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HR Lessons Learned From Seinfeld (Continued)

I figured that I’d have a little fun today and write a blog post that is entertaining, interactive and educational all at the same time. 

I’m going to post this blog and look for public feedback so anyone who wants to participate and have a couple of laughs on a random Tuesday in September can. 

So here’s the format:

1) I’ll start the ball rolling by quoting some Seinfeld lines and then tie them in to HR lessons that we can learn from the situations in the famous show about “nothing”.

2) If you have other examples from Seinfeld situations then add them as a comment on the blog, LinkedIn or Twitter.

3) I’ll add any outside examples in to my blog and give credit to the participating party. 

4) Pay it forward by “liking”, “Retweeting”, etc. as all are welcome.

5) We all have some laughs.

Here we go

QUOTE #1:

George Costanza: Don’t get worked up, because you’re going to know the whole story the minute she walks off the plane.
Jerry: Really, how?
George Costanza: Because it’s all in the greeting. If she puts the bags down before she greets you, that’s a good sign.
Jerry: Right.
George Costanza: Anything in the lip area is good.
Jerry: Lip area, yeah.
George Costanza: A hug, definitely good.
Jerry: Hug is good. Although what if its one of those hugs, where the shoulders are touching, and the hips are 8 feet apart.
George Costanza: Those are brutal.
Jerry: You know how they do that.
George Costanza: Also, you know a shake is bad.
Jerry: Right, a shake is bad. But what if it’s the two-hander? The hand on the bottom, the hand on the top, the warm look in the eyes.
George Costanza: The hand sandwich.
Jerry: Right.
George Costanza: Well, that is open to interpretation because so much depends on the layering, and the quality of the wetness in the eyes.
George Costanza: [after her actual arrival and greeting] The surprise blindfold greeting. That wasn’t in the manual.

HR LESSON #1: Unlike George & Jerry, in the workplace inappropriate physical contact could be interpreted as harassment so sticking with the standard handshake is the best way to ensure that everyone stays out of trouble.

QUOTE #2:

George Costanza: Miranda thinks I’m a butcher, but – it’s not my fault, is it? Don’t we have a deal with the pigeons?
Jerry Seinfeld: Of course we have a deal: They get out of the way of our cars; we look the other way on the statue defecations.

HR LESSON #2: Do you have written employment agreements, policies or job descriptions with your employees?  Or do you rely on verbal understandings like George & Jerry with the pigeons?  As an employer your only defense in a dispute with an employee is written documentation so if you don’t put policies and agreements in writing then you are potentially legally exposed.

QUOTE #3:

George Costanza: Well, you know, I’ve been lying about my income for a few years; I figured I could afford a fake house in the Hamptons

HR LESSON #3: Do you conduct background checks on candidates before you hire them?  A careerbuilder.com survey last year found that 49% of hiring managers uncovered that a candidate lied on their resume.  I’ve seen everything from candidates inflating salaries, to providing false social security numbers to hide criminal records, to claiming to have college degrees that they didn’t have.  Background checks are inexpensive so don’t mess around and make sure that your new employees are what they say they are before you’re surprised after you hire them.

QUOTE #4 (Submitted by John Mark Ivey of Raleigh-Durham, NC)

Lloyd Braun: Serenity now.  Insanity later.

HR LESSON #4: Not encouraging employees to take their vacation time can cause burn out which will be a constant drag on company wide productivity and employee engagement.

QUOTE #5 (Submitted by Rob Schneider of Raleigh-Durham, NC)

Jerry Seinfeld: “Well, birthdays are merely symbolic of how another year’s gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, each flicker of the candles on the cake we know it’s not to be. That for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end. Inevitably, irrevocably. Happy birthday? No such thing.”

HR Lesson #5: Help your employees establish short term and long term measurable goals that are realistic, yet challenging. Their birthdays can truly be a time of celebration as it can be a day to reflect on how much has been accomplished since their last birthday and how far they have come towards reaching their goals.

