Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER June 2, 2014 June 2, 2014 14 14 INSIGHT INSIGHT Todd Humber Editor's Notes Time to squash the fl at organization Time to squash the fl at organization ere's an old saying in journalism that two is a coincidence but three is a trend. So far I only have evidence of a coincidence, but two friends of mine in supervisory roles at diff er- ent organizations in Ontario have recently gone through restructur- ings that left them with zero direct reports. e policies were slightly diff er- ent but essentially they were blan- ket decisions — cast down from above — that if you didn't have a certain number of direct reports, then all your employees would in- stead report directly to your boss. e moves were done under the guise of creating more nimble fi rms but my friends are skeptical — in both cases, employees felt cost-cutting was the real culprit as some managers were let go in the shuffl e. My two friends aren't exactly complaining — anyone who has ever been in a management role has no doubt pined for the halcy- on days of zero direct reports. But from a wider organizational and HR policy view, there are some serious fl aws to making a blanket decision like "Anyone with fewer than 10 direct reports will no lon- ger be in a supervisory role." Here are three reasons why this practice should be put to pasture. Blanket rules bad Arbitrary blanket rulings handed down from above almost always cause unforeseen problems in the real world. ey may sound great at the boardroom table but when they trickle down and are put into practice on the front line, there can often be unintended consequences. After all, not all roles are cre- ated equal. Yes, some managers could potentially handle 50 di- rect reports if the workers' roles are simple. But some employees require much more hands-on management, and having any more than a half-dozen direct reports could quickly become unmanageable. And not all employees — or managers — are created equal. Some workers are great at their jobs but require a bit of micro- managing. Some managers who are incredibly eff ective with a team of fi ve could be overwhelmed and ineff ective if that number swelled due to a policy change. e next generation We've already heard plenty of chatter about a lack of manage- ment and leadership skills from the next generation of work- ers. But if we pull direct reports away from front-line supervisors and middle managers — many of whom are gen-X and gen-Y work- ers — who is going to have the leadership experience to replace the retiring boomers? Middle management has al- ways been a favourite area to gut when times get tough, but if or- ganizations aren't giving the next generation of leaders some expe- rience in managing employees, a lot of fi rms are going to struggle to fi ll the leadership pipeline in the coming decades. If you're gutting your super- visory and management ranks, you'll know where to point the fi nger of blame a decade or so down the road when you can't fi nd competent leaders. Performance management If we believe in the merits of per- formance management — and we had better — then the ques- tion has to be raised: How many credible performance reviews can a manager actually complete? Five seems manageable, 10 is certainly within the realm of pos- sibility. But if you're conducting 30, 40 or 50 reviews, how eff ec- tive are you actually being? At that point, the review will inevita- bly become an impersonal rubber stamp. Yep, the reviews are done — but nobody benefi tted. We've written a lot of stories over the years in the pages of Canadian HR Reporter about the importance of performance management, of identifying and nurturing high performers and helping weaker performers evolve into solid employees. Many fi rms have embraced the notion of pay for performance but if the underlying identifi er — the performance review — is receiv- ing only lip service, then the phi- losophy is meaningless. e 4th reason ere's actually a fourth reason to abandon the practice, but I stole it from Julie Wulf, an associate professor at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass. In 2012, Wulf penned e Flattened Firm: Not as Advertised, a 22-page report that looked at the experi- ence of roughly 300 large U.S. fi rms over a 15-year period. Her conclusion? Flattened fi rms don't actually achieve their goal. While the rationale for fl at- tening fi rms seems sound — pur- suing a streamlined, effi cient or- ganization that can respond more quickly to customers — the reality has proven otherwise, said Wulf. Firms that pursued a fl at strat- egy actually concentrated more power at the top, rather than pushing decisions downward — so much for the goal of empower- ing individual employees. CEOs in flattened organizations also tended to spend a lot more time allocated to internal interactions. "Taken together, the evidence suggests that flattening trans- ferred some decision rights from lower-level division managers to functional managers at the top," said Wulf. "Firms may flatten structure to delegate decisions but doing so can have the oppo- site eff ect and lead to unintended consequences for other aspects of internal governance." e