The Advantage

July 2002

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I'm a Manager Now ... and You Want Me to What??

Jane Henderson, Ed.D., is a consultant and training specialist in organizational development and executive coaching. She is a principal with Timner Consulting Group and can be reached at timner@sbcglobal.net

Performance Appraisals: A Continuing Process

Many business owners indicate that they have no formal performance appraisal process in their company which documents employee work accomplishments. The reason, they say, is the time and effort required to fill out all those long forms.

Having looked at dozens of appraisal forms over the years, I have to support their concern about the tedium many offer. On the other hand, nothing quite replaces the value of spending a few minutes with each employee to give some formal feedback about job performance.

Industrial psychologists like Fredrick Herzberg, have told us for years that more than anything else, employees with to be recognized for their personal contributions in the workplace. Those same studies indicate the most effective type of recognition is that which comes directly from the boss soon after the performance has taken place.

Job performance evaluation can be done effectively in as little as thirty minutes each quarter, documented on a sheet of writing paper, with a copy given to the employee.

Establishing a process of performance evaluation and productivity management in your organization need not take a great deal of effort either. Here are some essential steps to keep in mind:

• Begin by telling the employee where the company will be going this coming period. What specific objectives do you have for the business? Perhaps, certain sales volume, customer growth, plant expansion, new market penetration, etc.
• Ask the employee to consider what specific personal contribution can be made to those business objectives. Perhaps, an individual sales objective, designing the plan for your new facility layout, or heading the planning effort for your new markets.
• Record the individual's comments on paper. This can be done on a writing tablet if you like. There is no requirement that you use a specific document unless you want to. Be sure to identify what will be accomplished and when it will be done. Nearly all performance is measurable if you think about it. Perhaps, "reduce order errors by 30% during the next six months," or "secure at least one order from each of five new customers by March 1st."
• When the time comes, give the employee some feedback about their accomplishments relative to the personal goals they set with you earlier. Most managers find that scheduling routine quarterly discussions with employees allows them to quickly review all of the employee's accomplishments during the prior quarter. A routine means you won't forget how important these feedback sessions are. This is the time to acknowledge to your employee what has happened lately as a result of their efforts. It is also the chance for you to say "thanks" for their help or to encourage better effort during the upcoming weeks.
• Note the actual accomplishments on the same paper used to log employee objectives. Give a copy to the employee and put the original in their personnel folder.

Why, some people ask, is this something I must constantly be involved in? Even thirty minutes a quarter with each employee might be difficult to schedule. The answer is rather simple. Your employees want feedback about how they are doing on the job just as you do. Maybe yours comes from company financial results rather than from another person. When you are the boss, however, people who work for you expect you to tell them how they are doing. Although it might seem to you they should "just know," absence of feedback leaves them wondering what you think of their performance. Wondering rapidly becomes doubt, and before long, their work performance deteriorates. You ask yourself what could have happened to your best worker. It may not be them at all. It may be you and the fact you are not giving them the feedback they need.

That's why sports teams have critique sessions after every game. They review films of game action and comment on individual performance, then make plans to correct deficiencies before the next game.

Winning business teams operate in much the same way. They have private as well as group critique sessions to review performance and adjust their approach for better results in the future.

As the boss, you have a lot at stake in making sure your employee performance appraisal system works well. Keeping employees satisfied with their jobs involves more than a paycheck. It requires honest communication about the contributions each employee has made to your business.

Using Workforce Diversity to Increase Profits

Diversification as a business term normally conjures up the image of product line expansion or multi-industry companies. Business owners who are aware of their markets and communities can also tell you that diversification should be thought of as the act of recruiting and managing employees from cultural backgrounds other than your own.

How can the ability to manage diversity become another factor in a company's success? The answer, of course, comes to us from the changes taking place in America's workforce. The combination of an older, shrinking white America and a younger, growing minority population means that industries that strive to remain white and male-dominated will find their pool of competent workers falling short of demand.

Management skills tomorrow will require competence in working effectively with, and motivating, across traditional boundaries of race, gender, age, social positions, attitudes, and lifestyles. The changing workforce demographics can be used to understand another critical fact about the near future. That is, our customers, clients, and suppliers will also be reflecting these same changes in race and sex composition.

If you find yourself recognizing these patterns already, then you have an appreciation for what it will be like to own or manage a business in another few years.

