The Google Innovation Model - A Festivus For the Rest of Us...

Couple of questions today on Employee Engagement here at The Capitalist:

1.  Do you think you can engage employees in your company who are not currently engaged?  Or do you feel like I felt a while back, and believe that the best way to ensure employees are engaged is to hire engaged people?

2.  If you don't know who the engaged people are in your department, do you think you can figure it out by making them an offer they can't refuse? (if they are the type who are or can be engaged)

3.   Do you think the best way to engage employees is to offer creative time to all employees, whether they have shown a wisp of engagement or not?

What's got me thinking about engagement in this way? I was catching up on Jon Ingham's blog (UK), and he reminded me of a practice to stimulate innovation at Google by offering up 20% of the workweek to technical projects of the employee's own choosing.  From the Harvard Business Review via Jon Ingham:

"One clear reason for Google’s success at innovation is that the company does what many others do not: budgets for it in employee time. New ideas at Google are often generated by employees, from the bottom up, in a prescribed system of time allocation. Technical employees are required to spend 80% of their time on the core search and advertising businesses, and 20% on technical projects of their own choosing."

If you are like me, you've read about that practice before.  Pretty cool, but not exactly transferable, mainly due to one factor...

I'm not Google... Neither are you.... Our mix of jobs is different.... and so's the talent in many ways...You don't, for the most part, hire PhD's who are expected to create and innovate on a daily basis.  You'd like innovation, would settle for engagement, and want to avoid folks working against you.

Seriously - if you put this practice in place today, what percentage of your employees would come to you to inquire about what the heck they were supposed to spend the flex time on?  30%?  50%? 70%?

Fortunately, there's a festivus for the rest of us - Coffee's for closers, so if you are looking to see who's really ready to innovate, tell the individuals on your team that if they can find a way to get their current workload complete in less time, you would support the use of 4 hours per week at work to pursue any work-related, professional development project that interests them.

Then see who's proactive about pursuing it.  Those are your engaged employees.  Do whatever it takes to retain them.

The good news?  You don't have to brainstorm with Billy in records management about what he should do during innovation time...

HR Capitalist Loses Mind, Sends Out Video Invite to New Blog...

I've clearly lost my mind.  A little over a year after starting the HR Capitalist and making the rainman-like pledge to post every business day, I've decided to start another blog called Fistful of Talent.  If you like the style of the Capitalist but haven't heard of Fistful yet, click over and check it out.

Here's a twist to incent you.  It's not just me, and it's not just HR.  That's been done, and let's face it, that would be boring.  Not SHRM boring, more like Ed Harris before he got a groovy part boring.  No, this time I've brought in friends from the world of recruiting, HR and consulting to wax poetic about all things talent - how you get it, and how you maximize it once you've bought the groceries.  It's a cool, loud group that's not really into pulling punches. 

Your video invite is below (six seconds - I know enough not to waste your time), followed by the profiles of the suspects my team at Fistful.  Check it out, and if you like what you see, subscribe and drop by to mix it up early and often.  Don't cost nothin'....

The motley crew at Fistful of Talent:

Maren Hogan (Covering Gen Y and Recruiting) is a millennial living the dream in Omaha, Nebraska. When she's not plotting the downfall of Gen Xer's, she's doing marketing and development for an IT recruiting and outsourcing firm called HCI. When she's not at HCI, she's blogging at Big O Recruiting and becoming addicted to Twitter...

Jessica Lee (Covering Talent, HR and Recruiting) is an Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD. When she's not hammering a candidate to determine Motivational Fit, she's updating her spreadsheet to determine her lifetime "time to hire" and "cost per fill."

Paul Hebert (Covering Performance Motivation) is the brain behind Incentive Intelligence and a recognized authority on incentives and performance motivation.

Tim Tolan (Covering Executive Recruiting) is a partner at Sanford Rose Associates and specializes in Executive Search in Healthcare IT. He's a closer, and you really don't want to call him unless you're ready to bring out the bazooka to bag some big game.

Jennifer McClure (Covering Recruiting and Coaching) is a Vice President at Centennial, Inc., a Cincinnati-based recruitment and coaching firm, where she's charged with strategic recruiting efforts, executive coaching and business development for the firm. When she's not looking up values on NotchUp, she's rating human capital values by ranking the individuals on her speed dial, aka Seinfeld...

