I actually believe that innovative HR is quite simple! Innovative HR takes tactical and strategic practices and adapts them to integrate with a company’s business strategy and culture.
I believe the most powerful HR innovation comes from working with business leaders to develop the “next practices” that give a company a competitive advantage and ability to thrive in the new world of business. HR’s role is to adapt HR strategies and practices to help the company succeed in the future. HR innovation comes from working with business leaders to create practices that give the company a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Continued…
Posted in Human Capital.
Tagged with Best Practices, Human Resources.
By Tim
– April 5, 2010
Over the last several months, many people have asked me to describe how human resources can become strategic and help a company be successful. I always start my answer by stating that to fully understand strategic HR, you need to know the definition of tactical HR. Tactical HR supplies companies with the basic administrative practices that allow a company to operate efficiently, such as policies, recruiting, compensation, benefits, compliance and discipline.
Strategic HR takes it to the next level by guiding companies on how to engage its workforce to drive results and build its high-performance culture. It also creates a compelling employment brand that helps to attract top talent. Put another way, Strategic HR focuses the company’s talent on winning in the marketplace! Continued…
Posted in Human Capital, Uncategorized.
Tagged with Human Resources, Strategic HR, Tactial HR.
By Tim
– March 8, 2010
At least 98% of company’s today state that they have a pay for performance compensation philosophy. Pay for performance is so commonplace that it has become absolutely meaningless to employees and does not give companies a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting or motivating talented employees. Yes, I believe pay for performance is dead and has been for a long time! I believe this is true even in companies that purport to have it and use it effectively. Why is this true? Continued…
Posted in Ultimate Rewards.
Tagged with Best Practices, Compensation, Rewards.
By Tim
– January 25, 2010
As the country starts recovering from the worst economy in over 20 years, leaders need to start firing up commitment! Great leaders understand that over the last year, talented employees have become disillusioned with their current employers. Even if you think you did a great job connecting with your employees during the downturn, you need to understand that you still need to repair the damages caused by the environment and practices in your company.
Leaders should not rely on loyalty or morale to retain top talent. Loyalists actually cause big problems because they resist change which can kill your company. If high morale is a leader’s goal, failure will soon follow. High morale can only be an outcome of achieving results. Loyalty helps you retain mediocre employees, whereas results are powerful motivators for top performers to continue to drive business success. Loyal employees do show up to work every day, but committed employees invest themselves fully in their work and deliver dramatic results.
Commitment energizes, empowers and inspires people to achieve great results. So, how can great leaders fire up commitment now? Continued…
Posted in Best Practices, Leadership.
Tagged with commitment, Employee Engagement, Leadership.
By Tim
– December 30, 2009
As numerous employee engagement surveys tell us, fewer than 20% of employees are engaged at work. With so few employees engaged in companies today, how can employers turn this around and truly engage their workforce in the future?
As an experienced human capital professional that has been a student of employee engagement and its linkage to employee and company performance for an extensive period of time, I would like to share the following opinions about engaging employees to drive business results and build a performance-driven culture. I believe it all starts with understanding what engagement means and then developing the strategies to engage your workforce. Continued…
Posted in Human Capital.
Tagged with Employee Engagement, Rewards.
By Tim
– December 8, 2009
Over the last 5 years, I have read over 7 leadership books. Of those books, Courage – the backbone of leadership, by Gus Lee was absolutely the most meaningful because it describes the fundamental starting point of becoming a great leader. I believe the message in this book is critical to all professionals who aspire to be great leaders in today’s turbulent business environment. So, I decided to summarize the important aspects of Courage and share with my readership.
As a starting place, the 3 most important leadership values are integrity, courage and character. Most companies have a list of values that include ethics, open communication, innovation, teamwork, and diversity. But these admirable and desirable values can only be achieved if a leader has integrity, courage and character. Continued…
Posted in Leadership.
Tagged with Leadership.
By Tim
– November 30, 2009
One of the most misunderstood concepts in business today is best practices. So, what are best practices really? I do not believe there is one set of human resources best practices that should be adopted by all companies. I believe there are common practices, best practices, and next best practices. Common practices are practices that everyone does that add no competitive advantage. Best practices should be based on solid evidence that they will give a company a competitive advantage and next best practices are cutting-edge and innovative practices that truly engage employees to drive business results and build a performance-driven culture, which is the ultimate competitive advantage. Continued…
Posted in Best Practices, Human Capital.
Tagged with Best Practices, Employee Engagement, Human Resources.
By Tim
– November 16, 2009
Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually communicate to employees that their base pay is directly linked to the value they bring to the company. Linking base pay directly to an employee’s value is easier than you might think. This is the perfect time to start making a paradigm shift from merit increases to value-based base pay practice because people need a reality check on the value of their skills in the marketplace. A recent McKinsey Global Institute study on the economics of human capital stated, “60% to 80% of workers in the United States were receiving base pay in excess of their value in the marketplace”. You can review this entire study at http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/.
So, how does a value-based base pay program work? First, companies need to establish the competitive base pay range of each job in the company. Second, companies need to determine how each job adds value to the success of the company. Remember, value is defined as consistent and progressive achievement of pre-defined goals and metrics that impact the success of the company and demonstration of the required behavioral competencies for the employee’s job. Continued…
Posted in Ultimate Rewards.
Tagged with Base Pay, Compensation, Rewards.
By Tim
– October 14, 2009
In 1992, I read an article titled “Merit Pay is Dead!” It stated that merit pay had become an entitlement and only marginally differentiated between low and top performers. In most companies merit pay was viewed by employees as nothing more than a cost-of-living increase for showing up every day. Over 15 years later, most companies still sponsor some form of annual merit increase program that still has the same problems as noted above. Thus, traditional base pay practices are rewarding mediocrity!
Traditional base pay practices reward mediocrity because they focus on annual merit not the on-going value of an employee. Traditional base pay programs reinforce mediocrity by giving almost everyone a small base pay increase every year. At best, top performers get 1% to 2% more than average performers which is not enough to differentiate. These traditional approaches treat everyone the same regardless of importance to the success of the company, thus mediocre employees stay with the company, whereas top talent leave after a short stay because they do not feel valued by the company. Continued…
Posted in Ultimate Rewards.
Tagged with Base Pay, Compensation, Rewards.
By Tim
– September 29, 2009
For many years, compensation consultants have been talking about a total rewards approach to compensation and benefits practices, yet little impact has been seen. In most cases, total rewards terminology is just used as a bundling of traditional compensation and benefits programs to control costs. Total rewards programs do not engage employees to drive business results. I believe it is time to start designing and using a set of ultimate rewards to drive business results and reinforce a company’s culture
What are Ultimate Rewards? Ultimate Rewards engage employees by integrating performance and reward practices to motivate employees to deliver results and build culture. The purpose of Ultimate Rewards is threefold:
- Engage and motivate employees to achieve the strategic goals of the company
- Turn performance management into a continuous real-time business process
- Create an easy metric-driven platform for coaching and recognizing employees
Continued…
Posted in Ultimate Rewards.
Tagged with Compensation, Performance Optimization, Rewards.
By Tim
– September 8, 2009
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