When is a fib really a lie? And when does a fib-turned-lie really matter?

It’s a question I keep rolling over in my mind, especially given all that has been written the last few weeks over the résumé inaccuracies — some may prefer a stronger, more judgmental description — by now former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson.

He has been castigated for one seemingly minor, yet telling, résumé issue: he claimed he graduated from Stonehill College in Massachusetts with degree in computer science and accounting, when in fact, it was ONLY in accounting.

Why the silly (and stupid) lie?

This would be no big deal most of the time, because unlike so many other executives who have had resume issues, Thompson did actually graduate from the college he listed with an accounting degree as he said he did. His error was in claiming a dual degree in computer science that Stonehill didn’t even offer at the time of his graduation.

Thompson hasn’t really explained why (except trying to blame it on an executive search firm), but my guess is that he did it because having a computer science degree on his résumé gave him more “street cred” in Silicon Valley. It’s a fib that might not matter in most circumstances, but one that was absolutely poisonous for the CEO of Yahoo, especially when it was discovered by an activist shareholder unhappy with how the company was being managed.

So, this fib by Thompson turned into a lie when it was discovered — and it got him booted from his job as CEO of Yahoo. But lots of people fib on résumés and it is no big deal. Is the Yahoo debacle just an aberration? Does it ever pay to lie on your résumé ?

Cindy Krischer Goodman, the workplace columnist and blogger at The Miami Herald, says it doesn’t. She writes:

The lesson here is don’t do it. If you think your resume needs some flair, do something about it — the right way. Take a class. Do volunteer work. Gain the skills or experience you’re missing. Yes, gaining those skills or experience could cut into your work life balance, but so can losing your job. If Thompson felt he needed to add a computer science degree to his resume, he should have taken classes. It’s never too late to gain more education. By the way, education is the area of a resume where people lie the most, experts say.”

“Track record successes are everything”

She also point to these statistics from another Miami Herald story she wrote on this same topic:

Studies show half of all résumés include a little padding and a third contain outright lies. According to data collected by employee background checker Hire Right, 53 percent of all job seekers’ résumés contain inaccurate information, while 34 percent have outright lies about experience, education and ability to perform essential job functions.”

What always amazes me about these CEO résumé issues when they pop up, is that the resume fib that becomes the big deal that gets the CEO fired is usually something that is really a minor issue that matters very little to the job the CEO is doing and could/should have been easily corrected before it turned into a flash point.

The Herald story makes this point as well:

Tom Connelly, managing director at Boyden Global Executive Search in Miami, says anyone putting together a résumé should realize that after a couple of years of work experience, education means less and track record successes are everything. He discovered executives mistakenly believe they need to have an MBA for high-level positions, which could lead them to falsely and unnecessarily claim to have one. “It is what you accomplished, not what you studied that matters nanoseconds into a career.”

Why fibs and lies don’t wash today

I can remember a time when enhancing a résumé was considered a minor indiscretion and something that a lot of people did without really thinking twice — but that was pre-Internet, pre-social media, before serious background checking, drug tests, and all manner of pre-hiring screening.

For better or worse, for good or bad, workplace life is very different today. Any CEO who doesn’t understand that, and fails to address it in something as personal as their own résumé, is no better than the clueless and out-of-touch executives that pop up every week on Undercover Boss.

