"In today’s increasingly complex regulatory landscape, small businesses are vulnerable to unintentional errors while administering HR functions."
TotalSource Reduces Complexities, Liabilities and Costs of Internal HR Management, So SMBs Can Focus on What They do Best
As SMB owners grapple with challenging and evolving regulatory compliance and health care reform requirements, ADP®, a leading provider of human resources outsourcing, payroll services, benefits administrationand integrated computing solutions for vehicle dealers,today announced the expansion of its TotalSourcebusiness solution in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. ADP’s TotalSourcesm simplifies human resources management for businesses with an integrated service offering that incorporates payroll, benefits administration, risk management, tax and compliance functions.
ADP Announces Expansion of TotalSourceHR Outsourcing Solution for SMBs in Cincinnati, Ohio
In today’s increasingly complex regulatory landscape, SMBs are vulnerable to unintentional errors while administering HR functions. Many of these errors carry potential legal and financial implications. ADP TotalSource helps mitigate these risks for small- to mid-sized business by serving as a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). PEOs provide integrated services through a co-employment model where the client company continues to direct employees’ day-to-day, job-related duties, while the PEO contractually assumes certain HR-related rights, responsibilities and risks as the “employer of record” on an employee’s W-2.
“In a perfect world, small business owners would focus their time and energy on growing their business. However, in the real world, business owners spend a significant amount of time every day struggling to comply with the increasing complexities being an employer,” said ADP TotalSource’s West Central Region General Manager Maria Black. “ADP TotalSource helps business owners focus on what matters most to them because the intricacies of human resource management—including payroll, benefits, tax, insurance and compliance—are outsourced to ADP’s team of uniquely experienced human resource business partners. We offer business owners peace of mind, while also freeing up time that can be dedicated to growing the business and developing employees.”
Black notes that recent economic indicators point to business and employment growth throughout the Cincinnati region. “As companies emerge from the recession, business owners today are demanding more than ever before from their human and financial resources. This reality makes engaging a PEO an attractive and compelling business solution,” she adds.
The expansion of ADP TotalSource in Cincinnati builds upon the market-leading services that ADP already provides through its offices in Columbus and Cleveland, representing the leading metropolitan areas in Ohio.
“My company has grown from 40 to 80 employees, acquiring several competitors with employees in six states, and we’ve hired many others in the process. ADP TotalSource handled all state, county and local taxes and certificates of doing business, making our growth an incredibly simple process,” said Leib Lurie, chief executive officer of Troy, Ohio-based One Call Now. “With our dedicated TotalSource Human Resource Business Partner, managing employee issues—from counseling, improvement plans, job descriptions, ADA compliance, and clean handling of separation—have been smooth, professional and documented. Our managers find HR administration simple and effective, especially so since we have many virtual employees and traveling employees.”
Through a PEO, businesses gain access to a larger suite of offerings when it comes to insurance and health benefits, which increases their ability to provide a more robust benefit offering better to help attract and retain employees.
Through a PEO, businesses gain access to a larger suite of offerings when it comes to insurance and health benefits, which increases their ability to provide a more robust benefit offering better to help attract and retain employees. Other benefits realized by businesses using ADP TotalSource include professional development training, recruiting and new talent selection, and management of 401(k) retirement savings plans and administration.
“ADP TotalSource has also helped us on the health care front,” Lurie added. “Through the guidance provided by our HRBP, we were able to expand our coverage from "employee only" to an industry-leading plan that pays at least 80 percent of the health care costs for spouses and children, too, at a cost that was reasonable. This has already made a huge payback in terms of employee recruiting and we expect it will help us maintain our low 4 percent employee turnover rate,” added Lurie.
A part of ADP’s Employer Services Division, ADP TotalSource is the nation’s largest PEO, operating more than 50 offices in 23 states, and serving more than 8,000 client companies with more than 200,000 worksite employees. Businesses taking advantage of the service are assigned an experienced ADP TotalSource Human Resource Business Partner who leads a team of experts drawn from the following areas: HR administration, benefits, payroll, risk management and safetyand regulatory compliance.
For more information about ADP TotalSource, please call 800-447-3237 or visit www.adptotalsource.com.
