Currently, corporate social responsibility, although certainly a concern for most organizations, is not among the high priority issues. But one business executive argues that cultural and social changes may push the matter into the forefront of business planning – and so human resource departments need to be aware of it.

As consumers become savvier, as social media brings more transparency and accountability, and as resources become more scarce, all of these things will conspire to make corporate social responsibility more significant, says Susan McPherson, a business executive.

She sees this initiative taking several different forms.

One is with employee engagement. She predicts that companies will become more involved with non-profit organizations through employee volunteer work. This will be even more prevalent if the economy continues to struggle, she says. About 80 percent of all businesses are planning to do some type of employee engagement effort in 2012. These efforts also help with the productivity and effectiveness of employees – engaged employees report being happier at work. Also, the profits at companies where the employees were more engaged grew three times faster than for other businesses.

McPherson also believes that companies in the future will partner with non-profits to help grow the business and to improve image and exposure. A 2010 survey showed that two-thirds of brands are involved in some type of non-profit partnership, an increase of almost 10 percent over the previous year. Almost every marketing manager believes this is an effective business strategy.

Another trend that will drive these partnerships is the rise of social media, which will increase the pressures for more transparency from organizations. Consumers will have the means to communicate their feelings directly to businesses and non-profits. Businesses and non-profits that engage with consumers will come out ahead, McPherson says.

Corporate boards will be faced with corporate social responsibility issues more and more, McPherson says, with investors more concerned about environmental issues, with risks to business reputation, with political spending, with natural resource management, and with diversity issues. These issues will of necessity become part of business strategic planning.

With the depletion of global resources, things such as supply chains involving scarce resources and how they are handled will become more significant as well, McPherson adds.

Human resources professionals have a lot on their plate today: sourcing, hiring, planning benefits, employee engagement…and now social responsibility initiatives. Let Bayside Solutions help lighten your load by allowing us to help you find terrific workers for your San Francisco-area company’s temporary staffing needs. Contact us today!

A recent survey of interest to human resource departments has found that employees are not getting on board with all of the healthcare investments being made by businesses.

The survey found that businesses are putting a lot of resources into helping their employees enhance their health, in areas such as health benefits, health programs in the workplace, and using other healthcare resources outside the company. But despite all of these efforts by the companies, employees have not taken the time or effort to learn about or get involved in the programs.

The study was done by the Midwest Business Group on Health. Midwest worked with five client companies employing more than 250,000 workers over a five-year period to compile the information.

The Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) is a non-profit, Chicago-based business coalition made up mostly of human resources and health benefits professionals  from more than 100 large, self-insured public and private employers. The coalition represents about three million people and more than $3 billion in healthcare benefits annually

To help companies get their workers more involved in their health, Midwest made a number of recommendations. It recommended that companies look at their corporate culture when putting healthcare programs in place at work so that these programs fit in with the culture at the company. Midwest also recommended that companies make efforts to improve their communication about healthcare not only with workers, but with the workers’ dependents and family members. Midwest also said companies need to offer more incentives as well to motivate workers to improve their health.

Also, Midwest recommended that companies make resources available to workers so that they can compare different health plans and actually see what their healthcare is costing them.

Midwest also recommended that companies develop initiatives to springboard off of clinical screening programs, such as tests for cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and other conditions, to use the screenings to motivate employees to make lifestyles changes.

Midwest also suggested that companies provide resources to help employees deal with setbacks and stress on the job and at home.

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In looking at employee performance, some business analysts make the comparison between an employee and a gasoline tank. The point of the comparison is to describe the amount of fuel in the tank that employees have to use. And, the analysts say, the tanks are getting low.

People have physical and emotional resources that they use when they confront various situations, and people use these resources at work. When the tank needs fueling, we use things like vacations, support from friends and family, and a sense of fulfillment in our jobs to add fuel. What empties the fuel are such things as bosses who are hard to work for, worries about money, concerns about keeping a job, and heavy workloads.

When the tank is full, people have the energy and enthusiasm to take on new pressures and challenges. But when the tank is low, new pressures and tasks tend to create more problems for the person and become harder to achieve.

