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Taking talent to the next level

Crain’s Cleveland Business Custom Publishing | SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

HIRING & DEVELOPMENT Building a workforce

with local talent

LEADERSHIP & RESPONSIBILITY Managing diversity and generational

differences

TECHNOLOGY The bridge between

your people and business strategy

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Integrated talent

management leads to organizational benefits

[ HR Leadership Group of Northeast Ohio ]

Build a strong team through training,

engagement and advancement

opportunities

BY AMY B. SHANNON

B usinesses today face an incredible amount of pressure from both

internal and external sources. Increasing globalization, rapid technological change, and tougher competition challenge companies, while internally they may face organizational changes such as new alliances, structures and hierarchies; and new ways of assigning work, outsourcing, offshoring, and

remote workers, with a high turnover rate in the workforce.

As a result of these growing pressures, HR leaders have faced unprecedented challenges in recent years. Compounding the pressures, the economic decline has created enhanced expectations for HR professionals as businesses focus on surviving turbulent financial conditions by drastically trimming budgets and often reducing payroll while maintaining core operations.

First and foremost, successful senior HR leaders are expected to bring a high degree of knowledge to the role. This includes literacy in the language of business, strong financial acumen, and a firm knowledge of human capital management issues and their effect on business operations. The Human Resources Leadership Group of NE Ohio enables HR leaders to develop and maintain these critical knowledge and skills.

The HR Leadership Group of NE Ohio’s mission is to provide programming that addresses the most important knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes required of highly successful senior HR leaders. The common focus is to address leading-edge thinking in human resources to remain effective and aligned with business strategy.

We are proud to partner with Crain’s Cleveland Business for our second special supplement dedicated to human resources. The articles were crafted by many of our members, which include HR professionals such as HR vice presidents and directors, leading consultants, and academia.

As HR leaders, we recognize that managing people can be a complex part of the leadership role. HRLG offers an open forum for your HR leaders to stay on the cutting edge of topics, solutions and best practices through learning from industry experts and networking with local leaders. Please contact me at 440-520-3031 or [email protected] to learn more about the HR Leadership Group.

Amy Shannon is president of the HR Leadership Group of Northeast Ohio.

Working Together to Build a More Robust HR Culture

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HR Leadership Group Bimonthly EventsWe invite all senior business executives to attend our bimonthly events, which begin at 8 a.m. at the Embassy Suites hotel off Rockside Road in Independence. Our first two programs are as follows:

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president’s letterSEPTEMBER 17“The New Science of Organizations: 5 Modern Principles to Live By,” presented by Dr. Michael Burchell, North American Client Services Leader for McKinsey’s Organizational Solutions

NOVEMBER 19“Big Data: Transforming the HR World through Data Analysis,” presented by David Bernstein, head of eQuest’s Big Data for HR/Predictive Analytics Division.

BY KAREN KAMINSKI

W e often tell our employees to continue learning to advance

in their careers. It’s a nice idea, but formal education opportunities are not always feasible as daily tasks and family responsibilities take precedent. So it’s up to us to create a culture that will make learning easier.

Fill the toolboxGive employees the tools to learn

and succeed. In addition to tuition reimbursement for employees to attend college or earn professional certifications, offer on-site training to help employees expand their current role, learn a new job or improve their leadership skills.

Provide hands-on training or online courses to help them better understand the industry or to brush up on previously learned skills and regulations. This will help them do their jobs better and assist their colleagues on a daily basis. Your business will benefit by having a well-trained team that needs little oversight.

Mentor employees to help them grow in the field and eventually take on additional responsibility. If employees express an interest in another department, allow them to shadow someone in that area so they can determine if it’s right for them.

It’s all about timingNow that the toolbox is full, give

employees time to use them. There’s always work to be done, but

sometimes it’s more beneficial to relieve employees of those duties temporarily so they can focus on the future. Give them time at work to attend on-site learning sessions such as a book club or Toastmasters. The upfront investment pays great dividends over time.

The coach is in Make learning the norm. Refer to

leaders as coaches. Employees should be encouraged to come to coaches for guid-ance and support. In turn, coaches should view missed opportunities as teachable moments. Instead of finding fault with an employee who misses the mark, teach them how to do the job properly. Allow employees to coach one another.

A happy, well-balanced team leads to a successful business.

Karen Kaminski is vice president of human resources for Horseshoe Casino and ThistleDown Racino. Contact her at 216-297-4891 or

[email protected].

nescoresource.com

Our company was growing like never before. That was the good news, but

markets, ride out highs and lows, and stay competitive.

Nesco Resource helped us put together a contingent workforce strategy that gave us the right people, right when we needed them. They screened employees for skills and backgrounds and even provided training and on-site management.

Now I have the right people in the right place and my company can concentrate on what it does best: satisfy our customers. That works for me.

Let Nesco work for you. With over 70 branch offices around the country specializing in engineering, IT, light industrial, and administrative temporary and permanent staffing, we can help optimize your workforce. As the largest staffing firm headquartered in Ohio, we’re proud to call Northeast Ohio home since 1956. Call one of our NEO branch offices today.

Nesco Works For Me.

A Nesco, Inc. Company

BY AMY LUNDSTROM LANE

A s the economy continues to show strength and

unemployment falls, your ability to retain your current employees is imperative. Given the increasing choices for career advancement outside your organization, employee retention must now be considered a leadership priority, not just a human resources department measurement.

We’ve all heard the statistics about the cost of turnover. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that it is from 150 to 400 percent of the position’s salary. While there are many reasons for employees to leave your organization, I would challenge you to consider if your organization offers enough opportunity for growth and advancement as part of your retention strategy. According to a survey conducted by the American Management Association (AMA), employee development issues are of top importance for employees. AMA’s Eric Rolfe Greenberg states, “Investing in employees’ development is more important than immediate compensation.”

