text: Ed Lawler 2015-05-22T21:54:10-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=ed-lawler Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Ed Lawler Good old fashioned elbow grease. CSR Programs Are Not the Answer tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2015:/theblog//3.6981744 2015-03-31T20:56:34-04:00 2015-03-31T20:59:02-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ What organizations need to do instead is to design themselves so that they perform well, in terms of what I like to call the quadruple bottom line of sustainable effective performance. They need to perform well financially, socially, environmentally and in how they impact their employees. Corporate social responsibility programs do not do this, they are "add-ons," not a way of operating. Indeed, they may detract organizations from making the fundamental changes necessary to perform in a sustainably effective manner that leads to positive results in the four critical quadruple bottom line areas. It is obviously beyond the scope of what can be written in a blog piece like this one to go into detail concerning how organizations can be designed to be sustainably effective. What can be done here is to make it clear that organizations must change their key management processes and structures in order to perform in a sustainably effective manner, and in many respects, make corporate social responsibility programs unnecessary. What are the key areas that need to be changed? Perhaps the most obvious one is how they measure and report organizational performance. Instead of measuring their performance almost exclusively in terms of their financial results, they need to measure and report to the public their results in each of the four quadruple bottom line areas. They need leaders who understand the impact of key decisions on all the performance areas of the organization, and that emphasize that their organization is committed to performing well in all four areas. In addition, they need to create a pay and recognition system that rewards sustainably effective corporate performance. Getting an organization to be sustainably effective requires organization designs that allow good information on how they are performing to reach all key stakeholders. They need to put most of the organization in touch with the external environment so employees are aware of what is happening and what impact the organization is having. This, in many cases, requires changes in the organization's structure and how information is distributed. I could talk in more detail about how organizations need to change their basic decision processes and designs in order to be sustainably effective, but as I said earlier that is beyond the scope of this blog (more detail can be found in my recent article, "The sustainable effectiveness model: Moving corporations beyond the philanthropy paradigm" (Organizational Dynamics, 2015). At this point, I would like to conclude by noting that although CSR programs are in many ways admirable, they should not blind us to the fact that they are not capable of making corporations do what they need to do in order for them to contribute to a sustainably effective world. Indeed, they distract organizations from doing what they can and should do. Doing the right things and doing them right needs to be part of the fabric of corporations, not an add-on. ***** Crossposted from Forbes.com]]> Creating Talent Agility tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2015:/theblog//3.6932294 2015-03-24T13:43:29-04:00 2015-03-24T13:59:01-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ Organizations have always had to change the skills of their workforce. The big difference today, however, is how rapidly this needs to happen and how much change needs to occur. With that in mind, let's look at three different approaches to creating talent agility that we consider in my recent book, The Agility Factor, and where they may best be utilized. The first is the career approach that organizations including General Electric, IBM, 3M, and a host of others used for decades. Fundamentally, it relies on a career model of talent development and agility. Individuals are told that if they will commit themselves to a career at the company, it will "look after them" and be sure that they are trained and developed for tomorrow's jobs. When new skills are needed, individuals are expected to want to learn the new skills because they know it is in their best interest for their long-term job security and career development. The second approach is becoming increasingly popular and is used in companies including Netflix, LinkedIn, and many other "valley firms". It tells individuals that they will be well-paid and have a job as long as they can perform at a high level and do the work that needs to be done. There is no promise of a career, skill development, or job security. This approach produces low transaction costs when it comes to shifting the skill sets of the organization. Training is not required and terminations can be relatively easily executed without individuals feeling the organization has violated their employment contract. Additionally, individuals with the "right skills" are hired so training costs are kept low. The approach has some obvious downsides with respect to building loyalty to the company, and it often requires a higher pay rate in order to attract and retain people despite such low job security. The third approach involves the crowdsourcing of labor. Odesk and other companies have developed crowdsourcing technologies that allow organizations to buy labor that is willing and able to perform tasks for a contracted amount. In essence, the organization relies on outsourcing much of its labor and may outsource anything from a few hours to a few months' worth of work. It is frequently used by companies that are looking for software development, but also for less skilled labor such as survey respondents and a host of more transactional activities. One obvious advantage of this approach is the low transaction costs of changing skill sets and the ability to "employ" individuals for short periods of time. In many cases, the labor costs are not high since an increasing number of individuals are willing to take on this kind of work and to make careers out of patching together cloud-based assignments from multiple companies such as Uber and Odesk. There are some factors, which can be identified, that should guide organizations when choosing which talent agility strategy to adopt. First, it is clear that the traditional model is not likely to fit very many organizations in the future. Most organizations will encounter a rate of change that makes using this approach for a majority of their employees too expensive and too slow. When you consider the training time involved in helping individuals acquire new skills and the transaction costs involved when they are unable or unwilling to learn new skills, the costs are obvious. There are two cases where it may make sense for an organization to use the career approach. The first is when it needs a core group of long-term employees to provide some stability with respect to its basic business model and corporate culture. The second is when an organization is the technology or knowledge leader in their industry. The organization may be the best able to train employees in the skills they need to make the business work. Some examples include technology companies, such as Google, which have a technology lead and are often the best developers of people to do the work they have to do. This in turn gives them a significant competitive advantage that justifies the development costs organizations incur. For most organizations in highly competitive and rapidly changing businesses, the best approach is having highly paid employees who are not provided with training, development, or job security. It recognizes the reality that organizations cannot know the future; all they can do is respond to it. As a result, any promises they make with respect to future employment and the need for skills are likely to be misleading and have negative consequences for both the organization and its employees. Admittedly, this approach shifts the risk to individuals, but in today's competitive business environment, this is not unreasonable. What organizations should do is make a serious effort to give individuals advance warning of change, encourage them to learn new skills, and give them generous severance packages. Doing much more than this will put the firm at risk in a way that is not defensible. The final approach is likely to gain tremendous popularity over the next twenty years. It fits well with the changing nature of work and the capability that technology has to do knowledge work and integrate the work of others. It does raise numerous questions, including some as basic as: what is an organization? And how much self-management can individuals handle? Overall, the best way to think about the issue of talent agility is to take a strategic view that recognizes that the talent agility of a corporation is determined by its policies and practices more than the ability of its talent to change. An organization that looks for agile talent that can adapt is likely to be less successful than one that has talent management practices that allow it to change talent at the appropriate rate and time. ***** Crossposted from Forbes.com]]> Why Pay Secrecy Needs to End tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2015:/theblog//3.6425772 2015-01-06T17:44:39-05:00 2015-03-08T05:59:01-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ Hacking has become a business for some and a hobby for many others. Given this, why not hack pay data? Corporations go to great lengths to keep most of their pay information secret and as a result, it is a logical target for dissatisfied employees or just individuals who enjoy a challenge. Although the Sony case is the first highly visible example of hackers making pay public, there probably have been earlier ones that have not been publicized. One thing is certain: There will be many more. What should corporations do? One alternative is to invest more money in cyber security and to make it increasingly difficult for individuals to hack into an organization's pay data. This will add significantly to the cost of what organizations currently spend in order to be "sure" that salary information does not get into the "wrong" hands. However, most cyber experts say that there is no certainty that it will work. Here is an alternative: Instead of spending more time and money on keeping pay information secret, how about administering pay correctly so that there is nothing that needs to be kept secret? In other words, how about improving pay administration so that the pay of individuals is based on performance and fits the market value that they have. If pay is administered well, it becomes much less consequential if pay information is hacked. Further improving pay practices and pay administration will pay off, in terms of better attraction and retention of talent and in pay being a more effective motivator of performance. Here is a better alternative: Improve pay administration and make pay public. While the most obvious advantage of this is that it will reduce administrative and security expenses, it can do much more. It gives an organization the ability to provide hard data that support its stated pay policies and pay philosophy. Today, individuals must have "faith" that pay is based on performance, fits the market, etc. My research shows that often individuals do not believe what companies say about how they administer pay because they do not see the data to support the rhetoric. Individuals assume the worst and organizations lose. Showing them the data changes the "trust me" into here is the proof: If you perform better, you will get a pay increase and you will get pay above the market, etc. Not only does making pay public give organizations a chance to make pay a more powerful force in organizations, it gives them a chance to support a management style of openness, business transparency, and financial accountability. Pay secrecy fits the management and business