearly (but not quite) as bleak as they are now. The bad news does not stop there. On average, it takes employees over 55 roughly 33 weeks to find new jobs, nearly seven weeks longer than for younger workers, and nearly 13 weeks longer than it took just two years ago. Bad as things are, the Supreme Court has made them even tougher—at least for those who believe they are victims of age discrimination and are inclined to try to prove it.

The court's 5-4 ruling last June came in response to a suit filed by a demoted employee, Jack Gross, under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967. It was not sufficient, concluded the majority, to show that age was among the reasons for an employee's bad treatment; age had to be the reason. In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens called the decision "unnecessary lawmaking." The majority, he said, misread Congress's intentions. Last month, in introducing legislation to nullify that decision, Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy also accused the court of thwarting congressional intent.

At a Judiciary Committee hearing focused on recent Supreme Court workplace decisions, Jack Gross told his story. (The committee also heard from a former Halliburton employee who says she was raped by coworkers in Iraq but was denied the right to sue because she had unwittingly signed a binding arbitration agreement.) Born in 1948 in a small Iowa town, Gross grew up imbued with the value of hard work. As a schoolboy, he labored at numerous jobs despite the constant pain of ulcerative colitis. As an adult, he found work with Farm Bureau Life, an insurance company, and eventually became a vice president. But in his 50s, he was abruptly replaced by a younger woman. The company, he surmised, was systematically trying to weed out older workers. A jury found in his favor but an appeals court vacated the verdict. The case eventually made its way to the Supremes, whose decision "mortified" him.

The AARP was similarly disturbed—especially in light of statistics showing a 29 percent jump in age-discrimination complaints from 2007 to 2008. Dan Kohrman, senior attorney with AARP, concedes that the numbers don't necessarily prove a commensurate rise in age discrimination, but he insists they show something bad is going on. During hard times, he says, many employers resort to "crude practices" that drive older workers away. They may force supervisors to rank employees on subjective criteria—such as mental "flexibility"—that are essentially a license to discriminate. Or they generate paperwork alleging drops in performance that have no clear explanation.

Linda Barrington, an economist with the Conference Board, agrees that older workers are often stereotyped. Obesity," she observed, "is more of a health-care cost than age for those between 30 and 50." And older workers show every bit as much stamina as younger workers when called upon to put in long hours. Yet in all too many cases, employers see age as a much larger liability than it is.

Earlier this year, after another Supreme Court ruling made it harder for women to fight discrimination in pay, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to restore rights many legislators assumed they had already protected. Congress ought to do the same for older workers, who should be given every legal weapon they need to fight discrimination. But even if that happens, age discrimination will not simply go away. Very few workers have the resources to bring a case to court. As Joanna Lahey, an economist with the Rand Corporation, has noted, "the majority of people who sue under the ADEA are white, male middle managers or professionals." And even if more people did have the financial resources to sue, many who are discriminated against don't have the smoking gun that will prove their case. They may just know the job or promotion they wanted went to someone else.

The larger problem, as Barrington points out, is how we tend to view people, the stereotypes we impose on workers of a certain age. It would be great if correcting that were as simple as changing a law. Instead, we face the more daunting task of changing ourselves.

Find this article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/220144 © 2009

"What Can I Do to Help You Now"?

The Annual Economic Analysis released by the American Staffing Association June 2008 shows that, if indeed the U.S. economy is in a recession, the staffing industry is not experiencing the severe contraction characteristic of previous recessions. Despite the fact that demand is slowing, it is important to take into account that total staffing industry sales are $90 billion dollars. Staffing industry employment hit a new annual record high in 2007, and temporary and contract staffing daily employment also set new record highs in the second and third quarters of last year. Presently, the market is 10% ahead of 2000 – a banner year for Staffing – and nearly $30 billion ahead of the historic low of 2002.

There is market share for this period of “flatness," economic “correction” or “downturn,” but not for the cowardly. Those who take on the market’s sluggishness with energy and good judgment, leading actively and by example will prosper even in trying times.

Building a strong growth-sustaining team calls for the time and attention of the business unit manager to maintain a sense of urgency and establish solid work plans that will leverage each team member’s strength. Guidance, support and direction is essential to maximizing team members’ contributions and lift up the capacity of the team. A high level of engagement in training and development, as well as in guiding territory management and lead development is essential to bringing about results.

Business unit managers with the most success in developing strong teams and arranging talents of team members to the discipline in which they belong, direct and support the work flow collectively and individually, as well as contribute personally.

What then are the core best practices of a successful business unit manager?

1. Manage with twice daily meetings to communicate, set responsibilities and priorities. It is wrong to think that stopping “work” to meet as a team is a waste of time. A team with clear priorities and shared information is much more effective than a team “figuring it out on their own.” These are 30-minute meetings – everyone in attendance – with the following agenda items:

Recognition

Candidates for marketing to hiring mangers—who is highly placeable?

Call plans, target lists of hiring authorities—who are you going to call?

Candidate inventory and interview objectives.

Open job orders, next steps and who is responsible for it.

Specific objectives for the day (morning); assessment of outcomes (evening).

Upcoming ends—what business do we need to replace?

Specific, “stretch” objectives for the number of starts to happen within the week—what can we fill?, with whom?, who can we market who to?

Progress to objectives and refocusing all team members based upon current needs (e.g., do we need candidates, job orders, new leads?)

General communication…who may call, what is pending, hot candidates, prospective business—make sure the team knows what is happening.

Role play or planned lesson to foster skills development.

2. Manage the market, inventory and match. The leader must act as the first source of what is “hot” for follow-up to pick up the pace of all team members. The relationship and interplay between oversight of sales and service is leveraged when you can “see” a branch candidate and “match” the candidate to companies the sales team are engaging.