As a leader or manager, are you taking responsibility for developing

your employees? Often organizations leave this to the HR department, rather than ensuring that there is a holistic, integrated strategy for developing employees and creating opportunities for growth. By doing so, these organizations are limiting their productivity and success. According to research by the National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce, increased worker training and education raised business productivity more than comparably increased hours worked or capital equipment.

For sustainable, positive impact, employee development initiatives should be driven by the organization’s leadership and framed by functional managers. They must also be multifaceted and considered longer-term engagements. While training programs are a key part of developing employees’ skills and growth, the training must not be offered in isolation; if done so, the return on the training investment will be minimal.

Ideal tactics for developing employees’ skills will be supported by performance evaluation and

coaching conversations and clearly defined individual development plans. Further, research shows that training offered is more likely to have an impact on the employee’s growth and performance in the workplace if the manager and participant communicate before and after the training about its objectives, discussing how the learning can best be applied to the workplace. Mentoring and job rotation also support learning and are effective approaches to support an employee’s skill development.

The evidence is clear — employee development is of strategic importance for engagement and productivity and leads to competitive success. Leaders who invest their attention, budget and vision on developing employees will see return not just in reduced turnover, but also in customer satisfaction and organizational profitability.

Amy Lundstrom Lane is associate vice president for Corporate and Professional Development at Kent State University. Contact her at

330-672-5828 or [email protected].

If You’re Investing in Your Employees Your Bottom Line Will Reflect it!

Creating a Learning Culture

ADVERTISEMENT HR Leadership Group of Northeast Ohio Taking Talent to the Next Level August 3, 2015 S3

hiring & development



BY LEE ANN HOWARD

M any successful organizations include leadership succession

planning as an integral part of their corporate strategy. These succession plans are not just a replacement policy when the sitting chief executive steps down, but instead are part of a comprehensive program for turnover and development from the board of directors through lower levels of management. These plans aim to identify and onboard successors in the event of a change in leadership, expected or unexpected. It provides an opportunity to evaluate the processes, strengths, and leadership ability of potential successors and also provide development plans for individuals.

Succession planning is applicable to organizations of all sizes, from publicly traded, multibillion-dollar corporations to small private and family owned companies and non-profits. While these plans can vary based on the size, location, industry, and talent development capabilities of an organization, effective plans take into account employee retention rates, the transparency of the promotion process, the length of time previously needed to fill open positions, and the available resources and responses to unexpected talent loss.

Through our experience in executive

search and board of director placement, as well as in corporate human resources, we’ve been brought in at different stages of the succession planning process to find leaders that fit. While this list is not exhaustive, here are a few important items to consider when developing and evaluating a leadership succession plan:

1 Clearly define The plan’s ownership and responsibility

within the company. Defining the ownership and responsibility of all aspects of the succession planning process, from development to execution, provides individual accountability and communicates the plan to involved parties. Human resource professionals can best be used in the role of a subject matter expert, acting as facilitator and architect for the creation and implementation of the succession plan. The role of operational management in succession planning focuses on providing information on the performance, potential, and leadership readiness of internal employees. In this role, management is responsible for assessing the “bench strength” of internal employees to ultimately backfill the domino void of leadership succession at the highest level of an organization, providing training and development opportunities to individuals to groom them for future roles.

especially among those individuals with ownership and responsibility.

3Emphasize the substance of the plan over the form. Creating

more complex analysis and assessment packages can push the form of planning and execution over the substance and purpose of the succession plan. An example of this is the popular 9-Box Grid that assesses the performance and potential of individuals, differentiating future leaders from low performers. Its simplicity drives its effectiveness in comparing individuals. Adding additional analysis, even when intending to improve the assessment quality, often drags down the efficiency and effectiveness of the tool and can shift focus away from purpose of the 9-Box Grid in identifying future leaders.

4 Be willing to change the plan if the direction of the

company changes. The flexibility to change or pivot the succession plan is critical when the direction of the entire company changes, such as entering a new market or making a significant acquisition or divestiture. This can take the form of emphasizing different experience or skills, changing the timeline for talent development, or bringing in individuals from outside the organization to better

align successors with the company’s new direction.

5Use the plan. Companies with succession plans have devoted time

and resources to developing such a plan, but when faced with an unexpected event that shakes up the company leadership, some have chosen to abandon the plan. It scraps the efforts put into the prior plan and can reduce the potential buy-in from employees in any future succession plan. If the company has developed a strong succession plan, the best advice is to use the plan to help inform the decision-making process.

Lately we have seen executives more aware of the need for succession planning, but more importantly recognize the need for their organizations to improve both succession planning and its execution. Progressive companies not only have a track record of effective succession planning and execution, with unexpected failures few and far between, but also devote resources to building a strong bench of ready potential leaders.

Lee Ann Howard is a co-founder of Howard & O’Brien Executive Search. Contact her at 216-514-8980 or [email protected].

Stepping Up to the Plate on Succession Planninghiring & development

2 Start small when building a new plan. A company developing

a succession plan from scratch can fall into the easy mistake of attempting a comprehensive and robust succession plan that permeates all levels of the organization. While it is important to have a well thought-out succession plan, attempting to launch such an extensive plan can result in little actual progress year-over-year. Instead, it is easier to limit the initial scope of the succession plan to the essential senior leadership. A more concentrated approach to developing a new succession plan is able to generate company-wide acceptance more easily and it becomes less of a burden on the company,

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“The flexibility to change or pivot

the succession plan is critical when

the direction of the entire company

changes . . .”

talent have 26% higher revenue. They have 40% less turnover among high performers, and 17% lower overall voluntary turnover. They are better positioned to hire the best people and have nearly 1.5 times greater ability to plan for future workforce needs. Think about your integrated plan and develop a roadmap to get there.

