BUAD 336 Contribution

Effectively Managing Layoff Survivors

            During times of economic downturn, many companies are forced to layoff many of their employees.  While it’s hard on those who have been laid off, it is also hard on those who have not been laid off.  The survivors are often affected very severely by the loss of their co-workers. They are worried that they themselves will be laid off.  They also mourn the disappearance of their friends.  It makes them wary of team projects and further relationship building in the workplace because they don’t want to risk losing another friend.  In order to combat this, managers need to do several things.  For one thing, they need to communicate quickly and effectively with their employees and let them know if there will be more layoffs or not.  They should also be told why there are layoffs.  They also need to reassure their employees that feeling depressed and solitary is normal.  Also, managers need to be keeping up with employee concerns with the increased workload associated with the loss of part of the workforce.  Increased work can lead to increased frustration and dissatisfaction.  Another thing managers should do is instill long-term interest in the future careers of the survivors of the layoffs.  Finally, managers need to be assessing the results of the layoffs.  If it isn’t working, then they need to find out why and how to fix it.

BUAD 336 Contribution

Technological Privacy

                With all sorts of new social networking websites being created, employers, employees, and human resource professionals are coming across new challenges.  One of these challenges is whether or not what a person does online is the company’s business or not.  In an age where everyone wants complete privacy, but at the same time want to know what everyone else is up to, the internet is becoming both a terror and a tool.  One thing employees should always keep in mind is that employers do not want anyone tarnishing the company’s reputation or image.  When dissatisfied employees turn to the internet to vent any irritations or frustrations with their jobs, the appropriate responsorial action turns into a gray area.  Is it legal to fire an employee for a lack of professionalism and positive attitude outside of the workplace?  This is one question that is still in debate.

                At Houston’s restaurant in New Jersey, a bartender and a waitress set up a myspace site designated for employees to talk about their frustrations at work without fear of reproach.  On this webpage, the two creators made fun of restaurant patrons, décor, and management.  At a small social gathering, one of the waitresses showed the website to one of the supervisors. This supervisor later took down her e-mail log-in and password in order to access the page and show it to all the other managers.  Later, the waitress and bartender who created the page were fired because their online posts violated the company policies on professionalism and a positive attitude.  The waitress and bartender are claiming the managers illegally accessed their webpage and violated their privacy rights as defined by New Jersey. This becomes an argument of what is deemed private communication and what is not.  Personally, I think if you post anything in a public forum or on a page that can be looked at by multiple people, it isn’t private.  If it is a private e-mail message, then it is private.  Therefore, if you’re feeling angry or upset by something going on at work, don’t post about it online. Talk it out with maybe one person in a private communication such as an e-mail or phone call.

Contribution for BUAD 336

Globalization and its Effect on HR

                Many companies are finding that if they are going to compete with other companies in their market, then they must eventually compete through globalization.  The most common way of doing this is through mergers and acquisitions of foreign companies that seem to share common ground.  There are things that must be taken into consideration concerning human resources when going through such a change.  One of these things is the corporate culture of both the parent company and the company that is being acquired or merged with.  Producing items of a like nature or similar industry is not enough to hold two companies together.  Two different cultures can really throw a wrench into the works.  One example of an acquisition with different cultures is Merck and Serono.  Separately, they were both in the pharmaceutical industry.  It seemed like a good match, but their cultures and business models were very different.  This could have turned into a very messy acquisition.  However, they worked to find the best of both companies’ values to combine them and thus keep everyone happy.  It turned out to be a very successful acquisition due to the establishment of a central integration office and the HR integration team.  They made sure to stay in strong communication and revamped the two different performance management systems into one.  They also hade change management workshops to help employees with any difficulties they might be coming across during the changes being made to make the acquisition a success.  While in surveys, employees of both original companies thought the cultures were very different, they both emphasized quality, innovation, teamwork, customer service, and a common vocabulary.  Through good communication and strong efforts to respond to the needs of everyone in the organization as much as possible, the Merck-Serono acquisition was an extremely successful one. 

Contribution #7 for BUAD 336

Economic Downturn in Businesses: India vs. United States

                When the average person compares India to the United States, he or she only thinks of the basic facts: that India is a third-world country, the United States is a privileged country, and that the difference in wealth and technology is enormous.  The United States is supposed to be the more developed and sophisticated country with a wealth of opportunity.  On the other hand, India is a poor, dirty, under-educated country with too many people.  When looking at these statements, one might ask the question, ‘What could the United States possibly have to learn from India?’  Concerning human resource management, the United States could learn a thing or two from India.

                In the United States, during an economic downturn, the top human resource solutions to company survival are layoffs, hiring freezes, restructurings, pay freezes, and pay reductions.  With layoffs as the number one option for staying competitive, jobs are being lost all the time for no other reason than budget cuts in certain departments. 

                In India, companies focus more on restructuring, slowing down pay increases, and hiring freezes.  It is important to have a job in India, because it relates not only to one’s well-being, but his or her social standing as well.  It is almost unheard of to lose a job in India due to an economic downturn.  If you lose your job in India, it’s because of you, not the circumstances surrounding you.