Weekly, review Business Journal, job boards, candidate applications, and expand knowledge of the marketplace with networking, marketing directories and other business resources to garner new leads for the sales team—who is hiring now?

Daily, review every interviewed candidate’s resume/file, meet as many candidates as possible personally—"Is so-and-so a fit for ABC Company”?

3. Manage business development purposefully. Who else but the manager should know the marketplace? Work with self and sales staff at the beginning and the end of the week to review target lists/lead lists/task lists for content, activity and next activity to do. Other sales driving best practices include:

Work together to make up an organizational chart for a minimum of three companies a week to expand the list of Company contacts, set out objectives to uncover missing information.

Ensure that each sales-responsible person has multiple search engines on multiple job boards to receive daily postings for each position the branch is prepared to fill—this will feed lead-following for immediate direct hire job orders. Ad book binders are fine for organizing ads for follow-up calls, but inputting leads to your front office system is better to build future calls plans—monitor use of front office systems so leads are not lost in a paper shuffle.

Set specific “blocked time” to make ad calls, skill marketing calls and qualifying calls to focus sales activity—sell during prime time, research and qualify during specific days/times set aside to develop future targets. Separating the two makes it easier to manage the effectiveness of sales efforts.

Set objectives for the appropriate number of sales calls/visits to support business and take the time to debrief together post-call/visit and plan next steps.

Make a work plan to set time aside for reference check calls—this supports the service team and offers better access to the Company contact who can be qualified as a temporary staffing or direct hire prospect.

Rotate assignment of making up and distributing a “Hot Candidates” communique—monitor and manage quality and growth of email lists.

4. Manage the business of the business. It is up to the leader to plan for maximizing the recruiting team at the beginning of the week to:

Set objectives for individuals’ focus…recruiting, skill marketing, order management—be specific regarding the objectives for the number of fee-eligible candidate and temp interviews in what positions.

Review T-H orders against temporary staffing opportunities to keep from over investing in job orders that, unlike temp, have less of an immediate chance to actually start—maintain a strict 50% of total orders, and…redirect team to actively skill marketing/selling for opportunities.

By the first of the month, ensure that each Recruiter has a minimum of five “viable” direct hire orders in the right skill set—mobilize sales and recruiting teams to generate marketing calls to address any gaps in the number of job orders.

Weekly, have a specific direct hire job order review and discuss what is pending and the next steps to close—communicate with neighboring offices to increase participation.

Step in to talk with candidates and/or Company contacts to assist in closing.

Set specific blocked times to make direct recruiting calls generated from applications/interviews/referrals—ensure a pipeline of leads from recruiting to sales—set up a method to communicate leads in a structured way.

Set objectives for net starts weekly, markup, and “level” of candidates to increase GM$ per hour. To achieve the net starts objective, a 30-day forecast of upcoming ends needs to be visible to the team to set the actual number of starts per week to stay ahead of the progression, including contingencies for unplanned ends. Make up for shortfalls by focusing on placing higher-level, higher-GM$ candidates.

5. Great managers look inward. They look inside the company, into each individual, into the differences in style, goals, needs and motivation of each person. These differences are small, subtle, but great managers need to pay attention to them. These subtle differences guide them toward the right way to release each person's unique talents into performance. Recruit for talent, manage to strengths, hire expeditiously. Manage learning and development at least weekly, if not daily.

Set aside a minimum of 1-hour per week with each employee and talk about: what is expected, what you can do to set him/her up for success, what he/she does best, recognize performance—be specific, genuine and interested; uncover how to make the work meaningful, gain feedback and talk about progress, learning opportunities and how each individual’s contribution fits in the overall company and his/her career progression.

Assign Company training resources to employees and organize opportunities for employees to share learning with the team

Prepare role plays to overcome common objectives—have all team members involved. Listen, and role play with individuals to improve recruiting, negotiation, customer service and closing skills.

Share financial reports to engage the team in the outcomes—demonstrate how increasing markups, direct hire placements/fees and marketing higher-level candidates improves results and personal financial rewards.

Get out of your office and sit side by side with the team and demonstrate best practices…show, not tell.

6. Do not delegate tasks that are not revenue-generating. Support the team with meaningful contributions so they can do their jobs more effectively—individual activity to generate personal production for the good of the branch is useful, but equally important is preparing and focusing each team member by taking responsibility for administrative and operational support to enable the team to expand the business. This is not “lending a hand,” this is “doing” a task completely so the collective bandwidth of the branch team is actively engaged in work that generates gross margin dollars.

Use administrative support to assist you as needed, but do the heavy lifting yourself administratively to ensure that each employee is focused on developing the business. Release the team to “ring the cash register” collectively by doing weekly tasks like payroll and compliance, invoicing and aging, updating and managing all job postings, job board searches—review, print and distribute resumes for blocked recruiting call times.

Drive sales by sourcing new leads that any branch team member can “run with.” Get the details so the next step is to “pick up the phone.” Get names of multiple Company contacts for each lead identified, get contact information (telephone, email address), input new leads to front office system and set them up on team members’ calendar or task list. Generate urgency to follow-up on specific contacts by personally contributing to the database in a meaningful way. Dedicate time to adding Companies/Company contacts in numbers and update Company records that are out of date. If you pass on a lead with good contact information and business intelligence, it is more likely to be followed and create outcomes.

Take up operational tasks (application process items, reference checking, etc.).

Revise/retype resumes for presenting candidates.

Make up handwritten notes to every candidate who comes in the office; prepare marketing mailings.

Run reports to assess business activity and inventory.

Roll out corporate initiatives and respond to corporate response/reporting requirements.

Ask, “What can I do to help you now”?

It’s About People

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person he or she knows and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth. The modern world is shrinking due to this ever-increasing connectedness of human beings. In a “small world,” our actions resonate in wide social and professional circles, broadcasting our persona for all to see.

