Wolverine Worldwide employees and brands “spread the warmth” this winter by donating over 80+ pairs of boots, 300+ pairs of socks, 40+ coats/jackets and a variety of food and home necessities to Heart of West Michigan United Way and North Kent Connect.
Chief Financial Credit Union once again took its team on a philanthropic development journey to give back to the local community, working with Pontiac Community Foundation and Holy Spokes to build bikes for Pontiac children in need; a part of an all staff team building event.
Within the everyday challenges of being an entrepreneur or a startup company, it can be difficult to gain perspective for a long-term strategy and development. That is where a person like Chanel Hampton comes in.
Hampton is the founder and CEO of Strategic Community Partners, a Detroit-based business that has national offices and a big-thinking perspective. She started Strategic Community Partners five years ago with the goal of taking her experience in the fields of education, business and diversity recruitment and offering her insights to organizations that want to grow with an equitable focus.
“I feel like I’m walking in my purpose and I’m very blessed,” Hampton said. “The work that I do is very personal. I love what I do every day.”
In November, Hampton and her team at Strategic Community Partners opened its new collaborative workspace in Detroit. It is the culmination of the company’s own growth as well as its dream to see others expand, hire more people and become the best at what they do, Hampton said.
Strategic Community Partners has set up shop in the city’s Fitzgerald neighborhood to create a hub where its clients – mostly nonprofit and community-minded organizations – as well as up-and-coming businesses can work together for the greater good, Hampton said.
Community space
The 2,000-square-foot space is the area’s first co-working hub and features conference rooms that serve as a multi-purpose meeting space as well as a café and a kitchen, all of which are available to the community on a drop-in or scheduled basis. Most worktime is available at low cost or free to the area community so the new HQ is collaborative and accessible, Hampton added.
“At a certain point, I knew we were outgrowing our co-working spaces and we were renting offices. I had a challenge because I needed more space for my staff but I also wanted to create a place for non-profits (and other clients) to meet, hold workshops or do interviews.”
Hampton calls what her business does “capacity building,” or helping like-minded organizations see what they can accomplish, set goals and then achieve those goals in hopes of building a bigger and better organization. This is centered around collaboration, Hampton added, making sure all parties are brought up equally.
Educational perspective
If you haven’t guessed by now, you can almost sense that Chanel Hampton was a teacher and administrator based on her aspirations and how she works. The Detroit native and self-described “Type A” personality puts education, equity and justice at the forefront of every conversation, hoping that her skills as an advisor, strategic planner and project manager will help build Detroit as well as New York, St. Louis and Washington D.C, where she also has offices.
She came home to Detroit to care for a family member but felt the strong draw to stay and be part of the city’s rebuilding. Ensuring everyone gets a fair chance at opportunity across Detroit and elsewhere remains a top priority.
“The common thread is creating equity, whether it is in education or otherwise,” Hampton said. “We’re a consulting firm with a soul that cares about the community. … This is definitely the beginning but it’s been exciting and affirming because we know we made the right choice.”
Karen Goodman Mucha recently joined the Health Care Industry Group of Plunkett Cooney. An of counsel attorney in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office, Goodman Mucha focuses her practice primarily in the area of health care law. She has over 30 years of experience as in-house counsel.
David Robinson, who recently retired as Deputy Chief of the Dearborn Police Department, was appointed by the board of directors in September to serve as Interim Executive Director of Wayne County Dispute Resolution Center, one of 18 community-based nonprofit mediation centers in Michigan.
In an effort to build brand awareness, educate consumers and get involved in the holiday shopping frenzy, a growing number of CBD-focused companies created Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales or incentives to gain new customers and build long-term relationships.
Companies say their 2019 “Cyber Weekend” events, which started late on Thanksgiving and continued through the following Monday, proved important in terms of gaining experience in what some retail observers call one of the most important three-day shopping sprees on the calendar. They also saw traction in securing relationships with curious consumers who dipped a proverbial toe in CBD products because of their discounts or special offers.
“People get excited about our Cyber Weekend sales because we bring our prices down to half,” said Jared Ballard, brand director for Hemplucid, a Utah-based CBD company that has been doing Black Friday and Cyber Monday advertisements for four years.
“We find we get a huge return rate from customers, which has been fantastic,” Ballard said. “Customers come in with these sales, they get to know our product and they get a feel for who we are as a company. We retain between 75-80 percent of them (after the sales).”
Growing landscape
Experts note that CBD businesses were smart to join the party on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, putting their products in front of shoppers. Such an effort not only helped companies gain new insights on marketing, but they also make big moves in making CBD products more mainstream.
That means CBD products are more likely than ever to be among holiday gifts exchanged this season, according to retail experts.
“As the CBD landscape continues to grow, companies are finding new avenues and media to participate in this growth,” said Larry Berg, CBD Marketing Hub founder & CEO. “Cyber Weekend was an opportunity to launch, educate and engage with consumers and bring CBD companies to the forefront so people see the industry as it matures.”
Michigan is among one of the nation’s top growing markets, according to Berg, who notes the CBD companies represent one of the nation’s fastest growing small business sectors.
Recently, Berg’s CBD Marketing Hub along with its partners CBD.io and Insyght Institute released the first-ever CBD Confidence Survey, which found that 55 percent of the survey’s respondents planned on being involved in Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday specials.
“This trend sends a clear signal that more advertising outlets are accepting CBD advertising,” Berg said. “It is a strong indication of the growing acceptance of CBD’s place among mainstream Consumer Packaged Goods.”
CBD Marketing Hub’s keyLIFT product, which leverages keywords to redirect digital consumers to brands, generated over 21 million impressions for its clients over Cyber Weekend, according to Berg.
Coupled with Cyber weekend results of CBD companies like Hemplucid, these kinds of numbers further support growing consumer interest in CBD deals and the growth potential for CBD businesses, many of which report double or even tripling their growth year-over-year.
