BEWARE of HIRING YOUR

COMPETITOR’S SALESPEOPLE

In This Issue

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013

HR INSIGHTSf rom the eyes of industry leadersMagazine

Success at Whole Foods Market5 Tips to Create Happier EmployeesDebunking the Myths of Workplace FlexibilityTalent Management Means Talent RetentionUsing Social Media to Find and Evaluate ApplicantsHuman Capital Management: From Hire to Retire

I am never surprised, but always amazed, at the ever-expanding range of issues faced by executives today. More than 30 years ago, when I founded Imprimis Group, the business of human resources was so much simpler and terms such as “Big Data,” “Cloud Computing,” “Mobile Workforce,” etc., were not even a concept, let alone a reality.

Today, keeping up requires access to useful information by consultants and practitioners who are finding the best ways to adapt to the changing landscape.  So now there’s HR Insights, our bi-monthly magazine with articles by individuals who write about their areas of expertise: recruiting, retention, employee relations, and social media.

And speaking of ever-expanding things, Imprimis Group and our awesome team of talent solution experts have been growing, too!  We have added human resource consulting to our repertoire, finding and deploying HR professionals to tackle projects that our customers don’t have the time or the talent to pursue.  This new division, Human Capital Solutions (www.hcsimprimis.com), which started not quite a year ago, is busy working diligently to conquer some of HR’s most pressing problems.

Our payrolling division, Third Party Pay, is also expanding due to the increase in acquisitions.  Because the acquiring companies may not want to take on all of the employees of the acquired company, we come in to take over the employees and payroll until decisions are made regarding future employment.

At Imprimis Group, we’ve also expanded our executive recruiting capabilities and recently filled positions such as CFO, Controller, CIO and VP of Marketing.  Our BravoTECH group, which specializes in IT placement, has been consulting with several clients on their “Big Data,” “Network Security” and

“Data Center” projects.  Freeman+Leonard, our marketing/creative group, has expanded our MODA™ (Modeled On-Demand Agency) and Imagine Nation™ services, answering the call of clients to help with more strategy and ideation challenges.  Check out our new website, www.freemanleonard.com. Freeman+Leonard also has a new hip and cool magazine for marketing professionals called “Connote” (www.connotemagazine.com) in partnership with D Custom and The Levenson Group.

Enjoy this issue of HR Insights and let us know what topics you would like to see in future issues.  At Imprimis Group, we live to help you, our client, find the people you need for the future you want.

Best Regards,

Valerie FreemanCEOImprimis Group, Inc.

FROM THECEO

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 32

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

4 Cover Story Beware of Hiring Your Competitor’s Sales People By Lee B. Salz

7 The Secret to Success at Whole Foods Market By Jaime Zepeda and Tony Bond

8 5 Tips to Create Happier Employees By Darcy Jacobsen

Compliance Issues10 Lunchtime and Compensation

By Michael Haberman

Workforce Management12 Turning Employee Engagement into Operational Results

By Gregg Gordon

14 Debunking the Myths of Workplace Flexibility By Maggie Frye

16 Talent Management Means Talent Retention By Barrie Mershon

17 Using Social Media to Find and Evaluate Applicants By Don Charlton

18 Human Capital Management: From Hire to Retire By Valerie Grubb

20 Two Reasons Why Quality of Hire Isn’t Part of Your Staffing Strategy By Linda Brenner

Ask the Expert21 1. We have an exempt employee with an attendance

problem. Can we change him to hourly as an attempt to cure the problem (paying only for hours worked)? 2. Should we implement a “dates and positions only” policy for reference checks? We don’t want to get sued for giving a bad (but true) reference. By Randall Schauer

Water Cooler Chronicles22 Do You Spy on Your Employees?

By Mike McKerns

Recipe of the Month22 Classic Ratatouille: Savor the Flavors of Summer

4

7

10

17

HR INSIGHTS 3

BEWARE OF HIRING YOUR

COMPETITOR’S SALESPEOPLE

HR INSIGHTSPublisher & EDITORIAL DIRECTORS

Mamu Media, LLC

Editor in Chief Mike McKerns, SPHR

Managing Editor Addy Fillman

Contributing Editor Marsha Brofka-Berends

Associate Editor Lindsay Brockway

director of Sales Robert S. Herbein III

Contributing Writers

Tony Bond

Linda Brenner

Don Charlton

Maggie Frye

Gregg Gordon

Valerie Grubb

Michael Haberman

Darcy Jacobsen

Barrie Mershon

Lee B. Salz

Randall Schauer

Jaime Zepeda

Design & Production

The Office of Kristian Bjørnard:

Kristian Bjørnard & Alex Dougherty

f rom the eyes of industry leaders

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 34

Imagine that planting seeds in the ground, adding fertilizer to them, and giving them plenty of water and sunshine would yield a crop of great salespeople. Many organizations adopt this approach in some of their hiring; they train and nurture their employees to become top-notch sellers. But in their quest to find great sales talent, some small business owners and sales management executives attempt to steal their competitors’ crops rather than cultivate their own, figuring that the competitors are much better at growing a sales organization than they are. Before you consider trying to harvest someone else’s crop of salespeople, though, consider these five misperceptions about hiring from your competitors.

“IF WE HIRE FROM THE COMPETITION, WE’LL GET A SALESPERSON WHO WILL HIT THE GROUND RUNNING WITH NO TRAINING.” Sheer laziness lies behind some of the motivation to hire a competi-tor’s salespeople. The assumption is that doing so yields instant revenue because there’s “no need to train them—they already know everything!” For the most part, this is flawed thinking: salespeople who are new to an organization always need training and develop-ment, regardless of where they’ve worked before.

True, every once in a while you may strike gold and hire someone who’s a rainmaker from the start. More often than not, however, this approach is a recipe for making a bad hire. Think about it: what kinds of salespeople are usually available from the competition? They’re rarely the top performers and are often the bottom 20%—and their companies are generally glad to see them leave.

BEWARE OF HIRING YOUR

COMPETITOR’S SALESPEOPLE by lee b. sa lz

HR INSIGHTS 5

“OUR INDUSTRY IS SO COMPLEX THAT WE MUST HIRE A SALESPERSON FROM WITHIN IT.” How can this be true? No one was ever born with a complete mastery of your industry—not even you. You and everyone else in your field had to learn it. If you truly feel that industry experience is the top re-quirement for a new employee, be prepared for another major hiring challenge: scalability. There are only so many people in your industry, and if you insist on such high qualifications you’ll find that at some point your talent pool will run dry.

Of course, salespeople do need to have a certain level of knowl-edge to sell effectively in an industry. Determine what they need to know to be successful sellers and develop training tools to get them up to speed quickly. Identify resources in your company that can help them with their questions, and test their knowledge acquisition periodically to make sure they’re learning everything.