Mindful of this phenomena, consider the advice of Lillian Eichler Watson “Don't reserve your best behavior for special occasions. You can't have two sets of manners, two social codes - one for those you admire and want to impress, another for those whom you consider unimportant. You must be the same to all people.”

Good business etiquette is about being on your best behavior and treating people as you appreciate being treated.

Stay employed and protect your professional reputation with these best practices:

• Be courteous and thoughtful to the people around you, in all professional environments—within your own organization, out in the marketplace, and even when encountering competitors
• Consider other people’s feelings, stick to your convictions as diplomatically as possible
• Talk and visit with people, regardless of their position or standing—remember what you can about people and to be thoughtful
• If you show respect and courtesy to everyone, you avoid discomfort or damaging your chances in any unexpected turn of events like a merger, acquisition or consolidation that brings together people in unforeseen ways
• Speak well of superiors within and outside the company, and give your leaders the benefit of the doubt—never surprise your boss or take her or her off guard
• In foreign or unfamiliar surroundings, be considerate and express an interest in learning—if in doubt, err on the conservative, formal side
• Don’t interrupt meetings or work sessions with telephone calls, use of electronic devices or ducking out—thank meeting attendants, and when attending meetings offer thanks to the organizer
• Always return calls; with email, remember that you’re communicating with a person, not a computer
• Look after new people and visiting workers—be sure that person has the resources and information that he or she needs to do the job
• Pass along credit and compliments—speak well of your coworkers and always point out their accomplishments
• Arrive on time and don’t overstay your welcome
• Because people make so many assumptions about you based on your image, it's important to think about whom you want them to think you are and dress accordingly
• Lying to and gossiping with people is never acceptable—inflammatory or disrespectful electronic communication can resurface and is best never written
• Poor etiquette loses the sale—speak only kindly to, and with respect to, prospects and clients—comments spoken behind the backs of clientele have a way of coming back around

Managing Middlescence

Key ideas from the Harvard Business Review article by Robert Morison, Tamara Erickson, Ken Dychtwald

Burned out. Bottlenecked. Bored. That’s the current lot of many midcareer employees—those 35 to 54 years of age. Thirty percent of these middlescents work 50+ hours per week, while only 33% feel energized by their jobs. And many lament that their workplace offers few opportunities to try new things.

If your company’s like most, midcareer managers and employees make up half your workforce. Neglect their discontent, and you risk losing valued performers who seek exciting work elsewhere. This is a dangerous development—considering the brain drain that’ll soon hit when the vanguard of baby boomers retires. Disaffected middlescents who stay because they need the money take an even worse toll: Their lack of energy, innovation, and focus erodes your firm’s productivity.

How to avoid these losses? Tap into your middlescents’ hunger for renewal by helping them launch into new, more productive, more meaningful roles and careers. Fresh assignments enable middlescents to acquire new skills. Job changes help them develop new specialties. And training expands their business knowledge and stokes their desire to learn more.

You’re probably already using such simple and inexpensive career revitalization techniques on your stars. Extend them to all your midcareer employees: They’ll reward you with renewed commitment and productivity, as well as reduced replacement costs—immediately.

The Idea in Practice
Use these strategies to revitalize middlescents’ careers:

Fresh Assignments
Offer new assignments in different locations or parts of your organization to leverage middlescents’ existing skills and contacts while helping them acquire new ones. General Electric taps experienced managers to integrate new acquisitions—giving them a change of scene and bringing to bear their extensive organizational know-how.

Career Changes
Provide attractive internal career changes to help middlescents develop new specialties. Early in his 30+ years with Pitney Bowes, Dave Nassef served as a factory personnel manager and then marketer. When the company centralized HR, he was one of the few HR managers with manufacturing and marketing experience. At 40, he took on HR responsibility for half the company. Nassef’s additional careers within Pitney Bowes include corporate ombudsman and company representative in Washington.

Mentoring
Encourage middlescents to mentor less-seasoned employees. Your midcareer managers will relish giving back to their organization and making new social connections in the workplace. At Intel, a companywide employee database tracks skills attained and needed and matches employees with mentors—even if they’re in a different country. Both mentors and protégés take classes to learn ways to maximize the mutual benefit of their relationship.

Fresh Training
Don’t assume your middlescents don’t need training. Provide brief introductions to new business areas to expand their perspectives and trigger their interest in learning more. Use refresher courses and in-depth education to help them strengthen or develop their skills. The U.K.’s National Health Service is responding to a chronic nursing shortage by training seasoned aides to become nurses.

Sabbaticals
Provide paid sabbaticals: They cost less than replacing disaffected middlescents, and most people return from sabbaticals more committed than ever. At Wells Fargo, employees with five or more years of service and qualifying performance ratings can work in community service settings of their choosing for up to four months while receiving full pay and benefits. One employee traveled to Armenia to help women establish businesses. The company reaped good publicity, and the employee returned to work highly energized and recommitted.

Leadership Development
Just because midcareer workers are older doesn’t mean they don’t aspire to higher roles. Give them access to leadership development programs to rejuvenate them and stock your leadership pipeline. Health insurer Independence Blue Cross has put one-third of its top 600 people—most of them middlescents—through a leadership program. It includes a weeklong session at the Wharton School, individual coaching and career planning, and work on important business projects.

Copyright 2006 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Do the Math - Why Recruiters Are Worth What They Charge

Why are hiring managers so tightfisted when dealing with what is so commonly thought of as the “heartbeat” of their companies ... top-talent?

Companies think very little about paying the often excessive fees charged by their outside accounting and legal firms ... or even to the gaggle of consultants who promise cost-cutting and streamlining miracles in other areas of operations.

