TV’s Ur-boss, Michael Scott of The Office, a paradigm of what not to do as a leader—like imprisoning your staff in a conference room to prove that work is better than jail. But while there is the ring of truth in his incompetence, the actual truth is always more interesting than fiction.

Therefore, as you prepare to be a boss in your own new company, I present 11 demotivational lessons inspired by an actual Michael Scott I used to work for. I hope they provide a manifesto of poor leadership you can post, like Martin Luther’s on the church door, to the whiteboard of your own Dunder Mifflin executive. Or at least that you can slide into his/her inbox when no one is looking.

1. Change your mind. Change it several times a day. When reviewing a report, be sure to make comments that run counter to previous ones. Leave the employees guessing. It keeps them alert.

2. Be sure your employees don’t know what's important to you. You want the best work possible, period. You don’t want them cutting corners just because something isn’t very important. Everything is important. Always.

3. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. You don’t have to explain. They just need to make it “better.” If you give them too much direction, how will they learn? For example: “I don’t know what you want from me, just make the PowerPoint ‘sexier.’”

4. Bring your employees along to all your meetings. But don't let them speak. By not talking, they have to listen. Just like a Dictaphone. Then they can remind you of anything you napped through.

5. Thank your employees — but only for efforts below their skill level. “Thank you for showing up today.” “Nice handwriting on that expense report.” Begin the staff meeting by thanking the intern for comb-binding your files.

6. Schedule weekly “all hands” meetings that require half the employees to travel (to you, of course). Agenda: they bring you up to date on what they’ve been emailing you, but you’ve been too busy to read. Don't introduce anything new.

7. Ask your tech savvy employees to take time from their projects to set up your home computer, preferably when the maid is there. Ideally, the request includes troubleshooting your kids' iPods.

8. Agree to deadlines and then accelerate them. Ask loudly from the hallway if the document is ready at 4:59pm. Announce: “I’m here late tonight if you want to finish it up.”

9. Schedule "critical" meetings a few days before Christmas. Require random employees from around the world to attend. Show up late and decide everyone can reconvene to "close the open issues" on January 2nd.

10. Send emails at 2am. On Sunday. Mark them urgent.

11. Be careful not to get too wrapped up in your employee’s own goals. If you're too supportive in helping them develop, they’ll leave you for another job. And that’s not good management.

How about you? Do you have any bosses that have embodied any or all of my how-not-to list? Have you been guilty of any of these yourself? What do you have to add?

A Comment in Response:

You've struck a painful cord. I couldn't agree more with every single thing you've listed. However, based on my personal experience I'd like to add few more things.

1. Having judgements clouded by personal animosities and friendships.
2. Raising status of incompetent individuals to that of key management members on the basis of personal likes and dislikes.
3. Communicating with just "one" management member instead of all key people regarding company's progress and updates.
4. Constantly wrapped up in scheming and manipulation thus creating distrust among team members.
5. Instead of praising employees several years of hardwork, retaliate with demoralizing comments such as are you a good manager?
6. Accusing competent people of 'constantly complaining when they approach the boss with their grievances.
7. Believing in the philosophy of promise them everything but give them nothing.
8. Complete centralization of power.

- DeTimes

Lack of authority and an inability to see where their contribution fits into the big picture is leaving Generation Y, or Millennials, disengaged and disenchanted with work.

Surveying more than 7,500 people and interviewing 40 HR and line managers, the report found that lack of seniority appears to be the problem: put simply, “Senior executives are generally more engaged than frontline managers or individuals.”

In a worldwide survey, they compared engagement levels of Baby Boomers (B.1946-1964), Gen X (B.1965-1977) and Gen Y (B.1978-1990).

Defining “full engagement” as: “an alignment of maximum job satisfaction (’I like my work and do it well’) with maximum job contribution (’I help achieve the goals of my organisation’)”, it found Gen Y employees wanting, especially in south-east Asia and China. Levels of disengagement are shown below.

Most feel under-used and not connected to the organisation’s overall strategy, and are struggling to define what it is they want from their work, says the survey.

The UK’s millennials are also showing signs of restlessness. They want ‘more opportunities to do what I do best’, with career development and training also highly important. The majority trust their managers, but the least engaged feel bosses could do more to encourage and reward them. Only 48 per cent of all of the Britons surveyed trust their senior leaders, though.

Contrast this with India, where engagement levels are high across the age categories and fairly consistent across job titles. We suggest this is a result of India’s dynamic, knowledge-based business culture.

Disengaged Gen Y’ers may either just look for another job or — potentially worse — stay, complain and not produce. It may be possible to coach them to higher levels of engagement. If not, the verdict’s tough: “Their exit benefits everyone including themselves.”

- DeTimes

Like everywhere else, politeness in India is considered to be a virtue.

You’ll quickly find that most Indians will go out of their way to be friendly and helpful to you. A traveller will frequently be asked about his nationality, name, marital status, and children, though the limited spread of English tends to restrict the scope of most conversations to simple things. It can be a bit tedious to go around like a walking curriculum vitae, but just keep smiling. This quaint curiosity is built on the best of friendly intentions, and it is part of India’s charm.

While English is certainly the language of business in India with foreigners, remember that the English spoken is British English. Therefore, avoid common British-American misunderstandings, such as "tabling this for now" (British English means "let’s put it on the table and talk about it now"), and the use of American sports slang "that idea is from left field." Even common American business acronyms, such as ASAP or FYI may not be understood in India – avoid them.