Gift of Wellness
One example is VIDYA Formulated Hemp Therapy (CBD), which created both Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials to promote its 30 Day hemp (CBD) program pack and all one-time purchases, said Kelly Frank, VIDYA Formulated Hemp Therapy (CBD)’s CEO and founder. The Denver, Colorado-based company promoted these 50% off offers on its website and across its social media, focusing on Instagram and similar sites.
VIDYA Formulated Hemp Therapy (CBD)’s goal was to create brand awareness and drive traffic to its website, Frank says. It used a promotional campaign called focusing on the “Gift of Wellness.” Its posts and pictures encouraged shoppers to “give the gift of wellness this holiday season” and offered half off their online shopping carts with a special coupon code.
“We used our best-selling products and limited time offers to spark more interest,” Frank said. “Our 30-Day program packages are our best sellers because we have a unique approach to treat from the inside out with our topicals for targeted spot pain.”
Berg said he believes CBD companies are adapting quickly and doing smart forms of targeted marketing like Cyber Weekend sales to boost consumer confidence in their products and industry.
Frank said they are ready to try Cyber Weekend sales again next year based on these early and helpful results.
“I think building awareness of the quality of our product and having more people in our sphere of influence will certainly be a big focus for us moving forward in addition to having more retail/wholesale locations for quick pickup, sampling and awareness,” Frank said.
Howard & Howard is pleased to welcome Mary V. Pickard to the firm. She joins the Business and Corporate Group and will practice out of the Royal Oak office. Mary is licensed in the state of Michigan and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Probation officers aren’t generally known for drawing big smiles from the folks they meet.
But when you’re a probation officer who has also won the Miss Michigan USA 2020 pageant, the smiles come much more easily.
Smiles are exactly what Chanel Johnson, a probation officer with the Michigan Department of Corrections and the reigning Miss Michigan USA 2020 pageant winner, got from residents during a recent visit to Beaumont Rehabilitation and Continuing Care in Dearborn.
Johnson recently visited the Beaumont campus in Dearborn upon an invitation from her aunt, Inger Davis, a Beaumont nurse who anticipated how excited residents and staff would be to meet Miss Michigan USA.
They were not disappointed. Wearing her Miss Michigan USA crown, Johnson answered questions and autographed pageant photos, writing a personal note for each resident she met.
The first question asked by residents of the stunning Miss Michigan USA was, “How tall are you?” to which she quickly replied, “Five feet 10 inches and taller with my heels.”
Johnson, competing in her first pageant, represented the city of Southfield in the two-day pageant that took place in September, competing with nearly 70 women from throughout Michigan. Following interviews, opening numbers, swimsuit and evening gown competitions, the group of women was eventually narrowed down to the top five participants, including Johnson.
In making the final selection, the judges asked Johnson, “Do you think there should be limitation on the freedom of speech?” Johnson quickly replied, “No,” admitting she doesn’t recall everything she said, but drew nods and laughter when she told residents and staff, “My mom said it was good.”
“Chanel’s visit brightened everyone’s day. We saw big smiles on the faces of our residents and staff,” said Director of Nursing Regina Graves-Hinton. “Our Miss Michigan can be sure to have a lot of us cheering for her when she competes in the Miss USA pageant in spring 2020.”
Well-known West Michigan entrepreneurs Shelby Reno and Sara Grey have announced plans to open indoor cycling studio LUNAR CYCLE in early 2020 at a popular Third Coast Development building along the Medical Mile corridor of downtown Grand Rapids.
Learn more at www.lunarcyclestudio.com.
Corp! Magazine in the July-August issue reported a general slowing in Michigan’s economy, though it was not seen by the half-dozen economists interviewed to be worrisome.
After that report, a United Auto Workers strike was called against General Motors on Sept 15.
The strike certainly created challenges felt across the state, particularly in the supplier territory of West Michigan. Business reporting during the strike and through earnings calls was measured among public — but not the private — companies supplying automakers.
Gentex, a Tier One supplier of auto-dimming mirrors and automotive technology, lowered its full-year forecast, expecting $7 to $8 million in lost sales per week for the duration of the 40-day strike.
Early warning system
Brian G. Long, director of Supply Management Research, has been providing an “early warning system” of the state’s supply chain for 40 years, and those reports are included in the comprehensive U.S. and world economic outlook by the Institute of Supply Management.
In his most recent report in mid-November, Long noted few — if any — firms in the West Michigan area supply only GM, and those firms were able to shuffle production schedules to avoid layoffs and stockpile orders in anticipation that resumption of production at GM would result in overtime schedules and immediate demands for supplier deliveries.
Long noted, however, some layoffs began at day 40 of the strike, as suppliers began to feel the crunch. The new report shows new orders dropped significantly and the production index “plunged.” Purchases, however, fared better, dropping from an index measure of -6 to -21.
Jim Robey, director of Regional Planning Services at W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, said the strike impact to suppliers hurt but there had been a buy down in 90-day vehicle supply.
A greater impact
He added the move to hybrids and electric vehicles will have greater impacts on the Auto Alley states in the long run, as will the PSA Peugeot Citroen-Chrysler merger.
Robey, who also serves on the Chicago Federal Reserve Board industry roundtable, cited consistently slower growth of 1.9 percent, “which is consistent with trend.” In fact, he said, “economic growth overall is considered to be on trend.” This mirrors the July-August Corp! report.
Several Michigan financial institutions have issued recent reports of economic activity, expecting 2020 to be on trend. None sees signs of a recession. As Robey noted, “We have been in the longest recovery in U.S. history. But recessions do not come about based on a timeline; they come about because of good and bad decisions.” Long, however, expects multiple quarters into 2020 to show growth in the 1% range based on supply management surveys in West Michigan.
Robey noted general concerns to watch including China trade wars, Brexit and a slowing EU economy. Long’s report specifically noted China trade as an impediment to the West Michigan furniture industry. Referencing the quarterly furniture industry analysis by Dunlap & Associates showing gross shipments dropped sharply from 74 in July to 58 in the November analysis, author Mike Dunlap indicated impacts will remain into the first quarter of 2020.
