HR Case Studies

An Enormous Request For A Lot Less Passion

2012-01-18T12:48:00.000Z

For a function that frequently has the need for its existence called into question, HR currently seems to currently be inviting ridicule of epic proportions by the way in which it is talking about itself, particularly in the blogosphere and the twitterverse.

I’m therefore making a heartfelt plea to all of us within our beloved HR community to stop referring to each other in vomit-inducing terms.

Let’s look at a couple of examples:

On twitter, I am followed by a guy who describes himself as “a learner, teacher who is passionate about developing people to embody higher wave of Authentic Living”, and also a lady who is, apparently, “making the world a better place - helping people to shine - living life to the max.”

Here’s a test: imagine that either of these two had just walked into a house-warming party in their neighbourhood, and someone asked them who they were and what they did. Would either of them ever describe themselves in the terms which are used in their twitter profiles? I seriously hope not. Or, if your fellow passenger on the flight from Manchester to Berlin introduced himself as someone who was “passionate about developing people to embody higher wave of Authentic Living,” could you manage to resist the need to reach for the vomit bag? I certainly couldn’t.

The examples above are by no means isolated instances either. Twitter is littered with (judging from their comments) lacklustre HR people who nevertheless describe themselves as Keynote Speakers, Ninjas, Gurus, Thought Leaders, Mavericks and Global Strategists. Very few indeed are anything at all what they claim to be in their hilariously worded profiles.

Right. Onto my soapbox for an even more vitriolic rant:

HR people: for heaven’s sake, stop describing yourself as “passionate” about what you do. Especially when it’s applied to activities such as organisational change or personal development. To be passionate is to be “dominated by or easily moved by strong feeling, especially of love or anger.” Is that the way people really and honestly feel about HR activities?

That you may be passionate about the ailing fortunes of Preston North End football club, I will allow. That you may be passionate about the all-too-few ECM albums of Keith Jarrett’s European Quartet, I can grant. That you may be utterly passionate about your newly discovered lover, I will accept without hesitation. To be passionate is to be awake in the night thinking about the object of your passion, to miss meals, to suffer withdrawal symptoms when you cannot get what you desire. But to claim that you experience such feelings when you are involved with restructuring an organisation for optimum performance or (when it boils down to it) matching an individual with a learning and development opportunity is, quite frankly, ridiculous.

The thing is, I know I’m not the only HR person who feels the bile rising when I read such over-inflated verbiage. But what makes matters worse is there’s a whole world of non-HR people out there who are laughing up their sleeves when they see the HR community use meaningless and inappropriate terminology when they describe their activities.

If we want the HR profession to be treated seriously, a good place to start would be in the way we talk about ourselves and what we do.

So let’s commit to use words that people recognise and understand, not ones that have them reaching for the sick bucket

Another New Year's Resolution for the HR Profession

2012-01-04T09:24:00.000Z

Hot on the heels of yesterday's plea to check out the sources of information before sending it spinning into the HR community comes another resolution that we are going to adhere to in 2012:

Just because a statement contains some detailed statistics, we are not going to automatically accept it as the truth.

Let's look at recent example taken from HR Magazine and widely circulated online:

UK talent acquisition cost stands at £5,311 per hire. Cost per hire is a key metric of talent acquisition spending since this measure indicates hiring efficiency and productivity. While spending on talent acquisition also rose 6% in the US, companies there spend $3,479 per hire, or the equivalent of £2,226.

Sounds so accurate and precise that it must be true. But learn from yesterday's example, and check out the source of the statistics, and you'll find they originate from an organisation who "will rapidly identify your organization’s key issues, benchmark your strengths and gaps, and engage in an ongoing dialog to drive impact." So let's say that they have a vested interest in getting you worried about your recruitment costs.

But, regardless of the origin of the statistics, they are clearly implausible and are also (it would seem) based on a fallacy.

The figures assume that all organisations use headhunters and agencies to fill some or all of their vacancies. They don't.

The figures assume that all organisations incur excessive costs through the advertising of their vacancies. They don't.

More significantly, such figures include the cost of "management time" derived from the salaries of those both inside and outside the recruitment team. This implies that, particularly in the case of the recruiting manager, there is a "proper job" that he should be doing, and that involvement in the recruitment process is a diversion from a task of greater importance.

But that is nonsense! The days of management passivity in the recruitment process are long gone, and many organisations now make active involvement in identifying new employees a crucial part of the manager's performance objectives. Not only HR, but line managers themselves now see total integration into the recruitment process as vital to adequately sourcing members of their team, and regard this involvement with as much seriousness as any other part of their job description.

Robin van Persie may be paid to score goals (17 this season so far, I believe!) but he's earning his keep just as much when he clears a ball off the line. Same with managers. So don't make it appear that recruitment is peripheral to what they do.

My New Year's Resolutions For HR

2012-01-03T10:07:00.000Z

Do you recall the episode of Outnumbered in which Karen misunderstands the concept of New Year's Resolutions and, rather than making them for herself, she makes a list for her mum?

Well, dear HR Community, that's what I'm going to do for you today and tomorrow. Fortunately there are only two items on the list, but if we all stick to them, we'll make the world a far better place for everyone to live in!

Here's today's resolution:

We will check out the sources of any article before we distribute it to the wider world.

I have a specific issue in mind, and that is the oft-circulated and quite clearly untrue assertion that (and I quote) "90% of recruiters and hiring managers have looked a candidate’s social media profile (primarily Facebook and Twitter) as part of the screening process."

It isn't true. And ten seconds of thought would lead anyone to that conclusion. Are any of us actually gulllible enough to believe that 90% of (say) the companies in the FTSE 100 index (that's 90 companies if your maths isn't very good ... ) have HR Teams that have sufficient time to trawl through Facebook and Twitter profiles in search of Dark Secrets concerning their potential new recruits? Anyone who actually works in such an organisation will laugh out if you ask them if such activities are a normal part of their workload. There are far more pressing activities to complete and deadlines to meet than playing the HR supersleuth.

The reason that this myth is perpetuated is that we are encouraged to believe it by organisations with a vested interest in making people concerned about their online presence.

The particular offender here is Reppler who regularly feed the fires of candidate paranoia with alarming statistics on "the habits of hiring professionals." Get real HR people! Reppler are an "Online Image Management" business, whose marketing pitch is "Whether looking for a job or building up your career, it is important for your online image to represent you professionally and consistently." Their US-based research ("conducted among a random sample of 300 individuals involved in the hiring process at their company") does not stand up to scrutiny, and flies in the face of the facts.

They have a product or a service to sell, and they are appealing to the fear factor in the desperate (or possibly just the conscientious) applicant who appreciates that the current job market is a jungle, and who therefore wishes to use every tool at his or her disposal to give themself an edge over other competitors.

So please, please, please, dear HR colleagues: don't take such mouthwatering pseudo-facts at face value and mindlessly hurl them into the crowd. Read, think, and exercise some professional judgement and common sense before spreading unverifiable gossip!

I conclude this particular resolution by repeating the challenge previously made in the pages of this humble blog for anyone who is formally involved in the recruitment process to explain just how frequently they indulge in the Dark Practices that some would like us to believe.

Any takers?

Lady Gaga: My Life in HR

2011-12-05T10:33:00.000Z

Readers may be surprised to note that, despite being nominated as an “alternative” keynote speaker for the 2012 CIPD Conference, Lady Gaga has currently polled only one vote on the HR Case Studies poll.

The editorial team managed to catch up with the provocateuse of pop in the middle of her “Born This Way” tour, and ask her if she’s surprised with her low popularity rating.

Editor: Despite your popularity in the world of pop, you’ve not received many votes in support of you speaking at next year’s CIPD Conference. Why do you think that this might be?

I guess it’s probably due to the fact that most people only know of my music work, and are unaware that for me pop superstardom is just a sideline. What gives my life most meaning is the work I do as HR Director for the American Bacon Federation. Like all HR roles, it’s a stressful job, and my music career started off just as a way of de-stressing after a busy day in the office.

Editor: What are the major challenges that you’re currently facing in your HR role?

Well, within the American Bacon Federation we’re really forward-looking in a lot of what we do, so we’re considering the introduction of an electronic timekeeping system to keep a record of employees’ working time, and we’re also looking into the introduction of single-status canteens in our head office.

Editor: I hear that you’ve also been working with a few UK organisations on the internal design of office space. Can you tell us a little about that?

Sure. I think that organisations need to be increasingly tolerant of all the different belief systems present in the workplace, and currently those who espouse a bacon-focused way of life seem to be neglected. At the ABF we’ve recently converted a spare office into a space for those with a devotion to bacon to practice their belief system. I think it’s important for employees to be able to take a short break from the relentless pressure of the modern workplace and just unwind in a bacon-infused environment.

To make sure that we’re inclusive, the bacon sanctuary also features interchangeable stained glass windows so that those employees with more of a devotion to cheese or sardines can feel at home in an environment where they are surrounded by images which reflect their beliefs.

We’re also working closely with an aromatherapy consultancy to explore the circulation of various food-related scents into the open-plan offices. So far, a pilot project has delivered great results, and there’s a demonstrable link with output. At the ABF we’re calling it the Pong-Productivity Effect.

Editor: If you were to speak at next year’s CIPD Conference, can you give us an idea of what you’d be presenting on?

It would have to be the importance of using bacon in any employee well-being programme.

Editor: Thanks for that. I’m sure that you’ll be receiving a lot more votes now that people realise the contribution that you’ve been making to HR.

You're going the wrong way!

2011-11-23T12:23:00.000Z

This morning my car is currently sitting in the small office car park where I work.

Nothing particularly newsworthy in that, I hear you say, but it actually represents a painful lesson learned over the last 48 hours.

For the last 12 months I have taken the same route to work. It's a journey of about 15 miles across the outskirts of London and normally takes me about 40 minutes through typical stop/start urban traffic. I measure if I'm on schedule against what's on the Radio 4 Today programme at particular stages of the journey: To arrive at work on time I need to be in the car by the business news, at Tolworth roundabout by the sports update, and driving over Kingston Bridge by Thought For The Day.

I've been convinced that my route to work is the shortest and fastest that I could take, and I've disregarded advice from those trying to persuade me that there are better routes to follow.

But yesterday there was serious congestion in the early part of my journey, and I decided to turn back and try a different route rather than just sit in the non-moving traffic. I was surprised at how free-flowing the traffic was and, even allowing for the disrupted journey, I arrived at work at pretty much the same time as normal.

So this morning I tried an alternative route to work. Simply turned left at the first set of traffic lights rather than driving straight across. Yes, you've guessed it: the route is shorter, faster, more free-flowing (and also more picturesque!) than my previous one, and it also means that I get to work early enough to claim one of the few coveted spaces in the car park.

So here I am, wishing that I'd tried a different route a long time ago. Just think of all the time, petrol and money I would have saved by listening to the advice of others and not stubbornly believing that I knew best and that there was nothing to be gained by considering other options.

Extending this a bit wider, I wonder how many of us hold onto opinions, prejudices, convictions and groundless beliefs and constantly refuse to consider the views and insight of others? It's very easy to be so entrenched in a position that it would take much more than mere traffic congestion to get us to consider an alternative position. Realising that you're wrong about something isn't exactly easy, and often it makes you see that in the past you were a bit of a fool.

But to do so may well lead to something more significant than just a place in the car park!

The fruitless search for employee happiness

2011-11-21T23:50:00.000Z

Imagine this:

It's October 2015, and England are up against reigning champions New Zealand in the final of the rugby World Cup at Twickenham. In the 79th minute, with both teams level on points, in front of a crowd of 82,000 Jonny Wilkinson steps up to take a penalty which, if converted, will almost certainly give England the victory and make amends for the team's hapless performance in 2011.

Wilkinson places the ball, takes a couple of steps backwards, clasps his hands in his trademark prayer-like gesture and focuses his gaze on the target.

Quietly, just before he begins his run-up, the HR Director of the England Team steps up to Wilkinson and asks:

"Are you happy, Jonny?"

What would Wilkinson's response be?

More than likely it would be one of puzzlement and confusion at the nature of the question. Quite probably Wilkinson would state that at that precise moment in time the question was utterly irrelevant. I imagine that he'd say words to the effect of, "Right now, all I'm bothered about it making sure that this ball gets between those posts. Whether or not I'm happy is of no interest to me. Once I've kicked the ball and scored the points, ask me again and I'll tell you how I feel. But right now I have a job to do."

The same scenario could have been repeated this year with Jenson Button on the starting grid of the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Montreal, or Stuart Broad as he prepared to attempt to claim a hat-trick against India in the second test against India at Trent Bridge.

In all these cases, the response of those in question would be to indicate that whether or not they were happy just didn't enter their mind as they prepared to undertake the task in hand, but that they simply had a job to do, and that any happiness would follow the completion of the challenge, not precede it.

So why do we seem to be obsessed with the concept of employee satisfaction and engagement? From the overwhelming range of tools and techniques available to measure and improve employee satisfaction, you could be excused for thinking that making the workforce happy was the sole purpose of HR's existence.

The pursuit of employee satisfaction seems to have become more important than ensuring that employees are fully equipped to do their jobs, and are effectively managed to enable their organisation to achieve its strategy.

Surely it's the case that happiness is a product of success, not a prerequisite for it?

8 million UK workers are miserable. Are you one of them?

2011-11-20T23:25:00.000Z

According to research reported by the Chartered Management Institute, almost eight million of us workers in the UK are unhappy in the roles we currently occupy.

The incisive, in-depth, profound, comprehensive (and 100% sarcasm free) research into worker satisfaction found that 28 per cent of workers are unhappy in their role, although only 25 per cent are currently looking for career development opportunities elsewhere. How many of the 25 per cent listen to the news, I wonder?

Also, according to the findings, UK workers think a good salary is the key to happiness at work, with 64 per cent of respondents stating that a good salary would make them altogther more cheerful. Herzberg, where are you now that your transatlantic cousins need you?

Who commissions these surveys? I though that the Ministry for Research into the Flipping Obvious was one of the quangos that was wound up just after the current coalition government was elected?

Let's face it, we're living at a 17-year high point in unemployment. According to the Office of National Statistics, the unemployment rate stands at 8.3%. Between July and September of this year, UK unemployment rose by 129,000 between July and September to 2.62 million.

For the UK's youth, the situation is even more bleak, with over 20% of those aged 16-24 out of employment.

To make matters worse, inflation is wobbling at around the 5% mark, and bank interest rates for those fortunate enough to have any savings are so low that the biscuit tin under the bed seems an attractive location for any few coppers remaining at the end of the month.

Bearing all the above in mind, is it actually surprising that UK workers are not currently constantly convulsed with laughter?

What is irritating is not so much the fact that the outcome of such reseach could be predicted in advance, but that there is a hint that if employees are unhappy, it is inevitably the fault of management who must thereofore also do whatever it can to turn its workforce into deliriously happy chappies!

Or am I just being Mr Grumpy?

Once upon a time there was a wicked old HR Manager ....

2011-11-17T12:45:00.000Z

I recently spent some time talking with the Senior Management Team of an organisation, discussing their perceptions of HR and also what sort of service they required from HR in the future.

On a number of occasions, leaders would tell me that they had heard that it was said of HR that they were slow, inaccessible, a blocker to progress or some other negative comment. When asked for a specific example of this, the senior manager would often backtrack slightly and explain that “I haven’t found this to be the case myself, but I’ve certainly heard other people saying such things.”

My response was (as politely as possible!) to suggest that it wasn’t particularly helpful for anyone if unsubstantiated rumours, gossip and anecdotes were passed off as if they were accurate, and that spreading such views should be contained and suppressed.

Someone far less diplomatic than I might have commented, “If you haven’t got any evidence behind your statement, then you need to shut up.”

Controlling the truth of what is said of the HR profession is a difficult challenge, particularly as such nonsense is regularly spouted about us.

Here’s an example: Yesterday, a widely circulated article asked the question “Is HR Killing Another Generation of Technology Innovation?” The article concerns a recent report in the Wall Street Journal which mentions that companies can keep track of their workers by checking their status updates on various social media sites. “When HR organizations start to use these tools to track employees and measure productivity, we have killed another generation of trust and innovation that HR should be fostering” says yesterday’s article.

So what’s the picture that we’re given? It’s one of an HR function that sneakily - or possibly formally - checks up on employees to make sure that they are in the right place at the right time and that they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. It’s one of an HR function that is suspicious of the company’s employees and therefore utilises available technology to keep an eye on what they are doing. Big Bad HR, doing its normal thing of suppressing innovation and destroying the trust of its employees.

Only one problem. The original Wall Street Journal article doesn’t mention HR once. There's nothing in there at all to suggest that any such initiative is being driven by HR.

But from reading yesterday’s article, you’d be excused that this is all part of The Big Plan of HR to control a company’s employees. It’s just another example of the way that sloppy reporting starts to spread stories about HR that are far from the truth.

My plea: let’s get behind the facade of the half truths about our beloved HR function. When the stories are based on truth we need to respond. When they are based on myth, we need to expose them as such.

German Rock Music and Plain-Speaking HR: Tenuous Links and Self-Indulgence!

2011-11-16T11:27:00.000Z

Time for a tenuous link or two, plus some shameless self indulgence today.

First, here's the self-indulgent bit. Unless you're German, the chances are that you won't have encountered the German rock band Juli. It's a shame really, as they are equally as good, if not far better than most of the bland processed junk that we are fed in the UK. The same goes for a number of other German rock bands such as Wir Sind Helden and Silbermond.

They are all popular in their native Germany but have had limited success outside their home country, for the simple reason that they only sing in German.

Here's a quick experiment: check out the video of Juli's "Perfekt Welle" on the sidebar on the right. This song got to number two in the German charts and sold a healthy 160,000 copies. Incidentally, the song, which concerns (at first glance) a surfer who is waiting for the Perfect Wave to ride on, was removed from the German radio playlists just after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004, when the lyrics were thought to be rather inappropriate.