practices that were dominant in the middle of the 20th century when organizations were bureaucratic and hierarchical. It does not fit organizations that have broad scale employee involvement, business transparency, and utilize social media. ***** Crossposted from Forbes.com]]> Pay Fairness Requires Pay Openness tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.6214458 2014-11-24T17:42:51-05:00 2015-01-24T05:59:01-05:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ When corporations are left to decide on pay amounts without any public accountability, all too often they make decisions that are simply not defensible, ethical, nor fair. Secrecy leads managers to make bad decisions that are discriminatory and bad from a talent management point of view. This happens because secrecy takes accountability out of play. Not all accountability, of course, but accountability to those whose lives are being directly affected by the pay decisions of managers. Employees are not in a position to understand the decisions that are made about them -- decisions that affect their lives in very important ways. They have to rely on what their managers tell them about the fairness of pay decisions, the reasons for the decisions, and what they can count on in the future. All too often managers fail to provide the right information, and in many instances provide misleading information. A major reason for this is that they cannot be held accountable for the decisions they make by the individuals whose lives they affect. In many of the articles that are written about why we should have pay openness, it is characterized as a women's issue or a minorities' issue. There is a good reason for this. Secrecy has had a more negative impact on these two groups than on white males, but secrecy should not be seen as just a women's or minorities' issue; it is an employee issue. Employees need information about what others are being paid in order to make an informed decision about the fairness and basis for their pay. They also need it to decide the amount of trust and confidence and career commitment they should give to their organization. Without reasonably comprehensive pay information, it is impossible for employees to know how they are being treated by the organizations they work for, and therefore, to be able to make good career decisions. "Trust me, you are being paid fairly," is simply not a good enough answer for organizations to give to their employees. Pay is too important to be left in this space. Organizations often defend their secrecy policies by arguing that it increases organizational effectiveness. A major contention is that making pay public will lead to high levels of dissatisfaction and non-stop debates about what individuals should be paid. The simple fact of the matter is, there is an enormous amount of research on the effects of individuals knowing more about pay. The results do not support the argument that it decreases pay system effectiveness. In fact, the research shows just the opposite. Pay systems are most effective when pay information is public. Admittedly, if an organization does a terrible job of administrating pay and this becomes public, this can harm the organization. But on the other hand, if the organization is doing a good job, making pay public can often make the pay system a more effective contributor to organizational effectiveness. Ironically, there is good reason to believe that organizations that do a good job of pay administration lose the most with secrecy because they don't get the credit they deserve for doing it well. The only question that I have about pay openness is whether the pay rates of individuals should be made public because of the personal privacy issue here. There is no question that pay ranges, mid-points, and distributions should be in the public domain. But what about the pay of individuals? I think despite the personal privacy issue, it is reasonable to make all individuals' pay public. This practice should be made clear to employees when they join the organization, and if they see this as a serious invasion of their privacy, then they can choose to work elsewhere. Just to repeat the point: pay fairness requires openness. The attitude of "don't ask, don't tell" does not work in anybody's favor. It is an outdated philosophy that simply does not fit today's business environment. It does not lead to more effective organizations, but most importantly, it does not lead to fair pay decisions. When I have made this argument to organizations time and time again, they agree with me, and say, "Yes, we will make pay public, but we need three to four years to make our pay rates defensible and the pay determination process effective." Needless to say, they never end up making pay public because in the absence of public pay, there is insufficient motivation to administer pay in a fair and effective manner. In short, when it comes to pay, individuals should ask and organizations should tell. Crossposted from Forbes.com]]> Organization Change And The Unpopped Kernel tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5878926 2014-09-24T21:21:07-04:00 2014-11-24T05:59:02-05:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ Co-authored with Christopher G. Worley When you make popcorn to watch a movie on a cold, weekend afternoon, there are always a few kernels that don't get cooked. They are often called "old maids" and for some people -- but not us -- they are actually the best part of the popcorn. No matter your preference, these kernels have had all the right things done to them... they have been put in oil/butter, had high heat applied, and have been shaken or stirred... and they still did not pop. Many organizational changes end with unpopped kernels. The unpopped kernel problem in organization change occurs when a leader signals a new strategy or tactic and does everything right to support the emergence of new behaviors, but gets no results from a few managers. The organization describes the new behaviors that are important to the execution of the strategy and provides training on them. It gives incentives to support acting in these new ways and so on. But, there are always some managers who do not get the message or refuse to make the shift. They are the unpopped kernels. How change leaders deal with this issue plays an important role in the change effort's success and in determining whether their organization is agile enough to be effective in a rapidly changing world. Managerial behavior has an important symbolic component. Like it or not, organization members often "look up" to people above them in the hierarchy. That is one reason why organizations like Nike, Gore, and DaVita don't have organization charts. People can spend too much time watching what senior managers do and say and engage in some recreational socio-political analysis to figure out what is important. But what if the managers they are watching are not aligned to the new strategy? It's very similar to the "walk the talk" issue. If managers say something is important but don't act as if it is important, something doesn't smell right and people begin to mistrust management pronouncements. We first heard about the unpopped kernel problem at Allstate Corporation and discussed it in our new book, The Agility Factor. An initial transformation in a key part of the organization was succeeding where many had failed. Leadership had done a great job of integrating diversity and inclusion, establishing a clear vision, aligning work and structure, and developed appropriate incentives in support of an overall culture change effort. The change was accelerated by paying attention to the system as a whole, not just one part of it. The change was moving forward but -- in a culture that had grown a little stale over the years -- it was clear that not everyone within its management ranks had gotten the message. These managers had been given chances, they had been given feedback on their lack of alignment with the values, purpose, and strategy that had been agreed to, they had received help and support. And everybody was watching. What had to be done -- removing the managers from their positions -- was easy to see, but as we all know from experience is hard to do on several levels. But with courage, the leaders of the transformation made the call and it re-catalyzed the change effort. To be clear, we are not advocating for the removal of change resistors. The reasons for resistance often represent important information about a change that can be acknowledge and used to make a change process better. We are saying that in situations where the appropriate amount of effort has been made to help people change, and the behavioral change is not forthcoming, leaders have an important obligation to address those individuals. There are a variety of actions that can be taken, including removal, but leaders must have the courage to do what's right for the organization. In an evaluation conducted a year later, people identified the positive and intentional handling of the unpopped kernel problem as one of the key drivers of the change's success. Addressing the unpopped kernel problem was a hard lesson that had to be learned; it is still hard to live the learning. But the managers at Allstate understood that if you don't address the unpopped kernels, the speed and success of change will be affected. The experience at Allstate should be a lesson for any leader of change who wants to develop an agile organization.]]> What Makes High Profits Sustainable? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5792106 2014-09-09T13:46:13-04:00 2014-11-09T05:59:02-05:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ The Agility Factor. Their profits fluctuate over the years from being very good, to average, to below average and then often repeat the cycle. They stand in contrast to sustained high performers that have above average levels of profitability for decades. In a given year they may not have the highest level of profitability in their industry, but year after year, they are better than most. What differentiates the thrashers from the consistently high-performing corporations? We found the answer by examining the financial performance and management practices of over 400 large corporations in more than 20 different industries. We looked at their performance over 32 years and found clear differences between the consistently high performers and the thrashers. It is worth mentioning that in addition to thrashers and sustainable effective organizations, there were firms that were consistently low performers. What captured our attention is the way in which the consistently high performers were managed relative to the thrashers. The consistently high-performing corporations appeared to have been able to perform at a high level as a result of accurately perceiving and responding to changes in the business environment. The agility they were capable of allowed them to change in ways that kept them profitable, while other corporations were left behind still doing what used to work. The agility they demonstrated is particularly important today in our rapidly changing business environment, which quickly outdates current business realities and demands that business respond to a rapidly changing environment. Agility gives organizations the ability to adapt to the fluctuations of this rapidly changing environment. We found that the consistently high-performing companies have four agility routines that enable them to change effectively and thereby continue high levels of profitability. The following are the four: 1. They are able to strategize in a way that allowed them to adjust their business models to changes in the environment and establish an internal climate that supports change. 2. They accurately perceived changes in the external environment, especially in the short run, but also into the future. 3. They are able to effectively test possible responses to changes in the environment so that they can respond effectively to what is happening to the environment on the basis of evidence. 