The HR Team May 2009 Newsletter

It's May.  This month we are featuring stories on upcoming legislation, incentive plans, seminars, and the impact of happiness through social networks.
 
Speaking of social networks, it's amazing how fast technology and the tools we use have changed since I started The HR Team.  When the company was founded, I created a website.  As hard as it is to believe, that website was one of the few non-shopping websites on the web.  Job searching and posting on the web were rare.   Now, if you don't have a website for your company, you are definitely living in the dark ages; and job posting on the web is the norm. 
 
Case in point, a couple of weeks ago, I was on my way to an appointment.  I was happy, it was 5 minutes before the appointment started and I was within 300 feet of my destination.  Well, at that moment, I was pulled over by a Baltimore County police officer who notified me that the registration decal on my license plate was being blocked by the dealer added license plate frame.  I was a bit surprised, as I have had that car for 2 years, and it has pretty much had the same license plate frame since then.  The police officer then told me that he was going to let me off with a warning, and would just need to verify my license and registration.  So, while my information was being checked by the officer's in car computer, I contacted my appointment with my cell phone to let them know that I would not be on time.
 
Despite being late for my appointment, I was able to leave on time, and was on my way to my next appointment when you guessed it, I was pulled over by another police officer for not having my registration stickers visible. I did of course notify him, that I had been pulled over earlier for the same item, and was planning on addressing it that evening.  I was told again, that I was being let go with a warning, but my registration, etc was checked again.  I of course, contacted my next appointment via my cell phone, to let him know that I would be late.  Then,  I did what every modern Blackberry user does, I wrote about it on my Facebook page.  Isn't technology grand?  Speaking of Facebook, be sure to read the article in our newsletter about how it is being used to spread information. 

Healthy Families Act  

In Congress, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced paid sick leave legislation  (H.R. 2460) on Monday, May 18.
 
The measure  was originally introduced in Congress in 2007 (S. 910, H.R. 1542).  As proposed, the legislation would require employers to provide 7 paid sick days per year to workers to care for their own or a family member's medical needs.  The act would apply to employers with 15 or more employees. 

Incentive Plans

Inspiring people to do better is a worthy goal. But choosing a path to that end can be a slippery slope.

Companies who choose incentive programs have found that people may find unintended and circuitous ways to win the incentive, often at the detriment of the organization.

Examples: A quarterback who threw a lot of interceptions was given a new contract that charged him for each one. Interceptions dropped dramatically because he stopped throwing passes. That was not what contract designers intended.

Writers Dan and Chip Heath tell of an old AT&T incentive. To get more productivity from programmers, they started paying them according to the number of lines of code they wrote. The result was code lines that were very, very, very long. (The Heaths are authors of Made to Stick, which tells how to make strategies work.)

In his book, Riding the Bull, Paul Stiles tells how traders at Merrill Lynch refused to answer any questions from a new hire because they were being paid on commission and didn't want be interrupted.

Behavioral economists say we are bad at anticipating the effect of incentive plans because of the "focusing illusion." The illusion includes a narrow focus, ignoring gamesmanship and ignoring possible side effects.

Writing in Fast Company, the Heaths say the quarterback would have done better if he had a passing coach. And the bosses at Merrill Lynch should have made it clear that traders were expected to tutor the new guy.

With the exception of some sales jobs, incentives can be dangerous, say the Heaths.

For better performance from your people, they say, get back to the slow, messy business of actually coaching and interacting with them.

Want more tips on how best to incentivize and manage your staff?  Just email or call The HR Team (410-381-9700), of course!


Upcoming Events

May 28th Seminar
The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Towson University is holding a Women's Business Forum for owners of small businesses on May 28th.  The event, which includes a keynote speech by former award winning TV anchor woman, entrepreneur and author, Carolyn Sawyer, supports the forum theme: Cultivating Business Development Opportunities.  

Eileen Levitt, President of The HR Team will be speaking on Retrofitting Your HR Workforce.

Registration details, can be found on the SBDC website.

September 15th Seminar
Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR")

Did you know that if you have a legal dispute, you don't necessarily need to go to court?  In many cases, issues can be solved through Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR").

We will have a lively panel discussion in Hunt Valley from 9-11am featuring:

Erik C. Johnson, Esq., President
Creative Dispute Resolutions, LLC

Steven L. Tiedemann Esq., VP & General Counsel
JPB Enterprises

Louise Phipps Senft, Esq., President
Baltimore Mediation

Moderated by:
Eileen Levitt, President, 
The HR Team

Tips will be provided for business owners, CFO's and HR directors on the appropriateness of ADR in their businesses and how and when to best use ADR.


Your Happiness (or Gloom) Can Spread

You've probably heard it said that a certain person has an infectious laugh. It spreads to everyone in the room.

Scientists are finding this observation to be true, but they have also discovered that moods, such as happiness or gloom, spread the same way. The downside is that gloomy people spread gloom. The upside is being called The Happiness Effect.

A 20-year study by social and political scientists at Harvard and the University of California (San Diego) shows that emotions can pass among a network of people up to three degrees of separation away. Here's how it works. 

One person is happy: 

  • Contacts a neighbor, increases the neighbor's happiness by 34 percent. 
  • Contacts with a sibling living within a mile, increases the sibling's happiness by 14 percent.
  • Contacts a friend who lives close by,  increases the friend's happiness by 25 percent.

In turn, as these people become happier, that frame of mind is passed to others, and on it goes like an epidemic. People who are central to their networks have the most influence on the mood of others. In one study, one happy person affected the mood of more than a thousand people.

The Centers for Disease Control is now using Facebook and the connectedness of youngsters to distribute information on health issues, such as taking a flu shot. Their positive attitude spreads to many others.

Have You Taken A Vacation Recently?

If you haven't taken time off to relax this year, maybe it's time to think about doing it. Sure, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Maybe you even have deadlines looming in the future, and you wonder what your boss will think if you aren't there. Go anyway.

In some companies where vacations are encouraged, supervisors don't take their vacation days. This could be a mistake. Here are a few reasons why:

  1. Surveys show that workers are more productive after they take their vacations. That would probably include you.
  2. It's good for your health. People who have worked hard need a break that will reduce their stress levels. The organization can survive without you for a week or two.
  3. You'll have a chance to clear your mind. Without other situations to think about, it's not unusual to have the solution to a problem dawn on a person who is sitting by the side of a pool or walking on the beach.
  4. You will reconnect with your loved one or your family. An agreeable home life increases your chances of success at work.
  5. It gives your second-in-command experience running the department. You can't get promoted unless someone knows how to do your job.
  6. Advisors at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based firm that studies workplace trends, say if you know you do your job well, you should go.
  7. They also say that if you're at the bottom 20 percent of performers in your job, maybe you shouldn't.




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