There are three stages of development an organization experiences as it moves from an historically monocultural company to one with many cultures represented in its employee group.

• Stage 1: Monocultural

  In America, despite the "blending pot" label we have all heard for years, business has traditionally been run by white males to the exclusion of females and ethnic minorities. That's not white-male bashing. That's simply a statement of fact. Further refinement of who gained access to control has been based upon religion, political affiliation or some other common "qualifying characteristic."

• Stage 2: Nondiscriminatory

  This stage is characterized by a sincere desire to eliminate the majority group's unfair advantage. The organization does this, however, without significantly changing its dominant culture. Some companies attempt to go beyond numerical representation of minorities and women by working to eliminate hostility toward new members of the employee group.

• Stage 3: Multicultural

  This organization is well into doing what is necessary to eliminate all forms of social discrimination in the company. It shares power and influence so that no one group is put at an exploitive advantage. And, most importantly, it reflects the contributions and interests of the diverse cultural and social groups in the company's mission, operations, products, and services.

Creating a culturally diverse workforce is not always easy, especially for we white males. It requires careful planning and team building. It requires learning about cultures we have not paid much attention to up until now. It requires overcoming internal resistance and sensitivity to working with folks who are "different." It takes conscious effort, energy and money.

Why do it if that's the case? Several reasons.

First, currently new additions to the workforce are mostly minorities and women. White males constitute approximately 10% to 15% of the new workforce additions. Populations have shifted significantly in the past ten years. California, for example, no longer has a majority racial population. Each race comprises less than 50% of the total state headcount.

Second, your competitors, customers and suppliers are experiencing the same changes in workforce as you are.

Third, if you adapt to the need for effective management of a culturally diverse work group before your competitor, guess who is better positioned to work with culturally diverse work groups in customer and supplier companies.

Fourth, if more and more buying decisions will be made in the future by women and minorities, being known as a company which has effectively integrated various cultural backgrounds among its employees can only help you financially. Think of the 25% or more of your business you could lose if you have some other reputation. During the 1990's, company commitment to employee diversity expanded across both geography and financial levels. It represents not a social, moral, or legal agenda so much as a business policy designed to improve productivity and expand market share at home and abroad. Cultural diversity can produce huge increases in group creativity when addressing customer or internal problems. It can suggest sales strategy modifications which allow your company to rise above the competition. It can provide entree' to customer and supplier relationships which would otherwise have been lost.

Effectively managing a culturally diverse workforce is a key part of the profit formula today and tomorrow.

Careful Planning Can Save Your Business ... Maybe More

Every business in America is subject to crisis of one type or another. Whether it's the sudden death of the Chief Executive Officer, computer viruses invading company records, environmental impact from chemical spills, product liability, or natural disaster, the risk faces all of us.

Some say we shouldn't go looking for problems where they don't exist. That, to do so, will only arouse concern and waste valuable company resources which need to be allocated to more important projects.

Well, ready or not, we are sometimes faced with a crisis which could cripple our business, or worse. Take these situations for example:

• On December 7, 1987 at 4:45 p.m., tragedy struck PSA flight 1771. A disgruntled employee reportedly fired a pistol inside the cabin while in flight. Over forty lives were lost.
• On January 3, 1988, one million gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh, PA. Ashland Oil Inc. owned the facility from which the leak originated.
• In October 1989, Hurricane Hugo ravaged Puerto Rico and then smashed full-force into South Carolina. Billions of dollars of damage, and many deaths were the result. Businesses and individuals both suffered.
• On October 17, 1989 at 5:05 p.m., the San Francisco Bay Area was devastated by an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale. Dozens of lives were lost and property damage again totaled billions of dollars.

Union Carbide's 1984 gas leak at Bhopal, India, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant incident on March 28, 1979, and Ford Motor Company's struggle with older models which slip out of park into reverse are additional examples of crises faced by businesses. And the, of course, there were: Johnson & Johnson's September 30, 1982, Tylenol crisis; and, the Exxon Company's crisis created when one of its tankers, the "Exxon Valdez" ran aground in Alaskan waters releasing most of its crude oil cargo into the environment.

Today, we carry fresh memories of September 11, 2001, and the increasing threat of terrorist activities in our country.

