Healthcare Reform: Let Your Mind Wander

Although a large portion of our current healthcare system is financed by employer-provided insurance, I am not sure why. It seems that businesses fell into this responsibility. As more businesses started offering bigger and better benefits packages to recruit highly qualified workers, more employers felt the pressure to offer similar enticements to compete for the best and brightest employees. Over time, the expectation grew that employers would offer health insurance.

What if businesses ceased their role as the keepers of our nation’s healthcare program? In fact, some commentators believe that could happen. Under the recently signed healthcare reform bill, it may be less expensive for employers to drop insurance and pay the $2,000 penalty per employee, rather than provide insurance to employees.* Let’s use our imaginations and consider the following outcomes:

1. Employees would be forced to use the insurance purchasing exchanges.

2. Employers would eliminate the administrative and financial burden of providing healthcare benefits. The savings could be used to hire more people or invest in equipment and research and development.

Whether you love or hate the new healthcare reform bill, I think this scenario warrants some thought. If your company didn’t have to provide health insurance, how would it use the newfound dollars? If your employees were confident that the healthcare exchanges provided solid coverage, would they accept elimination of your company’s healthcare coverage?

Share your thoughts by clicking on the “comments” link below. I look forward to hearing from you.

* According to Congressional Budget Office analysis, employer sponsored insurance coverage will still account for 61 percent of the healthcare marketplace in 2019.

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Lazy Feedback Limits Achievement

Maintaining regular employee feedback is one of the most difficult disciplines required of managers. With the grind of deadlines and scheduling demands, busy managers feel like they are barely keeping their heads above water. Who has time to point out a minor indiscretion or an error that you could fix just as easily yourself? Shouldn’t your subordinates notice when you change their work and make the necessary adjustments on their own?

If you are like me, you have had all of these thoughts at some point in your career. You may have also realized that you were wrong, just as I have over the years. Careful feedback is difficult to produce but well worth the effort in the end.

Most people can’t evaluate themselves effectively. And even for those who are realistic about their performance level, obvious flaws can continue to fly past their radar screen. In the publishing industry, we say, “Everyone needs a good editor.” That same idea rings true in any endeavor. Honest, specific feedback makes the difference between mediocre performance and the highest levels of achievement.

The challenge for HR professionals and managers is to find an effective method of delivering feedback without breaking the bank of limited time and resources. Many organizations still rely on the annual review process. While better than no review at all, piling a laundry list of indiscretions on employees once per year gives them little chance to improve their performance before they receive their annual rating. On the other hand, requiring managers to provide feedback more often may be unrealistic.

Over the years, I have gleaned the following ideas from the HR community.

1. Use recognition practices to reinforce good performance. By sending thank-you note when employees perform well, you reinforce good behaviors — and hopefully discourage bad ones.

2. Every three months, schedule a 45-minute brown-bag lunch with each employee on your team. Everyone has to eat lunch, so the time commitment is easier to swallow (no pun intended). Prepare a list of three items that the employee is doing well and a list of three areas that need improvement. Allow the employee to provide input on which items to focus on during the lunch period.

3. Implement a performance management software system. That is a major endeavor, but one that pays off for some organizations. Initially, be prepared for some dissent from the ranks. Effective performance management requires time commitment from managers. Point out the benefits through case studies and examples of improvements as the system shows results.

Performance management is a thorny issue. A good system will threaten poor performers, as well as managers who don’t want to spend time on providing employee feedback. However, stick with it. When performance management is done well, it can raise employee achievement to new heights and have a significant impact on the bottom line.

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Tell Us About Your Favorite Leader

Defining effective leaders is a subjective exercise. However, a recent column in The Wall Street Journal mentions some interesting research on the topic. Alan Murray, deputy managing editor and executive editor of the paper’s online content, discusses “Good to Great,” a book by Jim Collins that explores characteristics of healthy companies. Collins found that organizations with celebrity CEOs weren’t always the most successful businesses. In fact, low-profile traits, such as perseverance and making choices based on the good of the group rather than personal gain, were strong indicators that a leader would build a winning company.

The key to effective leadership boils down to sincerity. A leader’s job isn’t to make everyone happy. In fact, subordinates may disagree with a manager. However, team members remain loyal to the group because they respect their leader’s integrity. (Those who disagree strongly are likely to leave the organization. In the end, the unhappy employee and the team are better off.) That’s why leaders who stay true to their mission develop effective teams and produce results.

In the aftermath of corporate scandals and banking industry excesses, I suspect leaders with inclusive styles that consider the good of the organization and shareholders will be held up as examples. Business groups and the media will be more likely to celebrate leaders based on results and their lasting contributions, rather than on their popularity.

