Strategic Thinking

Friday we broadcast our first live, global workout session with our global attorneys and tax professionals at Mountain States Employer’s Council in Denver, Colorado. The program was designed to allow our clients and friends an opportunity to meet each other, have lunch and talk with Rick Gimbert, CPA and global tax expert, Karen Weinstock, ESQ, immigration attorney and Ken Coryell, ESQ, global attorney.

Using the Ribbon, live chat feature, we connected the 30 global business attendees at MSEC in Denver with our panel in Atlanta for a robust discussion on global issues including tax, start up operations, payrolling, off shoring, training, compensation, ethics, stock options, among others.

Hal and Andrew did a fabulous job making the technology look seamless despite the 20 second delay in transmission which caused some laughter in the beginning.

This works for us because we can create live, interactive training programs with our global network of professionals to support and educate clients as they go global to serve their customers.

At the end of the program we stayed for another 1/2 hour to watch Ken Pinnock’s, “Human Capital Show” program on “Workplace Bullying”. If you’d like to watch the show, it is offered free at www.profitabilitychannel.com, click on “library” tab, scroll down to “human resources” and look for the link.

This is a great show and I think you’ll be surprised at the way this subject affects our businesses.

Stay tuned for more speaking engagements and announcements!

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I was thrilled to be invited to speak at Georgia’s Malcolm Baldridge Quality Awards program for Performance Excellence. The “Georgia Oglethorpe Award Process” is a values-based, systems approach to creating and sustaining a high-performance, role model organization. The GOA provides an educational program for top organization leaders to use in optimizing resources toward the achievement of organizational effectiveness, customer and workforce satisfaction, and enhanced bottom line results. Results are improved through ongoing evaluation and improvement using “The Criteria for Performance Excellence. Simply put this organization offers low cost, high value assessment, feedback and recognition for organizations that want to increase their performance.

I spoke to the HR award winners on “Evolutionary HR Management”, Trends and Recommendations. If you would like a copy of this material, let me know!

The key take away from this meeting was that overwhelmingly organizations that draw a clear line of sight between their business strategy and HR activities produce positively sustainable results more than organizations that do not.

The award winners were very impressive and I got the chance to talk to the president of a labeling company in Texas who shared his views on the process. He was convinced that the program enabled his 60 year old company to create sustainable advantage above and beyond what it would have created had they done nothing.

If you’d like to see more about this program check out the website, www.georgiaoglethorpe.org.

Check it out! Do you have one in your state? Country?

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If you’ve had trouble with finding gas lately, and if you live in Georgia you KNOW what I mean, here are a few tips from our recent Human Capital Show production that might help you find a way to get through this issue!

Spot Bonus
Car Pooling-Local Businesses
Company Van Pool
Reduced Transit Tickets
Company Car Buying Service
Fuel Surcharges-UPS
Increasing T/E allowances
Zipcar
Computerized Routing
Telecommuting
4 Day Workweek
9 Hour Workday
Company “Housing”
Profitability Channel for Training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Motorcycle Discounts
Expand Social Networking Options
Sam’s Club/Costco Memberships for Discount Gasoline
Using Employee’s SUV’s for Car Pooling
Gas Cards With Rebates
Kroger Cards for Discount Gas
Pick Up Service From Mass Transit
Short Term Company Car Use
Electric Golf Carts
Reduce Highway Speed
Combine Trips
Flex Time To Avoid Congestion
Moderate A/C Use
Reduce Junk in the Trunk
Keep Tires Inflated to Proper Pressure
Have Kids Use School Bus
Keep Car Tuned and Clean
Use Cruise Control

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Just to let you know, we’re starting a new series on the Human Capital Show called, “How To”. This is designed specifically for the small and medium sized business to help them increase financial performance by better managing their staff. The series starts out with a segment on how to find and attract to talent, how to interview candidates and how to compensate candidates. It continues with how to sections on training, performance management and ends with termination and reorganization.

This new series will air starting in October. We look forward to seeing you at Profitability!

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New on the Human Capital Show are the “Great Thought Leaders” tapes from the last six weeks. We developed this series to hear what some of our greatest business thinkers said about increasing financial performance through human resources. Their results and suggestions are astonishingly similar. Their research shows if a company creates a strategy focused HR program, metrically measured and publically proclaimed, and rigorously enforced, the firm will make more money that companies that don’t.

Now, if you need help getting this done, you can talk with us about our highly effective strategy/HR analysis program, SSSHR© which will provide you with a report on strengthening your HR/Strategy linkages.

Here is who we interviewed and what they said. Log into the Human Capital Show on the Profitability Channel to listen to the full, hour-long interview with each person or call us for the DVD’s.