Yet, when faced with brain drains, talent deficiencies or the need to replace one employee with a better one, their thoughts too often turn to frugality. This belies and contradicts their stated objectives to "hire the best." Of course recruiting fees can vary from firm to firm but, when they do, you will almost always find that those on the low side are sure to exclude some very key ingredients of the process all of which are vital to providing the indispensable services necessary to satisfy the needs of the employer.

So why are recruiters worth what they charge? Just a few of the often unspoken reasons are:

Expertise
Nobody knows the employment marketplace better than a professional recruiter. . . nobody! In house human resources, no matter how effective (or Internet-savvy), view the marketplace through an imperfect or misrepresentative prism and tunnel vision is a frequent occupational hazard.

Just as physicians are cautioned against treating members of their own families, so too is it folly for an in-house H/R professional to believe that they have an undistorted and unbiased picture of the employment landscape. They are vulnerable to the pressures of internal politics and cultural dimensions which do not hinder the outsider.

Street-smart recruiters already know the neighborhood, including the unlisted addresses so often overlooked by the insiders.

Cast a wider net
A professional fisherman will always have more to show than a weekend angler. Recruiters are in the marketplace day in and day out. They know the unfished coves, reefs and inlets that are unknown to others. The job-hunter bookshelves are filled with lore about the “hidden job market.” The same holds true for professional recruiters who have a detailed roadmap to the hidden talent sources which will never be accessed by newspaper ads, alumni associations, applicant databases, the Internet or any of the other more familiar sources of people.

There are occasional pearls through these sources (and someone inevitably wins the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes too) but you have to shuck an awful lot of smelly oysters to find them. Recruiters only give you oysters proven to contain pearls. Your only job is to determine which pearl is the best. Want to catch what you’re fishing for? Hire a guide!

Cost
There is a misconception among employers that the cost of a hire equals the cost of the ads run or postings on the Internet designed to attract the person hired. Nothing could be further from reality.

Try adding these to the true cost and you’ll see just how cost effective an outside recruiter can be:

Salaries and benefits of the employment/recruiting staffs plus those of the line managers involved in the hiring activity (who are not productive in their normal job pursuits when they’re out recruiting); travel, lodging and entertainment expenses of in-house recruiters; source development costs; overhead expenses including (but not limited to) telephone, office space, postage, PR literature, applicant database maintenance, website costs, reference checking, clerical costs to correspond with the hundreds of unqualified respondents and more.

Unbiased third party input
Contrary to what some believe, recruiters don’t try to put square pegs into round holes. A recruiter’s stock-in-trade is their integrity and their reputation for finding someone better than a company could have found for themselves.

For a mid to senior-level executive, the average recruiter may develop a long list” of a hundred or more possibilities. Each must be called and evaluated against the position specifications as well as the personality “fit” with the company and the people with whom they will ultimately work.

Once this is winnowed down to the “short list” an even more intensive interviewing process begins to narrow the search to a panel of finalists for review by the client...

It is highly unlikely that a professional recruiter will be plowing new ground with your opening.

They deal within spheres of influence far more familiar with your needs than any internal recruiter and, more often than not, view the finalists as people who are competent to solve client problems rather than just fill an open slot in the organizational chart.

Because they want to do business with you again and again, they are looking for (and challenging you to excellence by hiring) the “truly exceptional” rather than the “just satisfactory” so often settled for by in-house hirers.

Confidentiality
Advertising or otherwise publicly proclaiming an opening, aside from its cost and demonstrated ineffectiveness for sensitive senior level openings, often creates anxiety and apprehension among the advertiser’s current employees who wonder why they aren’t being considered or worry about newcomer transition problems. Just as often it alerts competitors to a current weakness or void within the company.

Speed
The recruiting process is always faster through a search professional who is continually tapped into the talent marketplace than one having to start the process from scratch,. For every day that a key opening remains unfilled, a company’s other employees must grudgingly do double duty. And this doesn’t factor in the profit opportunities or competitive advantages lost to a company because a position remains unfilled or is done on a part-time basis by others less qualified.

Post-Hire Downtime - Not only is speed an essential part of the professional recruiter’s process, the ability to locate a person who can immediately “hit the ground running” with a minimum of “ramp-up time” saves time after the hire. All too often, a hire selected through less effective sources offering a smaller talent pool requires several months of expensive training and orientation.

Reality
Professional recruiters often recognize and have a duty to inform clients that they may be mistaken as to the type of person sought, the salary required to attract them or the possibilities that the solution might just lie in areas outside the traditional target industries.., something an internal recruiter is politically disinclined to do. Too many hirers fail to understand that a professional recruiter’s primary function is not necessary to fill a slot but to provide the right candidate to solve a problem.

Negotiation
As a buffer and informed intermediary, the professional recruiter is better able to blend the needs and wants of both parties to arrive at a mutually beneficial arrangement without the polarizing roadblocks which too frequently materialize in face-to-face dealings, especially in this “show me the money” economy.

Prioritizing company resources
It is often amazing to see how much of a company’s revenues are squandered on non-productive perks while penny-pinching on what is every company’s lifeblood. . . talent acquisition. Enlightened executives learned long ago that the fee paid to a recruiter is a shrewd strategic investment, not an extraneous expense.

Do the Math
Here is a good example:If your company has A territory vacant for 2 months and this territory produces 1.2 Million dollars per year, your company has lost $200,000 during the time the position has been vacant

Ex. $1,200,000/12 months = $100,000 per month. If the territory is open for 2-months you have lost $200,000!

So, the investment that you would make to a recruiter for quickly finding top qualified individuals is far, far less compared to allowing the territory to remain open. It becomes even more apparent when you factor in the amount of time, energy and money spent on all the in house efforts.

Content thanks to Porter Group, Inc.