Kelly Dingee (Covering Candidate Sourcing) is a Technical Writer/Sourcing Researcher for AIRS. Prior to joining AIRS, her experience includes sourcing for Thales Communications, Inc., and internet recruitment for Acterna (now known as JDSU).

Michael Wolfe (Covering Corporate Recruiting) is a HR Manager for SourceMedical, where he spends the majority of his time recruiting.

Beth Kobermann (Covering Gen Y and Recruiting) is a Sr. HR Generalist at Honeywell.

Christine LeLacheur (Covering Branch Recruiting) is a Branch Manager for Executrade in Calgary, specializing in placements in the booming energy industry.

Michael Homula (Covering Talent and Recruiting) is the founder of Bearing Fruit Consulting, a full service talent acquisition and talent management consulting firm based in Michigan. Prior to Bearing Fruit, Homula lead the Recruiting/Talent functions at FirstMerit Bank and Quicken Loans.

The "Love Broker" - Making Your Employees Sign A Workplace Relationship Prenup...

This topic would have gotten A LOT more attention around Valentine's Day.  Hard to believe a "news" organization like Good Morning America didn't do a better job focusing their leads with national holidays - or at least what days Hallmark says are important...

Anyway, some lawyers have come up a with a product that might have some legs - a workplace hookup prenup.  From ABC News:

"Think of it in terms of a prenup," said Good Morning America workplace contributor Tory Johnson. "In this particular case, you're saying to the employer, 'We'll prevent you from being held responsible for employment issues in the event of a failed personal relationship.' The employer should not have that burden."

""It is documenting the relationship. You need to define the relationship. Is [it] welcome? It is not sex harassment," explained Stephen Tedesco, an employment lawyer, who said that it is important to make clear that whatever personal conduct has gone on is not harassment.

"It also defines how they are going to conduct themselves in the workplace going forward," he said."

Not a bad idea, but the heavy lifting is still left to you as the HR pro - you get to figure out what relationship rumors are real, and then decide based on what you think you know whether to intervene and have both parties sign something to say they won't hold you responsible for harassment claims, etc.

Once again, the heavy lifting is still yours.  I offer two rumor-based situations where it's very difficult to see your way clear to confront:

1.  The married employee who's having an affair with a co-worker.  Or is it an affair?  See John Hollon's notes on the office spouse...

2.  The guy or gal who is rumored to be having an affair with a co-worker 10-20 years younger than they are... Have fun with that one...

So, the workplace relationship prenup has some legs, and that's cool.  Don't let anyone fool you if you are a HR pro in charge of the employee relations environment.  You're still doing ALL the heavy lifting through the actual decision on whether to confront.

That's why you get $11.64 an hour.  Now move forward and rid our workplace of some ALL liability!!

The Best and Worst Cube Farms in America...

Admit it - you've daydreamed about doing something cool with your office.  Maybe you're thinking about painting that accent wall, or maybe you're thinking about doing something cool with your cube.  Something to spice it up.  Something to take it to the next level, way past where Les Nessman left it.

Before you do that, manage your expectations.  Most of you probably aren't in Silicon Valley, or working at Google.  That's OK, but it probably means you aren't getting the marble counter top for the juice bar coffee closet at work.

That's fine - you can still dream, and maybe even have a cooler workspace than Yahoo.

Here's a look at the best workspaces in Tech via Valleywag. In the snapshots, you'll find cool workspaces from Six Apart (they provide the software that runs this blog), Netflix and Digg.  Pretty cool.

Then, there are the worst workspaces in Tech via Valleywag.

Get ready, because the standard for a cool workplace in high tech is probably higher than what you are used to.  Case in point - I say "Yahoo Offices" and you automatically have an expectation for some cool stuff, right?   Well, maybe that exists somewhere in the Yahoo real estate portfolio, but the Valleywag feature ranks Yahoo as one of the worst workplaces in tech, featuring the picture to the right.

The good news - Yahoo still has some apparently highly motivated employees - note the guy taking five in his cube...

The bad news - Yahoo's workspace in that picture looks like about 98% of corporate America.

Manage ye expectations, you Peter Gibbons clones of the world.  And if you are sprucing up the cube, bring it with more strength than the guy shown napping here...

More on Not Stinking As a HR Pro...

Last week, I riffed on When People Say HR Stinks, It's Simple...Don't Stink as a follow up to the Vurv report that HR is weak.  The answer is really simple to me as noted by the title - be good.