• Chatty women lose out at work. I found this buried in a Wall Street Journal wrap-up of short news items, and frankly, I found it pretty interesting. London’s Daily Mail played it up a little more, and as they noted about this Yale research, “It is a conclusion likely to upset most feminists – and perhaps even most women. Female employees who want to succeed in the workplace should keep their mouths shut. Research suggests that women who talk too much in the office are seen as less competent than their quieter peers. For men however, the more often they voice their opinions the better they are seen at doing their jobs.”
• Workers, CEOs are poles apart on Florida’s work environment. The Tampa Bay Times found that when it comes to evaluating the Sunshine State as a place to work, employees and the executives who hire them couldn’t be further apart. “Consider Florida’s rising from No. 3 to No. 2 in Chief Executive magazine’s recent annual survey of the best states for business,” the newspaper wrote. “Florida pushed business powerhouse North Carolina from the second slot and now only trails Texas in the best business state race. … Now broaden that pinhole view. Look at the well-being of Floridians based on their own responses. It’s not a pretty sight. Ranked against other states on a Well Being Index, Florida lands at a lowly No. 42 based on 2011 data. That’s a five-state drop since 2010 when Florida ranked an already mediocre 37th.”
• Are females growing in the larger U.S. workplace? Time magazine gets right to it: “Over the past four years, the monthly jobs figures have been spun like a roulette wheel to declare which sex is gaining — or losing–from recession and recovery. April’s numbers show that women gained 73% of the 115,000 new jobs added to the U.S. economy. … (But here’s) the problem with those seemingly great April numbers: most of that big job grab by women occurred in fast-growing but low-paying areas like temporary help, private education, and health, leisure and hospitality. Even in higher-end areas like professional and business services, where women made gains, 51% of the jobs they nabbed were temporary, vs. 27% for men. “Both women and men are gaining jobs in the private sector, but men are getting the more secure jobs,” notes Joan Entmacher, vice president for family economic security at the National Women’s Law Center.”
• Kronos Time Well Spent cartoon. Kronos, the company that probably makes your organization’s time-and-attendance systems, publishes a regular Time Well Spent workplace cartoon by Tom Fishburne. I’m posting them here, from time to time, in the Weekly Wrap.

By Celia Joseph

South Africa, a country with over 50 million people, has the largest economy in Africa.

Among its major sources of business are tourism, agriculture and mineral resources. Many U.S. and multi-national companies have locations in South Africa. This article will provide some basic information about employment law in South Africa for companies who already employ workers in South Africa or who are considering hiring employees in that country.

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 is South Africa’s current employment law governing an employer’s duties and obligations to most workers in the country. This law applies to all employees and employers except members of the National Defence Force, National Intelligence Agency, South African Secret Service and unpaid volunteers working for an organization with a charitable purpose.

Basics of employment conditions

The basic conditions of employment as set forth in the Act form part of the contract of employment with each covered employee. However, some of the employment conditions enumerated in the Act may be revised by individual or collective agreement.

• Employment contracts. In South Africa, employment agreements must be in writing. The employer is required to provide workers the following information in writing when employment begins: the employer’s full name and address; the employee’s name and occupation or a brief description of the work; the various locations of work; date of employment; ordinary hours of work and days of work; wage or the rate and method of calculating compensation; rate for overtime work; any other cash payments; any payment in kind and the value of such payment; frequency of remuneration; any deductions; leave entitlement; period of notice or period of the employment agreement; description of any council or sectoral determination which covers the employer’s business; period of employment with a previous employer that counts towards the period of employment; and a list of any other documents that form part of the contract, indicating a place where a copy of each may be obtained.
• Affirmative action requirements. South Africa’s Employment Equity Act requires employers with more than 50 employees, as well employers in certain other categories, to develop employment equity plans. The purpose of these plans is for employers to show reasonable progress in the workforce pertaining to certain “designated groups,” defined by the Act as “black people” and “women and people with disabilities”, and to identify barriers adversely affecting individuals who are members of these “designated groups.”
• Regulation of working time. South Africa’s laws regulate working time for both ordinary hours of work and overtime. This section of the Act, however, does not pertain to senior management employees, employees engaged as sales staff who travel and employees who work fewer than 24 hours a month.

For ordinary hours of work, employers may not require or permit an employee to work more than 45 hours in any week; nine hours in any day if an employee works for five days or less in a week; or eight hours in any day if an employee works on more than five days in a week. An employer may not require or permit an employee to work overtime except by an agreement, or require permit an employee to work more than 10 hours’ overtime a week. An agreement may not require or permit an employee to work more than 12 hours on any day.

However, a collective agreement may increase overtime to 15 hours per week for up to two months in any period of up to twelve months. Overtime must be paid at 1.5 times the employee’s normal wage or an employee may agree to receive time off. The Act also provides rules for a compressed work week, averaging of hours of work, meal intervals, daily and weekly rest periods, pay for work on Sundays, night work and public holidays.