Start where you are, perhaps in small ways, and create your path to a development and retention culture.

Pamela Stroko is Vice President Mid-Market HCM Transformation and Thought Leadership at Oracle Corporation. Contact her at 224-306-7709

and [email protected].

We’ve rede�ned the meaning of

work-life balance.At Medical Mutual, we’re a health insurance company

that actually believes in the importance of good health.

That’s why we strongly support wellness and encourage

our employees to live active, healthier lives. Things like

an on-site �tness center, healthy meal options in our

cafeteria and health screenings make it easier for our

employees to �nd the right balance between their work

and their well-being.

and costs and effectiveness of your current processes. You may find when it comes to filling good Cleveland-based jobs with incredible local talent, working together with an RPO team to tailor solutions makes a lot of sense.

Crystal Wittman is the head of Alexander Mann Solutions’ Cleveland Global Client Services Center. Contact her at 216-336-6388 or

[email protected].

BY PAMELA STROKO

I t is no secret that this is the tightest talent market we have seen in

decades and the shortage of talent is being felt globally. With the job market improving and people having more options, according to the Hay Group (2015), we will see one-quarter of the global talent in some sort of transition between now and 2018. At the beginning of the year, a CNN poll reported 52% of employed Americans planned to look for a job this year. What are they looking for and how can your organization compete?

1 It has always been about development. In Deloitte

2020, we learned that 86% of people

Changing Talent Market Requires Companies to Evolve to Compete


BY CRYSTAL WITTMAN

Businesses like yours are taking off. It’s no secret that Cleveland, along

with Ohio, is hiring. A recent article in Crain’s Cleveland Business cited that a net gain of 1,900 jobs in May for the state. But filling jobs can be a bigger challenge than creating them.

Finding and keeping the right tal-ent at the right time and cost may sound straightforward. Yet anyone who has managed the talent acquisition process knows it’s complicated. Today, you need to write effective job postings, recruit pas-

Outsourcing Recruitment Can Help Companies Build Talented, Local Workforce

hiring & developmentsive talent not looking to make a career move, screen through applicants, and cre-ate an interview process with meaningful assessments. This is not even considering factors needed to compete for top talent, such as having access to the latest recruit-ment technology or creating an employer brand that resonates with them.

The difficulty is compounded when you remember the day-to-day areas your business should be focused on, such as producing products and delivering for customers. Managing talent is costly and time consuming. A 2015 report from a major consulting

firm showed companies have increased their talent acquisition spending by 7% to keep up with increased competition, yet time to fill is longer than ever.

If your business is struggling, you’re not alone. A Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partner — a pro-fessional services organization that helps businesses attract, engage and retain top talent by using its focused expertise to augment all or part of the

talent acquisition process — could be the solution.

An RPO can be a strategic partner with your existing team in a market like Cleveland and wherever you do business globally. RPOs offer pure-play consulting solutions, focused on your needs and aligned with your brand, infrastructure and talent assets. Regardless of your company’s size, there are scalable options — both rapid and longer-term — that can upgrade your talent capabilities to support where your business is and where you want it to go.

Look at your talent acquisition needs

hiring & developmentleave a job because of lack of career development. If you can’t offer that development, someone else can. Focus on making self-directed learning available; create opportunities for lateral development and learning in place — not all development comes from a promotion.

2 Become a coaching and feed-back culture. The workforce

today demands a higher level of con-nection and dialogue. People don’t want a feedback conversation once or twice a year — they want real relation-ships with their managers and peers. They seek cultures of collaboration. Feedback and coaching can’t just be an event; it has to happen as part of how you work and how you succeed

together. If your managers aren’t great at relationship building and coaching, train them. In his book “Shine,” Ed Hallowell talked about how critical connection (Vitamin “C”) is to orga-nizational life. It actually contributes to high performance in organizations.

3 Having the right tools to support a development culture is critical.

If you want to create stickiness from the day people accept the offer, you need great onboarding; and there is an even bigger performance lift when you connect onboarding to performance expectations and goals in Year One. You need tools

that support career development and career pathing. Real succession and talent review where you take an honest look at your talent strengths and gaps and build actionable plans to develop talent is critical. Connecting individual performance to organization goals is essential for clarity, setting expectations, and delivering great performance. Social and mobile capability is the price of admission for creating collaborative cultures — the more connected people are, the more likely they are to stay. Tools that support learning and make it available on any device support a “develop anywhere, anytime” culture.

4 Integration matters. According to Bersin (2014), organizations

that have integrated approaches to


Copyright © 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

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The Center for Corporate and Professional Development

Kent State University, Kent State and KSU are registered trademarks and may not be used without permission. 14-1669

Consider Kent State as your talent development partner. Call 330-672-5828 or visit www.kent.edu/YourTrainingPartner.

“ ... Kent State’s programs are incredibly adaptable ... they design training to address your organization’s specific problems ... I highly recommend Kent State.”

John Ruth, President BDI

�e Center for Corporate and Professional Development

You are in good company when you choose Kent State for your employee development and training. We work with top employers in our region, from University Hospitals and Saint-Gobain to The Sherwin-Williams Co., Lubrizol Corporation and NASA.

Kent State’s Center for Corporate and Professional Development works with you to develop and deliver onsite training programs such as Lean Six Sigma, supervisory skills and project management. We also consult with you on organizational performance through a variety of services such as strategic process improvement consulting.