Motivation: The Gurus Speak!

I’ve been talking about motivation lately, with some really positive results in my own life and hopefully elsewhere too. To round out the discussion, I thought I’d add some “quick hits” — short suggestions about motivation lifted from the conversations I’ve had with various motivation gurus, including Jeff Keller, Omar Periu, and Tony Robbins:

Always act with a purpose — your purpose.

Take responsibility for your own results.

Stretch yourself past your limits on a daily basis.

Don’t wait for perfection, just do it now!

Be careful of what you eat; it takes energy to succeed.

Hang around people who are as motivated as yourself.

Don’t live a life of quiet desperation. Take action! Now!

When you learn from failure, it’s not really failure.

Don’t get complacent because you’re successful today.

Always say “I must” rather than “I’ll try” when seeing goals.

Don’t avoid a decision; that’s always a decision to fail.

Keep quiet if you can’t say something positive.

Respond to “How are you?” with “Terrific!” not “Hangin’ in there.”

Don’t spout negative talk; it programs you for negative results.

Stop complaining about that over which you have no control.

Stop griping about your personal problems and illnesses.

Expunge negative, de-motivating words in your speech.

Focus on purpose and goals, not obstacles and problems.

Start each day with at least 15 minutes of positive input.

Reduce your exposure to depressing news media.

By Geoffrey James
BNET November 20th, 2007 @ 5:30 am

Make Your Company a Talent Factory

Key ideas from the Harvard Business Review article by Douglas A. Ready, Jay A. Conger

An astonishing number of companies are struggling to fill key positions. This talent shortage is putting an enormous strain on their potential to expand into new markets. One real estate development firm recently had to pass on a 500 million major reconstruction job after realizing it hadn't groomed anyone capable of leading the project.

Talent shortages have two causes: Companies' talent development strategies are out of sync with their strategic goals. And senior executives lack a deep-seated commitment to talent management.

To create a free-flowing pipeline of current and future leaders, Ready and Conger recommend marrying "functionality" (rigorous talent processes that support your company's strategic objectives) with "vitality" (a passion for talent cultivation among executives). At Procter & Gamble, for example, the CEO and senior team personally teach all the leadership development courses for the company's top 300 executives.

The Idea in Practice

Building Functionality
Ready and Conger recommend these processes to help you put the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time:

Help people understand your strategic objectives. For example, financial services giant HSBC holds conferences to educate employees about the firm's strategy for increasing cross-unit collaboration and to highlight collaborative initiatives. At one conference, some general managers explained how they transferred a client from the commercial banking unit to the private banking unit. Previously, the first unit to "own" that client wouldn't have shared him with other units, because the original unit wanted to still be associated with that client's revenues. After each conference, participants are asked to commit to doing one or two things differently to strengthen the firm's collaborative capabilities.

Groom people for complex, challenging jobs. Consumer products company P&G's growth strategy hinges on winning in emerging markets. To help high-potential employees advance, the company moves them through a portfolio of senior-level jobs categorized according to strategic challenges, size of the business, and complexity of the market. First-time general managers might initially take a relatively small country-manager position and then be placed in charge of larger countries and, later, of regions.

Fostering Vitality

To foster vitality:
Build commitment to talent development. P&G hires 90% of its entry-level managers straight from universities and grows their careers over time. It also sponsors a college intern program that offers participants chances to assume real responsibility by working on important projects. The company takes on former interns as full-time employees at a percentage well above that of most competitors, modeling commitment to talent development.

Encourage engagement. HSBC requires each unit to have a talent implementation strategy. These plans explicitly link a unit's growth objectives to its people development activities. The corporate head of talent works closely with each unit to develop its proposed strategy and presents the aggregated plans to the group head office, highlighting any talent gaps that could threaten the firm's growth objectives. This process keeps talent management high on the agendas of line and corporate leaders, and prevents them from getting distracted by seemingly more pressing problems.

Ensure accountability. Hold all managers and executives accountable for doing their part to make talent processes work. P&G's CEO A.G. Lafley claims ownership of career planning for all the general managers, vice presidents, and talent pools involved in the company's top 16 markets, customers, and brands.


Copyright 2007 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Five Ways to Say "I'm Unprofessional"

When you're looking for a job or internship, particularly in a tough market like this one, there's nothing worse than leaving a prospective employer with some sort of bad impression. Unfortunately, though, there are many ways you can do just that, often without even knowing it.

In most job-filling situations, the employer has the luxury of choosing from several well-qualified applicants, all of whom could probably do the job. It is then that the little things, like the common but often unrecognized mistakes described here, almost always come into play. Make sure you avoid them, so they don't cost you a shot at the job.

1. Using a Cutesy Email Address for Correspondence

Example: cutiepie@domain.com, or -- far worse -- something like sexkitten@domain.com.

You Might Think: It's a clever, memorable email address everyone will get a kick out of.

The Employer Will Probably Think: I can't believe someone would actually list this email address on her resume, let alone use it to correspond with me. Will she do the same thing on the job if I hire her? Yikes!

2. Putting a Silly Message on Your Answering Machine

Example: A is for academics, B is for beer -- and one of those reasons is why we're not here. So leave a message, OK?

You Might Think: Mine is the funniest answering machine message this side of the Mississippi. My friends will love it.

The Employer Will Probably Think: Good lord, this person probably lives in Animal House. And I just can't risk interviewing, let alone hiring, someone like Bluto or Flounder. Sorry, Charlie. Click.

3. Sending Your Resume and Cover Letter Without Proofreading

You Might Think: Everybody makes mistakes, even employers. So if there's a mistake or two on my resume, no big deal. The employer probably won't even notice, much less care.