• Leave Entitlement. South Africa’s law on leave entitlement does not apply to employees working fewer than 24 hours a month for an employer, or to leave granted in excess of the leave entitlement under the statute. For all other employees, the law guarantees annual leave (21 consecutive days’ annual leave or by agreement, one day for every seventeen days worked or one hour for every seventeen hours worked); sick leave (six weeks’ paid sick leave in a period of 36 months); maternity leave (four consecutive months’ maternity leave); and family responsibility leave (full-time employees are entitled to three days paid family responsibility leave per year, on request, when the employee’s child is born or sick, or in the event of death of the employee’s spouse or life partner, or the employee’s parent, adoptive parent, grandparent, child, adopted child, grandchild or sibling).
• Collective Bargaining Agreements. A collective bargaining agreement negotiated by a bargaining council replaces or excludes the basic conditions of employment as set forth in the Act except for the following employer obligations:
• a) the duty to arrange working time with regard to the health and safety and family responsibility of employees;
• b) protection afforded to employees who perform night work;
• c) annual leave entitlement of at least two weeks;
• d) maternity leave entitlement;
• e) sick leave entitlement; and,
• f) the prohibition of child and forced labor. The Minister of Labour may make a determination to vary or exclude a basic condition of employment upon application by an employer or employer organization.
• Separation of Employment. The section of South Africa’s law governing termination of employment does not apply to an employee who works fewer than 24 hours in a month for an employer. For all other employees, a contract of employment may be terminated on notice of not less than:
• a) one week, if the employee has been employed for more than six months or less;
• b) two weeks, if the employee has been employed for more than six months but not more than one year; and,
• c) four weeks, if the employee has been employed for one year or more, or if a farm worker or domestic worker has been employed for more than six months. A collective agreement may shorten the four weeks’ notice period no less than two weeks, and notice must be given in writing, unless such notice is provided to an illiterate employee. The fact that an employer has provided the notice of employment termination does not prevent the employee from challenging the fairness or lawfulness of the dismissal in terms of any applicable law.
• Severance Pay. An employee dismissed for operational requirements or whose employment agreement contract is terminated is entitled to one week’s severance pay for every year of service under the terms and conditions of the Act.

This was originally published on Fisher & Phillips Cross Border Employer Law blog

Think of the format of a Master Card commercial. In dealing with difficult people we have insanity, what’s typical, and then the priceless solution — or in this case 4 priceless solutions.

So, there’s insanity, or dealing with difficult people in the same old way and expecting them to do something different. There’s our typical response of labeling difficult people for easy description when we talk about them, and then there’s the priceless solution: using new labels that remind you to treat them in new ways so that you get different results!

So the priceless solution is for you, not the difficult person. We all know that the only person’s behavior you can change is yours so keep that in mind here and use these new labels to remind yourself how YOU can adjust your behavior when dealing with others in the workplace you’ve decided are difficult.

4 ways to describe difficult people

There are four new ways of describing them: Divas, Dragons, Detectives, and Drop Outs. Each label corresponds to our CORE Profile Personality Preferences, but also gives you a clue about what is creating the need for their difficult behavior and what is motivating them — both of which you can then directly address.

• Divas – these are likely entertainer types motivated by a need for attention. Give them some and they get less difficult. The only reason they might appear to be a diva is because they are in an attention deficit and that causes them stress.
• Dragons – these are likely commander types motivated by getting things done. Help them be more efficient and get immediate results and they’ll quit breathing fire down your neck. The only reason they do is stress makes them want to control the snot out of everything and barking orders is perceived to be a way to control.
• Detectives – these are likely the more linear organizer preferences motivated and driven to do things right. With enough stress they become vigilant around details – give them as many facts and figures as you can find that are relevant and then give them time. Columbo could solve a murder in under an hour, but these guys need time to process and the more stress and pressure and less details, the more time they’ll take to figure out the “mystery”.
• Drop Outs – these are likely your relater preferences who withdraw and close up when conflict arises and folks stop getting along. They need stability, certainty, reassurance, and harmony and if you can provide those or send them somewhere where there is more of that, the stress and disengagement will disappear.

Want to make all of your difficulties disappear? Add to these four simple strategies by understanding who YOU are, who THEY are and how your needs and styles might differ, but both have value and can be powerful when properly motivated, accepted and addressed.

Have you heard the story about the gal who was fired from her full-time job as a reporter because she didn’t disclose to her employer that she was a part-time exotic dancer, er, stripper?

Sarah Tressler filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and is suing her former employer (the Houston Chronicle, where she worked as a society reporter) for gender discrimination.