For their impact on so many people, the World Trade Center and Pentagon tragedies, Hurricane Hugo and the San Francisco earthquake capture our attention. In all cases, business activities were substantially impacted or suspended because of interruptions in transportation and communication systems. Naturally, most business people tend to think of disasters in financial terms...inventories destroyed, facilities and capital equipment damaged or lost, and business records ruined. 9-11 brought into focus the devastating loss of life that can accompany such a major tragedy.

People focus on financial impact most often when they are remotely located from the crisis or otherwise not personally involved in dealing with the situation. Anyone who has logged personal experience with such serious adversity knows that the first order of business is always to concentrate on satisfying immediate human needs.

The 1990's brought us increased violence from disgruntled employees and former employees. The impact on companies in these situations has been severe. Impact on specific individuals, victims of violent attacks, has been devastating.

Floods, fires, transportation accidents, and terrorist actions have all happened in recent days, weeks, and months. Any of them could befall any business in America. And, small business is not exempt. What would be the impact on your business if your CEO were suddenly prevented from doing the necessary work. What would happen if one of your employees, driving a company vehicle, was found to have been using illegal drugs at the time of a collision? What would happen if one of your key employees was discovered to have embezzled a third of your yearly budget?

How can an employer deal with such tragedies?

Planning is the answer.

If anyone can read through the list of disasters in this article and proclaim that "It can't happen to us," they have lost touch with the reality in today's world. Hiding from the possibilities is not a healthy behavior. Some of us believe we are such good business managers that we can deal with anything that could happen. Therefore, it isn't necessary to spend time or energy on a problem before it exists.

It is true that we don't like to focus on such issues. They are unpleasant and unnerving at best. But, have you ever witnessed a public demonstration demanding better earthquake or flood preparedness? Not likely. People simply don't want to deal with those problems until the problem is "real."

Executives who have emphasized the importance of preparation, invariably lead their companies in reacting more appropriately to such situations. There are five basic types of business crisis: Product related, finance related, employee related, facilities related, and natural disaster or catastrophe.

Three things must happen for any business to react well under true crisis circumstances:

• A crisis management plan must exist, ready for use.
• The plan must be kept up to date and actively review with all employees. (Its existence, if not its detailed content.)
• The plan must be implemented, unhesitatingly, when it is needed.

Developing a crisis management plan involves a process, rather than an event. It requires more than one yearly meeting. And, it necessitates involvement of every key executive in the business. Because of the impact on employees and dependents brought by many possible crises, Human Resource Managers can play a major role in plan development and implementation. They can even take the leadership role in plan development, if others can't or won't.

Initial planning activities should focus on brainstorming all possible or potential crises facing the business. Ask, "What is the worst thing that can happen?" Then ask, "Next to that, what is the worst?" List as many answers as possible.

Involve people in the company who normally are involved in such decisions and activities. The executive team is key to a successful planning effort. Its members are the individuals who will have to either implement the resultant plan when tragedy strikes, or struggle through the situation as best they can in the absence of any thoughtfully planned management reactions.

When the list is as long as you can make it, start sorting out the "most likely" from the "least likely." It is possible to quantify the process so that each possible crisis can be weighed against all others in terms of its potential severity. Quantification is accomplished by analyzing five factors: Intensity of the crisis; Scrutiny which will likely be given the situation by media and government representatives; Impact on normal company operations; Impact on the company's image or reputation; and, Financial impact.

Combining all you know about each of these five factors will allow you to score the possible crisis and determine its actual potential for devastating your business.

Considering the likelihood, or probability, that each situation will occur next gives an indication of where the planning effort should initially focus. You may find that there is a very low likelihood of a product tampering crisis, but natural disaster could occur at any time. These discoveries allow you the opportunity to focus on planning your corporate response to those situations your team believes may actually come to pass.

Most crises can be anticipated. Airlines, for example, being in the business of transporting passengers in airplanes, know there is a risk that someday one of their planes will crash. Knowing that, it would be reasonable for them to plan for such a possible catastrophe. And, they have. That's why PSA was able to react so well to its tragedy in 1987. Companies with fleets of trucks have need to plan for highway spills and collisions. Service companies may need to plan for loosing computer records or the ability to process customer information.

To develop a crisis management plan, it is necessary to address several subjects. First, the type of crisis the plan is being designed to handle.

Next, identify the members of your crisis management team. Membership may vary depending upon the nature of the crisis you develop plans to manage. For example, when planning for a product related problem, you may wish to involve product engineers. They may not be required as members of a team designed to deal with a finance-related problem. Who is selected for team membership should be based upon the expertise offered to the crisis which must be faced.