Business impact
An interesting aside from Robey: unemployment rates in Ottawa, Kent and Allegan counties are the lowest in the state and, while finding workers remains a big impact on business, a cooling in the economy will help mitigate the gap between jobs open and people available.
He believes economic measures often focus on unemployment numbers but should focus more on productivity. “We see Increased output for workers, and adoption of new technologies. It is about output and not as much about employment or unemployment numbers. Output is increasing because of productivity. We often do not look at that.”
He noted the Bureau of Economic Analysis November reports show investment is down significantly, but Robey is seeing anecdotal evidence of innovation: small and mid-size companies creating and building their own equipment. He notes that is not measured as part of investment.
Robey’s biggest concern for economic growth going forward may be surprising: affordable housing. “The American Community Survey, conducted through the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows workers are now paying 33% to 40% of income for housing,” Robey said. “To have a good labor force the workers need affordable housing. The strength of this region is its labor force.”
Carole Valade was most recently Associate Publisher and Editor of Gemini Publications, responsible for editorial policy, planning and development of publications and the editorial staffs of all Gemini publications, Grand Rapids Magazine, Grand Rapids Business Journal, www.GRBJ.com and Michigan Blue Magazine. She joined Gemini Publications in 1987, and was one of the first women in the U.S. to be named editor of a regional business newspaper. An award-winning journalist, Valade is very active in the West Michigan community, serving on the boards of numerous organizations.
For some years, Michigan employers have expressed concern they can’t find workers with the right skills for their job openings. That problem has become more pronounced as the state’s unemployment rate has dropped to a low of 4.2%.
In addition, many companies are changing their business focus and need employees with different or more advanced skills than in the past. What’s an employer to do?
“Competition for employees is really fierce and employers have to be at the top of their game,” said Mary Feuerbach, Michigan’s workforce readiness director for the national Society for Human Resource Management. She travels all over the state to help employers with training and other workforce-related programs.
Traditionally, many employers of all types and sizes have relied on training to teach their workers about new products, policies, processes or organizational changes. But experts agree the global economy is becoming more competitive and that the pace of change is increasing.
New skills required
“Every organization is transforming digitally. It changes how people work. People have to expand their capacity. It could be a need to do their job differently. A customer service representative may need to use software,” explained Gene Mage, managing director of Custom Programs for Executive Education at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
“For a high-performance company, the training budget and line item are valued as ways to be more competitive and seek revenue sources,” said Feuerbach, who is also a human resource administrator for Hannahville Indian Community, which has 1,100 employees in the community’s government offices and casino.
Upskilling is really important in a tight labor market, according to Leian Royce, vice president of strategic change at Accelerated Knowledge, a training firm based in Muskegon, Mich. Their clients include financial services, insurance, health care and pharmaceutical companies.
“Human resources staff members should partner with operations to look at skills now and what they will need in the future. You know your employees and can offer better career paths for them,” said Royce, who recommends that learning teams develop the curriculum.
Retraining offers advantages
McKinsey Global Institute predicts that by 2030, approximately 14% of the workforce will have to change careers because of automation and artificial intelligence. Even now, as companies transform their products and services to compete globally, workers may need new skills in order to be productive. Manufacturing workers who lose their jobs after the closing of auto plants, for example, may need to be retrained, sometimes at vocational schools, in order to find new jobs, said Jennifer Eichenberg, a corporate trainer based in Northville, Mich.
But attending school — whether a vocational school or college — takes time, Feuerbach points out. Training provided by an employer is quicker and helps to retain the employee.
Retraining current workers offers several advantages. First, since unemployment is so low, competition is keen for new workers and it can be difficult to recruit and retain them. But workers who are already part of an organization are familiar with and presumably compatible with its culture and goals, so they have an advantage over new recruits.
Upskilling and reskilling are the new buzzwords for training. Both refer to instructional programs that help employees enhance their current knowledge and sometimes learn totally new skills. Training traditionally has been mostly “top down” — instructors delivering content to employees, maybe with a video or PowerPoint presentation, with limited interaction or initiative on the student’s part. New technology now enables students to access training themselves, when they need it.
Mixed approach of digital, in-person
Improved accessibility is cited as a key advantage of web-based training. According to Ellyn Shook, chief leadership and human resources officer at Accenture, quoted in Human Resources Magazine, when one of their clients shifted from 100% classroom training to 75% digital-based training, average participation increased 92%.
Eichenberg notes that web-based training has the advantages of having a long shelf life and being easy to change. Today’s web-based training has many variations and special features. Its foremost benefit is that employees in different locations who may work different shifts can access the same material at their convenience. It is “on demand,” which U-M’s Mage points out is how most people access their entertainment or shop today.
“Most people have a smartphone and most do courses on their phones,” he said.
“Consumers are pushing organizations that in many cases had lagged in technology,” said Royce. She cites the smart watches that enable individuals with chronic health problems to track vital measurements.
Digital or web-based learning does not necessarily mean one-way instruction through a webinar with the ability to submit questions by email. It can include videos (sometimes accessed through YouTube), software that helps employees track their progress in a course, and simulation of work situations.
Of course, it’s not the same as being in a room with co-workers and enjoying the social and work-related give-and-take of an in-person session. But organizational trainers stress that companies can use a mix of methods to achieve their goals.
Royce said a “blended approach” with in-person and web components, along with team aspects, is effective. Mentors can be available for questions and workshops can provide follow-up. She adds that case studies can provide an opportunity to enhance training.
The effectiveness of any training program depends on its goals, content and how it is delivered. Training programs should encompass “reading needs and taking into account the nuances of their (the company’s) culture through tailoring and customizing,” Mage recommends.
“Organizations should use a variety of both younger and older instructional designers. The younger individuals may be early in their careers, but are more aware of the application of technology,” Royce said.
Trainers suggest that millennial employees have special needs and interests. Royce says that they want interactive, interesting learning opportunities.
“Millennials are more organic learners — they are going to YouTube and Google — to sources that may not be vetted or accurate,” said Royce.
She adds that they like “micro-learning” — the ability to find web-based instruction for very specific topics. They may ask, “What are we supposed to know after 15 minutes?” Royce says.
