Missing Variables in Theories of Strategic Human Resource Management: Time, Cause, and Individuals

Much progress has been made with regard to theory building and application in the field of Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) since Wright and McMahan’s (1992) critical review. While researchers have increasingly investigated the impact of HR on economic success within the Resource Based view of the firm, and have developed more middle level theories regarding the processes through which HR impacts firm performance, much work still needs to be done. This paper examines how future theorizing in SHRM should explore the concepts of time, cause, and individuals. Such consideration will drive more longitudinal research, more complex causal models, and consideration of multi-level phenomena

Functional requirements document for the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Scientific Computing Facilities (SCF) of the NASA/MSFC Earth Science and Applications Division, 1992

Five scientists at MSFC/ESAD have EOS SCF investigator status. Each SCF has unique tasks which require the establishment of a computing facility dedicated to accomplishing those tasks. A SCF Working Group was established at ESAD with the charter of defining the computing requirements of the individual SCFs and recommending options for meeting these requirements. The primary goal of the working group was to determine which computing needs can be satisfied using either shared resources or separate but compatible resources, and which needs require unique individual resources. The requirements investigated included CPU-intensive vector and scalar processing, visualization, data storage, connectivity, and I/O peripherals. A review of computer industry directions and a market survey of computing hardware provided information regarding important industry standards and candidate computing platforms. It was determined that the total SCF computing requirements might be most effectively met using a hierarchy consisting of shared and individual resources. This hierarchy is composed of five major system types: (1) a supercomputer class vector processor; (2) a high-end scalar multiprocessor workstation; (3) a file server; (4) a few medium- to high-end visualization workstations; and (5) several low- to medium-range personal graphics workstations. Specific recommendations for meeting the needs of each of these types are presented

Managing High Potentials and Executives: Results of the 2022 HR@Moore Survey of Chief Human Resource Officers

Part of the 2022 HR@Moore Survey of Chief Human Resource Ofcers focused on the management of three pools of talent: high potentials, executives, and potential CEO successors. In terms of identifying high potentials, CHROs reported that the most important aspect is ensuring a diverse pool of talent. They also noted that providing access to senior executives serves as the most efective development tool for high potentials. CHROs also noted the importance of tracking retention of high potentials. In terms of executives, the survey asked a number of questions to understand turnover issues among executive-level talent. CHROs expressed a high priority for identifying and having conversations with those they suspect to be at risk of leaving. They also engage in developing individual-level and company-level action plans to reduce turnover. In contrast to popular narratives about the great resignation, CHROs report that they have not seen increases in executive turnover, turnover due to burnout, and turnover among diverse talent. The biggest factors that CHROs are using to mitigate executive turnover include compensation, development programs, visibility with senior executives, and transparent career planning discussions. The survey also explored current assessment techniques used to evaluate both insider and outsider potential CEO successor candidates. In terms of insiders, they noted the most frequent use of 360-degree appraisals, performance histories/reviews, and engagement surveys. CHROs shared that a combination of these factors was the most efective mechanism, and that 360-degree appraisals was the most frequently mentioned specifc technique. To assess outsiders, behavioral interviews and reference checks are the most frequently used and the most efective techniques. Finally, in one of the more interesting fndings CHROs noted 4 themes in how CEO candidate assessment has changed over the previous 5 years. They use broader criteria (e.g., resilience and temperament), more formal processes (as opposed to subjective reactions to presentations and dinner), more quantitative and data-driven approaches (such as 360s and personality assessments), and greater use of third parties. The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted organizational processes. The movement to a predominantly virtual environment during the crisis caused companies to question common practices that were assumed to be the best way to approach high potential talent, executive talent and even potential CEO successors

Organizational Responses to Say-on-Pay Votes: Results of the 2021 HR@Moore Survey of CHROs