About ADP
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP), with about $10 billion in revenues and approximately 570,000 clients, is one of the world's largest providers of business outsourcing solutions. Leveraging over 60 years of experience, ADP offers a wide range of human resource, payroll, tax and benefits administrationsolutions from a single source. ADP's easy-to-use solutions for employers provide superior value to companies of all types and sizes. ADP is also a leading provider of integrated computing solutions to auto, truck, motorcycle, marine, recreational vehicle, and heavy equipment dealersthroughout the world. For more information about ADP or to contact a local ADP sales office, reach us at 1.800.225.5237 or visit the company's Web site at www.ADP.com.
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Management expert Jeff Kortes says to "Fire the Slugs, your good performers will love you."
Every SMB has some type of employee turnover problems. Depending on the study you look at, the impact of turnover ranges from three months of salary for a low level employee who leaves to as high as 400 percent of the annual salary of an upper-level person who leaves.
According to Jeff Krtes, “It’s doesn’t have to be all bad,” says management expert Jeff Kortes, author of the book No Nonsense Retention. Jeff explains,
“There’s good turnover, and bad turnover.”
Firing a non-performer is good turnover. When a top performing employee leaves to go elsewhere and leaves your organization with a huge void, it’s bad turnover. It can affect the performance of the entire SMB.
“If you are going to maximize your organization’s performance you have to make a conscious, top-down management decision and commitment to develop a no nonsense approach to retention.”
Here are Jeff Kortes' top must-do actions items for retaining the human assets you’ve worked so hard to acquire:
1. Start at the top! Assess your supervisory and management team! Seventy percent of the people say that the worst thing about their job is the boss. Find out what’s wrong and fix it! Identify the prima donnas and micromanaging control freaks, the whiners, complainers, and blamers. Get them basic supervisory training and improve their performance continuously. If you are the boss, take ownership!
2. Clean Up the House! Identify the non-performers. Identify the poor managers and supervisors. If they do not respond to training and show significant improvement, remove them from an influential role and replace them with someone that does what is truly desired and required for the role and position they are in.
3. Manage Visibly! Get out of the ivory tower. Begin each day by walking around. Stroll around the floor several times a day. Meet the customers, talk with employees, visit with the supervisors, greet the vendors, help the delivery trucks load and unload. Get out of your office. Let your employees know you are there and that you care. The point here is that you set lead by example. If they like you they are less likely to leave you. Visibility drives retention.
4. Care About Your People! If you don’t really care about your people, your business is doomed. Caring is the reason why people stay. Get to know your people. Learn what each person likes and enjoys. Listen to them and learn about their interests, families, and hobbies. Protect your people from harm and from others in your organization. People are loyal to those who care about them and care for them.
5. Keep your door open 80% of the time. Let your people know you are accessible to them. Avoid telling people to make an appointment or come back later. Make sure the time you do spend with your people is quality time.
6. Focus on Employee Assistance Actively. Sit down with the other managers in your organization and identify the problems that are faced by people in your workforce. Develop innovative ideas and deploy specific new plans to provide employees with more flexibility in their work, support for their common needs, and help for dealing with personal issues that impact their life.
7. Treat Everyone with Respect Always! Every leader and manager and supervisor must set the standard that respectful behavior and sincere open appreciation are expected with no exceptions! Investigate and take immediate action of all non-respectful behavior incidents. Have the managers and supervisors bring food to be shared on a regular basis! Break bread with your people regularly instead of forcing people to eat baloney.
8. Ask Your People What They Want! Sit down with your people and ask them what they want out of their work. Identify what they want to grow, to develop greater control, autonomy and responsibility for the work they do for you. Help them achieve these goals specifically and incrementally. Meaningful engagement in their own future drives commitment and loyalty.
9. Tell Your People What You Want of Them! Be specific, clear and make sure you explain what you expect of them. Give them the tools, support and the time they need to get the work done. If they do not meet your expectations, bring them in and talk with them and find out what it will take to get them on track.
10. Fire the Slugs. Hold your people accountable for their performance. If they don’t solve the problem, then terminate them with respect and dignity. Your good performers will love you.