One example of this that was studied in detail was the response of workers when a hurricane hit, which naturally put a lot of additional stress on the employees. Research showed that the extra demands made on employees – things such as working longer hours to fill in for people who could not make it to work – caused more problems for people whose reserves were already depleted, whose gas tanks were already near empty. The extra stress actually caused a drop off in their efforts. But employees whose gas tanks were fuller were much more engaged when the hurricane hit.

When demands in the workplace increase, employees need to also increase their resources — their reserves – in order to be able to handle these demands, according to Dave Ulrich, a business analyst. When employees have more resources such as better control of their time, or the chance to learn and grow, they are better able to handle increased stress. The breakdown happens when demands outpace the resources, Ulrich says.

Several business analysts say that they see workers’ tanks nearing empty in the wake of increased demands at work after the recession. And while workers have been able to increase their productivity, the analysts say these increases will not continue if employees are not able to build up their reserves, if they are not able to put some gas in the tank.

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If your human resources department is involved with overseeing volunteer programs for the company, here are several ideas for getting employees engaged within volunteer opportunities that don’t actually have them involved in some kind of volunteer assignment.

One thing a company can do is sponsor a kind of signature volunteer program that is of a short-term duration, but one that involves the entire company. For example, JP Morgan Chase has a volunteer program called Global Days of Service, which is a month-long effort of volunteer service each year by Chase employees around the globe. The Chase employees get together with family and friends to volunteer in a variety of service projects. In 2002, volunteers at Chase worked in more than 950 projects in 275 cities around the world.

In another kind of volunteer effort, companies can help out non-profit organizations by volunteering their skills and business expertise. An example here is America Online, which offers IT help to non-profits and schools. The goal is to help them more effectively use resources online for whatever purpose they have. .

To get the most out of your volunteer programs, your company should follow a three-point plan outlined by the Points of Light Foundation:

• First, your company should acknowledge that community service and employee volunteerism are not just the right thing to do, but important to your business achieving its goals.
• Next, your company needs to make a commitment to create and encourage volunteerism for all employees, and you need to look at community service the same as any other business function.
• Finally, you need to focus your efforts at serious social problems in the community.

Community service programs have wide-ranging benefits. They help workers do their jobs better, acquire new skills, work in teams, think creatively, and help with job satisfaction. They also are an important factor in attracting and retaining good employees. And, as is well known, they also improve the company’s image and reputation.

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Companies today are complaining a lot about the trouble they are having finding the talent they need. But, according to business writer George Anders, the problem may not always be with the candidates but with the blinkered perspectives of the people doing the hiring.

The problem may be that the businesses are looking for the perfect resume – too perfect, in fact. They think the best person for the job is the applicant with the 3.9 grade point average from some elite school. But, Anders says, they are finding out that these people don’t show as much initiative as the companies would like to see. Too often they are waiting to be told what to do.

In looking for the perfect resume, businesses are unintentionally weeding out the more freewheeling types, the people who may not have had the best grades, but aren’t afraid to take chances, Anders says.

Anders says companies need to change their mindset, to take a harder look at people who have “jagged resumes,” ones that show successes and failures, because the failures might be evidence of risk taking, of people trying to transcend themselves. Steve Jobs was one such person – he never finished college.

On the face of it, it may look unnecessarily risky to consider such candidates, but if done properly, businesses can find good people, Anders says. To be effective, companies first have to determine what kind of character traits they are looking for, the ones that are indicators of future success. For example, Anders says Teach for America looks for perseverance. Linear Technology looks for the kind of people who like to tinker, and have been doing it since they were children. Resilience, efficiency, curiosity, and self-reliance might be other traits that are important. But whatever the traits, Anders says, the motto should be, “Compromise on experience, not on character.”

Also, Anders says, companies should determine what shortcomings are acceptable. For example, work histories that show that the person jumped around a lot may not really matter all that much. A little eccentricity or mediocre grades also may not be a problem, whereas ethical flaws, or a lack of motivation, may be deal breakers.

Because of the turbulent economy, more people than ever have these jagged resumes, For some hiring managers, that might mean instant disqualification of the applicant, but for others who are willing to look harder and more perceptively, there may be real gems found in the less-than-stellar resume.

