Below are two marketing articles I wrote for Saba, A software solutions company that focuses on people management. In each article, meant to mimic a news-style piece, I was tasked with creating a problem or need and then demonstrating how Saba products can solve those problems. These two examples were included in marketing materials and e-mail blasts sent to costumers.
Shedding the Shackles of Federal Compliance Regulations
(Saba) -- For most U.S. businesses, federal compliance regulations have always felt a bit like wearing a necktie that’s knotted too tightly. And in the wake of corporate financial scandals like Enron and WorldCom -- that left some investors and employees empty handed and Congress hopping mad -- the adoption in 2002 of large-scale federal regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) make that necktie feel more like a noose.
“(Compliance) puts everyone on the same playing field and makes everyone adhere to the same rules,” said Nyla Reed, a compliance consultant with experience in the pharmaceutical and accounting industries. “But from the business side, it (compliance) is seen as a roadblock or obstacle.”
Reed, who is also the owner of Hashmi Solutions, a company that establishes e-learning infrastructure for companies struggling to meet compliance requirements, says often business goals get lost in the rush to meet compliance needs.
“In the pharmaceutical industry, SOX is a great example of how a business can be hog-tied,” she said.
Reed has seen it happen time and time again: By the time a company decodes the complex requirements, gets all their employees on board with compliance, implements what they think is an adequate solution and then works out all the bugs, they can lose site of everything else. And the costs associated with compliance can be staggering.
A survey of more than 200 companies with average revenue above $5 billion showed that SOX 404 compliance was nearly 40 percent higher than those companies had anticipated, according to Financial Executives International. The companies surveyed shelled out an average of $4.36 million to meet federal compliance requirements.
An increase in the hours charged per audit may account for some of the elevated costs associated with compliance throughout the first year, but non-compliance has a downside too: prickly penalties and prison sentences.
The annual cost of meeting federal compliance regulations totaled $1.1 trillion in 2004, and small businesses may be hit even harder by compliance burdens than their larger counterparts, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
Businesses with more than 500 employees spent an average of $5, 282 per employee each year, while companies with fewer than 20 employees spent an average of $7,647 annually per employee, according to a recent SBA study.
When budgeting, Reed advises her clients to figure out the cost of implementation and then multiply that number by three to determine the dollars needed to adhere to all the federal regulations.
Businesses should also be aware of the hidden costs of compliance, which Jennifer O’Brien, vice president of corporate compliance with Allina Hospitals & Clinics, said include the hours employees must devote to compliance standards in addition to their regular job duties.
Another costly pitfall: “We still see inconsistency from the government in interpreting and providing guidance to questions about regulations,” O’Brien said.
Reed warns businesses that lack much central structure really suffer in the face of strict federal regulations. “You have pockets of people across the company who have made their own methods of tracking … so when audits happen immediately, to come up with that data across all groups is difficult,” she said.
O’Brien says compliance is just good business practice and it is here to stay, but she admits getting everybody on board can be a challenge. “We have to make sure we are telling employees the value of what they are doing so they sign on to our efforts,” she said.
So is the flurry of Federal regulations related to past corporate financial scandals finally petering out?
While she thinks compliance is here to stay, “the onslaught is done,” Reed said. “It takes a long time for companies to react to new requirements and now companies need more long-lasting resolutions that not only meet compliance requirements but are going to fit their business needs, too.”
Finding the Sweet Spot in Human Capital Management (HCM) Global Trends
By Helyn Trickey
(SabaNews) – Few would argue that nothing is more critical to corporate success than converting employees from a balance sheet expense to a bottom line asset.
But recruiting, developing and training bankable workers can be a daunting process.
More and more, companies are turning to Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions to support integrated learning and performance management initiatives. Several global trends, including the development and grooming of internal talent and the convergence of learning and performance, are driving forces in HCM development.
“People are our most important asset … but to really do HCM justice, you have to know the skills, desires and knowledge (levels) of your people so you can leverage them in an effective way,” says Jason Averbook, chief executive officer of Knowledge Infusion, a consulting firm specializing in HCM technology.
Averbook argues that a holistic approach to talent management will pay off in dividends in the years to come, especially as Baby Boomers retire and talent pools shrink.
“Organizations that are not planning for (the talent shortage) today are committing business planning suicide,” he says. “There’s no way to plan for not enough people … there aren’t going to be a bunch of 25 year-olds that drop out of the sky. … In today’s economy, when organizations have to grow from within, the integration of learning and performance are two of the most important components of a good HCM,” he says.
Averbook says that most companies inadvertently isolate valuable information -- like employee performance reviews, for instance, hiding them away in filing cabinets only to be dusted off once a year.
To grow from a reactive to a proactive business, he argues, organizations need to integrate performance reviews with learning systems and feedback mechanisms that allow supervisors to track progress and monitor accomplishments.
“The focus on competency management is the thread that holds this together. If organizations don’t plan for that they’ll end up with the short end of stick,” Averbook says.
He is not alone in his prediction that integrating learning with performance management is increasingly important to competitive corporations.
A 2006 report by Bersin & Associates confirms that 63 percent of respondents want to link performance, development, and learning, but that the biggest integration challenge organizations face is the integration of performance management systems with learning management systems.
As a result, many customers will choose to purchase a performance management system that easily links into their LMSs. Bersin reported.
“When judging what is truly important for a strategic HCM, there should be three criteria,” says Gabrielle Tao, Vice President of Product Solutions with Saba. “Integrated learning and performance should affect a wide audience, be a continuous effort and increase employee’s value to the company.”
For example, consider the retailer who has created a way to measure its store clerks’ performance on the job. The company is even able to isolate areas of performance that need improvement, but without a proper learning tool in place, how can that retailer begin to meet the training needs of its employees?
“On the other hand, once people in a company take training classes, it's important to tie that effort back to measuring performance; the ultimate goal of learning is to develop people,” says Tao.
Averbook agrees that finding a solution that addresses all aspects of the business chain is essential.
“The best HCM is a combo of … having good people, the processes to know what they re’ doing and the technology to enable the transition is key. With a comprehensive HCM, you’re in a certain nirvana,” he says.
