Why Your Perception of Business Continuity Plans Could Ruin Your Business

In a newly released report outlining facility management perspectives on emergency preparedness and business continuity in North America, the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and RLE Technologies discovered that nearly one in five (19 percent) surveyed organizations do not have an up-to-date emergency preparedness/business continuity plan.

That only 19 percent of surveyed organizations did not have an up-to-date emergency preparedness/business continuity plan is only more shocking considering the catastrophically high cost that an unforeseen emergency can incur — including the possibility of total business failure.

“Small businesses generally do not have the financial resources to sustain the ‘business’ of their business. An extended outage that could result from a flood or fire or some other type of catastrophic event will destroy their business,” Francis A. Covington, chief marketing officer with Continuity Dynamics Inc., tells Raising the HR Bar. Consider it this way: “You’ve spent years building a clientele that relies on your product or services to enhance their quality of life. For each day your business is closed, you have customers that need what you offer and are forced to go to your competition because your business is unavailable.”

So how do you reduce the time your business is closed following such a catastrophe? The IFMA study suggests that the 81 percent of organizations with an up-to-date plan are “not only able to handle identified risks, but they are also more resilient when recovering from unplanned events.”

“When people think of business emergency preparedness plans, they tend to imagine massive newsworthy catastrophes like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, bombings and shootings,” commented Tony Keane, president and CEO of IFMA, in a news release on the report, titled “High Stakes Business: People, Property and Services.” Keane added, “These events are certainly significant in their scope, but for most organizations the bulk of business interruption risk actually comes from more mundane threats like a leaking or bursting pipe, an internet access outage, or a power outage caused by an external event. The difference between bouncing back with minimal disruption or costly, long-term damage is often the plan that was in place long before the disaster occurred.”

Covington agrees. “Without a plan it could take you weeks or months to restore your business. With a plan, you could reduce that time by as much as 90 percent,” he says.

Covington suggests thinking of a continuity plan in this way: “Most people go to the same doctor because they trust him, but you generally only go when something is wrong and you need immediate care. If that care was suddenly unavailable, you would immediately turn to somewhere else. This same story can be told of virtually any small business. Gartner reports that 76 percent of all businesses that experience a major catastrophic event with go out of business within 90 days. Thus, you must have a plan to protect the business of your business.”

While HR pros may prefer to manage people, facility management can be among the numerous other hats worn by HR managers of small businesses. So how do you keep business running as usual when circumstances are anything but typical?

IFMA advises considering the following 10 areas for developing or updating your emergency preparedness/business continuity plans:

1. Define Roles – Determine who is responsible for the formation and execution of the plan.
2. Define Mission-Critical Functions – Prioritize functions so you can determine which to dedicate resources to protecting and which to address first in the case of a failure.
3. Define Risks – Assess vulnerabilities, especially to mission-critical functions, and determine their likelihood.
4. Calculate Costs – Estimate the cost of down-time as well as the cost of preparation and planning.
5. Monitor – Utilize manpower and technology to catch disasters before they occur.
6. Communicate – Make sure your post-emergency communications plan is resilient.
7. Test – Ensure the elements of your plan are in good working order.
8. Practice – When possible, conduct live drills and tabletop exercises.
9. Adapt & Adjust – A plan should be an organic thing, not something you write and file. Make regular adjustments based on testing, practice and changing situations and priorities.
10. Crowd Source – Develop a network of strategic partners that you can go to for advice when disaster strikes.

Covington offers an additional suggestion. “My best advice is to do something,” he says. One good place to start? “Start with making sure that you have at least a good off-site back solution for your company computers. Remember, the IRS does not care if your receipts burned up in a fire. However, if you have those receipts scanned and on a remote backup server, you have a readily available alternative.”

An investment in a continuity plan can become an insurance policy of sorts for the very life of your business.

As Nick Bettis, director of marketing for RLE Technologies, comments, “Every organization from 10 to 10,000 or more employees needs to consider what can and will happen when threats to up-time arise. Far too many organizational leaders think it will never happen to them. They are wrong.”

Beyond Retirement Options: Are You Providing Retirement Education?

The nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies (TCRS), in collaboration with insurance provider Aegon, has released The Changing Face of Retirement: The Young, Pragmatic, and Penniless Generation, a report evaluating the state of retirement preparedness among workers in their twenties (twenty-somethings) in 12 North American, European and Asian countries.

6 powerful thoughts on gratitude

At this time of year, it’s important to give thanks for all of the people who make our lives better. In the spirit of the holiday, here are some powerful thoughts on gratitude:

1. “Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.” – Gladys Browyn Stern
2. “Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.” – Eileen Caddy
3. “The greatest humiliation in life is to work hard on something from which you expect great appreciation, and then fail to get it.” – Edgar Watson Howe
4. “When someone comes along who genuinely thanks us, we will follow that person a very long way.” – Alan Loy McGinnis
5. “Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.” – William Makepeace Thackeray
6. “People may take a job for more money, but they often leave it for more recognition and appreciation.” – Bob Nelson

Thank you!

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For example, with this special offer, you can save $49.75 on Polite, Professional and Promotable: Etiquette for Today’s Workplace.

It’s all too easy to let common workplace courtesy and business etiquette go by the wayside, especially during busy or hard times. However, doing so is a huge mistake. One person’s bad habits can have a ripple effect through the whole team.

Polite, Professional and Promotable: Etiquette for Today’s Workplace teaches employees business etiquette ground rules that will prevent conflicts, build stronger work relationships and present a polished and professional image. This product includes a:

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Two Examples of How an HR Leader Can Impact an Organization

You may be managing your company’s human resources department, but does your HR style impact the way your company is run? This month Workplace HR examines the need for a company to encourage leadership abilities among its HR professionals. However, little actions often speaks louder than words, so we have two examples that demonstrate how HR’s leadership (or lack thereof) can impact an organization.

Example 1: When HR Isn’t at the Leadership Table

Terri Howard, senior director of FEI Behavioral Health in Milwaukee, provides a valuable example of what happens when an organization does not allow an HR representative a voice at the leadership table.

“During the hurricane season of 2005 I worked for a very large retailer,” she recalls. “At the time we had our business partners around the table, everyone from facility management to the legal department chiming in on preparing the organization for what we knew was going to be a devastating event. As we thought about our employee base that was at that time missing and unaccounted for … we sat around the table talking about these folks coming back to work and having enough managers. It was a feel-good moment, for a moment, until an HR generalist said ‘yes, but how are we going to pay the people?’ We had thought about the fact that we were going to open up stores and the cash registers were going to be running again but that human element, that element of who are we going to get to run the cash registers, how were we going to pay them, and those types of challenges still remained. I think had we had someone from HR who had been sitting around the table, that wouldn’t have been an afterthought,” Howard says.

Example 2: How HR Leadership Can Transform Employee Engagement

Joe Schaffer, managing director of the Rutgers Center for Management Development in New Brunswick, N.J, on the other hand, provides a glimpse of the impact an HR leader can have on employee engagement. Before joining Rutgers he served as vice president of HR for a large global transport and logistics organization.

“We were a very results-oriented organization,” he explains. “However, we also recognized that as a transport and logistic organization we could help the world that we lived in to a greater extent than we were.”

According to Schaffer, “Before all these other organizations came out to talk about how they were helping to make the world more sustainable and corporate responsibility, our organization put in place a joint effort with the World Food Program to deliver food around the world to starving people. The issue isn’t not enough food: it’s how to get it [where it needs to be]. As a logistics company we said we wanted to do this.

“I have never seen a transformation in terms of employee engagement in their work and satisfaction with the organization until we developed this culture around results, yes, but being a good partner with the world,” Schaffer says. He explains, “This helped transform who we were as a company, and it helped recruit and retain people.” Part of the success of this program was that all of the protocols HR put in place around training, recruitment, selection, benefits, etc., reflected the company’s focus on not only getting results but being good world citizens.

For the full story, read “Why It’s Critical for a Corporate Culture to Embrace HR Leadership.”

