Days in the sun – working from home

Employers are, everywhere, urged to introduce family-friendly practices and allowing staff to work from home is one that is often cited. Quite apart from the potential cost-savings (office space) the ability to cut out the daily commute combined with the additional ‘empowerment’ away from the boss is supposed to bring greater motivation and loyalty. A report in ITPro offers its top 10 most common distractions for working at home. As someone who permanently works from home I recognise most of them.

Common sense wins through

A few posts ago (AA-Applicants anonymous) I commented on the over-the-top suggestion that the forthcoming Equality Bill should include the provision that applicants’ names be withheld from application forms until shortlisting had been completed. I am pleased to read in Personnel Today that the DWP says this idea has been withdrawn.

The right to silence – recruitment

The recent court case in which Cheltenham Council failed in its attempt to sue its former managing director for not declaring her history of depression attracted much comment – mostly on the side of candidates’ right not to tell all. That is fine if the matter withheld really is long in the past; then why would an ex-condition ever come to light. It was because the condition was anything other than past that the lady’s medical history was relevant.

The root of the problem was, of course, the Council’s sloppy recruitment practices. They relied on a loosely-worded medical questionnaire that included such gems as “Do you normally enjoy good health?” Well, if I suffered from depression I would enjoy my occasional days of good health very much indeed. A self-administered questionnaire (even a better-drafted one) may be sufficient for run-of-the-mill jobs but appointing an MD should be treated more seriously.

The role of HR is one of the most linked-to tags in frankly HR and here is a good example of where HR can get it wrong. Clearly, I do not know the ins and outs of Cheltenham’s recruitment and HR processes but staffing – getting the right people into the right posts should be a central plank of any HR department’s role and is key to its reputation.

All to often, HR limits itself to setting up the recruitment processes and ducks out of the decision-making. There are many regulations and considerations of ‘fairness’ that HR must impose on reluctant line managers but there is a duty to the employer as well as to potential employees. If HR is not seen to be on both sides of that recruitment equation managers will draw the obvious conclusion.

“My bonus is bigger than yours” – open pay systems

Should everyone know everyone else’s pay? The CIPD have a mini poll on “should you share your pay details in the cause of transparency”. The current tally is 57% saying yes. There are calls from a range of pressure groups for open pay systems either in the cause of equality or to highlight where public sector cash has gone.

In most blue-collar jobs the main variation between employees’ pay arises from either output payments or overtime. Public sector jobs, mostly, have published grades and pay ranges, often with pre-scripted progression through the range; as do many private sector organisations. So where are the ‘secrets’?

Smaller organisations will often pay individual salaries to reflect the employer’s view of the job weight and the contribution of the individual (which does not mean it must be inaccurate or prejudiced). But, for the most part, it is pay differences based on some form of performance linkage that are not made public. Performance assessments can determine pay progression or bonuses; some having mathematical linkages between performance and pay; others based on senior opinion.

In such circumstances, therefore, revealing salaries or earnings is equivalent to revealing performance assessments. It is one thing for individuals to boast about their own high ratings (not very British, though). But should the employer effectively announce who has a good appraisal and, more importantly, who a bad one? Many companies have an employee of the month award. Few have a worst employee award.

Try answering these two questions. Can you logically answer yes to both?

Le mot juste – now 24/7

I am always keen to promote clear writing, condemn jargon and generally get grumpy-old-manish about the written and spoken word. Contrary to what you might expect in this Internet and web-based world ordinary people (ie, those in ordinary, every-day jobs) are expected to respond to more and more written information expressed in increasingly confusing language. There are a number of web-based sources of spelling and useage but a new one Grammartogo offers subscribers not only guidance to grammer, spelling, writing style and much more but an interactive email service to solve your writing queries (and, often as not, prove your boss wrong).

AA – applicants anonymous

There is a proposal that candidates omit personal details from application forms to prevent employers gleaning any information about sex, race or age prior to interview. The idea is contained in an amendment, proposed by Lyn Featherstone (Lib Dem MP), to the Equalities Bill going through parliament. Sadly the CIPD appears to endorse the idea. This is the recruitment equivalent of preventing road deaths by reintroducing a man* walking in front of cars with a red flag (perhaps I should keep quite about that – someone might think it’s a good idea).