QUOTE #6 (Submitted by Brad Reid of Raleigh-Durham, NC)

 Jerry Seinfeld– “The Swiss have an interesting army. Five hundred years without a war. Pretty impressive. Also pretty lucky for them. Ever see that little Swiss Army knife they have to fight with? Not much of a weapon there. Corkscrews. Bottle openers. “Come on, buddy, let’s go. You get past me, the guy in back of me, he’s got a spoon. Back off. I’ve got the toe clippers right here.”

HR LESSON #6: Are you providing your employees with the tools they need to succeed?

QUOTE #7 (Submitted by Brad Reid of Raleigh-Durham, NC)

Jerry Seinfeld: I have a friend who’s collecting unemployment insurance. This guy has never worked so hard in his life as he has to keep this thing going. He’s down there every week, waiting on the lines and getting interviewed and making up all these lies about looking for jobs. If they had any idea of the effort and energy that he is expending to avoid work, I’m sure they’d give him a raise.

HR LESSON #7 Do you have employees that have “quit” on you and your business but are still working for you just to collect a paycheck?

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by Darren Witmer on September 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Business, Human Resources, Small Business, Uncategorized
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Posted by Darren Witmer on September 27, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/hr-lessons-learned-from-seinfeld-continued/

Why Small Businesses Struggle to Implement Strategic HR Principles

HR Insights which is an online HR forum  recently asked me if I wanted to write a piece on Strategic HR, I thought “That should be easy. I have discussed strategic HR principles with hundreds of small business owners over the past 15 years, so this shouldn’t be a problem.”  Then I thought about it further “What could I write that hasn’t already been written millions of times?”

That is how I landed on the topic of this piece; “Why small businesses struggle to implement strategic HR initiatives.”

This question is really at the heart of the issue because I don’t believe that there is a shortage of great ideas around strategic HR initiatives.  Most people agree that if an organization attracts, retains and trains the best talent, then it has a better chance to succeed.  Most people would also agree that if an organization breeds a culture of constant open communication, endless improvement and achieving business goals, then results would improve. Unfortunately I would guess that only about 5%-20% of all small businesses open their doors, utilizing strategic HR principles as the foundation of their business. These businesses are generally extremely successful and grow to be the Googles and Apples of the world.

But what about the other 80%-95% of companies that haven’t build a foundation based on these principles? This is where the problem lies: How do you implement strategic HR principles when your business isn’t currently utilizing them?

In my experience there are 4 main obstacles to overcome in implementing these changes:

1)      Fear of change – Small business owners generally agree that improving talent levels will improve their organization.  However, it’s scary to mess with their business in a substantial way because, while they would love to be more successful, they are more concerned with losing what they already have.

2)      Lack of resources – All small businesses regardless of size, industry or geography have one common problem: They only have a limited amount of resources. Those resources are generally already wearing multiple hats within the organization and do not have the capacity to take on a new project like this.

3)      Lack of understanding – The reason that small business owners didn’t open their doors utilizing strategic HR principles is because they didn’t actually know how to engrain them in their business – If they had known they probably would have.

4)      Perceived cost to implement – If a business owner views HR and employees as a cost center and not a potential for revenue growth, then he or she is going to struggle to view money that is spent on attracting, training or retaining employees as an investment.

Now that we have identified the obstacles we can start to address how to implement change:

1)      Determine the organization’s goals, values & culture – The direction and attitude of a small business is always determined by the business owner.  There can’t be a laid back work environment if the business owner is tense and uptight.  The business owner has to live, breathe and sleep the culture that he or she wants for the organization.  The owner needs to be quick to recognize employees that live the culture and be equally as quick to squash employees that act contrary to the culture.  If the owner does this all day, every day for 30-60 days, there will be a noticeable change in the direction of the organization.

2)      Make goals, values & culture known to everyone – For example, if an organization’s goals are to double revenue, provide the best client experience in the industry and have a workforce that is provided opportunities to grow and succeed, then it must make these goals public to everyone within and outside the organization – post the message all over the office, on the website, in press releases and on job posts and then follow up the message by living it, as mentioned above.