When I first heard it on the news, my first thought was, “Good for her, I hope she kicks their ass and wins!” After all, she’s a reporter, not a nun. She’s earned a Master’s in Journalism and was paying off her debt for her education — that ultimately benefits her employer.

Did employer have a “no moonlighting” policy?

Perhaps she was discovered by her stripper blog that had a photo and her real name on it. Or maybe someone she works with happened to see her while she was on the clock at her part-time gig.

Back to the case.

If her employer argues they had a “no moonlighting” policy and employees were obligated to disclose where they worked, I wonder if she would have been fired if she was working at a pizza joint or the local gym. I’m thinking they would have turned a blind eye provided it wasn’t affecting her work by day.

Sarah Tressler and her attorney, Gloria Allred

The general purpose of this policy is usually two-fold: employers want to make sure their employees aren’t working for a competitor and they also don’t want their employees’ work to suffer if they’re physically exhausted from working a second job.

But what really gets under my skin is something different.

Respecting the private lives of employees

The reason I want this gal to win this case is because a message needs to be sent to employers to get off their high, self-righteous horses and respect the private lives of their employees. No laws are being broken. Get out of the lives of people’s Facebook pages, asking for social media passwords, political beliefs, religious beliefs, sexual orientation preferences and yes, part time jobs.

It’s none of anyone’s business.

If an employee fails to perform, then step in. Employees are people, just like you, and have a right to a life outside of work.

As an aside: This gal’s attorney, Gloria Allred says, “Most exotic dancers are female, and therefore to terminate an employee because they had previously been an exotic dancer would have an adverse impact on women, since it is a female-dominated occupation.”

I agree with that and I still want her to win.

This was originally published on Kimberly Roden’s Unconventional HR blog.

Editor’s note: Sometimes, readers ask about past TLNT articles that they have heard about but may have missed. That’s why every Friday we’re republishing a Classic TLNT post that some of you have requested.

I’m not a big fan of American Idol, but like a lot of people, I find I get sucked into the competitive aspects of taking a group of talented people and publicly narrowing it down until you have a single “winner.”

This got me to thinking: what can we take away from this kind of competition? Have we learned anything after nine seasons of watching a singing champion chosen this way?

Well yes, there are some pretty big lessons we can take away from American Idol – especially if you’re in human resources.

At its core, American Idol is all about finding and promoting the very best talent – something that HR leaders do for their organizations every single day. But, how the show ultimately goes about finding and promoting the best talent leaves a lot to be desired, and it raises some issues that every HR person should think about in their own talent development process.

So, here are three talent management takeaways I gleaned from Idol:

• The highly-competent-but-safe candidate doesn’t always make the best hire. This year’s American Idol winner – Chicago’s Lee DeWyze – is a solid and competent singer, but he’s not very exciting. Lisa de Moraes in The Washington Post described him as “the franchise’s third consecutive Super-Safe Kinda Beige Rocker Boy winner,” and she’s right. DeWyze is the kind of hire you make when you’re afraid of making a mistake.

And that raises a good question: are you satisfied choosing someone who is “safe” and won’t get you into trouble, or, do you go with the flashier choice that may have not only more upside, but perhaps some downside too? This year’s Idol runner-up, Crystal Bowersox, has over-the-top talent and style to burn, but she’s also is a single mom with dreadlocks and numerous tattoos who doesn’t really “look” the part of an American Idol. People like her can make you look really good, but, not everyone else may agree.

This points to an management truism worth remembering: safe but unexciting choices yield safe but unexciting results. If that’s what you are looking for in your organization, then go to it. But, if you want to push the envelope and stretch for something better, you need to work on overlooking the flaws and quirks that many highly talented people bring to the table. If you don’t, you end up with someone like Taylor Hicks – the safest and most forgettable American Idol winner ever . How hot has his career been lately?

• A committee approach to hiring doesn’t always yield the best candidate. Lots of organizations like to have candidates get interviewed and evaluated by a slew of different managers before everyone weighs in with their opinion. It’s a “safe” talent acquisition approach.

American Idol works this way, too, with the judges and nationwide voters all weighing in on who they believe is best. It’s a time-honored approach, of course, but hiring by committee rarely yields the best candidate. For every superstar like Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, you get a slew of middle-of-the-road winners like Ruben Studdard, Kris Allen, David Cook and Hicks.

