Earlier this week as I prepared an APLS Group proposal for a perspective new client I found myself feeling optimistic about the media hype on economic recovery. I have noticed a change in traffic around the office. The phones, fax and email have been buzzing with requests from HR departments around the country. Maybe this economic recovery talk is not just hopeful rhetoric or part of a secret government plot to convince the masses that our economy is getting back on track. Perhaps the USA Today article I read earlier this week about business picking up in various sectors in the country really is true. Given my inquisitive nature, I wondered how are HR departments going to position themselves for the next wave of American business? What will economic recovery look like through the lenses of HR departments? Will HR departments use this time to realign services with an eye on the bottom line, ethical leadership and people development?

Traditionally HR departments have concerned themselves primarily with the following areas:

• Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring/Firing Employees

• Employee Management

• Training and Development

• Employee Manuals, Forms and Policy

• Wages and Benefits

• Government Rules, Regulations and Compliance

As economic recovery becomes a reality HR departments have an opportunity to reassess the way they currently do business. Department heads have a chance to make HR a viable stakeholder in their respective organizations by asking themselves the following questions:

• Are we becoming partners with company leadership to have a stake in perpetuating a positive, ethical company culture?

• Are we interfacing with all departments on a continuous basis to keep management and staff on the same page about company issues and policies?

• Are we using our HR budget efficiently?

• Are our recruiting efforts netting the type employees that fit our company culture?

• Are we using best in breed practices for interviewing?

• Are we researching and investing in technology as a useful tool in HR?

• Are we effectively training our employees for the maximum ROI?

• Are we researching multiple resources for the training and development of employees?  (Cheaper is not always the best investment.)

• Have all employees been made aware of diversity initiatives, harassment policies and code of conduct? Is adequate discussion time provided for employees to talk about behavioral expectations on the job?

• Have we performed a wage analysis in the last five years?

• Have we reviewed the benefit packages for existing staff and new hires? Do adjustments need to be made to compensation, health care, insurance, and work hours?

• Does the HR department have global awareness of employee management?

This is a time to be reflective and forward thinking about the power of HR in your organization. Take time to review the aforementioned questions. Let your answers be the catalyst to initiate change during the economic recovery and watch how the perception of HR improves in your organization.

Next week I will be presenting at the HR Summit 2010 in Singapore. I look forward to conversing with HR professionals from around the world about the part HR will play in the global economic recovery.

For more ideas about increasing the role HR plays in your organization, visit the APLS online store.

Should American business take a critical look at where we stand on ethical behavior in the workplace? Given the state of our current economy, the recent need for bailouts, outsourcing to foreign lands, and unemployment figures in double digits a look inward is warranted. Have we allowed the perfect storm to cripple our ability to conduct what Stephen B. Young of the Minneapolis Star Tribune calls “responsible capitalism”? When did profits and greed overthrow our commitment to business practices that are legal, ethical and value the greater good? I heard the other day that Michael Douglas was gearing up to become Gordon Gekko again in Wall Street 2.  Who can forget Douglas’ Academy Award winning performance as the slick, polished, corporate raider Gekko pontificating about American business in the 1987 Oliver Stone film Wall Street? Movies mirror life. Remember Gekko’s words from the original Wall Street.

“…The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be

survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or

you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved

with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made pretax

profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of

companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and

gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed

is right, greed works.”

What happened to CEO’s like Whitney Mac Millian of Cargill who in 1975 wrote these words to his employees:

“ Business secured by any means other than legal, open, honest

competition is wrong. Cargill does not want to profit from any

practice that is immoral or unethical. Should we discover our

business being done in any other than an absolutely proper

manner, disciplinary action will be taken.”

Do you think the CEOs’ of Adelphia Communications, AIG, Enron, Lehman, World Com or Bernie Madoff ever considered Mr. MacMillan’s words? Just this week Goldman Sachs is in trouble with the government for fraud that cost stockholders and pension funds billions of dollars. But of course Goldman is keeping a stiff upper lip and claiming ignorance of wrong- doing. Has that become the “American way”? Profits up at any cost, the greater good be damned. Have we totally lost our allegiance to each other? Is there no room for responsible capitalism?

I looked at Forbes and US News & World Report’s listings for the Top Ten Best Business Schools in America. I wish that I had time to personally evaluate the business programs at Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, University of Penn, MIT, University of Chicago, Berkeley, Dartmouth, Columbia and Yale. After all, our future MBA’s, Directors, Vice Presidents and CEO’s boast of degrees from the aforementioned institutions. In the university business programs do they spend an equal amount of time on business practices and business ethics or is business ethics a class or two after thought? I don’t know the answer and I would venture to say neither do many HR professionals. The school curriculums are public knowledge but we are more impressed by the reputation of the programs and the prestige associated with the school names. When an applicant comes to our company from one of the illustrious Top Ten, I suspect that questions about the applicant’s business ethics are not high priority. We assume that if the student graduated from a lauded business program legal and ethical issues were covered. Perhaps we should not be so complacent or awed by a university name. The applicant’s ethical “fit” is important to the future success of the company.

