Are you important? How far away from the inmates do you live?

I have to think of all the jobs in this fantastic country of ours that chief among them for stress, danger, and sheer 'Sunday night and I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow insomnia', has to be working inside a jail, prison, or penitentiary. 

On the plus side, since our nation doesn't seem at all on course for reducing or even slowing the growth of incarceration rates, career opportunities in the prison system could be one area in an otherwise downbeat job market that might offer job seekers some prospects, and corrections system staff some level of job security that is often hard to come by these days. Sure, you have to deal with the daily inconveniences of metal detectors and pat-downs when coming to work, and every once in a while there could be some kind of security crisis like an escape that might throw a little hiccup into your day. And there is always the chance, however remote, that a more significant incident like a widespread inmate riot could ensue, the kind of circumstance that might require a full and comprehensive response from all prison officials and staff members to respond rapidly, and in numbers.Can I use my FMLA for this?

Since these occasions could potentially require rapid response from off-duty guards and other officals at a moment's notice, often the corrections officers and the other high ranking prison officials will be provided (mostly free), housing in neighborhoods quite near the prison itself, such that response times are reduced, and quick action can be taken in the event of a major security or safety incident. Essentially, if you have a role, either in prison leadership or in security, it makes sense to have you situated close enough to the prison such that you can respond quickly if called upon in a crisis. When the inmates decide they've had enough of the man keeping them down, you better be ready and able to respond quickly.

So what kind of persons and job roles at the prison should receive free or otherwise subsidized housing near the facility in exchange for their ability to be rapid responders and to be able to provide their leadership in a time of crisis, with the expectation that their fast contributions could mean the difference in a minor incident turning into a major one?

Certainly the warden and assistant warden. Probably the senior corrections officers and guards. And maybe some other mid-level guards too. Possibly the prison medical staff and maybe even some of the communications and other outward-facing individuals. 

How about the prison's Head of Human Resources? 

Would you rate the HR leader for the prison in that 'special' category of staff that needs to live in close proximity to the facility, and at taxpayer expense? 

Well officials in the State of New Mexico are about to try and sort that question out. It seems that for at least 5 years, the head of HR for the State Department of Corrections, Elona Cruz,  has lived rent-free in a home situated a 'stone's throw' from the state penitentiary. And according to the comments from Acting Deputy Secretary of Corrections Gregg Marcantel, it look's like Elona's time in state provided housing is soon to end. When asked whether the department's head of HR should be living in corrections department provided housing  Mr. Marcantel said- "From HR to an air-conditioning repairman, the answer would be no.” 

Nice. Comparing the Head of HR for the Department to the A/C guy. Thanks Gregg. Any chance you'll be signing off on the new Leadership Development program we've proposed for next year? Didn't think so.

Kidding aside though, it is unlikely that the Head of HR would be called upon to thrust him or herself into a potentially volatile and dangerous situation alongside the prison's first responders in the event of a serious security incident. Those kinds of incidents are more about using force, strategy, tactics, and execution of trained and ingrained protocols to attempt to regain control of the situation, and minimize the risk of injury to staff and inmates, and the damage to facilities and property. Sparing the easy jokes about organizing the facility picnic when teargas is flying, real life danger and violence is not typically the strength of HR.

But the comments from the Deputy Secretary are instructive - in his view the idea of HR being at all essential or important in times of crisis is sort of implausible, as evidenced by his comparison of HR to the A/C repairman.

And while it is natural and unsurprising that he's take this position, one thing is pretty clear - the farther away from the inmates you live, the lower your status and relative importance at the prison.

While it's great to accept a sweet set-up with free housing and a short commute, eventually you'll get called out. And if you're not someone needed to run into the prison in a crisis, well then, you can live 45 miles away with the maintenance staff.

(Here's the part where you make the comparison to 'charging in to the prison riot' with whatever equates to that kind of drama in your organization, and think about whether your leaders want you right next to them at the ready, or off 100 miles away).

Have a Great Weekend!

Employee Recognition and Kid's Birthday Party Swag

Ever since the last SHRM Annual Conference in June I seem to have had the good fortune to end up on some kind of Human Resources marketing mailing list, (thanks for sharing SHRM!), and have seen a decided uptick in the old mailbox (the snail mail one), in training course catalogs, vendor pitches, conference supplies, (I can get you a great deal on lanyards, provided you need a few thousand), and so on.I'd rather go with Spongebob

This week an 100-plus page catalog from one of the better known employee recognition purveyors landed in the mailbox. Page after page of products like employee thank-you cards, pins, travel mugs, those cool acrylic or glass statue thingies you see in cubeland from time to time. You know the ones that the project team engraves and hands out after the system goes live or the merger is completed, kind of like miniature versions of the HR Emmys.