“IF WE HIRE AN EXPERIENCED SALESPERSON FROM A COMPETITOR, SHE WILL BRING A BOOK OF BUSINESS TO OUR ORGANIZATION.” Before you buy that argument, consider these three points. First, despite what anyone claims, it is extremely difficult to move clients. The pain of change is not one easily resolved with clients, and it’s rare to find a salesperson with a strong enough influence to overcome that issue.

Second, the salesperson doesn’t own those clients—her employer does. Although noncompete clauses don’t usually hold up in court, policies about client-list protection do. Trying to bring those clients to your company can put you at legal (and financial) risk. Do you re-ally need that headache?

Third, don’t think for a minute that the salespeople you hire today will one day retire with your firm. Assume that they will someday leave your companyv , too—and imagine how unethical it will feel when they attempt to take your clients with them when they go.

“WE’RE A SMALL FIRM, AND WE COULD REALLY USE A SALESPERSON FROM ONE OF OUR LARGE COMPETITORS.” This reason is valid only if your company and the large competitor are identical twins. A synergistic match between your company and the candidate is needed to put together a long-lasting sales marriage, and a number of nuances affect this synergy.

This flawed statement assumes a complete sales culture match. Every sales organization is different, however, even within the same industry. The large competitor may have a ton of sales support for prospecting and presentations, for example, while in your company the entire burden is on the salesperson. Or, while working for the well-known competitor, a salesperson may benefit in the marketplace from his company’s great name recognition but will need a different skill set to get in the door with prospects when working with your not-as-well-known company. The list of examples goes on and on.

“BECAUSE OUR COMPETITOR’S SALESPERSON HAS BEEN IN THE INDUSTRY, HE IS PASSIONATE ABOUT IT—PASSION SELLS.”It’s absolutely true that passion sells, but it’s an incorrect assumption that your competitors’ salespeople who arrive at your company have passion. In fact, salespeople who bounce from company to company in an industry become “vanilla.”

Years ago, I had a salesperson on my team who had sold for three of our competitors prior to joining my company. I participated in a ride-along sales call with her and found that she could have had any of her former employers’ business cards in her hand—or my company’s, for that matter. Although everything she said was accurate, she lacked passion: her presentation was all “vanilla” that failed to arouse any interest in the prospect.

Sales hiring is daunting for companies of all sizes. To do it suc-cessfully, you must develop a profile of your ideal sales candidate’s required and desired attributes and interview accordingly. This will help you find the right salespeople for your team—whether or not they have worked for your competition.

Lee B. Salz is the founder and CEO of Sales Architects, Business Expert Webinars, and the Revenue Accelerator. He has written several books, including the award-winning Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager, and is the host of the podcast called Sales Management Minute. A results-driven sales-management consultant and a passionate, dynamic speaker, he can be reached at lsalz@salesarchitects.net.

“Our industry is so complex that we

must hire a salesperson from within it”

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 36

“You can learn a lot about a company by talking to its people.” Last May, this old adage was put to the test—which it passed with flying colors—when members of the Executive Strategy Network (ESN), a networking group exclusively for people strategy leaders at great workplaces (companies on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list), met with Whole Foods Market representatives at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas.ESN members listened as the company’s co-CEO, Walter Robb; the global vice president of team member services, Mark Ehrnstein; and many other company leaders and team members described what makes Whole Foods Market such a unique and great workplace. A few themes stood out in these conversations.

EVERYONE HAS A VOICESome companies let their employees participate in the decision-making process and give them a voice about changes that might affect their work. At Whole Foods Market, not only are team members given a voice, they are expected to use it, too.

One of the best examples of this philosophy in action is Future Search, an intensive four-day process the company undergoes every five years. During this system-wide approach to strategic planning, people from all aspects of Whole Foods Market (e.g., employees, leaders, even vendors) co-create the company’s future by developing its key initiatives for the next five years. They have a voice in building a vision and setting the company’s priorities.

EVERYONE IS CONNECTED TO A HIGHER PURPOSEWhen a flash flood swept through Austin in 1981 and destroyed the inventory and damaged much of the equipment in the original Whole Foods Market store, the fledgling company almost had to close its doors for good. Things looked bleak until staff, family members, neighbors, vendors, creditors, and the rest of the community all pitched in to help the store get back on its feet and reopen only twenty-eight days later.

This fantastic show of support inspired the creation of the Whole Foods Market Declaration of Interdependence in 1985 (and revised three times since then), a document that outlines what’s important to the company and defines its guiding purpose. The declaration concludes with this statement:

We strive to build positive and healthy relationships among team members. “Us versus them” thinking has no place in our company. We believe that the best way to do this is to encourage participation and involvement at all levels of our business.

Hearing so many team members talk about the higher purpose of Whole Foods Market inspired the ESN members who participated in this meeting. Clearly, those employees see themselves as working not just for a grocery store, but for a company that strives to do good and be a movement leader.

EVERYONE IS AN ENTREPRENEURWalter Robb discussed his guiding philosophy as a leader of the company. He described, for example, how Whole Foods Market empowers its store team leaders to run their stores. For example, they each receive $150,000 a year to spend as they like—to start a new in-store offering, perhaps, or to promote team camaraderie or invite guest speakers to the store. They also run their own staff, make hiring decisions, and share financial information as they like.

Without prompting, other employees mentioned this level of corporate trust in the store leaders. The Whole Foods Market spirit is entrepreneurial because its people have the authority to make impor-tant decisions as if they were running their own businesses. And, as Robb pointed out, this entrepreneurial spirit thrives when the neces-sary resources are provided to enable words to match actions.

THE

SECRET TO

SUCCESS AT WHOLE FOODS MARKETBy Jaime Zepeda and Tony Bond

Jaime Zepeda is a senior client relationship manager at Great Place to Work and cofacilitator of the Executive Strategy Network. He can be reached at jzepeda@greatplacetowork.com.

Tony Bond is a senior consultant at Great Place to Work and cofacilitator of the Ex-ecutive Strategy Network. He can be reached at tony.bond@greatplacetowork.com. HR INSIGHTS 7

Employee happiness has become an important and growing business concern over the past few years, as more and more compa-nies recognize the benefits of having not just satisfied and engaged employees but also employees who are happy and in good moods. Health, safety, productivity, absenteeism, customer service, profit-ability—every business metric is affected by the happiness of a company’s employees.

To build a happier workforce in your own organization—and reap dividends in smiling faces and better business results—make sure your organization follows these five practices:

1. OFFER MEANING AND ALIGNMENTPeople want to be part of something (e.g., the team, the company, the community at large) bigger than themselves. Some people actively seek employment with companies that have strong values and give back to society, and others find meaning in being aligned with a company’s goals and mission and feeling like valued team members. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta found that companies that focused employees on the meaning and purpose in their work experienced a 60% drop in absenteeism and a 75% reduc-tion in turnover.

2. PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUCCESS AND PERSONAL GROWTHRecent research by SHRM indicates that growth and professional development are among the top demands of job seekers in the U.S. labor force. According to a survey by Cornerstone OnDemand, a leading cause of employee dissatisfaction and turnover is a feeling of stagnation or a disconnect with company goals. When employees feel a strong connection with their organization, their happiness is high, as Eric Mosley points out in The Crowdsourced Performance Review: How to Use the Power of Social Recognition to Transform Employee Performance:

Think about those intense work times when the team is all pulling together and its total focus on creating something amazing keeps team members working after midnight. . . . [P]eople are sustained through them, hour by hour, by the conviction and affirmation that they are making progress toward the goal. Happiness comes both from the end goal and making progress.

The Cornerstone OnDemand study also reports that in the past year, only one-third of employees received training and development opportunities and only one-third received adequate feedback or recognition. Clearly, there’s plenty of room for improvement in those departments. Companies that fail to make needed changes risk seeing unhappy employees underperform—or leave altogether.

BY DARCY JACOBSEN

5 WAYS

to Create Happier Employees

Did you know that happier workers help their colleagues

33% more often than unhappy ones? And according

to joint research by the iOpener Institute and The Wall Street Journal, happy employees also achieve their goals 31%

more often and are 36% more motivated in their work

than their less-happy colleagues.

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 38

3. ENCOURAGE GRATITUDEIt’s now common knowledge that recognition makes employees happier and more motivated to succeed. But a growing body of research (including a terrific new book, Give and Take: A Revolution-ary Approach to Success, by Wharton School professor Adam Grant) shows that employees who give recognition and reward may benefit from a recognition moment as much—or more—than the recipients. It turns out that expressing gratitude yields amazing benefits for an employee’s health, productivity, and happiness at work. In fact, employees empowered to recognize each other’s accomplishments are significantly more likely to say they are highly engaged than those who are not able to offer such recognition.

4. BUILD FLEXIBILITYCompanies that emphasize great work-life balance see some of the highest rates of employee happiness. Research by Georgetown Uni-versity and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation confirms the importance of flexibility in driving worker happiness, with 80% of employees saying they would be happier if they had more flexible work options. Of the workers who already have flexibility at work, 90% said it eased the burden of work-life balance.

5. CREATE TRUSTOne of the single biggest contributors to employee happiness is simply creating a culture of trust within the organization. Research conducted by a team from Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital showed that enhancing trust and employee com-mitment creates an environment that fosters happy, committed, productive team members. The lead researcher on the study, Nancy Etcoff (a cognitive researcher with affiliations at both institutions), offered this summary: “Workplaces that provide positive environ-ments that foster interpersonal trust and quality personal relation-ships create the most committed and productive employee.”

To foster an atmosphere of trust at your organization, maintain an open, multilateral dialogue among employees at all levels. Recog-nize that trust is a two-way relationship between staff and leadership, help employees to understand and contribute to the big picture, and above all, be sure that leaders are honest and accountable for their decisions.

Darcy Jacobsen is a content marketing manager at Globoforce, the world’s leading provider of SaaS (software-as-a-service)–based employee recognition solutions. Through its social, mobile, and global technology, Globoforce helps HR and busi-ness leaders elevate employee engagement, increase employee retention, manage company culture, and discover the power of real-time performance management. Contact her or follow her writing at www.globoforce.com/gfblog.

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HR INSIGHTS 9

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that nonexempt employees be paid for all time worked, with overtime pay for all time in excess of forty hours in a week. This rule seems simple enough, but problems can arise in some areas. One such area is lunchtime, which becomes even more problematic with telecommuting employees.

SCENARIOSAlthough state laws vary on whether employers must provide meal times, federal law has no such requirement. (Not providing meal breaks isn’t the best HR practice, but is one often found in twenty-four-hour operations.) In order for a meal break to be noncompen-sated time, the employee must be fully relieved of any work duties during that break. In an industrial setting, this condition is easily

controlled by requiring employees to leave their workstations and take their meals in a separate a break room, lunch room, or cafeteria.

In smaller companies and in office situations, however, employees often eat lunch at their desks and may simultaneously tend to work tasks (such as making phone calls or answering e-mail). This isn’t a problem with the employees who have exempt status. But when nonexempt employees do this, they are no longer “fully relieved of their duties”—which means that their meal break time is now com-pensable. A one-hour meal break spent working adds up to five hours of overtime per week, or 260 hours per year. That overtime bill can get expensive! If you are not willing to pay for overtime, make sure that employees remove themselves from their workstations during meal breaks; if they stay, those meal breaks must be recorded as time worked. But what do you do about employees who don’t work in the office?

Like their onsite colleagues, nonexempt telecommuters are en-titled to compensation for all work hours. For telecommuters, it can be easy to grab a sandwich, return to the desk, and continue working while eating lunch, especially since no one is around to remind them not to do so. Nonexempt telecommuters who do this are not “fully relieved of their duties,” and that act of eating while at the computer is compensable time.

Lunchtime and Compensation

COMPLIANCEISSUES

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 310

BY MICHAEL HABERMAN

SOLUTIONSIf you are not prepared to pay overtime, then you need to have some way to control it. Here are some steps you can take:

Require all nonexempt employees to take meal breaks away from their workstations (unless specifically authorized to do otherwise).

Implement a method for tracking work time, particularly to know when telecommuters are signed onto their computers and working. Find a system that requires them to sign off for meal breaks, and make sure that no activity registers during those specified times. (Careful record keeping will protect you from employees who claim to have worked all those hours without pay.)

Monitor adherence to the policy and deal with discrepancies in a very timely manner.

Of course there are other solutions to this as well. These include:

· Don’t allow nonexempt employees to telecommute.

· Be very careful in your selection of people designated for telecom-muting. Make sure they have a strong work ethic, understand the rules, and can be relied on to abide by them.

· Don your rose-colored glasses and don’t worry about it. Keep re-peating the mantra “My employees love working here and would never do anything that is not in the best interest of the company.”

One keystone of any overtime policy is appropriate supervisor training. Companies often get sued not because of the actions of their employees but because of the actions of their supervisors. Supervi-sors are the ones who get hammered on overtime budgets. They have to understand the rules on overtime payment, make sure time is appropriately and accurately recorded, and understand that making any employer (whether in-office staff or a telecommuter) “work off the clock” is wrong.

Some of these recommendations may sound Draconian and give the impression of creating a “police state” at the workplace. Until the FLSA is amended to catch up to the realities of today’s workplace, however, employers are obligated to abide by the current law. So make sure your policies are in alignment with FLSA requirements. Paying overtime as required may add to your budget, but it will not be nearly as bad as paying back pay, legal fees, and fines when you get caught.