The Employer Will Probably Think: Everybody makes mistakes, even employers. But making more than one minor mistake on a resume or in a cover letter is unacceptable, and often, even one is too many. How do I know this person will proofread the letters he writes to shareholders? What if he someday leaves a zero or two off one of our financial statements? I better put this resume aside and look for someone who's more accurate and thorough.

4. Winging Your Interviews Instead of Preparing Thoroughly

You Might Think: I'm good at thinking on my feet, and if I get stuck, I'll just BS my way through, like I've done on many an essay exam. Besides, they can't expect me to know everything about the company.

The Employer Will Probably Think: This person clearly knows nothing about the company, nor has she made any effort to learn more about us and what we do. She must not really care whether or not she gets the job. I want someone who cares. Oh well, maybe the next person will be better.

5. Failing to Send Thank-You Notes After Interviews

You Might Think: A thank-you note? You're kidding, right? Do people even do that sort of thing anymore?

The Employer Will Probably Think: This person has no follow-up skills, not to mention common courtesy. He could have at least dropped me a quick email note, like this other person did. I think I'll invite this candidate for the second round of interviews instead. The other guy must not really want the position.

by Peter Vogt - MonsterTRAK Career Coach

Empowering Your Employees

by BNET Editorial

The word “empowerment” has received a lot of bad press in the business world. Too often, it has been used as a gesture to appease discontented employees and as a means of abdicating responsibility on the part of managers: if you can get employees to adopt a sense of ownership and power, your own load is less onerous!

Empowerment, however, is a good thing. Research tells us that individuals experience increased initiative and motivation when they are empowered. This also affects their self-confidence and the level of tenacity they display when faced with setbacks. Empowered people take responsibility for making decisions and following them through to completion; they feel energized and excited by what they do; and are prepared to make a commitment to achieve mutually agreed goals. Genuinely empowered people often find themselves completely involved in their lives and work and have boundless energy for what they do.

Being able to imagine what an empowered organization would feel like and the heights of success it could achieve, may give you some sense of the amount of disempowerment that exists in modern organizational structures.

What You Need to Know
I have tried to empower members of my team, but they still seem to be dependent on being told what to do. How can I get them to re-engage with their work?
It sounds as if they are not motivated to contribute their brain- or brawn-power to your collective efforts. This means that you have to carry the load on your own and probably feel exhausted and somewhat demoralized. Try asking them what motivates and energizes them and see if you can entice them with something that interests and excites them.

I work in a technically specialized area where mistakes are just not an option. I’d like to empower my direct reports, but when I emphasize the limited margin for error that exists, they just seem to give up trying. What can I do?
You may be controlling your direct reports too much. Try giving them the resources they need to do their job and the discretion to use those in the way they feel is appropriate—within critical bounds of course. They may make a few mistakes but if they feel truly empowered, they will take responsibility for dealing with these.

I have managed to empower my team but I feel usurped and out of control. I need to call them back but I don’t know how. What can I do?
You may need to remind them that your role is to set the course and direction in the context of the organizational objectives. Praise them for their initiative; find some concrete examples of where this has made a real difference; encourage them to do more; AND ask that you be kept informed so that you can help to guide their activities. State the importance of needing to know what is happening in order to present their achievements to members of the senior executive team.

I’m not sure how to go about empowering my direct reports. What is the best way to start?
Have you ever thought of creating a coaching culture within your team? Effective delegation is a good way to lead up to empowerment. You could try using the GROW model as a framework for your coaching conversations: G-Goal (What is the SMART goal?) R-Reality (Where are you starting from?) O-Options (What ideas have you got to get you from R to G?) and W-Way (Which option will you select and what is your plan to get you there?)

What to Do

Take Responsibility
In our current business environment, much is unknown, untried, or unexpected. In an ideas-based economy, we no longer experience predictable problems, nor can we anticipate what our competitors will do based on a mutual understanding of the market or a shared technology. Ambiguity presents itself over and over again to employees who are beginning to suspect it is the “norm,” and they probably feel ill-equipped to deal with it. This is why it is so important to allow people to take responsibility for managing their way through uncertainty. By using their ingenuity, curiosity, and spontaneity, employees can meet the business challenges head-on, instead of waiting to be told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

Although threatening to some managers (because the gateway for good ideas is no longer governed by them) it is important to make use of every vestige of enterprise that exists in the business. To do this, managers must move from being a governor to being a channel; promoting the flow of energy and power so that people can add value and the business can benefit.

Empower People

~Create the vision. If you want to empower people, you need to harness their enthusiasm and their creativity. This means painting a meaningful picture for them of what the future could look like and how they could contribute to it. Even if it seems beyond credibility or beyond reach, try to create a sense of “we’re in this together” and invite people to add their efforts to the collective goal. If they accept your invitation, you can strengthen their commitment by allowing them to use their discretion and talent in the way that they feel is most fitting.
~Motivate. You will need to understand the values, goals, and motivations of the people who are critical to your success. By understanding their passions and motivations, you can align their energy with what you feel needs to be done in the business. If you do not know what these are, ask them to share their aspirations in the context of the business and what and how they wish to contribute in order to achieve this personal vision.
~Root out the blockages. Organizations, unwittingly, often ask for one set of behaviors while systematically encouraging another. For instance, if an organization wants to achieve its goals through team work, it is no good putting in an incentive scheme that rewards individual achievement. If an organization wants to be known for its responsiveness to customers, it is no good creating rules that prevent members of the customer service team from using their initiative. Have a look at the processes that exist in your business and see if there are any contradictory messages that are being sent out through the existing systems and processes.
~Ensure the resources are in place. If you are going to empower people, you need to make sure they are properly resourced and supported. Ask yourself what resources are needed in terms of information, knowledge and skills. You may think that members of your team or organization have sufficient internal capability to make the transition to empowerment, but perhaps they could do with some concrete encouragement to release this.
~Provide encouragement and support. Think about how you can support empowered behavior. Try to identify the existing channels of communication that allow the necessary information to be shared. Are these channels clear and free flowing or are they blocked by organizational politics or etiquette? You may need to be proactive in asking your team what provisions they would like you to make to ensure the change to empowered behavior is possible. You may also need to act as a sounding board so that concerns, frustrations, and disappointments can be fielded positively rather than leak into the social culture of the organization as negative stories.
~Eliminate fear. Most people find behavioral change threatening. They are being asked to do something that they have never done before and they are likely to feel exposed and vulnerable. They may be asking themselves what will happen if they “get it wrong.” When things fail to go according to plan, you will need to manage your response consciously. It is important not to deny the existence of problems, but do debrief them appropriately and create a sense of positive learning rather than of criticism.
~Monitor and celebrate success. When things go well and you see good examples of empowered behavior, make sure it is rewarded and celebrated. This sends a message of seriousness and encourages more of the same. Try circulating some successful stories so that they join the ongoing legend of the business. Theater and drama, effectively done, can emphasize a point well, so there is room for some imaginative celebrations and rewards.