I am encouraged by some recent trends that have been showing up in business. However, I have a concern that bad economic times promote a more ethical tone in business because more eyes are aggressively watching business practices. When the economic climate improves and the watchdog eyes subside “business as usual” has historically resumed, and ethics has been put on the back burner in lieu of profits. Let’s remain positive. According to the 2009 National Business Ethics Survey done by the non-profit Ethics Research Center the recent recession has sparked interest in ethical behavior in business. The responses of 3,000 employees who worked at least 20 hours per week for their primary employer showed evidence that there has been a 5% decrease in ethical misconduct on the job since 2007.  Whistle blowing has increased 5% in the same time period. The emphasis on ethical culture in the workplace is up 9% from 2007. And employees feel there is less pressure to participate in ethics violations by about 2% than in 2007. Unfortunately, the survey showed employees are still uncomfortable about perceived retaliation for reporting misconduct.

Is it time to turn back the hands of progress? People matter. Just because a team of lawyers can find a legal loophole to justify a business practice does not make it ethical or beneficial to the greater good. If we want to encourage more ethical behavior in American business responsible, ethical leadership is the key. Leadership sets the tone for company culture and business practices. According to James A. Nortz, Director of Compliance for Bausch and Lomb, in an article he wrote for Collateral, he has the following advice for executives:

• Take note of the messages you are sending employees now

• Measure the ethical culture of your organization

• If your findings of your cultural metrics are positive, heighten your current approach as business performance improves

• Establish performance goals for senior managers on ethical leadership and make ethical leadership part of an executive’s annual review

For more information about Ethics in Business check out our selections in the APLS Online Store.

The other day I had some much- deserved downtime with minimal interruptions from the outside world, so I decided to curl up in an oversized recliner and read. It felt like a guilty pleasure especially since I had a tall refreshing glass of diet Dr. Pepper nearby and my beloved dog, Sally, lounging by my feet. An old TIME magazine from last December caught my eye. The cover showed a crying New Year’s baby, with nothing on but a red party hat and a disposable diaper. Above the baby’s head were the words “The Decade From Hell” “ And why the next one will be better.”  I found myself nodding in agreement as I started to turn the pages looking for articles about bad behavior. What I have observed in the last decade is the consistent rise and acceptance of bad behavior in the workplace from government to private industry and businesses in between.

I have a theory that we have been in the midst of a perfect storm. Economic downturn, deregulation of industries and the arrival of social networking combined to turn the last decade into the age of bad behavior, and the lost of civility and ethics.  I have not come to a conclusion yet, but what I do know is that from 2000-2009 the proliferation of bad behavior permeated the workplace as social networking skyrocketed in popularity. According to Gordon Hamilton in an article he wrote for Helium, Inc., social networking sites were first developed as instruments for teenagers to interact locally and globally. Savvy business marketers soon picked up on the marketing potential due to the mass audience and suddenly social networking became a “must have” line item in a company’s marketing plan. In 2010 not only does a business need a web presence but also visibility on at least one social networking site is a necessity to be competitive. Social networking has a global reach therefore any company can now have an international presence just by signing up. However, My Space and FaceBook, two of the monster social networking sites, were designed for “social” use not business use. There have been consequences for making a social phenomenon a business staple and the outcome has not been all good.

The anonymity of social networking has created a false sense of intimacy both socially and professionally. I am reminded by a line in the movie “For Love of the Game” when Kelly Preston’s character tells Kevin Costner’s character (a baseball player) that he and the ball are a perfect entity. It is the same way with people and the computer. There is a perfect anonymous relationship where everything and anything is possible. People are hypnotized by the ability to say whatever they want to say without facing another human being yet they are socializing. There is no perceivable accountability for what is posted on a social networking site. The result of no filter is bad behavior and in business, often unethical behavior. By blurring the lines between social and professional networking consider the following situations businesses are now encountering:

• Employees spending work time on social networking sites
• Employees posting personal pictures and information about themselves on sites
• Employees participating in anti-social behavior on-line
• Employees inadvertently telling company information on their social pages
• Employees sabotaging or harassing other employees on social networking sites
• Competitive companies surfing the web for company secrets via employee pages

In addition, according to an article by Gene Connors in Workforce Management, “Employers must implement social networking policies…” This constant networking has created a need for organizations to set boundaries in the workplace to protect both their businesses and their employees. Lawyers are working over time developing interpretations of privacy laws to help business legal departments distinguish employer and employee rights in terms of social networking at work. These issues were not foreseen when the marketers invaded the social networking sites.

Back to my TIME article, I was anxious to see if there are any reversible trends towards more civilized behavior on the horizon. The US remains the innovator of technology. Trade publications are addressing the issue of how companies can legally protect themselves from getting trapped in the “too much information” age. High schools and universities are talking to young people about the consequences of living your life on social networking sites. Cyber bullying is not just a “teenage term” it is making its way into business circles and Human Resource departments are beginning to address the issue when discussing harassment with employees.

Since this is just the beginning of the next decade we have to start somewhere to rectify the problem of bad behavior. According to Linda Klebe Trevino and Gail A. Ball in an article printed by the Journal of Management, management’s attention to unethical behavior and subsequent delivery of appropriate punishment to offending employees has a positive effect on changing the behavior norm in an organization. For a change to occur the punishment needs to be perceived as fair and consistent by the other employees. The expectation that the situation will be addressed is as important as the punishment. In the same article rewarding ethical behavior was also discussed. This approach is equally effective as long as management pays attention to reward ethical behavior fairly and consistently. Outcome expectancies on the part of the employees are critical to the success of either approach. 

I am optimistic that we will start to talk civilly one on one to each other again in the near future. The Decade from Hell is over and a new day with limitless possibilities is here. Now that we are aware that social and professional networking need not dance so closely I hope the tide will change and the boundaries will return between personal and professional networking.

Check out our on-line store www.aplsgroup.com for Communication resources to support today’s blog