Idol would do well to limit the nationwide voting until late in the season, letting a smaller group of smart and insightful talent managers – the judges – whittle down the group until the final four or five are left. Doing this would surely help keep more of the highly talented but less traditional candidates in the candidate pool longer, and maybe, give one of them a chance to win.

Your company would also be better served by limiting the vetting of candidates to a smaller group of four to five key decision-makers rather than running potential hires through a gauntlet of managers up and down the food chain. I bet you’ll find this approach not only leads to making better decisions about talent, but is less stressful on the candidates AND your organization.

• You need to ask yourself – do I hire for competence now or for growth potential down the road? In most seasons, the American Idol winner reflects someone chosen for solid competence right now over a person who may have more upside in the years to come. That’s why last year’s most talented and colorful Idol finalist (Adam Lambert) was passed over for someone with a lot less potential (winner Kris Allen). Other highly talented but less polished Idol candidates, like Chris Daughtry and this year’s Siobham Magnus, seemed to suffer from this, too.

Except in very rare cases, high potential tomorrow is ALWAYS preferable to solid competence today, but many HR leaders and talent managers don’t agree. Making the safe choice won’t get you in trouble and may help the organization immediately, but going with the high potential candidate is likely to yield a lot more if you can afford to be patient. In other words, you won’t build superstars taking the safe road, and isn’t building an organization of superstars what it is all about?

Yes, American Idol is all about top talent winning out, but like a lot of things in life, it’s less about finding the very best talent and more about finding someone who is highly talented AND acceptable to a large group of constituents. It leads, in the end, to all-too-many vanilla choices, and while that may be acceptable for American Idol, it’s not the optimum way for you to get the very best talent into your organization.

In other words, you need to hire like Simon Cowell. That’s a tougher way to go, but in the end, you’ll have a lot better talent – and better bottom line results – to show for it.

I have written many articles about “Authentic Networking” that are about using a genuine, generous approach to building your “extra team.” We all need this type of network.

The basic premise of Authentic Networking is:

• Meet new people because they genuinely interest you;
• Build and put value into your network by giving;
• Network with the people you already know — before you need anything;
• Give more than you take, always.

I often say that even if you never meet another person in your whole life, you should still be putting value into the network of people you already know!

Expanding your network

OK, but what about the kind of networking where the primary purpose is to meet new people to “sell to” — to recruit new clients, generate leads, raise money or find a job. The thing many people struggle with here is that although selling (or getting something) is the ultimate goal, it should never be the initial networking goal.

The wrong goal:

Success = Meet a new important person and get them to do, give me, or commit to something.

This is stressful because:

1. The bar is too high; and,
2. It doesn’t work.

Instead think about setting your networking goal as:

Success = Meet a new person and get an invitation to talk again.

Modifying the goal from selling to meeting sidesteps two bad behaviors people run into when building a network to sell to.

1. Don’t try to close the deal

In fact, don’t even try to open the deal in the first meeting!

Here is good story about this: A very competent PR person was at a networking event (where prospects for her firm were present) and she was having a great time talking to a man for about 20 minutes. They were both enjoying the conversation. Then the discussion came to, “What do you do?”

When it was revealed that she was a PR person and he was a CEO, she became uncomfortable for two reasons.

1. He is a CEO and therefore a potential client that I should be selling.
2. He will be turned off by the fact that I am a PR person who wants to sell him.

The conversation ended.

Alternatively, if she had set the goal as: meet a new friend, she could have declared the whole thing a great success and set her agency up for future selling opportunities.

When the “what do you do?” came up and he said, “I’m a CEO” she could have said, “That’s great, tell me more.” She would have learned something about his business, that might have provided a hook that would be useful later.

Offer something of value

Then after continuing the conversation she could say, “I enjoyed talking to you very much. You know, our firm works with a number of CEO’s who share similar business challenges. Why don’t we set up a call and I can share some of the interesting benchmark data we’ve collected?”

An invitation for another contact = success.

It’s important to realize it might be five or six conversations before you get around to selling what you are selling. That’s OK. That’s networking.

If you set your goal on making a new friend, the other benefit is that after a few conversations you have also earned the right to ask, “Do you know someone else I should be talking to?” That’s a way to meet even more people.

I can tell you that several of the biggest wins in my business have come 1-2 years after meeting someone, staying in touch with them because we liked each other, and then later getting introduced by that person to a prospect, sale, or media channel.