Think about the Bigger Picture
Empowering people does not necessarily stop at the office door. Some companies empower their customers. Think of the “self-service” revolution, the helplines, and the choices that can be made on the Internet. Think of the products that have brought about the mobile technology revolution and have enabled less naturally resourced or privileged countries to compete in the world economy. Of course, some people think it has gone a step too far and that organizations are abdicating their responsibilities to customers, but if you identify with those on your market interface, you will soon root out the contradictions in your interactions.

What to Avoid

You Fear You Will Lose Control
Some managers fear losing control by empowering their teams and, therefore, keep them on a tight leash with very little discretion to make decisions when they meet new challenges. If this describes you, be careful that you are not creating a “job’s worth” environment in which team members rescind responsibility and say “It’s more than my job’s worth to use my initiative and break the rules.” Meet with your team to see if you can root out these susceptibilities by asking them to share the challenges they have encountered and the way they would have preferred to have dealt with them.

You Do Not Know When to Let Go
Knowing when to get involved and when to let go is a difficult call. Sometimes it is necessary to let people learn from their mistakes, even if you think you could have prevented them from happening. Perhaps you could intervene only in “business-critical” situations and be there to debrief and distill the learning when the time comes. Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model may help you to determine what level of support and direction is needed at any time.

You Fail to Understand the Nature of Empowerment
Mistaking “empowerment” as a goal for the business or as a tool to manage behaviors is not helpful. The business goal remains the same. The tools and techniques required to reach it probably remain largely the same. “Empowerment” is a management philosophy that must imbue the organizational culture if it is to be successful. Make sure it is present from the employment contracts to the level of autonomy you give to each individual.

You See Empowerment As a Substitute for Engagement
Seeing empowerment as “an easy way out” is not what it is about. Empowerment still requires interest and involvement. Although empowerment gives people a sense of ownership and autonomy, it is not a substitute for engagement from the managerial level; rather it acts as a conduit for purposeful and fruitful conversations and actions.

How to Fire the Employee Who's Holding You Back

Compliments of Jennifer Alsever

Donald Trump makes it look easy, but the words "you're fired" are always difficult to say. Letting an employee go is painful, and for many managers the process is fraught with sleepless nights and stomach-churning anxiety. But hanging onto the wrong people can ultimately make matters worse for you, your other employees, and your business. Here's how to break the news firmly but gently, so you can put the rest of your team back on track.

Treat Dismissal As an Option of Last Resort
Goal: Make sure the employee has been given ample opportunities to succeed.
Before you lower the axe, ask yourself whether you should really let this person go and whether you've given them sufficient opportunity to redeem themselves. Will more training or guidance help? Is the problem the worker, or the work environment? Along the way, communicate expectations clearly—in person and in writing—and provide sufficient feedback so the worker knows where he stands. Planning and documentation is key to letting someone go gracefully, and it's also the best way to avoid expensive litigation. It's tough to objectively document a worker's surly attitude, but you can address the issue in periodic employee review sessions. Keep copies of those reviews and document performance regularly, indicating how the worker was informed of your expectations, how he fell short, and whether or not he knew that continued failure would result in termination. Performance reviews are important, but no set number is needed. Just be sure to treat every worker equally and even-handedly: Don't scold the underperformer for lateness if you let another worker get away with the same transgression.

Danger! Danger! Danger!
Flattery Will Get You Nowhere.
"A lot of employers fall into the trap of trying to flatter workers [in reviews] with the hopes that problems will go away," says Lew Clark Jr., an attorney at Squire Sanders & Dempsey in Columbus, Ohio. "Workers think the boss is happy, and when they're fired that can create legal problems because they feel that the firing was discriminatory or unlawful." For more detail about the legal issues surrounding employee termination, see "Firing and the Law."

Endure Pain Now to Enjoy Benefits Later
Goal: Get over your guilt. Accept that you're doing the right thing and start preparing for the change.
Once you're sure an employee isn't working out, act on that conclusion. "The longer it takes to fire someone, the more you're in danger of losing respect from the rest of the organization," says Monique A. Dearth, a former HR manager at General Electric who's now president of Incite Strategies, a consulting firm in Atlanta, Georgia. "Firing someone is never something we want to do, but it's inevitable, and if you're a leader it's something you're going to have to get used to."

Nobody likes conflict, but while you dither, your company may lose customers, money, or productivity. Tolerating sub-par performance can also impact the morale of other employees. "Managing an underperformer drains resources," says HR consultant Donna Flagg, who spent 15 years as a human resources professional for Chanel, Barneys New York, Donna Karan, and Goldman Sachs. "Other employees will want to leave if they feel they're not being recognized while someone else is doing less and getting a break." It's better to spend your time filling an open position, she adds, than managing someone who shouldn't be in the job.