Go on, give the song a listen.

Done that? Good. OK; now it's time for a question: What would record sales of bands such as Juli be like if the band performed in English, I wonder? Perhaps I'm simply betraying my preference for melodic and intelligent rock, but I'd like to believe that an English-speaking audience would be happy to part company with the odd couple of quid in exchange for the purchase of a CD (do people buy CD's anymore, or am I totally out of touch?) of the band. Put simply, I supect that if the band sang in English, they'd be as popular outside their native Germany as they are within it.

Right. Time for the tenuous link. How much of what we say as HR professionals is expressed in a language that only we understand? Don't we sometimes use terminology that overcomplicates what we're doing, and don't we sometimes do that because underneath it all we realise that our message is very simple, but by using long words it gives us the appearance of being experts in a highly technical field?

Basically if we spoke the language of the masses, wouldn't our message be heard and understood by a wider audience?

So who's with me as a founder member of the Campaign for Plain-Speaking HR?

HR, Organisational Development .... and all that Jazz

2011-11-12T11:12:00.000Z

Now that the 2011 CIPD Conference in Manchester is in the past, I've had a couple of days to reflect on the highs and lows, and consider which of the seminars and sessions will be the most likely to leave lasting impressions, and also to ponder what the annual gathering says about those of us who work in the people business.

My immediate observation is that HR remains a profession in search of an identity. The long-running debate on what unique offering can be made by HR has clearly not yet been resolved. In particular the question of what is the relationship between HR and Organisational Development rambles on pretty much as it has done over the last few years, with little likelihood of an answer or agreement.

One or two of the sessions pointed to a recognition that we know that OD is something that HR professionals are supposed to "do", despite the fact that we're not quite sure what it is. Much as I enjoyed participating in one of the longer afternoon workshops promising I'd leave with a deeper of understanding of organisational development and leadership, I'd argue that there was little in the session that most HR professionals would recognise as solid OD content.

I was reminded of a gig I went to in a pub a few years ago, where the band (Metro Jazz, I recall with amusement) announced their first number with the words "This is a Jazz song by The Jam" and then launched into a relatively faithful-to-the-original rendition of Going Underground. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, and Eton Rifles were also each introduced as "Another Jazz song by The Jam."

I left after about four numbers. It was fun, but it wasn't Jazz. I'd gone to hear a Jazz group, but was treated to a few frivolous moments of English Punk Rock/Mod Revival. Just calling something Jazz doesn't make it Jazz. Just calling something OD doesn't make it Organisational Development either.

The CIPD's own definition of OD is "A planned and systematic approach to enabling sustained organisation performance throught the involvement of its people." Even the somewhat confusing syntax of that definition betrays the confusion that persists in the minds of many of us in the HR profession.

To be quite honest, althought I firmly believe that OD is important for HR, I'm not totally clear on what it is.

Are you any wiser?

Anyway, to avoid frying my brain, I'm going to listen to some real Jazz. Enjoy the clip in the sidebar on the right. It's by the Esbjorn Svensson Trio, whose leader died in a scuba diving accident in 2008 at the tragically early age of 44.

Theology and HR Converge at 2011 CIPD Conference

2011-11-10T09:10:00.000Z

One of the themes that appears to be running through the CIPD conference in Manchester this year is that of playing to your strengths.

Sessions which cover this theme include:

Making an impact: using your strengths for exceptional working relationships
Taking a strengths-based approach to performance management
Strengthening resilience against stress at work

And then of course there’s today’s closing keynote address by (swoon ladies, for it is The Handsome One!) Marcus Buckingham , who has made a lucrative career for himself exploring the concept of finding your strengths and using them.

Areas to be covered by Marcus Buckingham include:

Recognising the strengths that exist in your organisation and how to utilize them for individual and business success
Acquiring tools and techniques for ensuring your people are leveraging their strengths, and being supported to do so by managers and leaders

The strengths-based approach represents a subtle shift from previous attitude to people management, including how we equip those in the HR profession to perform in their roles. Gone are the days when the focus was solely on providing HR professionals with new skills, be those ones of negotiation, consultancy or business partnership. Now the focus is much more on identifying abilities already possessed and putting them to good use.

It’s more a case of Stop Trying To Be Someone Else, and Start Being The Person That You Already Are.

As a Theologian in the world of HR, I would say this, wouldn’t I, but this is not a particularly new idea. The New Testament Parable of the Talents covers exactly the same theme: that of recognising what your gifts, abilities or strengths are, and putting them to good use in the service of others. In fact the New Testament approach to talent development is far more radical than anything that you’ll hear at the CIPD Conference this year. The New Testament doesn’t simply say that it would be A Good Idea if you used your talents. It tells us that you can either Use Then Or Lose them. It suggests that to ignore the abilities that you have is actually irresponsible.

So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.

So, Dear HR Case Studies readers: Do you know what your strengths or talents are? And, more importantly, are you using them?

Where have all the blonde girls gone?

2011-11-09T09:06:00.000Z

Until yesterday, my only visit to the CIPD Conference and Exhibition was back in the Thatcherite era of the late 1980s.

Clearly a lot has changed since then.

But there are two groups of people who very much in evidence at my last Conference in 1988, that are noticeable by their absence this year:

Tall, long-legged blonde girls and fat, ugly blokes.

Let’s take the girls first. Back in 1988 it was practically impossible to navigate your way from one end of the exhibition accompanying the conference itself without being accosted by a succession of impossibly attractive and amply-bosomed, flaxen haired beauties. Generally they would offer you the chance to win a bottle of single malt whisky or a bottle of champagne in exchange for your business card and their sales pitch about time and attendance systems or employee loyalty schemes.

Somewhere over the years the girls have disappeared, as have most of the alcoholic incentives to chat with the representatives on the stand. Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that in Manchester this year, it’s easier to talk to Alcoholics Anonymous (they are next to the ACAS stand) than it is to get a drink in the exhibition centre.

The other group that are missing are the fat, ugly blokes.

Their absence is actually more of a concern. These are the Trade Union representatives who in the 1980s were a regular sight on the presentation stage at almost every annual HR (sorry, Personnel Management) conference. People like John Edmonds of the EETPU, who would regularly share the platform with Peter Wickens of Nissan to talk about how a deal for single union recognition had been struck at the car manufacturer’s Washington plant.

Generally, the focus of their speech would be on how UK companies needed to move away from a confrontational industrial relations style to one that was more collaborative and inclusive.

Back in 1988, the annual CIPD conference in Harrogate (so perhaps they just do things differently across the Pennines) was rich in opportunities to explore employee relations issues. This year there’s not one seminar, masterclass or workshop that covers this particular issue.

Is this because employee relations conflict is a thing of the past? The strikes planned for the end of this month by public sector workers clearly indicates that this is not the case.

Research undertaken recently reveals that more than half (54%) of UK senior HR professionals are working in teams in which no one has experience of dealing with trade union action.

If the impact of the current austerity measures in the UK leads (as it surely must) to further disruption in the workplace, I wonder how many of the attendees at this year’s conference might wish that they could have learned a bit more about dealing with a difficult employee relations situation, rather than discover yet more about talent pipelines and future-proofing your organisation.

One final thought: if HR isn’t capable of managing employee relations issues in future, who’s going to pick it up instead of us?

How to experience the CIPD Conference without leaving the comfort of your own home

2011-11-07T11:59:00.000Z

As many of the readers of HR Case Studies will know, the annual CIPD HR Conference is taking place this week in Manchester.

Clearly getting there will be a problem for those HR Case Studies readers based in (I jest not) French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, or the Turks and Caicos Islands.

So if you're one of those who will unfortunately be absent from the CIPD conference, here's a way to enjoy the intellectual stimulation of the event from the comfort of your own kitchen.

Download the attached document
Print the document on good quality paper
Cut out all the words into separate strips of paper
Choose a selection of terms (carefully extracted from this year's conference programme)
Apply glue to the back of your selected terms
Arrange your selected terms into a (possibly) meaningful sentence which may (or may not) be uttered by one of the conference speakers
Apply to a flat surface of your choice
Stand back and observe your handiwork
Marvel at the result
Share your learning with other HR Case Studies readers

Download your HR Case Studies DIY CIPD HR Conference here

Young readers: make sure that you get your parents' permission before slicing through the tablecloth with a Stanley knife, or sticking your newly-created strategic musings over the Canaletto in the hallway.

Executive Pay: The Subject Which Must Not Be Named

2011-11-06T08:09:00.000Z

It’s the week of the annual CIPD conference, where the great and the good of the HR world get together to “learn from best practice examples from leading organisations ... pick up practical tools that you can implement right away in your organisation... and hear the most current thinking from high quality speakers who have been there before.”

And with split second timing, one of the most high profile members of the profession makes a public attack on the excesses of executive pay, saying that “top pay has been found to bear little or no relation to company performance”

He goes on to say that, “Perhaps it would help to make directors and CEOs more accountable to their employees. Perhaps there should be employee representatives on company boards.”

Great to hear a prominent member of the HR profession to be making a public statement on such issues, isn’t it?

The only problem is, that this comment doesn’t come from any member of the HR profession. It comes from John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York.

Let’s look at what the Archbishop says in a bit more detail:

The news that Chief Executives (CEOs) of the FTSE 100 companies last year received average pay increases of almost 50 percent adds urgency to our cause. Typically these CEOs receive 300 times as much as the least well paid British employees in their companies. If they have a responsibility to their staff, it is hard to imagine a more powerful way of telling some people that they are of little value than to pay them one-third of one percent of your own salary. Top pay has been found to bear little or no relation to company performance, but even if it did, isn’t the performance of a company dependent on the work and wellbeing of all its staff?

Do you have to be a senior cleric in the Church of England to realise that paying some employees one-third of one percent of the salary of the CEO of an organisation is blatantly unfair and unjust? I think not.

But is this an issue that the HR profession seems to be happy to tackle?

Judging from the timetable for this year’s CIPD Conference it would appear that the subject of executive remuneration is the HR equivalent of Lord Voldemort: The Subject Which Must Not Be Named.

If you’re interested in Talent Management, Delivering Organisational Effectiveness or Building a Culture of Engagement and Leadership, the conference will have you feeling like a kid in a sweet shop. But if you’re looking for some open and frank discussion about the issue that has got the rest of the population gossiping, you are searching in vain.

OK, as an HR professional with a degree in Theology, I’ve probably got more in common with what Archbishop Sentamu is saying than many of my colleagues. But the question I’d like to ask is this:

If as HR professionals we’re not addressing this issue, who else is?

Come on, HR people! How about responding to this challenge of the Archbishop of York:

Our society will work best when we recognise that as human beings we are all, fundamentally of equal worth and members of one society.

Let us do it. Let us do it now.

Your comments are, as ever, most welcome

HR Professionals found to be infected by mystery virus

2011-10-09T22:41:00.000+01:00

A leaked Top Secret government document reveals that a sinister and malicious virus has been detected infecting the minds of many of the UK’s HR Managers. Concern has been expressed that this virus could seriously affect the performance of the UK economy, and government scientists are frantically attempting to discover the source of the infection before the epidemic spreads to other sectors of the workforce.

The symptoms of the WNA2DT virus (or, to give it its full scientific name, We’re Not Allowed To Do That) are a reluctance (or, in some cases a blank refusal) to grant managers permission to step outside tightly written HR policy, regardless of the business case for doing so.

A side effect of the virus is the infected person experiencing a form of auditory hallucination from a disembodied source, advising them to comply with sometimes outdated rules and procedures. “We’ve been told that we have to do it this way” is a typical statement made by an HR professional infected by a particularly virulent form of WNA2DT. Questioning as to who has told the HR professional to act in this way is unlikely to lead to any clear outcome.

Researchers are exploring the possibility that WNA2DT is a recent mutation of the older HRTMICDT (HR Told Me I Can’t Do That) virus that was widespread across the UK in the last decade. That particular strain which was prevalent in the managerial population normally led to managers absolving themselves of any responsibility for difficult decisions. In its most common form, managers would frequently find themselves telling their direct reports that if it was up to them, they would have given the employee in question a pay rise, but that HR had forbidden or prevented them from doing so.

The UK Infectious Diseases and Immunisation Agency are advising Chief Executives that the most effective way of preventing the spread of this virus is to ensure that all recruited HR professionals have been immunised by a course of CIPD treatment. Although a 12-month course of treatment with the CIPD vaccine offers a high degree of protection, regular group sessions with other vulnerable members of the profession are also likely to strengthen resistance.

For members of the HR community who are keen to increase their resistance to the WNA2DT virus, and consequently improve their effectiveness within their organisations, a three-day immunisation clinic has been arranged in Manchester in November. Details can be found by clicking the link below.

WNA2DT Immunisation Programme: November 2011

Carlos Tevez replaced by German Beauty

2011-10-09T08:45:00.000+01:00

A concerted lobbying campaign by a group of influential readers of the HR Case Studies blog has forced the editorial team to remove the picture of Carlos Tevez accompanying an earlier post.

A petition signed by a significant number of readers (OK, one) said:

Please please please do another blog - if only to stop me having to look at that picture of Tevez when I log in. Not the most attractive bloke on the planet. Reminds me of the Tazmania Devil.

As a consequence, the editorial team has bowed to public pressure and posted this blog item, so that those visiting the site have something more attractive to gaze upon.

The editorial team apologises if you have been lured to this posting expecting a glimpse of Heidi Klum, Claudia Schiffer or (showing my age) Katarina Witt.

On a serious note, Herzberg's theory of motivation would suggest that the positive effect of working in a beautiful environment would rapidly wear off, working conditions only ever being a hygiene factor rather than a motivator.

Is he right? Would you eventually get bored of being greeted by the sight of a beautiful landscape from the office window? Or even of Heidi Klum or Hugh Jackman across the desk?

Or does the readership have any more suggestions of whose presence would really motivate you to get some work done?

What would you do about Carlos Tevez?

2011-09-30T08:55:00.002+01:00

The (alleged!) refusal of Manchester City footballer Carlos Tevez to play against Bayern Munich on Tuesday evening has attracted a significant amount of press attention, with a great deal of it focusing on the question of what can be done when such players decide that they are more important than the club itself.

Just to put things in context, Tevez is ranked at No. 7 in the tables of World’s Highest Paid Players, earning an estimated £6.7 million per year. That’s over £128,000 per week to you and me. Gulp.

But does the salary, or even the unquestionable skill of Tevez justify him being a law unto himself?

To answer that. let’s look at the views of another sporting superstar, that of Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie. He’s won two Olympic gold medals at 10,000 metres and also has World Championship titles at that distance. He’s won the Berlin Marathon four times consecutively and also broken more world records than I’ve had hot dinners. (OK, it’s actually only a mere 27, but I’m sure that you get the point)

Interviewed on Radio 4 this week, Gebrselassie was asked how he’d come to be so successful. His response was revealing:

Training, discipline and commitment. I run 160 miles a week. It’s my job.

His answer mirrored that of Jonathan Edwards (whose triple jump world record set in 1995 still stands) when questioned by Michael Parkinson alongside David Beckham. Parkinson asked Edwards if he was jealous of the amount of money Beckham earned in comparison to himself. Edwards responded:

I think that I get paid pretty well for what I do, which is basically to jump into a sandpit. It’s a job.

For some reason, those fortunate enough to enjoy the riches of the world of football seems to have forgotten that they are still in an employment relationship. What they do is a job.

What would you do if an employee refused to obey a reasonable management instruction? You’d discipline then. What did Manchester City Manager Mancini actually ask Tevez to do on Tuesday? To warm up and go on the pitch and knock a ball around. To do his job. So why all the “What Is To Be Done” soul searching?

So here’s a challenge to all you HR professionals out there? What would you do about Tevez?

Motivational Speakers: It's time to get real

2011-09-23T12:01:00.000+01:00

If you’re one of the plethora of self-styled motivational speakers who are pestering the world with their mixture of snake oil and psycho-babble, I’ve got some really sad news for you:

There are some problems in the world.

I guess that this won’t be much of a surprise to most of you, but there’s clearly a bunch of people out there who believe that simply adopting the correct positive mental attitude can make the world into a fairytale wonderland full of opportunities, jollity and general loveliness.

Take the guy ("motivational speaker, presenter, comedian") whose website I stumbled across yesterday. With a waggle of his magic finger (he does seem to point at the camera rather a lot) he’ll help you and your organisation overcome the barriers that hold you back from good performance in life, help you stop being miserable (apparently being miserable is much harder work than being happy) and generally “Make Work Your Play” (insert hand drawn smiley face here …)

His clients love him. One of the testimonials reads “he makes life seem like one big adventure with no real problems or obstacles.”

I have two words for purveyors of such nonsense:

Get Real.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve had the privilege of spending time in the West African nations of Niger and Burkina Faso. I’ve met inspiring women who have built up a collective in their village to scrape together just enough food to keep their families alive after the poor harvest. I’ve spoken to the elders of another village where the nutrition and food distribution programme means that infant mortality is gradually improving. I’ve sat in the rain under the corrugated iron roof with the group of women who are involved in a scheme to provide income by buying, rearing and selling goats. Average Gross National Income in their country is £330. They won’t get anywhere near that.

All of them were inspiring individuals, and their clarity of vision, commitment and rugged determination to succeed represents a challenge to all those who meet them.

But anyone who would dare to suggest that a quick dose of positive mental attitude could make their life “seem like one big adventure with no problems or obstacles” is a braver man than I am.

This world has its problems. Some of them are complex and demanding. But the right approach is to work together to tackle them, not to pretend that by adopting a fixed grin and a jolly demeanour they will all disappear and suddenly the world will become a magical wonderland.

Rant over. You may now get back to work. Or play. Guess it all depends on your attitude.