Michael Haberman is cofounder and senior HR consultant of Omega HR Solutions, Inc. His company offers HR solutions that include compliance reviews, wage and hour guidance, supervisory and managerial training, strategic guidance, executive advisement, and more. He can be reached at mhaberman@omegahrsolutions.com.

HR INSIGHTS 11

In late June I participated in the Great Productivity Debate held in London and hosted by Works Management magazine. Max Gosney, the magazine’s editor, opened the event by stating that the UK’s productivity rating was lower than that of other European nations and the USA. When debate participants were asked to identify the cause of the UK’s low productivity, the conversation quickly centered on employee engagement. Participants had automated what they could, had outsourced where possible, and now focused on the local workforce.

How the different companies engaged their workforces varied as much as their manufacturing processes. But two common threads wove through the discussions about successful companies. First, management in those organizations spent time listening to and acting on their employees’ suggestions every day. In their facilities it wasn’t a shock or an indicator of bad news when a senior manager walked the floor. Second, those companies rewarded their employees for participation. The value of the reward seemed to matter less than the act itself and took varied forms, such as peer recognition, paid time off, or monetary rewards.

The next day I saw some of these practices at work during a visit with a client. Vaillant manufactures environment control systems and has thrived during not only a long-term recession but also a significant downturn in its particular market (housing). Its approach to employee engagement epitomizes some of the ideas discussed at the previous day’s debate.

For example, the company has developed the Vaillant Perfec-tion System (VPS), a thirteen-principle improvement methodology loosely based on the Toyota Production System and Lean manufac-turing principles. The first two VPS principles encourage employees to enjoy their work and understand their value to the organization. Vaillant recognizes that employees who don’t enjoy what they do won’t do their best. The company also wants employees to under-stand that they are a valuable part of the company and that if they aren’t working when they should be, the rest of the company suffers. These relatively soft principles yield hard results: turnover is now 0.6%, and unplanned absenteeism has dropped 31% (to 2.8%) since the program started.

Vaillant also sets a performance improvement goal each year and expects its people to provide the ideas for achieving that goal. The company has set up a life-cycle system that shows the ideas’ progres-sion from suggestion through implementation and clearly indicates each goal’s status at any point in time. Creating a company-specific methodology and setting goals are straightforward tasks; the inter-esting part is how the company supports employees in achieving those goals.

In terms of educating employees about the principles, for ex-ample, Vaillant has an innovative way of closing the loop: at the end of the class, participants go on photo safaris in their own depart-ments. To graduate, each employee must photograph a VPS principle in action and photograph something that isn’t supported by one of the principles.

TURNING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT INTO OPERATIONAL RESULTSBY GREGG GORDON

CASE STUDY

WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 312

Vaillant also has an interesting method for justifying projects. The company found that the traditional method of financial ROI could be very department centric, with the result that reducing cost or increas-ing value in one department could have the opposite effect in another department as costs were pushed around the plant. Instead, Vaillant looks to see if a project supports one of the VPS principles. If it does, management applies the iceberg principle (which holds that financial costs are just the visible tip of the iceberg) and looks more broadly at the project’s effects on the entire organization. Vaillant recently used this process to justify switching to LED lighting, which at first glance couldn’t hold a candle to fluorescents in traditional comparisons of life versus purchase and operating cost. But when a closer examina-tion revealed the cost of change-out in terms of maintenance labor and increased safety risks associated with maneuvering on high lad-ders around dangerous production equipment, Vaillant realized that LEDs made sense for the company.

In terms of rewarding employees, Vaillant demonstrates apprecia-tion for its staff in several ways. I was particularly impressed by how the company handles doctor visits. Because Vaillant has very low turnover rates and an aging workforce, it has an employee population that’s facing an increasing number of medical issues. To reduce the impact on workers’ wages because of missing work for medical ap-pointments, Vaillant implemented a policy that requires employees to make general medical appointments on their own time but pays up to four hours for time out of work for specialist appointments or surgery. Recognizing that non-general appointments are often available only during work hours, the company does not penalize employees for conditions beyond their control. (Of course, Vaillant expects

something in return for this policy: the union has agreed to be flex-ible in accepting changes required by shifts in Vaillant’s workforce needs.)

After discussing employee engagement with a number of compa-nies, I realize that those who are successful have gone beyond occa-sional bursts of activity and suggestion boxes. Instead, their HR and operations departments have committed to treating employees like expert consultants. Through such efforts as setting up measurable goals (both group and individual), investing in tools and training, committing management’s time to the program, and rewarding em-ployees when appropriate, companies that build successful employee-engagement programs reap multiple bottom-line benefits.

A mechanical engineer by training, Gregg Gordon has enjoyed a successful twenty-year career focused on enhancing operational efficiencies for manufactur-ers. He currently leads awareness-building efforts for the manufacturing market at Kronos Incorporated, a global provider of workforce management software solutions. Gordon can be reached at gregg.gordon@kronos.com.

HR INSIGHTS 13

My flexible work schedule varies each day of the week and even each season. I’m grateful that a work schedule doesn’t dictate my life. My career is just one facet of my life: it doesn’t exist in a silo, but rather blends with other activities that consume my time and define who I am.

Although my schedule changes, my day-to-day goals remain con-stant. I strive to be a loving and nurturing mother and wife, provide for my family, build and sustain relationships, produce outstanding results for my employer, give back to my community, and dedicate time to my own spirituality and wellness (so I can be successful at all of the above). These objectives have long been on my plate. How I go about accomplishing them and the ease of balancing them, however, have both changed drastically over the past two years because of my ability to work flex hours and telecommute.

By discussing my own work situation and personal and profession-al goals here, I hope to inspire individuals to pursue a better balance in their lives. I also hope to encourage organizational leaders to move past some of the false notions about job flexibility and offer work arrangements that are win-win situations for everyone involved.

The Myths:

FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS ARE VALUABLE ONLY TO WORKING PARENTS.Fact: Anyone can reap the benefits of these sorts of arrangements: reduced fuel expenses, healthier dinners (because the lack of a long commute allows more time for food preparation and eating), occasional sleeping in without the fear of being the subject of whis-pered commentary in the office, etc. Discussions about flexible work arrangements are conversations about quality of life, not about work-ing parents.

FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS ARE VALUABLE ONLY TO EMPLOYEES—AND JUST A HEADACHE FOR EMPLOYERS.Fact: In addition to enhancing the overall well-being of your employ-ees (which directly affects your bottom line), flexible work arrange-ments offer the following (sometimes overlooked) benefits:

Productivity: Telecommuting employees exhibit, on average, a 27% rise in productivity. (Source: Workshifting.com)

Total compensation: 36% of respondents to a survey by the Informa-tion Technology Association of America would choose the ability to telecommute over a pay raise.

Talent pool: Having a hard time filling open positions with the perfect fit? Expanding the search outside your local area (and thus including telecommuters) may help.

