Q & A

We have introduced this element to our website in response to the numerous questions we receive regarding a huge range of topics. It seemed a good way of being able to offer help and also allowing others to benefit from being able to read the answers.

Our commitment
We will answer at least 5 questions a week. More if the number and quality of questions warrants it.

Our proviso
The answers represent our opinions, views and recommendations along with insights into how an mlh consultant might approach things. They are necessarily, however, written in the absence of full information on either the situation or business so need to be read in this context. Where appropriate, expert legal advice should be sought prior to implementation.

The Process
To ask a question you need to submit your e-mail address (which will be kept confidential) and some additional information to enable us to put the answer into some context. If your question is selected to be answered you will be sent a notification in order to ensure you do not miss it. All questions will be moderated and deleted if considered to be inappropriate.

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Questions

Sector:	Private	Size:	151 - 500
Function:		Location:	UK
Question:	I am VP-HR in a KPO in India with a staff of 300. My company has recently acquired a UK based company with a staff of 200. As HR head, what are the issues I need to look at to ensure a smooth integration of the two entities ?
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Answer:	There are two elements to this answer. First the procedural and secondly the more cultural. On the procedural side you need to consider the structure of the new company and what this means in terms of Transfer of Undertaking (TUPE) legislation and other regulations covering the acquisition of a company. There are very clear requirements also in terms of consultation and restrictions on what can and cannot be done. Without detailed information on the commercial structure of the organisation and your plans it is not possible to provide more information. In terms of the cultural side there are a number of things you might want to consider. I have jotted three of these down: Start to consider the challenges of team working and collaboration across two different countries, business and social cultures and start to prepare you managers and people for these Consider training for your managers in terms of leading virtual teams - this requires different skills and considerations than managing teams that are at the same location and whilst it can be just as effective and rewarding it requires training and support. Develop a 12-18 months internal communication strategy and plan with milestones and measures

Sector:	Private	Size:	Under 50
Function:		Location:	UK
Question:	We are a fairly small IT business looking to expand but are struggling to find people with the skills we need at the calibre that we need. We are not going to be able to pay at a very high level either. We are thinking that perhaps we should focus on the college leaver.
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Answer:	Some of the recruitment challenges you are facing can be resolved by taking a creative and imaginative approach. I have jotted down some thoughts, some of which, I hope will be helpful. Be clear exactly what you are looking for and what you can offer. How can you make your opportunity more exciting than the other options particularly if you want to pay less! Think about development and growth - can they grow with the business, will you invest time in their training. From your own point of view think about how much you are prepared to invest in their training (and how you will protect this investment). Then think about sources of candidates - be as imaginative as you can since if you identify a souce that is not obvious you may have an advantage on your competitors when trying to recruit from it: consider colleges, forums, competitors, etc Given you have talked about students I have focused on this. You need to consider how you will both find and attract the best talent. Try researching some of the courses run at colleges near you [assuming you want the person to be near you] or anywhere if you are happy with a remote employee. Find the ones you think give the best training in terms of what you are looking for. You can then try to get candidates through posters, the careers department and even flyers handed out to students after their lectures!. Consider the option of taking on someone doing a degree or masters on a part time basis - this gives them income and gives you a chance to keep initial costs down and you can always have 2-3 of them to provide enough resource. You can use the promise of a chance of a job at the end to retain and motivate them. Another good way to attract and check out students is to run a competition - set a competition to develop something which in your opinion covers what you are looking for. This gives you a chance to see the work of people you might be interested in. If you want to only hire one person make one of the rules that entrants need to be individuals. You need to make the prize quite substantial and can say that in addition to the prize you will consider hiring the winner - but this is cheaper than running an advert and also if you set the competition parameters and rules correctly and you hire the person you can access the product. Or you can run a free weekend school on a particular topic and get applicants to apply for this. Make it clear that they will all get useful training/new skills and that you are also looking to recruit so one or more may get a job as well! This way you get to see 10-12 people for a whole weekend which helps with your selection [school leavers are very hard to judge in a traditional interview and whilst graduates are a bit easier it is hard to judge people who have no work track record]. Your application process for the weekend end school can require them to provide examples of stuff they have done. I hope that these thoughts are useful either in themselves or in stimulating your thinking and wish you all the best