Contribution #6: Labor Relations and Unions (BUAD 336)

                Here in the United States, there’s an expectation of fairness when it comes to the workplace.  Everyone should get the same benefits and pay for the same work.  No one wants favoritism to occur, and people who slack off should be punished.  Fairness is the main reason employees join unions. 

                Unions tend to be a scary word for managers in companies, especially manufacturing companies.  The downsides of unions, such as higher wages, benefits, and limitations of work, make companies nervous.  All these things can affect the profitability of a company.  Also, some unions are too strong to be reasonable.  My dad once went to a different factory under the same company he works for.  This company’s employees were so protected by the union, my dad literally saw some workers sleeping on the job.  It was shocking to see such a thing.

                On the other hand, unions tend to make up for some of their downsides.  One way of doing this is by increasing the use of “voice” strategy instead of “exit” strategy.  This means employees are more likely to ‘voice’ their concerns or problems in the hope they can be fixed or reconciled.  Less people ‘exiting’ the workforce means decreased turnover.  Turnover has its own high costs.  Another way unions make up for union costs is by emphasizing seniority in pay and decision-making.  This makes older workers more likely to pass on knowledge they’ve acquired through the years on the job.  This in turn increases productivity all around.  Also, unions can be the kick in the butt needed by management to enforce safety regulations in the workplace.  The safer the workers are, the less likely it is that they will be injured on the job and incur the associated costs of that.

                The United Auto Workers recently had to go through another round of negotiations with the big three auto companies.  Some of the executive perks had to be thrown out, and some of the union benefits paid for by the company are being revamped in an effort to decrease the company debt.  There are painful concessions being made by both sides, but whatever the outcome, the workers are in good hands.

BUAD 336 Contribution #5

The Cost of Wellness

                In America, one of the fastest growing health problems is obesity.  While being a little overweight might not be too bad of a thing, if weight gets out of control, it leads to an entire host of other health problems.  This is part of why health care costs are so high in companies.  Employees sit at their desks for hours at a time and eat fast but unhealthy lunches and snacks and gain weight all the time.  A few companies have recognized the connection between their employees’ weights and the number of insurance claims they are getting.  Therefore, to cut the costs, some managers have employed the use of wellness programs.  While these programs can be expensive, the costs of them are covered by the savings in insurance claims and health care costs.  One company’s program, which costs $20,000 to $30,000, cut the cost of insurance claims and such by about $150,000 in the first year.  With that kind of return on investment, the wellness trend is going to spread quickly.  Most of these programs encourage exercising with co-workers to keep each other motivated and build team spirit.  They also encourage healthier eating.  One company has a point system that gives points for buying fresh fruit for a snack throughout the week.  Many companies have walking/jogging trails, showers, and workout rooms to increase the push for exercise.  At Schneider National, Inc., they have a walking trail, a workout room, a yearly marathon, a healthy food section in their cafeteria, and exercise classes offered right in the building.  Confluence has a program that is based on points with fantastic prizes for the top three performers.  This point program costs a little under $10,000, but has already reduced the company’s insurance premiums by about $28,000.  PMSLIC Insurance Co. discovered a problem with competitive wellness programs, though.  If people get out of hand trying to win, they can go past their healthy weight and become underweight.  The company did a walking contest with pedometers where the top walkers would get prizes.  When they realized what was happening as a result of the competitiveness, they modified the program to a random drawing of all the participants for prizes.  This re-motivated those who hadn’t been winning and lowered the intensity with which the top walkers had been going.  With every program, it is important to look at all the angles.  Several companies have proven that wellness programs can cut costs significantly enough that it would be silly not to have them.  It is imperative that managers motivate their employees not just to lose weight, but to find their healthy weight and stay at it.  One company rewarded overweight employees for losing weight, underweight employees for gaining weight, and fit employees for maintaining their weight.  It is good that these companies have paved the way and worked out some of the kinks in the system so that other companies can follow easily.

Contribution #4 for BUAD 336, Fall 2010

Evidence-Based HR: Health Care in the Work Place

                One of the biggest issues today is health care.  It’s expensive, and insurance tends to help very little.  However, there are companies trying to combat this high cost of living for their employees.  One way that is growing in popularity is by setting up on-site health clinics.  At these clinics, visits are zero to ten dollars.  At a typical quick care center, the cost for a visit is $65.  The theory behind having these clinics is that if it is convenient, then workers will get preventative care sooner and incur less costs later.  These costs can include the cost of taking time off from work to go see a doctor, recovery time, and for the actual employee the cost of any medications needed. 

                Another way some employers are cutting health care costs by providing assistance to employees is by providing insured employees with control medicines for conditions such as asthma and diabetes with free prescriptions.  This is their way of encouraging their workers to take their medications and prevent future more serious conditions from arising.  When an employee becomes seriously ill it can cost a company a lot to cover for the resulting lack in productivity by that ill employee. Also, even if an employee is only moderately ill with something such as strep throat, if they don’t get it treated, they will not be as productive as they would otherwise be when they are well.

