Having the Heart of a Lion

By Maj. Elizabeth Gagot
EPI Executive Officer

NEW ORLEANS - The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 61st Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans offered Human Resource managers great sessions on intergenerational relationships, employment law and legislation, and skill development.

Margaret N. Morford, president of The HR Edge, Inc. in Brentwood, Tenn., spoke about management courage during "Having the Heart of a Lion."

Morford said both the manager and the employee have a responsibility to be direct and honest with one another.

"Managers are required to be forthright and direct with employees when speaking with employees about their work performance," Morford said.

She emphasized how important it was for managers to address negative behavior immediately. Corrective action should be applied immediately and not be avoided, she said.

She added this applies to employees also particularly if it impacts their work performance.

When employees are not truthful about issues that affect their performance it causes more issues for managers thereby exacerbating the problem.

However, it is just as important for managers to reward their employees for outstanding performance; some managers neglect to do so. Managers must quickly address employee negative work habits and be honest and direct during performance reviews. Hedging or "beating around the bush" does not foster open communication; direct and honest feedback provides employees with an opportunity to address concerns.

Question asked by patrons:

Does the military teach leadership courses that are geared towards building managerial skills?

Let us know what you think in the comment section.

Use mentoring relationships to bridge the Generation Gap

By Maj. Elizabeth Gagot
EPI Executive Officer

NEW ORLEANS - The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 61st Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans offered Human Resource managers great sessions on intergenerational relationships, employment law and legislation, and skill development.

Diane Spokus, a faculty member at Penn State University, who teaches Health Policy and Administration talked about how managers could "Use mentoring relationships to bridge the Generation Gap."

Spokus said employers understand that employees have distinct personalities, work habits and motivators. She added employers also are cognizant that these differences sometimes cause friction between managers and Generation X born between 1961 and 1980 and Generation Y or Millennials, born between 1981 and 2001, employers who have education and experience unfamiliar to their managers.

She asked how managers use their knowledge of these differences to their advantage?

Mentoring is the key to get the best out of these young employees, Spokus told the crowd Monday. She also reminded attendees that these employees are well versed in new technology - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs.

As for managers, she told them they offer their experience in the industry and company to share with these younger employees. She said managers need to learn to balance the personalities within their team to promote a healthy and productive work environment.

Spokus said that "two way communication" is always important, it allows for both parties to learn from each other and broke it down during the seminar.

Managers should:

Be receptive to new ideas
Be able to build a team that are open to learning new things, successfully employ current company norms/traits to improve team work
Developing team building mechanisms to promote a positive work place
Know the differences between baby boomers, GEN X and Y and how to supervise them

Gen X and Gen Y/Baby Boomers should:
Be receptive to learning from the “older generation”
Be willing to share new technology with supervisors and peers alike
Use technology to promote and improve company performance.
Be honest and straight forward with supervisors

I asked how does HR interact with the military? What are the challenges that are faced by HR personnel when dealing with military veterans?

Employers in the seminar answered that Soldiers are not forthcoming with their military duty scheduled training (battle assemblies, AT, etc) – which affect shift schedules, etc., returning to the two way communication issue.

Questions asked by other patrons:

Why does the military provide such short notice when scheduling Soldiers for duty?
How are managers trained in the military?
How does the military fair with rewarding/disciplining their Soldiers?

Let us know what you think in the comment section.

Working together to employ America

David J. Lemaire, a program support manager in Louisiana for EPI watches as Ted Daywalt signs the memorandum of agreement at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 61st Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans Monday.


By 1st Lt. Olivia Cobiskey
EPI Director of Marketing – Media

NEW ORLEANS - The Army Reserve Employer Partnership Initiative staff hit the ground running Monday.

Before the conference even opened Ted Daywalt, CEO and President of VetJobs, signed a memorandum of agreement to "maintain a deep commitment to hiring and supporting the brave men and women who protect and defend American," at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 61st Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans.

"The beauty of the EPI program is it emphasizes to the employer the importance of hiring member of the Reserve and National Guard," Daywalt said.

This philosophy is inline with VetJobs, which also offers resources to help veterans find employment with military friendly companies.

Not an easy task today, said Daywalt, who testified for the Commission on the National Guard and Reserve in May.

Daywalt said three surveys by Business & Legal Reports, the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), and Workforce Management reveal that support for employees who are active in the National Guard and Reserve by employers is declining.