4. They implement changes effectively so that they are able to keep their products and services current. Individually, these routines are what may be described as "good practices." And it is true that most organizations can effectively execute at least one of these routines. However, thrashers and poor performers typically lack the ability to execute at least three of the four repeatedly as the environment changes. Firms with one or two of these agility routines were found to be 9 times more likely to be thrashers and under-performers with respect to ROA and profitability. Firms that were consistently high performers had the capability to execute at least three routines. They were able to utilize these agility routines and change at a degree that thrasher and low performing firms could not match. Our findings help to explain why so few companies are able to be consistently high performers. Agility that is based on the four routines cannot be developed overnight. It needs to be systematically built on a foundation of management practices that fit together in a way that creates an agile organization. It takes a lot of good practices to achieve this. Because of the increasing rate of change, it is likely that in the future, it will take even more than it has in the past. It is encouraging, however, that there are four identifiable routines that organizations can develop that will allow them to be consistently high performers, if not the best performer in any given year or short period of time. The good news is that not only is creating a sustainably effective organization possible, but we also know quite a bit about how to do it. Crossposted from Forbes.com]]> The Agility Factor tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5632188 2014-07-29T19:59:56-04:00 2014-09-28T05:59:07-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band changed the way people think about music; it is regarded as one of the most pivotal music releases of all time. Pop star Phil Collins said that it opened a door and showed people a new room. But the door had already been opened for the Beatles. Paul McCartney said that the single biggest influence on Sergeant Pepper was the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds album. The Beatles' awe of Brian Wilson's creativity challenged them to match sounds from bass harmonicas, sitars, and French horns to create wholly new musical textures and songs. I've been studying organization change and effectiveness for more than 40 years and recently, the topic of agility has been filling boardrooms, management retreats, and leadership programs. Yet an internet search reflects the confusion over what it actually means. You are more likely to get information about dog training and software development than anything related to how organizations can be more flexible, nimble, and adaptable. To help corral misunderstandings, my colleague, Chris Worley, Tom Williams from Strategy&, and I developed the Agility Pyramid. It helps to explain the success not only of Sergeant Pepper but the Beatles' long term success. I interviewed Chris about our latest book (The Agility Factor), the Agility Pyramid, and the Beatles. Ed Lawler: Before we get into the Beatles, can you explain the Agility Pyramid? Chris Worley: The Agility Pyramid has three layers. Sitting on top of capabilities and management practices, agility is the ability to make timely, effective, and sustained organization changes. It is defined by four routines: the capacity to (1) strategize in dynamic ways; (2) accurately perceive changes in the external environment; (3) test possible responses; and (4) implement a variety of changes. The agility routines help organizations play and win a dangerous game. They help to keep them focused on the differentiated capabilities that drive above average performance today and are powerful enough to find and implement the capabilities that will be needed in the future. The Agility Pyramid Lawler: Can you apply the top of the Agility Pyramid to the Beatles' case? Worley: Strategizing involves creating a climate where shared purpose, identity, and intent can be achieved. By 1967, and in the aftermath of deciding not to tour any longer, the Beatles were trying to figure out how to make a different kind of music within their unique culture, brand, and reputation. In terms of perceiving, they were visiting fairs, small cities (the lyrics to "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" came from a poster in a small store), and different countries looking for ideas, were clearly paying attention to other artists, and were discussing their ideas with their managers, producers, and each other. Hearing Pet Sounds helped translate that intent into reality. To get Sergeant Pepper done, they had to test out and experiment with a variety of ideas and ultimately implement and execute the ones that worked. Thus, all four of the routines of agility were in play, and in The Agility Factor, we found that when organizations have 3 or 4 of these routines, they were 7 times more likely to post above average profitability over long periods of time. Lawler: The Agility Pyramid suggests that there is more to sustaining high performance than just the four routines. Right? Worley: Absolutely. In the middle layer of the pyramid, capabilities describe what an organization can do, and what differentiates agile firms is that they can change their capabilities when and where it creates a performance advantage. At the risk of oversimplifying, if an organization can do things better, faster, or cheaper than their competitors, it is able to achieve above average performance. Even in the early days, the Beatles' playing, singing, performing, and managing was better than average. Sergeant Pepper required The Beatles to develop new capabilities. They learned new skills. George Martin, the group's producer noted that, "When I first met them, they really couldn't write a decent song. The best they could give me was "Love me Do." And yet, they blossomed as songwriters in a way that was breathtaking." They also developed new ways of working. Paul described the shift from creating just another catchy single to packaging a set of ideas into an album. Finally, they had to learn to do all this in real time. It required lots of practice along with a fair number of both small and large failures. That's how you build new capabilities. Lawler: But when organizations are successful, there is a strong motivation to protect their way of working from imitation or to defend a competitive advantage. Did the Beatles ever fall for that? Worley: No, they didn't. In the case of music, many bands with a successful sound hurry to make the next album. More often than not, such a move generates short term benefits but the band ends up in a same sounding rut. The cruel joke is that in attempting to preserve an advantage, organizations, like musicians, often overcommit to a recipe and doom their future. Before Sergeant Pepper there was Rubber Soul and Revolver; after Sergeant Pepper there was The Beatles (White Album) and Abbey Road. The Beatles never let success get in the way of changing. Lawler: At the base of the pyramid, you list management practices. How do those relate to agility? Worley: Setting goals, developing budgets, and rewarding people, these are things that both agile and non-agile organizations do that support the effective execution of their capabilities. But in agile firms, there is an important twist in the way these systems are designed. Goal setting occurs more frequently, incentive systems more flexibly reward execution, change, and the right kinds of behaviors, and resource allocation more flexibly balances short and long term horizons. Traditional organizations, with their annual budgets, annual performance appraisals, merit-based pay systems, siloed structures, and hierarchically-defined leadership, not only constrain the ability of the agility routines to shift capabilities, they make everyday changes difficult. Innovation, experimentation, and responses to market opportunities can be held hostage to an annual timetable and "it's not in the budget" decisions. The Beatles' used flexible management practices that changed over time to help them sustain high performance. Their group-based incentives, especially between Lennon and McCartney, spurred creative competition, and although John and Paul wrote most of the songs, Ringo and George penned some classics. Moreover, leadership was diffuse. Each member's cultural and political views influenced the band's direction. The ability of agile firms to execute and change their most basic management practices allows these firms to change capabilities and support execution of the routines of agility. Lawler: Is leadership included in the management practices? Worley: That's perhaps the most important one. Agile firms define leadership as an organization capacity, not an individual trait. Good management in agile organization creates a climate where anyone in the organization is capable of influencing change. Sadly, The Beatles' arc was short, yet between 1960 and 1969, they produced more #1 hits and sold more albums than any other band. Some of their achievements still stand today. In no small way, they changed the world. The Agility Pyramid helps to explain their success and provides for-profit firms a model for improving their agility. Crossposted from Forbes.com]]> Corporate Boards Fail Again! tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5534823 2014-06-26T16:59:05-04:00 2014-08-26T05:59:05-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ It is not only easy to identify who the culprits are, it is easy to identify why they perform as they do. It is in the self-interest of many board members. Board members in most corporations serve, at least partially and in many cases primarily, at the pleasure of the CEO. Further, among them are executives in other companies. As a result, when they vote in favor of large compensation packages for their CEO, they benefit in two ways. First, they gain favor with their "boss." Second, they raise the overall compensation level of US corporate executives. The result of this escalation is that the "market pay rate" for executives becomes significantly higher every year. This enables them to justify higher pay for themselves when they deal with their corporation and its board. The problems with U.S. corporate boards are not limited to their tendency to overpay senior executives. It is troubling, but it is just one of the ways in which they act in a way that can harm their shareholders and the societies in which their corporations operate. The over payment of CEOs is a symptom of a more fundamental problem with many US corporate boards. They are more interested in serving their short-term self-interest than they are in serving the long-term interests of society. This is reflected in their failure to act aggressively and rigorously on issues of sustainability and employee well-being. It is also visible in their over-focus on short-term earnings and quarterly operating results rather than long-term sustainable profitability and organizational effectiveness. There is no easy solution to the problems that exist with US corporate boards, but there is one obvious fix that is needed. Corporate boards in the US need to have a much more diverse membership. Numerous critics have pointed out that they are white male-dominated but that valid criticism does not go far enough. Typically, they are not only white male-dominated, they also fail to have members who have expertise in human capital management, environmental sustainability, and social issues. Further, they lack members with organization design and organization change experience and expertise, even though we are in a world where rapid and continuous change requires an agile corporation. The bottom line is that the US needs to institute board membership processes that create boards that are more diverse in their expertise, gender, and race. Crossposted from Forbes.com.]]