Leadership training increasingly popular
Leadership training, a specialized form of organizational training, is also undergoing content and methodology changes. “More and more companies are doing it, because the environment is more complex and they are using a leadership competency model,” says Eichenberg.
Management development was the term often used in the past when this training focused on operational issues such as budgets and staffing. Now leaders need to be able to help their employees cope with new technology and other changes — whether technical or organizational, she explained.
The University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business offers a range of executive and leadership programs, including some that are customized for a particular client organization. Their programs are offered at the employer’s site or in Ann Arbor, Mich., which takes participants away from potential job-related distractions, Mage explained. Also, executives may be geographically dispersed and meeting together provides “face-to-face interaction with the chance to build relationships and connect,” he added.
The university’s programs for senior level executives may encompass meetings three or four times a year or every six months for three years. Programs may use synchronous digital instruction with participants signing on together with their classmates. The instructor can see 60 people at one time, Mage explained. There are also “hybrid” programs which include digital instruction with face-to-face components. “People want accessibility,” he said.
Eichenberg concurred. “You don’t teach leadership solely by watching videos or through books or e-learning, which are passive forms of learning,” she said, adding that quarterly programs can facilitate communication.
Training for change
Change management is another growing, specialized area of training. “Every industry is going through disruption and there is acceleration in the pace of disruption,” Mage said.
This challenges employees, managers and leaders. A key question, Royce explained, is how the company culture will change. Leaders have to communicate and listen.
“The world is transforming very quickly. People want to know how change will affect them — will they come out okay, how will their needs be met? Leaders need to ask, ‘What will we need to do to get through change?’” said Royce. She says that training can help managers effectively support the change — whether it’s a large companywide IT project or structural transformation.
Whether the goal is teaching casino workers how to fix a slot machine that takes credit cards rather than coins, or preparing a corporation for a new employee evaluation system, training is a fundamental tool. Fortunately, technology is making training more personalized and easy to obtain.
“There is lots of content you can access. The challenge is to curate it in the right way and time, so there is a coherent journey and sequence for the learner, so that they are learning and growing in their ability to do their job and as a person,” Mage said.
HR is putting the emphasis on technology in a big way, which seems counterintuitive in an area where the first letter stands for human.
The big push toward “best in breed” and “nudge” applications are the latest trends in the field, which is known for glomming onto trends and buzz-phrases. The major phenomenon pushing its way through corporate boardrooms is the implementation of “AI,” or artificial intelligence, which is being met with equal amounts of wonder and skepticism.
This much is known: the days of manually filling out a timecard with a Bic pen or poring over a handwritten job performance review are the Dodo bird and the sundial of today’s workplace. Databases, algorithms and cloud-based solutions are time-savers, which, ideally, free HR people from reams of unnecessary paperwork to perform more essential strategic tasks.
However, there will always be some lingering doubt whether binary code or data sets can ever replace intuition or gut instinct of those people in an HR department.
“Technology and AI are just genuinely changing the scope and the landscape of HR in service delivery,” said David Turner, vice president of human resources at Eastern Michigan University. “It is kind of a reinvention of HR, in terms of how you look at process, improvement, change, management, planning, strategy, innovation, and talent acquisition, which is huge in most organizations, including institutions like ours.
“It’s about how you get to that talent. So, you are trying to find ways to revolutionize your processes in such a manner that it is agile, so that applicants, whether they are passive applicants or active applicants … you want it where people are not spending their time moving through your employment process and they are actually focused on the work that you want to have them doing and how innovative you are in the marketplace and those sorts of things.”
Transactional HR — tasks such as payroll, benefits, orientation, training and evaluation — are rife with software options for companies ranging from small to Fortune 500 in size. Costs can be based by user or month and run as little as $1,000 or run 10 times as much, depending on whether it is an enterprise or premium system with workflow and compliance management systems bundled with it.
Measuring up
HR software is particularly useful when it comes to data analytics, taking a page from author Michael Lewis’ “Moneyball” and using it in the workplace. Sales figures or other tangible employee performance measurements can be tracked over time, which can be useful when deploying staff and filling roles within a company.
“It depends whether they want a human resource management system,” said Scott Trossen, founder of Ann Arbor-based Michigan HR Group, which works with numerous small organizations that do not have human resource organizations in place.
Trossen, who is quite tech savvy, also serves as a consultant to national private equity firms on HR matters.
HR software has broken into two camps: the end-to-end approach, where all applications are integrated into one suite; and the best of breed, which takes the finest third-party performers in each category: payroll, applicant tracking and training.
The upside of end-to-end HR suites is seamless integration; the downside is their difficulty when it comes to customization. Best of breed offers content rich features, but integration with other applications may be an issue.
“A company has probably already thought about whether they want what we call the ‘best in breed,’ which is ‘I have a module for applicant tracking and they all have to talk to each other,’ which is really a struggle in HR,” Trossen said.
Several firms increasingly move HR functions such as payroll, benefits, training and recruiting to the cloud, which creates its own host of issues for companies tied to legacy systems, said Jon Brickner of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based HR Collaborative.
“APIs (application program interface) are how these programs talk to each other,” said Brickner, whose company works with mid-market clients to design custom HR solutions.
“I think the HR technology that is not open API or significantly evolved API is very limiting. These kinds of very ingrained, more SAP Oracle, legacy systems that are very proprietary to a company, just don’t move at the speed of businesses. There is always a new app, a new cloud-based system that allows people to do things more efficiently.
“So, you need that app to talk to the other apps that they already have. It’s the connection between the apps that is really the big trend right now.”
He continued: “If you’re looking at a cloud system that doesn’t have APIs to the other things that you already have in place, you should probably keep looking, because there is one that does. You want to create a seamless experience for your employees. You make sure that you don’t want this manual connection to spreadsheets (and other tools). That’s the whole point of making it more efficient. We know organizations that regularly use data to make decisions are 20 to 40% more productive than organizations that don’t.”
People skills
Rick DeShon knows about data, but he and his wife Karen are well-versed in people.