HOMEOFFICE

DEBUNKING THE MYTHS OF WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITYBY MAGGIE FRYE

WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 314

Environmental: Half-time telecommuting could reduce carbon emissions by over 51 million metric tons a year. Tracking your em-ployees’ carbon footprint could reflect well on your corporate social responsibility scorecard. (Source: Global Workplace Analytics)

EMPLOYEES WHO WORK FROM HOME ARE TOO DISTRACTED BY THEIR KIDS.Fact: Not all telecommuters are parents, and those who are should not have children (particularly young children) present at home while they are working.

IF FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS WON’T WORK FOR ALL OF MY EMPLOYEES, THEN I SHOULDN’T LET ANYONE HAVE THEM.Fact: These arrangements aren’t suitable for all types of job and situations. For example, my brother (a chef) and my sister (a nurse practitioner) can’t do their work from home and must be onsite dur-ing certain hours. Workplace solutions can’t always be standardized across the board, so ask management for guidelines and partner with supervisors to determine what options might work for your organiza-tion. Proactively managing expectations can help you avoid many “opening up a can of worms” issues.

INSTEAD OF ALLOWING FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS, I CAN JUST FIND SOMEONE ELSE WHO’S WILLING WORK UNDER MORE A TRADITIONAL ARRANGEMENT.Fact: We all live in the middle of an ongoing “talent war.” A study by the Center for American Progress found the average cost of turnover to be one-fifth of an employee’s annual salary, so acquiring and retain-ing top talent is more critical to your organization’s success than ever before. You may think your top performers will never leave, but they will move to other employers willing to give them more flexibility and empowerment. A bonus or increased salary may keep them around a few months, but a higher (and more balanced) quality of life will always win in the end.

Many of the benefits (to both employees and employers) of flexible work arrangements are clearly evident, but you may still have some hesitation about them. If so, consider these resolutions to some pos-sible obstacles:

MY BOSS WOULDN’T LET ME HAVE A FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENT, SO WHY SHOULD I LET MY EMPLOYEES HAVE ONE?This one is easy to address: get over it. Don’t let resentment influence how you lead your team.

I WON’T BE ABLE TO KEEP TABS ON MY EMPLOYEES.Gone are the days of this old-school management philosophy. Em-ployees don’t need “bosses”; they need leaders, coaches, and mentors.

That said, employee performance should always be tracked and measured—with or without flexible work schedules. In the wake of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision to ban work-from-home arrangements, followed by Best Buy ending its own flexible work pro-gram, some companies are reconsidering their use of the results-only work environment (ROWE) management strategy. In spite of some high-profile changes, however, ROWE has not suddenly become obsolete.

Employers need to focus more on results and less on the “when” and “where” of their jobs. Work with your employees to establish objectives that are SMART (specific, measurable,attainable, relevant, and time-bound). If employees aren’t performing to expectations, develop an improvement plan for them. And if that doesn’t work, let them go.

IT WILL BE TOO DIFFICULT FOR MY TEAM TO COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER AND ME IF WE AREN’T ALL SITTING WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE OF EACH OTHER.When flexible work arrangements are implemented, communication and collaboration might feel a bit choppy at first, but your team will soon create new dynamics. A myriad of communication technologies are at your disposal to help foster remote collaboration and cultivate team spirit.

IT’S TOO HARD TO SCHEDULE TEAM MEETINGS AND EVENTS.I won’t deny that this aspect of flexible work arrangements can be dif-ficult to overcome. Setting dates early and sharing calendars will go a long way toward making scheduling easier.

THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG?Sometimes I’m told that my experience with flexible schedules is an exception, and that I’ve been successful with them because I am passionate about my work, am driven, have a solid work ethic, and highly respect my employer relationship. Think about what came first, though. Maybe I have those attributes because I was empowered, trusted, treated like a responsible adult, and valued by employers who actually cared about my overall well-being. Consider the power you have as a leader to help someone else develop those attributes—and the benefits your business will reap as a result.

This article comes to us from our friends at Strategic HR, Inc., and guest colum-nist Maggie Frye. A global communication and talent development manager at Hobsons, Frye also blogs at Core-Chat.com. She can be reached at maggie.frye2@gmail.com or @maggie_frye on Twitter.

HR INSIGHTS 15

All signs indicate that employee turnover is finally on the rise. As the USA faced economic challenges over the past few years, most people just decided to stay put and not change jobs, regardless of their job satisfaction levels. With the upturn in the economy and rising consumer confidence, many employees who have been less than thrilled with their work situations are now deciding to seek greener grass.

Half of the companies recently surveyed about employee reten-tion by the global talent management company OI Partners reported higher turnover in 2013 than in 2012 and are still waiting for the other shoe to drop before the end of this year. More troubling, these companies also reported attrition rates of 34% among high potentials (a.k.a. “emerging leaders”) and rates of 27% and 29% among middle and senior managers, respectively. In light of those numbers, it’s no surprise that 78% of respondents expressed concern about losing high potentials in the future. All this attrition means wasted money and inefficiency, and often leads to backpedaling on strategy and business results.

The survey revealed much more information about the respon-dents’ retention practices and future plans, including the following:

· More than half of the firms surveyed intended to grow their staff.

· 70% of the firms surveyed reported that “retention” was their top talent-related concern.

· Increased efforts to retain high potentials include more coaching, better compensation, and flexible scheduling.

· Respondents regard improved selection, training, and develop-ment efforts as ways to reduce frontline turnover in the future.

So what’s the bottom line? Moving forward, companies must make talent retention a top priority. If you haven’t already started identifying the top talent within your organization, you’re behind the eight ball. Make sure your managers know that the days of “be glad you have a place to work” are over: employees are back in a position of power and need to be enticed and encouraged to stay where they are.

Together, your talent management and HR teams must build the processes and tools necessary to drive targeted employee retention, with senior leaders on point to model the right behaviors by dem-onstrating effective leadership skills throughout the company. At the same time, provide managers with the proper training and tools to understand their coaching roles, and teach them how to identify and nurture employees’ strengths while developing their skills. And be sure to identify and cultivate the high potentials within your organization.

Now isn’t the time to rest on whatever laurels your company has at the moment—the economic climate is changing rapidly, and so too are employees’ expectations and options. By putting careful thought into the development of a long-term employee retention plan (perhaps with assistance from a talent management consultant, such as Designs on Talent), your organization can prepare itself for the road ahead.

Barrie Mershon runs the marketing efforts for Designs on Talent, a talent acquisi-tion and talent management consulting group in Atlanta. Visit Designs on Talent at www.designsontalent.com, or contact Mershon at barrie@designsontalent.com.