> The Quadruple Bottom Line: Its Time Has Come tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5413762 2014-05-29T18:19:23-04:00 2014-07-29T05:59:04-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ Above average financial performance is no longer enough. It is not the only thing that society has the right to expect from corporations. For several decades there has been growing support for holding them accountable for the other important outcomes they produce. The cry for broader accountability gets louder every year and the ability to hold them accountable for their non-financial performance improves every year. Now, more than ever, the focus should be on what it means to be a high performing, sustainable effective organization. But, what should organizations be held accountable for in addition to their financial results? One proposal that has received a considerable amount of attention and support is the triple bottom line approach. It argues that it is important to hold organizations accountable for their financial, environmental, and social performance. I have no problem with including these three, but I think it is appropriate to make one important change in the triple bottom line argument. Organizations need to be held to quadruple, not triple, bottom line performance standards. They need to perform well financially, environmentally, socially, and in how they treat their employees. How they treat their employees often gets included in the triple bottom line definition of the social category, but it warrants a separate and distinct set of measures and a high level of accountability. It is an area where the impact of organizations is measurable, significant, and may be quite different than the impact on the communities in which they operate. Today, more than ever, it is feasible to hold organizations accountable for their quadruple bottom line performance and it is possible for organizations to perform well in all four areas. In the past, it was unrealistic to expect organizations to function well in all four performance areas. Indeed, it was not practical to measure the performance of organizations in all four performance areas, but times have changed. With the new metrics that are being developed as a result of big data and the tremendous computing and analytic power that is now available, it is more and more possible to measure their performance in all four areas. Of course measuring quadruple bottom line performance is just the first step to getting organizations to perform in a sustainable effective way. They also need the internal capabilities that are necessary in order to perform well simultaneously in all four areas. It is beyond the scope of this piece to detail what all these capabilities are and how they can be developed. But, it is important to note that there are numerous new ideas about organizing and managing organizations that can increase the capabilities organizations have and make it possible to create organizations that perform well from a quadruple bottom line perspective. Work and organizations are going to be changing more in the next decade than they have in any other thanks to the development of computing and other kinds of technology. When incorporating the new technologies that are being developed into how organizations are designed and operated it is critical that the quadruple bottom line be the criterion against which change is conceived, implemented, and evaluated. Only if this is done are organizations going to perform in ways that warrant support by the societies that create them and allow them to exist. Crossposted from Forbes.com.]]> Eliminating Performance Appraisals tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.5072681 2014-04-01T20:07:24-04:00 2014-06-01T05:59:01-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ There is no doubt that in many organizations performance appraisals are poorly done, and that they create a multitude of problems. However, it is important to point out that they exist because of the need to motivate, direct, and improve the performance of individuals and organizations. Those who advocate eliminating performance appraisals don't disagree with these needs, but they point out that managers can and do this anyway, and that therefore performance appraisals are a redundant bureaucratic troublesome activity. It is hard to argue with the point that "good managers" do what a good performance appraisal is supposed to do. The fact that they can and do it supports the argument that appraisals can be eliminated, or at least, radically simplified. The "problem" is that many managers do not manage in ways that make performance appraisals unnecessary. Despite this, some companies have declared that they are performance appraisal-free organizations. Organizations do not have to make a choice between no performance appraisals and everyone having a performance appraisal. An interesting alternative is to require performance appraisals only where they are necessary. One approach organizations can take to eliminating unnecessary performance appraisals is to focus on identifying those managers who have the motivation, management skills, and behaviors that make their doing formal performance appraisals unnecessary. In essence, this approach identifies managers who are good managers and leaders and, as a result, do not need to do performance appraisals. They can be certified as not needing to do performance appraisals with their direct reports and their part of the organization can be declared performance appraisal-free. The challenge in operating with this approach, of course, is deciding which managers in an organization need to do performance appraisals and which do not. Part of this process needs to be training managers to be sure they have the right skills, and gathering data showing that the people working for them have been treated in ways that make traditional performance appraisals unnecessary. A clear advantage of this appraisal-free approach is that it will motivate managers throughout an organization to become certified as performance appraisal-free managers. It can make being appraisal-free valued as a part of a manager's package of skills. Without this approach, there often is little incentive for managers to learn the skills that are necessary to do good performance appraisals, and to learn the skills that make them unnecessary. One needed feature of an appraisal-free approach is a training course for employees about what they should expect from their manager given that there will be no formal performance appraisal. Unfortunately, in most organizations today, employees are not even trained in how they should behave in the performance appraisal. This is one of the many reasons why they are not particularly effective in most organizations. Of course, even the best performance management system cannot make all managers effective at setting goals, coaching, and giving feedback. The answer for them is not eliminating the appraisal system; it is eliminating them. At this point, you may be wondering if I know of any organization that has utilized the idea of certifying managers as appraisal-free. The answer is no, but there are probably some out there. If not, hopefully this piece will stimulate some organizations to seriously consider this idea, and develop a program that ultimately leads to performance appraisal free zones in organizations and ultimately organizations that are effective and performance appraisal-free. Crossposted from Forbes.com.]]> HR Should Own Organizational Effectiveness tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.4809531 2014-02-18T17:13:24-05:00 2014-04-20T05:59:01-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ Historically, many critics of the HR function (formerly known as personnel) have pointed out that HR is more of an administrative unit than a strategic player. Recently, more and more articles and books have claimed that HR has changed and become much more of a player when it comes to organizational effectiveness and business strategy. In a book I recently published with John Boudreau entitled, Effective Human Resource Management: A Global Analysis, we present data from 1995 to 2010, which shows little to no change in how HR spends its time. It also shows that HR spends less than 15% of its time as a strategic business partner. Where does it spend most of its time? It spends it dealing with the implementation and administration of HR policies and practices. This is true in 1995, and data I recently collected show that it is true in 2013. When HR executives were asked in my survey to report if they have recently increased the amount of time they spend on being a strategic business partner, their answer is, "Yes." Many report that it has increased significantly since 1995, despite the fact that our data say it has not. What should HR do and what can it do in order to become a more strategic business partner and greater contributor to organizational effectiveness. Before answering this question, it is important to note that my research clearly shows that spending more time as a strategic business partner leads to better company performance. It is clearly the right place for organizations to position their HR function. There are many ways that HR can contribute to business strategy. It ranges from helping to identify and design strategic options, through to picking the best options, including facilitating the implementation of the strategic options the company chooses to pursue. Usually new strategies require different behavior and different performance from many individuals and parts of the organization. This type of change should be a real sweet spot for HR. Unfortunately, my data suggest that HR rarely plays a major role in the development and implementation of business strategies. They are most active in helping design the organization for change, and least active when it comes to working with the corporate board. When I look at whether their role has changed in the recent years, the answer is, "No." HR seems to be about as involved in business strategy today as it was a decade ago. This is despite the fact that my data clearly show that when it is involved, organizations function better and are much more successful in implementing strategic change. Incidentally, my data covers the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, Europe, China, and the U.K. I get virtually identical results from large corporations in all of those countries. The failure of HR to be the player it should be, with respect to business strategy, raises the question of how it can become more of a player in corporate strategy design, implementation, and change. Clearly, HR should be eager and ready to take on assignments having to do with organization design and effectiveness, but that may not be the best route to being a major player in business strategy. The best route may be through a focus on talent and its procurement, development, retention, and motivation. It's not a matter of just being a provider of good talent; it is a matter of identifying the critical talent that makes a difference between the organization being effective and not so effective. If HR can identify key talent areas and provide coherent, well-developed plans for obtaining, developing, and managing critical talent, it has opened the door to being a major strategic player, with respect to organizational effectiveness. Talent is clearly an area where CEOs and senior executives need help, recognize they need help, and often look to HR for advice and counsel. HR can establish its credibility by performing well in this area, and this can open the door to being a true strategic partner. Talent is a key issue among senior management and at the board level, so expertise in talent has the potential to make HR executives major players not just at the mid-level in organizations, but also at the board and senior executive levels. A major advantage of establishing credibility in the talent area is that it naturally leads to discussions about organizational design, rewards systems, strategy and change management. All of these additional areas need to be dealt with in order to create an effective organization, and should be natural parts of any discussion about talent development, procurement and identifying the critical positions in an organization. Talent can be the way to open the door to a broader role for HR that includes organizational effectiveness. Indeed, it may be the key to changing the very name of the HR function so that it becomes the organizational effectiveness function, but that is a topic for a future piece. It is clear that most organizations are not prepared to create an organizational effectiveness function at the senior corporate level that includes talent, organization design, change management, and information technology. But they ought to be, and in most cases, are ready to be helped in talent management by the HR function, and they know that in order to do talent management well, a broad assessment of the organization's work, jobs, rewards, etc., is necessary and needs to fit the organization's business strategy. Crossposted from Forbes.com.]]