As promised, I am here to deliver one inspirational and timely article for September - a time for colorful leaves, football/tailgating, and back to school. It's also a time for the famous third quarter slump - followed closely by the forth quarter push. Many will see a huge hiring slow down during this time, except the temporary and seasonal workforce. Most employees will begin to feel the squeeze, will start to see the writing on wall in the media, in the unemployment line, and in their own neighborhoods and wallets. This is the time when it is crucial for HR professionals to create a positive environment in every possible way. Many of you laugh after reading that - and even I, in my cynical seat, want to. But indeed - after your great employees, from the cash cow to the high potentials, stick it out through the end of your fourth quarter and enjoy their holidays, the inevitable happens - budgets find a little more wiggle room, and good recruiters look for your great people to lure away. What separates those from losing employees next January from those who actually keep their great employees and gain more are what they do now - in the thick of this third quarter slump, when money is tight, tempers are high, and dollars are being sought after in every nook and cranny.
Because I set out to specifically focus on one small goal for each month, I'm going to talk about that for September, but I will also relay some information about the overall timeframe as well below. September is the month where all employee's are thinking about time management. Parents are thinking about all the activities their kids are in, PTA meetings, and parent-teacher conferences they'll need to squeeze into their busy schedules. The child-less are thinking about a variety of other activies, depending upon where they are in their life stages - weddings, vacations, taking care of older parents, going back to school, etc. After the lazy days of summer, September hits with a cold wind of reality - and that's when you as an HR professional can step in with a fresh perspective on your companies' time off, flexible working arrangement, job share, and overall work/life balance policies. It is even more critical to think about this now, before the holiday rush approaches and stress levels increase to an even more unsustainable level. Many have also found success in a program that offers employees to "purchase" additional days off - leaving you with a balanced budget, and employees who value more time off with exactly what they need. Being creative with these policies will gain you a monumental moral boost.
For end of third quarter, beginning forth quarter overall, each HR professional should be thinking stragically about other opportunities for low-hanging fruit. What are your known deficiencies? Are you adequately addressing employee diversity issues, and creating an open, creative environment? Do your current policies surrounding, idea creation/implementation, time management (see above), health/wellness, training opportunities, mentoring, etc. give your employees a sense of empowerment and that you as an employer care about their career growth? How open are you to these new ideas and ways of doing things? If you find yourself stagnant in this area, beware - there are many around you who are moving quickly to accommodate not just the generational change of GenY, but those concerns of GenX concerning their career goals and family, and if you're still doing things "because that's the way we've always done them", you better be prepared to lose your top players. Even those who are considered benchmarks in these areas should always be going back to their customer groups (I'll talk about this at a later time - always refer to your teams as "customers" because that's what they are!) to see what they actually value vs. what is being offered to them. Because if I'm offering you peanuts, but your allergic to peanuts (and therefore you don't like peanuts!) but you'd rather have coffee, I would never know this if I don't ask. And it's doing me no good to offer you peanuts - it's wasting my time and money, and frustrating you. I should instead offer you coffee - something you want, something I want you to have and it works as an incentive as well.
Until next time... Be Inspirational!
