Is Blackberry dead?  Maybe, maybe not.  But one thing is for sure - even the crustiest IT Manager is opening up the enterprise to devices other than the holstered Blackberry.  Which means you've got an opportunity as a company - to move away from holding an inventory of old cell phone and smart devices, and instead move to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy.  

It's a good idea if you can swing it - and your IT function agrees.  The security concerns seem to have gone down a great deal over the last couple of years.

Need an example policy?  This one was shared by Capitalist reader and CFO rockstar Scott Stone - follow him on twitter here and connect with him on LinkedIn here.  I can vouch for the guy since I've served him as an HR pro in the past and worked for him as well - he gets HR, recruiting and talent (the soft side), but would put you into the wall in a pickup basketball game on game point if it meant he wins and stays on the court (results-oriented).  I kid. A little bit.

When you think about it, isn't that what you want from your CFO?  Here's his sample BYOD policy.  Thank him yourself through the coordinates above.

BYOD Policy (Bring Your Own Device)

As a company, we place value on many principles which are designed to create an awesome working environment.  While we have to implement policies to keep the house in order, we want those policies to, above all else, “make sense”.  One of those which we feel best embodies this approach is our “BYOD” policy.  Simply stated, it applies to your personal communications device and our expectations of how it’s used for business in the workplace. 

Here are the key points:

--We expect each team member to provide their own device – you select it, you buy it, you pick the plan that makes the most sense for you.  Your phone, your phone number, your provider of choice, your contract with the provider

--We strongly recommend a “Smartphone” of some type, to ensure you can receive emails or other critical communications on the device.

--Our Company will provide you access to your work email address on the device, including assisting you with the setup.

--If your device is a “Smartphone”, our company will reimburse you $75 per month to cover all work related communications on the device (email, text, voice, communications, etc).  We expect you to select a plan which can accommodate your business and personal needs for voice and data

--If you select a PO Phone (plain ‘ol phone) which lacks the ability to receive and send emails, our company will reimburse you $15 per month for all work related communications

--We won’t provide a “company phone” to anyone, preferring to allow you to “BYOD”, and provide everyone maximum flexibility.

--If you ever choose to leave the company, take your phone, your number, and your existing agreement with a provider – no hassle, no number change, no problem.

There you have it, an example BYOD policy from a live CFO in the field.  Thanks Scott!

It's a CYA world - you have to write that long email, I get it.  So go ahead and do that, but then do something nobody is expecting you to do.  

Write a Twitter/Text Message version of your email and use it as a header.

Think about it - you hate long emails and read about 10% of the total words that are sent to you.  Most of you have already spaced out a bit on this post.  So use a summary that just happens to engage via the trendy state of Twitter to make you look more hip and up to date than you really are.

For example, if I were summarizing this post in twitter form, I'd break something off like this:

"From @kris_dunn: You're ignoring my long emails and trying to fake it. I can take a hint, from now on I'm breaking it down in 140 spaces. #you'rewelcome"

I recently used a twitter summary as a header for a full position description on for a VP of HR role I filled and got excellent response:

"@EPIUSEAmerica seeks human capital sage. Big brain, no ego, builder of teams. Tech biz, whiteboard the talent future for one of the best."

Finally, here's the twitter summary of a longer description for a presentation I'm doing this fall called "The 9 Faces of HR":

"Every HR pro in the world is one of The 9 Faces of HR.  Join us at <insert conference> as keynote @kris_dunn covers the 9 Faces and tells us which one YOU are."

My take is that the twitter format is better than the text message format for a couple of reasons - first up, the @ handles let you address the people you're talking to, which is good and interest driving, and hashtags let you add some humor and context as well.

Play around with it.  Great way to stand out from the crowd in your company - which is undoubtedly filled with too many long emails.

You wish your team would accept greater responsibility.  Why don't they seize the moment and just do it?

It's a common thread for me and the people I hang out with.  Why don't more seemingly talented individuals seek to do more on their own?  Why don't they chase their own development?  Why don't they seek more responsibility?

The dirty secret is that the world is made of of three types of people:

1. The people who want more and work on their own to get it (You know who these people are).

2. The people who think that sounds like a lot of effort and just want to clock in and clock out.

3. The people who want more, but don't know what to do, what you expect as a boss or how to get from point A and point B.

Dirty secret #2: The people who want to clock in/out and the people who want more but aren't sure how to get there (#2 and #3 above) look the same.  If you nothing as a manager to force them to choose whether they want to do more in their role and work on their knowledge, skills and abilities, the problem is you.

Developing employees takes two things.  You and your time.  If you don't spend the time and get involved, the talent in buckets #2 and #3 merge into a pool of seemingly unmotivated, do the minimum employees.  

As a result, you whine and B#@# a lot as a manager.  But the problem is you.  If you don't engage the entire pool (#2 and #3) from a developmental perspective, nothing happens.

It's up to you. 

What's the definition of "contingent fringe?"  I first heard the term from Steve Youll, a HR Strategic Planning Analyst at Greif (maker of industrial packaging solutions) on The CYA Report, a podcast I lead over at Fistful of Talent (check out the episode with Steve that highlights a feature story on contingent labor at Workforce.com here, it drops on 8.6.12 - thanks for Workforce Sr. Editor Ed Frauenheim for joining me on the show).

Contingent Fringe is 1) the percentage of temps, contractors and freelancers in the American workforce, plus 2) people who are current full-time employees at a company who would likely have to join the contingent labor workforce should they lose their current full-time gigs.  

The term is Steve's, that defintion is mine.  If you're on the contingent fringe, you're either already a freelancer or highly likely to become a freelancer should you lose your current job.  Thus, you're on the fringe.  

The contingent fringe.

The percentage of the total workforce on the contingent fringe, as you might have guessed, is only going to get larger over time.  This Forbes article points to the fact that the total workforce of Fortune 100 companies is already 20-30% contingent, with that number growing to 45-50% by 2020.

Individual contributors - Get your marketing brochures warmed up.

Slides below are from a webinar I did with Kelly Dingee over at Workforce.com on Wednesday entitled "Impress Me Or You're Dead - The New Rules for How Great Candidates Judge (and Treat) Recruiters".  (Thanks to Jobvite for sponsoring the webinar!)

If you weren't among the 1000+ that signed up for the show, check out this mini group of slides from the deck that talks about the 5 things that average recruiters do that cause great candidates to ignore them.

Cliff notes - you might want to know a little bit about them before you call and get ready to work through at least one objection.

(Email subscribers - Click through to see the slides)

Quick idea today from the front-lines on performance management.  Regardless of how progressive you are, most HR pros are in various stages of implementation with a performance system that has the following horizontal components:

-Goal

-How we're gonig to measure it

-How you did in the rating period in question

-Rating

You've got something like that, right? And it never seems like it's about the employee's development right?  To much suck, not enough sunshine.

Let's open the shades a bit on your post-industrial performance system, just by adding one thing to force some dialog related to employee development.  In between "how we're going to measure it" and "how you did in the rating period in question", plug in the following:

"What's in it For Me?  (What Can I Learn Along The Way I'll Own Forever?)

Boom.  You just added something related to employee development that can dramatically enhance performance conversations if handled the right way.  The right time to start the conversation related to this is when the goal is set (as the manager lays it out for the employee, the manager asks the question, "what is in for your to chase this goal?".  

You don't have to have all the answers.  You just need to talk about it and come up with at least one thing.  That single add to your performance conversations may be all you do from a development conversation perspective, or it may roll into an IDP (individual development plan).

The point?  Don't let your performance format suck.  Add something like this and experiment.

Your managers can't handle it?  That's another blog post (or 27).