The part that makes this work is to stay in touch. Keeping in touch with people you already know is a huge part successful networking. Your network only has value if you put value into it. Here are 10 ideas for doing that.

2. Don’t try to be impressive

No one is ever more impressive when they are trying to be impressive!

Once you take away the pressure to be a fascinating, interesting, important person, you will come off much better. There is almost nothing less interesting then someone who is trying very hard to be interesting.

I think it is a fairly old adage to be interested instead of being interesting. When someone is trying to too hard to be impressive, they become in-authentic and it shows. Nervous energy bleeds through. And they can seem overbearing or desperate.

It’s not always malicious or on purpose. Sometimes insecurity just gets the best of you. When this happens it is important to get yourself into a different communication mode. You need to calm down. Listen. Be helpful.

Helping a friend

The best way I have found to achieve this mental shift is to think of every new prospect as though they are a good friend you genuinely want to help.

If your ultimate goal is to cultivate a prospect or develop a sale, what could be better than first thinking, “What would I do if this was my best friend, and I was genuinely trying to help them in a way that they actually need help?”

You would be motivated to ask questions, to listen, to understand what they were really going through, so you could maybe think of a way to help them. This type of conversation is authentic. It is very comfortable for you and disarming for them. And it allows you to automatically avoid the risk of being annoying by trying too hard to be impressive (or selling too soon).

It also lets you find out what kind of help they actually need! If they need something that whatever you are selling doesn’t offer, then don’t offer it. You wouldn’t do that to your friend, so why would you do it to anyone?

Instead think, well darn, there is not an opportunity right now for me to get what I am hoping for, so let me put that aside and figure out some other way I might be able to actually help.

This keeps the door open — still a good outcome.

Let’s go back to the example, if you are a PR person, and if the CEO tells you his biggest issue right now is that they lost the two key developers of their product, what would you say to your best friend? Would you say, “Hey, I bet you could use some PR?”

If you care about your friend you might say, “That sounds tough, do you know what you are going to do? Can I help?” Maybe you can introduce them to someone going through something similar.

As the conversation continues you might find a way you can actually help. You might even stumble upon an angle where a PR program could buy them some time to fix their development issue.

Actually be helpful

By being genuinely helpful you are focusing your energy and the discussion in the most productive way, and you will gather the most insight that you can apply to selling later.

Also being helpful has the added benefit of getting them to see you as helpful!

So when they can eventually see that they need what you do, they will be favorably inclined to talk to you about it. They will want to spend more time with you.

If you start by selling or trying on purpose to be brilliant, you more often than not come off as aggressive and annoying – even if your intentions are completely honorable.

But when you stop focusing on your agenda and instead actually care about what others think and need, you will create future opportunities to connect, and you will BE more impressive.

By doing this consistently, you will build a self-referring network of possibilities for future selling.

This was originally published on Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. Her latest book is Rise: How to be Really Successful at Work and LIKE Your Life.

I’ve been having an interesting email discussion with a UK doctoral candidate whose thesis is focused on qualitative recognition and reward program research, especially on “recognition gone wrong.”

As part of that discussion, she shared with me this story:

For instance, in an organisation I studied recently, recognition was being used to ‘soften the blow’ of a disappointing pay review and was actually undermining the relationship between manager and employee it was intended to support.”

I’ve heard horrifying stories of recognition gone wrong (like giving an iPod to a deaf guy or mispronouncing/misspelling the name of the recognition recipient at a major awards function), but this story takes bad recognition practices to a new low.

Never mix recognition and compensation

Why is this so bad? Aside from the fallout of a destroyed relationship between manager and employee, this practice violates Rule #1 of strategic employee recognition – Never muddle compensation and recognition.

Employees must be paid appropriately for the work they do. If they are not appropriately compensated, then no amount of recognition will help them feel valued and necessary contributors to the organization’s success.

Pay people what they are worth (fair market value) for the job they do. Recognize them when they go above and beyond, living your core values in their daily work and giving discretionary effort.

What’s the worst “recognition gone wrong” story you’ve ever heard (or experienced)?

You can find more from Derek Irvine on his Recognize This! blog.

We know prolonged sitting is detrimental to individual and business health.