Quite apart from being totally OTT, how do they think it will work? Large organisations could possibly support a totally separate team of HR people to anonymise applications before passing them on for short-listing to a different lot but I cannot think of a better way of stigmatising HR as out of touch.

In most organisations a small HR team will be involved both in receiving  applications and short-listing them? I know! They could set up a new state quango (Central Recruitment Anonymisation Police?) and make it illegal to employ anyone through any other source.

Of course, to make an application totally ‘sexless’ you would not only have to remove the names, ages and race details but also schools, hobbies and career details in many cases. The list of give-aways is endless: educated at Cheltenham Ladies College; played rugby for Wasps first team; have ‘O’ levels rather than GCSEs; chair of the Seikh society at Uni; and many,many more.

* – yes, I know, but it always was a man in those days.

Your starter for 10 – break the ice with a quiz

I am coming to the end of a two-year stint as chairman of the Richmond Group, a networking and self-help group of independent management consultants. We meet on Saturday mornings (six times a year) so people can be a little lethargic first thing. I have always hated those ‘talk-to-the-person-next-to-you-and-find-three-things-they-like’ exercises so beloved of trainers and came up with the idea of using a mini pub quiz. The room is usually laid out conference-style with tables of six or so and I set three or four brief quiz-type questions and give about five minutes for each table to come to a collective answer. The questions need to match the audience (no pop music or soap opera questions for this lot) and be ones that can be debated round the table.

The technique is well received and gets everyone up to speed in a light-hearted way. I look forward to finding an opportunity to use the technique more widely. For example, beginning a seminar or focus group with a quiz in which attendees have to come to agreed answers to a set of factual questions about the day’s topic seems a possibility.

Odds and ends

Not everything in the news requires much in the way of comment and analysis. Here are a few items with links to HR that I have found in the last week or so.

• A bulletin from law firm Wake Smith & Tofields saying the government was consulting on “gingerism” as an extension of equality laws generated a lot of interest. Especially on it’s publication day of April 1st.
• Possibly not an April fool was the report that pilots and cabin crew on Easyjet will have to buy their own tea and coffee in the air. Though they can have free hot water in which to dunk their own tea bags. I wonder if they will still get priority seating?
• No need to recount all the details in the Damian McBride smeargate affair. But do not assume it is just a politics issue. Whispered innuendo is just as common in corporate life and is one (of many) reasons for having a robust, and objective, staff appraisal system.
• A recent survey is reported to have found that, while many employees think an untidy desk makes them look busy, most bosses think it makes them look disorganised. However, I am not sure that that means that bosses assume the opposite (ie a desk with just one folder) is a sign of hard work. Overall, I think it just shows how few office jobs have clearly defined output criteria.

Publish and be damned – local government pay

I read that the Government is proposing the remuneration of senior local council employees be published in the annual accounts. The intention is that “…. this will put a brake on spiralling pay packets and perks” (John Healey: Local Government minister). Well, I wonder. I suspect the law of unexpected consequences will have something to say about that.

The idea that publishing the fact that Council Chief Executives can get more than the Prime Minister will generate an unstoppable public backlash, or shame them into accepting less, is optimistic at best. Highlighting the differences in senior salaries between councils is just as likely to result in claims from those in the less ‘generous’ authorities as restraint among the ‘fat cats’.

Salary benchmarking is the basis of all good reward practice but, once you have the data, it must be moderated by a whole range of specific factors such as the true demands of the posts, the quality of the individuals and affordability. When the jobs in question are your most senior executive ones there is a natural tendency to overestimate the demands, avoid facing down the individuals and, as the salaries represent a small percentage of overall costs, play down the cost issues.  Local authorities are probably more susceptible to these tendencies than many other organisations.

Reward & recession

To a CIPD reward forum this week on the topic of “Rewarding in a Recession”. The scene was set by John Philpott of the CIPD with a number of highly depressing going-downhill graphs followed by general advice on how to get value for your non-pay benefits from Mark Eaton of Personal Group. Chris Johnson of Mercer then gave an all-round view of what is happening in larger companies. I will post some more detailed comments at another date but here are four key points that I brought away with me.