Grumpy HR Says

2025-04-25T17:19:00.003-06:00

IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYMENT CONTRIBUTION

The company has reviewed your resume/CV and interviewed you for the job you have professed as qualified to perform. The company agrees and extends a job offer that you accept. A mutual agreement whereas the company pays you to perform job duties and responsibilities. In addition, the company may have numerous other benefits and perks to enhance the employee experience. These are talent management programs designed to incentivize employees to contribute to the success of the company through high quality productivity and service by creating an optimal working environment. It is within these programs that your contribution can be seen and most definitely measured. So how do you know what your return value is within the company?

From a company’s perspective, their investment in you began with the recruitment and onboarding of you as an employee. This initial investment is based upon your intrinsic value. What you are bringing to the job that “in itself” has value, such as, your talent, skills, abilities, future contributions to the company, work ethic, etc. The ongoing investment in your employment is through the various talent management programs offered by the company. Programs like performance, engagement, and development are easily observed and measured using external factors and respective ROI metrics. The outcomes define your extrinsic value. How you contribute to the company’s overall success utilizing both your intrinsic and extrinsic value will determine your return value within the company. That return value can be calculated using an Employee Return of Investment metric (ROI). For Example:

Employee “Sam” has been hired by “Noname Company.” The cost to employee “Sam” for the first year:

Wages and Salaries	Legally Required & Company Benefits	Recruitment, Onboarding & Training	Rewards, Recognitions & Development	Other Overhead Costs	Total Employment Cost
70,000	30,000	7,400	3,000	5,600	116,000

“Sam’s” contributions for the first year of employment were:

Strengthening Company Culture	Delivering Performance Expectations	Maximizing Efficiencies & Tools	Contributing to Company Success & Growth
Work ethic	Continued development	Cost savings	Directly or indirectly generating revenue and/or profitability
Attitude	Actively engaged and committed	Improved efficiencies	Innovation gains
Teamwork and collaboration	High quality work output	Process optimization	Increased productivity
Increased team/department productivity by 10%	Exceeded individual work output by 5%	Improved efficiencies & cost savings by 25%	Indirectly increased revenue through innovation by 2%	Total Contribution
4,000	5,000	10,000	100,000	119,000

For the first year, “Sam’s” contributions negate the cost of his employment, and “Noname Company’s” return on investment is positive and worthwhile!

“Sam’s” Employee ROI - (119,000 – 116,000)/116,000 * 100 = 2.6

Employee ROI = (Total Value - Total Employment Costs) / Total Employment Costs * 100

Total Value: the total value of the indirect contribution of your work output.

Total Employment Costs: all expenses related to your employment.

Performance Evaluation: NOT a Pay Entitlement

2025-04-02T11:33:00.003-06:00

Performance evaluations have become associated with an expected merit increase, but the two are not synonymous. Unfortunately, over the years the performance evaluation cycle has established an expectation for increases in pay and lost the original intent of performance development. When we began to incentivize performance management, we unintentionally created a culture of entitlement. What does that mean exactly? For example, let’s use a simple 3-point rating scale for the performance evaluation as follows:

1- not meeting job performance expectations (less than 100%).

2- meeting job performance expectations (100%).

3- above job performance expectations (more than 100%).

The company’s expectation is that the job is completed by the employee 100% of the time every time. We can liken this to an example where you (the company) contract services from the electric company (the employee) for electricity to your home. You expect to have electricity 100% of the time at 100% capacity every time. This is meeting your (the company’s) expectations of the electric company (the employee) to complete the service.

Without incentivizing the performance scale (assigning a merit increase percentage) we have what is intended, a measurement of performance. If an employee is not performing at 100% then we can determine that a performance improvement plan is needed and go about developing one with that employee. If the employee is performing at 100%, no more/no less, then we can create an action plan that may include incentives to encourage performance enhancement and growth. If we have an employee who is performing above 100% then we can create a reward and recognition plan to encourage continued growth.

However, when we assign merit increase percentages to the evaluation prior to or in conjunction with we lose the intent of performance development, and the focus shifts to “how much will my pay increase” and at what level of effort do I need to perform. Going back to the 3-point scale example this is demonstrated as follows:

1- not meeting expectations (less than 100%) = 2% pay increase

2- meeting expectations (100%). = 3% pay increase

3- above expectations (more than 100%). = 4% pay increase

This seems okay, but referring to our earlier example, are you okay with paying 2% more a year to the electric company who is not providing you with the service you expect? Or even 3% more just for services as expected. Where is the incentive to provide service beyond expectations? This can be demotivating to all when rewards are given to underachievement and status quo.