BY THOMAS P. DEWEY

N othing is more critical to the overall success of your company

than the people you employ. Without them performing their jobs at a high level each day, productivity — and your bottom line — would most cer-tainly suffer. That’s why it’s so impor-tant to keep your employees happy and healthy. A workplace wellness program is an excellent way to help accomplish both of those goals.

Wellness programs utilize company workspace to promote and support healthy behavior among employees. While varying in size and scale, many offer health education and weight loss programs, smoking cessation programs, diabetes management programs, health screenings and fitness center memberships.

At Medical Mutual, we offer a few wellness program options for our customers to help them improve the health of their employees. We also implemented a comprehensive program for ourselves that has worked extremely well. It incorporates an array of health-related activities and offers incentives to our employees for participation.

Better health brings lower costsStudies have shown a significant

Programs Offer Unique Perk for Employees


percentage of healthcare costs could be linked to employees’ poor lifestyle choices. Tobacco use, unhealthy diets and a lack of exercise can lead to a variety of costly health problems and increase the risk of chronic disease. Companies that invest in a wellness program could see a reduction in medical claims, disability costs, workers’ compensation claims and absenteeism due to illness. The more employees understand their risk factors, the more likely they may be to make positive changes to help improve their overall health.

An enticing perk for employeesRecruiting and retaining talented

people isn’t easy. Top candidates have a lot of options and most every employer offers a pretty similar benefits package. Many companies are now looking for unique perks to set them apart from the competition. Wellness programs demonstrate a real commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees. That can result in increased job satisfaction among staff members and stronger retention rates.

Wellness programs also help build camaraderie among co-workers. Employees can participate in a variety

of non-work-related activities or simply go to the gym together. Competition and encouragement can go a long way toward helping people change their lifestyles and make better decisions.

It just makes senseMore and more companies are

becoming believers in the advantages

of wellness because they’ve seen what we’ve seen. Wellness helps employees feel better. When they feel better, it helps improve their morale, their mental outlook and their productivity. It also helps them live healthier lives, which in turn reduces absenteeism and medical claims. There is a cost involved in setting up a wellness program, but it’s

really an investment in your employees and in the future of your company.

Thomas P. Dewey is vice president of human resources for Medical Mutual. Contact him at 216-687-7446 or [email protected].

Wellness in the Workplace: It’s Good Business

“Competition and encouragement can go a long way toward helping people change their lifestyles and make better decisions.”


Plan your next corporate event at the World-Class

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Visit clevelandmetroparks.com/rentals or call 216-635-3304.

BY RICK GRAHOVAC

W orkplaces are living, breathing and evolving environments.

Oftentimes, these places are filled with people who feel undervalued, undevel-oped or not engaged in the “big pic-ture” of their company or organization.

Whether you are leading a nonprofit organization or for-profit corporation, you understand that your employees are your greatest assets — they carry out your vision and mission, they are the face of your company, and they are often responsible for your success or failure.

Leadership development and organizational learning is paramount to business and personal success. Consider programs that focus on experiential learning and empowering profound inner change that achieves substantial

A Unique Approach to Building Potential

group results such as stronger relationships, increased trust, opened lines of effective communication, and increased morale, group performance, and productivity in the workplace.

Conscious leadership starts with the premise that each person possesses leadership potential and that the only way an organization can reach its full potential is when the individuals within

that organization are reaching theirs.The focus is on three themes:

presence, perspective and relationships. Our greatest power as leaders comes from the ability to be fully awake and aware in the present moment with a willingness to allow our perspective to change and understand that our relationships with each other — coworkers, supervisors, the community and outside world — are all interrelated.

Sometimes this type of learning needs to come outside of the

training room. But if your team isn’t adventurous, seek out programs that combine leadership development, teamwork, communication and a little fun along the way. The result will be an unforgettable experience that will teach your associates to maximize their potential, lead with purpose and strengthen teamwork.

leadership & responsibility

Rick Grahovac is CEO at Common Ground. Contact him at 440-965-5551 or [email protected].

constantly have to restock their talent shelf fall behind while companies that make this important practice part of their culture are growing exponentially.

Chris Nash is the man-aging partner of Rogers Group, a boutique recruiting agency that focuses on finding talent and leadership for manufacturing and

technology organizations worldwide. Learn more at www.Nashrecruits.com or www.rogers-group.com.

BY CHRIS NASH

F or companies that are searching for future leadership, succession

planning is a hot button term in corporate circles. Wikipedia defines succession planning as “a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the company. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available.”

What is the secret to carrying out

a good, proactive succession plan? Simple: Strong, forward-thinking leadership. When we approach talent acquisition projects for our clients, we are constantly asked to “find our next manager” or “ find me the person that is going to run this place in 10 years.” These are pretty heavy statements.

Companies that focus on personality traits and soft skills find better leaders than people who search for industry experience alone.

Lou Adler, CEO of the Adler Group and world famous talent acquisition guru, calls this process and

outlook “performance based hiring.” “Companies that remain ultra-

focused on candidates that are skills and experience qualified are missing out on the best candidates,” he says.

Rather, the focus needs to be on talented candidates that can do the job and who have the ability to lead a team. The exact type of experience he or she has is not relevant. Candidates who are self-motivated require

Succession Planning: Recruiting for the Futurehiring & development

direction, not supervision. They prefer being motivated by and collaborating with upper management. These are the people — not the candidate who checks all of the boxes because they worked at a competitor in the same industry and had the right technical skills — that will move up to management.

