As the economic development is not predictable (just MS Excel can project the line), the pay reviews and promotions are uncertain. HR has to solve a difficult puzzle – tell negative message, keep positive motivation. Wow, that is a challenge. No CFO will approve the formula that uncertain sales volumes can be balanced by the certain increase of fixed compensation costs. HR has to solve the puzzle differently. Now. Right now.

The excellent C&B Manager is prepared to live in cloudy times. The C&B manager builds reserves for bad times. However, this period of unluckiness is too long. The reserves are eaten and the complex and innovative HR solution has to be born as the organization stays competitive on the job market. As it stays innovative and ahead of competitors.

HR has to change the compensation and motivation system in the organization. It pains a lot, but it is the only way to make the future of the organization secure. Old components and dysfunctional components have to be removed. New components provoking the internal competition and innovation have to be introduced. Easy to write, hard to implement.

HR has to make a proper analysis of the current compensation system. The system is usually developed for many years and new components are added. Many components have no sense today, but employees use them as they benefit from the usage. Does the organization realize benefits? It is a big question. Many compensation components play its role, but many components use resources without any realized benefits (for the organization).

HR has to change the focus on the key groups of employees. The key employees, top performers, high potentials and the support of creative and innovative employees is a must. The key employees are easy to be identified. The top performers are usually visible in the performance management results. The innovation is the most difficult competency to be identified and supported. The new compensation scheme should not try to address and identify these groups of employees. The employees should find their place in the scheme. They should discover its benefits (for them and the organization, as well).

The organization has to support natural innovation. The organized support of innovation usually does not work. The innovation committee does not work. Innovation is about bringing new ideas into the daily work of employees. It spreads quickly (if the idea is really smart). The compensation component supporting innovation has to be aligned with the corporate culture and corporate values.

The organization, which changes the compensation structure, is competitive in these difficult times. The new components support employees building the competitive advantage. It does not support employees, who just understand the system. It supports the real improvements.

The modern organization identifies gaps in skills and competencies at least once a year. It evaluates employees and matches skills and competencies available with the strategic initiatives and projects. It prepares the development plans for employees and it prepares a detailed recruitment plan. The excellent recruitment plan does not affect just recruitment costs of the company; it has a significant impact on the employee satisfaction (as the company manages the system of promotions in the organization and it manages the internal recruitment).

The modern and competitive organization plans all activities in a high detail. The recruitment and staffing is one area, which needs a proper plan, which summarizes inputs from different areas:

• Career Development
• Performance Management
• HR Reporting
• Recruitment Channels Performance
• Recruitment Agencies Performance
• HR Strategy
• Business Strategy

The recruitment plan estimates the number of required new hires per position/function as the natural attrition is fully covered. The recruitment plan estimates the needs for new skills and competencies. The recruitment plan connects inputs from all HR areas as the balance between the internal and external recruitment is reached.

HR can plan vacancies openings and it can estimate the needed resources in Human Resources. The job vacancies should not be open at one time as HR will not be able to process them. HR should reach the agreement with recruitment agencies about estimated number of vacancies and their structure.

The recruitment plan identifies the opportunities in the organization, which should not be missed. Many managers prefer the external hires, but the internal hires usually have the same qualities. They know the organization. They can lack few skills, but one specialized training course can get them to the same knowledge level. The Career Development unit should deliver outcomes from discussions with high potentials and top performers. They identify the next challenging job opportunity and it should be included and matched with the recruitment plan.

The recruitment of the key job positions is usually a long process and the scheduling should be done in advance. The HR Recruiters can do the proper market mapping and they can conduct informal job interviews with the potential hires. They do not have to offer specific job position, but they can offer the contact in the future. They can investigate the interest of the top players on the job market.

The recruitment plan development is a tough task for HR Recruiters and the HR Management team. It requires many inputs, but the successful plan has a significant impact on employees and managers. Many employees can rotate and change their career path. HR can save the recruitment costs.