> What Should HR Leaders Focus On in 2014? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2014:/theblog//3.4647778 2014-01-25T22:33:54-05:00 2014-03-27T05:59:01-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ The most important thing that HR should focus on in talent management is assessing the skills the organization needs to implement its strategy, and the plan for recruiting and managing that critical talent. It is important to understand what the organization can do to add the right talent: whether it is best recruited or best internally developed, and whether it is even possible to develop the right talent in order to implement business strategy. Understanding the availability of talent in combination with knowing how it is critical for the business strategy should lead to a more interactive relationship between the strategic choices of the organization and how its talent is trained and managed. Often, the reasons that business strategies fail is that they mistakenly assume that the organization can get the right talent in order to perform the way the strategy calls for. All too often organizations cannot attract or develop it, and as a result, the strategy is not feasible. Talent has always been important, but it has increasingly become more critical because so many organizations are doing much more complex, knowledge-based work and operating globally. This has created a situation where the performance of talent has a major impact on the bottom line. The difference in many critical jobs between good talent performance and poor talent performance is 100 to 1. That reality is increasingly causing knowledge-work-based organizations to focus on talent as a source of competitive advantage. Google is a good example of a company that has done an exceptional job of recruiting and managing people who have critical knowledge skills. It needs talented people to perform well, and that translates into how they communicate about the kind of talent they are looking for and the jobs they offer. Furthermore, they identify critical positions in the organization where performance can differentiate them from their competitors. They make sure they fill those jobs with the right talent. This is an important and critical part of the whole recruitment and selection process. In the selection process, they ensure that they test for the ability to develop the key skills that are needed for the job. Decades ago, Google, like 3M, began giving everybody 10 to 15 percent free time to work on their pet projects. People have used this time to come up with new business ideas and business projects. They have created work that fits the talent of the people in the organization, and they have attracted talented people to come to work for them. This allows them not only to implement their business strategy but to grow and develop their business strategy based on the skills of their employees and their ability to attract top talent. Why aren't there more organizations that focus on talent? Some business leaders think they can live without top talent. Others believe talent management is important, but they do not see it as being as important as finance or technology. Finally, many executives are unable to see the relationship between talent issues and the business strategy of their organization. Many executives do not have a background in talent management. They are trained in finance or engineering, and they see them as the major determinants of organizational performance. The challenge for HR is not just to establish the importance of talent but to link talent management to the business strategy. Crossposted from Forbes.com.]]> Go Bonus: It's More Important Now Than Ever tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3957858 2013-09-20T11:03:26-04:00 2013-11-20T05:12:02-05:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ If pay is not high for good performers, not only will it fail to motivate, it will fail to attract and retain high performance. In times of high inflation, it is relatively easy to relate significant amounts of pay to performance simply by varying the size "merit" increases. Of course there is always the problem of whether performance can be measured, and whether individual managers are willing to give significantly different increases to their subordinates. But if there is a will and a way, pay can be significantly related to performance. The situation is very different today because inflation is low. Merit salary increase budgets are typically in the two to three percent range. This often means that the best performer gets a one percent or two percent greater increase than an average performer. This, of course, is not an amount of money that will motivate and retain high performers. It may have a positive impact because of its recognition value, but it certainly is not a game changer. A variety of research studies have shown that the difference between okay and outstanding performance needs to be closer to seven to 10 percent in order for money to be an impactful incentive. The implication of this is quite clear for the raises that organizations will be giving at the end of this year. Determining the size of them will, as usual, consume a considerable amount of time and require a great deal of effort on the part of managers and the HR department. Despite this, they will have little or no impact on the future behavior of individuals because the difference between the good performers and the rest will be so small. In short, it will essentially be a waste of time. What should organizations do with respect to their next round of pay increases? The answer is simple. Change them into one-time payments or bonuses for this year. Yes, it will have the same impact on employees as would salary increases, but it can lead to a much more effective pay system over the next several years. This is a particularly important point because there is little reason to believe that inflation is going to increase greatly, and thus there is little reason to believe raises will get larger. The only way to vary the pay of individuals significantly is to use bonuses. By the second year, a bonus pool could average five percent and if inflation continues at its current pace by the third year, it could average seven percent or eight percent. Now we are beginning to reach a level of pay for performance that will have a significant impact. Some organizations have already converted salary increases to bonus payments. But quite a few are still procrastinating, perhaps with the hope that inflation will give them more of a chance to give larger pay increases that are based on performance. There are several reasons why a procrastination strategy is dangerous. Inflation may not pick up for a long time and as a result procrastinators will continue to lose the chance to significantly reward performance. When all is said and done, salary increases are a poor way to motivate performance. Even when they are large, salary increases run the risk of creating an annuity for individuals that does not represent their true market value or their current performance. They are paid for years of past performance not their current performance or their market value. Of course this could be solved by cutting someone's pay, but this is rarely done, and has a significant downside. In the case of bonuses, there is an automatic cut to someone's pay when they are given a smaller bonus. Overall, bonuses are always a more effective way to deliver pay for performance. Now is the time for organizations, if they haven't already, to create an effective bonus system. *** Crossposted from forbes.com]]> Make Performance Appraisals Change Friendly tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3692339 2013-08-06T10:21:30-04:00 2013-10-06T05:12:01-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ The argument is straight forward. Most performance management systems demand commitments to specific performance goals and skill growth over a specific period of time, often a year. As a result, if they motivate behavior at all, they cause individuals to focus on achieving preset goals and acquiring skills that are out of date. All too often, the argument goes, even though the skills and goals quickly become outdated, employees resist changing them, and they continue to pursue preset goals. There are those that say no performance appraisal can effectively motivate any kind of performance or skill acquisition. As a result, they are simply a waste of time rather than a cause of resistance to change or cause of failed change efforts. However, the research evidence does not support this view. It is clear that performance management systems that result in clear achievable goals and a clear connection between performance and rewards do, in fact, significantly influence behavior. But, there is the danger that they motivate yesterday's right behavior rather than tomorrow's right behavior. Designed correctly, there is reason to believe that performance appraisal systems can be a major force in making change efforts successful. Indeed, the argument can be made that it is more important in today' s rapidly changing business environment that organizations have effective performance management systems. When organizations operated in relatively stable environments much of what needed to be done to make them successful was well-known and clear and thus, even without a performance management system, individuals often knew what to do, how to do it, and in many cases were motivated to do it. In today's world this is simply no longer true. Rapid successful change requires frequent alteration of what people do, and often in the skills that they have. One way to help ensure that this change occurs is to have a performance management system that is designed to support organizational change. In order to be change friendly, there are a number of key features that a performance management system should have. Let's look at three of them, and identify the features of an effective performance management system in a rapidly changing organization. #1) It is critical that a change oriented performance management system focus on the skills that individuals need in order to be successful in the future. The system should not focus on traditional job descriptions and just the skills that are needed for someone to execute their current job. The skill acquisition part of the system needs to be sure that the job holders have the skills they need to perform their current job. But, it also needs to be constantly pushing the frontier with respect to skills that are critical to the future. It is also critical that the skill acquisition process be tied to the reward system of the organization. Bonuses and/or pay increases should definitely be contingent upon the successful acquisition of new skills. This means paying the person for what they can do instead of the value of their job. There is no magic timing for how often the skill portfolio of an individual needs to be assessed, but it is certainly important for the performance management system to review it more often than the traditional rate of once-a-year. At least every three months there should be a review of the skills that individuals should be learning, and an assessment of how their learning has gone over the last three months. #2) Clear performance goals are a powerful motivator and should be the major focus of performance management systems. They are a motivator even when they are not tied to financial rewards, but they are even more powerful when