So, before you plan your trip to Mumbai (known until 1995 as Bombay) or New Delhi, keep these cultural tips in mind.

The traditional greeting in India is the "Namaste."

Hold both your hands at chest level in a prayer position and bow slightly to your associate. Additionally, this greeting may be accompanied with a garland of flowers being placed around the neck. It is expected that you remove the flowers almost immediately and set them aside, for to keep them on indicates a lack of humility. Indians seldom shake hands, when greeting people, other than during the course of official business.

The handshake is also commonly used (usually a little softer than the common American grip). Good friends may clasp each other’s hand with both hands.

It is important, however, that men should avoid touching women, even in business settings. Unless she extends her hand first, men should not reach out to shake a woman’s hand.

Remember, your Indian associate may very likely be Muslim, and in India, this means respecting Moslem customs. In devout Muslim homes, women are separated from men, and usually stay amongst themselves in a separate part of the house.

Remember also that cows are considered sacred incarnations of life by devout Hindus. Therefore, do not serve beef at meals. Also, avoid gifts made of leather (leatherbound books, attaché cases, picture frames, etc.). A wonderful gift to your Muslim associate would be a fine, silver compass. They use a compass to locate Mecca and perform their daily prayers. Many Indians do not drink and/or are vegetarians, so if you are inviting someone out for a meal, it would be a good idea to inquire beforehand about tastes and preferences.

It’s a tradition in India to be served a sweet, often accompanied by tea or fruit juice, when first meeting someone either at home or in the office. Accept it graciously and you may expect a wonderful meal to follow.

In both business and social settings, it may appear to you that servants are being somewhat mistreated. Be prepared for versions of this kind of behaviour. Traditional to Indian culture is the caste system, which, though now illegal, still has pervasive influence. Remember that for thousands of years, people were organized according to who serves whom, with everyone serving someone and expecting obsequious obedience from others.

Avoid offering your opinions about politics, social mores, etc. in India. The best way to win friends, and subsequently accomplish your goals in India, is to admire what you can (and there is much) and humbly inquire about everything else. Indians are eager, to extremely eager, to explain their country and their beliefs to foreigners, which could make for interesting conversation.

Indian management and decision-making is such that your Indian associate may seek the advice of trusted others (friends, family members, etc.) before making a decision you might be waiting for. Therefore, do not expect meetings to always result in a decision, especially if you are only in the beginning stages of a business relationship. You need to take time to build a relationship, an essential precursor to business, however frustrating it may be for the time-conscious American. Meetings should be viewed as vehicles for relationship-building and information-sharing.

During your discussions, you may notice your Indian colleague shaking his head from side to side after you speak. Particularly true of South Indians, this unique "head-wobble" is merely your Indian associate’s non-verbal way of letting you know that he is politely listening to what you have to say. This side-to-side movement does not, as Westerners might suspect, signal disapproval.

If you don’t know with whom you need to speak to in the Indian organization, the general rule is to start as high up in the hierarchy as possible. Lower-level people will not make the decisions you require. That’s why it is sometimes best to be introduced to your Indian counterpart through an intermediary. Rely on your Indian "middleman," they are invaluable as contact makers – without them, you will waste time with the wrong people and not know how to conduct yourself at the meeting when you finally reach the right person.

However, most important thing to keep in mind is that, India is in a transition, dynamics are changing. People in metros are now tending towards more matured professionals. A key thing, opportunities are seamless, you just need the right way ahead.

- DeTimes

LONDON: A London mansion that is about to be sold for a record 117 million pounds (US$ 230 million) may go to the son of Indian billionaire Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, newspapers here said.

The property on Palace Green - one of the most expensive houses in the world - is close to Kensington Palace Gardens, where steel tycoon Mittal lives.

His son Aditya, 32, has been searching for a London property near Mittal's house, which the steel maker bought for 57 million pounds from Formula One chief Bernie Eccleston in 2004.

Now the search may be finally over: Noam Gottesman, an American-born hedge fund mogul, is close to exchanging contracts on the house, the Times newspaper reported.

The price works out at more than 8,000 pounds per square foot and smashes the previous record of 80 million pounds for a London home, set only three months ago for a property in nearby Upper Phillimore Gardens.

The newspaper quoted "property sources" as saying the family of L.N. Mittal, Britain's richest man, had made an approach for the house, which is next door to the Israeli Embassy.

Another paper said the house was being bought by Mittal for his son.

Stephen Holmes of the London property agents Savills said: "That address is very exclusive and I'm not surprised by the figure. There are only about 20 properties with that view of Kensington Palace, and people queue up to get their hands on one."

Gottesman has a fortune of 460 million pounds, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, while Mittal, who owns the world's biggest steel company ArcelorMittal, is worth about 27.7 billion pounds.

- DeTimes (Source : Economic Times, India)

BUILDING TRUST AS A MANAGER:

1. Be reliable. Follow through on things. Keep your promises.

2. Have ethics. Telling your people the truth and don't reveal their confidences. Being fair and honest with employees.

3. Show respect for your employees. Treat them as adults and show appreciation for their ideas and for the work they do.

BUILDING MORE TRUST:

1. Know and care about your employees and their families. Be sure they feel you see them as people as well as employees.

2. Involve employees in planning and problem-solving. Ask for and use their contributions.

3. Delegate work. Give employees important tasks and the support they need to carry them out well.

CREATING HELPING RELATIONSHIPS:

When have you received help from a supervisor/coach/peer that made you feel good about yourself? When has a supervisor/coach/peer helped you grow and develop? Under certain conditions both the coach and the employee can grow and develop in a helping relationship. Group members can also coach each other.