The is particularly reveling of the workforce survey, in which companies were asked if they had employees deployed in Iraq and if it was a hardship to their business. Of the 335 executive and human resource managers who answered 67 percent answered yes, said Daywalt.

The companies where also asked if they knew that a military Reserve or Guard Soldier could be called up and taken away from their job for an indeterminate amount of time, would you still hire a Citizen-Soldier, 54 percent answered no.

Daywalt told the commission, that returning members of the National Guard and Reserve are increasingly finding it difficult to obtain meaningful employment equal to their education and experience due to a perceived and real bias by employers who are concerned about the uncertainty of the time their employee would be needed during a potential mobilization.

"The U.S. Army Reserve and Guard system will not work if we do not have employer support," Daywalt said.

The EPI program was created to open a direct line of communication to employers to mitigate that strain. More than 400 employers have signed memorandums of agreement with the Army Reserve including Wal-Mart, IBM, Schneider National, Inc., General Electric and Sears Holding.

"EPI establishes a means by which the Army Reserve and employers can share personnel and collaborate on human resource issues and ideas," said Lt. Col. Kris Carle, an Outreach STRATCOM Officer with Army Reserve Communication, in her booth at the Convention Center Monday. "It creates a mechanism through which employers can raise with the Army Reserve concerns and issues associated with deployments and training and collaboratively resolve them."

Several other companies also signed Monday:

American Hospital Service Group (AHSG)
Illen Products Ltd.
Rehorn Professional Groups Inc.

National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of April 28, 2009

Army National Guard and Army Reserve - 103,709
Navy Reserve - 6,750
Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve - 14,892
Marine Corps Reserve - 7,575
Coast Guard Reserve - 697

This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel who have been activated to 133,623, including both units and individual augmentees.

A cumulative roster of all National Guard and Reserve personnel who are currently activated can be found here.

A positive investment for America

Maj. Elizabeth Gagot, from the Army Reserve's Employer Partnership Initiative, talks to Pooja Chauhan, a Talent Acquisition for Abbott, about how the Army Reserve can help her company with recruitment issues.

By 1st Lt. Olivia Cobiskey
EPI Director of Marketing - Media

NEW ORLEANS - Job security continues to weigh on the minds of workers in the United States.

The number of employees who believe their job is "not at risk" dropped slightly to 47 percent compared with 51 percent roughly six months ago, while those who think their job is "significantly at risk" held steady at six percent.

The findings are detailed in a poll, "The Continued Economic Downturn: Employee Perspective," released Sunday by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) at its 61st Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans.

Even as 50 percent of employees fret over pink slips, the importance of job satisfaction continued to rise for the third year -from 79 percent in 2007 to 86 percent in 2009, said Steve Williams, director of research at SHRM.

"Although employees say the weak economy has no negative impact on overall job satisfaction, the recession is the reason why job security is the top ranked factor to workplace satisfaction among HR professionals and employees in 2009," said SHRM President and CEO Laurence G. O'Neil. "Job security is the number one aspect for job satisfaction this year, topping benefits, compensation and feeling safe at work."

According to the 2009 Job Satisfaction Survey, employees at organizations "somewhat affected" by the recession are more likely to be satisfied than employees at organization that have been "greatly impacted" by the economy.

Employers have said the economy has directly affected employee benefits, according to the SHRM 2009 Employee Benefits Survey Report. Companies are scaling back on health care and welfare, housing and relocation, and business travel benefits.

"The recession plus rising health care costs are causing companies to evaluate all operating costs closely, even employee benefits, where a reduction in some benefits is required to survive the economic crisis," O'Neil added.

Mental health coverage was the only benefit in this category to be offered by more organizations in 2009 than 2008. More companies also started offering money management courses and retirement funds employees could contribute to.

Soldiers from the Army Reserve's Employer Partnership Initiative were on hand at the annual conference to help HR managers tackle some of those issues.

The EPI program is a new initiative with three interrelated training and credentialing, as well a potential health care sharing.
Employers who hire Army Reserve Soldiers will see a drop in employee costs for recruiting, training and health care benefits.

Army Reserve Soldiers are pre-screened, and can apply their credentials in the workplace almost immediately, said Lt. Col. Kris Carle, an Outreach STRATCOM Officer with Army Reserve Communication, in her booth at the Convention Center Sunday.

"The Army Reserve is a positive investment for America," Carle said.