It’s important that these future star candidates have a plan. They need to know where they stand and where they will be in five years. If they don’t know, it will be hard to keep them long term. Take the time to communicate with your future leaders. Companies that

Experiential Learning Can Improve Morale and Productivity

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BY BETH SWEENEY

E yebrows continue to knit and rise when leadership takes up the broad

topic of accountability in organizations of any size, public or private. In other words, the task goes on. More and more clients talk about building an overall culture of accountability — driven to find something that allows them to quickly implement new things, rapidly shift course or realize the exponential difference in productivity when everyone is focused and aligned. Accountability has become synonymous with excellence, peak performance and exceptional results; yet it comes with many questions and

ambiguity. Why do efforts at building a culture of accountability lose steam? Or perhaps the better question to ask is “What common themes are found in organizations that do it well?”

Clear direction and definitionFirst, a culture of accountability

requires an organization to be thoughtful in declaring what actions and activities matter. Being intentionally focused on those things that are mission critical is a common indicator. Following closely behind direction is definition. High-performing organizations are known for having a clear line of sight between the actions they are accountable for

Directing Culture and Organizational Change

and their direct impact on success.

Intentional conversationsSecond, because all organizational

work depends on conversation, there is focus on articulating expectations around accountability at all levels of the organization, and in a way that connects to each person’s role.

Leaders at all levels are called to be crystal clear about expectations. Ask if conditions of satisfaction are being collaboratively defined. High-performing organizations often cite the

development of their leaders and their ability to hold powerful and productive conversations collaboratively with employees. There is a dialogue that is both spoken and heard.

Connect to the workIf we only talk about accountability

once or twice a year during performance reviews, we are missing opportunities to embed mission critical activities into our everyday business processes, clearly a best practice for high performing organizations. Setting up cycles of commitments means that accountability becomes a daily, top-of-mind awareness, and keeps the thread strong in connecting everyday work to

mission critical goals. The concept of accountability

and the culture it creates will continue to raise eyebrows. I suggest accountability be kept clear, simple, easily understood, and transferable as a legacy value. Love the logic to define it, talk about it and connect it to the work. Then, let it work for you.

Beth Sweeney is market president for Ratliff & Taylor, the area’s largest full-service talent management firm. Contact her at 216-901-4800 or

[email protected].



BY MARY WILSON-HRIVNAK

A diverse workforce has become very desirable as a means to boost

attractiveness, retain key talent, and sustain competitive advantage. The one source of competitive advantage that is truly unique for an organization is its employees and their ability to be innovative. In short, a company needs to encourage different individual perspectives and foster inclusion in the workplace.

Having multiple generations in the workplace is one aspect of an increasingly diverse workplace (for example, managers describe employees based on birth year to form generational cohorts such as Millennials, Gen Xers,

Gen Y, and Baby Boomers). Contrary to the popular notion of “problems” with younger generations, recent research shows that Millennials are similar to other generations in attitudes about work when compared at similar ages. Current differences in attitudes across generations are more likely to come from being in a different life phase or challenges to work-life balance. An increase in understanding of where employees are in terms of their personal lives may thus help employees resolve conflicts and allow the company to use talent to its fullest potential. A single 40-year-old taking care of an aging parent may be more similar to a 25-year-old single working mom than

to employees in her cohort. This has implications for job design, workplace flexibility, incentives and rewards. The more diverse the workplace, the less likely companies will be able to have a one-size-fits-all plan.

One example of where younger generations differ is the tendency to be more at ease with technology because they have grown up with it. Companies must embrace technological change or get left in the competitive dust. They are wise to seize talent that may be crucial to future success; however, managers should not stereotypically

assume that every Millennial is tech savvy or that a Baby Boomer is technically incompetent.

How companies define diversity, recruit, select, and utilize employee talent can make matters better or worse. Managers need to define how diversity strategically matters for their organization. Emphasize what you can offer regarding work-life balance to recruit a diverse and qualified applicant pool. Resist attempts to select solely based on artificial categories; instead, hire based on competencies related to the job. Foster a workplace environment where managers encourage opposing viewpoints and

are inclusive across generations. Encourage and provide training for your HR staff on managing diversity and best practices in human resources. This will increase the potential for your organization to retain key talent and sustain its workplace advantage.

Mary Wilson-Hrivnak is an associate professor and chairperson of Dean’s Diversity Council in the Monte Ahuja College of Business at Cleveland State

University. Contact her at 216-687-5058 or [email protected].

Managing Workplace Diversity and Generational Differencesleadership & responsibility

BY HAROLD HARRISON

P ositive social and environmental change takes planning. And, it

takes a strong team to turn the plan into a reality. Is your organization part of the movement?

Many organizations today aspire to exercise strong corporate social responsibility (CSR). Those that do it well typically have a long-term strategic plan to guide their everyday operations — with every staff member playing an active role. These efforts

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Collaborative Effort positively impact the local community at large — benefitting customers, social welfare and the environment.

Protection of natural resources, environmental stewardship and ongoing improvement in environmentally sound business operations all generate an economic benefit. And, as the social responsibility footprint expands, the benefit grows. Examples of CSR initiatives include office recycling programs, staff volunteer opportunities and conservation projects.

If you do not have a plan in place,

it is easy to get started. Gather your stakeholders, listen to your customers and evaluate your opportunities. Next, set realistic short-term and long-term goals with milestones to evaluate progress along the way. This roadmap will serve as a guiding post that will need to be revisited over time.

Human capital is integral in devel-oping and maintaining healthy CSR.

Investment in management training and networking plays an important role in implementation of CSR strategies. The upfront investment can result in cost savings and time while producing long-term sustainable business practices.

Countless positive company, com-munity and environmental outcomes can arise when CSR has been effectively implemented. Benefits companies may achieve include increased brand affinity, a vested workforce and a reduction in annual operating costs. The community will benefit from enhanced service expe-

riences and potentially lower costs. Last-ly, the environment will benefit through sustainable practices and emerging recy-cling and energy-saving programs.