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If you work in human resources, one of your responsibilities may be the oversight of your company’s online compliance training. Online training is now widespread, and many argue that it can be an effective way of learning. But do you know how well your online programs are working?

Stephen Paskoff, CEO of a provider of ethics and compliance learning solutions, tells the story of someone working at a financial services firm who had to complete 17 online courses covering financial transactions ranging from ethics and discrimination to harassment in about one day. The man said he clicks his way through the courses but learns little. He just tries to get through it as quickly as possible to get his bonus.

Another person who works at a manufacturing firm says he clicks through the courses as fast as he can. Everyone looks on the courses as pretty much of a joke, he said. Once the courses are completed, management never mentions them again.

Paskoff says when the courses are delivered this way – without any context or follow-up – they really are of little benefit to employees. These type of click-through courses are set up just to give employees some legal information and document that they received it. But just getting information in this way really doesn’t do much to change behavior.

Paskoff argues that to really change the types of employee behavior that causes problems in the workplace or that is even illegal, workers really need a strong motivation for change, and with that, simple guidelines to follow.

The information cannot be conveyed simply as a one-time event, without any follow-up or emphasis from management. Company leadership needs the tools and the know-how to continually reinforce the messages delivered in the online program.

The problem isn’t with the online compliance training, which can be very effective, but with the delivery of the message. The way these online courses are handled tells the employees that the company really doesn’t value them and what they have to say all that much. They come across as some unthinking ritual. A company’s leaders need to provide continual support for the messages in these courses, and the messages themselves must be clear, simple and direct, so that they can be easily followed. Otherwise, the courses will continue to be mostly a time-wasting exercise, providing merely the legal cover the company needs in the event of employee claims against the company.

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With globalization, companies have new opportunities for recruiting from almost anywhere in the world. But with this new opportunity comes new challenges for human resource departments in trying to navigate the diversity involved in a global workforce.

Dealing with diversity has now become more important than ever because of population shifts happening in every marketplace, making them look more multicultural, according to noted business consultant Sylvia Ann Hewlett. For example, in the United States, Latino, African-American and Asian-Americans make up one-third of the population and contribute to 85 percent of U.S. population growth. In the United Kingdom, minorities make up 10 percent of the population, but contribute to 50 percent of population growth. Developing countries now produce more than half of the global GDP and are expected to grow twice as fast as the United States and European Union.

Because of these changes, companies now have to reevaluate how they attract, develop and keep good workers, Hewlett says. Business can no longer use the same management techniques for everyone. How employees are managed needs to be tailored to different groups, according to Hewlett.

To attract top workers, companies are focusing more on women. Intel, for example, was losing many of its mid-level female workers, so it organized career development workshops to help women find and move into more challenging projects.

Companies also are trying to build global networks among their employees, Hewlett says. At Cisco, for example, the firm puts together workers from different job areas in locations around the world together with senior level managers from different geographical areas and also different ethnicity and gender, which helped make global connections.

Companies also are putting more emphasis on making work times and locations more flexible for employees. Studies have shown that a large majority of the employees favor these kinds of options in the workplace, according to Hewlett. For many workers, offering a flexible workplace is the major criterion in choosing where to work. Citibank is an example of a company focusing on a flexible work environment. At Citi, employees can set up different schedules for the days they will come into the office. The company began the program in a few cities, but plans to expand it worldwide.

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If you work in human resources you probably have experienced at one time or another one of the ironclad laws of human activity, one that economists have written about for ages – the law of unintended consequences.

Simply put, it states that “actions of people always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.” Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it, according to economist Rob Norton.

It shows up in business decisions as well. New human resource policies or procedures may end up having unintended consequences – causing a chain reaction of events that end up where no one anticipated.

The law can be seen at work in the airline business, says business consultant Ron Ashkenas. In order to bring in more money, airlines are charging fees for services that used to be free, such as checking baggage and food service. While these fees have brought in a lot of revenue for the airlines, they have also had unintended consequences. One is that passengers are now jamming more things in their luggage, and people are bringing more food on board. This all has the effect of hurting customer satisfaction because it leads to more congestion and odors on the plane. It also may be affecting airline schedules, as people take more time to find overhead space for their stuffed luggage, delaying takeoffs, Ashkenas says.