The couple formed Coetic HR in East Lansing, a firm specializing in strategic and organizational human resources consulting. Coetic has Dell Technologies, the United Methodist Church and numerous credit unions among its clients. Both Rick and Karen have doctorates.
Rick DeShon, who knew how to code in Fortran, C, C+ and Python, enabled Coetic to share its philosophies and core principles through a computer application.
The company has an online dashboard that enables users to develop strategies to become “meaningful, high-impact” business leaders. Included in the list of team building exercises are “WorkWeek Nudges,” which come across as completely different from what’s being characterized as “nudge-based” technology emerging in HR circles.
In the latter, one innovation allows a message to be sent to employees who appear to be dawdling, if there appears to be a lengthy amount of inactivity at their workstations, according to a January story published by Society for Human Resource Management.
“We have WorkWeek Nudges, inspirational messages,” DeShon said. “They don’t monitor behavior. Monitoring behavior is the kind of organization we wouldn’t want to work with. What we would be striving for are organizations that trust … organizations that build strong relationships with people and trusting relationships between people.
“When you are in this constant notion of contracts and legal environments and monitoring, you’re not in an environment of trust. You are not a team working together. So, if I am monitoring a call center, you are not a team. You are some employees and I am paying you for your time. You do your job and I want to make sure I am not getting gypped out of my time I am paying for, so I am monitoring you,” explains DeShon. “We’re in a pure exchange relationship. ‘I am buying some of your time. I want all of your time I am buying; don’t cheat me out of my time.’ That is not a team. That is not a team working toward a mission.”
He added, “Accountability is critically important. Monitoring is missing that mark 100%. We wouldn’t support that technology.”
Nudging has a role as a gentle reminder or a poke, HR Collaborative’s Brickner said. The former chief development officer with Northwestern Mutual cites Gmail and the notices it sends to users when you ask a question and haven’t followed up.
“We’re seeing that in terms of our HRIS with onboarding, ‘Hey, this didn’t get completed.’ Rather than waiting for someone to go in and do a batch report, it’s now nudging the administrator to follow up on particular people,” Brickner said.
Training reels
Another area where technology has made a big impact in HR is training.
What used to require a conference room with a roomful of employees can now be accomplished individually through online videos. Micro-learning can even be done on one’s phone.
“We’re seeing more and more organizations do 30-second to two-minute series of videos so that people can consume the information they need when they need it and how they need it,” Brickner said. “I call it snack-sized learning. That is definitely a trend we’re seeing.
“Inside organizations, 40% of messages and communications and even learning and applications are consumed on mobile devices (phones and tablets),” he added. “Almost every talent acquisition, performance management and any cloud-based apps are making sure they are mobile-enabled to allow that productivity to happen, because a larger portion of the workforce is going to be contingent (mobile based) by 2020.”
The human factor
HR and technology are still grappling with the hiring process. A story published in the May 2019 Harvard Business Review found that most hiring algorithms “drift toward bias by default.”
Last year, Amazon scrapped its recruiting process, which relied on an algorithm developed in-house, that inadvertently discriminated against women.
“That’s why it’s important for hiring managers to be involved from the get-go,” Brickner said.
“There is a lot of research that says the least valuable part of the process is the interview process because now anyone can sort of Google questions and sort of prepare and basically can become a performer,” he said. “It’s really about the front-end, making sure we source a diverse plate of good candidates and that needs to be done by a human.
“There is too much bias in AI because it’s just in its infancy. I think it’s possible, but there are platforms that do help with that … algorithms built for diverse populations that can help. You still want to make sure you have a human involved in the sourcing piece and in the assessment piece.”
Despite those bumps, observers believe AI has a vital role to play. The hype has not helped, though, said Rick DeShon.
“We don’t even use the AI label. We just call it machine learning, which is what it is,” he said. “Machine learning is a very powerful set of tools that can help us to get better insights into whatever problems we are solving, whether they are in the HR space or the medical space.
“They are very valuable tools. They are not magic. The marketing people made it crazy. I don’t know if you remember IBM Watson, which was going to save the world. It can’t do it.”
DeShon is stunned by another trend when it comes to human interconnectivity and technology: we’re further apart than ever.
He cites his use of Skype, which allows people a chance to interface with video, as well as talk on the phone. Most of the time the video screen is blank.
“Why is that?” he asked. “This is a chance for us to have a human moment. This is a chance for technology to provide us with a human moment, a relational moment, a connection … and we forgo it.
“That basic point I want to make is that we have some really great technologies in the HR space. What we need is to bring people together, to continue to have the human element, the relational element supported in our system as we work together to achieve the mission of this organization.”
He concludes, “I think the technology right now is great, but I don’t think it is bringing us together. If anything, it is pulling us apart.”
Experts say automation could reshape Michigan’s future workforce. Anticipating just such an occurrence, companies like Bosch are getting ready early.
Anticipating growth in areas including digitalization and connectivity, automation, AI, cybersecurity and automated vehicles, among others, Bosch officials know the “principles of robotics apply in many of those areas and provide foundational elements in a number of businesses.
In order to bridge the skills gap that will likely exist, Kavita Phadke, director of learning and development for Bosch in North America, said companies need “a learning, growth and adaptability mindset across the organization.”
“This means we need to continue to further develop our culture of continuous learning and ensure we put the right, diverse learning resources into the hands of our workforce to allow them to gain knowledge quickly and in the moment of need,” Phadke said. “This also means we must focus on up-skilling programs and look at varying talent pipelines to help shape our future workforce. This will include unique approaches like apprenticeship programs and will require us to look at the skills that are needed in the future.”
Burgeoning industry
Meanwhile, engineering students at Northwestern Michigan College program autonomous rovers to inspect environments underwater and in the air in-real time.
The rovers aren’t the only things on the move in a burgeoning robotics industry that experts say is a key to Michigan’s economy.
“We’re always going to be trying to move to some new technology – and we just kind of have to be ready for it,” said Jason Slade, the director of technical academics at the Traverse City school.
