On Veteran's Day: Are We Overlooking a Vein of Top Talent?

Off-topic for a compensation blog, but importantly on-topic today.  Awhile back, I came across a new book that carries an important message worth highlighting this day of all days.

The book is Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Dan Senor and Saul Singer.  The book focuses on answering the big question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million surrounded by enemies - produces more start-up companies than large peaceful nations like Japan, China, India and the U.K.?

A large piece of the answer, and one of the key themes of the book, is military veterans.

The authors write:

Missed in the oceans of ink written about the Jewish state is a staggering fact: Israel is the world's quintessential start-up nation. Israel leads the world in technology start-ups per capita. More remarkable is that these start-ups have attracted more venture capital investments per capita - 2.5 times the US, 30 times Europe, 80 times India, and 350 times China.

Even more surprising is that one of the main sources of all this innovation is the Israeli military, and not in the way that one might think. Commercialization of military technologies is part of the story, but the greater impact is through Israeli culture and its connection to the military.

The military is where many Israelis learn to lead and manage people, improvise, become mission oriented, work in teams, and contribute to their country. They tend to come out of their years of service (three for men, two for women) more mature and directed than their peers in other countries. They learn "the value of five minutes," as one general told us. They even learn something more uniquely Israeli - to speak up regardless of ranks and hierarchy if they think things can be done better. ...

What Americans need to realize, though, is it's not just Israelis who can be focused, brash, and driven. While almost every Israeli has served in the military, many Americans have never met a Marine. America has an important part of what makes Israel so dynamic and innovative, but doesn't know how to tap into it: military veterans.

The authors go on to reflect on some of the reasons why we may be missing the boat here ... and a key source of top talent.

Yet the capacity of U.S. corporate recruiters and executives to make sense of combat experience and its value in the business world is limited. Many simply do not know how to read a military résumé. Al Chase, an executive recruiter who specializes in placing veterans, employers have trouble understand the leadership experience that veterans have, such as high-stakes decision making and management of large numbers of people and equipment in a war zone. The reaction often is, "That's very interesting, but have you ever had a real job?"

Junior commanders in America's new wars -- in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially -- find themselves playing the role of small-town mayor, economic-reconstruction czar, diplomat, tribal negotiator, manager of millions of dollars' worth of assets, and security chief, depending on the day.

And, finally, a call for us to take advantage of our veteran talent.

The US has incredible wellsprings of innovation, but they need to be tapped. Israel has a lot to learn from the US about building big companies. But there is a reason why so many of these companies have come to Israel looking for the innovations they need to compete in today's global economy. As America tries to reboot, Israel is the place to look for how to build a comprehensive culture of innovation that can restore and sustain economic growth. And American business leaders should be looking, as their Israeli counterparts do, to their countrymen who served as soldiers and marines to provide the critical drive they need to lead and innovate.

An important message worth heeding to all of us in the talent management business.

Special thanks today to all veterans for their service.

New BlogTalkRadio Show: Influence Insiders

One of the biggest benefits I've reaped from my involvement in the blogosphere is the chance to connect with and learn from some really smart people.  In particular, people whose background and focus areas are different than mine, but who work in professions that are complimentary to mine in that they are trying to drive business success through their own specialties and via their own target audiences.

One of these people is Paul Hebert, the mastermind behind Incentive Intelligence.  Now, Paul has brought together an eclectic group of experts, bloggers and thought leaders - Influence Insiders- who will gather monthly via the magic of blogtalkradio and host a conversation about influencing business performance through employees, channel partners and consumers.

Influence Insiders will go on the air the first Wednesday of every month, starting this Wednesday, November 4, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

You can find our station at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/i2i

The call in number will be the same for every episode: (646) 381-4430.

Blogtalkradio is essentially a big conference call that is recorded and shared.  During the call people can chime in and ask questions, add to the conversation and in general be a part of the fun.

In addition to yours truly, calling in from the sunny (at least today) suburbs of Minneapolis, the Influence Insiders team includes (in no particular order):

•Frank Roche (Philadelphia):  Partner iFractal – sponsor and contributor to very popular KnowHR blog.  Frank and his team focus on helping their clients talk to their employees.  In the past Frank led Mercer’s Human Capital Practice in the Netherlands and worked at Hewitt Associates.
 
•Heather Margolis (Boston):  President Channel Maven Consulting – Prior to her current role Heather led channel programs for companies like EMC, EqualLogic, and Dell.
 
•Julien Dionne (Ottawa, CN):  Julien authors the very informative blog LeapComp and works with OpenSymmetry a consultancy that specializes in Sales Performance Management strategic planning, business process optimization, technology assessment and system integration engagements across diverse industries and software providers.  He has worked with Accenture and nGenera prior to OpenSymmetry.
 
•Lance Haun (Portland, Or):  Lance has a long history in the HR field and authors the highly rated and read blog YourHRGuy – now called Rehaul.  He currently is VP Outreach for a company called Meritbuilder – an online employee reward/recognition portal with a unique feature of being portable – moving with the employee as they move.
 