Since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, US publicly traded companies subject to proxy rules must allow shareholders to submit an advisory vote on the compensation of their most highly compensated executives at least every three years (known as Say-on-Pay votes), and on how often shareholders would like to be presented with Say-on-Pay votes. Given the potential interplay between executive compensation and succession planning, as illustrated in recent Center for Executive Succession research that shows executive compensation and executive succession decisions appear to be related when it comes to the selection of internal CEO appointments, we sought to better understand how firms develop executive compensation plans and respond to sayon-pay votes. Respondents first indicated that boards sometimes consider succession plans when setting executive compensation. Additionally, executive compensation incentives are rarely tied to succession planning metrics, though this is unlikely to be a problem. In the end, however, results suggest that some boards do co-manage executive compensation and succession planning. Results also indicated that board members are perceived to be concerned with the potential for negative say-on-pay votes or negative recommendations from proxy advisory firms. This is concerning as it potentially suggests that executive compensation decisions are being driven more by the considerations of outside agencies rather than internal concerns regarding talent management or company strategy. We then sought to understand what might raise concerns regarding say-on-pay voting thresholds and how companies would likely respond to negative say-on-pay votes. Respondents most often noted that say-on-pay approval of less than 80% would be concerning, though the threshold distribution was widely dispersed. If this threshold were to be crossed, respondents indicated that changes in executive incentives would be most likely (27 instances), followed by reviews of the compensation program (19 instances), shareholder outreach (16 mentions), and compensation consultant changes (7 instances). 4 HR@MOORE The passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010 requires US publicly traded companies subject to proxy reporting rules to submit to shareholder advisory votes regarding the compensation of the company’s Named Executive Officers at least once every three years. These votes have subsequently been termed say-on-pay. The rise in say-on-pay, as well as growth in general shareholder activism, have also given rise to proxy advisory firms who provide data analysis, insights, and recommendations to investors regarding company policies, such as the appropriateness of executive compensation. Recent research from the Center for Executive Succession illustrates the interplay between executive compensation and executive succession planning. This research shows that when the pay disparity between the CEO and the company’s second highest paid executive officer was lower, companies were more likely to promote an inside executive to be the next CEO. Furthermore, this research found that when an inside executive was chosen, the second highest paid executive was more likely to be named CEO when the pay gap between the second highest paid executive and third highest paid executive was greater. These findings were in line with proxy advisory firms’ belief that larger pay gaps between the CEO and other executives are evidence of ineffective succession planning and an increased likelihood of having to hire the next CEO from outside the firm. They also provide an indication that executive compensation and succession planning decisions may go hand in hand in meaningful fashion, increasing the importance of managing the efforts jointly. Given the central importance of executive compensation overall, its apparent linkages to effective executive succession planning, and the growing role and power of proxy advisory firms, the 2021 HR@Moore Survey of Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) sought to explore issues related to say-on-pay votes and executive compensation and succession. We surveyed approximately 375 CHROs and 105 of them completed these questions for a 28% response rate