GUIDLINES FOR CREATING HELPING RELATIONSHIPS:

1. Create a dependence — create a project in which people need each other to succeed and are aware of that. Determine goals together, with input from each person involved.

2. Practice quality communication.

3. Build reciprocal trust by being open, accepting, and cooperative.

4. A supervisor can support and assist in creating helping relationships within their departments by acting as a model by using orientations that help and by supporting, and encouraging, these skills in their employees as they interact with each other.

- DeTimes

Salovey and Mayer defined EQ in terms of being able to monitor and regulate one's own and others' feelings, and to use feelings to guide thought and action. While they have continued to fine-tune the theory, Daniel Goleman has adapted their model into a version that he finds most useful in understanding how these talents matter in work life. His adaptation which  appears in his work "Emotional Intelligence-why it can matter more than IQ" includes the following five basic emotional and social competencies :

Self-awareness : Knowing what we are feeling in the moment, and using those preferences to guide our decision making; having a realistic assessment of our own abilities and a well-grounded sense of self-confidence

Self-regulation : Handling our emotions so that they facilitate rather than interfere with the task at hand; being conscientious and delaying gratification to pursue goals; recovering well from emotional distress

Motivation : Using our deepest preferences to move and guide us toward our goals, to help us take initiative and strive to improve, and to persevere in the face of setbacks and frustrations

Empathy : Sensing what people are feeling, being able to take their perspective, and cultivating rapport and attunement with a broad diversity of people.

Social Skills : Handling emotions in relationships well and accurately reading social situations and networks; interacting smoothly; using these skills to persuade and lead, negotiate and settle disputes, for cooperation and teamwork.

- DeTimes

If the driving force of intelligence in the twentieth-century business has been IQ, then-in accordance to growing evidence - in the twenty-first century it will be EQ, and related and practical forms of practical and creative intelligence. This "new" intelligence is the heart-level engine that drives human capital and produces the exceptional, creative work required for any company to lead the field amidst the turbulence and confusion of global market changes. In this note, we attempt to understand Emotional Intelligence.

"Emotional Intelligence" refers to the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationship. It describes abilities distinct from, but complementary to academic intelligence, the purely cognitive capacities measured by IQ. Many people who are book-smart but lack EQ end up working for people who have lower IQs than them but who excel in EQ skills.

These two different kinds of intelligence -intellectual and emotional-express the activity of different parts of the brain. The intellect is based on the working of the neocortex, the more recently evolved layers at the top of the brain. The emotional centres are lower in the brain, in the more ancient subcortex; EQ involves these emotional centres at work, in concert with the intellectual centres.

Among the most influential theorists of intelligence to point out the distinction between intellectual and emotional capacities was Howard Garner, a Harvard psychologist, who in 1983 proposed a widely regarded model of "multiple intelligence". His lists seven kinds of intelligence included not just the familiar verbal and maths abilities, but also two " personal " varieties: knowing one's inner world and social adeptness.

A comprehensive theory of EQ was proposed in 1990 by two psychologists, Peter Salovey, at Yale, and John Mayer, now at the University of New Hampshire. Another pioneering model of EQ was proposed in the 1980s by Reuven Bar-On, an Israeli psychologist. In recent years several other theorists have proposed variations on the same idea.

- DeTimes

In August, 2005, Fast Company magazine published a scathing article entitled “Why We Hate HR”. The author, Keith Hammonds, presented four arguments:

1. HR people are not the sharpest tacks in the box. The best and the brightest don’t go into HR;
2. HR pursues efficiency in place of value;
3. HR doesn’t work for you. It supports the status quo.
4. HR doesn’t get the office next to the CEO.

The author was slammed by many of the readers in the HR community for his comments. But the unfortunate truth is – he is 100% correct.

Observations such as this, and others like them, cause me to re-think the whole concept of Human Resources. Why, for example, do not more CEOs hold HR to higher value producing business standards? On the other hand, why do HR people view themselves as administrative overhead rather than contributors to the company’s profitability and productivity factors? And, what is the incentive for either side to change their view?

I seem to have come to several conclusions. Let’s try to make sense of them.

1. CEO’s don’t know how to use HR as a contributor to the company’s P&L processes. They prefer to keep HR in their traditional roles as back office support staff. This is their comfort zone. This is how they were taught to think of HR. Conversely, HR has not convinced the CEO that they understand the business as well as he/she does. Nor has HR proven to the CEOs that the quality and substance of their work directly and positively affects the ability of the CEO to sleep well at night.

This is a double-edged sword. On one side, the CEO has been historically trained to consider HR as a support function and nothing else. It exists to keep the company in compliance with a vast number of labour laws and to administer programs conceived, designed, and approved by non-HR people. Theoretically, it is supposed to hire bright people who will stay with the company and produce good work.

On the other hand, HR practitioners have done little to change that perception. Their failure to learn and understand the corporate performance pressure points and to focus their work on relieving those pressure points has been widely ignored. As a result, CFOs can enter the CEOs office at any time armed with a stream of quantitative data that CEOs use to make their decisions. The HR executive is left to talk about the qualitative or softer aspects of business such as diversity training, wage and hour law compliance issues, employee relations, and so on.

For better or worse, most CEOs tend to live and die by the quantitative aspects of their company’s performance. If they are the CEO of a publicly traded company, the pressure on financial performance is much more intense. The poor HR executive is left to blather about issues that are secondary to the CEOs attention span.