Michigan is a leader in both manufacturing robots and in training employers to use them. Michigan leads the U.S. with more than 28,000 robots mostly engineered in state, 12% of the nation’s total, according to a 2017 Brookings Institution report.
The Robotic Industries Association (RIA), part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), today announced that North American robot unit orders are up 5.2% through the third quarter, compared to 2018 results. So far this year, North American companies have ordered 23,894 robotic units, valued at $1.3 billion.
Looking at third-quarter results only, North American companies ordered 7,446 robots, valued at $438 million. Both units ordered and revenue are up 1% in the quarter compared to 2018.
Labor pool gap
The state’s aging population creates a gap in the skilled labor pool that automation could fill, said Joseph Cvengros, a vice president at FANUC America, a Rochester Hills company that recently opened a 461,000-square-foot robot factory.
“The next generation isn’t as large so the way that companies are going to stay competitive is to have a balance of highly technical skilled people and automation,” he said.
The change doesn’t eliminate humans from the process, said Rep. Brian Elder, D-Bay City. Elder also chairs the House labor caucus.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to reach a point in which we don’t need human beings to do manufacturing work,” Elder said. “Every once in a while people will say, ‘everything is going to go away,’ and that’s just not true. Will things be different? Undoubtedly.”
The rise in Michigan of industrial robots that are getting smaller and smarter isn’t surprising, said Drew Coleman, the director of foreign direct investment, growth and development for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC).
“We’ve had robots and automation since Henry Ford invented the assembly line,” Coleman said. “If you think of anything that you buy, it’s been touched by a robot likely at some point.”
Highly skilled job source
And experts say rather than looking at them as worker replacements, they should be viewed as the source of highly skilled jobs.
“We believe that this is opening up opportunities for Michigan in making us more competitive,” Cvengros said.
Bosch has taken a unique approach to opening up those opportunities, having made a vast investment into programs such as FIRST Robotics, sponsoring robotics teams at several local high schools.
By working with high school students who are passionate about robotics and engineering, Bosch “starts to create a pipeline of talent that can support our workforce needs in the future,” according to Phadke.
Knowing there’s an ever-increasing focus on connectivity and digitalization, Bosch is “committed to supporting programs that develop STEM skill sets” in future talent as early as possible. Many Bosch associates volunteer to support FIRST Robotics programs and serve as mentors to the students.
Bosch mentorships have seen students from robotics programs join the company as trainees and associate engineers.
“These students credit the Bosch associates who mentored them in high school and opened their eyes to the type of work that engineers do at Bosch,” Phadke said. “We are proud to support STEM initiatives like FIRST Robotics knowing that we can have an impact on shaping the future workforce in Michigan and across the country.”
Automation applications
Automation has applications as diverse as more precise surgeries and self-driving semi-trucks, said Otie McKinley, the MEDC’s media and communications manager.
It requires “a transition of skill sets from the current workforce in addition to the attraction of a new workforce,” McKinley said.
Elder said the recent deal between the United Auto Workers and General Motors allowed for specific automation technology training for workers.
“The corporations and the union understand that well-trained workers will continue to make products that are good enough to demand market share,” Elder said.
Community colleges are stepping up with training programs that work with local employers, said Michael Hansen, the president of the Michigan Community College Association.
Training programs
Schools with FANUC-certified education programs partner with companies looking to hire graduates skilled in programming and using robots in the workplace, Cvengros said.
Michigan Technological University partnered with Bay De Noc Community College in the Upper Peninsula to create a robotics and software development program in 2018. The hands-on training program offers an easy path for transferring from the community college to the university, said Aleksandr Sergeyev, a Michigan Tech electrical engineering professor.
The “mechatronics” degree path encompasses electrical and mechanical engineering, robotics, automation and cybersecurity skills.
“I have seen that need in mechatronics for a long, long time,” Sergeyev said. “It doesn’t teach you the depth, it teaches the breadth.”
Sergeyev is a FANUC-certified professor who can train students for jobs in automation.
Professors with that certification can also train company professionals, ensuring that they both use the most updated software, Sergeyev said.
Internal surveys showed that80% of Michigan Tech undergraduates are interested in taking the additional time required to complete a mechatronics degree and 85% of companies want their workers to have it, Sergeyev said.
Slade said a challenge is to prepare technology students for rapid changes.
“We have the hope that they’ll be able to use technology right now, but then adapt to new technology that comes online,” Slade said.
Evan Jones of Capital News Service contributed to this report.
What’s the cost of a bad hire? It’s much more than you think.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the actual dollar figure can be as high as 30% of the employee’s first-year earning potential. When you add in the loss of productivity and possible damage to customer relationships and your workplace culture, the overall price tag can be huge.
In order to grow your business, you need to have the right people on board. And that starts with the hiring process. Finding the perfect fit for each position in your company is a skill that can be learned. So, to help you get started I’ve listed a few of the biggest missteps and how to avoid them.
Mistake: Hiring too quickly
As an entrepreneur, it’s probably in your nature to get things done and move quickly while doing them. When it comes to hiring, this is the worst thing you can do. If you rush filling a position, odds are you’ll soon be trying to fill that same position again.
Take your time and wait for the perfect person for the job. “Good enough” is simply not good enough. At my company, the hiring process consists of several interviews over a period of weeks or even months. We even interview the candidate’s spouse. A husband or wife can tell you pretty quickly whether the position is right for that person, and if it will be a fit for the family.
The next time you interview someone, start the process with a 30-minute “get-to-know-you” initial meeting. Your objective is to listen, and ask a few questions. It’s a great way to weed out the less-desirable candidates, and sniff out the winners who will continue to the next round.
Mistake: Vague job description
Have you ever hired someone before you’ve actually figured out their duties? Then, three or four months down the road you can’t figure out why things aren’t running smoothly? If you said yes, you’re not alone. Not showing team members — especially new team members — how to win at their jobs is one of the most common mistakes small-business owners make.
Create a detailed, written job description before you hire someone for a position. We call it a Key Results Area (KRA). A KRA clearly defines, in detail, what the team member needs to do to be successful in their job. By writing the requirements down, you clarify the position for both yourself and your potential new hire.