About the Author:
Jeff Kortes is President of Human Asset Management, a management consulting services firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has over 30 years’ experience in human resources in both public and private sector organizations in high tech, consumer products, manufacturing and construction industries. He received a B.S. Business Administration at Marquette University and an M.S.A. in Human Resources at Central Michigan University. He is a member of the National Speakers Association in Wisconsin and an adjunct faculty member at Upper Iowa University. Contact: Jeff Kortes 414-421-9626 Tel jeff@humanassetmgt.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkortes
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“Trust Me, I’m a Leader”: Why Building a Culture of Trust Will Boost SMB Employee Performance—
and Maybe Even Save Your SMB
If your employees don’t trust leaders, they won’t feel safe—and when they don’t feel safe, they spend all their creative energy covering their butts. (Hint: This is terrible for business!) John Hamm, author of the new book Unusually Excellent, offers some tips on how to build your smb employee “trust fund”…starting now.
San Francisco, CA (May 2011)—Do your employees trust you? The brutal truth is probably not. It may not be fair, and you may not want to hear it, but chances are that previous leaders have poisoned the ground on which you’re trying to grow a successful business. Make no mistake: Unless you and all the leaders in your organization can gain the trust of your employees, performance will suffer. And considering how tough it is to survive in today’s business environment, that’s very bad news for your company.
Why is trust so pivotal? According to John Hamm, it’s a matter of human nature: When employees don’t trust their leaders, they don’t feel safe. And when they don’t feel safe, they don’t take risks—and where there is no risk taken, there is less innovation, less “going the extra mile,” and therefore, very little unexpected upside.
“Feeling safe is a primal human need,” says Hamm, author of Unusually Excellent: The Necessary Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership. “When that need isn’t met, our natural response is to focus energy toward a showdown with the perceived threat.
“Our attention on whatever scares us increases until we either fight or run in the other direction, or until the threat diminishes on its own,” he adds. “Without trust, people respond with distraction, fear, and, at the extreme, paralysis. And that response is hidden inside ‘business’ behaviors—sandbagging quotas, hedging on stretch goals, and avoiding accountability or commitment.”
Hamm calls trustworthiness “the most noble and powerful of all the attributes of leadership.” He says leaders become trustworthy by building a track record of honesty, fairness, and integrity. For Hamm, cultivating this trust isn’t just a moral issue; it’s a practical one.
“Trust is the currency you will need when the time comes for you to make unreasonable performance demands on your teams,” he explains. “And when you’re in that tight spot, it’s quite possible that the level of willingness your employees have to meet those demands could make or break your smb.”
Hamm has spent his career studying the practitioners of great leadership via his work as a CEO, venture capitalist, board member, high-level consultant, and professor of leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. In his new book, he shares what he has learned and brings those lessons to life with real-world stories.
Unusually Excellent is a powerful back-to-basics reference book that offers both seasoned and aspiring leaders a framework for understanding and a guide for applying the battle-tested fundamentals of leadership at every stage of their careers.
In his book Hamm explains that most employees have been hurt or disappointed, at some point in their careers, by the hand of power in an organization. That’s why nine times out of ten leaders are in “negative trust territory” before they make their first request of an employee to do something. Before a team can reach its full potential, leaders must act in ways that transcend employees’ fears of organizational power.
The first step starts with you, Hamm notes. As a leader, you must “go first”—and model trustworthiness for everyone else. Being trustworthy creates trust, yes. But beyond that, there are very specific things you can do to provide Unusually Excellent, trust-building leadership at your organization:
First, realize that being trustworthy doesn’t mean you have to be a Boy Scout. You don’t even have to be a warm or kind person, says Hamm. On the contrary, history teaches us that some of the most trustworthy people can be harsh, tough, or socially awkward—but their promises must be inviolate and their decisions fair.
“As anachronistic as it may sound in the twenty-first century, men and women whose word is their honor, and who can be absolutely trusted to be fair, honest, and forthright, are more likely to command the respect of others than, say, the nicest guy in the room,” says Hamm. “You can be tough. You can be demanding. You can be authentically whoever you really are. But as long as you are fair, as long as you do what you say consistently, you will still be trusted.”
Look for chances to reveal some vulnerability. We trust people we believe are real and also human (imperfect and flawed)—just like us. And that usually means allowing others to get a glimpse of our personal vulnerability—some authentic (not fabricated) weakness or fear or raw emotion that allows others to see us as like them, and therefore relate to us at the human level.
