by Jason Klees

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter 

PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT AS A COMPETITIVE EDGE DURING AND AFTER RECESSION:
Historically, recessions have provided opportunities to grow business and personal wealth.  For the purpose of this article, WEALTH is defined as an abundance of valuable resources or material possessions; an abundance or profusion of anything; a plentiful amount (Merriam – Webster).  No doubt, it helps to have wealth to weather an economic down turn!  We all have heard or personally know about managing wealth during a time like this.  You have probably recently experienced some of this management in your personal bank account or in your company’s budget and expenses.  But finance alone does not make a company wealthy.

CFOS LOOK TO EFFECTIVELY POSITION ASSETS, PRESERVE VALUE
I attended a presentation by Dennis Schuler, VP of HR at Proctor & Gamble and Dave Ulrich, professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, author, and co-founder of The RBL Group.  They said that HR people need to be business people first and understand how to add value to customers and investors through the capabilities they possess.  Does the Chief Financial Officer know about your training department?  Is (s)he aware of how the corporate university is a competitive advantage?  More appropriately – are you prepared to discuss these topics with them?  Many of my professional training counter parts would say “no“.    Take account of your staff with discernment to increase both your available cash and your profitability. Here are some ideas on how to do that:

SUCCESSFUL ON BOARDING PROGRAMS
There are many cases where executives leave a company within the first year.  Some are well known, like the Michael Ovitz / Michael Eisner arrangement but there are many many more that cost companies millions of dollars each year.  Likewise, there are many companies that grow their leaders from within using a “trial by fire” or a “sink or swim” approach.  Such an approach is open to liabilities and litigation. Issues like harassment, discrimination, negligence, or compliance can be mitigated by a consistent entry program.  And I might add refresher training doesn’t hurt either (Civ. No. CV08-331 JCC in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington).

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Identify your highly motivated, indispensible people as well as your up and comers who are able to take on new challenges.  Make this a focused effort that is similar to other processes designed to protect and grow corporate assets. Provide a training ground for these folks to develop so that you can capitalize on their strengths and their increased abilities.  This can be done through a mentoring program, a partnership with a college or university, or with an updated internal management training program.  All of these to be aligned with this year’s performance goals as well as the five year plan. 

EXPAND INTERNATIONALLY – THINK TRAINING
Any company with the potential for an international presence should look into how prepared they are to enter or interface with the foreign culture.  Does your company offer language training? Do you tap into opportunities to host cultural experts to enhance your employees’ understanding? Do you have a management exchange program with a sister division where a manager participates on a learning path like a student foreign exchange program?  Imagine if you were to arrange an exchange program with your counterparts in China for example.  Did you know that 200,000 Chinese students study abroad ANNUALLY?   These are just some ideas that provide the ability to catalyze, be competitive, be compatible, and capitalize. Contrast these behaviors with that of your competition whose natural tendency is to view staffing as the most expendable expense and you quickly realize competitive advantage.

EMPLOYEE LIFE PROGRAMS
Okay, this is the soft stuff that typically HR is known for.  But before you stick your finger down your throat and make a gagging sound, hear me out as this will help leverage your assets for long term value!

Your employees may be as anxious or affected by this downturn as you are. That’s why you should consider offering seminars on topics such as credit, finances, debt, or foreclosure. Other topics could be eldercare, retirement planning, or funding a college education. These programs will be of significant value to your employees who may be facing great uncertainty. Programs like these demonstrate the employer is concerned for the people who contribute to the company’s success.  This value translates into increased loyalty and positive sentiment which become wildly important when the economy turns around and people start looking to change jobs (and companies).  Remember, the employee you’re able to save today is the position you don’t have to recruit, screen, hire, and train for tomorrow.
Jason Klees is just a simple guy from the mountains of North Carolina.  Though not an experienced farmer, he knows enough that spraying Round Up on your fruits will kill them.  Jason is a training and development specialist with the bulk of his career being in Operations as well as Human Resource departments for Fortune 100 companies. An avid follower of Stephen Covey, Jason really believes that if we live in Quadrant II, we can prevent more of the problems that we would otherwise have to solve later.  You can follow his thoughts and contribute your feedback by following him on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonklees

Sources:
http://www.eeoc.gov/press/8-21-09.html
http://www.vistage.com/library/articles/article.aspx?id=%7BF3745ED9-BFA9-4753-A644-F497D88556EF%7D
http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Canada/Local%20Assets/Documents/en_ca_CFOrecessionplaybook_Mar09.pdf
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/exec-onboarding-key-to-companies-growing-through-recession-1100320.html
http://www.sibson.com/publications-and-resources/articles/May-09-workspan.pdf

by Jason Klees

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

A strange thing is happening during this recession….. We are not taking advantage of the opportunity that lies in front of us.  Donald Trump and Warren Buffett, both considered to be successful in their businesses, are known to buy low and sell high.  Here at home, my wife is known to take advantage of a “sale.”  A conversation overheard at our house goes something like this: “Honey, do you like my new shoes?  I got them ON SALE.”  Donald Trump is taking advantage of declining prices in real estate to develop more properties that he can put his name on (preferably in big gold letters).  Warren Buffett is taking advantage of the decrease in the cost of materials and services and the increased availability of skilled laborers and capacity for production to invest in companies that are poised for growth and profit.  Buffett’s method is to research not only a company’s P&L statement but to also look at their management structure and culture.

Yet, in stark contrast of these successful people who are known for their ability to produce substantial ROI (my wife included!), look at today’s large company organizational behavior which demands to produce more using less while providing a less than fertile environment for the fruits of their labor to flourish, grow, and ultimately harvest.  Their observed behavior is to slash training and development budgets to the bare minimum required to maintain regulatory compliance; increase the stress on the employees to the breaking point, and let go expensive, higher paid top performers while retaining cheaper moderate to mediocre performers.  Performance bonuses have been decreased or eliminated altogether - further reducing the incentive to put up with the increased environmental stress and produce top results.  In other words, not only are they failing to plant and nurture seedlings during this time – they are also spraying Round Up on the fruit they still have left in their organization.  And I haven’t even mentioned the threat of federal regulation dictating “acceptable” levels of compensation!

Instead, what we should be doing is using George Costanza Theory.  In the popular TV show Seinfeld, was an episode where George, the unemployed, no girlfriend, still-living-in-his-parent’s-home-adult-child decides to use “opposite theory”.  He figures if he does the opposite of what he would normally be inclined to do, he will yield different results.  We learn by the end of the episode that George lands a good job, has a hot girlfriend, and is looking for his own place to live!

Using this theory in our organizational behavior would look like:  increasing opportunities for employee development – after all if you want to do more with less, then the “less people” need to know how to do “more” and do it well (not just well enough) - to allow growth of the company and a successful harvest (increased profit, growth, stock price etc).  This increase in development would foster a higher level of loyalty, trust, and maybe even morale in this tough economic climate.  The ROI would not only be high quality products and services created/demonstrated by the employees but also in the decreased costs of stress that show up in our workplace compensation claims, Employee Assistance Programs, and sabotage/espionage incidents.

Your companies and clients should be increasing technical skills training, increasing business acumen training, and increasing employee recognition programs during this time of decreased spending and recession.  These can be done in a fiscally responsible manner without breaking the bank. In others words, take advantage of the things “On Sale”.  In order to successfully implement, managers need to know “how” and therefore there should be an increase in leadership development.  And with the increased performance of the company should come awards in the total compensation package (not just salary) providing further incentive to perform and rewarding “sticking it out” during the tough times.

Ask yourself, is my company / client doing any of the following:
• Slashing training budgets, delaying training programs, or viewing development as a luxury?
• Simply freezing acquisitions and open positions instead of identifying the needed talent and strengths of positions / employees?
• Placing an emphasis on likeability rather than performance value of employees?  You know this when you hear the statement someone “is well liked in the organization” before the statements of performance or value add to the organization…
• Reducing or eliminating employee recognition (or decreasing the importance of it) – which results in little to no sense of recognition of the employees?

Then they are spraying Round Up during a time when they should be nurturing/fertilizing the fruit to harvest!  It’s time to implement George Costanza Theory!

Jason Klees is just a simple guy from the mountains of North Carolina.  Though not an experienced farmer, he knows enough that spraying Round Up on your fruits will kill them.  Jason is a training and development specialist with the bulk of his career being in Operations as well as Human Resource departments for Fortune 100 companies. An avid follower of Stephen Covey, Jason really believes that if we live in Quadrant II, we can prevent more of the problems that we would otherwise have to solve later.  You can read more about Jason and follow his postings on LinkedIn.