2. Far too many HR professionals are uncomfortable with financial metrics by which CEO’s make most of their critical decisions. Then they complain about not being taken seriously. Part of the problem is based upon the concepts of specialization that our society has embraced over the past century. In HR for example, the function has become so specialized that it has lost sight of why the company is in business in the first place and, secondly, how it is supposed to stay in business. We have experts in recruiting who are told who they can hire because of diversity or EEO mandates, but do not know how to hire people who can advance the business plan of the company. Can you imagine your local mechanic who is a world class engine mechanic not being able to realize that the axle is broken? What’s wrong with this picture?

3. HR is a reactive and defensive function within most organizations. This has to stop immediately. Complying with various labour laws is a critical, but a defensive business approach. Theoretically, the work is designed to keep the government off of the company backs. Think of the various HR produced training sessions that you have gone to in the past couple of years. Has it changed your behaviour? Has it generated a better selection of talent to work in your company? Has it had an impact on sales and revenue? Has it impacted inventory turns? Suppose that you have produced a world class training program on harassment and the company records a deficit on its balance sheet? What is a good HR person to do in this case? Rare is the sports team who wins by only playing on defence.

4. HR does not hire for talent. How can one hire for talent without knowing what the talent is expected to produce? In today’s hyper competitive environment, the search for quality talent can be unforgiving. Recruiting, hiring, and retaining talent involves understanding where the company is today, where it envisions itself in the future, and getting the right people with the right KSAs to achieve that vision. HR must take the lead in being pro-active with the business. It must conduct frequent status checks on the direction and movement of the company. This includes financial as well as non-financial challenges that the company will face. If another department is not performing up to expectation, how will HR directly help that department achieve its business goals and contribute to the success of the company?

5. HR must kick the “Silo Mentality” habit once and for all. No department in any company can continue to exist as a stand-alone discipline. Organizations are made up of several interconnected and interdependent entities. Each must wholly integrate itself into all other functions, and its practitioners must be able to speak the language of every department. If you expect to work as an equal partner with the company’s other strategic experts, you must be fluent in their language as well. Negotiating a new labour relations contract or a new health care contract may be a part of HR’s traditional silo. But the results of these negotiations will have a direct impact on the ability of the company to compete, to earn a profit, and to maintain its market share with competitive pricing. Diversity for the sake of diversity is valueless. Diversity for the sake of improving corporate performance and social responsibility metrics has enormous value.

One final thought about HR. What would happen if your CEO directs that the HR department be operated as an internal profit center that must bill their colleagues for services rendered and value delivered? Could they do it? Farfetched? Not really. With the help of technology advancements, companies are doing it with increasing frequency as they outsource many of the traditional HR subjects: payroll processing, benefits selection and administration, government reporting, etc. An outside vendor can argue that they can perform these functions better, faster, cheaper than the internal functions. And, they are winning the contracts. As trade and national barriers fall, companies are finding out that they can outsource many functions, HR included, to outside vendors who provide improved value for the rupees/dollars/euros/yen expended.

Human resources is a critical and value driven asset to all companies. Whether it is provided as an internal asset or an external asset is up to the leaders of that asset.

- DeTimes

You know the old adage, “You only have one opportunity to make a good first impression?” Well, never have truer words been spoken as it relates to retaining new talent! Even though the competitive scramble for talent may have eased off in the last 12-18 months, according to a survey by Management Recruiters, there is still a demand for mid-to-upper level management, high-level executives and professionals in most organizations today.

Companies spend weeks, perhaps even months, courting key talent to their organizations, all the while espousing the many cultural assets that make their workplaces great places to be. But living up to that hype or risk losing a new employee (with all the associated costs that go along with that loss) can be very challenging. And many organizations fail miserably.
Research shows that positively engaging new employees early in the new hire process can make a marked difference in keeping retention to a minimum. That first 90 days of a new employee’s engagement is key to his or her success.

But, many companies miss the mark with new employees simply because of a lack of preparation and planning. Even fairly sophisticated companies lack a consistent, systematic and strategically focused approach to “on-boarding” new employees and assimilating them successfully into the organization. And by the time most company leaders realize something has gone amiss, they are already six or nine months down the road. In order to “fix” the problem, they now must go back and do what they should have done in the beginning!

Many organizations today are missing the opportunity to successfully engage that new hire from day one. This is usually because there is no clear process for assisting the individual in becoming successful.

Giving an employee a leg up in prioritising key actions and activities that can contribute to his or her success can make a huge difference in increasing productivity and job satisfaction. And it’s not just a matter of having clear performance goals and objectives that align with company needs and expectations. Nor is it a matter of knowing to whom the new employee can go with questions and requests for help to avoid derailment.

Critical to the individual’s success, is knowing which key relationships in the organization need to be forged. Certain relationships will help accelerate the newcomer’s time to full productivity and engagement.

Organizations that successfully orient and assimilate new hires effectively share some common practices:

- They hire an external “on-boarding” coach or assign an internal mentor to help guide the new employee through the critical early stages of his or her new assignment.

- They have in-depth orientation training designed to help new employees learn techniques that enable them to “connect” with their new team members and build an environment of trust and open communication.

- They commit to and demonstrate the right actions and behaviours to ensure mutual success.

- They make controlling turnover everybody’s responsibility by encouraging team members working with the new hire to recognize signs that he or she, or any other team member, might be “at risk.” They then arm them with techniques they can use to offer support and help turn the situation around.