Mistake: Hiring employees instead of team members
When interviewing a candidate for a position, your sole focus should be on experience. If they can do the job, the rest will naturally follow, right?
Not always.
My advice is to look for passion and talent. Do their eyes light up when they talk about the job? Are they full of enthusiasm and on fire for what you’re doing? Your goal should be finding a team member who will be on a crusade for your company.
And this may be easier than you think. In many cases, your best bet for finding quality team members is through the ones you already have.
Make a commitment to ask your staff for referrals. Remind them to recommend only the cream of the crop. Remember, you have an awesome place to work. Don’t spoil it with a lot of craziness and drama!
Leadership and small business expert Dave Ramsey is CEO of Ramsey Solutions. He has authored numerous best-selling books, including EntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by 16 million listeners each week on more than 600 radio stations and multiple digital platforms. Follow Dave at entreleadership.com on the web.
Telehealth – that remote or online way for doctors to “Facetime” with patients who need to talk to their physicians or receive similar aid – has great potential to help communication between medical professionals and those they seek to help, officials said.
That is especially true in key areas such as rural communities, as well as in professions that could use this technique effectively, particularly psychiatry or consultations with specialists, experts explained.
For example, telehealth could be a boon for Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for Opioid Use Disorder. In order to prescribe buprenorphine, one of the common medications, for a patient with Opioid Use Disorder, prescribers must complete additional training and obtain a waiver.
So using telehealth has the potential to help increase access to not only psychiatrists and psychologists for addiction counseling, but also to prescribers who have obtained the waiver and can prescribe buprenorphine, said Emma Steppe, MPH, Project Manager, Strategic Initiatives & Programs for the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan.
Steppe said more than 600 University faculty members across industries such as nursing or public health are studying how telehealth care if delivered, evaluating things such as potential innovations in cost and patient experience.
Big buzz
Given the amount of “buzz” around telehealth and its potential, it makes sense that larger institutions such as the University of Michigan and others are investigating this method of medical intervention and its best uses, experts say. That is especially true in states such as Michigan, where residents in “up north” communities such as those in the Upper Peninsula would benefit from such techniques when it comes to talking to their doctors or specialists, Steppe added.
“A lot of times, there’s healthcare and primary care access but access to specialists can be limited in rural areas,” Steppe explained. “People will travel 6-7 hours to drive to (the University of Michigan) for a 15-minute consultation with a urologist. If you need to do a (physical) exam, that makes sense. But for consultations or follow ups, telehealth visits” may be useful.
Another possible use for telehealth offerings is detecting when a patient has fallen in his or her home by measuring heart and breathing rates.
“The fall is a really big problem in health care,” said Kevin Lasser, the chief executive officer of JEMS Technology, a Troy health care technology company.
Promising developments
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that falls cost U.S. health care systems $50 billion a year. Technology could help. Companies like Lasser’s may use artificial intelligence to notify medical practitioners within 30 seconds of someone falling, as opposed to practitioners not hearing for sometimes hours.
Continued innovation in telehealth — providing online and video healthcare — is growing in Michigan despite challenges. It won’t work with flu shots, but it is a promising development for psychiatry, dermatology and stroke care, according to Dr. Chad Ellimoottil, who spearheads the Telehealth Research Incubator at the University of Michigan.
Recently, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services received a $1.6 million federal grant to improve rural telehealth services for children with epilepsy. More than 13,000 Michigan children up to 17 years old have active epilepsy, according to the department. The grant is meant to improve collaboration and communication between primary and specialty care providers.
And a bill that would allow for the expansion of remote pharmacies, sponsored by state Sen. Curt VanderWall, R-Ludington, passed the state senate Sept. 5 and is now before the house.
Telehealth inventions
Ten years ago JEMS Technology invented a live-streaming and secure video services for telehealth, Lasser said. The invention was the first of its kind in providing internet connection which safeguarded medical privacy.
Such technology has since spread nationwide. Now JEMS Technology also has agreements with health systems in China.
“Telehealth has become a commodity,” Lasser said. “There’s a lot of different options, and that’s good, because telehealth helps people.”
A resurgence in telehealth interest followed new federal rules that allow Medicare to cover it, health experts say.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan began reimbursing some telehealth services in 2016, according to the nonprofit mutual insurance company’s medical policy. That was primarily to serve rural patients.
Sustainability concerns
Some Michigan health departments have done very well and grown their telehealth services, but others are still falling behind, Ellimoottil said. In the last 12 months some providers have held less than 10 telehealth visits, even though they initially showed interest in the services.
“They’re interested and they start to get their programs going, but they can’t sustain them,” he said.
Reliable access to the internet can partly explain the lack of sustainability. It is a concern of many experts.
Ellimoottil’s center analyzes the impact of telehealth on cost, quality, access and patient experience in Michigan. Michigan is about average for integrating telehealth services into its health care system, he said.
Michigan’s policy on telehealth is moderate, in which state law and Medicaid policy are mixed or moderately support the broad use of telehealth, according to Becker’s Hospital Review, a publication for hospital executives. States like Alaska, Minnesota and Nebraska are listed as progressive.
“I don’t think that we’re far ahead and I don’t think that we’re necessarily far behind,” Ellimoottil said. “There’s only so much the state can do.”
Among the challenges is that video conferences can be burdensome to doctors and nurses with an already full workload, Lasser said.
“It’s an upward trend, but health care is not an industry that moves very fast,” Lasser said.
Others agree.
“We’re asking people to change the way they work, and that becomes a little bit more difficult,” said Bree Holtz, the director of Michigan State University’s Health and Risk Communication graduate program.
Requiring patients to drive to a clinic or hospital to utilize computer connections for specialist consultation prevents patients from connecting at home, Ellimoottil said.
Providers need a state license to see patients, and health licenses aren’t easily transferable between states. This problem prompted the creation of an inter-state compact to issue licenses between states more easily. Michigan joined it in 2018.
Providers with the Veterans Health Administration can operate between states, avoiding this problem entirely.