3)      Build a team of people around effort & attitude – In my experience there are two things that you can’t teach employees; effort and attitude. If an employee works hard and has a good attitude, there is nothing remaining that can’t be taught.  The next step can be emotional and gut wrenching for business owners but is a must. He or she must look at every current employee and determine which employees have both characteristics and which do not.  If employees don’t have both, then the business owner must start the process of replacing them immediately with employees that do.  When looking for new employees, business owners must make sure that the potential employees have the skills that are needed, but need not worry as much about industry experience because it’s overrated.  If a person has effort and attitude, it actually doesn’t take that long to learn a new industry. The business owner needs to develop a 6-12 month game plan to replace employees that need to be replaced and start with those that have the worst combination of effort and attitude regardless of position within the company. And if the organization is filled with top effort and attitude employees that aren’t producing then you have a leadership problem not an employee problem.

4)      Create regular forums to discuss improvement initiatives – To create a culture of constant organizational improvement, a business owner has to realize that the employees have ideas as to where the organization can improve because they ask themselves every day “Why do we do it this way?” when performing their daily tasks.  The owner should hold a companywide meeting and announce a new program in which the workforce is going to be engaged to identify opportunities for improvement.  Then he or she should host bi-monthly team meetings to discuss employee ideas for improvement.  In the meetings, there is no tolerance for negative comments about ideas.  It is important for the business owner to recognize that all ideas are good ideas even if he or she doesn’t agree with or understand them.  If an idea doesn’t seem like a good one, ask for more thought and detail behind it so that it can be discussed further at the next meeting.  Out of the gate, the owner should find some ideas that can be implemented quickly with minimal effort because if employees see their ideas implemented, then the organization wins. 

5)      Incentivize all employees for generating revenue growth – I am a strong believer in implementing an aggressive companywide new business incentive plan.  Why should only sales people be aggressively compensated for bringing new business to the table?  I don’t know any salesperson that wouldn’t give up 25% of his or her commission to another employee if the employee makes an introduction that leads to a sale.  If an employee that makes $30,000 a year has an opportunity to make another $1,000, $5,000 or $10,000 a year by leveraging an introduction to someone that he or she knows, then that employee is going to be looking for those opportunities.  It is important to make sure that all employees know what they should be looking for in terms of a lead (i.e. a VP of HR for a business with 100+ employees).  The owner should then recognize anyone who has given a lead, and how much money has been earned, on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. 

This article began with an initial introduction to some of the primary obstacles that I have observed that inhibit organizational change. I then offered up solutions to help business owners implement strategic HR principles. Let’s see how my suggestions address the obstacles.

1)      Fear of change – All that I’ve asked is for a business owner to live the culture that he or she wants to breed. Replace any employees that have a poor attitude and weak work ethic with new employees that have a good attitude and strong work ethic. That doesn’t seem like it’s very scary or that it could lead to a negative impact on the organization’s business.

2)      Lack of resources – Other than holding a company meeting, there isn’t a whole lot of time required to implement the new strategies.  In addition, an engaged workforce actually will work for the organization even when they aren’t at the office. This will actually increase the time capacity of the organization.

3)      Lack of Understanding – A blueprint for implementing strategic HR principles is outlined in the 5 steps above.  Business owners should determine and publicize the organization’s goals, values and culture, build a team of people around effort and attitude, create regular forums to encourage employee input for improvement and create a companywide incentive program to accelerate revenue growth.  Understanding and implementing these strategies is what drives successful organizational change.   

4)      Perceived cost to implement – The only true costs are having the organization’s goals, vision and culture added to the website and printed on a couple of posters around the office. This will probably cost about $500 – $1,000 total. All other ‘costs’ would be additional commissions paid for new revenue to the organization which any business owner would love to pay on a daily basis. 

As you can see, implementing strategic HR principles really isn’t that hard or scary.  I hope that business owners will take the road map that I’ve laid out to implement change in their organizations.