ESG Trends: Results of the 2022 HR@Moore Survey of CHROs

There has been incredible momentum in recent years for the expectation that major companies should be attentive to and deliver results on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues. For their part, companies and their executive leadership teams (ELTs) seem responsive to these expectations, developing ESG strategies and devoting resources to making progress in these areas. Perhaps the most notable commitment along these lines came in 2019, when the Business Roundtable (BRT) issued a statement to “redefine the purpose of a corporation” to focus on all stakeholders rather than be predominantly centered on shareholders. Much of the conversation around corporations in the years since, through the pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, growing climate concerns, and more, has only accelerated the focus on ESG. Given these developments, we asked CHROs a series of ESG-related questions intended to gather insight into how their ELTs’ time and attention devoted to stakeholder issues is changing and on what activities they are spending that time. The majority of CHROs report an increase in their ELT’s time devoted to non-shareholder stakeholders in recent years, exemplifying the principles of the BRT statement. In other words, the CHROs we heard from broadly feel, on average, as though the BRT statement is a reality in their ELTs and at their companies. Our respondents also report a substantial variety of initiatives their ELTs are currently engaged in for each of the environmental, social, and governance domains. Perhaps unsurprisingly, emissions reduction and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dominated the responses in the environmental and social categories, respectively, with over 80% of CHROs citing their company’s efforts in these areas. But underneath those headliners was an assortment of initiatives on a wide range of ESG issues that ELTs are committed to making a positive impact. An interesting pattern of relationships emerged between these initiatives and the CHROs’ ratings of their company’s environmental, social, and employee-focused performance relative to their closest competitors. The category of environmental initiatives that was most strongly related to environmental performance was those seeking to address grand societal challenges, whereas those focused on internal capabilities and waste reduction were actually negatively related. These relationships suggest that CHROs of companies thinking (and acting) more broadly in their environmental initiatives are more optimistic about their company’s environmental impact. 4 HR@MOORE | sc.edu/moore/ces The relationships in the social domain were even more striking. Employee focused initiatives (e.g., DEI, employee engagement, safety) were only weakly related to CHRO ratings of the company’s performance in “attracting and retaining key employees” but were all negatively related to the ratings of social performance. In contrast, externally focused initiatives (e.g., community engagement, racial justice, community workforce development) were far more strongly related to CHRO ratings of company social performance and the company’s ability to attract and retain employees. These findings suggest there may be more “win-wins” created through social initiatives that seek to make an impact outside the company compared to those that are strictly focused on supporting employees. For this report, and as part of the 2022 HR@Moore Survey of Chief Human Resource Officers, we gathered information about the time and attention ELTs are paying towards ESG issues and the specific ESG initiatives occupying their time. We received responses on these items from 107 CHROs. We also asked CHROs for assessments of their company’s performance along a variety of dimensions relevant to ESG to provide further analysis on the connection between ESG initiatives and company impact

The Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Executive Succession: Results of the 2020 HR@Moore Survey of Chief HR Officers

The COVID crisis impacted just about every aspect of how firms do business. We have explored through Zoom meetings and a survey of Chief HR Officers how the crisis has impacted a variety of components of executive succession. We find that the crisis caused many firms to develop business continuity plans separate from their ongoing and emergency succession plans. Going through this process may encourage firms to look more broadly and deeply into the people and roles in their ongoing succession processes. The crisis also revealed more positive than negative characteristics in their leaders. CHROs noted that the crisis has increased the use of virtual technologies for both initial interviews of ELT candidate, and for the entire hiring process, and the vast majority suggested that the use of technology throughout the hiring process will continue to see substantial increases after the crisis ends. Finally, the crisis required board meetings to be held virtually. While CHROs do not expect this to be predominant in the future, they did indicate that approximately one quarter of board meetings will be held virtually after the crisis has passed. We discuss the implications of these findings

The CHRO and the Board: Results of the 2018 HR@Moore Survey of Chief HR Officers

With every round of corporate scandals, Boards of Directors (BOD’s) seemingly take on new roles with regard to the governance of the corporation. Some of the accounting scandals at companies like Enron and Tyco focused BOD’s on recognizing the potential for certain executive pay designs to encourage CEOs to misreport aspects of their accounting numbers. High visibility failures of CEOs at companies such as HP drove BOD’s attention toward their need to exhibit more due diligence in CEO succession. The collapse of the financial industry, driving the “Great Recession” of 2007-09, increasingly drew their attention both to risk and to those leaders who might have positioned their firms with risky portfolios. These developments have brought boards into the realm of human capital management. CEO pay, CEO succession, and the war for talent have moved to the top of the board agenda, and consequently, increased the visibility and importance of the Chief HR Officer (CHRO) to the board. This report, based on the HR@Moore Survey responses of 131 CHROs, reports the current state of how CHROs interface with the BOD

The CHRO Role and CEO Generativity: Results from the 2021 HR@Moore Survey of Chief Human Resource Officers