No big deal, right? We all know, and have read articles and seen webcasts or conference sessions ad nauseum in the last few years of the importance of employee recognition, and the critical role that it plays in fostering employee engagement, happiness, and even commitment to the organization. These are all necessary and valid concepts, and I am in no way discounting their importance here. In fact, as my friend Paul Hebert will tell you, (well I am not actually sure he'd tell you this exactly, but bear with me), a well planned and executed employee recognition program can help drive increased revenue, productivity, heck, whatever it is you want to drive.

So I was thinking about how powerful and effective the right recognition programs can be when I flipped to pages 26-27 in the above mentioned catalog (pictured above), and landed on the spread of swag from something called the 'Essential Piece' theme.  I get the idea, the company is having some kind of event, or meeting, or recognition ceremony; and they'd pass out assorted mugs, pens, tote bags, keychains, etc. all branded with some form of the message to employees that each one is an 'Essential Piece' on the team.

But in only a second of looking at the swag laid out before me, I immediately thought that these pages could have been torn from your favorite party supplies catalog, you know the section where the kid's themed birthday party stuff is laid out. Where parents that really ought to know better end up selecting cups, plates, streamers, party hats, noisemakers, cake toppers, etc. - all with the same theme. Because we know every kid's party has to have a theme, and heaven help you if you try and pair a Star Wars cup with a Spongebob plate.

Here's the section of the post where I'm supposed to drive to an epic conclusion or call to action. But this time I really don't have one other than to observe that I always felt like a doofus buying the full set of Toy Story or Pirates of the Caribbean party swag for my kid's parties over the years. None of the kids really cared whether the 'theme' was consistent from pinata to cake. But what the kids did care about was whether they had a good time, the games were fun, their friends were there, and the cake and ice cream was on the money. That's what created the memories. 

So buy all the 'recognition' swag you want - no one will remember that either for very long. But the people, the relationships, the work experiences; those things that really matter - well SHRM has not sent me a catalog that stocks those items just yet.

Sharing the Wealth - NBA Style

Yes, ANOTHER sports-related post. 

Cue the groans from the few readers that have not bailed out. I don't blame you. Just give me another shot tomorrow.

This piece isn't REALLY about sports, but rather how an organization's distribution of payroll factors in to contract negotiations, employee movement, and even competitiveness.  As basketball fans are aware, the National Basketball Association, (NBA, or the 'association'), is in the midst of an old-school management vs. worker labor impasse.  Well as 'old-school' as you can get when the put-upon workers average seven-figure salaries, and the owners who are mostly billionaires, sit on franchise values that seemingly rise every year.

But the owners want to further control and restrict the total compensation available to players. They in the past have managed this by negotiating a maximum total percentage of basketball-related revenue that can be paid out to the players in compensation.  The expired labor deal set that figure at 57% of total basketball revenue. Now there are lots of arguments and disputes around the details of the deal, (what exactly constitutes 'basketball revenue' chief among them), and there are more detailed parameters that control how much each team can spend, and even rules around maximum contract values for individual players. 

But while percentage of gross revenue paid out in player compensation is the big issue, for teams and players individual compensation is equally important. How the 'pie' is spread inside the league, amongst superstars, solid contributors, and new talent trying to prove themselves is also a critically important angle here, both for the NBA and likely for your organization as well.

The chart below from a piece on Business Insider shows the relative total allocation of league player payroll across salary levels. For example, if 10 players made $4 million, then $40 million would be dedicated to that salary slot. If total payroll was $1 billion, 4 percent of total payroll would go to $4-million players. The higher the bar, the more total league payroll is expended on all talent at that salary level.

Take a look at the changes in distribution of player payroll by salary level between 1998 (the last year the NBA had labor issues), and 2011:

Two things immediately jump out on the chart. One, in 1998 a much higher percentage of total player compensation was clustered at the lower ends of the salary scale, i.e. in players making $6M annually or less. By 2011, the 'spread' of payroll spend smoothed out quite dramatically, with more players (and payroll spend), moving up the salary chain, particularly in the $10M - $20M range. But almost as strikingly, there has been almost no growth in the extremely high compensation levels - on aggregate, more salary was expended in 1998 on players making above $20M annually than in 2011.

In the 1998 contract negotiations, the owners successfully put in place a system that 'capped' individual contracts in a manner by 2011 has kept current stars like LeBron James from reaching the compensation levels of past stars like Michael Jordan, (represented by the lone orange bar on the far right of the chart).

In the period of 1998-2011, the NBA owners were successful in controlling the extreme high end of the salary scale, but for that, saw salaries at the lower end, and more importantly the middle-range increase dramatically.  Over time, contracts awarded to 'solid but not spectacular' contributors have grown out of proportion to those players' contributions to the team's success (with exceptions of course).

One of the primary goals for the owners in this current negotiation is to try and get those mid-range, $6M - $14M or so contracts back under control, while still maintaining the grips on the superstar end of the market as well.

If indeed the NBA owners are in financial trouble, it isn't because the true superstars like LeBron and Kobe make exorbitant salaries, but rather due to the last 15 years of owners overpaying for average performers. Sure, you need quite a few of these 'average' performers to fill out a team, and assembling the right ones with complimentary skills and good attitudes is necessary to actually compete for and win championships, but paying superstar prices for average performance might win you a few games in the short term, but in the long run it will likely tick off the true stars, and might possibly bankrupt the team as well.