- And, they survey at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals to see how things are going and address issues they uncover before they become bigger problems.

These companies have found that by being focused and intentional in assimilating new hires can significantly reduce absenteeism, job abandonment and turnover.

So, ask yourself, what mechanisms does your company have in place to ensure that the first 90 days of a new employee’s career gets off on the right footing? Do a little research among recent new hires to your organization to gauge their experiences. By doing so, I am willing to bet you’ll end up with more than enough new opportunities to enhance the new-hire experience. In return, you can create the right first impression that can lead to many great career experiences going forward.

- DeTimes

Global salaries are expected to rise by an average of 6% in 2008 – 1.9% above inflation – according to a study by Mercer. The study of 62 countries worldwide shows a strong correlation between 2008 forecasted inflation and forecasted average pay increases but also reveals wide global variation in both projections.

India can expect one of the highest pay increases in the world at 14.1%, nearly 10% above local inflation. North America and most Western European countries will experience the lowest salary increases worldwide.

"Some multinational companies are experiencing labour cost savings of 75% by sourcing labour from emerging markets. On the flip side, they generally need to invest more in employing supervisory staff and in training. We are starting to see that short-term cost savings from sourcing labour in emerging markets can evaporate over time. It is therefore essential for multinational companies to consider both current pay levels and future salary increases when deciding where to source their labour."

"Some companies that might otherwise be looking at emerging economies to establish their customer services are now reconsidering their options. Immediate cost savings are no longer the only consideration, as short-term affordability might be offset by long-term volatility in labour costs and inconsistent service quality in many emerging markets. A US company might decide to locate its call centre in rural America where there is a good work ethic, strong language skills and less competition for labour – and where projected pay increases are lower and long-term cost variations less volatile."

In Western Europe, Ireland is predicted to experience the highest actual salary increase (4.7%) as well as the highest increase above inflation (2.6%). UK pay is projected to increase by 3.1%, 1.1% above inflation. Projected salary increases remain fairly consistent across Western Europe, with actual increases averaging 3.4% and increases above inflation averaging 1.3%.

In Eastern Europe a different picture is offered as actual pay increase levels are forecast to stay amongst the highest in the world, at an average of 6.9%. Because inflation rates are also expected to remain high in this region (4.6% on average), increases above inflation will average only 2.3%.

Bulgaria is expected to see one of the highest pay increases in the region (9.3%) and with expected inflation rates at 4.4%, pay above inflation is projected at a high 4.9%. At the other end of the scale is the Czech Republic where the average pay increase (4%) is expected to be mostly offset by inflation (3.1%).

"We are seeing increased activity amongst European and global companies in relocating labour intensive units, such as shared service centres, to the Eastern European region. This region is becoming more popular due to strong multi-lingual skills, proximity to Western European markets and the rapid escalation of salary levels in popular off-shoring centres such as India."

North America
Modest pay increases and inflation rates are forecast for next year in both the US and Canada, with average salary increases above inflation expected at 1.9% in the US and at 1.8% in Canada.

Asia Pacific
Pay increases in the Asia Pacific region will pick up next year, with actual increases expected to reach 6.6% and increases above inflation reaching 3.3%. India is expecting the highest pay increase in the region at 14.1%, reflecting its buoyant economic growth; its pay above inflation is also projected to be the highest, at 9.8%. Vietnam is also expecting a double-digit actual pay increase at 11.9%, 5.6%above inflation.

In Australia and New Zealand, pay rises are more modest, projected at 4.0% and 3.9% while inflation is likely to be 2.5% and 2.6%.

- DeTimes (Source : Mercer)

Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO) organizations are focused on staying on top of current and emerging HR practices, laws, and regulations. Their core business capability is finding the ways to make client organizations more efficient by fulfilling some or all of their HR functions. Outsourcing what is typically known as non-strategic activities allows client companies to focus on what’s core to their business and to allocate their limited resources for growth.

A “Typical HRO Portfolio”?

Outsourced activities may include many of the non-revenue producing Human Resources (HR) activities such as recruiting, payroll, workers’ compensation, periodic audits, benefits planning and shopping, wage compliance, and more. Client companies are generally open to working with 3rd parties to manage these non-business critical activities.

Outsourced HR services can range from single or multiple competencies. Thus companies that provide HRO services may have many functional or industry specializations. HROs can better focus on the singular discipline or domain and achieve high efficiency levels in it.

There are cost and efficiency tradeoffs with different approaches and the client company should first decide what functionality should be outsourced and then go about finding what HRO vendors and/or software technology packages do the job.

Are HRO Organizations The Beacons Of Change?

Innovation is the name of the game. Because the central business activity of an HRO is in the human resource services, client organizations expect third parties to be on top of the latest developments in the industry. What’s more, he tended to see innovation as one of the key differentiators of the human resources outsourcing industry overall.

Many companies are aware that their internal HR organization needs to evolve with the rest of the company, however they often do not have the resources or capacity to do it. It is observed that client companies tend to be more conscious of maintaining the burden of the legal responsibility over non-mission critical areas of an organization.

“As the government tries to regulate the labour markets, the greater the need to gather the info, to track the changes, to identify the laws that matter. Finally, client organizations expect HRO organizations to be abreast of new ideas and trends."

What Are The Expectations Of Interactions with HRO Organizations?

Experts attribute successful interactions with client organizations to high degrees of trust and reliance of the client organizations. It is critical that expectations are defined up front and commitments are achieved on the client’s executive team to do their part to share the information and resources where applicable.