Psychometric Testing, West Africa Style

2011-09-23T00:17:00.000+01:00

If you’re planning on travelling to the tiny village of Leba, which is about 50 miles to the north of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, you’ll need to take with you a guide, a translator and a very sturdy four-wheel drive to cope with the total absence of roads.

But once you’re there, you may be fortunate enough to meet the group of 12 women who have established a partnership aimed at improving the village’s harvest of basic foodstuffs, and also attempting to venture out into some very low level rearing of goats. This year, the group’s main focus is on harvesting the sesame crop, to exploit both the seeds and the oil. The group originally got together as result of a church-based literacy programme, and although they don’t currently produce enough to sell, by working together rather than independently, they have realised that participation leads to greater yields of crops.

Membership of the cooperative is a much sought-after honour, as it brings with is not only access to better nutrition, but also increased respect in the community, so some level of selection is required.

I asked the leader of the group how they decided who should be allowed to become a member, and it was clear that even in an environment that is (literally and metaphorically!) thousands of miles away from the concept of psychometric testing, and competency-based assessment, they had established some very clear criteria for acceptance into the group. These were:

Discipline
Members must be able to demonstrate that they led lives characterised by discipline.

Hard-working
Their definition of “hard-working” is pretty simple; it means someone who doesn’t sleep in in the mornings.

Innovative
Members of the group receive a small loan to help them get themselves established. To qualify for such a loan, recipients have to be able to point to other innovative practices which they have introduced to improve their livelihoods.

Non-argumentative
The group functions as a collective, so anyone who has a track record of being argumentative in the village community is unlikely to be accepted.

A stable and well-behaved family life
All of the members of the group are married, with an average of five children each. They have found that in practice, those women who are mothers of settled and well-behaved families are far more able to make a useful contribution to the work of the collective.

So, dear reader of HR Case Studies: would you get onto the shortlist?

No jobs for the boys

2011-09-20T09:24:00.000+01:00

Some HR challenges are much bigger than others, and one affecting the West African nation of Niger is definitely towards the problematic end of the spectrum.

As in many countries, the people of Niger generally go to where the work is. A sort of West African response to Norman Tebbitt’s suggestion to Get On Your Bike. The serious level of poverty in Niger means that work is often in very short supply, so particularly for those in the north of the country, until recently the most secure form of employment was to cross the border into Libya and fight alongside those loyal to Colonel Gadaffi.

Unfortunately, shares in Gadaffi plc have recently fallen in value, leading to the workforce being downsized (following extensive consultation with employees, of course). Realising that the climate in Libya is not exactly favourable to those who previously supported Gadaffi, and subsequently having been issued with their P45s, many of the displaced Nigerans have headed south, taking with them a wide range of weaponry, a high degree of frustration, and an increasing level of hunger. Unfortunately their return is coinciding with a potentially failed harvest due to a poor rainy season in many parts of the country.

So, dear HR Professional, what steps do you think that the Minister for Employment in Niger should do to ensure that the returning military personnel are safely absorbed into the community?

You have one hour to answer the question. This question is worth 25 marks. Please write legibly.

Are you working too long?

2011-09-15T12:45:00.000+01:00

A question: what made you stop working last night?

For me it was the power supply in the missionary guest house in which I’m staying in Niger cutting out at about 11.00 pm. Being a good Boy Scout, I was prepared for the event, so I grabbed the strategically placed torch and crawled under the mosquito net into bed, and wilted in the heat and darkness.

I guess for most of us, a technological interruption such as a failure in the power supply is a rarity, and therefore we work for as long as we wish, even if that is deep into the night.

But clearly there was a time when (with the possible exception of those with access to industrial supplies of candles!) sunset signified the end of the working day for most people. OK, we have the opportunity to churn out more work, but does an unbounded work day really lead to greater efficiency?

Similarly the working pattern of five days of work followed by two days of leisure is to all intents and purposes a thing of the past. The weekend is dead.

Taking this a step further, for some cultures, the concept of a planting and a harvesting season is still crucial. Visiting Niger this week has brought home to me the seriousness with which the arrival (or lack of it) of the rainy season is greeted. Right now, the rain is bouncing off the roof, and the side roads are almost impassable. But it’s accepted that the rains have arrived too late to save this year’s harvest.

For those of us living in non-agrarian cultures, the concept of seasons is almost meaningless. An interconnected world means that the idea of what the Book of Common Prayer describes as “the fruits of the earth in their season” is quaintly old-fashioned. Strawberries on Christmas day? No problem.

Do all these developments represent progress? I’m not so sure.

What do you think?

(Oh … as if on cue, the lights have gone out again)

If you enjoyed this, you might want to read an earlier blog item: "There is a time for all things"

Parlez-vous français?

2011-09-14T09:48:00.000+01:00

After participating in a management meeting yesterday afternoon, I thought I’d set you all a little test in understanding management speak.

Exercise One:
How many of the following terms could you explain the meaning of to a colleague:

Memorandum of Understanding
Orientation Curriculum
Ambassadorial Staff
Incorporation Documents
Ministry of the Interior
Company Registration
Country Representative
Cultural Integration and Adjustment
Non-Governmental Organisation
Emotional Health

Award yourself one mark for each that you could explain to someone.

How did you do? Above eight and you are clearly set out for a life in the higher echelons of management.

Exercise Two:
Repeat Exercise One, but this time do it in French.

Still score as highly as last time?

If you are like me, your score on Exercise Two will (malheureusement) have been substantially lower than on Exercise One.

The meeting I sat in had six participants: A resident of Niger (whose native tongue is French), An American, a Cameroonian, and three Brits. Guess who were the ones who needed serious help when translating to and from French? No marks (nul points, perhaps) for correctly guessing that it was the Brits (including me, I hasten to add).

Language courses have slipped down the league tables in our school curriculum. Since 2006, there has been a 22% fall in the numbers of teenagers taking a modern foreign language at GCSE. Clearly this means that we are raising a generation of employees who will be unable to communicate in an increasingly global (and therefore multi-lingual) workforce.

Does it matter? As a German colleague of mine once remarked: if you want to buy something from a German, it’s fine that you only speak English. But if you want to sell him something, you need to speak German, and speak it well.

Just a thought: enrolment for adult education classes will be taking place over the next few weeks. French anyone?

A World Without HR

2011-09-13T11:31:00.000+01:00

I doubt if most of the people that I’ve observed so far this week in Niger have heard of HR and, even if they have, it’s not a service that many of them will ever have a need to turn to.

Certainly not those who have cut grass from the edge of the river, and have packaged it up into enormous bundles to sell as animal fodder, sometimes to those whose cattle stroll along the side of the road, occasionally wandering in front of the motorbikes and pedal cycles which weave in and out of the traffic on the rather challenging routes into Niamey city centre.

Certainly not the numerous hawkers who offer you items ranging from low tech hand-made jewellery to hi-tech SIM cards, or the various beggars with a heart-breaking array of disabilities, all of whom seem to have a radar-like ability to spot a visitor from a more wealthy culture. Top marks to all of them for persistence.

With a life expectancy of about 53 years for men and 55 for women (in the UK it’s 78 for men and 82 for women) and a gross national income of just over £200 per head (in the UK it’s 130 times more, at £26,000) clearly Niger is far from the most wealthy country on the planet.

Therefore there’s a great temptation to indulge in the all-too-predictable “Oh, how awful” commentary, focusing on the great disparity between the likes of the UK and a country such as Niger. But perhaps it’s equally pertinent to reflect upon our own circumstances and how they affect our attitudes to others. As a friend remarked to me earlier today, “We do live cosseted lives, don’t we?”

How about taking a break from the online world, where the most passionate debates seem to be about whether HR is afraid of social media, or whether LinkedIn is the best thing since sliced bread, and have a look at what’s happening in the real world?

Open your eyes and have a look around!

It's not in the Job Description

2011-06-05T09:49:00.000+01:00

In 622 BC, following centuries of decline, the young King Josiah launched what has been described as the most thoroughgoing reform in Judah’s history. His actions touched every aspect of political, religious and working life. In terms of Corporate Change programmes, it doesn’t get any bigger than this! His actions included the large scale redundancy of those employed in the nation’s pagan cults. (Only one form of outplacement available: execution.) Shrines throughout the land were closed down, and all public worship was centralised in Jerusalem.

But the catalyst for Josiah’s reform was the almost accidental discovery of a “book of the law” by Hilkiah the High Priest during the course of repairs to the Temple. Basically he was heading up a serious spring-clean operation when he stumbled across a dusty set of scrolls which made Josiah realised that the nation had gone astray from the law as given to Moses, and ultimately it spurred him into his time of reform.

OK. That’s what actually happened. But just imagine ...

You want me to do what? Tidy up the store cupboard?

I know that my Job Description says something about “any other duties as may from time to time be considered appropriate” but I didn’t think that getting down on my knees with a scrubbing brush would be part of my job. On my knees to pray, yes, but to clean the floor, no way.

And have you any idea how much these priestly garments cost me? Three shekels from D&G (David and Goliath) in Jerusalem High Street. And if you think that I’m going to get my robes dirty waving a duster around, you’ve another think coming.

Talking of dust: has anyone done a risk assessment before we get on with the job in here? There’s been quite a few cases of workmen with severe breathing problems recently, and I suspect that there’s something dodgy about the dust from those cedar wood beams. You should at least be issuing the staff with personal protective equipment.

But why are you getting us to do this sort of thing anyway? The temple to Baal in Nineveh has outsourced all its cleaning services. Apparently they’ve put a pretty demanding service level agreement in place, and managed to reduce their maintenance costs by 12% year on year. Think Big, Josiah! There’s no added value in dust removal!

And cleaning is all so ... transactional! I see myself as a strategy sort of person. This isn’t the sort of job that I expected to be doing when I spent three years in Jerusalem studying for my CIPD (Certificate in Priestly Development). My training has equipped me more as facilitator at large scale corporate events. You know, inspiring people with the Temple’s Five Year Growth Plan. Competitive Advantage through Collective Worship. That sort of thing.

You see, Josiah, I’ve got my media profile to think of too. I’ve been talking to a few people about publishing some of my recent work, and getting some of my writing into journals and other periodicals is the way forward. And it’s not as if my involvement in sprucing up the Temple is likely to lead to me featuring in any major publication that is read all over the world in years to come, is it?

I think that you’d better find someone else for this one.

HR: Here to serve people, not software

2011-05-31T19:08:00.000+01:00

A recent survey (was that a groan I heard?) suggests that only 39 per cent of HR professionals believed that their HR software system did all the things that they wanted it to do. (The precise phrase was “possessed the full level of desired functionality”) In fact almost half of those questioned disagreed or even strongly disagreed with the statement that they were happy with the HR software system.

Rewind to the day that the system was purchased or installed. You can guarantee that it was expected that it would be the saviour of many an HR professional, and would produce gorgeous organisation charts, automatically update succession plans, and dynamically track employment applications through the recruitment maze. The marketing brochures promised strategy at the click of a mouse. Data turned into useful information. The HR professionals had expectations of becoming an alchemist transmuting lead into gold. Or at least transforming exit data into a pretty pie chart.

But how quickly things change after installation.

Suddenly the hoped-for saviour becomes an angry deity squatting in the office, demanding a daily sacrificial offering of inputted data, conforming precisely to the ritual demands of the system, otherwise the livelihood of the nation is at risk, the rains fail to arrive, and the crops wither in the field.

The old story of failed expectations.

As the survey concluded:

“Most HR professionals want to think and act strategically to support their business, and while software can help them achieve that, it can also be a source of frustration if the wrong tools are selected.”

Or, to put it in more theological language, HR professionals should be mindful that they are here to serve people, not software

People Management: HR frustrated by software capability

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Darren, Sepp, Ratko and Footsie

2011-05-30T21:52:00.001+01:00

And behold, I saw the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and their names were Darren, and Sepp, and Ratko, and Footsie.

Darren (son of Alex) did evil in the sight of the dwellers of the land. For verily he did deceive the tribe of Prestonia, and did lead them into the bowels of the region of the Championship. So great was their fall that they were captured by the wicked nation of Npower. And it came to pass that Darren did pledge allegiance to the empire of Peterborough, and did lead them into the verdant pastures of the Championship, yea even into the tents so recently vacated by the tribe of Prestonia. But the people of Prestonia did heap curses on Darren, for he had greatly offended them.

Riding upon a pale horse was Sepp, who did conjure up evil spirits against his adversaries in the kingdom of Fifa, and did lay false charges against those opposed to him. “The nation of Fifa is not in a crisis, only some difficulties,” spake Sepp unto the congregation. But Sepp’s iniquity was great, and he walked in the statutes of the heathen. And many arose in the land who spoke thus, saying, “Verily thy days are numbered.”

The rider of the third horse was Ratko. (Are not the evils of his reign in Bosnia written in the annals of history?) Ratko fled from the judges of the land, but verily a net was cast for his capture, and all the people of the land rejoiced. Yet mighty was his protestation that he was smitten with the botch of Egypt and would not withstand his delivery unto the judges of The Hague. But behold, a multitude did arise that did demand that he was delivered into the hands of the wise ones who could make measure of his iniquities.

But behold, I looked and saw the rider of the fourth horse, and his name was Footsie, and I was exceedingly afraid. Footsie did worship at the altar of Mammon, and did render himself impure through idolatry and worship of filthy lucre. Footsie departed from the path of equity and justice, and did increase the wealth in his treasury by 32% year on year even when his people were in the grip of famine. The stink of the evil deeds of Footsie arose unto the heavens. And mighty was the affliction of the people on the land of Footsie, and loud were their grumblings. Yet many of the tribe of HR were silent.

And it came to pass that I saw an angel who beckoned me, and said, “Fear not, for the time of the punishment of the riders is at hand. As it is written, “They shoot horses, don’t they?””

He that hath ears to hear, let him listen to the words of the blogger.

New Survey Demolishes Established HR Thinking

2011-05-28T11:24:00.000+01:00

Regular readers of HR case Studies will be aware of the editorial team’s scepticism at the number of surveys that are commissioned in the HR world. Normally such surveys are thinly disguised marketing tools to “prove” that the service offered by the sponsor is the answer to all the world’s problems, and that you’d be daft not to give them a call and beg them to help you. Generally the surveys tell us in quantitative terms (and attempt to blind us with statistics) something that even the dumbest of us would have taken for granted anyway.

But a recent survey undertaken by the Chartered Management Institute radically breaks with this tradition and reveals something that will leave readers slack-jawed and wide-eyed with amazement.

It seems (brace yourselves) that managers might be to blame for worsening workplace morale.

Recoil with shock all those of you that thought that good morale in the workplace was actually the responsibility of the outsourced catering staff (See Gary Hamel’s seminal work, “Syrup Sponge and Custard: Unlocking Employee Engagement with Tasty Desserts")

Faint with horror anyone who still clings onto the well-researched theory that there is a demonstrable link between the United Kingdom’s performance in the Eurovision Song Contest and workplace productivity (See Ulrich and Brockbank’s influential Harvard Business Review article “Boom Bang-A-Bang: Competitive Advantage Through Employee Polyphony" (Foreword by Sir Terry Wogan)

Stagger under the impact of the paradigm shift that explodes the view that it’s really the responsibility of the employees themselves to keep morale high (see Paul McKenna’s bestseller, “I Can Make You Rather Jolly”)

The ground-breaking conclusion came as a result of the CMI's "Spring economic outlook survey" which found that 70% of managers admitted that morale in their organisations has dropped over the last six months. Throwing all the well-attested theory aside, the Chartered Management Institute has responded to the findings by suggesting that managers themselves could be responsible for the decline in morale.

Incredible, isn’t it? Just not at all what you'd expect.

Welcome to LastMinuteHR.com !

2011-05-19T20:43:00.001+01:00

Need a reactive HR service that gets you out of a hole?

Then welcome to LastMinuteHR.com!

We're here to rush in at the last minute and solve all those inconvenient and irritating little niggles caused by management oversight, forgetfulness and occasional incompetence.

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A member of your staff is about to retire, taking with him all his knowledge, leaving your business utterly devoid of a key capability.
A number of your employees are threatening to move to a competitor because you haven't kept your eye on salaries in your sector.
You got distressingly low trust in leadership scores on last year's employee opinion survey. They need to have improved for this year's survey. It's next month.
There's a potential Employment Tribunal case as a result of managers asking discriminatory questions at interview. It's probably a storm in a teacup. There's not a problem with asking women if they're planning a family is there? You've been doing it for ages.
You have an apparently consistently poor performing employee needs dismissing - TODAY! (despite having great appraisal ratings for the last five years)
You're tendering for a contract which requires the supplier to have Investors in People accreditation, and you don't have it. Sure, we can sort that out in a couple of weeks.
There's a nasty smell in the toilet, and the local MP is visiting this afternoon.
An administration assistant started this morning, and (despite it being the recruiting manager's responsibility) you forgot to sort out IT access for her. No problem. Done for lunchtime.
You need an advert for a Production Supervisor (£23k salary) in next week's Daily Telegraph. Must be in colour. You like the Telegraph. That's where you heard about your current job ten years ago. No, it shouldn't be expensive.
You've overspent by £5,000 on your travel budget, and need to make savings elsewhere. Sure, we can cancel next week's Management Development programme and the provider won't mind. Or charge a cancellation fee. No problem. We'll sort it. Like we always do.

If you're experiencing any of the above problems, just give LastMinuteHR.com a call, and we'll drop whatever else we're doing, and rush in one of our highly trained staff to sort out your problem.

Just one word of warning: Due to its nature, the service offered by LastMinuteHR.com does come at a price (to you, the employee and the reputation of the business)

If cost is an issue, you may wish to explore one of our alternative services, which we believe is equally if not more effective. For further details, please visit PlanAheadWithHR.com

The two most important questions that HR can ask

2011-05-16T22:45:00.000+01:00

The most effective questions are often the simplest ones.