Hamm offers Carl, a self-made success and CEO of a venture-backed software smb, as a great example. Carl had a Ph.D. and held senior management positions at several large IT companies. But he came from a family with humble roots. In fact, he was the first kid in his family to go to college. The stories Carl used when leading his team came from his own rural upbringing. He told them from the heart and with great humility. He would emphasize a point not by reference to some academic theory, but rather with a story about working in the corn fields. His team not only trusted him more because he wasn’t afraid to show that side of himself, but they loved him for it.
“Carl knew that if he was authentic, it would be much easier for him to earn his team’s trust,” says Hamm. “The best leaders consciously present themselves as accessible and open and vulnerable—that is, they talk about their fears, challenges, and failures with humility, candor, and at times even some humor—so as to break down the barriers with those whom they wish to know. They know this does not threaten their power, but, rather, increases their influence.”
No matter how tempted you are, don’t bullsh*t your employees. Tell the truth, match your actions with your words, and match those words with the truth we all see in the world: no spin, no BS, no fancy justifications or revisionist history—just tell the truth.
“Telling the truth when it is not convenient or popular, or when it will make you look bad, can be tough,” admits Hamm. “Yet, it’s essential to your reputation. Your task as a leader is to be as forthright and transparent as is realistically possible. Strive to disclose the maximum amount of information appropriate to the situation. When you feel yourself starting to bend what you know is the truth or withhold the bare facts, find a way to stop, reformat your communication, and tell the truth.”
Never, ever make the “adulterer’s guarantee.” This happens when you say to an employee, in effect, “I just lied to (someone else), but you can trust me because I’d never lie to you.” When an employee sees you committing any act of dishonesty or two-facedness, they’ll assume that you’ll do the same to them. They’ll start thinking back through all of their conversations with you, wondering what was real and what was disingenuous.
In his book, Hamm describes an incident that took place at a famous, fast-growing technology smb. A young, inexperienced, but talented associate had what he thought was a plan for a powerful new marketing initiative. So he asked the CMO to broker a meeting with the CEO to make a presentation on the subject. The CMO agreed, and the meeting took place.
During the presentation the CEO was polite, if noncommittal. He gave the presenter a sort of passive accepting feedback—“Nice point,” “Interesting,” and so on—and wrapped up the meeting quickly, thanking the presenter for his initiative. But the CMO could sense a duplicity in the CEO’s behavior and attitude as the parties all headed back to their respective offices. Then, ten minutes after the meeting, the CEO called the CMO into his office and said, in essence, “That presentation was absolutely terrible. That guy’s an idiot. I want you to fire him, today.”
“The story of this harsh and unjust firing spread (as it always does) throughout the smb, morale slipped, and the CMO never completely trusted his boss again,” writes Hamm. “The CEO’s reputation for trustworthiness had been wounded forever. The wreckage from one seemingly small act of dishonesty was strewn all over the smb and could never be completely cleaned up.”
Don’t punish “good failures.” This is one of the stupidest things an organization can do—yet it happens all the time. A “good failure” is a term used in Silicon Valley to describe a new smb start-up or mature company initiative that, by most measures, is well planned, well run, and well organized—yet for reasons beyond its control (an unexpected competitive product, a change in the market or economy) it fails. In other words, “good failures” occur when you play well, but still lose. When they’re punished, you instill a fear of risk-taking in your employees, and with that you stifle creativity and innovation. Instead, says Hamm, you should strive to create a “digital camera” culture.
“There is no expense associated with an imperfect digital photograph—financial or otherwise,” he explains. “You just hit the ‘delete’ button, and it disappears. No wasted film, slides, or prints. And we are aware of this relationship between mistakes and the consequences when we pick up the camera—so we click away, taking many more photos digitally than we would have in a world of costly film. Because we know failure is free, we take chances, and in that effort we often get that one amazing picture that we wouldn’t have if we were paying a price for all the mistakes.”
Don’t squelch the flow of “bad” news. Do you (or others under you) shoot the messenger when she brings you bad news? If so, you can be certain that the messenger’s priority is not bringing you the information you need: It’s protecting her own hide. That’s why in most organizations good news zooms to the top of the organization, while bad news—data that reveals goals missed, problems lurking, or feedback that challenges or defeats your strategy—flows uphill like molasses in January.