One of the reasons why trust is critical has to do with the fact that often HROs need to work with internal personnel data and clients may be sensitive about any privacy issues that may arise. In actuality, in our experts’ opinions, HROs should be able to obtain and work with relevant data for analysis without touching anything sensitive or private. Most companies are open to sharing their data if it helps in the analysis. Once the trust is established, client companies generally are allowing their relevant data to be externally hosted.

An HRO should be able to access only the necessary HR information. Thus, it is important to communicate specifically what data needs to be accessed, how it will be utilized, backed up, stored, and even disposed of if appropriate. “I think there is always hesitation about sharing information. The client has to be clear about what they are getting into. HRO’s should strive to develop a trusting relationship with the client.”

The other reason why it is necessary to build a strong trust with the client company has to do with established company culture. The HROs must be aware that they are entering a client organization with established culture, morals, and standards. Sometimes these non-tangible elements are detrimental to the organization, which may be why they are there. But, on the other hand, company culture may be the glue that holds the organization together and an HRO should be conscious of protecting that culture and the existing balance in the organization where appropriate.

“Strategic insight is crucial for outsourcing of processes related to executive positions.” We can summarize the key expectations as Trust. Reliability, and Flexibility.

Developing Working Relationships with an HRO

A client HR organization should be on the same side with the HRO team. It is important to include the client’s HR team, if there is one, in all of the planning meetings. Internal teams should feel like they are players, have a role assigned to them, and should contribute to the ongoing data exchange and/or activities. In reality, according to our experts, a “perfect accord” between the client HR and third party experts is not that common and does require continued mutual effort to develop. It is important to realize that in the long term, cooperation is more beneficial to all the parties involved.

On the positive side, according to our experts, a relationship with an HRO is expected to be simpler than internal. External experts are perceived experts operating on an executive level. Often they are there only for a short time though, often in a “Superman” capacity – they come, they identify the need to be addressed, do their work, and leave. If third parties operate out of their own offices or provide web-based services, interoffice politics are even less issue prone.

- DeTimes

The search for an ideal or perfect structure is about as futile as trying to find the ideal canned improvement process to drop on the organization (or ourselves). It depends on the organization's context and focus (vision, values, and purpose), goals and priorities, skill and experience levels, culture, teams' effectiveness and so on. Each is unique to any organization.

Research and experience shows that the shape and characteristics of high performing organization structures have a number of common features:

Intense Customer and Market Focus — systems, structures, processes, and innovations are all aimed at and flow from the voices of the market and customers. Field people and hands-on senior managers drive the organization in daily contact with customers and partners.

Team-based — operational and improvement teams are used up, down, and across the organization. A multitude of operational teams manage whole systems or self-contained sub-systems such as regions, branches, processes, and complete business units.

Highly Autonomous and Decentralized — dozens, hundreds, or thousands of mini-business units or businesses are created throughout a single company. Local teams adjust their company's product and service mix to suit their market and conditions. They also reconfigure the existing products and services or develop new experimental prototypes to meet customer/partner needs.

Servant-Leadership — senior managers provide strong Context and Focus (vision, values, and purpose) and strategic direction to guide and shape the organization. Very lean and keen head office management and staff serve the needs of those people doing the work that the customers actually care about and are willing to pay for. Support systems are designed to serve the servers and producers, not management and the bureaucracy.

Networks, Partnerships, and Alliances — organizational and departmental boundaries blur as teams reach out, in, or across to get the expertise, materials, capital, or other support they need to meet customer needs and develop new markets. Learning how to partner with other teams or organizations is fast becoming a critical performance skill.

Fewer and More Focused Staff Professionals — accountants, human resource professionals, improvement specialists, purchasing managers, engineers and designers, and the like, are either in the midst of operational action as a member of an operational team, or they sell their services to a number of teams. Many teams are also purchasing some of this expertise from outside as needed.

Few Management Levels — spans of control stretch into dozens and even hundreds of people (organized in self-managing teams) to one manager. Effective managers are highly skilled in leading (Context and Focus), directing (establishing goals and priorities), and developing (training and coaching).

One Customer Contact Point — although teams and team members will come and go as needed, continuity with the customer is maintained by an unchanging small group or individual. Internal service and support systems serve the needs of the person or team coordinating and managing the customer relationship.

We are in the midst of a major transition from organization and management practices that began around the turn of the 20th century. Our cloudy crystal ball won't allow us to see which organization structure or model will dominate the 21st century. Since we're no longer in an age of mass production and standardization, there won't likely be just one type. Rather, we'll see our top organizations grow and shed a variety of structures and models to suit the their changing circumstances.

- DeTimes

1. When you take a long time, you're slow.
When your boss takes a long time, he's thorough.

2. When you don't do it, you're lazy.
When your boss doesn't do it, he's too busy.

3. When you make a mistake, you're an idiot.
When your boss makes a mistake, he's only human.

4. When doing something without being told, you're overstepping your authority.
When your boss does the same thing, that's initiative.

5. When you take a stand, you're being pig-headed.
When your boss does it, he's being firm.

6. When you overlooked a rule of etiquette, you're being rude.
When your boss skips a few rules, he's being original.

7. When you please your boss, you're arse-creeping.
When your boss pleases his boss, he's being co-operative.

8. When you're out of the office, you're wandering around.
When your boss is out of the office, he's on business.

9. When you're on a day off sick, you're always sick.
When your boss has a day off sick, he must be very ill.

10. When you apply for leave, you must be going for an interview.
When your boss applies for leave, it's because he's overworked.