And also the most dangerous

As mentioned in an earlier post, I've been undertaking research into the views of Senior Managers and Directors exploring their experience of HR service, and also their vision of what effective HR delivery would look like.

As is often the case in situations like this, half way through the exercise you realise that you wished you'd asked some slightly different questions, or phrased the questions in a different way.

Analysing the responses to the interviews has made me realise that for all the complexity of the data, there are two basic questions that need to be asked by HR people to the managers that they support:

What do you think HR does?
How well does it do it?

Answers to the first question reveal as much about managers as it does about HR, as knowledge of what HR is actually involved in is often (sadly!) severely limited. (Well, there's recruitment, and ... er ... )

Answers to the second question may be rather painful as well as informative, but without some assessment or measurement of success, knowing where and how to improve is impossible.

I wonder how many HR people reading this will dare to ask these questions?

16 ways of dealing with a dead horse

2011-05-10T19:15:00.000+01:00

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount: get off the horse.”

However, modern management thinking has identified a range of alternative strategies for dealing with the problem of a dead horse:

Change riders.
Reclassify the dead horse as a paradigm shift and keep riding it.
Buy a stronger whip and flog the horse until it shows signs of life.
Do nothing: "This is the way we have always ridden dead horses".
Develop a Strategic Plan for the management of dead horses.
Arrange an international programme visit to see how they ride dead horses in other countries.
Perform a productivity study to see if lighter riders improve the dead horse's performance.
Hire outside consultants to ride the dead horse.
Harness several dead horses together in an attempt to increase the speed.
Provide additional funding for external training that will increase the dead horse’s performance.
Appoint a committee to study the horse and assess how dead it actually is.
Rewrite the horse’s job description in line with the new Competency Framework Guidelines for Deceased Equine Models.
Re-classify the dead horse as suffering from "Vital Life-Sign Indetectability Syndrome".
Promote the dead horse to a management position.
Declare that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line than many other horses.
Contact IT to see if the whole stable is down, or just your horse.

I cannot claim for one moment that any of this is original, so thanks to a colleague for sharing a variation on this theme

Need the Professionals? Call for HR.

2011-05-10T18:24:00.000+01:00

As part of some research into HR Business Partnership, I've recently been undertaking in-depth interviews with senior business managers and directors exploring their experience of HR service, and also their vision of what effective HR delivery would look like.

One word has been used over and over again, but not always with the same meaning:

Professional

It seems to be used to indicate two entirely different meanings.

On the one hand to be professional (or, to be precise to be "a professional") is to be thoroughly grounded in your area of expertise, up to date on best practice and legislation, competent at building relationships and understanding the wider needs of the business. It seems to imply getting alongside managers as an equal, and influencing business decisions by ensuring that the people agenda is addressed. Such a professional is Someone Who Says Yes.

On the other hand professional is sometimes used to mean slow, ponderous, over-concerned with process and risk avoidance. It implies form-filling and adherence to an established way of doing things. It seems to imply a rule-based approach where the business manager is required to do things the HR way, regardless of whether this enables the business to fulfil its strategy and achieve its objectives. It's HR as policeman. Such a professional is Someone Who Says No.

One obvious question really:

What sort of professional (regardless of whether you're in HR or not) are you?

You can't measure everything!

2011-04-10T19:02:00.001+01:00

OK, I know the current trend in CVs is to make sure that you concentrate on your achievements, and to quantify all the incredible successes in your outstanding, tangible and demonstrable track-record of relentless delivery.

But one can go a bit too far, especially when that involves attempting to quantify the unquantifiable.

Here’s an example:

I received a CV this week from a recruitment consultancy drawing my attention to the merits of one of their candidates.

That he had "successfully led and managed the revamp of the performance appraisal system from conception to completion and ongoing monitoring for effectiveness" I do not doubt for one moment.

That he had "reduced staff turnover by 12%" I am prepared to accept, although I doubt if he achieved this single-handedly.

But that his "measures to improve staff knowledge and understanding of the organisation’s strategic objectives led to a 14.3% increase in staff knowledge and understanding" is something I find rather difficult to fathom.

Only 14.3% I hear you gasp? Not the industry average of 14.9%? Or perhaps your organisation has managed to nudge up the score into the magical land above 15.12%.

Clearly I jest.

How can you manage to measure something as nebulous as knowledge and understanding so accurately?

The answer is that you can’t.

Yet as HR professionals, we regularly and foolishly attempt to justify our existence (and our organisations’ investment) by ascribing success to our activities and initiatives using measures that cannot withstand even the briefest challenge.

In a world obsessed by Cost Benefit Analysis, we’d do well to make ourselves familiar with this definition:

Cost Benefit Analysis is a procedure by which the higher is reduced to the level of the lower, and the priceless is given a price. It can never therefore serve to clarify the situation and lead to an enlightened decision. All it can do is lead to self-deception and the deception of others (Boyle 2001)

Or, how about this for a bit of controversy to get the brain cells working as the week begins?

To believe that perfect, objective, non-political decisions can be reached through number-crunching and that human prejudice can be eliminated, is the hope. Yet a fixation with quantification embroils people in a paralysis of analysis. Instead of pursuing pseudo-scientific precision – the impression of dealing objectively with things – people should measure less. Instead of analysing HR costs and benefits why not trust HR professionals to identify needs, design activities, and deliver them professionally? (Stephen Gibb, Human Resource Development, 2008)

I'm sure that at lest 56.83% of you will agree

How to spot an HR Fad (or any fad to be honest!)

2011-03-15T21:32:00.000Z

It's amazing what you find tucked away in the depths of a dry academic text book!

Lurking away in Chapter 3 of Dave Ulrich's Human Resource Champions is the following handy checklist to allow you to decide if the current trend is likely add any long-term value:

It's simple and easy to use and claims to solve complex problems
It claims to apply to and help everyone
It's not anchored or related to any known and generally accepted theory
Proponents hesitate to present it in academic settings or write about it in refereed journals
Proponents can't tell you exactly how it works
It's a seminar session at 75% of the conferences you attend
Its proponents claim it's changed their lives and that it can change yours, too
Its greatest proponents are those with the least experience in the field
Proponents claim that the only way to really understand it is to try it personally; it can't be explained or demonstrated
It's just too good to be true

Odd thing is, how would the HR Business Partnership model score on this one?

HR: The Invisible Men

2011-03-06T21:52:00.001Z

Upon being told that President Calvin Coolidge had just died, Dorothy Parker (American poet, wit and satirist) responded, “How can they tell?”

Sadly, I fear that the same words could be applied to the HR Profession unless something changes pretty soon.

Over recent months, the pages of the national press have been filled with the debate and moral outrage over the excesses of the bonuses paid within the UK banking system. Yet the contribution from the HR community has been practically non-existent.

Comment on the situation from either individual HR Directors within the banking sector (and here’s a challenge: name one!) or the CIPD has been less than negligible. The profession seems to be increasingly populated by Invisible (and Inaudible) Men.

Call me old-fashioned, but I thought that reward and recognition was part of HR’s remit?

Or perhaps the HR function is simply aiming to outsource any activity beginning with the letter R. Recruitment: pass it to a third party; Redundancy: we’ll get an outplacement consultancy to manage that; Reward and Recognition: that’s something for the Remuneration Committee.

At this rate, HR will resemble the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland:

This time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

“Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,” thought Alice; “but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!”

Dear HR colleagues: there one thing beginning with R that can’t be outsourced: Responsibility. It’s time to take it and make the profession’s views heard. Failure to do so is to risk allegations of irrelevance.

And we don’t want that, do we?

Just Do It. Well.

2011-03-03T21:17:00.000Z

Consider this number: 64,268

If you're looking for a book on "personal growth" that's how many you have to choose from on Amazon.

It seems that as a culture, we're obsessed with adding new skills and abilities to our repertoire, or generally just improving ourselves.

As an HR profession, we're no different, with the Personal Development Planning section of the annual appraisal cycle being given increased attention and status.

But why not take a different approach and focus on what you already do well? Here are two illustrations to make the point.

In J.B. Priestley's English Journey, he recounts arriving at the Wedgwood factory in Staffordshire, and being given the opportunity to create something on the potter's wheel.

For more than thirty years I have never tried to do anything new without cherishing this wild hope, that God would let me play tennis or billiards or the violin wonderfully at first sight, allow me to display myself suddenly as a heaven-born orator or singer. No such miracle has ever happened. Nobody yet has been startled by my exhibition of unsuspected skill. Yet I know I shall go on hoping in this same foolish fashion right to the very end, when, the silliest old man in England, I shall be hoping to die in some neat clever new way.

As Priestley is demonstrating his ineptitude at the potter's wheel, I imagine a kindly observer placing his hand on his shoulder and saying, "Mr Priestley, can I suggest that you don't give up the day job. Your writing is really good, so why don't you just stick to that?"

J.B. Priestley: An Inspector Calls

Or consider the scene in Chariots of Fire when the future 400 metres Olympic champion's sister is disappointed that he's not taking his missionary work seriously enough, and Eric Liddell memorably responds:

I believe God made me for a purpose - China. But he also made me fast.

In both cases the message is the same: do what you do, and do it well. Do it to the best of your ability. So, dear readers, my challenge to you this weekend is to leave the personal development books on the shelf, and reflect on what natural abilities, strengths, gifts or talents you have. And use them.

Have a good weekend

Missing, Presumed Dead.

2011-03-02T23:28:00.000Z

Scotland Yard have today announced that they have called off the investigation into the apparent disappearance of eight UK Business Executives, many supposedly drawn from the HR community, who have been reported as missing over recent months. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said that an evaluation of the evidence had led to the conclusion that none of these individuals had actually ever existed in the first place, and that they appeared to be some form of Urban Myth. Scotland Yard have, however, released details of the “missing” persons, and stated that in the unlikely event that any of the following individuals are sighted by members of the public, they should contact their local police station.

The Eight Mythological Executives are:

A banker who has left the UK to work overseas as a result of the pressure on the financial community to control remuneration.

An HR Director who argued that Executive bonuses unfairly rewarded those at the top of organisations while penalising those lower down.

An HR professional who believed that their company’s performance management system was actually a little bit too simple.

A Learning and Development Manager who could state with absolute certainty how much money his company had spent on training last year.

An HR professional who can point to an incontrovertible link between training activities and an increase in company profit.

An HR Director possessing empirical evidence that there is a direct link between large bonus payments for senior managers and financial performance.

An HR Director who yearns for the day when his function will be rebranded as “Human Capital.”

An HR Director who believes that she has better control over her function now that all transactional activities have been outsourced.

Readers of HR Case Studies have been asked to assist Scotland Yard with their enquiries. If any of you believe that you have ever seen any of the above individuals, please leave a comment below.

Six Steps to Transformational Leadership

2011-03-01T21:15:00.001Z

How to simply motivate a group of employees is one thing. But how to be the sort of leader that influences the financial performance and survival of an organisation is another.

It’s been said before within the pages of this humble blog that digging deep into the depths of dry academic journals occasionally unearths a gem of an article that contains something of great value and wider applicability.

Such a gem is to be found in the pages of Gary Yukl’s Leadership in Organisations, where the concept of Transformational Leadership is explored in detail.

So, if you wish to be the sort of leader who can inspire followers and enhance their self-confidence and commitment to the mission, here are the six factors which evidence indicates are most likely to deliver results.

Articulate a clear and appealing vision
Give a clear vision of what the organisation could achieve or become, communicating it well, often, and using a variety of ways to do so. Use colourful, emotional language that includes vivid imagery, metaphors, anecdotes and stories.

Explain how the vision can be attained
Articulating the vision is not enough: the leader also needs to convince followers that it is feasible and can be achieved. Make a link between the vision and the credible strategy for turning it into reality.

Act with confidence and optimism
Your followers will not have faith in any vision unless you can demonstrate your self confidence and conviction. Remain optimistic about success, even in the face of temporary setbacks. Emphasize what has been accomplished rather than how much more is yet to be done.

Express confidence in your followers
Often described as the Pygmalion Effect, research has found that people perform better when a leader has high expectations for them and has confidence in them. It’s particularly important that you foster confidence and optimism when the task is difficult. So remind your team of how they overcame obstacles and triumphed on earlier occasions. Tell them that the are at least as good as an earlier team that was successful in performing the same type of activity.

Use dramatic symbolic actions to emphasize key values.
As Yukl states, “a vision is reinforced by leadership behaviour that is consistent with it.” He quotes an example of a new CEO who personally destroyed some low-quality versions of the company’s product that had been sold previously as seconds. So the message is clear: if necessary be dramatic to emphasize your key values.

Lead by example
Quite simply: your actions speak louder than your words, so set an example of exemplary behaviour in day-to-day interactions with subordinates. If you ask your team to observe a standard, keep it yourself. If you need your team to make sacrifices, do the same. To paraphrase Yukl: the values you wish to convey need to be demonstrated in your daily behaviour, and consistently, not just when it’s convenient.

So dear readers: what do you think?

Your decision is required!

2011-02-08T23:47:00.000Z

Do you remember that sinking feeling you used to experience at secondary school when your clearly unprepared teacher (and it was usually either the English or the RE teacher) uttered the energy-draining words:

We’re going to have a debate.

You knew exactly what would happen. 30 minutes of uninformed discussion led by the clueless, with contributions from the self-opinionated, ending in a final vote which might as well have been taken at the beginning, so negligible was the movement of minds that the debate had achieved.

I experienced that sinking feeling yesterday when I stumbled across a blog asking the question:

“What place the Unions in 2011?”

I think that the comment of “are Trade Union leaders simply self serving, rewarding themselves handsomely from members subscriptions whilst embarking on a shameless quest of self promotion” gave readers a slight clue as to the opinions of the blog writer.

The few comments on the blog were divided between those that thought that Trade Unions were A Good Thing, and a similar number that regarded them as A Bad Thing.

So, time for a bit of mischief!

Do you remember those times when your school teacher was slightly more prepared, and suggested a balloon debate, where pre-selected individuals were allocated roles of various historical characters and they had to justify why they shouldn’t be thrown over the side of the slowly sinking balloon?

Well, the writer of the blog just happened to be a recruitment consultant (spit!)

So dear readers, in the balloon there’s just the three of you: you, a Trade Union leader (simply self serving, rewarding themselves handsomely whilst embarking on a shameless quest of self promotion) and a recruitment consultant (simply self serving, rewarding themselves handsomely whilst embarking on a shameless quest of self promotion)

The decision is yours. One of them has to go.

Who’s it going to be? Trade Union leader or Recruitment Consultant

Cast your vote at the top of the blog!

Why? Why? Why?

2011-02-07T21:33:00.000Z

OK, dear readers. Examine the following three statements:

If you pay exceedingly generous bonuses to a select few individuals at the pinnacle of any management hierarchy, it will inevitably lead to those businesses being better managed, and consequently improving shareholder value.

If you remove the ability of employees to request the right to work flexibly, it will inevitably lead to increased productivity within the workforce.

If you remove the practice of collective pay bargaining in the NHS and education sector (presumably requiring each region to undertake such activities independently), this will also boost productivity.

All three of the above statements are ones which form the backdrop to much debate within the UK’s management community at the moment.

OK, the debate is never put in such stark terms, although the recent proposals put forward by the Institute of Directors for the drastic curbing of employee rights come pretty close to it.

'Axe' public sector union rights, say business leaders

Management, especially where it involves people, is never a precise science, and therefore the laws of cause and effect don’t exactly apply.

But for a generous bonus culture to lead to better financial performance or reduced rights for employees to lead to improved productivity there must in theory be an unbroken chain of causality that can be observed and investigated.

If the statements above are true, it doesn’t matter how many links there are in the chain, but there must be a connection between the cause and the effect.

Can someone help me out here: why do we believe that our generous bonus culture has led to increased financial performance? And why do we believe that reducing the rights of employees will similarly lead to increased productivity?

I’m not looking for an explanation of every link in the chain. Just the first one will do.

Confessions of an HR Snob

2011-02-06T10:58:00.001Z

Let’s face it, when it comes to Jazz, I’m a snob. No point in denying it. I’m quite happy listening to Evan Parker wrenching tortured sounds out of his sax that resemble a seal cull. Or John Stevens choosing to ignore the concept of time signatures in his avant-garde drumming. But I can cope with these guys because I know that if they were asked to rattle off All The Things You Are, Autumn Leaves or Round Midnight, they could do so without any trouble. My basic rule is: Prove to me that you can do it properly before you show me you can do it differently.

I adopt the same stance when it comes to HR.

So when someone accused me of being an HR snob (on the issue of recruitment, to be accurate) last week, I saw that as a compliment rather than an insult.

The idea is becoming prevalent that most activities that are undertaken within the HR function can be chopped off and performed equally well elsewhere. This inevitably leads to the next step of concluding that there’s really nothing much to HR, and that basically any idiot could do it.

Oddly enough, I partly agree with this. Any idiot could do most things in HR. Badly. But to deliver the full range of HR services, particularly operating as an HR generalist, takes a special sort of person, of which there are (fortunately) a significant number in the profession.

Every organisation has its own distinct set of challenges, and I doubt if mine is all that unique, so let’s have a quick look at the activities that are on the centre of the radar screen at the moment.