Don't forget continuity planning, and anticipate what you'll need to do to replace the employee or handle her work flow once she's gone. Will you need approval from anyone above you before firing the worker? Before asking other employees to fill in? Is there anyone you'll want to promote into the vacated position?

Hot Tip
Put the Ball in Their Court.
In many cases, when the skills, work ethic, or personality of a worker don't mesh with the rest of an organization, you may actually be doing them a favor by letting them go. In fact, they may know this as well. So before you fire someone, consider asking if they're really happy in their job, rating it on a scale of 1 to 10. Sometimes, employees will realize on their own that it's in their best interest to move on.

Set a Time, Date, and Place
Goal: Map out a strategy to make the event as painless as possible.
There's never a good time to tell people they're fired. But if you wait until 4 p.m. on Friday, the terminated employee might question why he wasted his whole week. "Monday gives them an opportunity to regroup and start networking," says Pamela Holland, COO of Brody Professional Development. Likewise, it's best to get it over early in the day, so you won't be distracted by the looming conversation. Cutting ties during lunch hour can be a good idea, because the office will be relatively empty and a fired worker can clean out his desk in private. Plan out the details carefully, considering whether company policy requires that the worker be escorted out of the office and whether he has access to critical company systems. (If so, you may want to back up files before you have the conversation.) Arrange to have the employee's final paycheck ready on the day of your termination meeting.

Give some thought to where you will hold the meeting. Don't go out to lunch or pull a worker into your office, because it can be difficult to end the conversation. Instead, pick a neutral place, such as a conference room, where you can easily walk out when you're done. Afterwards, bring in a human resources representative to handle the final details: collecting keycards, laptops, filling out paperwork, and answering questions about health insurance and accrued vacation. "They can complain if they want, but they'll be sitting there with someone who can't do anything about it," says James Wright, who handled numerous layoffs at tech firms during the dot-com bust.

Danger! Danger! Danger!
National "Daddy Got Canned" Day.
In addition to consulting your own calendar, check to see whether the planned termination will fall on a day that may have significance for others. One company didn't think through its firing plan and let a systems engineering manager go on Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Security escorted both the man and his 8-year-old daughter out the door.

Keep It Quick and Clear
Goal: Be direct and don't let ambiguity creep into the conversation.
Though you'll spend a lot of time planning and preparing, firing someone typically only takes a few minutes. Be clear and—harsh though it sounds—use the words "terminate," "let you go," or "fire."

"When people hear bad news, they go into selective listening mode," says Bob Kustka, who handled terminations at Gillette for 25 years. Kustka recalls one manager who told a worker he needed to "move him out," intending to terminate him. The worker walked away thinking he was being transferred to a different job.

You can show sympathy by starting out with "this isn't going to be easy to hear," but keep it simple and stick to the facts. Ideally you will have already had several conversations about the worker's performance, so the news shouldn't come as a surprise. Be clear—"You're being fired because you stole," or "You're being fired because you're not hitting your sales numbers"—but avoid a laundry list of the worker's personal faults. If necessary, write a script and have a checklist of items you need to cover. For example, be sure to tell them when their departure is effective.

The way you deliver the news can determine how the person reacts—and whether they'll pursue legal action. "When they feel disrespected, employees will believe the law has been violated," says Clark, the lawyer. "How the decision is communicated—doing it respectfully and preserving the employee's dignity—can make a difference." If the worker becomes angry or hostile, end the conversation and insist she promptly leave the premises. Avoid an argument by simply stating "I will not argue with you."

Close the conversation by giving the worker credit for the effort she's put forward. Tell her you're sorry this has happened, but that it's what you must do. Depending on the situation, you may also want to show support by offering to be a reference. Stand up, wish the person well, and shake hands. Then introduce the representative from the human resources department and leave the room.

What Not to Do
Common Mistakes When Firing.
Don't talk about yourself: If you say, "I know how you feel," or "I don't want to do this," you seem more worried about yourself than about them. Do not offer advice.

Don't sugarcoat: Don't offer false praise and tell them all the reasons why you think they're great. It clouds the issue and can be confusing. Pick one genuinely positive thing to say about the person, but do not go overboard.

Don't defend yourself: Even if you're told you're a lousy manager, resist the temptation to tell your side of the story. Stay calm and redirect the conversation back to the worker and your decision.

Let the Rest of Your Team Know
Goal: Lay the groundwork for a smooth transition among the workers who remain.
Tell other workers about the termination right away. Flagg says, "Any window [of time] is dangerous. Someone will hear that it happened, and the news will run like wildfire." Just as in your conversation with the fired employee, don't get into big discussions with fellow workers. Instead, explain that "John left the company on Monday" or "John no longer works here," recognizing his contribution to the company but avoiding details of why he was fired.

If you have a team, bring them together that week to talk about their concerns, discuss how to handle the departed employee's workflow, and map out your plan to fill the vacancy. If the firing was an isolated incident, you may want to assure workers that their jobs are not in danger. But if employee performance varies considerably, save your comments for private conversations tailored to each person.

Nitty Gritty
The Kindest Cut.
One way to bring compassion to the firing process is to let the person determine some aspect of how they will leave. Some managers offer the fired worker the opportunity to resign. This is usually done with high-level executives, but it may also apply in cases where there's a friendly relationship between the employee and employer.

In other situations, smaller gestures are appropriate. You might give the employee a choice about who will walk him out of the building: you or the HR rep. He should also be able to choose whether he wants to gather his personal belongings now or after hours, and whether he's ready to have the benefits conversation or wants to postpone it to another time, when he's feeling less rattled