- DeTimes

Thoughts and stories from on the job

My boss came in one morning and caught me hugging my secretary. He said in a rage, "Is this what you get paid for?" I told him, "Nope! I do this for free."

This same boss was into all this dumb inspirational and motivation stuff too. I remember once he posted a sign, which read, "Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday." I couldn't resist and added a note: "And now you know why too".

Once I came upon this pretty new temp standing in front of the paper shredder with a confused look on her face. I asked if she needed any help and she said, "Yeah, how does this thing work?" I took the papers from her hand and demonstrated how to work the shredder. She stood there a moment with yet another confused expression, so I said, "Any questions?" She said, "Yeah, exactly where do the copies come out from?"

People always say that hard work never killed anybody. Oh yeah??? When's the last time you ever heard of anyone who "rested to death".

Being punctual in our Office was of no benefit what so ever. There was never anybody around to appreciate it.

Our Office was always on the cutting edge of technology. Not only did we have computers, which spoke as well as listened; Hell, some of them even got ulcers.

Did you ever notice the people who complain the most about not having enough time to do all their work are the same ones who always stop & tell?

- DeTimes

Top Ten Signs You Work in the 00's

10.You lecture the neighbourhood kids selling lemonade on ways to improve their process.

9. You get all excited when it's Saturday because you can wear sweats to work.

8. You refer to the tomatoes growing in your garden as "deliverables."

7. You find you really need PowerPoint to explain what you do for a living.

6. You normally eat out of vending machines and at the best restaurant in town in the same week.

5. You think that "progressing an action plan" and "calendarizing a project" are acceptable English phrases.

4. You know the people at the airport hotels better than your next-door neighbours.

3. You ask your friends to "think out of the box" when making plans for Friday night.

2. You think Einstein would have been more effective if he had put his ideas into a matrix.

And the number one sign you work in the '00s':

1. You think a "half day" means leaving at 5 o'clock (even if you work at home).

- DeTimes

Casual Fridays:

Week 1 - Memo No. 1
Effective this week, the company is adopting Fridays as Casual Day. Employees are free to dress in the casual attire of their choice.

Week 3 - Memo No. 2
Spandex and leather micro-miniskirts are not appropriate attire for Casual Day. Neither are string ties, rodeo belt buckles or moccasins.

Week 6 - Memo No. 3
Casual Day refers to dress only, not attitude. When planning Friday's wardrobe, remember image is a key to our success.

Week 8 - Memo No. 4
A seminar on how to dress for Casual Day will be held at 4 PM Friday in the cafeteria. A fashion show will follow. Attendance is mandatory.

Week 9 - Memo No. 5
As an outgrowth of Friday's seminar, a 14-member Casual Day Task Force has been appointed to prepare guidelines for proper casual-day dress.

Week 14 - Memo No. 6
The Casual Day Task Force has now completed a 30-page manual entitled "Relaxing Dress Without Relaxing Company Standards." A copy has been distributed to every employee. Please review the chapter "You Are What You Wear" and consult the "home casual" versus "business casual" checklist before leaving for work each Friday. If you have doubts about the appropriateness of an item of clothing, contact your CDTF representative before 7 AM on Friday.

Week 18 - Memo No. 7
Our Employee Assistant Plan (EAP) has now been expanded to provide support for psychological counselling for employees who may be having difficulty adjusting to Casual Day.

Week 20 - Memo No. 8
Due to budget cuts in the HR Department we are no longer able to effectively support or manage Casual Day. Casual Day will be discontinued, effective immediately.

- DeTimes

A Shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers, "Sure. Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photo shop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an e-mail on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an e-mail on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP Laser Jet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep," says the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?”

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a consultant," says the shepherd.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required," answered the shepherd. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew; to a question I never asked; and you don't know anything about my business ......."

"... Now give me back my dog."

- DeTimes

I urgently needed a few days off work, but I knew the Boss would not allow me to take a leave. I thought that maybe if I acted "CRAZY" then he would tell me to take a few days off. So, I hung upside down on the ceiling and made funny noises. My co-worker asked me what I was doing.

I told her that I was pretending to be a light bulb so that the Boss would think I was "CRAZY" and give me a few days off.

A few minutes later the Boss came into the office and asked, "What are you doing?"

I told him I was a light bulb.
He said, "You are clearly stressed out. Go home and recuperate for a couple of days."

I jumped down and walked out of the office.
When my co-worker followed me, the Boss asked her, "And where do you think you're going?"

(You're gonna love this.....)
She said, "I'm going home too, I can't work in the dark."

- DeTimes

Yahoo’s decision to purge 1000 staff members primarily from its United States operations (some in Europe) has been hot news this year. What we didn’t know when the announcement was made was that Yahoo was planning to expand its base in India.

Yahoo is establishing a new lab in Bangalore with a focus on long-term research. The lab will be “a center of excellence for next generation search and advertising technologies, focused on making the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers.”

According to the Washington Post, the new lab will be headed by Rajeev Rastogi (previously the head of Bell Labs India) and will hire “sociologists, micro-economists, and computational scientists among other categories of staff for the lab.” The exact number of employees the new lab will hire was not disclosed, however the figure is believed to be in excess of 500 people.

The move towards lower cost Indian operations is far from new, and Yahoo already has 1500 employees in India. The decision may raise eyebrows in the United States where offshoring jobs is still fairly unpopular in the broader community, despite its popularity in the corporate and startup sectors.