Why do we do this then? All too often I would hear that ‘if we don’t give them something then they will leave’. Well, if they are not performing and we are not managing their performance for improvement why would we incent them to stay. Or I would hear ‘the cost of living is decreasing their earnings, so we need to give them a pay increase.’ This may be true, in a lot of ways it is, but this is not related to performance incentive pay. The latter is related to cost-of-living and market adjustments and is a separate part within overall compensation planning and should not be a reason to be added to a performance driven incentive such as merit increases. Merit increases need to be reserved for exceptional performance and all other pay adjustments such as promotions, step progression, cost-of-living, or market adjustments need to be separated from and communicated outside of the final review cycle. Doing so will bring back the original intent of the performance evaluation cycle and incent appropriately. Other adjustments will be accounted for and categorized appropriately and not directly related to performance evaluations. This will help to break the entitlement expectation of pay increases, but not the act of increasing pay as warranted.

Performance evaluation is a tool the company uses to assess an employee's ability to perform the job’s duties and responsibilities over a given period. The use of this tool is to determine actions that need to be taken to support or enhance an employee’s current or future job performance. This is the key function of a performance evaluation. It is a part of talent management and a component of performance development. It is not an entitlement based upon the final measurement but can be used to determine eligibility for rewards and recognition programs. Performance development and rewards and recognition are two separate pillars of talent management. They may have interconnections but are uniquely independent.

PA Inspired Blog: Grumpy HR Says

2025-03-14T15:00:00.000-06:00

Your position is being eliminated

It’s not personal, it’s business. A seemly innocent comment delivered from a well-meaning (we hope, anyway) messenger, but this simple statement can have a devastating impact on the emotional well-being of the receiver. It can also have consequences on how the company is perceived within and publicly.

Every time I hear this type of statement, I can’t help but flash back to a 90’s movie, You’ve Got Mail, where a small bookstore owner is forced out of business by a large bookstore conglomerate. The owner of the conglomerate tries to make amends with the small bookstore owner by befriending her and during one conversation he says (something to the effect, paraphrasing), “it’s not personal, it’s business.” She quickly responds by asking what that means and (again paraphrasing) she resolutely states that it is not “personal” to him, but it is to her and to a lot of other people, and at the very least it should begin with being “personal.” Losing her beloved bookstore was devastating, it was her life and now it’s gone. This is how many individuals feel when their positions are no longer.

How the company handles communicating this business decision will say a lot about the company. Below are some considerations for a company to keep in mind to preserve a positive relationship with the impacted employee(s) and community.

· Develop a communication plan that is transparent, anticipate questions that may arise, and created responses.

· Be aware of any legal obligations that may be triggered by the position elimination(s).

· Be honest and direct when informing the employee and provide the business reason “why” in a concise manner.

· Provide a private location for the meeting and show empathy and support during the conversation.

· Maintain open communication early and throughout the entire process for those affected and those staying.

· Create an exit plan for affected employees and follow-up to address any outstanding questions or concerns.

· Senior leadership needs to be visible, showing empathy, and support the business decision with honesty.

Learning that your position has been eliminated can be a stressful experience. This is not only a life change but a loss and can have a significant emotional impact. Below are a few considerations to help transition through this life change.

· Having an emotional response is expected. Give yourself time to process the loss.

· Understand your rights and how your final pay, severance requirements, benefit continuation, etc. will be applied.

· Compile questions about how you will exit the company and any next steps during the process.

· Maintain your professionalism with graciousness and keep an open dialogue with the company representatives.

· Take advantage of any outsourcing resources provided.

· Update your resume, networking profile and reach out to your family and community for support.

· Remember, it was a position elimination and not an elimination of your skills, knowledge, abilities and experience.

2025-03-05T11:12:00.004-07:00

The Duplicity of Employment References

Are we really getting unbiased and accurate feedback?

Asking for references and reaching out to former employers, peers or personal contacts seems to make good sense. Afterall, we want to ensure we accomplish not only a good hire but also a safe hire. However, every time we call or send an email or questionnaire to a provided reference, we risk liability for violating federal and/or state laws that protect candidates, employees and former employees from defamation and/or discrimination. Are we receiving unbiased and accurate feedback?