Wow, it is a season of regular salary reviews (salary increases) in most organizations. However, the economic outlook is not positive and the compensation budgets are tight. The general and flat salary increase (merit increase for all) can make the financial position of the company less stable. The recession is dangerous for the compensation costs. Should we increase salaries?

The recession does not stop the competition. It makes the competition even tougher. The companies need skilled and talented employees as they build the competitive advantage. The modern organization are able to offer highly competitive salaries and packages to best job applicants. They open many vacancies focused on the future growth of the company.

Most organizations are not able to make a serious decision about the selective salary reviews and increases. They do not make a decision about the significant salary increase for the key groups of employees. They make a limited salary increase for the entire population in the company. They increase the cost base and they become less competitive.

The top management is not in the leadership position. It does not make a decision about the selective salary increase. They make the worst decision possible. They want to make everyone happy.

However, the recession does not make anyone happy. The organization needs to secure the performance and innovation arising from the top and best employees of the company. The company is not able to limit its decision about the salary review to the most contributing employees.

HR has to support the top management in the difficult decision. Spreading a small budget over a limited group of employees can make significant salary increases on the individual level. The top employees with the salary increase feel loyal and they want to deliver results for the organization. The rest of employees have to understand that they are not a key for the success. They can be replaced with no significant impact on the organization’s performance and competitive position on the market.

The salary increases for the key employees make the position of the organization stable and more competitive on the job market. The top performers have no reason to accept the competitive offer. They feel valued by the organization.

The true social recruitment is not a one way communication of the company. The company is in a heavy dialogue with the followers and they spread the good news about the organization around. The real secret of the social media recruitment is in a discussion and spreading the messages through different loosely connected networks.

The successful social media recruiter builds a small committed network of followers, who have influence in their other networks. It should not be a primary goal of the organization to have a large primary network of followers. This network can be almost dead and it does not have to contribute to the success of the company at all.

The social recruitment is the long term activity. The phase of building the committed community of followers requires time. The recruiter has to identify topics interesting for the target community. The recruiter has to discuss regularly and has to communicate the standpoint of the important community from the organization.

The success of the social media recruitment cannot be presented within several weeks. The top management loves to see numbers about the size of the community, the growth rate of followers, but they do not focus on the real important measures. They do not focus on number of retweets and the reach of the organization.

The job candidate is usually not a direct follower. The best job applicant is usually in a different circle of followers and the message has to be transferred to that circle of followers. It is the real success of the social media recruitment, if messages are retweeted and re-posted.

The building of the committed network of followers takes time. They are not recruited after few messages from the organization. They do not react to any job offer in the beginning. They react on the topics of their interest. Receiving job openings is not their primary focus. They want to receive interesting information. They will re-post interesting information at first… and later… they will perceive the info about the job vacancy as interesting… and they will re-tweet it.

You will spread your job vacancy into the neighborhood networks. It is a goal of the social media recruitment.

The social media recruitment is about discovering and the development of interesting recruitment niches. Each company and each Social Media HR Recruiter develop their own niches and they do not allow to other companies make any hunting in their waters. LinkedIn is one big ocean of people, who can be willing to change the job. The social media recruitment is not about posting vacancies on LinkedIn. The real social media recruitment is about building proactive communities.

There are many myths around the recruitment using social media. It is not cheap and it is not easy to find the candidate. At first, you have to know, who is your target audience and what are their interests. Social media connect participants around interests and topics. It is the competitive advantage of social media.

The social recruitment is about the following activities:

1. Identify needed resources (as you can focus on discussions)
2. Develop social media profiles (4 main personas representing your target groups)
3. Definition of the key topics of your target audiences
4. Find keywords describing topics
5. Start communicating and grow your social media presence
6. Build the network and discuss on the regular basis
7. Start sending the interesting job vacancies occasionally.