they lead to bonuses, salary increases, stock, promotions, etc. For goals to be meaningful and motivate the right behavior, they often need to be both short-term and long-term. Short term goals can be 30-day goals, for example, while long-term may be 2 or more years. Short-term goals are particularly important in a rapidly changing environment because what individuals need to do in order to make a business succeed may in fact change every month or so. Long term goals are also important because they can ensure that an individual doesn't become overly focused on short-term results and fail to behave in ways that will build a longer term successful business. For example, building good relationships with customers and making investments that will not pay off immediately. #3) It's important in some instances to reward failure, or at least to not punish it. All too often individuals fail to take risks and fail to change because they are concerned about punishments. This is particularly likely if they are on a financial incentive performance management system. The best way to get individuals to take risks and change is to reward them for it, and in some cases to reward them even if they are not successful. Organizations need to build into their performance management and reward systems the concept of good failures. Until recently, the type of performance management system that supports change was often impossible to implement. It requires a considerable amount of flexibility with respect to when and how the appraisal is done, and a considerable amount of information being shared in work areas and up and down the hierarchy. Only if this is done can the right goals be set and changed, the right skills incented, and good failures identified. But, the world has changed with modern information technology and social networking. It is quite possible to develop performance management systems that support change and organizational agility. Rewards can be distributed on a flexible schedule. Data on performance and skill acquisition can be collected from multiple sources. Goals can be changed and adapted as the business environment changes, and needed skills can be identified and incented on short notice. In addition to having the right structure and technology, a change friendly performance management system requires managers who are skilled in managing performance. This is a must-exist condition that my research shows is often lacking. Organizations seem willing to spend money on information technology support for performance management systems and even for performance based rewards, but they still don't train and develop managers who can operate systems in a way that makes them motivating and supportive of change. This is simply unacceptable in a world in which organizational agility is a key differentiator with respect to organizational performance. More than ever, organizations need performance management systems and managers that effectively support change. *** Crossposted from forbes.com]]> Netflix: We Got It Right! tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3530819 2013-07-02T12:02:00-04:00 2013-09-01T05:12:01-04:00 Ed Lawler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-lawler/ The literature on talent management has often argued that the best way to assure an organization has the right talent is to internally develop it, invest in it and have relatively long term employment relationships with individuals. One advantage of this is that it builds loyalty and the willingness of individuals to sacrifice for the good of the organization. The problem with the career approach is that change often requires new skill sets and new approaches to dealing with business issues that aren't quickly learned and developed. This is where the "travel light" approach is superior. It argues strongly for "temporary" relationships between individuals and organizations. Responsibility for an individual's career and skills shifts from the organization to the individual. Employment is "guaranteed" for only as long as an individual has the skills the organization needs. When writing our book, we searched for a good example of a company which was agile and committed to a travel light approach to talent management. Eventually, we found what we thought was a great example, Netflix. Its approach to talent management was best summarized by a comment their HR VP made to us during an interview, "The reward for doing a good job today is having a job tomorrow. We cannot guarantee work. It's up to individuals to have the skills that the organization needs. If they have them, they have a job. If they don't have them, they don't have a job." Shortly after we sent the final version of our book to our Publisher in 2011, Netflix became the object of a great deal of negative publicity. Their CEO did a major restructuring and rebranding of the company with the respect to their two lines of businesses, DVD home delivery and video streaming. To say the least, it was poorly handled and in October of 2011, Netflix announced that it had lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers as a result of the poorly handled change. Imagine our disappointment given that our book was about to be released praising them for their agility. It didn't matter of course that the change was made by the CEO and was not particularly relevant to their "travel light" talent management model. We were very much in the position of being business authors who praise a company only to find that it is not worthy of the praise. At the very least we had good company. The same thing has happened to Tom Peters and more recently, Jim Collin. However, maybe we weren't so wrong in praising the agility of Netflix. Recent news from Netflix suggests that they have made a rather amazing transformation. They have gone from being a home deliverer of discs to a producer of video content and streamer of video content to the homes of global subscribers, including a voice recognition system named "max" that quizzes subscribers and gives them movie suggestions. They have produced an original series, "House of Cards," revived "Arrested Development", and recently announced a deal that calls for DreamWorks to produce more than 300 hours of original programming for them. By one count, Netflix has more subscribers now than HBO. This is from a company, which only a few years ago, was a leader in distributing DVDs that were made by others to the homes of people on a subscription basis. Needless to say, in order to make this transition, they needed people with radically different skill sets and different management approaches. It's too early to declare that Netflix is a dominant force in the entertainment industry, but it's not too early to acknowledge that they have successfully changed their business model in a very short period of time. They have done what many other companies in the entertainment industry have been unable to do: execute a major change. One of their earlier competitors, Blockbuster, is essentially gone because they were unable to make the change that Netflix has made. In retrospect, Netflix looks like a good example of a company which has a talent management model that allows major changes in the technology it uses and in its business model. It reinforces the view that the "travel light" model is a valid and appropriate one for certain companies. It fits particularly well with those organizations that are in very rapidly changing environments and where technology is moving at a rapid pace. Crossposted from forbes.com]]>


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Going for a more simplistic design in the bedroom? Take a look at these awesome bedside lighting options that will allow you to scrap the nightstand or at least make room for more important things.Read Full Story
No matter where you live or what you do, your home should be the place you go for comfort and coziness. Add to the coziness by closing in the space with furniture, hanging curtains and adding fresh flowers or some personalized wall art. Let us show you our favorite comfy swaps in three different living rooms.Read Full Story
In our home, we all have that awkward space that we just don't know what to do with. From weird wall space to unreachable cabinet area, we've got you covered with these hacks to finally give those areas some functionality.Read Full Story
We'll admit it, we love stripes! A timeless pattern that is perfect for any style and home, stripes are a magnificent way to add a little flair to your home. From straight to ombre, we've got you covered with inspirational looks and awesome stripe patterns to make your 2014 home decor look smashingly sophisticated.Read Full Story
Norwegians embrace the cold, but they know how to stay warm when it's time. The Norwegians also employ utilitarian, clean looks in their interior design. Here are some style inspirations from towns along the Arctic Circle of Norway to the cities of Oslo and Bergen.Read Full Story
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Autism Screening and Diagnosis Center - Suffolk, VA
WebMD Physician Directory
Suffolk, Virginia
Autism Screening and Diagnosis
Autism screening and diagnosis overview
Diagnosing autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can be difficult, since there is no medical test, like a blood test, to diagnose the disorders. Doctors look at the child's behavior and development to m...
Other Related Autism Screening and Diagnosis Articles
Emergency Contact for Suffolk
Nearby Suffolk Hospitals *
Sentara Obici Hospital
South Hampton Memorial Hospital
Bon Secours Maryview Med Ctr
Naval Medical Center
Harbor Point Behavioral Health
Children's Hosp King's Daughter
Sentara Norfolk General Hosp
Chesapeake Reg Med Ctr
Depaul Medical Center
Riverside Rehabilitation Inst
Lake Taylor Transitional Care
Kempsville Center Behavrl Hlth
Sentara Leigh Hospital
St Mary's Home Disabled Child
Riverside Regional Medical Ctr
Riverside Behavioral Health Ctr
VA Medical Center
Sentara Careplex Hospital
Sentara Princess Ann Hospital
633 Medical Group
Mary Immaculate Hospital
Mcdonald Army Health Center
Newport News Behavioral Health
Vidant Roanoke Chowan Hospital
Albemarle Hospital
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Mumbai medics say the 17-year-old, from a small village in western India, had been suffering from jaw pain and swelling for more than 18 months.
Surgeon Dr Vandana Thoravade said Ashik Gavai suffered from complex odontoma, a rare condition in which a tumour grows underneath the gum and creates smaller tooth-like growths called denticles.
Dr Thoravade said the team of dental surgeons took seven hours to remove all the denticles in an operation earlier this week.
They were surprised at how many denticles were present, and believe it may be the most ever in a case of odontoma.
The teenager is now recovering.


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Four Queries to Answer before Selecting Workforce Management Software
It is a challenging and an arduous task to take complete control over workforce, and to manage the workforce diligently to produce fruitful results. Organizations never shrink from exploring avenues to adopt surefire techniques and methodologies to take complete control over workforce, as they find workforce management software an able ally to manage workforce in a better way. This tool is built to help establishments tap the potentials of the workforce in a better way, and to accomplish the desired objective in the process. An establishment that wants to pick the best workforce management software has to provide suitable answers to four important queries to make an informed decision.
DOES IT ALLOW SCALABLE SCHEDULING SYSTEM? Any company that aspires to achieve good growth and brand recognition is always on the move, as it introduces novel measures to capture good market share. In its quest to register good growth, an establishment is forced to hire promising candidates at all times. The software that is built to manage workforce diligently must be a tool that paves the way for scalable scheduling system, where a company needn't worry about the effectiveness of a system that is put in place to manage the workforce.