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We’re pleased to welcome the following companies to our Human Capital Financial Management training program, the “At The Table HR Simulation”. The Simulation is an interactive, competitive case study starring 16 senior business leaders who show you how to increase your return on total capital between 6-38% by linking your business strategy to your HR activities. To quote Jim McGuirk, former president of Unisys, “THIS IS REAL!”. Look below for what these companies say about the effectiveness of this program in increasing financial performance:

UPS
TIAA-CREFF
SHRM STATE COUNCIL PRESIDENT
CROCS
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
J.M. HUBER CORPORATION
KELLER GRADUATE SCHOOL
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
MSEC
CLEAR TECHNOLOGY
GA STATE UNIVERSITY
MICROMOUNTAIN PRINTING
INTERWEAVE
PREMIER MEMBERS
INTRAWEST
ADA-ES
PEARL-DC
TPO-INC

“Not to be missed!” COO Services Business

“Thank you so much for such a fascinating program!” SPHR, VPHR Healthcare

“Awesome exercise-Great real-world analysis!” Director HR-Mayor’s Office

Legal professionals rarely get to sit at the table with HR and management-it should become a standard practice in business. Managing Partner Law Firm

“Our HR department is at the crossroads of becoming a strategic partner or becoming administrative support. This seminar helped me understand how to position myself and the department on the strategic side.” Head of HR, Large Global Manufacturing Business

“This was a terrific program!!! It challenged my business thinking! I learned a lot and it has motivated me to go further with this learning.” SPHR, Senior Director (Strategy Focus)

“Any HR Director would benefit from this program not only leveraging the human capital investment in the organization but also in understanding the entire business and how to link the human capital with the business.” SPHR, Senior Director (HR Focus)

“The continual raise of today’s healthcare costs demands that leaders need to be effective and efficient in the delivery of healthcare and the use of the healthcare dollar. The skills learned in this simulation reflect an understanding of the interrelationship among people, processes and decisions.” SPHR VP Healthcare

“Thanks so much for the invitation, I certainly enjoyed the program. In fact, I was so very impressed that I sent the note below when I returned to the office.
I look forward to talk with you some more about this program and how we can get it in the hands of as many people as we can within the State.” (The note she sent asks the state HR leadership to give her a plan for rolling this out statewide…) STATE SHRM COUNCIL PRESIDENT

“I cannot say how much I enjoyed the last two days. Your presentations, exercises, answers, well… the whole thing was just top of the line to say the least! Frankly, this did not surprise me given how strong I already knew you were. However, I think you even exceeded that! I just wanted to express my appreciation and I feel certain we can get some ‘(additional)’ things going with the simulation…and will look at opportunities shortly. Thanks again for a tremendous job!!” HR CURRICULUM HEAD-MAJOR UNIVERSITY

“FANTASTIC! I would like to schedule a corporate wide program for our leadership team as soon as possible.” SPHR VP HR Fortune 100 Company

“Outstanding product which we’d like to use to evaluate our director level candidates to evaluate their leadership effectiveness.” VP HR

“How could you teach HR strategic planning without this program?” Student, Keller Graduate School

“We need this in our portfolio!”
VP Major College Textbook Company

“Thanks for an outstanding program. I wouldn’t change a thing!”
VP HR Global Transportation Business

“My business acumen grew…!”, President, Architectural Services

If you’d like more information about the references provided we would be pleased to connect you with the business professionals that wrote these comments so you can hear for yourself how participants have been able to use this information to increase the performance of their businesses.

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You probably don’t have time (or the energy) to stay updated on the latest trends and ideas in human capital financial management. So, we’ve done the work for you. Here are three key research articles that we’re pleased to share with our clients, colleagues and our “not-yet-customers”. They are for you with our compliments!

Trends in Total Compensation (PPT)
From the presentation to the CEO Brain Trust in Atlanta, August 2008, describes key issues in the environment, technology, management and the economy that will affect compensation, benefits (short, long term, perks) for 2009 and beyond

Data Privacy and the EU (Articles)
A focused collection of articles about data privacy and compliance for US businesses moving into the EU

Extraordinary Staffing with Tom Colella (DVD-25 minutes)
Tom Colella, managing partner, Korn Ferry International, describes what attracts key employees to an organization and what can be done to improve selection success.

Email Admin@birchtreehr.com for copies.

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A week ago I was clinging to a rocky outcrop, 250 feet above the desert floor, in 123 degree heat, having the time of my life brushing away dirt uncovering dinosaur bones. I’m an “action adventure” type of person so the idea of camping in the desert, 20 miles south of Green River, Utah, with no bathing and limited rest room facilities (only the dreaded “Groover”, so called because of the propensity to leave ‘grooves’ on the backside…), digging for dinosaurs was appealing. I joined three of my fellow Explorer’s Club colleagues, three Paleontologist students from Germany, one university professor, the head of the “British Brigade” in the US, two geochemistry twins and four of Utah’s finest paleontologists led by Jim Kirkland and Don DeBeliux.

Driving out of Green River, Utah, I took one look at feeble desert road disappearing into the horizon and immediately went back for 12 more gallons of water in a hopeful attempt to dispel visions of desiccated cow skulls and buzzards wheeling in the air. Despite the fact the road had been considerably altered since my “topo” map was created, in fact the road was blown up in front of car by natural gas excavators-scaring the living daylights out of me, I managed to crawl the 12 miles in a little over two hours without incident-except of course thinking I was going to die.