Prolonged sitting decreases productivity and creativity and ratchets up stress. Research now links prolonged sitting to more extreme health risks, such as obesity, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and heart disease, and even an earlier death.

The research is telling us: We need to unseat employees. But how? Until dance walking through the office becomes the norm, we’re going to need some help.

I collected a handful of tools employees can use to unseat themselves throughout the day, including one designed and developed by my firm. Of all of these, I’ve only tested Hotseat and Fitbolt. (Warning: self-promotion. Hotseat is a product from context.)

1. Hotseat

Hotseat is a new health app from context, a change management and communication consulting firm that specializes in wellness. Hotseat uses social accountability, gameful design and our extreme attachment to our smartphones to unseat employees.

Employees start by choosing activities that interest them and meet their desired intensity level. Working with each employee’s calendar availability to make sure there are no conflicts, Hotseat sets up a daily roster of two-minute activity breaks and nudges employees to complete them.

Employees can take their breaks solo, or they can create collaborative and competitive challenges to make the breaks social and fun. Hotseat is available for iPhone; android version to follow.

2. Fitbolt

Fitbolt is the product of Evan Carothers, a software developer.

Fitbolt sits on your browser or desktop and alerts you every 30 minutes to take a fitness break, pulling from a catalog of stretches and exercises. Its algorithm tracks what exercises you like and pushes out new activities based on your preferences.

Premium members receive health reminders and diet pointers as well as tips about improving posture and work ergonomics. Fitbolt integrates with other popular personal health trackers, such as Fitbit, Runkeeper and Dailymile, and has recently issued an open invitation to employers interested in deploying Fitbolt company-wide.

3. Instant Recess

Instant Recess is the brainchild of Dr. Toni Yancey, a professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health.

Since 1999, Dr. Yancey’s advocated for bringing playground recess into the workplace through her book and partnerships. The idea is simple: create structured activity breaks throughout the day and invite all employees to participate. The length, frequency and style of the break is something you build over time and customize to your culture.

One company using instant recess implemented five-minute breaks three times per day. Another set up 10-minute stretch breaks every morning and afternoon. Similarly, the break approach is up to each company’s interpretation.

Your company wants to line dance during its 10-minute break? Then shake it. You have a more sedate culture? No problem, you can do walking meetings.

4. Workpace

Workpace isn’t focused on reducing sedentary behavior, but it does prompt employees to get up and move.

Workpace bills itself as a health and safety tool focused on injury prevention brought on by computer overuse. Workpace tracks computer use to detect patterns and alerts employees when they need to take a break. Breaks may be small — a micropause — or a bit longer, a workpace break. The workpace break functions as an activity break, as you need to get up and move.

Typically, workpace only interrupts users if they don’t take natural breaks, and the default setting is a five-minute break after every 55 minutes of continuous PC use. Companies using workpace can pick and choose their settings and apply different settings to different work groups.

5. Dogs, the sedentary employee’s best friend

Another new Virginia Commonwealth University study finds that bringing dogs to work may lower employee stress.

Yes, dogs at work will certainly get employees out of their seats — whether it’s to play fetch or to scramble to keep the carpet in the conference room stain-free.

This was originally published on Fran Melmed’s free-range communication blog.

So what is DIAM?

It stands for Disability Insurance Awareness Month, sponsored by the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE). Many employees are unaware of the disability coverage that may be available to them as an employer-sponsored benefit, so spread the word this month about your workplace disability insurance.

Even though you may offer this coverage to your employees as an employer-paid benefit, it is important to educate your workforce that the coverage also includes time off due to an illness or an injury that happens off the job. According to the National Safety Council, 73 percent of disabling accidents and illnesses aren’t work-related.

Why disability coverage is important

But many employees could be under the impression that the disability must be work-related to be able to submit a claim. Whether you focus on disability coverage as a single topic or include it as part of an overall review of your benefit package, take the next few weeks to highlight your company’s short and/or long-term disability policy.

The typical group disability policy only replaces 60 percent of income, but for higher income employees that amount could be capped by a maximum monthly payout (for example $10,000 per month). Employees should know that if the policy is paid for by the company, the benefit would be considered taxable income. However, if the employee pays the premium for the group coverage or buys a plan on the individual market, the benefit would not be taxable.