Planning engagement with the senior management team to determine what form of HR model is best suited to the organisation’s needs.
Responding to employee feedback to ensure that HR delivers the level of HR service that the business demands.
Reviewing the provision of occupational heath cover for employees undertaking assignments in over 50 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and including challenging locations such as Sudan and Haiti).
Rolling out an internship programme allowing team members to gain experience within a Disaster Management Team. (If you fancy a relaxing summer holiday responding to the aftermath of the floods in Pakistan or helping out with Water, Sanitation and AIDS awareness in the Democratic Republic of Congo, give me a shout!)
Exploring ways increase the representation of women in the senior management team of the organisation.
Rolling out a Personal Conduct Policy to clarify the impact of individual employees’ behaviour on company reputation in a values driven organisation (Sky Sports: you may wish to get in touch!)
Launching a suite of surveys to measure satisfaction of managers and candidates involved in recruitment activities.
Continuing discussions and debate about the fitness for purpose of the current HR information system, and options for the future.
Considering what mechanisms are available and appropriate to ensure the active engagement and support of the organisation’s extensive volunteering community.
Throw a few other ingredients into the mix such as developing a Global Reward Strategy, the usual grind of job evaluation, ensuring compliance with the recent Equality Act and Default Retirement Age legislation, planning workshops on recruitment, grievance and discipline skills for line managers, making sure that the right people get paid (and the wrong ones don’t!) and, well, you’ve probably just started to scrape the surface of what’s on the agenda of a typical HR department in the UK.

So, before someone tells me that HR is a piece of cake, prove to me that you can do all the stuff above, and then I’ll listen.

Until then, I’ll stick to Keith Jarrett

Recruitment: None of HR's Business.

2011-02-02T23:49:00.000Z

Ever participated in an online chat with a group of like minded professionals? (No, I don’t mean that sort of chat, thank you very much. None of that in these hallowed surroundings)

I mean one where a group of individuals get together to thrash out an issue together, generally for an agreed period of time, and with contributions from just about anyone with an opinion.

Let me tell you what happens when people get together (like last night) to discuss the issue of recruitment.

Normally the debate is chaired by someone with a vested interest in the issue being discussed. So you think you’re involved in an open debate, whereas in reality it’s a thinly disguised marketing activity on behalf of the person chairing the debate. (Sorry Bill . . .)

Next thing that you’ll notice is that the issue up for debate will be totally non-controversial. Something along the lines of “Has recruitment got anything at all to do with HR, or wouldn’t it really be better to hand it all over to us guys in the recruitment industry”.

Nothing at all contentious there then.

You will by this stage also have noticed that the assembled multitudes are predominantly from the recruitment profession, who hover like vultures around the (perceived, in their view) expiring body of the HR community. The reason for this is pretty simple. Recruiters use social media and, incidentally, think that anyone who doesn’t use it is sinful, wicked, out of touch, misguided, demented, and generally a bad sort. HR professionals on the other hand, generally are not such big fans of social media. So it's not so much a debate as a slagging off of HR without them being there to add their tuppenceworth.

The debate will normally commence with a few of the recruiters making carefully considered arguments about the relative merits of differing strategic HR models, citing various luminaries such as Ulrich, Legge, Tyson and Storey. Actually, I’m lying here, as most of the guys in the recruitment camp have never heard of any of these theorists, mainly as they have zero experience of working in HR, so they wouldn’t understand a well thought-out HR strategy if it bit them on the leg.

The contribution of the recruiters is more likely to be along the lines of, “I’m not sure what HR is all about, and as far as I’m concerned, they can do away with it.” They also seem to have the view that the main function of HR is to slow things down and provide tortuous advice on employment law. “Less input from HR is always good, as they only ever slow the process down” is the sort of comment that is thrown into the mix. Basically it’s the same sort of twaddle that you hear from The Man In The Pub on a Friday night.

Let’s throw in a question at this stage (HR Professionals only!) Have you even consciously slowed managers down in their endeavours to recruit?

If you’re lucky, you’ll get one of the big guns from the recruitment industry making a profound (i.e. HR Case Studies code for “utter nonsense!”) comment such as, “of course recruiting isn't an HR function, it a business delivery function.” This is the sort of statement that makes you wonder where you lost the plot in the world of HR, especially if you are an HR generalist who is seen by those who you work alongside as crucial to the provision of a comprehensive HR service including employee relations, learning and development, performance management and (Whoops! Nearly forgot! Recruitment)

The saddest thing about all this is that the guys who really matter are not even involved in the debate. I’m talking about the managers who are calling for a joined up recruitment service provided by someone who understands their business and can partner with them to acquire the necessary talent to make the business plan a reality.

If there are any of you managers out there, you’re views are more than welcome.

HR Professionals: Second Class Citizens

2011-01-24T20:53:00.000Z

It's official: HR professionals are great. Of course, business partners are even better.

Those are not my words, but those of a full-page advert in the £60,000+ appointments section of the current edition of People Management for a number of roles with Tesco.

As People Management is an official publication of the CIPD, we can safely assume that the advert has been sanctioned by the CIPD as reflecting the image that it wishes to promote of the future of the HR function.

So, for those of you who don't see yourselves as Business Partners, it looks like you're condemned to a life in the wings, playing out your inferior role as an HR Professionals, while the big boys strut their stuff centre stage with the stars of the show.

And sadly this obsession with reshaping the HR function along Business Partner lines is not restricted to the nation's supermarkets.

A recent report by Mercer suggests that we should be concerned that HR directors "spend only 15 per cent of time on strategic work." In the survey, despite 65 per cent of respondents considering themselves as strategic partners to their organisations, the average proportion of time spent on strategic work was only 15 per cent.

HR directors spend only 15 per cent of time on strategic work

It seems that the largest proportion of their time was spent delivering HR services.

What a pain that must be. Just think of all the time wasted on making sure that people are recruited, rewarded, motivated, engaged and developed effectively. Such trivia that we can all do without.

And just think of all those fortunate ones in the Commercial and Finance functions, where everyone spends 100% of their time being strategic, without the need to ensure that contracts are correctly written up, or invoices issued.

I leave you with the words of an excellent article by Graham White (HR director at Westminster City Council) where he cogently argues that "the truth is business partnering doesn’t work"

Who will join me in a cup of Horlicks and a dream in which HR becomes accountable for tangible contribution, and is assessed against real, measurable targets?

HR model: dream or nightmare?

Horlicks Original Malt (300g) costs £1.99 in Tesco.

First Century HR Officer asks "What's the role of HR today?"

2010-12-23T09:44:00.000Z

As revealed last week, previously ignored fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found to contain the diary entries of Malachi Barnabas, a 1st Century HR Officer working in the Bethlehem area of Israel.

World Exclusive! The Secret Diary of a First Century HR Officer.

Today, HR Case Studies publishes a final extract from his diaries.

Well, dear readers, it’s about time to put the diary away for a while.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a Holy Roman Business Partner (HRBP) these days. There’s been a lot of talk about just what purpose us guys serve, and whether we’re there just to support The Empire, or whether we occasionally have to stand up to an Emperor or a Governor who’s clearly losing his marbles.

I was in a seminar organised by the Central Israel Pharisees Department (CIPD) last week, and they’d actually managed to get some Seriously Big Cheeses along to talk to us. The keynote speaker was actually King Herod. Bet he cost the CIPD a few shekels in speaking fees.

One of his comments intrigued me:

“I can’t bear being told ‘you can’t do it that way’,” he said. “Do not put barriers in the way. Sometimes you have to take a step back from the policy, from the law, and say ‘what do we need to do right now, and how are we going to get there?’ Don’t hide behind the policies.”

I’ve been reflecting on what that means recently.

I spoke to Herod after the conference. He seems a reasonable guy overall. A bit self important and driven perhaps, but I like a man with a clear vision.

Anyway, I must have impressed him, as he’s asked me to do a bit of work for him. He wants me to draw up a Corporate Manslaughter Policy specifically for the Bethlehem area. Not sure what he’s got in mind, but who am I to question someone in authority?

Look out for Malachi Barnabas's new book "Power, Innovation and Problem Solving: The Challenge of HR in the First Century". Available soon from all good scroll-sellers.

First Century HR Officer gives helpful advice to three blokes with gifts.

2010-12-22T09:27:00.000Z

Blimey! It’s all go again this week.

Odd, though, isn’t it ,the way you get a message from the government that you assume is nothing to do with you, and then the next minute, you’re in the thick of it!

One of Herod’s envoys jumped off his donkey this morning and proudly announced that as I was a Tier 2 Sponsor (I didn’t even know that I was, to be honest!), I needed to be aware that the Government has (and I quote!) “laid a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules relating to Tiers 1 and 2 of the Points Based System” Top and bottom of it is Bethlehem HR Services needs to keep a close eye on how many foreign types we employ.

So far, so good.

But then these three distinctly odd blokes walk into the office claiming to be from Melchior Caspar Balthazar Headhunters. I’d never heard the phrase myself, and they seemed to be talking in code. They waffled on about spotting a particular chap’s profile on LinkedIn (nope, means nothing to me either) But evidently this chap must be worth investigating as he had a star next to his name on his “LinkedIn profile”

I had to ask these guys where they’d come from, and it definitely wasn’t from round here judging from their clothes, so I told them about the new immigration rules, and advised them that unless they had proof of residence permits in Israel, they wouldn’t be able to work round here.

But apparently they weren’t looking for work. They’d actually got some Corporate Hospitality Gifts (nope, another new one for me, that one!) to give out to this chap they were looking for. One each: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh (I think the last one was some form of soap)

Played right into my hands, they did!

Having only just come back from a Central Israel Pharisees Department (CIPD) update on Employment Law, I was in my element! Quick as a flash I told them that giving someone gold could well be construed as a specific offence of trying to influence a foreign public official with the intention of obtaining or retaining business in a situation where the public official was not permitted or required by law to be influenced.

As far as I understand, the Frankincense is burned and gives off some form of perfumed smoke. I’ve no problem with them using the stuff, as long as they take action to reduce the risk to the health and safety of the peaceful people of Bethlehem from second hand Frankincense smoke to as low a level as is reasonably practicable. In fact I even suspect that the Frankincense could be classed as “Noxious Effluvia” and therefore infringe Caesar’s new Health and Safety at Work Act.

And as myrrh also contains one or two dodgy ingredients I also pointed out that as the Control of Stuff Harmful to Herod (COSHH) regulations extended to chemicals, products containing chemicals, fumes, dusts, vapours, mists and gases, the chances were that the myrrh would have to be put through Risk Assessment.

So, after telling them all that, off they went.

Who says that HR aren’t helpful. Mince Pie anyone?

First Century HR Officer reveals his reading list for next year.

2010-12-20T14:51:00.000Z

Dear Diary: It’s been a busy weekend, especially as the New Year is fast approaching.

Not had time to do much other than put in an order for a few scrolls to read over the coming year. I heard from a friend that there’s a new supplier that’s gaining in popularity. The business is calling itself Jordan. Seems odd to me to name yourself after a river. Can’t see it catching on to be honest, but who am I to question these things?

Anyway, here’s my list of ten books to read over the next month or so:

Who Moved My Unleavened Bread by Stephen (son of Jonah) and Kenneth of Bethany
Essentials of Roman Employment Law By Claudius Lewis and Malcolm the Centurion.
Teach your Child Integrity by Simon Iscariot
The Holy Roman Business Partner (HRBP) model by Darius Elrich
The Caesar Delusion by Ricardus Dawkinus
The Very Rough Guide to Social Media: Using Parchment to Extend your Brand
Maximising your Camel Fleet: An Employer’s Guide to the new P11D by Matthew of Nazareth
Increasing Employee Engagement through Health and Wellness by Doctor Luke.
From Tragedy to Triumph: the Story of the Cana of Galilee vineyards
Visualising Business Success by Habakkuk, Zechariah and Hosea

Have I missed any obvious ones that I need to read, I wonder?

Another legal minefield for First Century HR Officer.

2010-12-16T21:35:00.000Z

As revealed earlier this week, previously ignored fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found to contain the diary entries of Malachi Barnabas, a 1st Century HR Officer working in the Bethlehem area of Israel.

World Exclusive! The Secret Diary of a First Century HR Officer.

Today, HR Case Studies publishes the fourth extract from his diaries.

Heavens above! Who dreams this stuff up? As if it wasn't difficult enough already providing an HR service to a nation under Roman occupation! But now we've got some new legislation to deal with!

Next month sees the introduction of the Equality For Sufferers of Leprosy and Leprosy-Related Diseases Act. As usual it's all written in impenetrable legalese, presumably drawn up by those helpful guys in the Sanhedrin. Just cast your eyes over this:

An employer shalt not (verily it is said) discriminate against a man or woman who, though he (or she) hath previously been inflected with leprosy (or a leprosy-like infection) provided that the employee can produce an LC1 Certificate (Proof of Cleansing from leprosy (or a leprosy-like infection)

Neither shalt an employer (verily it is said) discriminate against a man or woman who, though he (or she) hath previously been inflected with leprosy (or a leprosy-like infection) can prove that he (or she) hath complied with the regulation of Leviticus Chapter 14 to shave off all his (or her) hair, beard (certain women are exempt from this - see subsection 3.2) and eyebrows, bathe in water, and stay outside the camp for seven days until given the thumbs-up by the Priest.

Neither shalt an employer (verily it is said) discriminate against a man or woman who, though he (or she) hath previously been inflected with leprosy (or a leprosy-like infection) can produce a PS2 (Proof of Sacrifice) Certificate detailing the sacrifice of (i) two male lambs, (ii) one ewe, (iii) three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, and (iv) one measure of oil.

An employer shalt also make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment of employees who hath previously been inflected with leprosy (or leprosy-like infections); and such reasonable adjustments shalt also be extended to the training and development of employees.

And on it goes. So much detail you can hardly believe it. You should read the section on allowing reasonable time-off for previous sufferers of leprosy (or leprosy-like infections) to cleanse their house from mildew! It makes me itch just reading the stuff!

Doesn't exactly make it easy to employ people either does it? I feel particularly sorry for my mate Ephraim who has a business just next door to the leper colony. He's just put up an advert for a new position: a Handyman! Ha! You can imagine the fun he'll have at shortlisting stage.

What we really need is some form of regional doctor who can cure this sort of problem.

But that's not going to happen in my lifetime, is it?

Check out HR Case Studies tomorrow for a further instalment.

Employment Law nightmare for First Century HR Officer!

2010-12-15T21:22:00.000Z

My stars! I've no idea what's going on in Bethlehem this week, but it's causing more that its fair share of HR problems.

I went looking for the shepherds - sorry, Nocturnal Pasture Operatives - who had headed down from the hills to gatecrash some sort of party in the stable round the back of The Emperor's Arms. (Something unusual going on there too, I can tell you. All sorts of odd types wandering in and out. Quite a few dressed up in foreign garb and wearing tea-towels on their heads which makes them look pretty amusing!)

But enough of them. The pub landlord of the Emperor's Arms is a friend of mine, and he wanted a bit of advice. Seems that his boss wants to take him through disciplinary procedure for poor performance. Apparently his boss is blaming him for overbooking the hotel during the exercise to get everyone onto Caesar's Holy Roman Information System (HRIS). But he didn't know that it was also the annual Central Israel Pharisees Department (CIPD) conference at the same time. He reckons his boss made that booking, but didn't let him know about it.

The thing is, I'm not sure which country's employment legislation applies to my mate Benjamin. The Emperor's Arms is actually part of an Israeli chain of taverns, but they in turn are actually just a subsidiary of an Egyptian company (Apparently, their flagship hotel near the pyramids is meant to be superb: it's even got beds in the executive suites!) Benjamin himself is on secondment from Assyria, he gets paid in Talents, but that's done through a third party who gives the money to Ben's twin brother in Ephesus, and when he travels here, the company that organise the camel train are based in Ethiopia.

I think I'll have a word with my mate Ephraim Croner who works in the employment section of the Sanhedrin, to see if he's got any light that can be shed on this one. It's always worth checking to see if there's been any parchments sent round on this sort of thing.

Talking of light: I think someone's forgotten to turn the lantern out in the stable round the back of the tavern. Looks like the place is ablaze! Better nip out and see what's going on. I'll have a quiet word about the stable's carbon footprint while I'm at it!

Check out HR Case Studies tomorrow for a further instalment.

Exclusive! Bethlehem shepherds demand Personal Protective Equipment!

2010-12-14T21:32:00.000Z

Flipping typical, isn't it? HR gets a phone call to come and sort a problem out, and then by the time you arrive, suddenly there's not a problem anymore!

Yesterday morning I got a message from a local Trade Union representative telling me that some of his members were raising a collective grievance over lack of personal protective equipment. Seems there was a bunch of shepherds up in the fields above Bethlehem who were having a number of problems. It makes me laugh though: this bunch are so pretentious that they don't even call themselves shepherds any more - they reckon they are (wait for it) Nocturnal Pasture Operatives!

And there's me just expecting the normal request for blankets and animal skin jackets. If only! This delicate bunch were asking for some form of eye cover to protect themselves against some bright lights that have apparently been keeping them awake at night. Wouldn't be so bad if that was the end of it, but they were all asking for ear plugs as well. The feeble bunch have been losing beauty sleep because of loud singing in the area. Personally I suspect it will have been the end of conference knees up at the CIPD (Central Israel Pharisees Department (CIPD) get-together in Bethlehem, but they weren't so sure. I might need to have a word with the boss of the shepherds, because I'm not sure how seriously he's implemented the alcohol at work policy in his region.

But - and this is what really irritates me - I spend half the evening trecking up the hillside to meet this lot, practising my negotiation techniques on the way, and when I get there, far from a bunch of seething shepherds waiting for me, there's just one straggler.

According to him, one of his sheep had strayed off, and while he was chasing after it, the light and the noise that they'd been talking about got brighter and louder, but when he returned, all of his colleagues had cleared off.

At least they'd left him a note, though:

Sorry to leave without you. Party in stable round the back of The Emperor's Arms in Bethlehem. Hope to see you later.

I'd have nipped there myself if I hadn't been so busy. Got lots of problems with the migrant workforce in this area.

Check out HR Case Studies tomorrow for a further instalment.