Imagine the possibilities if most small businesses had employees that understood that they can have a positive impact on their company and are rewarded to do so – what a world that would be!

If you are a business owner and still can’t see the path then let me know because I’d be happy to help you find it.

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by Darren Witmer on August 13, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Darren Witmer on August 13, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/why-small-businesses-struggle-to-implement-strategic-hr-principles/

“Must have industry experience” – A job posting mistake

“Must have industry experience” is something that I’ve noticed a lot on sales job sites (not that I’m looking for a new job if anyone is wondering).  Every time I see this statement I think to myself “what a mistake”.  Some of you are probably asking yourself:

“What is he talking about?  It’s perfectly logical to want a sales rep that has experience with and has contacts in my industry.”

While I can see the logic in this thought process there are two fatal flaws with it. 

The first flaw is that the phrase “must have industry experience” is usually followed shortly thereafter by the phrase “must be a top performer”.  The issue here is that only the premier provider in your industry can actually ask for both and get the right people.  That’s because the premier provider also usually has the best sales comp plan so they can recruit all of the best reps from the rest of the companies in their industry.  The problem is that I see every provider in every industry look for both.   This strategy won’t work for them and they represent the majority in the industry.

Let’s define this further.  The top performers at the premier providers in most industries are making $100k – $120k base and $350k+ total comp including commission.  Now most of the jobs that I see posted are for $50k-$70k salary and total comp of $100k – $150k.  Do you see the disconnect and the reason why I think that the standard logic is flawed? 

The issue is if you require “must have industry experience” and you aren’t the premier provider in your industry (which most aren’t) then what you are really attracting and limiting yourself to is the “also rans” in your industry.  So you’re basically playing a game of russian roulette with the fact that you are going to find the diamond in the rough of the “also rans” which could happen but almost never does.  This is why I hear business owners say things like I have had 5 sales reps in 2 years and am still looking for the right one. 

The second fatal flaw is that you are eliminating the pool of really talented sales people who could crush it at your company but are in one of the other million industries out there.  And these people could have really good reasons as a top performer for looking for an industry change.  Relocation is a good one.  Maybe they reached the max potential in their industry.  Maybe they just didn’t want to sell PVC plastic for the rest of their lives (I can joke because it was my first sales job).

What you have to realize is that even though you think it’s really hard to learn your products or industry for top sales reps regardless of where they come from its not.  In fact hiring a top sales rep from another industry would probably give you some really interesting perspectives on your products, sales process and value proposition. 

So in the future when you are copying and pasting your job description on to monster.com or careerbuilder.com for another sales position that you are looking to fill because the last rep didn’t work out.  Stop and ask yourself if you are the premier provider in your industry.  If the answer is “No” then delete “must have industry experience” and try:

“Must be a top performer.  No industry experience required.  Relocations welcome.”

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by Darren Witmer on March 5, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Darren Witmer on March 5, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/must-have-industry-experience-a-job-posting-mistake/

Building Client Loyalty: The Shawshank Redemption Lesson

You’re probably asking yourself how is Darren going to link Shawshank Redemption to the steps involved in building client loyalty.  You’re probably also asking yourself how did Darren even conceive of this idea.  My only answer to these questions is it’s the combination of an overly creative mind, combined with some A.D.D. and a little luck sprinkled in. 

On to the connection.  For those of you that have seen Shawshank (those that haven’t will be lost) you know that Andy Dufresne played by Tim Robbins was wrongfully imprisoned for killing his wife.  You also know that Andy was a very successful business man prior to being imprisoned and he was known for being “good” with numbers. 

Well Andy realized very quickly that he would never survive prison life unless he made friends in high places.  So Andy determined that his best chance for survival was to align himself with the guards and more importantly the warden so that he had protection against the other inmates. 

What Andy did was leverage the fact that he was “good” with numbers to help the warden and guards achieve their personal and financial goals.  This plan worked so well that none of the inmates or guards bothered Andy for 19 years.  In that time Andy was able to leverage the unique relationship that he had with the warden to convince him to build a library for the inmates amongst other perks.  Andy then used the library and his education to help other inmates learn to read and get high school diplomas.  This strategy allowed him to build value with the inmates by providing hope that they might be able to change the direction of their life once they were released from prison. 