 

Define success in your organization

Before you think about the job you must fill, it’s important to take a step back and consider the type of person who will fit into your organization. Asking yourself the following questions will help you to understand the type of person who can excel in your current organizational culture:

• Do we rely on teamwork and collaboration or independent work to meet our objectives? If your organization requires collaboration and teamwork, hiring a person who can’t stand to work in groups is a big mistake. On the other hand, a person who thrives in a team setting will likely suffer if he or she is forced to always work independently.
• What is our primary communication style? Keep in mind the formats you expect people to use (email, text messaging, video chatting, teleconferencing). If spoken communication and presentation skills are required, ensure that you hire people who are comfortable in public speaking situations.
• How do we make decisions? Do you vote? Or are decisions handed down from management? Some people want to be told exactly what to do; they don’t want to make judgment calls. Others want to have a say in how decisions are made. Don’t force either type into the opposite situation or they’ll be miserable.
• Are we a formal, serious organization? Or do we take a more casual, loose approach? An employee who is extremely serious in nature will not appreciate a culture where joking, fun and socializing are allowed—or even encouraged. A fun-loving, lighthearted spirit will be miserable in a strict, formal environment. Match the personality to your organization.
• How do we reward people? Do you offer monetary bonuses or merit-based raises? Or does your organization offer elaborate perks, such as vacations or company cars? Perhaps, the most your budget will allow is a genuine “Thank you.” You may need to ask new hires how they expect to be rewarded. Someone looking for extravagant rewards for their hard work will be sorely disappointed if all you can offer is a plaque or other inexpensive means of showing your appreciation.
• How many hours do we expect employees to work per week? More and more, people are wanting to balance work and life. If yours is a culture where people consistently exceed the 40-hour mark, it’s important that job candidates know and accept that.
• Do we offer flexible hours or telecommuting? Or do we prefer set hours? Flexible scheduling and work-from-home options are popular with today’s organizations. If you are open to that kind of work arrangement, you broaden your options and expand your talent pool.
• How accessible do we expect employees to be? Should we be able to reach them outside of work hours? Some people aren’t going to be open to that, so it’s critical that you make that expectation clear during the hiring process.
• What is the dress code? Formal, business casual or casual? Upon first glance, you’ll be able to determine if a candidate can fit the formality level of your organization. For example, someone who shows up to the interview wearing a T-shirt and flip flops may not take your dress code seriously once hired. If the candidate is perfect in every other way, you can decide whether coaching the person to dress more professionally is worth it.
• What are our workspaces like? Open format? Separate offices with the doors often closed? An office that promotes frequent interaction, for example, where workspaces aren’t separated by cubicle walls or office doors, is ideal for social employees who love to collaborate. More private, independent employees will be miserable in those types of open-concept workspaces.
• Do we create opportunities for fun and employee interaction? Socializing is a huge factor for many employees, especially young employees and recent graduates. They want opportunities to make friends and build relationships during work.

Hire Exceptional Employees is an invaluable resource that walks you step-by-step through the hiring process. Ensure that you find the right person for the job with this new multimedia training tool. Learn more …

Our way of saying “Thanks!”

Thanksgiving is next week, and we want to take a moment to thank you—our valued readers—for reading this blog.

Do you understand what really motivates your staff?

When managers are asked to predict what factors employees consider most important in their jobs, 90% of them get it wrong. Would you do any better? Complete the following exercise to see if you know what truly motivates your staffers. Listed below are 13 factors compiled from surveys of hundreds of thousands of employees over the last 50 years. Take a few minutes to rank each factor in its order of importance to your employees, with “1” being most important, “2” being second most important and so on …

The death of multitasking

This sounds like the answer to many workers’ prayers. Reduce the number of projects a team is working on, prepare adequately for each project, and assign a priority rating to each one so workers can use it as a guide when deciding what work to finish first. Those are recommendations from a Harvard Business Review blog by Sanjeev Gupta.

He argues that multitasking is not only costing individuals a 25 percent loss in productivity, but organizations may be losing as much as 75 percent efficiency when the pitfalls of multitasking are multiplied by the number of employees affected. Because of that fact, he says that businesses should have companywide control of how much multitasking goes on, rather than individuals or managers.

I applaud the ideas in this blog. I lean toward the habit of multitasking, and it’s true that in the long run, it hampers productivity rather than helping it. Gupta’s recommendations for companies to use structure and planning as ways to limit multitasking are spot on. But individuals and managers still have to buy into the discipline of resisting distractions. No matter how many processes and rules organizations set to discourage multitasking, there are people who have made it a way of life. Focusing on one task at a time is counter to their ingrained work habits.