Although a disability policy isn’t meant to replace 100 percent of an employee’s income, it will at least provide the disabled worker with a source of replacement income to help make ends meet until they’re able to return to work to avoid a financial hardship situation. A LIFE Foundation study found that 70 percent of working Americans couldn’t make it one month before financial difficulties would set in. More than one in four Americans wouldn’t make it a week.

More common than you think

Most of us think a disability will never happen to us, but nearly one in three women can expect to suffer a disability that keeps them out of work for 90 days or longer at some point during their working years. For men, the odds are about one in four. And one worker in seven can expect to be disabled for five or more years before retirement. These statistics are alarming, but sometimes it takes this type of shock value to raise the awareness of your employees to one of the biggest risks to their financial security.

Disability Insurance Awareness Month is actually a part of an overall campaign that is sponsored by Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), the Save for Your Future Campaign, because financial education should be an ongoing campaign, not a one time event.

This was originally published on the Financial Finesse blog  for Workplace Financial Planning and Education.

I rarely write articles on leadership, talent management or employee engagement. It seems like there are enough being written already by more knowledgeable people than me. But this one is too good to pass up.

I live in Dallas, the home of two major airlines —- Southwest and American Airlines. Because they are both local, the Dallas newspaper is always quick to print any and all details of their “goings on.”

I’ve been thinking about their leadership differences recently.

Forward-thinking talent management

Southwest was the “rebel” start-up back in the 1970’s. The stewardesses wore hot pants (which would never be allowed today!) and go-go boots, and they danced and sang their way down the airplane aisles much to the delight of male passengers! Their branding was “the love airline.”

Herb Kelleher was their CEO for years and was a wild and crazy man! Libby Sartain was the Vice President of HR. The two of them were like “two peas in a pod.” Both had a great sense of humor and were very fun-loving. (Some of you may know Libby. She left Southwest for Yahoo! Now retired, she is an author and frequent speaker at HR events, including this year’s TLNT Transform conference.)

Southwest was/is very forward-thinking in terms of talent management. They created many programs in the 70’s that are still considered forward-thinking even today. They used innovative ideas to excite and motivate employees and created a very trusting, happy and proud workforce. As Herb Kelleher said, “You can buy an airplane and a terminal, but you can’t buy the spirit of the people.”

Southwest has been one of the most, if not the most, profitable airline in the U.S., and I cannot help but think it has been at least partially due to the way they have treated their employees. I could go on and on — but I think you get my drift.

An adversarial relationship with labor

American, on the other hand, has had an adversarial relationships with its unions for a long time. There has been little trust between employees and management. American has been on shaky ground financially for 10 years and has had almost constant battles with the unions involving cost cutting measures as well as layoffs.

Some of you may be aware that American has recently filed for bankruptcy. They have also requested the court to allow them to terminate union contracts as part of their proposed restructuring.

US Airways is interested in acquiring them. American’s unions have met with U.S. Airways and have agreed to the proposed employment terms should US Airways acquire American. The unions have also posted a full page letter to American’s Board of Directors in the Dallas newspaper asking them to vote for US Airways’ acquisition proposal. To say there is no love lost between the unions and American management is an understatement.

What a contrast in leadership and talent management.

A leadership lesson from Braniff

Thinking about these two airlines made me think of another story about leadership. This one is on a more personal note. My father worked for an airline that was based in Dallas, too. Maybe some of you remember Braniff. It no longer exists. He told me something I will never forget when I first became a manager.

He was not a college graduate, but at Braniff, he worked his way up to superintendent, which was a management position. He managed all of the overhaul, instrument and electrical work in the maintenance department.

When the airline fell on hard times, there were layoffs. He was spared, but was “bumped back” to a mechanic position. The first day he reported to work as a mechanic, several mechanics approached him, gave him a fully equipped toolbox and told him: “You treated us fairly when you were our boss. Now we want to repay you for it. If you have any questions or need any help on the job just ask us, and we will be happy to help you.”

Well, that story made a very strong impression on me. The message? Be careful how you treat people. You don’t know what the future will bring. What goes around, comes around.

In Bible-speak: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

In HR-speak: It’s about leadership, talent management and employee engagement.

Back to American and Southwest: Southwest follows that maxim; American does not. And now American does not have its employees’ support when it needs it the most.

Lesson learned.

PS — In memory of my father whose two great wishes in life were to live in Texas and work in aviation. He accomplished both.