Don’t get left behind. Invest in your future today. It’s your CSR.

Harold Harrison is the chief human resources officer at the Cleveland Metroparks. Contact him at 216-635-3200 or

[email protected].



BY WALTER K. CHAPMAN

T he kind of folks I’m looking to hire want to be part of an

organization that helps them become a better person. The kind of people I’m looking for also care about their job. I mean really care — not just for the performance review and the bonus, but because they have pride in what they do and who they’re doing it with.

So here’s the challenge for an organization — define the values that are important to your organization and consciously work toward helping

your employees grow in their ability to understand and experience the benefits of those values. Like-minded employees will come your way, and the payoff will be truly wonderful.

Perhaps the best example of this strategy in action is supporting community service within the company. Helping employees learn and/or strengthen their value of service above self, as well as experiencing it with their work peers, has a tremendous collateral benefit for all parties involved. Supporting your employees through the experience of volunteering will further

their growth as a whole person, and they will appreciate you for supporting a value beyond the traditional employer role. Nurturing the value of service above self helps make the organization a fulfilling place to be for the “whole person” — not to mention that it can improve productivity and loyalty.

The more your employees are enabled and fulfilled, the more productive and loyal they will be. The best productivity

Want Your Employees to Become Better People? You Should.comes from an employee that is enabled by an organization that cares about their whole person and has been liberated from the yoke of distracting stresses to take pride in their work and their organization. Employee loyalty is then demonstrated out of respect for the caring and enabling that an employer has demonstrated.

Organizations that really stand out truly believe that their employees make the difference in their business model. They also understand the powerful correlation between their efforts to support their population and the

productivity of that same population. Presenteeism redefined. Go the extra mile to listen, train, empower, and respect your employees. Surround your people with resources and a culture that helps them be all they can be. Show them that you appreciate their whole person. They will notice.

Walter K. Chapman is CEO and director of Chapman and Chapman. Contact him at [email protected].


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WE KNOWreal change is

powered by peopleAt KPMG, we work with you to turn business theory into real solutions.

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3 RECONFIGURE THE HR DEPARTMENT

Reconfigure so that HR and management work together within a model that promotes evidence-based people management. As much thought should go into designing the components of an evidence-based operating model:

n Information flows: Who sees what, when and where?n Visualization: How to portray data and insights in a way that leads to action.n Decision-making: Where, how frequently and under what governance are things decided collaboratively? Specifically, decisions that are required or implied by predictive insights as opposed to “rearview mirror” insights. n Responsibilities and critical people management roles: Who is accountable for what? n Capabilities: What skills are needed to enable and implement evidence-based decision-making? How can HR evaluate the best research within the organization and combine with external management and social science thinking to determine which research is pointing to something really important?

Becoming evidence-based requires an effort of will and a sufficiently changed mental model that will surely be a challenge for many companies. I am, however, seeing a move among early adopters toward embracing big data and becoming more evidence-based. It’s not quite widespread yet, but I believe it is just a matter of time.

Robin Rasmussen is a principal in KPMG’s Advisory Management Consulting practice and leads the HR & Payroll Shared Services and Outsourcing

network. Contact her at 415-608-1139 or [email protected].

The views expressed here are the author’s alone and do not represent those of KPMG LLP.

SMART ADVICE

FOR EFFECTIVELY MANAGING YOUR WORKFORCE

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BY ROBIN RASMUSSEN

T here’s never been a better time to be involved in delivering the people

agenda. Human resources executives have a massive opportunity to demonstrate the value HR adds to the delivery of business objectives using something known as “evidence-based HR.”

Simply put, evidence-based HR uses data, analysis and research to understand the connection between people management practices and business outcomes such as profitability, customer satisfaction, and quality. While the growth of evidence-based HR is gaining momentum, a recent KPMG report, titled “Evidence-Based HR” conducted with the Economist Intelligence Unit, reveals this new era of evidence-based people management is by no means guaranteed.

Talent issues are firmly on the C-suite agenda — organizations across the globe are grappling with issues such as regulators, customer requirements, talent and the demands of a changing workforce. Now more than at any other time in my career, I’m seeing HR’s opportunity to leverage technology and data to demonstrate its ability to deliver against these issues.

For the first time companies can draw a line of sight between HR activity and business insight.

While the report’s findings further highlight these trends and indicate there have been some modest gains

DATA AND TECHNOLOGY IN HR:

The Bridge between your People and Delivering Business Strategy


technology

in the perception of HR’s ability to deliver strategic value since our 2012 report (15% in 2012 vs. 23% in 2014), it also presents some interesting findings. Namely, more than half (55%) of executives are still skeptical about its potential to make a real difference, yet an overwhelming majority (82%) of these skeptics plan to increase their use of evidence-based HR.

Further, the report reveals that whatever the obstacles and resistance, the growth of evidence-based HR will gain momentum. What is irrefutable is that organizations that have embraced an evidence-based approach will continue to lead the way.

But it’s not just about the HR function. CEOs need to embrace and lead this change, while at the same time demand more accountability from their HR leaders on how they are integrating data into their people management strategies to avoid losing ground.

It starts with three critical success factors:

1 GET COMFORTABLE WITH DATA

Move beyond basic HR key performance indicators to data that can deliver predictive insights about the role of people in your business. To do this well, data scientists should work within the HR function. Indeed, a number of our clients are recruiting data scientists as well as working out how to make the transition from analytical insight to action.

2 HONE YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL AND INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE

Develop both your industry and company knowledge. HR is not generic, nor is it industry agnostic. You must apply what you know from an HR perspective to your industry and to the specific needs of your company. You should also know how to frame the questions that will direct your analytical efforts.