Your plan should also specify where the crisis management team will operate. It may be wise to locate the team away from your normal headquarters in light of lessons from the World Trade Center disaster. What equipment and supplies should be available at that location? What communication equipment is required? What reference materials and support personnel should be on hand? Is it clear to everyone in the company who the team members are and what authority they carry while the team works through the crisis?

Other questions to be answered in the planning process include: How will team members be notified they are needed when the time comes? What happens if one or more of the team members is away from the work location? What will be the assigned role of each member? What action plan steps will each member have responsibility to take?

Planning to handle a disaster requires different action items than does a product or financially related crisis. Identifying which civil agencies are important contact points can save a great deal of effort in preparing for a disaster. Determine if your county or state governments have an Office of Emergency Services you can contact. Consider how linkages to federal offices and agencies can help when needed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been designated as the national coordinating body in times of national disaster. Local offices of your Congressional or Senatorial representatives may also be important communication links to you.

Once your crisis management plan is compiled, route it to every manager in the company. Provide training sessions for all employees to help them understand your company cares enough about them (as well as its business) to undertake this effort. Review your plans at least once a year or more frequently if conditions warrant.

The extra effort necessary to consciously prepare for a serious problem will all be worth it when the crisis occurs and you and your management team know how to react. It will not be necessary to trust to the judgment of people under stress, hoping that they will make the right decisions. Advance planning will have already mapped out a reasonable response which can be modified as necessary to the immediate situation. Modifying your plan is much easier than wondering what should be done after the crisis has hit.

Do you know when the next crisis will strike? Are you prepared? It would be worth your effort to begin managing your next crisis by planning for it now.

New Study on Recent Workplace Violence

An on-going study of internal workplace violence revealed that fatal attacks in the workplace have continued at a steady rate despite the renewed sense of security awareness brought about by the response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The study focused on violence perpetrated by employees, former employees, clients and other categories of invitees. Since September 11th, 18 separate workplace violence incidents have occurred across the nation resulting in the deaths of 34 people and the wounding of 23.

The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center has left American workers with a feeling of insecurity, the likes of which have never been experienced in our nation's history. Outside forces, with evil intent, struck a trusting and vulnerable nation with catastrophic consequences. Feelings of personal security in the workplace plummeted. Organizational problem solvers responded by providing enhanced physical security to insulate workers from the outside threat. In many cases, their efforts included upgraded building access and mailroom procedures designed to restrict the flow of people and parcels into the workplace. While these efforts to harden the workplace began to address the terrorist threat, they did nothing to deter the internal workplace killer, a threat that is every bit as horrifying as any terrorist incident.

While it is a relatively simple matter to enhance physical security, it is far more complex to attempt to understand what triggers violence in specific individuals, particularly those with whom we share our workplace. The workplace killer after all is someone we have hired, trained, supervised and entrusted with a key to our workplace. He is, after all, one of us.

The 280-case sampling of internal workplace violence incidents revealed certain characteristics about this form of violence. The perpetrators, not surprising to most, were men 94.3% of the time while women numbered only 5.7%. The overwhelming number of perpetrators were between the ages of 35-45, most having significant tenure on the job. In some cases the parties knew each other for years. The case studies pointed out that specific victims were singled out targeted. There were numerous accounts of killers walking past a number of other coworkers only to single out specific people as victims. This negates the myth that this is random violence.

For all of the workplace killers, their acts constituted a one-way path to destruction. Their singular intention was to take out their vengeance on selected individuals. After committing their acts, workplace killers committed suicide 33.9% of the time, while 7.1% died in confrontations with law enforcement, and many of those appeared to be suicide-by-cops scenarios. 15.4% of the killers surrendered peacefully immediately after perpetrating their act, with 40% being captured within a relatively short time. Intervention, disrupting the plans of potential workplace killers, took place in only 3.6% of the cases. Not a single perpetrator in the cases studied remains at large.

The study also provided information as to the relationship of the perpetrator to the workplace. Current employees constituted the bulk of the perpetrators at 43.6% while former employees made up 22.5 %. Domestic violence, spilling over into the workplace, took third place at 21.4% while those with client-type relationships numbered 12.5%. The significance of this information is that each category of relationship between the perpetrator and the workplace is a separate and distinct type of threat, calling for specialized training and an action plan to ensure that the threat is properly addressed.