So, unintended consequences are always there to be reckoned with. What can you as a human resource professional do to lessen their impact?  Ashkenas has a few suggestions.

First, he says you need to plan ahead as much as possible. Realizing that unintended consequences are lurking out there, you want to run through all of the possible results your change will have, to run through all of the scenarios with the people who will be affected.

Test things out on a smaller scale first, Ashkenas says, to see what the reaction to a change will be. He cites the example of a company that wanted to use a new sales forecasting method. Instead of instituting it companywide all at once, the company tested it out on one product in one region to see what the reactions of the sales staff would be, and how the other process changes would work. This gave the firm the chance to modify the program before rolling it out throughout the entire company.

You can’t foresee all the unintended consequences, but planning for them as much as you can will be a big help.

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When interviewing someone for a position, there is a lot riding on the decision. If you choose the right person, it can be a big boost for the company in productivity and revenue. Make the wrong decision, however, and you can have an even bigger headache, dealing with productivity problems, lost time and effort trying to get the person up to speed, and so on. If you terminate the person, there is the process of again looking for someone new and the time and expense for that.

Considering all that is riding on an interview, it is surprising that many interviewers still treat it as more of an art than a science, often relying on their “gut instinct,” their intuition about a candidate. Given that this is not an unusual practice, the natural question to ask is, how effective is it?

The answer, when you look at all of the psychological pitfalls involved, is: not very. There are a lot of things that can sway our “gut feeling” about a person, that don’t really directly tell whether the person will do the job or not.

One of the big things that can influence our opinion about someone is what is known as the halo effect. If you are interviewing someone who is very similar to you – for example, similar in age, in likes and dislikes, in what he or she does as a pastime, in opinions, in background – you are more likely to form a favorable impression of that person. She’s like you, so why wouldn’t you like her? But how much does this tell you about whether she’s capable of doing the job or not?

Another thing that influences our opinion — our “gut feel” — is how the person is dressed. Someone who is well dressed naturally will make a more favorable impression, but the question is, how well does this relate to her ability to do a job?

What can happen is that your “intuition” may end up giving an unfair advantage to a candidate because of psychological factors that might not even be directly related to the job.

What really counts is having a structured, organized job interview, one that is consistent with all candidates, and rates them all on the same scale, a scale that measures those criteria that are directly related to the ability to do the job.

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The hiring process often is one that is laced with tension. It can result in a good decision, where the new employee turns out to be just what you needed, someone who performs well and knows his or her job. But it can also lead to negative results, where the new person doesn’t work out, leading to a mess that has to be cleaned up, and reflecting poorly on all involved in the process.

So, how can you avoid a big hiring mistake?

Human resource experts counsel that prevention is the key. You need to work on and refine the process itself, they say. It is more of a science than an art, adds Adele Lynn, business advisor.

You need to use a method that is clear and that is applied in the same way all the time. You can bring these qualities to the process by being aware of the kinds of things that are important to the business as a whole. For example, is creativity a must have, or analytical thinking? The interviews need to have a structure and include different people from the company. You also need to set up a standardized method of ranking the candidates.

Companies also need to pay attention to time. Often, companies are in a hurry to fill a position, and so they short circuit the interview process, merely asking a few catch-all questions and giving an applicant information about the job. This is asking for trouble.

Interviewers also need to be very clear about the specific skills they need for a particular job. They need to determine how much experience they would like a candidate to have. And they also need to be clear about the kinds of behaviors that are necessary to be successful in a job – assertiveness, working with others, analytical ability?

Questioning during the interview should attempt to get at the motivations of the applicant, about what drives his or her behavior.

After the applicant is hired, the new employee should have the proper support and help at getting oriented and brought up to speed in the new position. The new employee also should know clearly what the expectations are for the job.

If you’re looking for great temporary or direct-hire professionals for your San Francisco-area firm, contact Bayside Solutions. We can help source, vet and place some of the best Bay Area workers to be found in the Bay Area. We look forward to hearing from you!