Emperor Caesar Augustus launches "Bring the Future into the Present" Strategy

2010-12-13T22:26:00.000Z

As revealed yesterday, previously ignored fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found to contain the diary entries of Malachi Barnabas, a 1st Century HR Officer working in the Bethlehem area of Israel.

World Exclusive! The Secret Diary of a First Century HR Officer.

Today, HR Case Studies publishes the first extract from his diaries.

My stars! I've no idea what Caesar Augustus has been smoking these days, but he's quite clearly flipped. Apparently one of his soothsayers made some form of prophecy about the future in which information about workers will be stored on what Caesar refers to as a "Holy Roman Information System" (or HRIS as he insists on calling it)

So he's decided to launch a "Bring the Future into the Present" strategy (where he comes up with these names, I haven't the faintest idea) and get everyone in the entire Roman world to provide personal details which he can record on scratty pieces of parchment. No idea what he plans to do with this information, though he keeps muttering something about "diversity monitoring" and "talent management" under his breath. No, it doesn't mean anything to me either.

The twerp has decided that the best way to get this information is for everyone to trek to their ancestral home where a crack team of HR officers can apply quill to parchment and register the information.

So, yours truly has been given the dubious task of sorting out the situation in the Bethlehem area.

I don't think Augustus has any idea how much trouble this has caused! I've already had people asking questions about whether time taken to get to Bethlehem will have to come off their annual holiday entitlement, or whether they can take it as flexitime. A guy from the transport department has told me that every donkey in the area has been booked for weeks to come.

A bloke from Nazareth even asked me if we had a policy on paternity leave for carpenters! Cheeky blighter! He reckons his wife is pregnant and about to give birth. "Just you get yourself down to Bethlehem, Joseph," I told him. "If your wife gives birth while you're down there, I'll have a word with the local authority to see if they have any creche facilities."

Not quite sure where he's planning to stay when he gets there though. I hadn't the heart to tell him that the Central Israel Pharisees Department (CIPD) are having their annual conference in Bethlehem, so there's not a room to be had for love nor money.

Anyway, that's all from me for today. Need to be up early tomorrow to sort out some issues about night shift allowances for a group of shepherds.

Check out HR Case Studies tomorrow for a further instalment.

World Exclusive! The Secret Diary of a First Century HR Officer.

2010-12-12T21:52:00.001Z

In a dramatic scoop, HR Case Studies can exclusively reveal that previously ignored fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls contain the diary entries of Malachi Barnabas, a 1st Century HR Officer working in the Bethlehem area of Israel.

The 972 documents discovered between 1946 and 1956 in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea were previously thought to have been written by the Essenes, or perhaps by another Jewish sectarian group.

But part of a scroll discovered in Cave 5 (normally referred to as the Apocryphon of Joshua) has only recently been fully translated by a team of scholars at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute.

Far from being concerned just with the religious life of the Qumran community, this scroll has been found to contain an account written by a local official responsible for day to day administration of people related issues. A careful reading of the recently translated text gives a fascinating insight into the life of a 1st Century HR Officer working in the Middle East at a period of immense cultural and historical significance.

Keep tuned into HR Case Studies for further updates.

Five steps to business success. (And you are all really wonderful readers . . .)

2010-11-30T22:17:00.001Z

A former colleague of mine was once given the advice:

If you want to get on in this company, find a department that's full of no-hopers. That way, even if you're mediocre, you'll appear outstanding.

It seems that there might be a degree of truth in what he said, if an article in The Economist is to be trusted.

The Economist: The will to power

Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford Business School has been teaching a popular course on “paths to power” for a number of years. He condensed many of his findings into a book that is part academic analysis and part how-to guide, “Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t”.

Because you're all such wonderful people (of which, more later...) you probably won't have time to read the book, so here's a quick summary. (Oh, nice shirt by the way. You have the most impeccable taste)

Step One: Find a department that's on the way up.
Put simply, as the most powerful departments are the ones that have produced the current big-wigs, get yourself in there!

Step Two: Manage upwards.
Turning yourself into a supplicant. Follow the example of Barack Obama who asked about a third of his fellow senators for help when he first took his place in Senate.

Step Three: Become a "node".
Develop the art of forging links between separate parts of your company, and network like crazy.

Step Four: Be loyal.
It's estimated that four out of every five CEO appointments go to insiders, and those insiders last almost two years longer in their jobs than outsiders.

Step Five: Flatter everyone in sight!
Pfeffer quotes research by Jennifer Chatman, of the University of California, Berkeley, who conducted experiments in which she tried to find a point at which flattery became ineffective. Interesting news, O beautiful and intelligent readers: there's no limit! People just can't get enough of it!

If you're somewhat sceptical about lavishing praise and attention on your peers and subordinates in an organisation, check out Lucy Kellaway's fascinating article for BBC News Magazine to see how there's just no end to the flattery that can be dispensed!

BBC: Should you strike a powerful pose?

In the meantime, where did you get your hair done? It really looks superb! It makes you look so young and vibrant. No wonder you're so good in your job. You must give me your tips for success sometime!

Have a nice day, gorgeous readers!

An Inspector Calls

2010-11-25T00:24:00.000Z

It's strange how things sometimes work out isn't it?

A colleague today asked me if I'd write something on here about the 16 days of activism to end violence against women. I'll have to admit that my initial reaction was to think that such an item would appear rather out of place on a blog that's focused on HR issues and case studies from the world of work.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign

But a relaxing evening a home gave me the opportunity to put my feet up and read through J.B. Priestley's excellent and thought-provoking stage-play, "An Inspector Calls."

Without wanting to spoil it for those who may be unfamiliar with the play, an evening's entertainment is interrupted by a mysterious character who proceeds to question - and implicate - all the guests about the tragic suicide of Eva Smith, a young girl whose descent into despair was triggered by something very familiar to the readers of this blog: a rejected request for higher wages, followed by a dismissal by an employer.

In one of the most powerful speeches that you'll hear on stage, the Inspector speaks the following lines:

Just remember this. One Eva Smith has gone - but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, with what we think, say, and do. We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good Night.

Priestley's play is clearly fictional, but the facts are that over two women per week are killed by current or ex-partners, and that one in four women in the UK will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

Whether or not we work in HR, as J.B Priestley says, we are responsible for each other, so don't brush this issue under the carpet. There's plenty of resources available on the issue: I've included a link to just one below. Check it out.

Restored: Ending Violence Against Women

[The editor of HR Case Studies walks straight out, leaving them staring, subdued and wondering. As they stare guiltily and dumbfounded, the curtain falls]

End of Play

Social Media will not get you into heaven.

2010-11-21T23:42:00.000Z

Sorry everyone, but my background in Theology and former life as a teacher of Religious Education requires me to point out to you a simple truth:

Your use of social media is not the factor that will determine whether or not you go to heaven

On the Day of Judgement, when the Book of Life is opened, the test of whether or not you are granted access to the heavenly realm will not be how acquainted with social media you were while on Planet Earth. The Recording Angel will not be checking up on how many followers you had on Twitter, how many friends you had on Facebook, or how many contacts you had on LinkedIn.

Why, dear reader, am I pointing this out?

It's this: there's a breed of individuals evolving at the moment for whom the test of whether you're In or Out, Saved or Damned, appears to be how committed you are to the cause of Social Media.

How about this from the pages of the (I'm afraid to say it) increasingly dubious Harvard Business Review:

As a social media geek, I rarely go a day without convincing a friend that even a 42-year-old can enjoy Facebook, or hectoring a colleague about how much time and effort they could save with social media communications, or coaxing a communications pro into embracing social media as a core part of their professional practice. I bat aside the protests about age, time commitment and personal preference.

HBR: Countering the Excuses for Avoiding Social Media (and Video Games)

Convincing: OK. Coaxing: perhaps a bit patronising. But Hectoring? Batting aside protests? Aren't we going a bit over the top here? (And, incidentally, as a person who is significantly on the far side of the category described, I find the "even a 42-year-old" comment deeply offensive.)

Here's a bit more of what I'm talking about. A couple of weeks ago, I participated in an online discussion which addressed such issue as "Why HR are afraid of social media." To me the debate (to continue with the theological terminology) appeared to demonise those unconverted to the use of social media, and almost suggest that to deny the benefits of social media was tantamount to an Unforgivable Sin. I was eventually provoked into remarking that those who do not use social media are not Bad People!

As recently as this morning I observed a conversation between two guys in my network (sorry, Bill and Gareth - it's not personal!) where the health of attendees at a local CIPD branch meeting was judged largely on the number of Twitter (3) and LinkedIn (2) accounts represented by those present.

So. Let me put out a challenge to those of you who are avid users of social media:

Where on the scale from Evangelist to Extremist are you? Are you a Missionary or a Zealot? A Fan or a Fanatic? What scope is there for someone in your circle to say "I just don't find this sort of stuff particularly relevant or helpful in my social or professional life" without you looking around for the thumbscrews?

And before sending the inquisition round to the offices of HR Case Studies, I trust that you'll note that I haven't actually stated my position on this one! The point I'm making is that if we're not careful , the message will get in the way of the (social) media.

And on that note, I will run for cover!

What the CEO wants, the CEO gets. (Even if it's illegal)

2010-11-15T10:05:00.000Z

I seriously hope that I'm quoting someone out of context here, but I suspect not.

People Management online reports the results of a debate involving the leaders of three of the UK's businesses which took place at last week's CIPD annual conference in Manchester.

CEOs frustrated by HR's policy-based mindset

Responding to the question of what were their biggest frustrations in dealing with HR, the business leaders stuck to the well worn path of criticising HR for a lack of business understanding and an over-reliance on policies.

So far, so good.

But David Robinson, chairman of Richer Sounds, seems to be heading into dangerous waters with his view. Here's what he said:

I can’t bear being told ‘you can’t do it that way'. Do not put barriers in the way. Sometimes you have to take a step back from the policy, from the law, and say ‘what do we need to do right now, and how are we going to get there?’

I'm as happy as the next man to criticise HR for a strict adherance to policies if they get in the way of helping the business achieve its onjectives. But "take a step back from ... the law"? Really?

I wonder which particular law is Robinson suggesting that we take a step back from? The law that demands that we don't discriminate? The law that requires companies to comply with minimum wage legislation? The law that requires companies to handle discipline and grievance in a reasonable manner?

The influence and acceptance that HR craves will not be found by simply acting as the lapdog to senior managers. There are times when HR professionals need to be just that - professional - and convince those that they partner with that there are parameters within which business can operate and that to go beyond that may be inappropriate, unadviseable or plain illegal!

The HR professional might like always saying "yes", but even the Man from Del Monte occasionally had to say "No"!

Most of what you read about HR isn't true.

2010-11-11T22:26:00.002Z

Right, dear readers. You have the chance to participate in a social experiment to either establish or disprove the truth of a much-quoted item of HR-related gossip.

In a racey (which is code for "low on evidence") little article entitled "10 Things the HR Department Won’t Tell You", it's claimed that, as a matter of routine, HR departments regularly perform unofficial background checks by trawling through the internet to look for warning signs relating to potential employees.

10 Things the HR Department Won’t Tell You

After apparently "checking in with human resources experts to see what your current employer is keeping tabs on—and how your next employer could be judging you based on a whole lot more than the résumé you submitted," the author claims:

Before calling in applicants for a job interview, HR will snoop around online to make sure there are no virtual red flags. “Social media ‘stalking’ has become the norm—especially at larger companies. Beyond typing names into a search engine, companies will also employ sophisticated online monitoring platforms that dig even deeper. If there’s something on the internet you wouldn’t want your boss to see, it’s probably in your best interest to take it down.

Personally, I suspect that this is utter nonsense (at least in the UK) particularly as many HR departments are stretched to breaking point in even arranging interviews and issuing offer letters. The idea that they have time to act as cyber-sleuths looking for evidence of online dodginess is simply a fantasy.

Or is it?

Well, here's your chance to establish the truth once and for all.

I'd like to hear from any organisation (anonymity guaranteed!) that is prepared to admit to using such methods as a formal part of their selection process. I don't mean the occasional googling of an applicant, or a swift glance at Facebook to check up on the candidate's drunken antics in Ibiza. I mean a deliberate and regular investigation using "sophisticated online monitoring platforms" to delve into the background of individuals that the organisation is considering employing.

I'm also interested in hearing from any company that markets any form of "sophisticated online monitoring platform" so that the HR community can learn of what technology is available to assist in the challenge to sort out the wheat from the chaff in the search for talent

My theory is that this belief is about as reliable as an urban myth. I would love to be proved wrong, but I doubt that I will be.

Over to you, super-sleuths!

Employee Relations: the Ugly Sister of HR

2010-11-08T22:16:00.001Z

Research just undertaken reveals that more than half (54%) of UK senior HR professionals are working in teams in which no one has experience of dealing with trade union action.

HR Sector in Danger of Strikeout by Trade Union Action

And is that lack of capability in HR departments likely to pose a threat to those organisations? You bet! The research also reveals one in five senior HR professionals believe that trade union action is likely to affect their organisation in the next six months.

Of these, 20% say that this activity is likely to have a "huge impact" on the organisation.

Recent industrial action within Transport for London, the BBC and the Fire Service would add weight to this concern. There is also an increasing fear that government spending cuts could be the signal for mass strikes in the UK.

The terrifying fact is that almost two-thirds (63%) of the survey respondents say they know little or nothing about the current laws on trade unions, and 40% say they do not feel confident about dealing with union action.

So what are UK HR professionals doing to ensure that this situation is remedied? Precious little it seems, if the content of the seminars at the CIPD annual conference which starts today is anything to go by! With the exception of the Service Delivery and Information seminar stream, Employee Relations is the category of seminars and workshops at the annual conference with the fewest number of activities within it.

If you wish to be seduced by Strategy Insights and Solutions (“Overcoming the Paradoxes of Global Leadership”, “The Next Stage of HR Evolution: insight-driven HR” or “Do Leaders Really Need to be Tired? A study of resourcefulness, leadership and the power of true human vitality” for example) you’ve a choice of 14 seminars to tempt you. Employee Engagement- the HR fad of the moment –has 12 seminars with slinky titles such as “Creating your own Happiness: the science of luck” or “Why Happiness Makes Business Sense” to lead you astray.

But Employee Relations - today’s Ugly Sister of the HR world - has a mere four seminars aimed at increasing the knowledge and skills of the profession’s self-confessed dunces, and of those four seminars, only one is specifically focused on managing the relationship with Trade Unions.

As the publicity material for the one directly relevant seminar states:

Industrial relations are very much back on the HR agenda. How can you work with trade unions to deliver a more productive workforce and even become a beneficial ally during periods of change? What does a good employer– union relationship look like?

By no means is this an easy question to answer, but at some point HR will need to block its ears to the siren calls of strategy, organisational design and talent management, and realise that there’s a difficult job to be done. The job that used to be called Industrial Relations. The name might have changed, but the activity is still there to be done.

Let's keep the Man in Management shall we?

2010-11-04T20:25:00.000Z

As the current edition of Management Today correctly points out, Tuesday of this week was ‘equal pay day’.

If the average woman was paid the same annual salary as she gets now, but at the same rate the average man is paid, she'd effectively have stopped earning money on Tuesday, despite the fact there’s nearly a sixth of the year still to go

To mark the occasion, women’s pressure group the Fawcett Society has produced a report calling on the Government to do more to encourage equal pay.

And how does Management Today respond? With the decisive and courageous verdict of :

But as ever, the issue is far from straightforward…

Let's remind ourselves of some of the facts on equality of pay between men and women.

Men earn an average of £16.07 per hour, women earn merely £13.43 – a difference of 16.4%.
In some sectors, notably air transport, financial services and textile manufacturing, the pay gap between men and women is even wider.
Despite the passing of the 1970 UK Equal Pay Act, which was intended to bring the pay of men and women into line at the current rate of progress it will take until 2067 before the gap between men and women managers is eliminated.
The average UK salary for a male manager is currently £10,031 more than that of a female manager.
At senior level male, pay outstrips female pay by as much as 24%.
Even at junior level the gap is significant, with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than their female counterparts.

So in view of all this, what's Management Today's response to the evident inequality? Here are a selection of words used:

But it’s not necessarily that easy.
Figures are invariably skewed by women who choose to take time out to have children
Women may earn less than their male contemporaries because they have less experience.
... even if the figures are correct ...
Many businesses simply don’t have the funds at the moment to up pay rates.

Most worrying of all is Management Today’s comment on the recent CIPD report which has predicted that Government cuts will be responsible for 650,000 job losses in the private sector:

If businesses started raising wages for women, the likelihood is that more jobs would be lost.

That's OK then. No argument. We'll just carry on with the inequality. We've done it for so long it would be a shame to change, wouldn't it?

The Perfect Blog. So perfect that you're not going to read it.

2010-10-30T23:13:00.000+01:00

If you're reading this it means I have failed.

The reason why you're not going to read this blog is because it breaks a significant number of the golden rules of blogging.

It doesn't have a number in the title - it's not called Seven Tips To Guarantee Interview Success, or The Six Secrets of Effective Leadership, for example. So the fact that it hasn't got such a snappy title means that you're unlikely to be reading this right now. Or perhaps you're not the run-of-the-mill blog reader and are not therefore drawn in by such simplistic techniques of attracting attention. You may even be quite sophisticated.

It also has more than 60 characters in the title. And more than 10 words. So it breaks all the rules. That's why you're not reading it.

Even those readers that found their way here by accident will be slowly drifting away. In fact 25% of them will have given up by the time that they got to the word "attracting" (highlighted in yellow above) because apparently that's the number of people that call it a day if the article has more than 100 words. So you may have read the first few lines, but you're certainly not reading this, are you? Even if you are, you'll probably be one of the 40% who will have given up by the time that they get to the 300th word in the article (it's the word "perfect", highlighted in green below)

More significantly, the reason why you're not reading this is because you can't be bothered to persevere, and check out the truth of what I'm saying. I could have made all these facts up.