The study revealed some even more disturbing information about the nature of workplace violence. It was found that a number of fatal incidents occurred at places other than the workplace. While all of these incidents had their beginnings in the workplace, they were actually carried out at the homes of the intended victims and included uninvolved family members of the targeted victims. Vengeful and determined perpetrators have likely taken this chilling course of action to avoid the increased level of physical security at various work sites and to increase the horrific impact of their offense.

Internal workplace violence has been a fact of life long before the September 11 attacks and will continue long after. To combat this problem, policy makers must give attention to this issue. They need to broaden their focus so as to encompass the entire work environment, not just the perpetrator who is only a single part of the problem. While the killer is ultimately to blame for his act, employers must ask themselves whether or not they have contributed to the outcome in any way.

Workplace violence has continued at its usual pace because some employers have simply failed to adequately address the problem. This has not been purposeful but due rather to a lack of awareness of the problem coupled with everyday workplace and industry pressures. Clearly, workplace violence prevention has not been given the priority it rates. This has resulted in employers being oblivious to some of the most obvious organizational factors that have contributed to scenes of unimaginable horror across the country. Some of those factors include:

• A weak or non-existent policy against all forms of violence within the organization;
• Inadequate employee acquisition, supervision and retention practices;
• Inadequate training on violence prevention at all levels;
• No clearly defined rules of conduct;
• Failure to introduce employees to anti-violence policies and prevention strategies;
• Inability of managers and --supervisors to adequately assess threats;
• A non-existent or weak mechanism for reporting violent or threatening behavior;
• Failure to take immediate action against those who have threatened or committed acts of violence.

Historically, training on the subject has been the domain of human resource or risk managers within organizations. In many instances, the training appeared to have stopped at these staff positions. As a matter of practicality, training must be introduced where it can do the most good. First-line supervisors are the eyes and ears of most organization. Through their span of control, they see every single person in the organization every day. For that reason, they are in the best position to spot problems at the earliest stages. Once trained, they are able to take action to deal appropriately with the situation. Training for first-line supervisors is inadequate in most organizations. At a minimum, organizations should provide training and establish a competency model on violence prevention for first-line supervisors.

While we must be mindful of the fact that no amount of training can totally eliminate internal workplace violence, it can certainly be minimized. In many of the case studies having fatal outcomes, there were clear warning signs. Behaviors had been observed by supervisors and managers who had absolutely no idea of how to deal with them. In the aftermath of far too many cases, managers, supervisors and even line-level employees were heard to be making such comments as "We saw it coming."

In the final analysis, organizations are graded on their violence-prevention efforts. Unfortunately, this usually takes the form of a lawsuit for wrongful death or negligence brought against the organization by the grieving family of an employee who was killed in a violent incident. The grading is extremely harsh and carries with it even hasher monetary penalties. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent just settling lawsuits and millions are paid out when there is a finding of negligence against the employer. Organizations who have been diligent in their training are able to mitigate some of the damages by demonstrating to the court that they acted with due diligence and in good faith by providing employees with the awareness necessary to recognize and deal with the threat against them. Violence prevention through education is a sound practice because it seeks to protect people. Secondary to that should be the concern for reducing civil liability. If an employer is ever concerned that violence prevention training is an unnecessary expense, just consider the cost of not having it at all.

A positive spin-off of any organization's violence prevention efforts is that employers convey to their employees that their safety and well-being is a top concern. That's a win-win situation. Let us not get the false sense of security that because we are beginning to address the international terrorist threat that we have also addressed the terrorism from within.

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The study was conducted by Larry J. Chavez, B.A., M.P.A., researcher and national authority on workplace violence prevention. He is a 30-year law enforcement veteran and former senior hostage negotiator for a law enforcement agency. A graduate of the FBI Hostage Negotiations School at Quantico, Virginia, he has authored several articles on the subject of workplace violence prevention and has provided professional contributions to national and international media sources. His "10-Point Threat Assessment Model" and his "5-Point Competency Model for Supervisors" have been used to train managers and supervisors on violence prevention across the United States. He has been a guest on several national television programs. He can be reached at: Larry J. Chavez, Critical Incident Associates Phone: 916-354-2265 PR@workplace-violence.com

A Gentle Word on Behalf of Our Business

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