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BY TIM MCPHERSON

T he Gig Economy is generally defined as a trend in short-

term employment enabled by online platforms connecting workers with people hiring. Sometimes this can performed completed remotely. For example, Freelancer.com and Upwork specialize in web design, graphic design as well as accounting and writing tasks.

These online platforms are evolving and now, in some cases, are partnering with traditional staffing firms. The combination has the potential to change not only how we hire, but how we look at strategies for growing businesses.

What’s old is newShort-term and temporary or

contract employment is nothing new. However, Gig Economy players and traditional staffing services share many synergies that can help bring together the best of both worlds. For example, Nesco Resource and Field Nation announced a partnership in 2013, one of the first between a traditional staffing firm and a Gig Economy player. This specific partnership offers the geographic reach and online technology of Field Nation combined with the back-office support experience, recruitment expertise, and national brick-and-mortar network of Nesco Resource to create a highly robust tool for companies to find the right talent, right when it’s needed.

With this new paradigm, the next

THE GIG GROWS UP

evolution of the Gig Economy is not only disrupting hiring practices but also the relationship that companies have with service providers. Looking ahead, companies have the opportunity to replace third-party service providers with short-term contractors at a much lower cost. At the same time, they can rethink permanent labor by using more sophisticated tools to better analyze and supplement their direct workforce with highly skilled, trained, vetted contingent labor.

Finding the bestThere was a time when finding the

best people for the job meant looking in the permanently employed base for a candidate and then hiring them as a full-time employee. Those days are quickly changing. There are 53 million people in the U.S. who are freelancers or contractors. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cited 31% of the workforce was contingent in 2006. By 2014 the number grew to 34% and

is projected to grow to 40% by the end of the decade. Additionally most freelancers or contingent workers want to do this kind of work. A Field Nation study revealed that 88% of freelancers and independent contractors surveyed chose this line of work compared with 8% who felt they were forced into this market because they had no other options. Ninety-four percent said they chose the contract lifestyle to better utilize their talents. Imagine a company that could boast those same figures? Wouldn’t you want to tap into that workforce?

The movement in the Gig Economy means that more and more jobs and projects can be handled with a contingent workforce — and that workforce may very well hold the most talented, dedicated people happy to work on a project basis.

Proven locally and nationallyContingent labor can be an effective

solution on any scale. In the world of IT, for example, there are often large-scale projects that require large teams deployed across many locations within a tight timeframe. Using a national recruiting center and a network of branch offices, companies like Nesco Resource are able to pinpoint the talent not just for individual jobs but also for entire teams on projects sometimes across hundreds of worksites. That requires both national reach and local knowledge.

We’re now able to bring that efficiency and reach to a wide range of other industries. This level of speed, and pinpointing of skills is helping to drive the Gig Economy beyond tech jobs. Companies in manufacturing, engineering, accounting & finance, and a wide range of other markets are finding that contingent labor is not a desperate stop-gap measure; it is, in fact, a pathway to growth. This strategy allows for a highly skilled workforce on a project that can help meet a surge in demand or take advantage of seasonal trends. On the other hand, companies can save time and money by shifting from service providers toward an

online platform like the Field Nation / Nesco Resource partnership.

The Gig Economy is really a combination of trends converging. An increasing number of people are finding that working on a contingent basis is rewarding both financially and personally. For many companies, The Gig Economy is offering greater flexibility to grow into new markets, take on new clients without fear of overextending current staff or payroll. This crossroads of trends could mean untold opportunities for companies and a new role for HR professionals — as the new drivers of sales growth and increased profitability.


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How the Gig Economy Is Changing How We Hire and How We Work

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who are freelancers or contractors.”

Tim McPherson is president & COO of Nesco Resource. For more information call 440-461-6000 or visit www.nescoresource.com.

1 Have a purpose to what your company does for the customer,

beyond making money from them. Good employees want something more out of work than a paycheck. Employees, vendors and consultants need to know your purpose by and in their heart.

2 Pick and train good supervisors. People leave bad supervisors not

companies.

3 Have a firm set of workplace values that support your purpose.

How do you want people to act on behalf of a customer when you aren’t looking?

4 Refine the art of onboarding. The immersion of new people

into your organization starts the first time you speak with them, not the first day on the job. An “orientation hour” is worse than no immersion.

5 Leadership needs to be tangible and transparent. Walk the talk.

Talk about purpose, values, vision and people in a good way. Be a role model. Walk around, engage and show integrity for your values and purpose. Celebrate accomplishments.

6 Train, develop and never stop. Training develops confidence.

Confidence breeds productivity.

7 Get rid of the wrong people. Those who don’t want to join in

will rot your core.

8 No person has all the answers. Collaborate, seek input and give

people a voice in how things can work better.

9 Have an integrated operating plan for all operations, depart-

ments and staff. Keep everyone in-formed. “Mushrooms” don’t make good employees.

10 Have a vision for tomorrow. Keep everyone, including

yourself, fresh and anticipative. If you don’t have it, find someone who does.

11 Help workers feel secure with safety, benefits, low turnover,

training, sensible management and direction.

Building the great workplace

will produce an efficient, stable and enduring workforce that builds productivity and profits.

Robert Schepens is a certified personnel consultant and CEO of Champion Personnel System, Inc. The Great Workplace 2.0 is available on

Amazon and through Champion Personnel System. Learn more at championpersonnel.com/ the-great-workplace.

Chapman and Chapman

To learn more please visit: www.chapmanandchapman.com

Collaborate. Innovate. Elevate™.