DOES IT GATHER RELEVANT DATA FOR FORECASTING? As a company grows, the need to recruit promising professionals is one of the essential elements that lure the attention of the organization. The software should be an ideal tool that gathers relevant data and that helps a company to come up with an accurate forecast. The tool should also maintain data pertaining to several years, which become essential for a company to make an informed decision when it comes to recruiting candidates.
DOES IT PROVIDE ROOM FOR UNEXPECTED DAILY VARIABLES? Though a well-defined system is put in place with the help of this software, there are several factors that tend to vary, and that tend to make a resounding impact on the workforce management procedures. There are unexpected daily variables that can disturb the management measures, as the tool that automates workforce management procedures should be built to accommodate unexpected variables that can disturb the workforce management system.
DOES IT ALLOW AUTOMATION OF REPEATED TASK? An organization has to go through repetitive tasks, day in and day out, as that take the form of workforce scheduling, forecasting and other such activities. The software designed to automate workforce management procedures is a tool should allow automation of repeated tasks, which work to the advantage of an establishment that implements this tool.
Before implementing the best workforce management software, an establishment has to provide answers to four important queries to make the right decision.
SOURCE FROM:- http://www.fieldpower.com/workforce-management.aspx


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Travel broadens the mind. Here's our guide to travelling the world without leaving home.
Memorial Day is right around the corner! To make it easier to prep for the festivities, we're sharing some of our favorite easy recipes and menus.
When selecting décor and products for your apartment, it's not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential objects vying for our hard-earned dollars.
May is just around the corner and that means warmer temps are in store for our Neighbors in Portland.
If you've ever looked for an apartment before, you know that there are amenities and then there are amenities.
Between using the dishwasher only when there's a full load to taking showers instead of baths, you can easily save hundreds of gallons of water every day.


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Not a multiplayer fan
My review is mainly based on the single player aspect of any game, im not a fan of multiplayer games i have no interest in listening to someone else whine online, as far as this game goes for someone who enjoys single player games it is a very polished and well made game. the single player aspect is short, it seems infinty ward had no interest in doing anything to improve the single player aspect it just feels like cod:mw all over again which is my biggest gripe with any sequel if your gonna spend all your time improving something do more than improving multiplayer, as far as "no russian" level it completely feels unnecesary and out of place in the game as a level it could have been a cut scene and would have made more sense to the story. I honestly can't recommend this game as a purchase until it hits $20, but if multiplayer is your thing then you may have fun, single player mode just doesn't cut it for someone like me who enjoys the relaxation i get from playing a good game by myself.


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3 Luzon dams continue to release excess water
More News from Frances Mangosing
More News from INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Three dams in Luzon continued to keep their gates open to release excess water, the state weather bureau said Thursday.
As of 8 a.m. Ipo Dam in Bulacan, Ambuklao and Binga Dams in Benguet maintained their gates open.
Magat Dam in Cagayan has already closed its gate.
La Mesa Dam in Quezon City continued to overflow, with 80.27 meters of water, way above its spilling level of 80.15 meters.
Marikina River was still under alert level 2 with 16.3 meters as of 11a.m. There were 17,607 evacuees in temporary shelters as of posting time.
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In a game heard live on KHTS, the Los Angeles Dodgers shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates Friday night, by a final score of 3-0. The win was the first for Zack Greinke as a Dodger; Brandon League got the save.
Join us for our next Dodger game, Saturday at 5:30pm, on AM-1220 KHTS!
2013 Santa Clarita Dodger Day April 27th! Get Tickets and Information!
Los Angeles Dodgers on your Hometown Station AM 1220 KHTS.
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Book your room at The Duporth Riverside
Please enter your travel dates.
Property in Maroochydore with restaurant and outdoor pool
At The Duporth Riverside you'll be 0.5 km (0.3 mi) from Sunshine Plaza and 4.8 km (3 mi) from Mooloolaba Beach. Highlights at this property include a restaurant, an outdoor swimming pool, and a spa tub.
All rooms feature cable TV.
Enjoy the fitness center and sauna. Plus you'll find dry cleaning/laundry services, tour/ticket assistance, and an elevator (lift).
With a stay at this Maroochydore property, you'll be 39.7 km (24.7 mi) from Australia Zoo.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
The property offers a restaurant. In addition to an outdoor pool, The Duporth Riverside provides a spa tub, a sauna, and a fitness center. This Maroochydore property also offers tour/ticket assistance, dry cleaning/laundry services, and an elevator (lift).
- Dry cleaning/laundry service
- Elevator/lift
- Fitness facilities
- Tours/ticket assistance
- Restaurant
- Sauna
- Spa tub
- Outdoor pool
Room Amenities
- Cable TV service
Where to Eat
The Duporth Riverside has a restaurant on site.
Nearby Activities
An outdoor pool and a spa tub are on site. Other recreational amenities include a sauna and a fitness center.
Hotel Policies
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
Special check-in instructions:
Check-out time is 10 AM
Payment types
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
National Rating
This property does not have an official STAR Rating from Star Ratings Australia. For the benefit of our customers, we have provided a rating based on our rating system.


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COLLEGE PLACE — The cost of the College Place school bond issue will come home to roost this weekend.
Residents who live in the College Place Public School district can expect a sharp rise in their property taxes. Statements should begin showing up in mailboxes Saturday.
Walla Walla County Treasurer Gordon Heimbigner said Wednesday his office is already receiving calls about the increased property taxes from people who have gone online and checked their property tax bills. Real and property tax statements will be mailed out Friday, followed by irrigation and stormwater statements on Tuesday. Mortgage statements will go out a week from tomorrow.
The bond issue was approved by voters last April. It will provide $38.5 million to help build a new elementary school and convert Meadowbrook and Sager schools to serve sixth through 12th grades. Another $10.8 million will come from the state.
But the success of the measure means that property owners will pay an additional $2.70 per $1,000 assessed valuation. On a house valued at $200,000, that's about a $550 per year raise in property taxes, said Debra Antes, Walla Walla County Assessor.
A smaller increase will be due to successful passage of a bond issue for the College Avenue-Rose Street Reconstruction Project, "but the majority of the increase was the school bond," Antes said.
Heimbigner said a major change this year is only one statement will be mailed out, with each statement containing two coupons. People will need to remember to hand onto the second coupon if they are making two payments, he said.
Budget constraints are the reason for the single mailing, Heimbigner said. "We save $7,000 a year by going to one mailing," he said.
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997 St. Sebastian WayAugusta, GA 30912706-721-6597
1446 Harper StreetAugusta, GA 30912706-721-5437 (KIDS)
1003 Chafee Ave.Augusta, GA 30912 706-721-2426
1447 Harper StreetAugusta, GA 30912-5536706-721-CARE (2273)
1120 15th StreetAugusta, GA 30912706-721-2273 (CARE)
1411 Laney Walker Blvd.Augusta, GA 30912706-721-6744
1430 John Wesley Gilbert DriveAugusta, GA 30912706-721-2696
821 St. Sebastian WayAugusta, GA 30912706-721-2971
1220 West Wheeler PkwyAugusta, GA 30909
6135 Roosevelt Highway Warm Springs, GA 31830
Children with cystic fibrosis (CF) have a protein in their cells that doesn't work right. The protein is called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR). CFTR controls the flow of water and certain salts in and out of the body's cells. As the movement of salt and water in and out of cells changes, mucus becomes thickened.
In the digestive system, CF mainly affects the pancreas. The pancreas is an organ that puts out (secretes) substances that help with digestion and control the body's levels of blood sugar.
The abnormality in CFTR causes the secretions from the pancreas to become thick. The thickened secretions can block the ducts within the pancreas. This blockage then causes a drop in the amount of digestive enzymes the pancreas secretes. Because of this, a child with CF has difficulty absorbing fats, some proteins, and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
The problems with the pancreas can become so severe that some of the hormone cells in the pancreas can be destroyed. This may lead to glucose intolerance and type 1 diabetes. About 35 percent of CF patients develop cystic fibrosis-related diabetes in their 20s, and more than 40 percent develop the disease after age 30.
Because of CF's effects on the digestive system, a child with CF may have these symptoms:
Frequent, bulky, greasy stools
Rectal prolapse. A rare condition in which the end part of the bowels comes out of the anus.
Meconium ileus. An obstruction of the bowel caused by the thick and sticky first bowel movement of a baby.