Man - am I sick of all the hand wringing that goes on after these types of reports.  Of course, the hand wringing virtually guarantees that there will be 5 more reports like this in 2008...

Other HR voices checked in last week on the same topic:

-Frank Roche wonders aloud where all the diversity is in HR.  Not diversity related to EEOC issues.  Business skill diversity...

-Deb at 8 Hours talks about the fact that maybe devoting yourself to party planning might not be the best use of your time.

If I had a million dollars? I'd subsidize the effort to get every HR manager, Director and VP subscribed to blogs like these, as well as others that are relevant.

It's still shocking how many in our profession don't know what a blog is.  Low uptake on technology is part of the perception problem....

Help me....Help you....

Worst Benefit Idea of 2008 - The Gas Price Guarantee....

Gas prices are high.  Jeff Spicoli high.

With that in mind, companies are doing what they should - thinking about the burden carried by employees  who have long commutes.  For many, that means thinking about what, if anything, can be done to help employees out with the cost of fuel for the commute.

But there's a right way, and a wrong way.

First the right ways -

1.  Encourage car pooling.

2.  Find opportunities for telecommuting where possible.

3.  If you're up for spending some money, perhaps encourage car pooling or public transit with some mild incentives. 

Now for the wrong way:

1.  Provide a guarantee on the price of gas, creating a program that states the company will reimburse employees for gas prices that exceed $2.85 per gallon for travel on their normal commute.

You're kidding me, right?  While it's great for the employees, the program effectively discourages any type of car pooling or alternative travel plans and creates a burden for the company, when gas prices keep going up, and the company looks back and says the following - "Whoops - we thought this thing was going to top off at $3/gallon, now that it's at $5, the program's going away.  Sorry.."

Not to mention, the lovely employee relations issues that go with providing a greater benefit to employees with longer commutes, or those that choose to drive an Accord instead of an Excursion...

Show Me the Freaking Money - Sharing Pay Ranges With Associates...

Sharing pay ranges with your employees - do you do it?

Three schools of thought here:

1.  We share nothing.  Maybe we have nothing (by way of comp ranges, etc.)

2.  We have stuff, but don't share it broadly.  We'll share it with the individual employee if they are interested, during the merit review, and certainly if pay issues come up with an employee who feels underpaid, etc.

3.  We share it all.  Our range structure is published to all employees, and employees might even have access to know the grades for all the jobs in the company.

Ann Bares got me thinking about this with her recent post on the sad state of Pay Communication. 

Markets drive pay.  Companies value jobs based on those markets, and also make determinations about how much skills in a specific profession are worth, based on the ranges that are developed.  So for me, #1 (we have nothing, we share nothing, and we value jobs on the fly) isn't a practical solution, at least for companies with any size and scale. 

I don't think #3 (we share it all) is a realistic alternative either.  The problem with sharing it all is the loss of productivity and angst regarding OPR (other people's ranges).  I've worked for big companies that took this approach, and a significant amount of time is spent with the angst of knowing someone else's range.  No matter that the person with the angst doesn't know the salary or if the comp ratio is .8 or 1.2.  Their range is higher than mine! 

So for me, we're left with #2 - Share range information with the individual employee at natural times, like the merit review.  Tell them how the company creates and updates ranges, and tell them why they are where they are within the range.  Tell them the plan and the room to grow, if they stay in the same position.

Or go with Option #4 - just post a list of all the employees' salaries on the bathroom door.  I joke, but I'm sure that's happened somewhere, sometime, with a frazzled HR Pro ready to go on stress-related FMLA leave at the center of the storm.

Go with option #2....

To All You Hardcore Managers - Pay the OT Already!!

I'll say this again for the managers out there who read the Capitalist... You have to pay OT to hourly employees; it's never optional because of a policy or procedure violation...

If an employee is classified as non-exempt or hourly, you have to pay overtime for all hours worked past the normal 40 hour work week.  You can't withhold overtime because they didn't get it pre-approved.  Withhold overtime, even if it wasn't approved, and you're running the risk of legal action and you'll end up paying it anyway.

Seriously - the law doesn't care if you didn't approve it - you have to pay it... 

Here's how the scenario usually works at most companies:

1.  Non-exempt or hourly employee in question reports hours worked and includes overtime.  Supervisor/manager in question has limited desire/time to micro-manage hours reported, so lots of overtime gets paid over a multiple month period.

2.  Finance/Accounting runs reports, correctly communicates the overtime situation.  As a result, the edict goes out top-down that all overtime must be pre-approved moving forward.

