HELP! Talking points to Chairman of the Board

djacobs475

Help! I've been asked by the CEO to do a 10 minute presentation to the Chairman of the Board tomorrow morning on the benefits and importance of HR.
The accountant who was appointed by the COB doesn't see any value in HR - he sees it as a 4 hour a week job. When I came into the company I created the HR dept from the ground up since it was non-existant ( we didn't even have the compliance posters on the walls).

Any recommendations on how I should approach this presentation - what should I include? And how I can demonstrate my value as a strategic partner? x:-/

Any help would be greatly appreciated from all you HR gurus. xpray
Thanks so much.

ray a

Let's see prior to you there was no HR, no compliance posters, and probably little compliance. Start off by giving examples of other companies that were non-compliant in various areas of corporate law then tell them what you have done thus far to help your company avoid the same traps. Throw out some numbers, like multi-million dollar settlements for harassment or discrimination. Then tell them you can for the mere pittance of your salary make sure they will "save" that money by not being subject to a lawsuit or jailtime.

lorrie

In a conversation with our company president where we were discussing the impact any one particular position had on the company I brought up the notion that for some positions it is easy to see the dollar value. For example, a sales rep brings in a certain amount of revenue, and you can pretty easily calculate how much is spent on this employee (salary, benefits, etc.) compared to the actual revenue they bring in. However for some positions, such as HR, it is more difficult to calculate, because the value might be more in terms of savings than in revenue.

I pointed out that I personally like to think that I save the company millions of dollars by making sure we remain compliant with employment and safety issues. Even something as 'simple' as unemployment dollars can add up quickly if we are not careful about our documentation. I also point out that HR plays an important role in 'caring' for the employees. We may have to fire someone, but if they feel they were treated kindly and with respect then they are less likely to sue or take other retaliatory measures. Goodwill is no guarantee, but it can go a long way.

Just a few thoughts to start with.

Margaret Morford

I'd start with a PowerPoint slide that listed of 7 to 10 items that HR has contributed to the bottem line with a monetary value attached to each. For example, what were your legal fees before HR was there for the employment stuff? How many EEOC and UI charges do you handle now that the company used to have to get outside help on? Even if they didn't get outside help on these matters, someone was handling these. What is their salary and how much time were they spending on these claims? Bet your company wasn't doing a good job answering UI claims. How far down are those now that you're dealing with them. What was turn over before HR? What is it now? What does it cost to replace someone? What were benefits costs? What have you done to reduce costs or get more benefits for the same dollars? Give a quick statement of the contribution and then out to the side put the dollar value. Be sure to put the total at the bottem in bold letters. Bet it is bigger than your salary. Then smile and say, "I'm a bargain when you look at these numbers." Then do another slide with all the other things you do that you couldn't assign a monetary value to. Don't belabor those things. Just say, "And these are the things I'm doing in addition to those that you saw on the first list." Last, but not least, I'd put up a slide entitled "Most Valuable Contribution of Human Resources." Under it write in bold letters, "No Prison Time for Officers and Directors." List under that quickly all the new legislation that could send them to jail. The one that quickly come to mind is Sarbannes-Oxley. I also think there are criminal penalties for HIPAA violations. I'm sure everyone on the Forum can think of a few extras for you.

Hope that helps. Let us know how it goes.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

SMace

Do a Rent-a-center search. They were hammered recently with a huge harassment judgment. They did not have an HR dept. at all and ineffectively handled harassment comnplaints.

scottorr

You may want to mention the reduction of turnover (if that was an issue before you started). The last figure I had was $3000 for each turnover and that was three years ago. Hope this helped!

mbeam

Would also point out retention figures, internal promotions, better trained supervisors....how many complaints are coming to the COB's or CFO's attention? HR is a very good buffer for enabling them to do more strategic planning and implementation.

Would give examples - without HR, who is going to handle FMLA, Workers' Comp, making sure we're in compliance with the EEOC and in our hiring practices? Are they close enough to the day to day operations to have a good feel for the right fit for the environment you have created at your organization? Hire in haste, regret at leisure...

One of the biggest eye-openers for our team was a power point done showing "companies gone bad" - all it takes is one off-color comment by someone in a supervisory position to fell a business not to mention the two most powerful words "personal liability".

Also, a favorite to bring up - who will take care of making sure the appropriate documentation is in someone's file (good & bad) when it's time to make a decision whether it be to promote or terminate? Are they planning to keep track of who has their performance evaluations complete and that they're meaningful?