Tag Archive for: HR Executive

HR Scorecard Template

Today’s HR executive is being challenged to do more as a strategic partner. One of your best tools is the HR Scorecard. It can take many formats including graphs, tables, Powerpoints, timelines, etc. Let’s discuss how to measure what matters and what to do with the data and information obtained.

  1. Measure what matters. For example, if an objective is to reduce the cost of hire, why is that important? Do you intend to do a lot of hiring in the next 12 months? If not, why bother measuring the data? Strategic HR executives always ask how the data they are analyzing ties to the vision, mission, values, goals, and strategic objectives for the company and their department.
  2. Rank it against other objectives. Is perfecting your cost of hire as important as retaining your existing employees? For example, if you intend to hire 50 employees and reduce the cost per hire by $1,000 each, that’s a savings of $50,000. However, if you lose two well-trained employees, the replacement costs would easily dwarf the cost of savings per hire. Therefore, we want to prioritize our objectives so we work in our highest and best use. That’s optimization of HR as a resource.

Read the rest of this extensive report… full PDF here.

The Truth About HR and You

Whether you are in HR …or not…this book can greatly benefit your company. If I was an HR executive I would take it to heart. If I managed an HR executive you will learn how to do that better. I cover both the hard stuff like knowing your numbers and how to communicate them, as well as the soft stuff including the emotional challenges of most HR folks.

As I say in the book, the goal is to be a “Kick Ass” HR Executive. Do that and you will get the rewards and pay you desire.

Click here to get your free copy of the book today (you will get an immediate PDF download.)

Here’ to Kick Ass HR, Don

Ideas that Should be Retired in Human Resources

I love the Freakonomics podcast, especially a recent one on ideas that should be retired in science. http://freakonomics.com/2015/03/05/this-idea-must-die-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/ Of course, this got me thinking about ideas that should be retired in HR. Here’s my shot at it:

1. Data will give us all the answers – In the podcast they discuss the fact that relying solely on data limits our ability to go deeper into relationships and understanding. Of course, data related to hiring or turnover or performance or compliance can be valuable, but it’s simply a starting point. So what if we find that most employees tend to leave our company at 2.8 years of employment. What meaning does that data have? To what extent have we had real conversations with people who have left the company at that time? Bottom line is not to rely solely on data because it seldom has all the answers and can remove us from common sense as well as deeper inquiry.

2. Performance appraisals actually improve performance. Dr. Deming began attacking this idea after World War II. He believed that performance evaluations were more destructive than beneficial of performance. Instead of performance appraisals he instituted kaizen, otherwise known as continuous improvement. He simply asked the question how can we do a better moving forward? What would it take for us to do a perfect job? Instead of performing to a tolerance (i.e. you’ve got to get at least three out of five on your performance evaluation) why don’t we ask how everybody can get fives?

3. HR needs to be strategic and get a seat at the table. I’ve had many conversations about what it means to be “strategic.” The problem is after a 15-year conversation about it, it’s a worn-out metaphor. So what if you don’t get a seat at a table, does that mean you’re somehow less effective? Perhaps you don’t even deserve or want a seat at the table. What’s really most important is whether or not you’re doing the HR job up to your full potential. That’s what really matters. Maybe we should substitute the term the full potential HR executive in place of the strategic HR executive.

What ideas do you think need retirement?