Really interesting comments on the articles:

1. Yahoo can fire expensive USA workers and hire for less in India. Other U.S. companies can lay off their expensive U.S. workers and outsource jobs to third world countries for less money. Then, these expensive US workers with massive student loans won’t’ find jobs because they are in India. They will be denied opportunities for the remaining jobs here because their student loans are in default (listed on their credit report) as a result of being out of work. ( U.S. companies will not hire you because of your credit report. You might steal something.) The remaining jobs will be $8-9/hour retail jobs. They will not hire these out of work workers because they are overqualified and might quit. So they hire illegals instead. These out of work professionals will have lot’s of time to surf Techcrunch and complain about outsourcing. (This is from US)

2. It will be interesting to see what tangible benefits comes out of this for Y!. The value proposition for offshoring to India has been in free fall of late. China looks attractive on paper but most will confide that in practice China is VERY difficult to do software development in due to language/Time zone/Govt./IP protection problems. Eastern Europe seems to be the best offshoring alternative right now and Y! might do better to try this lab there. I have to agree on the assessment of the quality of IP that comes out of India. Over a billion people have had an opportunity to create the next big thing for the last 10+ years with no determinable results. (Another one from US)

3. “Over a billion people have had an opportunity to create the next big thing for the last 10+ years with no determinable results.” Big result needs not only talent but Funding! There is immense talent in India (silicon valley guys might agree with this) but they lack in funding. Yahoo has recognized just that! Microsoft, Google already have R&D centers in India. This picture might change in another 10 years! (From India)

4. Remember, your corporate leaders and politicians have told you that the only jobs that are being outsourced are the LOW end jobs. Advance jobs such as research and innovation will remained in the U.S. Guess again. Anyway, I think it’s about time that the U.S start sharing it’s wealth and technology with the rest of the world. It’s about time that the other countries can take advantage of the intellectual capital that the U.S has held on for itself for a long time (half of which is anyway Indian). Sharing is good, it’ll only make this world a better place. (One more from US)

- DeTimes

Companies everywhere are experiencing labour and skills shortages due in part to the mass retirement of baby boomers and the global competition for talent. Time to fill cycles are getting longer and vacancy rates are increasing.

So one has to ask: Is this a good time for employers to take a more rigorous talent acquisition approach?

Some forward thinking companies believe now is the time to refine their selection process. As boomers retire at a rate of one every 8 seconds over the next decade backfilling them won't be easy. Armed with this knowledge and experiencing current talent shortages these companies have taken a novel approach which they call quality of hire. Their approach is to hire only the very best applicants who have a lot of headroom and then grow their skills from within. This is a strategy that will help ensure they are hiring their leaders of tomorrow when the tsunami comes ashore.

"We are moving aggressively toward measuring "Quality of Hire" as part of our talent acquisition strategy. Employee attrition is a big issue facing us. We need to address it in a way that ensures that we are not just filling vacancies but we are hiring the very best. So we are implementing programs that will allow us to better identify job candidates that will fit well with our culture." said the Vice President of Human Resources, $500 M + web services company.

Aberdeen Report 2007 Report - "The Global War for Talent: Getting What You Want Won't Be Easy

The strategic shift to quality hiring programs is in part fuelled by wake up calls from management gurus like Jim Collins author of Good to Great- "Get the right people on the bus and in the right seat" and Peter Drucker - "66% of hiring decisions will prove to be a mistake."

As the war for talent intensifies companies can no longer afford to hire or keep marginal performing employees.

A global competition for talent, boomer retirement, and an abundance of skill shortages is a perfect storm. So what can you do now to ensure your organization survives unscathed?

A 300 bed hospital has implemented an innovative nurse grad placement strategy in their effort to reduce turnover and optimise talent.They take a unique approach at matching the grad to their new department.

When new grads arrive they know very little about them. They don't know anything about their working style. Do they like to work quickly and assertively, or do they prefer to work methodically and at a slower pace? Do they prefer to make independent decisions or prefer to be closely directed? These working behaviours and many others are evaluated and matched with the department's culture to ensure a good fit.

For example the working culture in emergency is different from intensive care which is different from paediatrics etc. Placing nurse grads in the right seat on the bus goes a long way toward reducing turnover and improving performance especially at this most critical step of the young nurse's career.

Studies and research confirm that technical skills are important but they are only part of the success equation. Equally important is the way in which the technical skills get applied which is referred to as contextual skills. Selecting a person based on their contextual skills is taking on more importance in the selection process and is best illustrated in the example below.

A fortune 100 company, a global manufacturing leader has a program for identifying and measuring the skills of prospective team leaders on their assembly lines. As part of their six sigma continuous improvement process they set out to hire and promote only team leaders with the right technical skills and the right contextual skills such as perseverance, self confidence, problem solving, and more.

"In order to optimise our process improvement initiatives we must have the right people on board and that means people who have a combination of skills" said the Director of Human Resources, $36 Billion Global Manufacturing Company.

What can you start doing now?

* Review your company's time to fill cycles and vacancy rates. Do you see alarming trends?
* Forecast boomer retirement. How many, when, what departments will be hardest hit.
* Inventory the skill sets of the impending retirees. What special talents and skills do these people have.

Catalogue them, or measure them now. These are the people you are looking to replace. Capture their high performance DNA so to speak before they leave.

Now is the time to act with deliberate purpose and a clear strategic plan.

- DeTimes