We want decisions to be simple, but if they were they'd make themselves.
HR is complicated and we shouldn't accept simple explanations. How many training programs have you participated in without question? Gary Crocker from Boeing used to say that the road to hell was lined with the notebooks from discarded training programs.
We shouldn't be accepting simple explanations from consultants, pundits, vendors each other or even our own management. Asking questions from several different perspectives is the best and easiest way to clarify, validate and even simplify. Start saving your own list of questions in your PDA or portfolio to help you to get the information you need to make the best decisions. Here are a dozen to get you started:
1. What doesn't it tell us? What doesn't it do?
2. What problems have been encountered previously?
3. How do you know that? Is there any documentation?
4. Can I see the calculations?
5. How do you know that?
6. What other factors are or may be involved?
7. What are the possible implications for now and long term?
8. How do you define __________?
9. What are the other alternatives?
10. What are the costs after implementation?
11. What does it encourage? What does it discourage?
12. What is behind the endorsement or recommendation? Are there any considerations?
Don't hesitate to ask anyone these questions, including yourself.
HRMetrics research indicated that technical issues are assuming an ever proportion of senior management’s attention. Heretofore senior management has been defined as focusing on people issues, vision and strategic decisions. One CHRO told us that although technology has been ubiquitous for some time, it’s now invariably so “big and complex” that executives can’t escape it. The implications of this demand on already time deprived leaders could quickly and significantly undermine organization performance. HRMetrics will monitor this trend.
Identity theft and records-snooping have been front-and-center in the news recently, with the news that several UCLA Medical Center employees have been fired or disciplined for looking at the medical files of stars such as Britney Spears, Farrah Fawcett and Maria Shriver. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal last week ran a story titled “Are Your Medical Records at Risk?”
The questions of liability, not to mention ethics, that surround this case are very pertinent to those in the business world, in particular to people who work in human resources. The custodianship of records for employees, both present and past, is a serious responsibility, and any employee who takes this responsibility with anything less than a total commitment can find themselves opening their organization up to costly litigation.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a brief concerning “return on training.” The story highlighted the fact that, during an economic downturn, training programs are oftentimes the first to be discarded in cost-cutting measures. Jack Phillips, the chairman of ROI Institute Inc. of Chelsea, Ala., who was interviewed for the piece in the Journal, offered several tips for small businesses to ensure they are getting a good return on investment for their training programs.
The first piece of advice Phillips offered was to “align the training with a business need.” This seems to be a common-sense proposal, but realistically, how many training programs are looked upon by employees as a waste of time, with little or no return for the time spent in training? As the Journal stated, “sometimes training isn’t the answer.”
A pair of publications, from either side of the political spectrum, took opposing views of the H1B visa conundrum, and whether the number of visas available will lead the United States down the road to ruin, or whether it’s all a huge exaggeration, as there are plenty of American workers who can fill American companies’ future employment needs.
In one corner, The Economist stated in its April 12 issue in the article titled “Help Not Wanted” that Congress’ limitation of H1B visas to 85,000 per year is causing the best and brightest students from foreign soils to have to seek jobs in Europe, Canada and Australia. There simply will not be enough American graduates to fill the needs for the science, technology and engineering fields.
Not so fast, says Jay Matthews in the Spring 2008 edition of the Wilson Quarterly, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Matthews questions the statistics utilized by publications such as Fortune, and sited by a member of Congress, citing statistics from the McKinsey Global Institute that say foreign engineers would be “no more than technicians in the United States.” Also included is an item from Duke University researchers that says the United States has produced 137,437 engineers, while India has produced 112,000 and China 351,537.
Which argument rings truer to you may just determine how jaundiced your view may be on the need for more foreign workers in America.