“The VA has actually had really nice integration of telehealth and uses it quite a lot,” Holtz said.
As technology improves and becomes more distributed, telehealth may be an inevitability for Michigan health systems, Holtz said.
“The doctors might have to adopt an integrated internet care faster than maybe they would want to or normally would,” she said.
The Rochester Regional Chamber of Commerce recently named Ashley Chambers as the 2019 Young Professional of the Year at this year’s Sunrise Pinnacle Awards. “Ashley is truly a bright and generous individual,” said David Walker, Rochester Hills City Council Member and Chamber Ambassador.
The most commonly heard joke around the holidays has to do with fruitcakes – someone once suggested that there is only one fruitcake in existence and that everyone circulates that singular dessert item every year.
The fruitcake, in other words, became a cultural joke, the subject matter for every stand-up comic every Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza. But that same fruit-filled cake actually can be a delicious offering if it is done correctly, according to one local bakery.
Ackroyd’s Scottish Bakery in Redford has created its own tasty fruitcake with the goal of changing people’s minds about this annual treat. The bakers there have come up with a new recipe that is beautiful to eat and to gift to party hosts, colleagues and foodies of every kind, according to owner Megan Ackroyd.
In case you don’t believe her, consider how much the fruitcake has changed over the years. Zingerman’s sells out of Robert Lambert’s aged fruitcakes each year. Lambert has vintage cakes going for more than $100. And Date Lady has been hugely popular since they introduced their cakes a few years back.
Fruitcake frenzy
Ackroyd’s has been selling imported fruitcakes for years, which are in high demand around the holidays. But the bakers there know that a mass-produced product just isn’t the same. That is why they decided to begin baking their own, and the Ackroyd’s fruitcake sold well last year, Megan Ackroyd said.
In fact, Ackroyd’s expects to sell several hundred cakes this season. Surprised? Well, maybe that means it is time that you tried fruitcake again.
“This isn’t our family recipe. It’s not even something we served in my family,” Megan Ackroyd admitted. “That’s due to the fact that most of what we’ve tried in the past wasn’t very good.”
So how do you change fruitcake’s bad reputation for preservatives, oddly color fruit bits and unpalatable flavor? You come up with your own take on the traditional, Megan Ackroyd said.
Everyone in the store put their collective heads together and came up with a new recipe – and Megan Ackroyd herself now admits she is a fan of what they put together.
“What we wanted to do was take the best of the best ingredients and make a great cake that tasted like the ingredients in it,” Megan Ackroyd said. “Our fruitcake has no artificial preservatives. … I’ve been really impressed with it. When I sampled it, I really enjoyed it. I went back to it several times and kept eating it. I was shocked by that at first, but now I really enjoy it.”
Special occasions
Joe Hakim, who works with Ackroyd’s Bakery on its food and marketing, said that many people in the United Kingdom serve fruitcake on special occasions. In fact, it is considered something you’d expect royalty to serve. Creating a fruitcake that lives up to that expectation was the goal, and he believes Ackroyd’s has met that and then some.
“It has that sense of royalty and luxury that goes along with these cakes in the UK,” Hakim said. “We’re trying to dispel that myth (of what fruitcakes are as a joke) and focus on what makes fruitcake great. It’s got dried fruit, nuts, rum – all those things that make fruitcake special in our handmade product versus industrial-made bricks like commercially made ones are.”
Food traditions are incredibly important to Ackroyd’s, which recently celebrated 70 years in business, Megan Ackroyd said. That is why fruitcake had to join other bakery favorites such as sausage rolls, steak pies and baked goods such as tea cakes and biscuits.
“These are family traditions and the holidays wouldn’t be the same without them. A lot of people come to Ackroyd’s to get these traditional products, and we appreciate them,” Megan Ackroyd said.
Some companies celebrate their anniversaries with a big party. Some offer a coupon or discount to shopper. But Great Lakes Potato Chips Co. took their 10th year anniversary to a new level – they’re going purple.
The Traverse City-based food company worked with Michigan State University researchers to use their unique “Blackberry” potato to develop a purple-hued potato chip. The chips are now on sale wherever Great Lakes products are sold, including retailers such as Kroger and Meijer.
“We wanted to do something unique to celebrate our 10th anniversary,” Chris Girrbach, president of Great Lakes Potato Chips, said in a statement. “We thought purple potato chips would be a good way to highlight all the work MSU does and the growers that helped us get started.”
The chips are made from the Blackberry potato, the latest of more than 30 varieties developed by Dave Douches, director of the MSU Potato Breeding and Genetics Program. MSU said it took the University and Douches 20 years to breed the Blackberry potato.
A special spud
“I always saw that there was a need in the specialty market for a good purple-pigmented flesh variety of potato,” Douches said in a statement. “There were some old varieties around in the past that I felt didn’t really serve the market well, so we made an effort to try to improve on that.
“We were trying to find ones that had a round shape rather than a long shape, and also ones that had some disease resistance, as well as a deeper purple flesh color.”
Blackberry potatoes are also higher in antioxidants than standard potato varieties.
Girrbach and Douches work with Iott Farms in Kalkaska, Michigan, to grow and harvest the Blackberry potatoes used for chip processing.
“Since we’re a small producer, it’s a little easier for us to do something like this,” Girrbach said.
Girrbach said the purple potato chips serve as a thank you to the communities and Michigan agriculture partners who help support Great Lakes Potato Chips.
“Michigan growers are awesome,” he said. “MSU in particular puts a ton of research into potatoes; they work so hard to do stuff like this. I just hope people see how fun the research can be and how important growing it is.”
In November, 11 mobility-focused tech startups from Israel visited key mobility sites in SE Michigan to learn about business growth opportunities with the support of Michigan Israel Business Accelerator, Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s PlanetM program and Israeli Economic Mission.
In honor of National Estate Planning Awareness Week, held from Oct. 21-27, The Financial and Estate Planning Council of Metro Detroit provided Farmington Hills first responders free estate planning services to help develop strategies, plans and maintain financial security.
