What Do You Expect ??

This post asks HR what their focus is when it comes to their employees. Do they dread seeing them, or do they think they’re amazing?

When you think of your employees, what comes to mind?

Do you have positive thoughts?  Are you fondly reminded of how amazing the folks are at your company ??

What do you expect?  Seriously.  Have you taken the time to reflect on how your focus is as an HR practitioner when you go into work each day?  Are you looking forward to working with the people around you, or do you dread it?

If I asked you this in person, I’m sure I’d hear a positive response because you’d feel a little awkward because we’re only supposed to talk about surface level things to keep things within a social norm.  It may be the way you truly feel, and I hope it is.

However, when I keep my ear to the ground and listen to other HR pros, I hear more negative things than positive things.  I hear people grousing about the difficult person who did this, or the person who takes ALL  of my time, etc.

Don’t you think your employees see that in you?  Don’t you think that they’ve come to expect HR to be the department who brings the bad news?  Not very encouraging is it?

I think that we’ve made the rock prophet Don Henley’s words come true from his vintage song “Dirty Laundry” on his debut album I Can’t Stand Still.

“Dirty little secrets
     Dirty little lies 
 We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie 
     We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundry”

I know that sounds harsh, but when I listen to HR people they tend to talk about the 10% of people who cause them the most problems instead of focusing on the 90% of people who are GREAT !!

I love HR Horror Stories as much as the next person, and I could add my share of them – believe me.  However, it’s time to change the tide.

People will see HR as a positive force in organizations when, and only when, HR is positive itself !!

So, what do you expect ?? Let me know.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

Take a Stand !!

This post encourages HR to take aspects of Martin Luther King, Jr. and apply his efforts to their work today in organizations.

This past weekend I traveled to the heart of Amish country in Ohio to beautiful Berlin, Ohio for the Classic in the Country  basketball tournament.  It was a full weekend of great high school varsity girls basketball !!

The “unique” aspect of this tournament vs. others is that when the girls come out to the court before the game begins something other than the National Anthem occurred.  (Fear not, they play the Anthem at the beginning of each day.)  The announcer asked everyone to stand and then they played a quote from a Martin Luther King, Jr. speech.  It was incredibly moving – and relevant !!

You see, my daughter only knows of Dr. King from History class or a textbook.  Now that we are recognizing the 25th anniversary of the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, it made me reflective as well because Dr. King did things that we in HR should be doing as well . . .

Recognize Injustice !!

Too often HR sees things that happen in companies and seeks the middle ground vs. addressing things directly.  You see, if you ask Management, HR represents them.  If you ask employees, they’d say HR represents . . . Management.  The fact is that we represent all employees and we are obligated to look at all people practices that aren’t in the best interest of employees and get rid of them.  I’m not talking about obvious egregious or illegal behavior.  That’s a no-brainer.  I’m talking about policies (that we often generate) that do no good to the company.  Honestly, most of our polices are created to address a few people’s poor behavior that we should be addressing directly any way !!

Take a stand !!

Do you like being ambiguous and wishy-washy?  I don’t and I hope that as HR practitioners, you don’t either.  It’s tough to take stands on things but companies expect us to make decisions and not practice conflict avoidance.  People are tough.  There’s no doubt about that.  However, if you learn how to frame your approach and deal intentionally with people, you’ll be amazed at how effective an HR professional you’ll be !!

Be the one person !!

Too often people are waiting for someone to act.  When HR is passive bad things happen more often than not and you become the person who’s always “putting out fires.”  We desparately want someone to take action.

That needs to be YOU !!

Dr. King took action when it wasn’t popular, when it involved incredible risk, and it represented those who weren’t in power.  I want to be that kind of HR person all the time.

How about you ???

Image courtesy of WriteSpirit.net

My Hometown . . .

This post challenges HR to get back to truly knowing the employees of the company and not continue to let employees just show up for work.

For those of you who know me – I’m a music freak !!

For those of you who don’t know me – I’m a music freak !! 

One of my favorite artists is Bruce Springsteen and his classic album “Born in the U.S.A.” came out when I was in college and about to leave my hometown.  The last track on side two of the album (yes, album) was “My Hometown” and it hit me hard because even though I was going to leave my hometown soon, it brought up so many great memories.

You see, I hail from the booming metropolis (Village actually) of Ada, Ohio.  Ada has a population of just over 5,000 people.  It is technically the “center of the universe” if you didn’t know that because you can go anywhere from Ada , and if you travel around the whole world, you have to go through Ada.

That may not be a scientific fact, but it seemed like the center of the universe to me.  You see, in Ada, you know EVERYONE and EVERYONE knows you.  My school was K-12 in one building and my graduating class was an amazing 73 people !!  I loved every moment of my time in Ada because I learned the value of truly knowing people.

In Ada, it mattered to know everyone’s name and something about them because you were bound to see them somewhere around town and it was much better to have a conversation than just say, “Hey !!” (our version of “Hi!”)

Lately, this has been playing on me because in today’s organizations, we are more concerned with getting stuff done whether the people who are doing those things matter or not.  HR is a major culprit in not addressing this fault in company cultures.  We should be the ONE area that won’t stand idly by to have yet another employee ignored.

We spend so much time making sure people just show up and that is more important than seeing who they are, what they’re like and what they truly want to offer the company.

No more.

It’s time to use a little of that hometown experience at my workplace and at workplaces around the country.  Get to know your people.  You’ll be astonished at how incredible they really are !!

What do you think?  Is this too Utopian ?? Or, is it just overdue and we’ve forgotten how important this is ??  Let me know your thoughts.

Guess what I got for Christmas ??

Announcing the blog launch from a person who is in HR on purpose !! A different forum which promotes HR strategically and as an integral function in today’s business world.

My family is different from most in today’s society (in a good way).  You see we actually like each other, enjoy getting together and look forward to time catching up and sharing what’s happening in our lives.

Ten years ago, our family started a Christmas “tradition” where the adults and kids were supposed to make something for someone, give something to a charity in their name, or regift something you liked from the other family (like an heirloom or something that had deep meaning to someone).

My amazing sister-in-law, Kathi Browne, had my name this year, yet there wasn’t a gift for me under the tree. I was curious because the tree was inordinately full even though each year we say we’re going to “cut back.” When my turn came to open my gift, Kathi opened her laptop and showed me my Twitter handle as a URL . You see, my sis-in-law gave me a blog !!  How cool is that?

I’ve had people mention that I should do this someday, and many of you have been kind enough to let me be a guest on your great blogs.  I appreciate  you letting me get my feet wet.

Now, I guess I’ll be out here with you.  I’m just getting started and I’m sure that I’ll be reaching out to others to have them guest here as well.

It’s a great way to start 2011 !!  Let’s see what happens . . .