LinkedIn is a huge pool of many people, but they are not generally interested in changing their jobs. They want to find old friends and colleagues. They do not expect to search for a new job proactively. They hate if they are contacted by headhunters and recruiters. They want to enjoy the silent and confidential communication with old friends from the school and previous employments.

The art of social recruitment is about provoking the proactivity of the target group. They want to apply for the challenging job vacancy. They recommend their friends. They spread the message through their other networks. The message gets amplified.

When they tell you that LinkedIn is the social recruitment, do not believe them. The recruitment in social media requires more than one account at LinkedIn.

The modern organization cannot manage all tasks and duties. It needs the empowered employees, who manage their tasks and deliver expected results. The empowerment is one of the basic HR Management ideas of these days. The leader inspires and empowers employees. The implementation of the empowerment is more difficult. Many HR Managers look for the way that empowers employees. The employees and managers are the main obstacles.

The managers usually do not trust the empowered employees. They lose one of their main roles in such environment. They love to distribute tasks, set deadlines and check the quality of outputs. They do not like to accept the decisions made by employees (at least they want to discuss them). The empowerment is about the major change of the management style in the organization.

The employees demand the empowerment. They see it as the best way for the development of their skills and competencies. However, they do not request the accountability and the full responsibility. They want to be empowered, but they want their manager to be fully responsible. The empowerment without the accountability does not work.

The role of HR is in bringing tools and processes, which allow manager to make employees responsible and accountable for their jobs and deliverables. It is a huge cultural change and it is a painful process. Managers do ignore the changes in the beginning and employees are confused. It is quite common for each change management project.

The change of the behavior of managers takes time. They have to be supported by other HR processes, which are adjusted to the empowerment of employees (and line managers as well). The compensation strategy and the compensation policy has to be designed around the full accountability of employees. The performance measurement has to be redesigned. The performance has to be about the delivery of measurable results.

The implementation usually starts with the idea of the top management. The CEO takes the full responsibility and accountability over the implementation of the employee empowerment in the organization. HR acts as a strong member of the implementation team and the change agent.

Sure, HR is the strategic function of the organization. On the other hand, it does not mean that HR employees are strategically rewarded. Quite often, HR employees are paid less than colleagues in other functions at the comparable positions. It is the case of the historical development. The HR salaries are usually below the median in the company. The organization does not pay strategically, it pays for the daily visibility of employees. It pays for the operational perfection.

Historically HR was the pure service center for the business functions in the company. HR made no strategic decisions and it was tasked by the top management to implement desired changes. It made troubles. It discovered obstacles in the implementation of the important initiatives. It protected the regulation. It was seen as the trouble maker. The trouble makers do not earn competitive salaries.

The gap between the HR salaries and salaries offered in other enabling business functions is wide. However, it closes slowly. Many organizations realize the importance of the modern HR Management. They realize that the employees are the only source of the competitive advantage. The top management understands that they need real professionals in HR.

The gap between individual salaries in Human Resources widens quickly. The supporting processes in HR do not receive any significant salary increases. They are kept below the median of the comparable job roles. The value added HR processes are seen as extremely important for building the competitive advantage. The skilled and successful employees enjoy excellent salary increases. They can easily double or triple their salaries during several years of the professional service. It can be highly motivating for the young university graduates. They can earn for the comfort living within few years.

The HR salaries start to be differentiated highly and it can build a strong pressure within HR Organizations. The salaries are confidential, but HR employees have the natural access to information about salaries and the variable pay. The less paid employees can push for the significant salary increase. The HR Management team has to manage the expectation of the supporting employees. It has to demonstrate there is the option for the salary increase – you just have to change your career path.

The cost reduction is the topic of the day for Human Resources. Each HR Department looks for the potential cost savings, headcount reductions, process eliminations, process re-engineering and simple cancellation of many benefits and variable pay programs. The organizations need to manage costs and they need to manage the growth or protection of the sales volumes. The elimination of management layers seems to be a good idea. The manager is an expensive resources. The employees are the self-managed resource.