Now for the lesson.  Andy was able to align himself with the entire prison (the client) by addressing what most don’t with their clients.  If we look at the prison as the hierarchy of a company my comparison starts to take shape.  He was able to help the inmates by giving them a sense of hope that their life could be better once they got out.  He was able to help the guards accomplish personal goals like build family financial plans to help them improve their personal lives.  And he was able to help the warden develop a business model utilizing his “free” labor to outbid every contractor in the county to make him a very rich man. 

The key is Andy brought value to every one of them by realizing that they all had different goals in life (job).   He was then able to leverage his skill set in a different way for each person which allowed him to help them achieve their goals.

Do you remember the key moment that triggered Andy’s 19 year run at Shawshank?  It was on the roof of the prison and the head guard was complaining about the large taxes that he was going to have to pay on an inheritance.

This is the moment that you have to be on the lookout for with your clients as a small business owner.  You have to wait for the moment when you are presented with the opportunity to help them with something that they weren’t expecting you to be able to.

Do you remember as the other inmates were trying to grab Andy as he was walking towards the guards and he asked the head guard “Do you trust your wife?”  I would recommend a different approach but that was just Andy’s personality. 

And right before the guard was ready to throw Andy off the roof we get the trigger event for building client loyalty.  In a 20 second exchange the course of the next 19 years dramatically changed for Andy as he said “Because if you do there is no reason that you can’t keep all of that money”.  And that’s when he had them. 

The key is to always keep your ears open for opportunities to explain to your clients how you can help them achieve something that they didn’t think was possible.  And I’m not talking about helping as in sell them something help.  I mean figure out how to help them with what you already sold them or help in a way that has nothing to do with your product or service or even company.

The key to amazing client loyalty is to first understand how your client’s business makes money and what the goal is of every stakeholder within that company that you encounter.  The trick is in understanding that your product or service or even you can bring something different to every person in the company.  If you can help every stake holder that you encounter achieve their individual goals then you will build client loyalty. 

When you build client loyalty competition disappears, pricing objections disappear and you sell more to that client because they will start asking you “How else can you help me achieve my goals?” 

If you build client loyalty then they will blindly follow your advise as long as you keep helping them achieve their goals like Andy did at the prison for 19 years.

As Andy would say “all you need is patience and time” to build client loyalty.

Hopefully your goal for building client loyalty isn’t to distract the entire prison over a 19 year period so you can hide a 20 foot hole in your cell wall behind a poster that you’ve been digging one handful of rock at a time in order to escape to freedom in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

And that’s how you tie Shawshank Redemption to the business model for building client loyalty.

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by Darren Witmer on March 2, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Darren Witmer on March 2, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/building-client-loyalty-the-shawshank-redemption-lesson/

The Small Business Success Equation

As I wrote in my previous post there are too many companies trying to find the magic formal for business success when it’s right in front of their face.  The most successful companies in the country regardless of size have built their organizations based on two fundamental principles.  Companies like Apple, Google, Starbucks, etc are the success stories that we see every day but I have met small businesses across almost every industry that employ the same principles and have the same growth trajectories.  Locally you can look to the companies listed in the Fast 50 or leaders in the 40 under 40. 

The two fundamental principles are to be hyper focused on and 100% dedicated to improving the lives of your employees and clients.  If you can build employee and client loyalty you can’t lose.  If you build employee loyalty you will attract the best and brightest.  And if you build client loyalty then you can dictate the cost of your product or service instead of your clients or industry dictating it for you. 

As I sit here I’m almost hesitant to write this because it sounds incredibly basic.  But think about it.  If your employees and clients like your company then you can’t lose.  The success formula for business is so basic it’s almost absurd. 