Just like I made up all of the facts of the previous article entitled New research highlights the perfect CV! That's the article that was Facebooked, forwarded, and tweeted by a significant number of people over the course of this weekend, but hardly anyone at all bothered to check out the link in the item which revealed the article to be a fraud.

Which only goes to show that although the fact that you're reading this now demonstrates this experiment in contrariness to be a failure, it also demonstrates that in the vast majority of cases people foolishly take much of what they read on the web at face value, and don't bother to examine the evidence behind it.

Unlike you of course.

But then you're not reading this, are you?

New research highlights the perfect CV!

2010-10-29T10:57:00.000+01:00

It’s official!

If you want your CV to be successful, you need to keep it to two pages, use (and avoid!) specific fonts, and work on your golf handicap!

A recent article in the snappily titled Journal of Sociological Trends in Assessment Practice reveals the results of a year long study into the CVs of successful candidates applying for management positions in UK FTSE organisations. If you wish to trawl through the rather turgid tables in the article, follow the link below, but here’s a brief summary of the major findings.

The ideal CV is 2.46 pages long.
OK this is difficult to adhere to, but the study revealed that although there is some validity in the much-quoted advice of keeping your CV to a maximum of two pages in length, CVs of greater length do not actually penalise you.

Avoid Comic Sans Font!
If you wish to impress with the look of your CV, stick to trusted favourites like Arial, preferably in 11 font. There was a slight correlation between successful CVs of candidates applying for roles in Finance and the use of Times New Roman (perhaps it’s something to do with the slightly old-fashioned and risk averse nature of that particular typeface!) but the only really clear message from the survey is the familiar one of avoiding Comic Sans Typeface. Of over 3200 CVs studies, only one using this particular typeface led to an appointment and that was for a position in the Media and Communications department of a major advertising agency (where presumably being a maverick is to be encouraged!)

Take up golf
The single most important factor in progressing from application to interview is to describe your prowess in golf. No other sport has such a positive correlation between appearing on a candidates CV and being appointed into the post. Particularly within roles in the finance sector, a decent golf handicap seems to have more power to impress than even an MBA. And for roles at Finance Director level, it’s not only the fact that you play golf that’s important – it’s how good your handicap is!

Don’t play team sports
Slightly linked to the point above, it’s clear that individualism is what companies are looking for. If anything, there’s a negative correlation between team sports (especially, for some reason, five-a-side football) and appointment into senior roles. The advice here is clear: only mention your dribbling skills if your applying for roles at middle management level. Beyond that, preferably mention how good you are on the golf course or, if you’re applying for roles in IT or Procurement, it will help you if you have completed the occasional marathon.

Drink more wine
Only one leisure interest (other than golf) has a positive correlation between inclusion on CV and appointment to position: mentioning that you are a connoisseur of fine wines. The phrases “Entertaining” or Dining Out” have no bearing whatsoever on progressing from CV to interview, but there is a marked correlation (0.582 for the statistically minded!) between simply mentioning “Fine Wines” and being appointed to position. The correlation is even higher for posts at MD level, and those with salaries of above £75K

So, to summarise, keep your CV to two pages, avoid Comic Sans Font, play golf (alone!) and drop into conversation (should you get to interview) that you knocked back a bottle of Chateau Gruaud Larose 1986 at the weekend (£288 a bottle)

Good luck!

Journal of Sociological Trends in Assessment Practice

Recruiters beware: this man is dangerous!

2010-10-26T22:00:00.000+01:00

The man above is Trevor. Trevor works for a financial services organisation in Bristol in the South West of England.

He may look innocent, but in fact he's the most dishonest man in the world. If you are in any way involved in the recruitment sector, you need to be very, very wary of him.

Let me tell you why.

A number of separate research projects have revealed some disturbing facts about the truthfulness of candidates' CV. Here are the chilling results of these surveys:

In a recent study of 3700 CVs by the Risk Advisory Group, 20% were found to contain significant untruths concerning matters such as experience and academic qualifications.
The same study revealed over 50% of CVs included one or more accuracy, such as the real reason for leaving the most recent job.
A separate survey (by Powerchex) found that UK job applicants were three times more likely to lie on their CVs than those from the rest of the world.
This survey also found that 22% of British applicants' CVs contained either falsehoods or embellishments
In contrast only 4% of CVs from Asian candidates contained dodgy information.
The worst discrepancy rate was in the financial services sector in the South West of England where 25% of CVs were found to have at least one discrepancy.
The most honest applicants came from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
A further study by Experian revealed that 12% of men, but only 7% of women admit to lying on their CVs
According to the CIPD, 20% of British workers are prepared to get a parent or friend to pose as a referee.

So you can see why Trevor is to be feared. He's male. He's From the UK. He's from the South West. He works in financial services.

The public are warned. Do not approach this man. He is thought to be armed with a deadly weapon.

His CV.

Further frightening reading from the dungeons of HR Case Studies: Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember what you said (Mark Twain)

The excesses of US executive pay: That's just the way it is.

2010-10-25T22:04:00.026+01:00

I'm sure that by now most readers of this humble little blog will have spotted the occasional rant against the inequalities of executive pay in the UK.

If you haven't been following the theme, here's a bit of background reading:

A fair day's wages for a fair day's work?
£36.8m. Not bad for a year's work.

But today, the editor is the bearer of good tidings! Things are not as bleak as they may have seemed. But the bad news is that this is only the case because the situation across the Atlantic makes our inequalities pale into insignificance.

Once again, dear reader, you are challenged. See if you can read the following facts and remain unmoved.

One out of every 34 Americans who earned wages in 2008 earned absolutely nothing in 2009.

Average wages, median wages, and total wages have all declined, except at the very top, where they leaped dramatically, increasing five-fold.

The number of Americans earning more than $50 million fell from 131 in 2008 to 74 in 2009

Those at the very top of the scale increased their income from an average of $91.2 million in 2008 to almost $519 million. (And you thought that Wayne Rooney's reported £180,000 per week was on the rather high side! : These guys earn nearly $10 million per week!)

This next little snippet of information needs a section all of its own, because it's so astonishing. Read these words slowly and consider them:

The 74 highest earning people in the USA made as much as all of the 19 million lowest-paid people in America combined

So, how did you get on? Did you gasp? Did your eyes pop out on stalks? Or did you just shrug your shoulders and hum the words of the great American songwriter Bruce Hornsby: "That's just the way it is, some things will never change?"

Hopefully you'll recall that there's another line:

But don't you believe them.

Performance Management: It's as simple as ABC. Isn't it?

2010-10-24T22:22:00.000+01:00

Let me take you on a trip down memory lane.

Long before your faithful editor of HR Case Studies became a world-famous blogger, weaver of HR strategy and generally all-round good egg, he was a teacher of Religious Studies in a couple of secondary schools in the North of England (including the one which was dubbed The School From Hell by the sensation seeking media). Those of you that reside in the UK will be aware that Religious Studies tends to be dispensed in single lessons to the unconvinced and largely unenthusiastic pupils. That means a lot of teaching. And a lot of pupils.

A merger between two local schools meant that I (for 'tis me of whom we are speaking) had the pleasure of teaching 515 different pupils per week. I also had the very dubious pleasure of writing end-of-term reports on each of the (frequently anonymous) 515 pupils who had graced my classes during the year.

We're talking of the days before the bland computer generated reports that are the saviour of many a 21st century teacher. We're talking biro, carbon paper, liquid paper and copious amounts of midnight oil and strong coffee to meet the report distribution deadline.

We're talking of resisting the temptation to be witty and sarcastic to write comments such as "Jason attended all the lessons and made occasional movements to prove that he was still conscious."

But 515 reports is a lot to complete, especially if you're trying to be meaningful.

Confession time: I longed to put into practice the philosophy of one of my colleagues who was firmly of the opinion that "when all is said and done, everything you write about a pupil basically boils down to one of three things: they are either Good, Average or Bad. All the rest is padding."

And doesn't the same apply to Performance Management?

Strip away the: "David has achieved all this year's objectives and demonstrated that he is developing all the corporate competencies" and you've got: David is Good. Remove the padding from "Christine has struggled to complete some of the key priorities for the year, and needs to focus on growing in some of the crucial behavioural areas" and you have: Christine is Bad.

Here's a question: aren't we over-complicating things by developing sophisticated and often confusing performance management systems which are time-consuming to complete, calibrate and report on?

What would we actually lose if we simply rated each employee on a scale of A=Good, B=Average, C=Bad ?

Missing, presumed dead: the eighth most stupid management fad

2010-10-21T22:00:00.000+01:00

A recent post on BNET (The CBS Interactive Business Network) listed what the author (and he's written for Computer Gaming World and Men's Health magazine, so he's clearly a managerial heavyweight) names as the eight most heinous, stupid, painful and useless management fads that you'll ever encounter.

BNET: The 8 Stupidest Management Fads of All Time

He'd evidently got bored or run out of steam by the time that he got to number eight, but here are the other seven manifestations of managerial madness:

1. Six Sigma
Improve the quality of your processes by identifying and removing the causes of defects. You assign various people different colored “belts” (like a karate class) based upon their expertise in the Six Sigma methodology.

2. Business Process Re-engineering
Analyze the workflows and processes within your organization and rework them to achieve a defined business outcome.

3. Matrix Management
Temporarily pool people with similar skills for discrete work assignments. For example, all engineers may be in one engineering department and report to an engineering manager, but these same engineers may be assigned to different projects and report to a project manager while working on that project. Therefore, each engineer may have to work under several managers to get their job done.

4. Management by Consensus
Make important decisions with the agreement of everybody in the group. Proposals should be collaboratively developed, and full agreement is a primary objective. Consensus management is usually seen as an alternative to “top-down” decision making common inside hierarchical organizations.

5. Core Competency
Focus on the one thing that your firm does better than anyone else. That will make your strategy difficult for competitors to imitate and keep your organization from wasting time doing things that they’re not very good at.

6. Management by Objectives
Define objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to what is required of them and understand where they are placed in the organization. Then compare the employee’s actual performance with the standards set and agreed upon.

7. The Search for Excellence
Solve business problems with as little business process overhead as possible, and empower decision-makers at multiple levels of a company.

I suspect that most of the highly intelligent readers of HR Case Studies will be aware that the author's descriptions are so much of a caricature that they are either misleading or in some instances plain wrong, but hey it's the end of the week so we need a bit of light entertainment, don't we!

More importantly, we need to find a replacement for the eighth management fad that we've cast overboard.

So dear readers: what's the daftest management fad that we still cling to but we really need to consign to the dustbin of history?

You may turn over and begin . . .

HBS: Harvard Business School or Half-Baked Silliness?

2010-10-20T21:44:00.000+01:00

For a reputable institution that has as its motto "We educate leaders who make a difference in the world", Harvard Business School doesn't half spout some nonsense!

Let's first allow Harvard Business School to talk for itself:

For more than a century, our faculty have drawn on their passion for teaching, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and the insights gained from their research to educate generations of leaders who have shaped the practice of business in every industry and in every country around the world

Now let's go on to look at the content of HBR's The Daily Stat: ("Facts and figures to stimulate thought - and action") - a daily e-mail distributed to a serious number of subscribers in search of business insight and wisdom:

Break Out of a Slump By Visualizing Success

How do you get out of a slump at work? Atlanta Braves ace pitcher John Smoltz had won just 2 games and lost 11 in the middle of the 1991 baseball season, but after seeking help from a psychologist, he went 12-2 the rest of the season, according to the Wall Street Journal. The problem: He had been over-analyzing every bad pitch. The solution: He watched a video of his best pitches, then recalled those images when he got to the mound, mentally evoking the feeling of throwing well.

The article, which admittedly originated in that other lightweight business periodical, the Wall Street Journal,(read it here if you can wade your way through the transatlantic terminology) then goes on to demonstrate that merely by visualising yourself performing well in the future, all will be well.

All you need to do is follow the simple advice of the author to "Stop overworking and allow yourself to relax" and before you know it, sales will have doubled, new clients will be landed, and confidence will be restored.

I know that we all want a quick route to success, but honestly, to sign up to some of this mumbo-jumbo outside of the sports field (where it undoubtedly can have its benefits) is tantamount to embracing new-age nonsense.

You'd expect more from an academic institution that prides itself on producing some of the most influential characters in American business, wouldn't you?

A fair day's wages for a fair day's work?

2010-10-20T00:00:00.000+01:00

The issue of the excesses of executive pay has featured many times in the pages of this humble little blog. But an article in today’s Guardian once again turns the spotlight on this crazy situation.

I defy you to read some of these facts and not feel some sense of injustice!

The average income of a FTSE 100 chief executive is over £3m per year, including bonuses and pension contributions. This is more than 100 times median household income.
It is not uncommon for CEOs to earn 200 or 300 times as much as the average pay of their employees.
In Terry Leahy's final years CEO at Tesco, he was paid 500 times the average take-home pay of his colleagues.
In the year to September 2009, the FTSE LOST a third of its value. During the same period of time, executive pay ROSE 10%
In 1980, the average pay of a UK CEO was ten times that of average UK earnings. By 2006, the average pay of a UK CEO was 75 (say it out loud and think about it ... seventy-five!) times that of average UK earnings

So what can be done about such evident and surely unsupportable imbalances between those at the top of UK organisations, and those who work within them? Today's Guardian article offers at least one good suggestion:

One thing that government could do to shake things up would be to change the composition of remuneration committees, adding some broader and more critical voices to the mix and disrupting the complacent back-slapping. Ed Miliband's proposal for worker representation on remuneration committees would be a promising way forward. It would inject a dose of realism into the determination of corporate pay, as the presence of even a single dissenting voice could puncture group-think, and lead to pay policies that were broadly justifiable to all sections of an organisation, rather than only serving the interests of a self-perpetuating elite

Further reading from HR Case Studies

Dutch knock out Scotland, and take the lead on executive pay

£36.8m. Not bad for a year's work.

Trade Unions add their voice to the chorus demanding an end to the bonus culture

Your thoughts and comments are, as ever, most welcome.

Recruitment and Employee Relations conflict to increase in 2011

2010-10-18T23:14:00.010+01:00

Stand by for a statistics attack!

Employers are "gearing up for the recovery by targeting recruitment in areas that will maximise growth" according to a survey by the CBI and Harvey Nash out today

(And I thought Harvey Nash were an international luxury lifestyle stores specialising in brand name merchandise with stores in London, Leeds and Riyadh. Perhaps I'm confusing them with the manufacturer of a brand of Spanish sherry that has been imported into and bottled in Bristol since 1796. Focus, editor, focus!!)

But all in the garden is not entirely rosy, as many firms are concerned about maintaining morale, as employees face another year of pay restraint.

Here's a useful bundle of statistics to keep you entertained as the morning progresses.

The number of businesses operating a recruitment freeze has fallen from 61% in Spring 2009 to 7% this Autumn.
23% of businesses are planning targeted recruitment in areas including management, technical and sales, while 21% plan to add staff in some parts of the business and reduce numbers elsewhere.
Pay freezes have reduced, from 55% of employers in Spring 2009 to 14% in Autumn 2010.
22% of firms are planning targeted pay rises for key staff, while 42% are planning a below-inflation award for all employees.
Although most firms (67%) describe the current employee relations climate as co-operative or better, many businesses are concerned that relationships will become more difficult next year.
In the next six months, 21% of public sector employers are planning a recruitment freeze, and 58% a pay freeze.
Firms are finding it harder to maintain engagement and morale. Nearly a third (32%) report high levels of engagement, while morale is not getting better, with just a third (38%) reporting high levels.
The majority of employers recognise they need to work harder on employee engagement, with 63% naming achieving high levels of engagement as one of their top priorities for the year ahead.
According to the Tribunals Service. the number of employment tribunals rose 56% to 236,100 claims in 2008/09.
Nearly half of employers (48%) are worried about an increase in age-related tribunal claims after the removal of the national default retirement age (DRA) of 65 in April.
Two thirds of employers (69%) are concerned that removing the DRA will lead to greater uncertainty around workforce planning.
Nearly all employers (97%) offer at least one form of flexible working, including part-time; flexi-time; term-time hours; job sharing and working from home.

Source: Gearing up for Growth, the CBI/Harvey Nash Employment Trends Survey

The Four Cs of the HR Profession

2010-10-18T08:30:00.001+01:00

It's Monday, so we'll keep it simple!

Last week we had the Three Cs in A divinely simple approach to talent management. We'll make it slightly more complex this week by talking of The Four Cs of the HR Profession: Competent, Curious, Courageous and Caring.

An article in a rather ancient (2005) edition of Human Resource Management Journal, summarises research to determine how the HR profession is perceived by other, non-HR executives. What will the successful professionals of the future look like? Successful HR professionals today, and in the future, have to be (according to the article) competent, curious, courageous, and caring about people.

Competent
Earn your seat at the table by demonstrating individual competency in delivering value. In particular, prove yourself by operating in the domains of:

Strategic contribution
Business knowledge
HR delivery
Personal credibility
HR Technology

Curious
"HR professionals should ask CEOs what keeps them awake at night. If the HR function isn’t focused on the same issues, we won’t be adding as much value as we could"

Courageous

HR professionals must have the courage to do the right thing when they are under great pressure to do something else.

Caring about people
Valuing people and the contribution people can make to an organization is a key characteristic of good HR professionals and always will be. And we shouldn’t apologize for it or try to minimize it in an effort to be viewed as “strategic.” HR professionals who care about people will automatically make strategic decisions and recommendations that are based on a full understanding of how they will impact people.

Just one question, dear readers: perhaps it's an old fashioned concept, but is it still part of the role of the HR profession to care for people, or is this rather old hat in the hard-edged, bottom line driven 21st Century?

