THE "MULTI-TASKING" PROFESSIONAL

How many times have you, as a County Human Resource (or Personnel Director) Leader, been at a safety seminar, workshop or conference where the speaker asks who in the audience is also a safety leader "by default"? Many hands often go up, and many of those hands go up rather reluctantly, acknowledging acceptance of an unsolicited safety leader assignment added to an already busy and hectic HR role. HR representatives, especially those who work as generalists and who work directly with employees in a busy office, already respond daily to the personal and family needs of the county employee. Adding the responsibility of "safety" may be viewed as an intentional attempt to "dilute" the HR role by adding the duties and responsibilities of physical and health hazard recognition, hazard mitigation, safety training and incident response to the already full plate of HR functions, such as hiring and firing, benefits, performance reviews, payroll and compensation programs and employee social activities.

PEOPLE TOOLBOX VS. SAFETY EXCELLENCE

However, a tried, true and successful HR person already carries a toolbox of personality attributes that easily lend themselves to a leadership role in the safety function. This successful HR person holds the keys to safety excellence in his or her collection of "People Tools." Inside this toolbox are the tools of:

�         Emotional stability and maturity

�         Compassion

�         Accessibility

�         Creativity

�         A firm sense of responsibility and commitment to competence

These attributes enable the HR representative to act as a change agent, execute and promote the business strategy and vision, handle conflict and manage people. Perhaps this is why the HR leader is so often asked to be the county's safety leader.

EMOTIONAL STABILITY

By means of a mature grasp on emotional stability, the combination HR/safety leader successfully responds to stress, negative emotions and strong reactions from members of the work group. She/he offers a calm overlay to the conflicts and controversy surrounding change in the county or it's policy, direction or fluctuations and any overwhelming event, no matter how disastrous or tragic, and conversely, no matter how fortunate or providential.

A sense of compassion enables the HR/safety Leader to develop meaningful interpersonal relationships, expressing warmth, empathy and genuine concern for the needs and feelings of others. This compassion and caring strengthens the connection between the HR/safety leader and the employees.

Knowing and feeling that someone else (especially someone in a leadership role) really does understand what they care about, what they think, and what they face every day, builds a strong bond of trust between the employee and the HR/safety leader. This bond acts as a springboard to encourage employees to become actively involved in the county's safety program and to readily lend their talents and time toward successful achievement of the county's safety objectives. The bond of trust says that we are all in this together, so let's find out together what needs to be done to have a strong and vibrant safety culture and to be the best. Then let's do it together.

The successful leader acts with the team and for the team, instead of acting in isolation without the advantage of trusting interpersonal relationships. The HR/safety leader takes the tool of outgoingness and uses it as an accessibility tool. What better way to find out what is going on but to walk out and talk to various departments that make up typical county business operations; listen to the maintenance workers, ask the commissioners how their day is going, find out what happened at the prison-jail today, discover what the children and youth coordinators accomplished this week or why the cooks in the kitchen are sneezing?

Listening to concerns and talking about each employee's daily work routine is a key step toward a dialogue of suggestions and solutions. Why wait for the results of an "official" paper audit or the monthly inspection, or even worse, an employee accident or injury? The accessibility tool can be the most valuable tool in that toolbox; it will showcase the HR/safety leader's energy, excitement and enthusiasm for the employee as a person who is more than just a "human resource" or "human capital" in the county. The safety role combined with the HR role intensifies the need of the HR or safety leader to develop and implement meaningful training programs and foster a positive learning environment. Competition, technological advances, changes in regulations and needs for process improvement challenge the imagination and creativity of the leader. The successful HR Leader, who already teaches, coaches and acts as a mentor to many of the employees, can reach into that toolbox and brush off the dust from a dull and almost non-existent safety training program and turn it into a sparkling and vibrant skill-based, safety solutions program. Sound impossible? Not when you already have gained the trust and interest of many of your employees and have many offers of time and talent to put into action. Your own time and talent will be used to creatively use others' time and talents, leaving you to support, promote and cheer on your new safety teams and teachers.

Finally, the vital tool of a firm sense of responsibility, together with a commitment to competence, act to gather the responsibilities and duties of the HR or safety leader and to keep him or her pointed in the right direction in the midst of the many distractions of the workday. The HR or safety leader must attend to the details necessary for safety excellence without getting bogged down in the sticky world of work gossip, cattiness, political rivalries, unimportant minutiae, unwarranted criticism, blame and the "not my job" attitude. Keeping a clear sense of the big picture, the successful HR or safety leader stays on course, committed to not only the needs and feelings of each individual with whom they work and the county as a whole, but also committed to his or her own values and sense of well-being. This encompassing commitment lends credibility to the HR or safety representative's role as a successful leader.

SUMMARY

Ray Kroc, the King of Hamburgers (a.k.a McDonalds') once said, "It's not what you do, but the way you do it." Or it is not just about what you do, but who you are and how you use your natural and learned talents and the tools in your "People Toolbox" to achieve excellence.

Article provided by the National Association of Counties (NACo)

Recent headlines and the current economic climate highlight the importance of making sure personal and retirement investments are with a financially strong company. 

As part of its oversight of its Deferred Compensation Program, NACo hires an independent consultant to evaluate several different program aspects.  These include the creditworthiness of Nationwide Financial, the parent company to our program administrator, Nationwide Retirement Solutions (NRS), and the competiveness of the fixed annuity investment option return to our program participants. 

In their analysis of the creditworthiness of Nationwide, the consultants noted that while Nationwide continues as a strong organization even though in 2008 it was downgraded, due in part to the general economic conditions as well as some of those related specifically to the insurance industry.  In some of the indicators against which Nationwide was evaluated, they continued very strong; in others, their position weakened from the prior year.  NACo and the NACo Deferred Compensation Advisory Committee will continue to monitor Nationwide as economic conditions change in 2010.

The NACo deferred compensation program, also known as a 457 program, is a voluntary investment program that gives county employees the opportunity to save regularly for their retirement on a pre-tax basis.  One of the investment options available to participants is a fixed annuity that offers county employees the opportunity to earn an investment return at a fixed rate that is established quarterly by Nationwide.  In addition, on an annual basis, Nationwide sets an investment rate minimum (or floor) for the year. 

According to the study, the 2008 return on this investment option placed highest among its competitors.  The report was released at the November 4, 2009 meeting of NACo's Deferred Compensation Advisory Committee, held in Monterey County, California.  This study has been conducted every year since 1989, and the NACo program has always come out on top.  "Our 29-year partnership with NRS continues to deliver a quality program that helps county employees save for a more comfortable retirement - this is more important than ever in today's economy," said Larry Naake, NACo executive director.

The competitive interest rate test concluded that Nationwide met its contractual requirement to equal or exceed the top one-third of its competitors.  This study reviewed the fixed annuity option offered by Nationwide and its nine largest competitors.  

The consultants' analyses are only one feature of NACo's deferred compensation program that distinguishes it from others.  As a result of NACo's Deferred Compensation Advisory Committee, the NACo program is the only one in the country that receives oversight and is advised by county participants. It also benefits from the oversight and endorsement of 41 state associations of counties.