BUAD 336 Contribution #3

Applebee’s restaurants used to have a turnover rate of 146 percent.  This is high, even for food service.  In order to counter this turnover problem, they employed a ranking system run by their managers.  Under this system, employees receive one of three grades: A, B, or C.  The top twenty percent are A’s, the middle sixty percent  are B’s, and the bottom twenty percent are C’s.  Once they are rated, managers are to work harder to retain the top eighty percent, or all the A’s and B’s.  Since they have executed this plan, they have effectively reduced their turnover rate to 84 percent.  Managers are thinking more about the staff they are in charge of and working to be better managers.  They can earn raises or bonuses for retaining the top employees.  This has created a whole new thought process for the managers.  They actually care and give employees the day off on their birthdays or anniversaries.  They come up with new forms of recognition, similar to employee of the month types of deals.  They also have an Applebucks point system where the points earned can yield a prize in the form of a bike or a DVD player.  It’s a pretty cool system, and I think it is a good HR move.  One problem with this system, though, is what happens when the difference between the A’s and the C’s is miniscule.  It is also important to be careful not to punish the C’s when trying to reward the A’s and B’s.  While differentiation in treatment is necessary sometimes, managers have to be very careful how they do it.

BUAD 336 Contribution #2 (Executive Compensation)

                In America, it is common knowledge that the general public’s opinion is that executive compensation is too high.  Generally, we think CEO’s and other key positions in corporations are paid too high of a compensation for what they do.  In China, this is a fairly recent discovery.  However, the opinion is still the same.  One executive in China actually makes $9.9million per year.  On the other hand, in America, in 2009, the top ten paid executives were paid from $70 million to over $100 million.

                One of the reasons for “overcompensation” of executives in America is stock.  A lot of high-power executives are paid a lot of their salaries in stock to keep their interests aligned with the company’s interests.  In this way, the executives can justify their pay. 

                In China, they are doing the same. The only difference is that the Chinese culture sees a major inequity with this, considering the low pay of the average Chinese worker.  The average Chinese worker only makes about $3,500 per year. 

                Some people think the government should intervene and limit how much these executives can earn by setting a cap on how many shares of stock a CEO can own.  The Chinese want to eliminate corporate duality in executives.  Unfortunately, since there is a shortage of qualified individuals for corporate executive positions, this could deter them from performing as well as they would otherwise.  The entire debate is still in its infancy in China.  Though, I think I like the idea of limiting corporate ownership by executives in America. It would make for an interesting change.

Re-integrating Combat Vets into your Workplace

Maria Armbrust

BUAD 336, Fall 2010

Contribution for Chapter 7

Contribution #1

October 19, 2010

Re-training Combat Vets

                “Training is a planned effort by a company to facilitate the learning of employees.” (Stollak)  When it comes to training, there are many available options.  There’s on-the-job training, apprenticeship training, and off-the-job training.  When it comes to re-integrating combat vets into the workplace, they need to be re-trained for work.  A combat vet has the potential to have a lot of problems getting back to normal everyday life.  Employers must be very conscious of special needs for combat vets.  This can include re-orienting them and showing them everything that may have changed since they left, assigning them a work buddy to give them someone to report to directly with any problems or questions, or even just telling the combat vets what tasks they are supposed to do in a different way.  While combat vets are on duty, they are used to having few decisions to make and very few tasks assigned to them at one time.  It makes it very difficult for them to re-learn how to multi-task.  One option for making it easier on them is possibly writing down instructions so they don’t have to struggle to remember them.  In any case, when working with combat vets, their training needs to be individualized based on their specific needs.

Twitter Experiment #BUAD336

For months, I've been making fun of people who use twitter.  And then, of course, for my Human Resource class, we did a twitter experiment which required the entire class to tweet for 48 hours.  When I saw the requirement, I groaned and complained to all my friends.  Then it came time to start tweeting.  I have to admit, it was actually kind of fun.  I'll never say that out loud, but for some odd reason, I find it easier to be honest about such things online than I do in real life.  Online, we can be whoever we want to be.  It's a lot less intimidating to talk to other people. The coolest part about the twitter experiment was that for 48 hours, I actually felt connected to other members of my class.  I got to know that several were Packer fans, like me, and that others enjoyed fantasy football, which I don't. I felt accepted when others would reply to my tweets, or notice that I had replied to theirs.  It was really fun to see what my professor was doing, and funny to imagine that he was tweeting along with the rest of us.  I still find the idea of twitter to be hilarious, especially since people actually use it.  However, for something like this, where a class of students who don't necessarily know each other can communicate without being afraid of looking stupid, I think twitter might actually be a good thing. #BUAD336

This is my blog.

So this is my first blog. I've never really felt the need to post personal details or experiences from my life online before, but I guess it's worth a try. Maybe I'll change my mind about blogging in general, seeing as how my current viewpoint is that blogging is fairly useless.