TALENT MANAGEMENT

MEANS

TALENT RETENTION

BY BARRIE MERSHON

WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT

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Because applicant tracking system (ATS) software can post open jobs all over social media channels, you have no excuse for not taking advantage of social recruiting. Once your jobs have been shared around Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, your sourcing duties will shift to evaluating the talent you’ve connected with via the posting.

BUSINESSES INCREASINGLY SEARCH PROFILES FOR INFORMATIONPeople use social networks to share snippets of their personal lives with friends and family. Now, more than ever though, hiring and staffing departments also view that material. According to Career-Builder.com, 37% of companies use social networks to research job candidates—and 12% of businesses search them for reasons not to hire someone.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY IS TO FIND TALENT, NOT PERFECT PROFILESSocial recruiting can help you identify large numbers of applicants. (Just consider how many people are interacting on each channel!) ATSs will help you evaluate their skills and can keep all of their information straight, too. With such powerful technological tools at your disposal, you have a particularly important responsibility to use social media wisely.

Super-talented applicants may have goofy profile pictures or silly status updates. Those elements of their online profiles don’t neces-sarily provide a full picture of them, however. Don’t risk passing over your perfect candidate only because you don’t understand his or her social presence.

Follow these guidelines to help you distinguish between candi-dates who occasionally post questionable content and applicants who could pose a real problem in the workplace.

CONSIDER COMMENT RESPONSESWhen someone expresses frustration in a tweet or status update, he usually gets one of two responses: either his contacts seem concerned and ask him what’s wrong, or they act like he’s being himself. If you’d rather not hire a verbal hitman, avoid someone whose friends’

responses indicate that his online blowups are normal behavior. But if what you see is an example of a usually level-headed person speak-ing his mind, give him a break.

COUNT AND EVALUATE PHOTOSA candidate seems perfect, but then you dive into her Facebook photos and see one of her drinking liquor. Ask yourself this: is it just a photo of a woman holding a glass of scotch at a bar, or does it seem to indicate illegal, irresponsible, or downright harmful behavior? And if it’s just a single photo giving you pause, be careful not to overreact.

BE FAIR ABOUT SOCIAL ASSOCIATIONSSay that one of your applicants likes Motley Crüe’s Facebook page. Does that mean that he likes to “Shout at the Devil” and thinks of women as “Girls, Girls, Girls”? Likely not. He’s probably just a fan of

‘80s glam rock. When you evaluate someone’s social associations, try to be skeptical without being morally judgmental.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA AS A TOOLHiring managers should carefully consider how they use social content to make hiring decisions. In the same way you engage in job marketing on social channels, job seekers market themselves in those same venues and may exaggerate their online “personalities” to get noticed. While some types of content can indicate that an applicant would be a bad hire, other kinds are just evidence of the free-spirited behavior that hardworking people have always engaged in—and that shouldn’t stop anyone from getting a job.

Don Charlton is the CEO and founder of The Resumator, a Pittsburgh-based com-pany founded in 2009 that provides a social hiring platform to companies of all sizes. Boasting over 10,000 users, The Resumator has helped over 1,300 companies generate 1.5 million resumes in only three short years. It is also the chosen hiring system of Pinterest, Instagram, and Atari, among others. Charlton can be reached at editor@mamumediallc.com or via Twitter @Dontreprener.

USING SOCIAL MEDIA

TO FIND AND EVALUATE

APPLICANTSBY DON CHARLTON

WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT

HR INSIGHTS 17

If you’ve been in HR for even a short period of time, you’ve probably heard the saying “employees are our best asset.” Like any other asset, employees require care and nurture if you want to be able to get the most out of them. Unlike new technology or processes that your competitors can adopt quickly, however, a highly skilled and nimble workforce can give your company a hard-to-replicate strategic advantage. The most successful companies are those that manage hu-man capital in the most effective and efficient manner.

In Integrated and Integrative Talent Management: A Strategic HR Framework, Lynne Morton defines talent as “individuals who have the capability to make a significant difference to the current and fu-ture performance of the company.” Because talent has the potential to come from any corner of your organization, your human capital plan should focus on all employees—not just on a chosen few classified as

“high potential.” To create a successful plan for managing your human capital, first

define your organization’s future goals. Is your company launching a new product? Increasing the capabilities of an existing asset? Ventur-ing into new territories or countries? By understanding what lies five or ten years down the road, you can evaluate your employees’ current capabilities and determine what skill sets will be needed to meet (or exceed!) future expectations.

The company’s strategic plan serves as the foundation for your hu-man capital life-cycle plan. A deep-seated understanding of how the organization operates and how the company makes and loses money will help you, as an HR executive, connect the human capital strategy to the company’s overall strategic goals. By proactively examining both the business as a whole and individual departments, HR can increase employee effectiveness by designing a talent management plan geared toward helping the business achieve its goals.

Your human capital plan should encompass four distinct phases:

· Recruitment

· Development

· Retention

· Managing Out

RECRUITMENT PHASEThe talent management plan life cycle really kicks off with recruit-ment. A successful recruitment and selection process attracts the best possible talent and sets the stage for how potential candidates feel about the company. A disorganized or cumbersome process, for example, could give new recruits the impression that the company doesn’t mind when employees exhibit those characteristics. Even how you relay bad news to candidates who aren’t hired says a lot about your company and its culture. Remember, someone you reject today may be perfect for your company tomorrow. So treat everyone with respect and dignity!

During the evaluation phase, partner with the hiring department to determine what skills and qualifications the position requires and how that role factors into the organization’s overall staffing plan now and in the future. When searching for new hires, fully explore your re-sources to make sure you access the largest possible pool of qualified candidates. In addition to posting the position online, for example, scour social networking sites, network with members of professional associations, and reach out to both active and passive job seekers. And if you remember to source even when you’re not looking to fill positions, you’ll have candidates lined up well before a department needs them.

As you evaluate candidates, make sure the hiring manager ef-fectively tests their abilities and company fit—and doesn’t base hiring decisions merely on “likeability.” Candidate evaluation methods could include panel interviews, behavioral and situational interview questions, homework, auditions, and portfolio reviews. Once an offer is extended, work with the hiring manager to ensure that he or she is prepared for the new hire’s first day in the office.

Finally, don’t underestimate the value of a successful onboarding process: it shapes your employee’s first impression of the company and puts him or her in an ideal position to move forward with a rewarding career there. In addition to welcoming a new hire, the onboarding process should include an indoctrination to the organiza-tion’s culture, training on both the company’s history as well as its future goals, and introductions to members of the new hire’s depart-ment and to company executives.

Human Capital Management: from Hire to RetireBY VALERIE GRUBB

WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 318

DEVELOPMENT PHASECompanies now recognize the importance of investing in their em-ployees today in order to garner a competitive advantage tomorrow. But before you can determine whether your employees meet expecta-tions, you must have very clear, concise standards of performance for every position.