Fortunately, we can mitigate this liability by utilizing innovative technologies and third-party providers whose sole purpose is to compliantly investigate and provide employment, education, industry specific requirements, or other background information on potential employees, and in most cases, this is enough to negate the need to ask for additional employment references.

Of course, this does not diminish the need to speak with additional references when it comes to positions and organizations where due diligence is necessary to protect our most vulnerable populations and the security of our communities.

If an employment reference check is still a required component of the recruitment and hiring processes, then the following can be considered as best practices to help reduce the company’s risk.

1. Asking what the purpose is in requesting references?

· Is it to verify information already provided in the cv/resume/application?

· Is it to obtain a different perspective on the information provided during the interview?

· Or do we want to dig up contradictory evidence?

· Or are we just going through the motion of an antiquated and redundant process?

2. Determine the type of references to be provided (this is dependent upon the type of position and industry).

· Personal – provided by a friend or family member.

· Professional - provided by a fellow member of a professional society, network, or peer group.

· Work - provided by a subordinate, peer, or manager.

If we do not specify the type of reference required, the candidate will most likely provide references they know will only give positive feedback and we may be left with information that is bias or does not accurately reflect the candidate’s performance and behavior as it relates to their ability to perform the work-related duties of the job.

3. Understand the federal and state laws that protect employees and former employees from defamation and/or discrimination during the recruitment and hiring process.

4. Create and implement a company Employment References Policy.

· The Who and What

5. Train recruiters, human resources staff and managers on how to manage both incoming and outgoing reference inquiries.

PA Inspired Blog: Grumpy HR Says

The Five Pillars of Talent Management

2025-02-28T12:08:00.005-07:00

The Five Pillars of Talent Management

The Foundational anchors from which Human Resources strategy for effective and brilliant people operation can be built upon or restructured back to.

Beginning with the first pillar, Talent Acquisition, where having the right tools to attract the right People Talent sets expectations and standards for both the potential employee and the Company.

Next is the most important pillar, Cultural Immersion, where respective onboarding and continued mentoring are critical for successful socialization into the Company. This is where pass/fail happens and determines how well the employee can adapt to and enhance the Company’s culture and objectives.

The third pillar, Performance Development, falls squarely on the Company to ensure that the employee has a clear line of sight of how their contributions impact the overall objectives of the Company, have clear and concise goals, and are given the appropriate resources and support to achieve those goals.

The fourth pillar, Rewards & Recognition. Key step towards retaining the Company’s talent. We drive talent performance and behaviors by appropriately recognizing and providing meaningful rewards. This does not always mean finance rewards and social recognition, but what is most important to an individual and their individual contribution.

The fifth pillar, Talent Development, where we create pathways for high performing talent and provide skill development for the employee base to strengthen the Company. Retaining legacy knowledge, embracing new knowledge and technology, and strengthening the Company’s culture.

Human Resources or Talent strategies are created within these pillars and are designed to strengthen the Company’s vision, mission, values and support organizational objectives.

The People Side of Business: People Operations

2025-02-27T10:30:00.002-07:00

Welcome to People AIM

2025-02-26T16:31:00.001-07:00

People AIM's objective is to provide our clients with undivided attention and exceptional expertise to meet their People Strategy needs. We believe in simplifying the process by assessing and building from basic principles focusing on Talent Acquisition, Cultural Immersion, Performance Management, Rewards & Recognition, and Talent Management.

Meaningful Performance Management

2025-02-24T13:07:00.001-07:00

Do you want employees to perform? Give them a clear line of sight to the company’s objectives. I have always advocated during any performance management training for leaders that if the employee does not understand how their contribution at work impacts the overall performance of the company, well, performance management measured by a performance review has already failed. It is meaningless.

As I think about this, I am again reminded of a quote I read in a Leadership & Social Responsibility class in graduate school by T.J. Rodgers (as quoted in the Cypress Semiconductor case, (O’Reilly & Caldwell, 1998, p. 1). Simply put and meaningful:

“To win, people need clear and quantifiable goals, the resources to achieve these goals, and confidence that their goals matter to the larger corporate purpose.”

T.J. Rodgers

Organizational Culture & Strategy

2025-02-23T17:27:00.009-07:00

Without understanding the organization’s culture(s) we cannot develop successful people strategies that attract and retain those who not only have the necessary skills to drive the organization’s goals and objectives but have demonstrated the behaviors and performance that support and strengthen the culture.