Fat in the stools
Stomach pain
Poor weight gain and growth
The child may also have bloating, flatulence, abdominal pain, and watery diarrhea caused by an overgrowth of bacteria.
The liver may also be affected. A small number of children may actually develop liver disease. Symptoms of liver disease may include:
Enlarged liver
Swollen abdomen
Yellow color to the skin
Vomiting blood
Hours: Mon-Fri 7:30am-5:30pmMore contact info
Georgia Regents Medical Center 1120 15th Street Augusta, GA 30912-5563
Affiliated with Georgia Regents University


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While charter schools have a reputation for innovative instruction, many public schools in Mississippi are keeping pace -- integrating technology and offering specialized programs, such as the International Baccalaureate and arts integration. The state also has two popular residential high schools -- Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven and the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science in Columbus.
View Full Article in:Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.) (tiered subscription model), The
Published in Brief:


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Too late to jump into WoW?
View Single Post
Meow Mix Kills
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: END OF DAYS
Posts: 1,228
Re: Too late to jump into WoW?
Well about 2 weeks after BC came out, my buddies were all "C'mon man, come play again." (I had been on break from WoW for a few months and was unsure if I would want to play BC). Well I bought it and in 10 days I had my 60 Orc rogue up to level 70. But for the first 2 weeks after that point...nothing. Couldn't do many instances, etc. My guild had not gotten enough people to 70 to start running instances nonstop, didn't have keys for Karazhan yet etc.
So those 2 weeks I farmed gold for my epic flying mount. So now I'm instancing pretty much nonstop (we ran Shattered Halls 4 times in one day, w00t for Thrallmar rep). And just last night we burned our first boss in Karazhan and are set up and ready to rock n roll on our next scheduled run.
Things are really going to start clicking too once we have the 10-15 stragglers get to 70 (we now have about 20-25 members keyed for Karazhan).
And on the note of old instances, we went back and did a Scholo run to help some guys out...yeah...I tanked everything in there on my rogue, rarely required any heals, and rarely used any of my heavy specials (evasion, adren rush, etc.) So BRD would be super easy (why you would run it...eh, I mean I guess if it's fun, all the power to you).
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Over the last two years the band have performed alongside acts such as Wolf Gang, The Phoenix Foundation, Slow Club, To Kill A King, Sea Of Bees, Clock Opera and Cloud Control to name a few. They have gigged extensively across the South of the UK along with playing various summer festivals across the country. Including Liverpool Sound City and Beach Break Live.
See more info at winterhours.co.uk
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You won't be able to dismiss this by usual means (escape or click button), but you can close it programatically based on user choices or actions.
"Loved these invitations. The quality of the paper was great. They turned out just as I had hoped for my daughter's wedding invitations."
"We had a lot of customization requests for the invitation, enclosure card and rsvp card and the designer who worked on our invitation suite was able to follow through with them all. Our invitation suite turned out absolutely BEAUTIFUL and exactly what my fiance envisioned!"
"The pearl finish is beautiful and it's even better in person!!! Soo happy and impressed with this product. The delivery was a week sooner than expected which was lovely and the service is impeccable. Truly Made purchasing our wedding invitations a happy experience!"
"Simple, tasteful design that can be customized easily. I used the signature card stock and it turned out great. Feedback on the product from reviewer was quick and efficient; delivery was even a week earlier than expected!"
"After debating for a long time, my fiancé and I finally decided on this design. We weren't sure how the 'foil stamped' look was going to turn out but it was worth it!! We decided on pink foil and black letters with pearl shimmer and they are absolutely beautiful, we couldn't be happier. The pocket fold also adds an elegant flare to the ensemble. The shipping was fast, it only took about a week and a half. Cant wait to send them out!"


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Cebu to host nat'l students weightlifting tilt
THE country's most skiled collegiate weightlifters will converge here in Cebu as the National Students Weightlifting Championship unwraps on Oct. 27 at the Cebu City Sports Center.
This was finalized in a recent meeting attended by members of the organizing committee led by Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) commissioner Felix Tiukinhoy, tournament director Danny Catingub, Jess Himotas of the University of San Jose-Recoletos, tournament adviser Graham Lim and chairman of the organizing committee, Atty. Baldomero Estenzo.
This tournament represents a good avenue for athletes to strut their stuff as the stellar ones will get the chance to represent the country in the 27th Summer Univesiade in Russia next year.
"We have so many athletes in the CESAFI that can be developed to become skilled weightlifters," said Estenzo in a statement to the press. "Our member schools such as University of San Carlos, University of Visayas, San Jose Recoletos, University of Cebu and others can be a major source. We are also sending invitations to schools from the northern part of the country which have solid program for weightlifting that can develop talents for local and international competitions," he added.
The University of the East already confirmed its participation in the tournament. /Correspondent Jonas Panerio
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Omni-Channel and Retail Banking - Why All The Buzz?
Web Conference
Sep 04, 2014
Framingham, MA United States
Omnichannel and Retail Banking - Why All The Buzz?
11:00 a.m., U.S. Eastern time
To register for this event, please click here.
Omni-Channel is becoming a point of division in Retail Banking, with some factions claiming it to be a transformative strategy and others dismissing it as marketing hype. Join this interactive webinar with Marc DeCastro and Jerry Silva to hear about what they believe omni-channel means to the retail banking community, both from the consumer's and the bank's perspective. Hear how the omni-channel concept is being used in other industries, and how the banking industry can learn from their experienced. Audience members will gain insight into:
- The foundational aspects of omni-channel as a strategy.
- How omni-channel can affect both sides of the bank/user relationship.
- The importance of technology in omni-channel banking.
- Omin-channel business use cases that make sense for banks and their customers
Note: Slides and a recording will be available after the event. Pre-register to be sure you receive information and reminders.
Omnichannel and Retail Banking - Why All The Buzz?
|Jerry Silva
Research Director, Global Retail Banking, Financial Insights
|Marc DeCastro
Research Director, Consumer Banking, Financial Insights


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LOS ANGELES--If all goes as scheduled at Bethesda Game Studios, the first downloadable content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim--Dawnguard--will arrive later this month. Joystiq reports today that Bethesda's Todd Howard said the DLC is "tentatively" scheduled for June 26.
The content will arrive first on Xbox Live and will head to the PlayStation 3 and PC at a later date. Xbox 360 gamers may not need to wait until June 26 to try out Dawnguard, as Bethesda is currently accepting applications to beta-test Dawnguard. Successful applicants will score early access to the content and will receive the add-on for free.
Dawnguard is the first expansion to the award-winning role-playing game Skyrim and is rumored to add snow elves and crossbows. Bethesda released its first trailer last week. For more on the content, check out GameSpot's analysis of the video, embedded below.


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- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
From the PublisherThe shadow of Freud and his view of religion as illusion still looms over psychotherapy, making it problematic for therapists to engage their clients about a subject that can be of great importance and potential benefit. Because she is both a nun and a clinician, author Kehoe can draw on both her psychological and religious training to approach with insight and sensitivity the role of belief and motivation in the lives of people troubled by mental illness. Neither illusion nor panacea, religious belief helps people organize their lives and make decisions. Kehoe has listened for years to people with illness, and she shares their compelling stories. She also discloses her own wrestling with inner religious promptings and their influence in her own choices. This book will be most helpful to other professionals in the field, but its honesty and humility also make it useful for anyone interested in faith and mental illness, particularly anyone with an emotional stake in the difficulties of mental illness. (June) (Publishers Weekly, May 11, 2009)
"Wrestling With Our Inner Angels is an important book...All concerned with faith, mental health and the journey to wholeness — whether from a spiritual-religious or a psychological perspective — will not only enjoy reading this book but be encouraged to reflect more deeply on the author's thesis." (America magazine October 26, 2009)


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Retired Document
Important: This sample code may not represent best practices for current development. The project may use deprecated symbols and illustrate technologies and techniques that are no longer recommended.
|Last Revision:
Version 1.3, 2010-06-29
Added CFBundleIconFiles in Info.plist.
(Full Revision History)
|Build Requirements:
iOS 4.0 SDK
|Runtime Requirements:
iPhone OS 3.2 or later
This sample represents the completed project from the Your First iPhone Application With Core Data tutorial. The application displays a list of events, which encapsulate a time stamp and a geographical location expressed in latitude and longitude, and allows the user to add and remove events.
Copyright © 2010 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Updated: 2010-06-29