The successful management of your human capital requires an individual formal development plan for every employee. This plan should include the employee’s clearly defined short-term goals, as well as long-range development objectives for which both the man-ager and the employee are accountable. Teach your managers how to coach employees to reach their goals and reward those managers who achieve success with their employees.

The development plan should include job-specific training as well as soft skills in areas such as leadership, preparing and deliver-ing effective presentations, and managing others. Consider imple-menting rotational assignments, too. Smart organizations conduct regular needs assessments to ensure they are providing training and development opportunities that meet the needs of individuals as well as teams and departments.

Development plans should also take into account succession plan-ning for all levels within the organization and the company’s strategic plan for the future. And be sure to treat any expenditure in training, development, health, and support not as an expense but as an invest-ment in your employees.

RETENTION PHASEA formal development plan can go only so far in retaining your em-ployees, though.

It’s critical that you align your company rewards and recogni-tion programs with employee achievement of both short-term and long-term objectives. Remember, you are what you reward—so make sure that your company’s perks and other benefits are comparable to those offered by your competitors. And if your company cannot af-ford to keep up with the competition, be up front about this with your employees (and explain what benefits your company does offer over the competition).

Open communication with senior management is another key to employee retention. Everyone knows that company leaders must have a plan for the organization’s success, but few people fully realize the importance of communicating that plan in a manner that resonates with even the most junior person in the company. So make the

connection between an employee’s day-to-day job and its contribu-tion to the company’s success. Employees will be more motivated and make better decisions if they feel more involved in the company’s future growth.

Company surveys are a great tool for fully and accurately gauging employee satisfaction and engagement. Be sure to share the results with employees and take action for improvement based on those re-sults. Failure to do either will demotivate your employees, so if you’re not planning to do anything with the survey results, it’s best not to conduct the survey in the first place.

MANAGING OUT PHASEWhether a relationship ends at the employee’s volition or at the company’s decision, it’s important to end it on a good note (or as good a note as possible, depending on the situation). Even someone with performance issues or an inability to fit into the culture deserves respect when leaving the company. In addition, an employee’s exit interview presents an opportunity to improve your organization’s processes, structure, and values. Tracking reasons for leaving the company may help you identify organizational trends that require modification. For example, a department’s high turnover rate within the first ninety days of employment could signal the need for a close look at its hiring and selection criteria, because there could be a dis-connect between what’s discussed during the interview process and the job’s actual requirements.

THE ROAD AHEAD Because an organization’s needs continually change, managing the human capital life cycle is an ever-evolving process. Design your program to accept and incorporate feedback throughout each stage so you can be sure you’re meeting the needs of company leaders, man-agers, and employees. By involving all relevant parties in the planning and execution of your human capital management plan, you can help ensure its successful implementation.

Valerie Grubb of Val Grubb & Associates Ltd. (www.valgrubbandassociates.com) is an innovative and visionary operations leader with an exceptional ability to zero in on the systems, processes, and personnel issues that can hamper a company’s growth. Grubb regularly consults for mid-range companies wishing to expand and larger companies seeking efficiencies in back-office operations. Her expertise and vibrant style are also in constant demand for corporate training classes and seminars. She can be reached at vgrubb@valgrubbandassociates.com.

HR INSIGHTS 19

Recruiters

shouldn’t be held

accountable for

quality of hire.

Really? That’s interesting, because HR partners claim that they can’t be held accountable for quality of hire because they say hiring is all the recruiter’s responsibility. Meanwhile, the recruiters say it’s the hiring managers’ ball of wax. And the hiring managers try to shift the blame to the HR department at large (all of recruit-ing and the HR generalists put together).

Quality of hire is of huge importance to any company, regardless of size—particular-ly with research indicating that “superstars” produce twelve times more than average performers. Yet quality of hire remains a hot-potato issue that’s tossed around and met with debate, discussion, and distraction. In the end, it’s rarely measured and leaders aren’t usually held accountable for quality-of-hire results. This happens for two reasons.

WE OVERCOMPLICATE THE MEASUREMENT OF QUALITY OF HIREThis measurement doesn’t need to be dif-ficult, but it does need to span a significant period of time. So toss out the “first ninety days” rule, because it sets the bar so low as to be almost laughable. Instead, consider these criteria when evaluating hires:

· Performance over time

· Percentage deemed “high potential”

· Percentage recognized in some way (e.g., selected for a leadership development program)

· Percentage rewarded monetarily beyond the average compensation

· Percentage promoted or moved to mission-critical positions

· Percentage achieving productivity of sales or other measurable goals

To really get some traction from this measurement, trace your “quality” hires back to the sourcing stage. Analyzing where they came from lets you build a business case around investing in the strategic sourcing ar-eas that drive the most value for your company.

WE CONFUSE MEASUREMENT WITH ACCOUNTABILITYJust because we measure something doesn’t mean that someone is going to get fired for it. Sometimes we become consumed with worrying about whose dashboard something goes on to the point that we forget the origi-nal conversation about tracking it.

So begin by measuring the current state and creating a benchmark for your organiza-tion, different functions, business leaders, etc. Then stop there for a period of time. The benchmark will shed an incredible amount of light on what “good” looks like for all your talent-related efforts. Then, when the time is right, work with senior leadership to deter-mine exactly who should own quality of hire. (Hint: they should be part of the responsible group.) After all, if no one feels they “own” quality of hire, then no one will care much about it.

Let’s face the facts: it’s not fair to hold recruiters alone accountable for quality of hire. Nor is it fair to hold only HR account-able for it, or just managers. Together we are all responsible for the quality of the hires that join the organization.

TWO REASONS WHY

QUALITY OF HIRE ISN’T PART OF

YOUR STAFFING STRATEGYBY LINDA BRENNER

Linda Brenner started Designs on Talent with the vision of helping HR leaders drive faster and better results in talent acquisition and talent management. Visit Designs on Talent at www.designsontalent.com or contact Brenner by e-mail at Linda@designsontalent.com.

WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 320

Q. One of our exempt employees has an attendance problem. Can we change his status to hourly and pay him only for hours worked?

— A. The simple answer is “yes.” The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA),

the federal law regulating payment of overtime based on an employee’s classification as “exempt” or “non-exempt,” does not mandate whether an employee is paid on an hourly basis or a salary basis. It does, however, require that an employee categorized as exempt be paid a minimum weekly salary of $455. Nothing prohibits an employer from paying an hourly wage to an employ-ee who might otherwise be exempt based on job duties, or a salary to a non-exempt person. However, if an hourly or non-exempt salaried employee works over forty hours in one week, other requirements for non-exempt employees must be followed, including recording of hours and payment of overtime.

Randall C. Schauer, Esq is a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP. His labor and em-ployment practice handles the full spectrum of the employment relationship from prehire procedures to post-termination closure, including unemploy-ment compensation and statutory compliance issues such as Title VII, ADA, FLSA, FMLA, and OSHA compliance. He can be reached at rschauer@foxrothschild.com.