evidence shows fl attened hierarchies don't work, they're creating potential problems down the road and they're un- dermining proper performance management. Here's hoping this coincidence doesn't turn into a trend. ROCK 'N FRAUD NEW YORK — A former New York police offi cer has pled guilty to mail fraud charges after he was accused of performing on tour with his heavy metal band — Cousin Sleaze — during a two-year period when he claimed disability benefi ts and collected an annual salary of US$90,000. Christopher Inserra, 32, served for fi ve years with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He faces up to two years in prison, said Reuters. MIND YOUR Q'S AND Z'S NEW YORK — Booking a fl ight on JetBlue? Well, now you can fi nally use the letters Q and Z when set- ting up your password, according to CNNMoney. Previously, phone- based airline reservation systems couldn't handle the letters because in the 1950s, Bell Telephone didn't assign those letters to any of the rotary phone dials. When a com- puter-based system was invented in the 1960s, it didn't allow for a Q or Z — a practice that continued until just recently. To book seats in the 1950s, airline employees would huddle close together in call centres to avoid double-booking, writing down reservations by hand for the 80,000-plus bookings that came in each day. MILITARY OFFENSIVE – TO STYLE, THAT IS WASHINGTON, D.C. — e United States military is reviewing its new rules on hairstyles after a backlash from black women, according to the CBC. Among other changes, the army said men can't have side- burns that extend beyond the bot- tom of their ears and no "landing strip" formations can be shaved on heads. For women, bangs can't ex- tend past eyebrows and no zigzags or curves are allowed in parts. But some black women were off ended by rules that banned hair worn in a "twisted, rope-like appearance, multiple braids that are not in a straight line and dreadlocks," said the CBC, and that included corn- rows and braids that are matted. "I'm disappointed to see the army, rather than inform themselves on how black people wear their hair, they've white-washed it all," Sgt. Jasmine Jacobs told the Military Times. W EIRD ORKPLACE THE DANCING CROSSING GUARD SHUFFLES OFF THE JOB TORONTO — Kathleen Byers, a 65-year-old crossing guard who made head- lines for dancing while working, has quit. Byers had been reprimanded by Toronto police — who run the city's crossing guard program — for dancing while helping children cross the road, saying it could distract motorists and put children's safety at risk. Byers toned down her dance moves, according to the Toronto Star, but was facing another reprimand for appearing in a music video for Born Ruffi ans, a local indie rock band. She appeared in the video wearing her vest and stop sign, which are both police property and shouldn't have been used without permission. Instead of fi ghting, Byers handed in her resignation after more than 10 years on the job. "I thought (the music video) was the funnest off er ever for a great-grandmother to get," she said. "We did it in one take, it was a good beat so it was an easy shoot. And it was fun. But I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back for the police." A police spokesperson said Byers' role is to be a crossing guard, not an entertainer. "I'm sure with some people it will not be a popular decision, but it's the right decision," he said. Vol. 27 No. 11 – June 2, 2014 PUBLISHED BY PUBLISHED BY Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ©Copyright 2014 by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER is published 22 times a year. 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Address changes and returns: Send changes and undeliverable Canadian addresses to: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Canadian HR Reporter One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Rd. Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 ❑ From time to time, we make our subscriber list available to companies and organizations whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you do not want your name to be made available, please check here and return with your mailing label. CUSTOMER SERVICE CUSTOMER SERVICE Call: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5082 (Toronto) (877) 750-9041 (outside Toronto) Email: carswell.customerrelations@ thomsonreuters.com LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR todd.humber@thomsonreuters.com CHRR reserves the right to edit for length and clarity. "Surveillance, when used correctly, is an effective tool to establish fact. Employers have to be careful when deciding to implement surveillance and should consult with their lawyers before doing so. Sometimes the situation might not allow the consult, therefore, the investigation company should have enough knowledge to provide guidance within the employment law to proceed or pull the reins." — Anonymous, commenting on Jeffrey R. Smith's blog "The big brother employer." Join the conversation online. Comment freely on any blog on www.hrreporter.com. READER COMMENTS Credit: Akesak/Shutterstock

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