Sector:	Private	Size:	501 - 1000
Function:	HR	Location:	UK
Question:	We really struggle with attendance levels on training courses. Have you any suggestions as to why this is happening and ideas for how we might tackle this?
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Answer:	You asked first if we have any suggestions as to why your are experiencing such high drop out rates and so we have jotted down a few thoughts: * too easy to 'sign up' for training which results in low appreciation of the opportunity. * training course based development planning rather than need based. By this I mean that people and their managers when doing the annual performance review and Training Needs Analysis use a list of courses and look up some that sound suitable. A better approach is to identify the need and try to find other, non course, approaches, with the course coming as a second stage (if at all) * low management traction/commitment to the training * no incentives for attending (no penalties for pulling out) * everyone is always busy and time blocked out for training can be tempting You also asked about ideas for solutions so hopefully these will be helpful with your thinking: 1. Increase the sign up hurdle. For example, introduce the idea that all nominations for courses need to have a 'formal application' which takes time and requires input from the manager - having made this up front investment people are more likely to attend. This can be further strengthened by requiring people to do some e-learning, reading etc prior to application which also reinforces how important. This is no more than would be expected with a high quality external course – and covers such things as reason for attending, development needs hoping to address, etc. 2. Create a disincentive: For example, consider the use of a penalty system - if internal courses are free, have a charging system that kicks in if someone fails to turn up - make the charge hefty. It forces the individual and manager to carefully consider pulling someone off at the last minute. I operated this system for years when I managed a large HR function and a few last minute cancellations paid for the training for everyone else in on that course. If you charge for training you clearly should charge if they do not turn up (external organisations do this) and you can also operate a 3 strikes and you are out - i.e. not allowing someone who has a cancellation record to attend training courses for a period of say, one year, 18 months. 3. Increase demand. For example, keep a waiting list for courses - with people who are keen to attend but cannot get on - and use them to fill spaces - this way you never run a course at less than 100% (unless someone falls ill on the day of the course which does not happen very often). The advantage of a waiting list is it also makes people think the course is worth going to! 4. Position training as a reward. This will require support from managers but this is about moving the organisation to a mindset where people are given development opportunities as a reward for contribution – rather than training being seen as available for remedial purposes. This increases the attractiveness of training – people are less likely to not turn up when the opportunity to turn up was a reward by their manager. We hope these are helpful

Sector:	Private	Size:	1001 - 5000
Function:	HR	Location:	UK
Question:	We are considering setting up a dual career ladder. Do you have any advice? What should I be thinking about?
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Answer:	Key things to consider are: Structure: Levels – how many do you want? Also what your ratios between the levels will be. And will you have limits or targets for each level. Process – appointments, promotions, nominations (I recommend management and not self nomination but there are pros and cons both ways), removal (if you decide to do this), technical guidance, ongoing coaching etc. If you are using the ladder to stretch your people technically into areas they could not yet imagine then providing a technical mentor is essential. Criteria – I recommend that you create the headings, put in some stuff to kick start the managers [they will find it hard to start cold] and then depending on how you and your organization work do a series of one to ones or a group meeting or both. I would recommend you include input and output measures in the scheme. If you are really starting from scratch you could do a series of interviews to kick start things. Career Development, Succession Planning – done well this can really make the scheme. We have had some great successes here Benefits, compensation and recognition – how do you align these Marketing and launch – how will you do this, how do you want to position this scheme. What are your consultation obligations? Do you want to do any co-development with people who will be in the ladder? Company sign off – do you need to establish costs and benefits? Or is it fully accepted by senior mgt already? Mobilisation – we use the dual ladder to create a community for our technical people – their own committee, annual conference etc (they do not attend the management conference); they run a science and technology award etc I am not sure what your job is or how much time you have to dedicate to this but building the framework/metrics is person days not months - but it can take time to get managers to feedback etc. I would recommend setting a launch date to keep things focused. Key steps are 1. Develop criteria 2 Develop HR infrastructure 3. Get sign off 4. Prepare for launch 5. Launch 6. Undertake intial appointments - requires nomination cases, discussion, sign off 7. Schedule ongoing process activities including meetings 8. Review after one year I hope these ideas are helpful. This has always been one of my pet topics [as you can see by the length of this reply].

Sector:	Private	Size:	151 - 500
Function:	HR	Location:	UK
Question:	I work in manufacturing and we are thinking of setting up in-factory HR surgeries to increase our visibility within the organisation. Do you have experience of these and what are there any issues we should be aware of? And what advice could you offer?
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Answer:	Anything that ‘gets you out and about’ is generally a good thing. Remember, if you are doing surgeries and have shift work you need to plan to do some at the beginning/end of the shift pattern. Night workers, even if not on permanent nights really do appreciate HR people being there outside normal hours. The problem with surgeries, however, is that at the beginning people do not come to see you, so you feel disheartened and if you go for this approach you need to take something to do and stick to it for at reasonable period before evaluating the benefit. There are a few things you could consider. One is to have them around themes. So, for example, run open sessions/surgeries each year at the performance appraisal time geared to helping individuals write their own SMART objectives. Consider also 'remote working' which is to work in an office (or even better, shared office/workspace) one day a week or one day a fortnight. This can either be a remote site or in a different location on a large multi business site. You can rotate around the factory. This can work quite well and you can an office of someone who is away, publicise when you will be there and get people dropping in/dropping by – you can also meet people at the coffee machine etc and also got work done. The fact that people do not think that you are 'waiting for them' seems to have a positive impact on take up – it makes it all feel more natural. Or you can do coffee meetings at manufacturing break times but generally it is useful to have something to talk about since this breaks the ice. You could do things like over time levels, absence levels even - if not too radical - since people are interested in the topic and you can take the opportunity to talk about the business needs etc at the same time. We hope that this has given you some ideas and support.