•Todd Hanson (Appleton, WI): CEO of Catalyst Performance Group.  Todd’s group is heavily into measuring the ROI of marketing and incentive/reward programs.  They are currently measuring the ROI on the recent Motivation Show, works in partnership with the ROI Institute and he authors the blog called the ROI of Engagement.
 
•Paul Hebert (Greenville, SC):  Managing Director I2I – author of Incentive Intelligence, contributor at Fistful Of Talent and general good guy.  20 years helping companies design and operate incentive, recognition and loyalty programs – degree in Statistics, worked on the Space Shuttle and B1 Bomber while employed at Rockwell and did a stint at a branding and corporate identity firm.

For more details, go to Paul's blog post announcing the show.

I'm looking forward to a great conversation, that I hope will include you!

2009 Turnover Rates by Industry

As part of what is becoming a lovely tradition, Compdata Surveys has provided me - and Compensation Force readers - with the latest turnover rates by industry, excerpted from their Annual Compensation Survey.

This data, which includes both voluntary and total turnover, is notably robust, having been collected from more than 4,800 participating HR departments across the U.S.

For comparison purposes, although some of the industry categories have shifted over time, here are the posts featuring 2007 and 2008 turnover statistics.

Special thanks once again go out to the folks at Compdata Surveys for sharing this information with us!

WorldatWork Launches Borderless Online Community

WorldatWork, the association for reward professionals, has just launched a new online community designed to give professionals in the areas of compensation, benefits, work-life and total rewards a forum for interaction, knowledge sharing and  problem solving as well as easy access to extensive topical resources.

If you're a WorldatWork member, you've already received an announcement and invitation to join the community.  I think you'll be impressed with its design, capabilities and offerings.

If you are not a WorldatWork member, this is an incredible gift from WorldatWork to you (and you should feel free to say "thank you"!).  While some resources are limited to members only, the non-member public can join for free, invite others, access a host of features and join in discussion with compensation, benefits and work-life professionals.

Join now!

New Compensation Blog - Introducing the Compensation Cafe

A while back, I posted here about my interest in forming a multi-contributor blog about compensation.  Today I am pleased to introduce you to the Compensation Cafe, where we will be serving up straight talk, original thinking and caffeinated discussion on everything compensation.

While I will continue my solo effort here at Compensation Force, I am excited to also be part of a blog that offers a variety of opinions and perspectives on reward topics.  Today's line-up features a few of our contributors, with more to come in the days ahead.

So click on through and check it out.  And don't hesitate to jump into the comment stream - we're looking forward to your feedback and hoping you'll join the discussion.

How & Why We Fail Upwards: Revisiting the Peter Principle

 This may not specifically be about compensation, but it is completely about life in organizations -- where we are all challenged to make reward and performance programs work.

The classic business bestseller The Peter Principle, first published in 1969 by Dr. Laurence J. Peter, is being re-released later this month with a wonderful new forward by Bob Sutton (here in its entiretyas part of an exclusive sneak peak by BusinessWeek online).  In re-introducing the book, Sutton talks about the particular delight that his father, who ran a company that sold and installed furniture and equipment on U.S. Navy ships, took in the book:

My father loved The Peter Principle because it explained why life could be so maddening—and why everyone around you seems, or is doomed to become, incompetent. The people who ran the U.S. Navy and the shipyards didn't intend to do such lousy work. They were simply victims of Dr. Peter's immutable principle. They had been promoted inevitably, maddeningly, absurdly to their "level of incompetence." Dr. Peter also taught my father not to expect the few competent bureaucrats and managers he encountered to stick around for long, as they would soon be promoted to a job that they were unable to perform properly. Dr. Peter even showed that such incompetence had pervaded my dad's business for hundreds of years. The book quotes a report from 1684 about the British Navy: "The naval administration was a prodigy of wastefulness, corruption, ignorance, and indolence…no estimate could be trusted…no contract was performed…no check was enforced."

Particularly delightful is the pseudoscientific jargon that Dr. Peter invented to describe the motivation and behaviors displayed by those "languishing at their level of incompetence".  Check out these gems...

• Final Placement Syndrome - the condition of incompetence that forms the root of the entire book.

• Tabulatory Gigantism - an obsession with having a bigger desk than his colleagues.

• Teeter-Totter Syndrome - a complete inability to make decisions

• Cachinatory Inertia - the habit of telling jokes instead of getting on with business

• Percussive Sublimation - being kicked upstairs: a pseudo promotion

• Peter's Circumambulation - a detour around a super-incumbent, who is a person above you who, having reached his level of incompetence, blocks your path to promotion.

Gotta love it.  I understand that the book shows its age with some archaic moments and even sexist examples (evident even in the definitions above); however, my copy is already on order. 

 

2008 Turnover Rates by Industry

So it turns out that my most popular post ever is not one of my clever little opinion pieces but rather the one where I shared turnover rates by industry, excerpted from the 2007 edition of Compdata's Annual Compensation Survey.  (Go figure.)

And now, in response to reader demand and a begging email on my part, Compdata has generously shared the following 2008 turnover data, both voluntary and total, by industry.  This data is particularly robust, having been collected from nearly 5,300 participating HR departments.