How can organizations break the multitasking habit?

First, explain how multitasking is hurting the business. There are links to recent research on that point in Gupta’s article.

Second, make sure managers can recognize multitasking. They have seen it for so many years or maybe even have a strong habit of multitasking themselves. They are unlikely to the lead the movement away from something that they don’t recognize as a problem.

Third, reward high-quality work. Make quality and focus two areas that candidates are evaluated on. Highlight projects that have met quality goals in the company newsletter or bulletin board.

What are your experiences with multitasking? Are the recommendations above realistic, or is it impossible to manage employees to that degree?

HR Tech Needs a Downsizing

It may sound like a cliché, but it’s true. The pace of technology and global competition is challenging business leaders to run their businesses effectively and that includes workforce development. A recent report from Baker Tilly International lists the following points:

• Businesses and workforces are on two independent and highly dynamic trajectories.
• The substantial number of HR technology options isn’t helping companies solve the disconnect. Firms have too many diverse and disconnected HR systems. That makes it difficult to obtain the anticipated value from these technologies.
• A new evolutionary phase is hitting HR. It requires full, tightly integrated talent management programs to gain visibility with global talent pools.

HR can be at the forefront of helping their organizations respond to the quickly changing workforce, but it has to re-evaluate its systems to ensure they are helping the cause, rather than hindering it.

Baker Tilly sees a downsizing of HR systems to reduce, standardize and fully integrate the technology within their environment. HR systems will go through a consolidation and integration phase in order to drive value in a dynamic business climate.

A few comments from industry experts on the evolution in HR technology:

Ann Blakely, senior manager of Human Capital Services at Baker Tilly, said, “When I walk around Human Resource technology shows with hundreds of unique software vendors providing one to a dozen individual products, I see a significant gap developing. I’m concerned about companies that buy eight to 10 of these disparate products that don’t talk to each other. How will these employers be competitive in today’s work environment? Integration is a tricky word. Many clients consider an environment that is fraught with dual entry and manual data feeds as integrated. When we say integration, we mean products that share a common development platform, user interface, database design, etc. We are not talking about loosely interfaced solutions when we talk about integration.”

Dr. Katherine Jones, director and principal analyst, HCM Technology, Bersin & Associates also weighs in on this topic. “Our research shows that HR systems buyers want integrated talent platforms. In fact, more than one-third of all buyers are willing to give up functional features for the benefits of an integrated platform. Organizations absolutely need better integration and analytic tools to optimize their workforce, especially in industries going through significant transformations. The resulting integrated platform can help them identify patterns of high-performance, high-potential and workforce gaps and risks.”

The Baker Tilly report concludes that because of disconnected HR technology platforms, organizations know very little about their global workforce. Important facts they want to acquire may be costly to generate and possibly even wrong.

Are your HR systems lean and mean or bloated and in need of trimming? What will it take to integrate HR systems more fully?

Hiring a humble worker pays off

We all love the outgoing, confident job candidate who knocks our socks off in the job interview. That may be the best person for a sales or managerial position. However, a new study says that humility may be a more desirable personality trait for success in certain jobs. In fact, looking for aggressive, overconfident employees for customer-facing positions may turn off more clients than keep them.

“A New Trait on the Market: Honesty–Humility as a Unique Predictor of Job Performance Ratings,” reports that workers who are willing to admit mistakes and tell the truth do better in certain jobs than those who score lower in those areas. The Baylor University study surveyed 269 home healthcare workers who provided services to challenging patients. The study defined honest and humble workers as those who exhibited fairness, generosity, sincerity and modesty.

Researchers said that the honesty-humility trait has the most significant benefit in jobs that require servicing client needs. Someone in a sales or technical position may not be able to translate honesty and humility into a higher performance level.

So the answer still boils down to a deep understanding of what qualities are necessary to do a job. Then you have to decide how those traits will integrate with other departments in your organization.

For example, how will a customer service rep with high honesty-humility scores interact with a hard-driving, aggressive production manager? The service rep is striving to grant customer needs no matter what it takes, while the production team can only deliver based on their resources and time. Setting guidelines and boundaries for the opposing goals of various departments limits disagreements and the temptation to plant unrealistic customer expectations.