I guess that is the challenge for all HR and compensation pros, knowing you need superstar talent to win, and having to spend what it takes to get that superstar talent, while making sure you have enough of the pie left over for everyone else so they won't jump ship chasing a few dollars.

Finally - I promise, no more posts about sports for the rest of the week!

If you must have a dress code policy...

I know, workplace dress code policies have (mostly), gone the way of the IBM Selectric and the Inter-office mail envelope as relics of a bygone age. In our more modern, progressive, and enlightened workplaces, most organizations have come to understand that with all the many thousands of things to worry about, that articulating specific dress code standards and policies is a colossal waste of time.Love the 70s

The vast majority or workplace dress code discussions have been distilled into short phrases - 'business casual ', seemingly the dominant one these days. What exactly does business casual entail? Who knows for sure, just walk around the office for a day or two and generally you can sort it out. Mostly, dress code standards are arrived at organically and are largely self-policing. Wear something inappropriate to the office some time and chances are someone will tell you about it, if not to your face, in a snarky comment on Facebook.  

Dress code policies are boring, and writing about dress code policies as I am right now, possibly represents the nadir of my adventure in blogging. But I had to come up with a hook to feature some fantastic workplace dress code policy imagery I came across recently. Fantastic workplace dress code imagery? That does not even make sense.

Well, take a look at the image on the right that accompanies this post, as well as the rest of the collection of dress code policy images from the British Postal Museum Archive described on the How to be a Retronaut blog. 

These dress code policy posters are, quite frankly, awesome. And not only do they look cool, but they also serve the purpose of transforming what would be a typical, boring written policy (that no one ever reads, except as a preface in an employee disciplinary hearing), into a vibrant and effective tool for educating the target workers as to the desired workplace behavior.

Additionally, the dress code posters attempt to connect the policy to real-world examples, demonstrate the potential negative ramifications of violations of the policy, and even have a little fun at the same time. Are these vintage posters really that groundbreaking and meaningful in the overall canon of workplace thought and theory? 

Not really. 

But they do remind us that even the most mundane and tedious parts of the job of Human Resources, the parts that still sometimes include writing and enforcing workplace dress code policies, can still be creative, can still be personal, and can (for shame), still be even a little fun.

No one reads your policies. Maybe it's time to get a little more imaginative in their presentation and communication.

Have a fantastic week!

Lucky and Grateful: Notes from ERE Expo

Today is the final day of the ERE Expo recruiting conference in beautiful Hollywood, Florida (the picture to the right is the view from my room at about 6:15 this morning), and I will be spending another day hosting the HR Happy Hour Live Show on the conference's web stream.  If you are interested at all in the recruiting/workplace/talent management space, you should try and tune in to the web stream today to catch not only some of the conversations we will be having with industry leaders and experts (Eric Winegardner from Monster.com, Heather Flynn from Nike, Ryan Healy from Brazen Careerist, to name just a few); but to also see and learn from the ERE keynote and general sessions.View from the 30th floor

One session, at about 9:15 AM, will be presented by United States Navy Commander Brent Phillips, about the Navy's recruiting strategies and approaches to engaging its community using social media and networking, as well as other more traditional techniques. I was fortunate to get a chance to meet and talk with Commander Phillips yesterday as part of the HR Happy Hour Live stream yesterday, and I can assure you based on the engaging and interesting conversation and preview of his session today that we had on the Happy Hour, that you will not want to miss the Commander's presentation.

Aside - I almost asked the Commander if we were far enough away from Cuba for him to be wearing the 'dress whites', but I thought the better of it.  Seriously though, the Commander was a super guest and genuinely nice guy, so I be he would have let me slide.

When you talk to men and women like the Commander that have made the decision to serve their country, and who often and unfailingly place themselves at personal risk to safeguard and protect their country and their fellow citizens you realize (at least I did), that their service and commitment is too rare and incredible to take for granted. Whether it is military servicemen and women, local police, firefighters, and other emergency responders, heck, even the dedicated people that teach in our children's schools and drive the school buses; their collective concern and dedication to something bigger and more important to themselves is something we just can't recognize as much as we should.

With the upcoming 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in just two days, we will see, hear, and think about these brave and noble men and women much more than we typically do. We will remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice on that day, and in the ensuing years, and we will honor those who continue to serve today.  I hope that we will continue to honor and support them long after this anniversary on Sunday has passed, and we have returned our focus to our own busy jobs, lives, and families.

I have had a fantastic couple of days here at the ERE Expo in Florida. The venue is wonderful. The people are welcoming, intelligent, and engaging. I've learned a lot.

I am really lucky to be able to be here. And I'm also grateful to everyone who works in service to our country and our communities that I'm able to stare out at the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean on an impossibly beautiful September morning.