Todd Moss has been doing a great job covering how to best deliver and receive bad news during the difficult economic climate we are in (see part one and part two). Many times, one party or the other does not do a great job of it. Sometimes employers do a really terrible job of delivering news of terminations or layoffs. It can cost them the goodwill of a (now former) employee. It can cost them legally. Sometimes an employee can take the news badly. This is usually coupled with a personal issue that is making it doubly difficult. Maybe a child is having medical issues or they are having marital problems.

Todd’s posts do a great job of addressing how to handle these situations as best as possible. But what happens when the situation is handled poorly on both sides? I am afraid we saw it this week:

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You’ve worked at a company for the last 15 years. You’ve based your budget, your mortgage, your lifestyle on the income that is supposed to provide. Then comes the word; the company is looking at laying off a group of employees or possibly shutting down. You may be included in that group. Now what?

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This is a two part article. In today’s article, we are going to review this topic from the management point of view. We will follow up tomorrow with how to receive and act upon the same.

So your company, or perhaps yourself, has reviewed the financial picture and come to the realization that a reduction in force of some size is inevitable. This is not easy news to share, regardless of the size of the company. This is a very real decision that is going to have a real and lasting impact on people’s lives. Sure, decisions are made all the time in this regard, but it never makes it easier on the part of the person who must deliver the message. So other than it being your job to deliver such message, what tips can be shared on how to present it.  Read more…

I was going to write about the “right” way to check references because I thought many people would object to my idea of the right type of reference check. You see, when I call past employers of a job candidate, I want to get the maximum amount of information they are willing to give to me. Some people feel it is intrusive and some employers won’t participate. So instead of saying “right” I am going to say “best” since this is the best way to get the maximum amount of information quickly without being unethical.

Here are my step by step instructions. The order is incredibly important so stick with it.

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As a HR professional, I am always privy to these seminars about motivating employees. If you’re in the business world in management, you probably know some of these seminars, books, speakers, training decks…heck, a whole cottage industry has been built around motivating employees. Keep your employees engaged! Give them a round of applause! Fun games in the office! Woo! Go team!

You want to have some fun? Ask a really fun question:

“Why don’t we just pay them more money?”

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In 2007, companies lost an average of $2.4 million to fraud, the majority of it by employees, up from $1.7 million in 2005, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, which conducts biannual surveys of around 5,400 companies of all sizes worldwide.

Read more at MSN

Have you been through airport security lately? I have and it isn’t much fun. And if you fly regularly, you know the routine:

• Put everything you can into your bag
• Keep your boarding pass and ID out
• Take off your shoes
• Take out your laptop
• Empty your pockets
• Take off your belt
• Take off your jacket

Then do a quick prayer and march yourself through the metal detector. Hope nothing goes wrong and your through. Read more…

Russia, Iran , Syria. These places got nothin’ on your own IT department. That’s right, according to The National Association of State Chief Information Officers the majority of cyber attacks on a company’s computing infrastructure comes from within the companies own IT staff. You may remember Terry Childs the network engineer that locked out the City of San Francisco’s IT department from it’s own computer network. That one example got major media coverage but it happens a lot more than many would think at companies all over the country. Also consider corporate espionage, disgruntled employees, identity theft and employees just out to “have some fun”, it’s enough to give you shivers down your spine. Read more…

I didn’t know how else to classify this one since it involves our favorite jolly old elf in the red suit. Maybe it’s a microcosm of society, or maybe it’s just precautionary, but an article in the New York Times today really made me think. It concerns the Postal Service and their involvement with Santa Claus; and I’m not just talking about their role in the movie “Miracle on 34th Street”. The Postal Service has participated in an Operation Santa program for over a hundred years according to Sue Brennan, a spokeswoman for the program. But this year when volunteers arrived at Manhattan’s main office, they were stunned to find out the program had been suspended, although probably temporarily. “At first, the Postal Service said the program would not resume until next year because the problem could not be fixed quickly. Later on, it said it planned to reopen the Manhattan program on Saturday, with procedural changes. It doesn’t know about other cities,” as reported by NY Times staffer N. R. Kleinfield. Read more…