Transparency.

 

Transparency is the state of being able to be seen through, recognized or detected. When one is transparent, one is open, frank, candid. There are no secrets; nothing is hidden.

 

In recent months the GMA SHRM Board of directors has taken several steps to increase the transparency of our decision making and actions to you, the GMA SHRM membership:

The entire Board is fiercely committed to making decisions and taking actions with openness and transparency. When we make decisions we do so with a strong member-centered foundation behind these decisions. We feel the presence of our membership and the responsibility to represent your interests well when we invest significant resources in continuing our compensation survey, building a strong website and social media presence, committing significant volunteer time to community events such as Job Boot Camp, annually sending all Board members to SHRM chapter leadership development conferences in Wisconsin and a smaller number to SHRM’s national leadership conference in D.C.

 

In the coming months we will be updating the GMA website to include the agendas and minutes from our monthly board meetings. These minutes include our decisions and commitments, a regular update on our financials, and a report on our strategic initiatives and operational activities. If you take the time to review these meeting notes and check out the work that we do on your behalf, you’ll see the attention we give transparency.

Thanks for your vote of confidence by becoming and staying a member of GMA SHRM – and for holding us accountable for our decisions and actions.

We’ve recently seen it again in the Veterans Affairs scandal – how unintended consequences of goal setting can have a disastrous impact on the very results they are intended to produce. In this case, appointment-setting goals together with other problems produced secret waiting lists and possible deaths from neglect.  These tragic outcomes are not unique, unfortunately.  A study published in 2009 by researchers from several well-known business schools cited other negative consequences of goals gone wrong, from Ford’s exploding Pinto to Enron to the shortage of cabs on rainy days.

Does that mean that HR standards such as SMART goal setting and Management by Objectives should be scrapped?  Absolutely not – they are well proven to improve both employee and organizational performance when handled effectively.  Let’s look at some lessons that can be gleaned from the times they are not.

 

Set goals from the top down and bottom up   In a large bureaucracy like the VA, goals are typically set from the top and cascaded down to the individual level.  This process is effective in ensuring that priorities are aligned and everyone is engaged in the organization’s strategic plan.  But relying solely on management to establish goals ignores the fact that front line employees are the ones who best know the realities of their work. Engaging them in participatory goal setting will help to guard against setting unrealistic goals such as a 14-day wait time for appointments in the face of increasing patients and decreasing providers.  Participatory goal setting can also enhance employee communications with management and employee empowerment, both of which improve engagement and performance and protect against the culture of fear and silence that feeds abuse.

 

View goals as part of a system    Don’t set goals in a vacuum. Investigate the connections between the results being incentivized in goal setting and other elements of the system. Avoid being so specific in the goal as to create an incentive to achieve it at the expense of something else that may be even more important.  In the case of the VA, the goal was setting appointments, not the larger objective of actually serving patients.  In the case of city taxis, on rainy days cabbies were achieving their daily revenue goals early and quitting for the rest of the day with a result of fewer cabs on the street and missed opportunities for additional revenue.

 

Base rewards and consequences on more than goal achievement     In the case of the VA, complex metrics and dashboards led away from common sense performance management.  Base rewards and performance consequences on established performance criteria that include the basics as well as hitting metric targets.  Pay attention to the how of goal achievement as well as the what and get input from teammates, peers and customers as appropriate.

 

Monitor progress  A well-known theme that bears repeating is that goal setting and performance appraisal should be part of an ongoing monitoring and coaching that takes place throughout the year.  This gives managers an opportunity to coach performance, intervene to get things back on track if goal achievement is in jeopardy and to partner with employees to ensure success.

 

Establish a process for goal revision if priorities change     An often-neglected aspect of goal management is the process to revise them when necessary.  Priorities may change or unintended consequences become apparent at any time, but if annual goals are locked into a closed system, employees may find themselves in a position where doing what is best for the organization is in conflict with doing what is best for themselves.  It isn’t hard to see which of these choices is more likely to win.  Hence the invention of a secret waiting list.

 

Goal setting and goal management are powerful elements in a comprehensive talent management strategy.  As the old adage goes, you get more of whatever you reward.  Using careful planning and management best practices can help HR professionals ensure that the power of goal management is directed at the actual results the organization intends.

 

Melany Gallant is a 14-year communications veteran and currently the Public Relations Manager for Halogen Software. A great portion of her job involves managing and administering the various social media channels Halogen uses to engage HR professionals in conversations about talent management. She's a regular contributor to Halogen's Exploring Talent Management blog, where she writes about career development and other topics.

