Wealth for companies ...
and for one aspiring mogul
 To better understand
the new world of HR,
there is a pivotal word
creeping into conversations
at SHRM: differentiation.
Mark Huselid and Dick Beatty—who are
professors of HR at Rutgers University, close
friends and veteran globe-trotters—fielded
questions about the concept Monday from patio
chairs on the Bayside Balcony.
"Everywhere we go, people ask us about
managing talent and about differentiation—the
way the workforce creates real wealth for companies
around strategic capabilities," Huselid
said. "They are trying to figure out the root
causes to questions like 'What are our high performers
doing? What is the function of culture,
of motivation? How do you design work? How
do you make decisions about excellence? What
are our high performers doing?'"
Beatty noted that the HR people he talks
to—from New York to New Delhi, Singapore to
San Diego—"are going to have to think like
businesspeople. ... They are going to have to
ask questions like 'What jobs are worth doing?
What jobs create wealth?'"
The strapping fellow in the stylish shirt
standing by the Snagajob booth was Bill Rancic,
who won Donald Trump's contest to work
for the billionaire on the first season of the TV
show The Apprentice.
When the job board hired Rancic as a company
spokesman, it was hoping to get 50,000
hourly postings out of the marketing campaign.
In three months, it received 58,000.
Snagajob filmed Rancic at the company
booth Monday to provide feel-good lines for a
promotional video news release. In it, Rancic
said employees "are the backbone of America.
They are what makes America great."
Conference participants lined up to meet
him, to try to win an autographed copy of his
book You're Hired, to chat with him about how
he sold $650 million worth of condos for
Trump, and to snack on a free slab of white
cake.
Douglas Towns, an Atlanta-based attorneywho represents employers in discrimination
cases, said at a morning session that even at
workplaces where racial comments or sexual
harassment aren't tolerated, jokes and discriminatory
comments about age too often are.
And that is leading to jury awards in age discriminations
cases costing companies untold
millions.
"Employers are much more tolerant about
age jokes than they are about race jokes," he
says. "For years employers got hit over the head
about the need to train and prevent sexual harassment
or problems related to race. They didn't
do the same thing for age."
Sitting near the registration desk browsing
through conference materials, Robert Shofi,
vice president of HR at Budget Truck Rental,
grumbled about how the legal environment
puts the entire onus of liability on employers.
If, for example, Budget Truck suspects that
one of its drivers has a drug problem and doesn't
do anything about it, the company is liable.
But if it offers to send the employee to drug
counseling, the onus is on the company to continue
to accommodate the employee.
Scoffed Shofi, "The current legislation is creating
a sense of entitlement in employees."
Basking in the sunshine on a convention terrace,
Kim Backes, employee relations manager
at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, talked
about how people in HR are affected by everything
that happens to a company.
Recently, the newspaper was sued by a group
of advertisers who claimed the paper misrepresented
its circulation numbers.
"My husband said, 'This won't affect you
though, right?' and I was like, 'Are you kidding
me?'"
Immediately after the suit was filed, top management
commandeered Backes and instructed
her to tell employees to save files and not to
speak to outsiders about the situation.
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