Employee Happiness + Client Happiness = Company Success

As we know though most employees aren’t happy in their jobs.  I read somewhere recently that something like 70%-75% of US employees are actually not happy in their job.  As for client happiness well there are certainly plenty of examples of companies and even entire industries that have client bases that borderline despise them for their lack of service.  If you look at most larger companies lets say in the telecom, banking, cable TV and insurance industries you probably agree that most companies don’t have what you would call happy clients. 

So the business success equation is so basic yet 3/4 of the  country has mentally checked out from their jobs and countless whole industries have clients that cringe every time that they have to pick up the phone to call them.  This represents a fundamental business disconnect and is hindering the economic growth of our country. 

At the end of the day what most business leaders are missing is that they don’t understand human behavior and they are doing the bare minimum to service their clients.  We need to connect the dots for employers of all sizes that the opportunity for far greater growth and success is attainable.  And the better news is that making these changes in small businesses would be relatively easy to accomplish.  The only question is, are you willing to put forth the effort to make these changes to substantially increase your level of success?

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by Darren Witmer on February 27, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Darren Witmer on February 27, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/the-small-business-success-equation/

You have to start somewhere

Well as this is my first blog post ever I thought I would deliver some random business musings that have been boucing around in my head over the past few months.  I have worked with hundreds of small businesses in my 15 year professional career and two things have always amazed me.  The first is that small business owners always try to create a unique approach to success when there are a couple of pretty straightforward paths to take.  And the second is that it amazes me how many businesses out there are run really poorly and yet still have their doors open year after year. 

With the above in mind I believe that small business in this country is at a crossroads.  The current economic conditions are dictating an extreme focus by entrepenuers on what business strategies actually deliver the best results.  This may seem overly logical but from what I have witnessed in my career their is way too many mistakes being made by small business owners to maintain our dominant position in the world economy.  The current challenges that small businesses face are big and are effecting every aspect of their business in some way.  These challenges are going to require smart leadership practices and we are going to need to get most of the businesses in the country on board. 

Challenges are coming at small businesses from every angle.  Lack of financing options to facilitate growth is forcing businesses to grow at a slower rate then they could to ensure that they don’t outpace their cash flow.  Healthcare costs have increased by 6% per year for the past decade and show no sign of improvement in the decade ahead.  The government can no longer fund growth oriented initiatives and is imposing greater compliance based programs daily.  There is almost no remaining cost reduction options either as most small businesses have cut everything non-essential (and sometimes essential) and there isn’t anywhere else to cut.  Global competition from China is reaching alarming levels.  And the skill sets of the unemployed doesn’t match up with the new skills required in emerging high growth industries.

With all this in mind there are opportunities.  We need every small business in the country to stop trying to reinvent the wheel and look to the best organizations for the path to follow.  I believe that there are two fundamental principals that the best have in common.  The best are hyper focused on and are 100%  dedicated to improving the lives of their employees and clients.  That is it.  There is no magic.  All you have to do is look at companies like Apple, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Google, etc.  These companies don’t have to worry about finding top talent in their industry.  Top talent finds them.  These companies don’t worry about profit margins and cheaper competition.  They dictate their own prices. 

I created this blog because I don’t believe that their is a sectret formula which is what it appears to me most are looking for.  The formula is right out in full view and available to everyone.  It doesn’t matter if you are a 5 employee pizza shop or Google because the formula works for everyone.  Build employee and client loyalty and you win.  Every time.

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by Darren Witmer on February 21, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Darren Witmer on February 21, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/you-have-to-start-somewhere/

Small Business Blog Launch

My name is Darren Witmer and I am a small business consultant based out of Raleigh, NC.  I have worked with close to 300 small business over the past 15 years and have met with and learned about hundreds more.  I have started this blog in an attempt to share the best practices and biggest mistakes that I see in the small business market space.  My end goal is to positively impact as many small businesses as I can to improve the local and national economy.  Ambitious I know but that is my goal and you can’t achieve a goal without first setting one.  I hope that you find this blog of value.  Enjoy.

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by Darren Witmer on February 21, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Darren Witmer on February 21, 2012

https://darrenwitmer.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/hello-world/