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BY LENNY FAYARD

H R leaders everywhere are moving to cloud-based HR technology

solutions to meet the consumer-like user expectations of employees and managers in their organizations. Moving to an HR SaaS solution is the first step in unifying data and processes, but often not the final one. Most HR SaaS solutions provide a mobile-enabled, user-friendly self-service engine for the HR practice areas they support. So why would

a company still need an HR portal solution? Ultimately, to have all things HR in one place, an HR portal solution needs to be implemented as well. No matter how unified a SaaS solution is, there are always some HR processes that are handled outside of the core system. Additionally, most HR SaaS solutions do not house policy content or serve as an overall document

management solution. As part of a typical SaaS deployment, integrations will be built to incorporate data to other downstream systems; however, to provide a united user experience, an HR portal solution should be executed.

What’s in your portal?When evaluating HR portal

solutions, make sure the benefits gained from SaaS are enhanced versus inhibited. The HR portal solution should provide single sign-on to all HR systems and policy content. It should be mobile-enabled, and the user should be able to navigate via deep links. The HR portal should provide on-demand support with checklists, quick reference cards and access to what is needed, when it’s needed. It should also be SaaS-based, and on an evergreen update schedule that not only focuses on technology innovations but also on user experience, behaviors and overall employee and manager needs.

When moving HR to the cloud, evaluate an updated HR portal solution in parallel to enable success and offer a holistic and comprehensive solution.

Lenny Fayard is UPoint Product Manager for Aon Hewitt. In Northeast Ohio, contact Ryan Black at [email protected] or Greg Hubbell

at [email protected] for more information.

Gain Easy Access to the Cloud with an HR Portal

technology

Build a Great Workforce by Taking the Right Steps

business management

BY ROBERT SCHEPENS

A fter thousands of interviews with CEOs, owners and top HR practitioners in small to medium-sized companies in Northeast Ohio, I’ve learned that

those who have made it have a few simple traits in common. These building blocks don’t take a lot of money and can be put straight into action.

“Collaborate, seek input and give people a voice in how things can work better.”

organization, there is a proven roadmap for creating a talent management system. To achieve the best results with the most direct path, organizations need to:

n Work with business and HR leaders to articulate their talent philosophy.n Identify the relevant elements of a talent management framework.n Conduct an inventory to assess the extent and impact of current efforts.n Establish milestones to keep the process on track and achieve the desired objectives.

Truly effective talent management results from alignment and thoughtful implementation of an integrated strategy, which focuses activity and yields bigger, business-wide results.

Mark Plaster is president at Markwood Partners, LLC. Contact him at 330-768-7035 or [email protected].


1 Define your current state and vision for the future.

Gather a core group of stakeholders to identify the current state, your vision for the future, and the project plan.

2 Assess your HR function.Four assessments provide the most

critical information to align your goals:

n A time allocation survey requires each HR associate to document their activities based on categories such as benefits administration or performance management.n A service delivery evaluation asks managers and other customers of HR to rate the performance of the HR function, and gathers data on the level of importance for each HR activity.n A practice questionnaire measures your HR practices and policies to help you see how your function compares to high performing organizations.n A skills inventory documents the skills of your current HR staff and compares them to the skills you will need in your future HR function (based on the vision you identified during the planning phase).

3 Compare your results to best practices.

Once you have the data, you can compare your way of doing HR activities and your level of performance to the best practices in your industry.

4 Develop your HR roadmap.Using the data as a baseline,

conduct a formal planning session to identify your goals that will meet your vision for the future and align with organizational objectives. This session needs to result in a concrete action plan with assigned responsibilities and timelines.

5 Implement changes. Assigning a project manager to

implement the action plan will keep your team on track as you strive to reach your desired state.

Taking the time to complete the entire HR service delivery assessment process will ensure you can measure the effectiveness of any changes. It also gives you the direction to create a roadmap. To conduct a quick check of your HR service delivery effectiveness, download our checklist at http://findleydavies.com/checklistsocial.

Kimberlie England is a principal and leader of the Change Management Practice, specializing in managing and driving organizational

change. Contact her at [email protected].

FIVE STEPS TO DEVELOP YOUR HR ROADMAP

business management

BY MARK PLASTER

A lthough talent management is a widely used term, many

organizations take an ad hoc approach to their efforts. There is a lot of “talent” activity taking place, but it is often not as aligned or connected as it could be. This creates much work that often yields minimal results because efforts are disconnected or may not move the organization toward bigger picture goals.

To be effective, talent management processes must contribute to the success of the business by attracting, developing and retaining essential talent. Tapping into an organization’s talent philosophy — its “rules of the road” for making talent decisions — is the key to creating an integrated talent management system. This creates success by ensuring that each talent process, while effective on its own, is even more so when aligned and integrated with others.

With the proper focus, organizations can establish talent management as a

Integrated Talent Management Brings Organizational Success

business management

key business process, embedding sound talent practices within the organization. Integrated talent management addresses performance management, associate development, succession planning, and other key practices by creating a roadmap for managing a critical business asset — people. Simply, a talent roadmap takes the many pieces of your HR system, considers them in the unique context of your organization, and aligns them with each other and the big picture business goals. This results in consistent, effective talent practices that reinforce the organization’s overall culture. Talent management becomes a key business process that delivers well-selected, well-skilled and well-matched associates — the lifeblood of any organization.

How, as a decision maker, do you get there? While it is essential that your approach be tailored to your

BY KIMBERLIE ENGLAND

A re your employees and managers feeling supported by the services of your HR function? What technology investments will add the most

value? How should HR support your organizational objectives? Developing a roadmap for your human resources function will answer all of these questions and help you create a direct link to your organization’s business strategy. But where do you begin? These five steps will guide you through the process:

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