The 2021 HR@Moore Survey of CHROs examined a number of aspects of the CHRO role, ELT and Board climate, and CEO Generativity. Results showed that the COVID crisis may have resulted in CHROs spending more time as a Strategic Advisor. In addition, over time CHROs are spending less time with the board around executive compensation and more time on CEO and executive succession. In addition, many reported spending time with the board on DE&I issues. Finally, CHROs continue to come into their role as direct outside hires, and while more CFOs are internally promoted, relative to CHROs, the number of outside CFO hires is rising. Our results show that boards tend to exhibit both higher average levels of cohesion and diversity and inclusion climate relative to Executive Leadership Teams (ELT). Finally, a CEO’s Generativity, or the degree to which he or she shows concerns for future generations, continues to show positive relationships with both Board and ELT climate as well as CEO succession commitment and effectiveness. However, unlike last year’s survey, generativity was not related to the diversity (in terms of both women and racial minorities) of the ELT and both the short-term and long-term CEO succession pipeline. The HR@Moore Survey has examined the changing Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) role for over 10 years. In addition, for the past 2 years the survey has asked CHROs to report their CEO’s “Generativity,” a characteristic describing the extent to which the CEO engages in acts which promote the wellbeing of younger generations to ensure the company’s long-term survival. The 2021 survey was sent to almost 400 CHROs and 150 of them responded. This report summarizes the results regarding the CHRO’s time spent in a variety of roles and dealing with a number of issues. In addition, in a follow-up to last year’s survey, we again report on CEO Generativity and its relationships with a number of aspects of the Executive Leadership Team and talent pipeline

The Chief Human Resource Officer: Exploring the Counselor, Confidante, and Coach Role

The 2018 HR@Moore Survey of Chief HR Officers again tracked how CHROs spend their time in seven roles identified when the survey was first developed. The results indicate minor changes, with CHROs spending more time with boards of directors and slightly less time as counselor/confidante/coach. In terms of the Chief Executive Officer’s agenda for HR, talent still tops the list by a significant margin. However, for the first time in the survey’s history, culture has risen to the second most popular agenda items, indicating a qualitative change in the requirements of CHROs. While quantitative data suggests that executive leadership team members (ELT) work effectively with one another, the qualitative data on how CHROs coach ELT members suggests that this is not accidental. They describe the ways in which they work to help ELT members to build relationships, they facilitate the flow of information from the CEO to the ELT and vice versa, they promote organizational effectiveness both for the corporation and for each ELT’s business, and they conduct personal coaching with ELT members. CHROs report that CEOs engage in relatively healthy decision making processes, but then also describe how they help to facilitate this. CHROs work to ensure that CEOs have all the relevant information in front of them, try to make sure CEOs hear the viewpoints of the right people, and help them to recognize unintended consequences of their decisions, particularly on stakeholders such as employees and customers. Finally, consistent with past survey results, CHRO roles continue to be filled predominantly with outside hires rather than internal promotions

The Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Employment Strategies: Results of the 2014 HR@Moore Survey of Chief HR Officers

In order to assess how firms have responded to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as part of the 2014 HR@ Moore Survey of Chief HR Officers we asked CHROs how they have experienced different aspects of the health insurance and health care system and how they have changed their employment strategies. The results show that 78% of the respondents indicated that their health insurance costs have risen (by an average of 7.73%) and 37% reported that their labor costs have increased (by an average of 5.6%) as a direct consequence of the PPACA. Companies have sought to mitigate the increased cost by pushing cost and responsibility to employees, as 73% have moved or will move employees to Consumer Directed Health Plans and 71% have raised or will raise employee contributions toward health insurance. In addition, while not nearly as prevalent, 30% of firms have or will move their pre-65 retirees to ACA exchanges, have or will cut back coverage eligibility (27%), have or will more rigorously ensure part-time workers work fewer than 30 hours per week (24%), have or will increase the proportion of part-time workers (12%), and have or will limit the number of full-time hires (10%)