Another major finding in Collins’ book was that leaders and organizations that carefully implemented succession planning strategies performed the best over extended periods of time. Executives in those organizations were willing to share their knowledge with underlings who could move into leadership positions with little disruption to company operations.

Unfortunately, effective succession planning is the exception, not the rule. A 2008 survey by CEO Network found that six in 10 companies did not have a plan for a successor to the top leader. I’ll venture a guess that statistic isn’t much better in 2010 as organization’s poured much of their time and attention over the last two years into surviving the recession.

During this time of need, HR professionals have a golden opportunity to showcase their succession planning skills. In fact, more HR executives are being called upon to serve on executive boards for that reason.

What are some of the most effective leadership traits you have observed? Are you involved in succession planning in your organization? I welcome your comments!

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The Conundrum: Succeeding in a Post-Recession Economy with a Recession-Worn Workforce

Creativity and leadership are critical for organizations to compete as the economy improves. Unfortunately, 85 percent of employers say they can’t find workers in today’s workforce who have the ingenuity and self-direction needed to accomplish organizational goals, according to a study by the Conference Board and Americans for the Arts in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators.

Too many task-oriented workers won’t cut it. At a time when global competition is stiff, we need all the innovation and creativity we can get. During the transition to a thriving economy, people who can gather diverse internal and external ideas and devise big-picture strategies are the most valuable to organizations.

Facing a lack of creative thinkers, some organizations will invest in training programs to boost innovation or devise massive recruiting campaigns to hire the best and brightest. However, with job satisfaction at an all-time low, training and hiring will be mere Band-Aids on deep lacerations in the worker psyche. The Conference Board reports that 45 percent of Americans were happy with their positions in 2009 — the lowest level since 1987, which is the first year the survey was conducted. That means more than half of your workforce is coming to work each day disengaged and unmotivated.

Less money in people’s pockets is a factor in employee dissatisfaction, says the Conference Board. Stagnant or declining wages, dwindling retirement accounts and a bigger hit to paychecks from healthcare costs have taken a toll. In addition, increasing commute times and ineffective managers have beaten down spirits.

If a lack of critical skills within your workforce isn’t enough, recent research says that the best people you have may leave for greener pastures. A recent CareerBuilder survey found that 20 percent of workers are looking to switch jobs in the next two years. As always, skilled workers recognize their value and potential and are the first to pursue opportunities when they arise.

Organizations that don’t prepare now for an improving economy will lose. HR has a major role to play in that outcome. Albeit a challenging one.

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Covet Thy Neighbor's HR Skills

While many of us were shopping and planning holiday festivities, corporate boards have been wooing HR executives. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported in “HR Executives Suddenly Get Hot,” that the number of HR professionals serving as outside directors rose significantly over the past decade. The trend isn’t likely to subside. Issues such as exorbitant executive pay and concerns about succession planning are making workforce expertise a coveted skill at the highest levels of corporate management. Executives who worked long and hard to meld HR practices with corporations’ business needs are reaping the rewards. Now, businesses can’t get enough of their input.

What’s next for these sought-after workforce professionals? Could the CEO position be waiting? That may be a foregone conclusion if pay equity and business ethics remain in the limelight. Here are a few educated guesses on the profile of an “HR-educated” CEO:

• The CEO is likely to be a woman. With a large population of female HR executives currently in the ranks, it’s a safe bet that the new-found value and respect for HR skills will drive more women into the top job.
• The CEO would emphasize the connection between workforce skills and business goals. Ultimately the business strategy must drive workforce decisions. However, you don’t have to read too many business case studies to find examples of disastrous results when senior management teams forged ahead on initiatives without the proper people in place.
• The CEO would emphasize training. Related to the previous bullet, you can’t prepare your workforce without a relevant training program. Too much training has been relegated to “learning on-the-job,” which some also refer to as “winging it.” Online training offered a low-cost, efficient method for training during the economic downturn. However, it is time for businesses to invest again in substantive person-to-person training that teaches the nuances of a job.

A few other traits to add to an "HR CEO" profile were shared by Don Matthews, CEO of SCA Hygiene, who came up through the HR ranks. He mentions excellent collaboration and influencing skills, and the ability to build business cases for new initiatives. Matthews also notes that stints in other areas of an organization are critical for success in the top position.

We may be experiencing the dawn of a new senior executive model or a fleeting interest in workforce issues. Either way, HR should seize the moment and demonstrate how people management can make or break an organization.

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