Five Things to Tell Your 401k Participants in This Down Economy

Sell, sell, sell.

Those words seem to be front of mind with all investors these days. And your 401k participants are not different. They’re worried about the market and they’re worried about their retirement. Here’s what to tell your 401k participants:

  1. This too shall pass. No matter how bad it seems, this financial crisis will end and people will invest again.
  2. You lock in your losses only when you sell in a down market. You don’t lose money until you sell of your stock holdings at a loss. Otherwise, it’s only a paper loss.
  3. We weren’t kidding about diversifying. Asset allocation is essential at every stage of your life. You need to know your risk profile. The Dow lost 678 points yesterday. Do we ever need to remind you again?
  4. Now is not the time to bail out of your 401k. Yeah, the market is bad, but you still need to save for your retirement. You still get the tax advantage of saving in a tax-deferred plan.
  5. Don’t listen to your uncle. Everyone has an uncle that tells them how to invest. Ever notice how he’s usually wrong? This time he’s really going to be wrong. Don’t stop saving for your retirement and use the money to build a survival shelter. Just don’t.

It’s no fun right now folks. And it’s going to get worse. But let’s make sure we pay attention to the longer picture. Meanwhile, I’m stocking up on soup.

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Frank Roche 
Filed Under Business | Comments

It’s Time to Do the Right Thing

When you get a Federal bailout, you don’t go to a spa to work on strategy. HR has a role to play in setting the tone in a company — and right now with the economic tsunami at full force, that tone needs to be one of scrupulous ethics. Anything less isn’t good enough.

Posted on October 8, 2008 by Frank Roche 
Filed Under Economy | Comments

Words of Wisdom in Troubled Times: Campbell Soup CEO Doug Conant

Last week, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 777 points on one day, the S&P 500 Index had 499 stocks were down, and one was up. Know what that stock was? Campbell Soup.

Sure, there are lots of reasons for success, but this quote by Campbell’s CEO Doug Conant in the July/August 2008 Harvard Business Review tells a compelling story of the kind of leadership it’s going to take to weather this financial tsunami.

You can’t talk your way out of something you behaved your way into. You have to behave your way out of it.
–Doug Conant, CEO, Campbell Soup

Posted on October 7, 2008 by Frank Roche 
Filed Under Management | Comments

Would You Hire a CEO With an Unsophisticated Speaking Style?

If you were interviewing a candidate for CEO or COO of your Fortune 500 company, would their vocabulary and sentence structure matter to you? What about their accent? (C’mon, I’m not just talking about a “Fargo” accent, I’m talking about anything that isn’t Standard American English, the kind of speaking that newscasters use.) Would you overlook a lack of sophistication in their speaking style? Are there some kinds of accents you like and some that you just can’t stand? Do you think that people with certain accents are stupid?

I’ll admit that I’m not crazy about Sarah Palin’s bona fides for running one of the world’s largest corporations — the United States of America. Her latest interviews and linguistic gyrations in the debate made me question what I would look for in a true leader. I find Norm Crosby funny, but I wouldn’t hire him as CEO or COO.

Posted on October 5, 2008 by Frank Roche 
Filed Under Communication, Recruiting | Comments

The Value of a Complete Customer Service in HR

I used to play golf. Used to. Know why? I couldn’t string together a set of shots that added up to a great round. Sure, I could smack one off the tee every once in a while that would just be fantastic. I could get a middle iron shot up on the green. I could drop a putt from 10 feet. Once. All of them once in a round. The rest of the time I’d flail. So, is one good shot enough? Hardly.

The same goes for customer service in HR. What we do in human resources isn’t a sometimes thing, it’s an all the time thing. We can’t stand back and be proud of how great our payroll system is working when the performance management system is, in golf terms, “out of bounds.” Stringing together a set of great customer service elements makes for great HR.

I didn’t have time to get much better at golf. It takes hours of practice. But I do have time to get better in HR. And so do you. Here’s what I know: It’s getting better at the things you’re not great at that make for a better game — whether that game is golf or business. Practicing what you’re comfortable with is a waste. If you’re bad with your short irons in golf, you go out and hit a thousand balls with your short irons. If you’re bad at training, you get out there and work your training approach until your fingers turn blue. It’s that simple — practice what you lack. When you get it right, when you string together a whole set of customer service experiences in HR, that’s when you move from the funny pages to the business pages.

Posted on October 3, 2008 by Frank Roche 
Filed Under Business | Comments

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