Paleontologists are made of tough stuff and know how to take care of the essentials. Although there were no real toilet or bathing facilities, there was a propane refrigerator stocked to the ice dispenser with cold beer.
The volunteers were well treated and professionally shown how to carefully brush away the dirt to uncover the bones of 198 Million year old sauropods, velociraptors, therapods and iguanodons. Looking over the bleak rock strewn desert canyons it is hard to imagine this was a lush, tropical paradise in a river valley system the size of the Mississippi.

The biggest impression however, made on all of us, was not really the bones, the flash floods, rattlesnakes, baking heat or vivid night sky; it came very unexpectedly on the third day, literally out of no where.

After almost fainting in the heat, a few of us who had not mastered the heat, stopped work at 3 PM and climbed down from the ledge into the canyon and to the relative shade in under the big expedition cook tent. As we were slumped in our chairs, a small plane flew overhead, turned around and flew a circle over our quarry. The plane then made another pass over our location at a lower altitude and we waved feebly at the pilot. He disappeared and then came screaming over our heads blasting through camp with a profound roar. This will get your attention, even in our feeble state. With a fast and graceful turn in the sky, the little plane came roaring through camp, this time just above the ground and threw out a package!

My first thought was this was a bomb. (But why bomb a place that looks like it had been first mined then bombed anyway?) Then I was certain we had been mistaken for drug agents and he was delivering some sort of ill eagle contraband!

I was the first to reach the package, curiosity having triumphed over prudence. It was a beach ball sized wad of newspaper wrapped up in silver duct tape. I tore off the duct tape to reveal….a 1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream and a bottle of chocolate sauce, accompanied by the note, “Happy Digging! Stay Cool! Your friends at RedTail Aviation!”

Needless to say the name of “RedTail Aviation” will be long remembered in the annals of paleontological memory! Thanks RedTail for your kindness and thoughtfulness!

Fly RedTail!

More later!

Janet

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Suzanne Wilt starred in the “At The Table HR Simulation” with the former president of Unisys, Jim McGuirk. She was kind enough to remember me and ask me to speak to the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce today on the “Future of Human Resources”. (I thought the 50+ people had come to listen to me, but after eating the outstanding buffet provided by “Chef Jeff and jeff” I knew they came for the food! Great service and catering! I highly recommend!)

If you’d like the PPT’s from the speech, just email, admin@birchtreehr.com and we’ll get it out to you. But the 30,000 foot view is as follows:

a. Businesses of all sizes are rapidly moving from an “HR” model of human resources to a “Human Capital Financial Management” model which focuses on maximizing the investment in human resources to increase bottom line performance.

b. The ability to execute strategy, strategy execution, is the defining difference between high performing businesses and those that are just performing.

c. Publically stating business goals and holding people accountable and being evaluated publically by customers are three distinguishing characteristics of high performing businesses. These practices also help make strategy execution effective.

d. HR professionals who do not understand the financial, operational, customer service, and business strategy of their organizations are at a disadvantage both in the marketplace and as business partners.

e. There will be a shortage of skilled workers and competition will be fierce for the best people. Companies must take advantage of blogs, technology and other ways to highlight their positive attributes thus attracting more potential employees. Pulling potential employees into your organization is an art that business professionals must develop, NOW.

f. Use of technology like “Second Life”, AVATARS, and Simulations will be key training techniques-indeed there is a group of top employers, including UPS and BMW for example, that are working with the Saratoga Institute to develop training applications for this website. (For example, you can shop for a BMW, take a test drive, see what colors are best, check performance statistics then buy the car all in the Second Life virtual reality.)

g. From an economic standpoint, more people will be working later and later to pay for retirement and healthcare costs thus affording ways to reduce employment costs through the use of part time workers.

These are just some of the highlights from the talk this afternoon. Again, if you’d like a copy, just let me know and we’ll send it to you.

If you are a business person that would like to learn human capitial financial management, the award winning “At The Table HR Simulation” is scheduled to run on August 28, in Atlanta, GA. It offers 8.0 HRCI strategic planning credits! Take a look at the program on our website and give us a call!

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David Allen, Friday, July 25, 1-2 on the Human Capital Show, Profitability Channel!

David Allen is widely recognized as the world’s leading expert on personal and organizational productivity. His twenty-five-year pioneering research and coaching to corporate managers and CEOs of some of America’s most prestigious corporations and institutions has earned him Forbes’ recognition as one of the top five executive coaches in the world and Business 2.0 magazine’s inclusion in their list of the “50 Who Matter Now.”

Fast Company Magazine has also called David “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” in the arena of personal productivity, for his outstanding programs and writing on time and stress management, the power of aligned focus and vision, and his groundbreaking methodologies in management and executive peak performance.

David is the international bestselling author of Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity, and Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life.

Chat with David, LIVE!

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