3.  Managers do a "mixed" job of communicating pre-approval process to hourly employees in question.

4.  Employee who is used to working a lot of overtime continues to work the overtime, sometimes without approval.  Reasons for not gaining approval can range from "the customer demanded it" to "my supervisor's never around"...

5.  Since the need for pre-approval was communicated to employees, the first reaction of the manager in question is to not pay the overtime.

That's the natural reaction to that course of events.  But it's wrong.  The law doesn't care if you had pre-approval in place and the employee didn't follow it.  It just calls for all hours past 40 to be paid to hourly employees (note - I'm not digging in here on deep FLSA regs, and whether you can spread the hour count over a bi-weekly pay period, etc. - I'm just working the pre-approval objection I hear most).

So, what do you do?  Your only option is the following:

1. Pay the OT...

2.  Pay the OT... 

3.  Use your corrective action/progressive discipline policy to document the policy violation, and hopefully send a message to the employee that pre-approval for OT is required and not optional.

4.  Repeat as necessary.

That's it.  Pay the OT, document any policy violation to send the message and move on.  The employee either gets the message or they ultimately move out of the company.

Any questions?

Your Medical Plan is Doomed - Rx Companies Move to Guerrilla Marketing....

Everyone I know thinks the Viagra and related product ads are stupid, yet hilarious (Jam session with boomers singing "Viva Viagra", are you serious?  Guy throwing a football through a tire while his wife nods approval?  Priceless..)  Those seem harmless to a guy like me who watches the bills coming through for a medical plan...

But I still get paid to watch the trends...

For years, the pharma playbook has been to develop a drug, then create the market and cash it in as much as possible before it rolls off patent.

That usually meant tons of TV advertising.  Now, it seems as if Pharma may be getting even trickier in their marketing tactics.

The new way to get Rx market share?

Guerrilla marketing.  Make it look local, like someone trying to find a lost dog or give away a cat... From Fierce Pharma:

"A new guerrilla marketing campaign for over-the-counter Zyrtec proves one thing: If you want attention in the blogosphere, post a few drug ads on telephone poles. They're flyers designed to appear handwritten, saying, "Missing 2 Hours. Last Seen: While waiting for Claritin to start working. If found please call: 1-800-4-ZYRTEC"

That's bad news.  I know this is for a drug with an OTC option, but is there any doubt the guerrilla Rx campaign will be coming to an office park/hospital/clinic near you?

Can You Trust HR in Tough Times?

It's the age old question - can you trust HR?  With anything?

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen thinks you probably shouldn't; check out this post at Work in Progress, her blog at Time.com:

"Over the past few years, my employer has imposed a few rounds of layoffs. During the run-up, we were encouraged to visit with our human resources department if we wanted to inquire about taking a package. We were assured absolute, air-tight, witness-protection-program secrecy if we chose to do so. Who needs our bosses knowing we're entertaining an exit?

Quite a few of my colleagues did visit with HR. Then a funny thing happened. A few of them found that some management types dropped by to nonchalantly express their appreciation of the staffer's work.

Now, you have to understand my workplace culture to truly comprehend how completely weird that is. Where I work, bosses do not randomly drop in to tell you you're fab. My colleagues suspected an HR leak to management. I don't think they were being paranoid.

In these times of trouble, is HR your friend? Or can you ever trust a department that, after all, reports to the same master?"

The perception is sad but real, and at times, accurate.   After all, HR people are just that - people.  We have strong ones, weak ones, political ones, etc.   I think whether you can trust HR in any circumstance depends on the track record of the HR Pro you are dealing with.  What have you witnessed from them to that point?  As behavioral interviewers, we'll tell you straight up that past behavior is the best predictor of future performance.  It applies here...

For what it's worth, here's my approach with confidential information.  An employee comes to me and wants to have a confidential discussion about anything - a prospective job, their manager, etc., I let them know I'm happy to do it, but my ability to keep the information purely confidential is dependent on the topic.  I then give them an idea of the topics I couldn't keep confidential (harassment, etc.)

If they're still in, we have the conversation.  I try and help out any way I can.  We'll talk and I'll try to give them options, and tell them how I can help with their approval.

Then I lock the info down post-conversation.  It's what you have to do if you want to have credibility with a workforce.

Can you trust HR in tough times?  It's an individual question based on your HR Pro.  Just remember, past behavior is the best predictor of future performance...