 

Contributed by Bob Gregg, Boardman & Clark Law Firm

 

The FLSA provides several exempt status exceptions from overtime pay. One must meet the criteria for the salaried exempt position. However, a position description is not enough. Often the new person does not actually perform the full duties until several months of orientation, training, and working into the position. Madden et al. v. Lumber One Home Center, Inc. (8th Cir., 2014) illustrates this. The court ruled that hourly overtime pay was due to a number of employees who had salaried-exempt position descriptions, but had not yet done the full scope of duties. The “potential to eventually do the exempt duties” was not enough. The employee had to be at the stage of actually doing the duties to qualify. So, be careful. It may be wise to pay hourly until a new and inexperienced employee is “up to speed.” Then convert to salary. 

Cultural Confusion Was Not Fraud
Contributed by Bob Gregg, Boardman & Clark Law Firm

A university fired a Hmong employee after discovering she was not married to the person she listed on her health insurance as spouse. The health plan required a legal marriage for coverage. The discharge was for health insurance fraud. The employee claimed that she had been married in a Hmong wedding ceremony, and she and her husband were fully married in the eyes of their religion and community. An arbitrator reversed the discharge. Though the employee was clearly not eligible for spousal insurance coverage (all marriages occurring in Minnesota require a license to be legal), she was not guilty of fraud. She honestly believed the Hmong ceremony was a valid wedding. Also, other university employees had mistakenly continued children, former spouses, etc. on the health insurance after eligibility ceased. None of them were fired. The employee was reinstated to her job. (The arbitrator left open the issue of repayment of any health benefits provided to the non-married “spouse.”) In re AFSME Council 5 and University of Minnesota (2014). 

 

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The speaker, Jason Lauritson is with Quantum Workplace. Jason Lauritsen has been described as “a corporate executive gone rogue.” For nearly a decade, he spent his days as a corporate Human Resources leader, where he developed a reputation for driving business results through talent.

Today, Jason’s quest is to identify, recognize, and support awesome workplaces as the Director of Best Places to Work for Quantum Workplace. Classically impatient, curious and ambitious, Jason’s early career was a rapid progression of sales and management roles including launching, leading, and ultimately selling a small business in his mid-twenties. He’s a leader, sales guy, entrepreneur, and corporate executive all rolled up into one.

October 1, 2014

Topic: GMA SHRM Focus  -  Race to Equity

Location: M3

Recently the Race to Equity report was released with staggering statistics ranking Dane County as one of the worst in the nation when it comes to disparities between African American and White citizens in our area.  Some of the statistics of the study include:

• Seventy percent of Wisconsin’s white children live in households above 200% of the poverty level, while only one-fifth of African American children experience that level of economic security. Meanwhile, approximately one-third of Wisconsin’s Latino and American Indian kids live in households above 200% of the poverty line.
• White adults, age 25 to 29, are three times as likely to have an associate’s degree or higher than their African American or Latino peers.
• White children are nearly six times more likely to be proficient in 8th grade math than their black fellow students

This program will give a brief overview of the report, but then is a call to action on how we can improve these statistics through best practice sharing, collaborating with non-for-profits in the area, and how to get buy in from the leaders of our organizations.  The report in full is available at http://racetoequity.net/. 

Erica Nelson will be our presenter.  Erica, Project Director for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families’ Race to Equity Project, developed the original outline and design of the Race to Equity initiative late 2011. Nelson also serves, when time allows, as a private bar attorney for the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office. Before her return to Dane County in 2011, she practiced public interest law for three years at the Center for Family Representation in New York City, providing legal counsel and representation for low-income parents in abuse and neglect cases in Manhattan Family Court.

Click here to learn more about the event!

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November 18, 2014
Topic: Strategic Summit: Executive Coaching-- Preparing Your Company for Leadership & Organizational Renewal
Location: The Alliant Energy Center

Sending managers to training workshops may help you check leadership training off your to do list, however, results are disappointing and diluted.  What got us here won’t take us where we need to go.

Leverage the most significant human capital in your organization – executive and emerging leadership.  Start where you are, then integrate current HR systems with organizational partners to facilitate leadership and organizational.

Leave this summit with information and plans to manage the changes required to improve your strategic leadership development in the coming year and beyond.

 

 

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