Q. Should we implement a “provide only dates and positions” policy for reference checks? We don’t want to be sued for giving a bad (but true) reference.

— A. Conventional wisdom dictates that when an employer is

contacted for a job reference on a former employee, he or she should provide only “dates and positions” for that employee. This is generally the safest approach to references. Although most states have statutes or rules regarding what can be said in a reference (most allow truthful responses), there have been numerous lawsuits filed by individuals contending that former employers preventing them from getting jobs. (Here’s one possible scenario: an individual who is unhappy with a former employer and unable to find a new job may look for a claim against that employer, whether or not the individual had a claim as a result of the termination.) In very limited circumstances (such as a situation in which an individual was terminated because of violent behavior or threats of violent behavior in the workplace), you may have a duty to disclose a former employee’s negative attributes. As long as you provide a truthful reference, you should not have any problems in those cases.

Keep these other considerations in mind when giving a reference:

· Make sure that an approved member of your organization (typically, an HR representative or a ranking officer) provides the reference.

· Require the potential employer to submit a written request for the reference.

· Ask the former employee to sign a release of claims with regard to the reference.

· Never give a reference over the phone to someone whose iden-tity you have not verified.

We welcome your participation in the HR Insights Ask The Expert forum and encourage you to submit questions to

editor@mamumediallc.com.

ASK THE EXPERT

INSIGHTS & STRATEGIES 21HR INSIGHTS 21

Do You Spy on Your Employees?WATER COOLER CHRONICLES:

BY MIKE MCKERNS

NUTRITIONAL INFO (PER SERVING) Calories 606 cal

Fat 5.0 g

Dietary Fiber 5.3 g

Sugars 5.6 g

Protein 3.0 g

SAVOR THE FLAVORS OF SUMMERGardeners say that if you find yourself unable to consume all the eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini that a garden produces in late summer, the best way to deal with the excess is to sneak out at midnight and leave some of it on your neighbors’ front porches. The main problem with this technique, however, is that your neighbors may have gardens, too—and already be dealing with their own vegetable bounty! Fortunately, the French have developed the perfect solution for overabundant gardens: ratatouille! Comprising mostly tomatoes, eggplant, and zucchini, this classic Provencal dish is quick and simple to prepare. Every delicious bite tastes like late-summer sunshine!

Cl assic R atatou ille

Yield: About 6 main-dish servingsTime: About 40 minutes (25 minutes of cooking time)

What you’ll need:

During the spring of 2013, Edward Snowden, a former National Secu-rity Agency contractor and former CIA employee, leaked information about high-level U.S. and British secret surveillance programs. He provided files about them to Glenn Greenwald, a columnist for The Guardian, and in June that newspaper began running stories about some of the covert programs. In the wake of these revelations, some people are hailing Snowden as a whistle-blowing patriot, whereas others condemn him as a traitor.

All this talk about espionage and the U.S. government spying on its own citizens has reinvigorated old debates (and opened up new ones) about privacy and refocused the spotlight on one controversial topic: the fact that many U.S. companies legally monitor the communication activities of their own employ-ees. If your organization currently engages in this practice—or is thinking about doing so—take the time to investigate its different implementations as well as their unique implications.

When I worked in the corporate world, every company I worked for issued me a computer and a Blackberry device on my first day of employment. In ad-dition to health insurance forms, emergency contact forms, and all the other paperwork the HR department sends to new hires, I also signed documents acknowledging that my employer maintained the right to monitor my activity on those devices. At that time, I had no assumption of privacy: I did not own my work computer or phone, and they functioned solely to help me fulfill my job responsibilities.

A few years ago, my employer at the time began allowing employees to use iPhones for work e-mail. Any employee who wanted to do this had to purchase his or her own device, and the company took over the monthly bill. The employ-ee had to install on the device software needed for work-related functions (nota-bly, security software and programs to use work e-mail). The required software also enabled the company to monitor the employee’s activity on the device.

At the time that sort of policy didn’t raise too many eyebrows. Many employ-ees were glad to make the switch to a different device and pleased that someone else would pick up the usage fees. But in just a few short years “BYOD” (“bring your own device”) policies have spread like wildfire throughout the corporate world, sometimes to the point where BYOD is the requirement, not an option. And even though employees must still purchase their own devices, companies insist on retaining the right to monitor their employees’ activities on them.

Currently, the law generally supports allowing companies to monitor what employees do on devices that are wholly or partially funded by the employer. But as technology continues to blur the line between personal and professional, more and more people use a single device for both types of functions, thus rais-ing . When an employee owns a device but the employer pays the usage fees, who “owns” the information that flows through that device? Few disagree that a company should have access to its employees’ work e-mail, but many raise serious concerns about allowing a company to access its employees’ personal electronic data: e-mail, social media accounts, photographs, texts, etc.

The Snowden case has encouraged many people to reconsider how much privacy they can expect—and how much they can demand—in their personal and professional lives alike. As the line between personal and professional be-comes increasingly indistinct, companies may soon encounter legal challenges to their oversight of certain employee communications.

Mike McKerns is the editor in chief of HR Insights and cofounder of Mamu Media LLC. He can be reached at editor@mamumediallc.com.

2 Tb olive oil2 cloves garlic, minced1 large onion, quartered and thinly

sliced1 large eggplant, cubed1 green bell pepper, coarsely

chopped1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

4 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped

2 medium zucchini, cut into ¼ -inch slices

1 teaspoon dried basil½ teaspoon dried oregano¼ teaspoon dried thyme2 Tb fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:1. In a large Dutch oven or heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil over

medium heat. Add the garlic and onion, then cook (stirring often) until softened.

2. Stir in the eggplant and peppers, then cover and cook for 10 minutes (stirring occasionally).

3. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, salt, and herbs. Cover and cook over low for 15 minutes.

(Note: If the eggplant is not just-picked fresh, put the cubes in a colander and sprinkle 1 TB of salt over them to draw out the bitter juices. After 20 minutes or so, squeeze out the excess liquid, then rinse the eggplant thoroughly and pat it dry with a towel. If you take care of the eggplant first before prepping any of the other ingredients, it will be ready to add to the pot when the onions and garlic are soft.) Ratatouille works great as either an entree or a side dish. Toss it with just-cooked pasta for a one-dish meal, or try it atop toasted slices of crusty bread. Served cold or at room temperature, it’s a terrific addition to any picnic basket or potluck dinner. It’s great for breakfast, too: use it to fill an omelet or a crepe. Whether you’re looking for a dish to use up some of your garden harvest, wanting to take advantage of the great seasonal produce available at your local grower’s market or grocery store, or simply searching for a new summer dish to try, you’ll find that ratatouille’s rich flavor and amazing versatility will make it part of your regular culinary repertoire!

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 322

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HumAn resources:

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