   

Special thanks go out to the folks at CompData Surveys, who have also offered to share 2009 turnover statistics with us here when they are available - data that will likely be quite different than what we saw in 2008.  In the meantime, if you find yourself in the market for compensation and benefits survey data, be sure to visit their website.

Stay tuned!

More Aggressive Pursuit of Noncompetes during the Economic Downturn: Is This Right? Or Smart?

This may represent a small drift from the topic of rewards, but I have a hard place in my heart for noncompetes and so cannot help myself here.

According to Workforce.com, employment attorneys are seeing an increase in litigation over noncompetes during the current economic downturn, as company executives take measures to protect business.  And not just for executives and salespeople, but for junior and midlevel employees as well.  Including those who have been or are being laid off.

Is this right?  Is it smart?

I admit that much of my grudge against noncompetes stems from my personal experience with them and with organizations that rely heavily on them - I certainly am no employment attorney.  For me, though, nobody has summed up the argument against noncompetes with more wisdom and clarity than Charles Green of the Trusted Advisor blog, in a post he did last year titled You Empower What You Fear.

From Charlie's post:

Non-compete agreements are the manifestation of sick management thinking. They are symptomatic of failed people management. They give the lie to many companies’ claims that they care about their employees. But worst of all—like throwing water on a grease fire—they produce more of the very thing they were designed to prevent.

They are a poster child for the concept that you empower what you fear.

If you fear employees will rip you off, and set up spying processes—you will get ripped off.

If you fear employees will steal from you, and institute lie detector tests—they will steal (see The Perversity of Measuring Trust)

If you fear your employees will talk to search firms, and tell the receptionist to screen calls—they will talk.

If you fear your employees will take your secrets to a competitor, and force them to sign non-competes—they will try to take secrets to a competitor, and if they can’t do that, they’ll bring on a whole lot of other nasty side effects.

The alternative?  I like Charlie's thoughts here as well:

• If you really care about the employee who left, then be happy for him/her. If you’re not happy for them, then cut out the crap in your website where it says you believe in people development, because you don’t—you believe in the development of "human capital," an oxymoron. People know the difference. Capital doesn't.
• If you’re happy for them but wish they hadn’t left, then find out why they left and fix it before the next one leaves. If you don’t want to fix it, then go buy a lottery ticket. The odds of effectiveness are about the same.
• Make alumni of the people who leave. Your college didn’t go all resentful on you when you graduated; they didn’t make you sign a non-compete about getting a master's from another university. And when your college phones you to contribute to the fund years later, you still do! (And if you don’t, it’s because your college needs to read this blog). Think of people who leave as graduating advocates of your company—not as disloyal double agents.
• Let everyone know that you run the company on the basis of rules 1 through 3 above. And tear up the non-compete forms.

I get that there are necessary exceptions to these rules when it comes to some aspects of intellectual property and "trade secrets".  For the rest, I think it really does come down to fear.  And trust.  Or the lack of it.

If Charlie and others who posit that our current economic collapse can be largely traced back to a collapse of trust are right (and I think that they are on to something), is pushing noncompetes harder really the answer?

What do you think?

The Talent Management Blog Power Rankings are Out!!

From the crew at Fistful of Talent comes the very first installment of the Talent Management Blog Power Rankings, presenting us with their take on the best in talent, HR and recruiting related blogs.

Be sure to check out their Top 25 (and please note Compensation Force at #4 - yay!) and an Oscar worth acceptance speech by first place winner Jim Stroud of The Recruiter's Lounge!

Go Team FOT! Thanks for taking the time and effort to recognize the people who devote their time and effort to provide lively and engaging platforms for discussion of all things Talent.

And Speaking of Telecommuting in Response to Rising Fuel Costs...

I posted yesterday about recent research on employer responses to the spike in gas prices.  According to that study, one of the most common strategies being pursued by companies is the offering of telecommuting to employees as one way to help them defray the rising costs of traveling to work.

But telecommuting programs present their own set of challenges to the employer, particularly with respect to non-exempt employees and the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Mike Haberman, author of HR Observations, has a great post up today on what he calls "the FLSA Train Wreck" as well as other issues which companies offering telecommuting to their workers must address.

From Mike's post:

The train wreck I alluded to in the title is with the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA requires that all non-exempt employees (both hourly and salaried non-exempt employees) be paid for time worked more than 40 hours in a week (in some state and local jurisdictions for more than 8 hours in a day). This means if you have a non-exempt employee with a company issued laptop/Blackberry/phone and they are checking email, working on projects, etc. you have to track all their time and then compensate them for the overtime. This can get very complicated, particularly if those devises are used for personal things.

Click over to Mike's post to get up to speed on some of the issues your telecommuting program will likely face and read his advice on how to circumvent some of the landmines. 

Perhaps the compressed (typically 4 day) workweek, the other top strategy being chosen by surveyed employers to deal with commuting costs, is looking like a better option all the time...

Update: Readers - for more on this issue, check out Michael Moore's (he of the Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Blog) thoughts in the comments here as well as a related post on his blog and on Jon Hyman's Ohio Employers Law Blog.