“We must install a confidence and a trust that leaders in the organization value the facts, the truth, and the speed of delivery, not the judgments or interpretations of ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ and that messengers are valued, not shot,” says Hamm. “Make it crystal clear to your employees that you expect the truth and nothing but the truth from them. And always, always hold up your end of that deal. Don’t ever shoot the messenger and don’t ever dole out some irrational consequence.
“Unusually excellent leaders build a primary and insatiable demand for the unvarnished facts, the raw data, the actual measurements, the honest feedback, the real information,” he adds. “Very few efforts will yield the payback associated with improving the speed and accuracy of the information you need most to make difficult or complex decisions.”
Constantly tap into your “fairness conscience.” Precise agreements about what is fair are hard to negotiate, because each of us has our own sense of fairness. But at the level of general principle, there is seldom any confusion about what fair looks like. Just ask yourself: Would most people see this as fair or unfair? You’ll know the answer (indeed, as a leader, you’re paid to know it).
“If you treat your followers fairly, and do so consistently, you will set a pattern of behavior for the entire organization,” says Hamm. “This sense of fairness, critical to the creation of a safe environment, can be reinforced not only by complimenting fair practices but also by privately speaking to—or if necessary, censuring—subordinates who behave unfairly to others in the organization.”
Don’t take shortcuts. Every organization wants to succeed. That’s why, inevitably, there is a constant pressure to let the end justify the means. This pressure becomes especially acute when either victory or failure is in immediate sight. That’s when the usual ethical and moral constraints are sometimes abandoned—always for good reasons, and always “just this once”—in the name of expediency.
“Sometimes this strategy even works,” says Hamm. “But it sets the precedent for repeatedly using these tactics at critical moments—not to mention a kind of ‘mission creep’ by which corner-cutting begins to invade operations even when they aren’t at a critical crossroads.”
Plus, when employees see you breaking the “code” of organizational honor and integrity to which your company is supposed to adhere, they lose trust in you.
“Betray your organization’s stated values when you’re feeling desperate—by lying to clients or ‘spinning’ the numbers to get out of trouble with your boss—and you devalue the importance of trust and honesty in their eyes,” adds Hamm. “They see you breaking your own rules and suddenly they see you as less trustworthy. After all, if the client or the company’s executive suite can’t trust you, why should they?”
Separate the bad apples from the apples who just need a little direction. The cost of untruths to an organization can be huge in terms of time, money, trust, and reputation. As a leader, you have to recognize that you are not going to be able to “fix” a thief, a pathological liar, or a professional con artist—all of these must go, immediately.
“In my coaching practice, there are three failure modes that I will decline to coach: integrity, commitment, and chronic selfishness, that is, manipulating outcomes for individual gain at the expense of the larger opportunity,” says Hamm. “These are character traits, not matters of skill, practice, knowledge, or experience.
“That said, one huge mistake leaders make is to doubt or distrust someone because their work or performance disappoints us,” he adds. “Performance problems should be managed fairly and with little judgment of the person’s underlying character, unless that is the issue at the root of the trouble. Ultimately, unlike my failure modes, improving performance is often merely a matter of feedback, course correction, and some coaching.”
“Trustworthiness is never entirely pure,” says Hamm. “Everyone fails to achieve perfection. So the goal for a leader is to make those wrong choices as rarely as possible; admit them quickly, completely, and with humility; fix them as quickly as you can; and make full recompense when you cannot. Trust is the most powerful, and most fragile, asset in an organization, and it is almost exclusively created, or hampered, by the actions of the senior leader on the team.
“A working environment of trust is a place where teams stay focused, give their utmost effort, and in the end do their best work,” he concludes. “It’s a place where we can trust ourselves, trust others, trust our surroundings, or—best of all—trust all three.”
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About the Author:
John Hamm is one of the top leadership experts in Silicon Valley. He was named one of the country’s Top 100 venture capitalists in 2009 by AlwaysOn and has led investments in many successful high-growth companies as a partner at several Bay Area VC firms. Hamm has also been a CEO, a board member at over thirty companies, and a CEO adviser and executive coach to senior leaders at companies such as Documentum, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, TaylorMade-adidas Golf and McAfee. John teaches leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.
About the Book:
Unusually Excellent: The Necessary Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership (Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint, February 2011, ISBN: 978-0-47092843-1, $24.95, www.unusuallyexcellent.com) is available at bookstores nationwide and from major online booksellers.
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