The reduction of the management layers seems to be a really good idea. Employees will get the empowerment and full engagement. The organization will become innovative and flat. Maybe this is the case for your organization, but this approach does not work generally.

The managers are not useless. Many organization depends on the ability of managers to make quick decisions. Most employees do not want to make a decision as they do not want to be accountable and responsible. This kind of the organization slows down all processes and makes no internal and external decisions.

Most employees are specialists and administrators. They have great ideas. However, they do not want to be accountable for their decisions. They want to bring proposals, but they expect another authority to make a decision. They do not want to be fully accountable for the decision. They want to show they have no responsibility.

The top management believes that line managers make everything slow. They believe that the top management is fully supported by employees, but it is not understand by the line management. They eliminate the management layer and they find out the reality.

The employees do not support the top management naturally. The line management translates the ideas of the top management and it decides using the common financial sense. The line manager prioritizes and chooses the most beneficial solution for the organization.

The elimination of the management layer can bring disappointing results. The organization can lose its position on the market and it has to invest into hiring new skilled managers not worried to make a decision.

More about management layers and HR Management.

The HR job descriptions should be updated regularly. We implement new processes and procedures each year. We implement the modern and innovative HR Management. We just forget to administer and track all changes in our job profiles.

The job descriptions are boring. The development of the excellent job profile takes hours and hours of thinking and making sure that all important responsibilities and processes are included. On the other hand, many HR Processes does not work properly without exact information about the roles and responsibilities of the employee.

The job descriptions have to be updated regularly as they reflect all changes in the organization. Each modern organization changes and the job descriptions have to be adjusted as they describe the real jobs.

The modern HR Management is about the deep knowledge of the organization, the responsibilities of functions and jobs within functions. The HR Managers can offer the new challenging opportunities to key talents and high potentials, if they understand the job role in another unit. They need the accurate job description.

Human Resources has to be a role model for other functions and managers in the organization. It has to keep its job descriptions accurate and updated. Many managers and employees observe HR and they use the practice of HR as the excuse.

HR has to allocate time to update all HR job descriptions at least once a year. Small changes should be made constantly and each HR Manager should update the job descriptions in his team. The team members should bring proposals for adjustments as the JDs are accurate.

The modern HR Management has to work with exact and accurate information. The JDs are foundations for many HR Processes with the value added for HR and the organization. The results can be refused and not approved, if the JDs are not in a good shape.

The world of year 2012 is about the strict cost management. The growth of organizations is anaemic and the top management has to focus on cutting costs as the organizations are healthier. The recession makes organization thin and thinking about each small investment. The HR investments are usually postponed. HR has to be cost centric. Again.

HR wants to implement something nice for employees. This year will be different. HR will have to cut costs a way, which does affect employees least. It is difficult as several rounds of cost cutting are finished.

The list of benefits are much shorter. The bonuses are not so high. The performance of teams is increased significantly. Less employees do more. It is the goal of cost cutting, spending less money on the same performance.

HR has to support cost cutting, but it has to protect employees as well. The best cost cutting is shutting the business. The costs are zero then, but the income is zero as well. HR has to support finding the right balance. HR has to find costs to be cut and it has to support the healthy investments.

HR is not balanced quite often. It just supports cost cutting. Or it supports just investments. The modern HR is able to find the right balance, which does not stop the growth of the organization. Even during the recession, there are some parts of the organization growing. These parts are healthy and they form themselves into the future of the company.

HR has to develop its ability to identify the healthy growth trends in organizations. Each has to design and develop cheap policies supporting the growth of companies. The growth based on successful innovations.

HR has to find the courage to make additional cost cuts in many areas. The unproductive administrative processes have to be put under a huge pressure. They must be made visible to the whole organization as they start to change.

The cost centric HR is about cutting administrative costs. It is about the real support of all innovations.