Human Resource Management: The four Cs of the HR Profession: being competent, curious, courageous and caring about people (Summer 2005)

Nobody Needs A Mentor

2010-10-17T09:02:00.000+01:00

Those readers of HR Case Studies who are familiar with the work of David Clutterbuck will inevitably be aware of his highly successful book Everyone Needs a Mentor. If it does what it say on the tin:

Mentoring is the most cost efficient and sustainable method of fostering and developing talent within your organisation. Talented employees can be stretched to perform even better by exposure to high performing colleagues. Experience can be passed on more effectively one-to-one. Mentoring works. This book tells you how.

As it's a Sunday, let's look at an alternative approach, once more culled from the management wisdom of Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago.

I've been asked literally thousands of times to be a mentor to someone. On occasions the request came from people who flew from another continent for the sole purpose of waiting by my car to get the opportunity to ask me personally to mentor them.

What concerned me more than their temerity was the expectation behind the question - "Would you be willing to listen to and counsel me, mold me and shape me, direct me and instruct me and hold me accountable? Would you, O Great Mentor-to-Be, please serve as my all-knowing, all sufficient, all powerful, omnipresent confidant and master, teacher and exhorter, friend and guide?

Truth be told, they didn't really want me. They wanted Obi-Wan Kenobi. One basic problem: He isn't for hire.

Hybels gives some sound advice which is well worth thinking about by all those involved in any form of mentoring:

There are hundreds of mentors that are available to any individual. Don't see one person as the fount of all knowledge, It may take several different mentors to find what you're looking for, so think creatively about enlisting mentorship aid.
You don't need to have met someone to be mentored by them. Listen to great leaders speak. Go to hear them at conferences and on TV.
Get mentored by dead people. Find the writings of people who cover the areas you need mentoring in. As Hybels puts it, "The men themselves are long gone, but their mentoring influence lives on. How cool is that?"

In short, follow the advice of Hybels:

There's no quicker way to repel an accomplished leader than to beg him or her to be your own personal wizard. Ditch the Obi-Wan dream and instead seize creative opportunities to learn from a distance from thousands of mentors who have a wealth of wisdom to share.

Pole Vaulters, Boy Racers, Plodders and Flatliners: Tips on employee engagement

2010-10-13T21:04:00.000+01:00

(This article isn't just a gratuitous excuse to include a picture of Russian Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva. Honestly.)

In an entertaining and enlightening article in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review, Katie Truss (former Director of the Centre for Research in Employment, Skills, and Society at Kingston Business School) and her fellow researchers suggest a novel approach for tailoring engagement programmes to meet the needs of different types of workers.

The article first looks at the five basic principles for increasing employee engagement:

Keep people informed
Listen
Set clear objectives
Match the person with the job
Create meaningful work

Nothing particularly earth-shattering there.

But the article then goes on to demonstrate that the one-size-fits-all approach to engagement is inevitably destined for failure, and classifies workers into four distinct categories. It’s argued that if you know which type of people you’re dealing with, you’ll be able to produce more engaged employees, who in turn perform better, are more loyal, take less sick leave, are less likely to quit, and enjoy better health and personal well-being.

See if you recognise either yourself or your colleagues in the list below

Grand Prix Drivers
Generally strongly engaged with their work, they’re ideal employees much of the time, but also at risk of burning out.
The Challenge: Preventing them from carrying too much of the load, especially in projects which they’ve initiated themselves

Pole Vaulters
They’re strongly engaged, but their moments of engagement are less frequent than those of Grand Prix Drivers. Pole Vaulters tend to be energized only by certain aspects of their work rather than the whole range of required activities.
The Challenge: Getting the most out of their on/off enthusiasm.

Long-Distance Runners
On the upside, they’re reliable and consistent, but they’re also significantly less engaged than Grand Prix Drivers and Pole Vaulters (assuming the Pole Vaulters are actually engaged)!
The Challenge: Keeping them involved, and increasing their levels of engagement.

Flatliners
Oh dear. These guys are rarely engaged and even when they are, it doesn't actually amount to much.They can easily become actively disengagde (i.e. become negative and hostile) and have a demotivating effect on colleagues.
The Challenge: Reversing their negative feelings and fostering engagement.

Confession time? Which category do you consider yourself to be in?

Harvard Business Review (March 2010) Engaging the “Pole Vaulters” on Your Staff

The secret of happiness

2010-10-13T07:30:00.002+01:00

Time for a little test!

Here's a simple question: what makes people in Britain happy?

Your task is to rank the following items in order of importance as voted for by those adults asked to identify what makes them happy.

Helping others in the UK
Living in a world where the environment is protected and where poverty does not exist
Having a job with a high income
Helping those abroad
Having an interesting job
Spending time with friends and family

The poll was conducted to coincide with the launch today of Wholly Living, a report by Catholic aid agency CAFOD, Christian relief and development agency Tearfund and the public theology think-tank Theos. Examining human wellbeing in the context of both the UK and international development, the report invites the UK government, as well as people of all faiths and none, to enter the debate on how best to create an environment in which to engender human flourishing.

Tearfund Chief Executive Matthew Frost said:

It's interesting that in this time of economic uncertainty, when we might have expected people to prioritise income over all else, we have instead found that people look outwards to the state of the environment, world poverty and personal relationships with others as their measures of happiness

So HR Professionals who believe that you need to finely craft your reward and recognition frameworks in order to effectively motivate your employees, you might be interested to see the scores on the doors.

The keys to happiness according to those polled are:

Spending time with friends and family (97%)
Having an interesting job (92%)
Living in a world where the environment is protected and where poverty does not exist (90%)
Helping others in the UK (75%)
Having a job with a high income (64%)
Helping those abroad (54%)

And other sections of the report give HR professionals some pointers about what matters to people within their working environments:

It's hugely important to people to enjoy interesting and productive work, and to have healthy relationships and friendships – people measure happiness by what they give to others and what they gain in return. Of course a level of financial security is essential, but it’s clear that British people recognise that the people in our lives come first.

Britain: It's just not fair!

2010-10-11T22:21:00.000+01:00

Let's be provocative!

Every three years the Equality and Human Rights Commission is required to report to Parliament on the progress that society is making in relation to equality, human rights and good relations.The first such review was laid before parliament yesterday.

The headline on the BBC website accompanying the publication depressingly announces: "Gender pay gap progress grinding to a halt" and goes on to explain that:

Attempts to close the pay gap between men and women appears to be "grinding to a halt", the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said. Its wide-ranging 700-page report said women on average earned 16% less than men, widening to 27% for women aged 40.

But the EHRC report focuses on much more than just pay differences between men and women.

If you're already feeing a bit down today, then I suggest that you skip the rest of this article. Here are some of the other findings of the EHRC report:

Black Caribbean and Pakistani babies are twice as likely to die in their first year as Bangladeshi and white British babies.
The highest performing group at 16 are Chinese girls, with those on free school meals outranking every other group except better-off Chinese girls.
White British boys on free school meals are the lowest performers at school, apart from Gypsy and traveller children.
Women with degrees face a 4% loss in lifetime earnings as a result of motherhood, while mothers with no qualifications face a 58% loss.
50% of disabled adults are in work compared to 79% of non-disabled adults.
The number of women prisoners has nearly doubled since 1995 in England and Wales, and in Scotland since 2000.
One in eight people in England provide unpaid care to adults.
Disabled men earn 11% less than other male workers, while the gap is 22% for women.
Black graduates earn up to 24% less than their white counterparts.
Total household wealth of the top 10% in society is almost 100 times higher than for the poorest 10%
Men and women from the highest social class can expect to live for up to seven years longer than those from lower socio-economic groups.

It's perhaps all too easy to turn the spotlight on the pay gap between men and women, but that's far from the full picture.

As the EHRC reports states:

21st Century Britain faces the danger of a society divided by the barriers of inequality and injustice. For some, the gateways to opportunity appear permanently closed, no matter how hard they try; whilst others seem to have been issued with an 'access all areas' pass at birth.

So, my fellow HR professionals, what are you going to do about it?

A divinely simple approach to talent management!

2010-10-11T07:06:00.000+01:00

There's an intentional theme running through the HR Case Studies posts this week!

Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois, which is one of the most-attended churches in North America. We've already mentioned that those who have accepted the invitation to speak at Willow Creek's Annual Leadership Summit include Gary Hamel, Jack Welch, Tony Blair and Bono.

The size of the leadership and management team at Willow Creek is such that it resembles that of a major commercial organisation, and the importance of getting the right person in each key position is no different to that faced by a secular business.

The approach of Bill Hybels to executive selection is one which is worthy of exploration regardless of whether you're a priest or a pagan, a believer or a sceptic:

It took me nearly thirty years to figure out a plan for how to build a dream team. II tried all sorts of mental grids for prioritising people-qualities along the way, but the only one that stuck was made up of three simple Cs: Character, Competence and Chemistry

Hybels goes on to say:

Good character is touch to discern in an interview but you have to do your due diligence to make sure that the person you're about to invite onto the team has got it.

Only after a person passes the character test to I check for competence. I make no apologies for looking for maximum competence in my teammates: gifts, talents and capabilities that will take the team performance to the next level.

But before I recruit anyone, I take them through the chemistry screen. I used to be a doubter when it came to emphasizing "fit" in a new recruit, but I've learned the hard way to trust my instincts: if I get negative vibes the first two or three times I'm in someone's presence, it's likely I'm not going to enjoy working with that person day in and day out.

OK. Question: The approach of Bill Hybels may be pretty simple and unsophisticated, but can you fault his technique for identifying talent?

A Stereotype for Sunday!

2010-10-10T22:57:00.000+01:00

While it's still Sunday, let's pick up a theme from last week.

In an item on the fatal errors of the interview process, one of the clangers that we highlighted was:

The stereotyping effect: Assuming that particular characteristics are typical of members of a particular group. In the case of sex, race, disability, etc. decisions made on this basis are often illegal

The problem for all of us - not just the interviewer - is that much of our stereotyping is so ingrained in us that we're not even aware when it kicks in.

Here's an example that's been exercising the editor of this esteemed blog over the last week or so:

What sort of person do you think of when you think of the phrase American Evangelical Christian?

Something along the lines of a happy-clappy, mindless, anti-feminist and prejudiced right wing member of the moral majority who sees natural disasters as a manifestation of divine judgement upon those who don't adhere to their particular creed?

I suspect that you wouldn't expect a book written by someone who would describe himself as an American Evangelical Christian to contain an in-depth and non-judgemental coverage of philosophers, writers and artists such as Camus, Derrida, Kant, Kierkegaard, Bernstein, Nietzsche, Pascal, Weber and Marx (Karl not Groucho!)

But that's the sort of content that Tim Keller, founder minister of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan (six thousand attendees spread over five services each weekend) seamlessly weaves into his writing.

Does that say anything to you about your stereotyping and prejudices?

Homework on Coaching

2010-10-07T20:53:00.007+01:00

Right, dear readers of HR Case Studies. It’s almost the weekend, so I’m setting you some homework, and in the process undertaking a sophisticated social experiment with you select band.

An article in the current edition of Management Today, written by Jamil Qureshi who describes himself as a “Mind coach and strategic consultant” argues that you can “shape your mind for success” and offers ten top tips for doing just that.

MT Expert's Ten Top Tips: Shape your mind for success

Your homework is to read the Management Today article, and then answer this simple question:

Is mind coaching a scientifically proven effective means of improving performance, or an unfounded and somewhat empty fad in personal development?

You need to post your answers in the comments box and indicate what your current role is.

For the slackers amongst you, the tips are summarised below:

Be motivated by what you want to achieve, never motivated by what you wish to avoid.
Put your own house in order, before complaining about the state of the street.
Be a winner who creates other winners.
Treat everybody like they are the most important person on earth.
Lose the ‘ I, Me, and Mine.’
How to be successful? Double your rate of failure...
Seek to understand, before being understood.
Cashflow is not the lifeblood of business.
Remember: there is no such thing as neutral.
Have purpose.

Right. Get commenting

The 13 fatal errors of interviewing

2010-10-06T20:28:00.001+01:00

Interviews: they're so popular, but so much can go wrong!

There is plenty of apparently authoritative research in support of the claim that traditional selection interviewers are poor predictors of future job performance. Anderson and Shackleton 1993 drew on a wide range of academic studies from several countries and effectively summarized the reasons why in particular unstructured interviews have been criticized for the poor predictive validity.

So, dear readers of HR Case Studies, here's a handy summary of the myriad of pitfalls that can be encountered when interviewing. Please feel free to add a few favourites of your own!

The expectancy effect: Giving undue influence to positive or negative expectations of a candidate formed from the CV or application form.

The self-fulfilling prophecy effect: Asking questions designed to confirm initial impressions of candidates gained either before the interview or in its early stages.

The primacy effect: Putting too much emphasis on impressions gained and information assimilated early in the interview.

The stereotyping effect: Assuming that particular characteristics are typical of members of a particular group. In the case of sex, race, disability, etc. decisions made on this basis are often illegal.

The prototyping effect: Looking for a particular type of personality regardless of job-related factors.

The halo and horns effect: Interviewers sometimes rate candidates as “good” or “bad” across the board and this reach unbalanced conclusions.

The contrast effect: Allowing the experience of interviewing one candidate to affect the way others who are seen later in the selection process are interviewed.

Negative information bias effects: Giving more weight to perceived negative points about candidates than to those that are most positive.

The similar-to-me effect: Giving preference to candidates perceived as having a similar background, career history, personality or attitudes to the interviewer.

The personal liking effect: Making decisions on the basis of whether they personally like or dislike the candidate.

The information overload effect: Forming judgements on the basis of only a fraction of the data available on each individual candidate.

The fundamental attribution error effect: Incorrectly assuming that some action on the part of the candidate is or was caused by an aspect of his or her personality rather than by a simple response to events.

The temporal extension effect: Assuming that a candidate’s behaviour at interview (e.g. nervousness) is typical of his or her general disposition.

Source: Anderson and Shackleton: Successful Selection Interviewing (1993)

So the Big Question: Is it actually the case that the traditional interview is faulty, or does the fault actually lie at the door of the dodgy and untrained interviewer?

CBI campaigns for modernisation of strike legislation

2010-10-05T22:16:00.001+01:00

Timed to perfection, coinciding with the Conservative Party Conference and the London Tube Strike, the CBI this week called for changes in the law to raise the threshold for industrial action, and to ensure that if strikes occur disruption is minimised.

CBI unveils package of measures to avoid strikes

The CBI argues that their recommendations for modernisation of the UK employment relations legislation are essential if the current recovery is to be kept on track.

The CBI believes the law needs updating to reflect the fact that 85% of private sector employees are not members of a union, and that most employers engage directly with staff or their representatives to bring about changes in the workplace.

Their recommendations include:

Employers should be able to use agency temps to cover for striking workers.
The notice period for industrial action should increase from seven to 14 days after the ballot takes place to give the public and businesses more time to prepare for strikes.
People should have the right to decide whether they want to be represented by a union. Ballots should always be held on union recognition – it should never be automatic.
Strikes should be the result of a clear, positive decision by the workforce concerned. The test for a legitimate strike should be that 40% of balloted members support it as well as a simple majority of those voting.
Only paid-up union members should be able to vote – there should be a single legal definition of a union member.
Unions should keep records up to date. They should conduct an annual audit of their membership and make all reasonable endeavours to keep records accurate throughout the year.
Union members should be required to hear both sides of the argument before voting in a strike ballot. Employers and unions should each be allowed to send concise statements with the ballot papers, setting out the scope, nature and reason for the dispute.
Union members should be advised on the implications of striking for them personally. Ballot papers should include a notice warning that pay and non-contractual benefits can be withdrawn if an employee goes on strike.

These recommendations are likely to polarise the population into those that think that Trade Unions are an anachronism, led by a band number of militant Marxists intent on holding a company to ransom, and those who think that the CBI’s recommendations are an attempt to totally remove the last weapon in the Trade Unions’ arsenal – that of the removal of labour.

So, dear readers of HR Case Studies: What do you think? Comments welcome.

Pick a number. Any number. Somewhere between 10.4 and 59 . . .

2010-10-04T23:30:00.000+01:00

OK recruiters and (above all) futurologists: read this and then consider its impact.

According to research undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers, despite unemployment still being at record levels, UK workers still have itchy feet. Employees in the UK are far more likely to move jobs than either their transatlantic or European counterparts.

Management Today: Employee resignations cost £42bn a year

Apparently, the number of people resigning from their jobs has grown, from 7.7% last year, to 10.4% in 2010.

In France the figure is 4.9%; in Germany it’s 4.7%, and in the USA it’s just below the UK level at 7%.

That means good news for recruitment consultancies, but bad news for businesses who, as PricewaterhouseCoopers point out, are spending ‘up to twice as much’ on recruitment as foreign companies.

PricewaterhouseCoopers estimate that the UK economy could save itself £42bn if it could improve employee retention.

And how about these alarming facts:

Whereas in 2009, 54% of businesses said they placed a special focus on retaining talent, this year, that’s dropped down to 36%.
While just under half said last year that they had invested more time than usual in hiring the best staff, that number slipped to just 30% this year.
67% of businesses say that the reason they have recruitment difficulties is not because they can’t afford to pay wages, but because applicants don’t have the right skills for the job.
15% of companies even said they haven’t had any applicants.

Quite where PricewaterhouseCoopers get the figure from is unclear, but they estimate that the average cost of replacing an employee, including all the training and recruitment costs, is £25,000.

Scary stuff.

But let’s use this to get one issue straight: the weekly scaremongerings that say that 33% or (please try not to laugh!) 59% of employees are thinking of moving onto a different role will inevitably come to nothing.

Or at least not more than about 10.4%

There is a time for all things . . .

2010-10-04T06:50:00.000+01:00

Vision Statement. Corporate Mission. IT Evangelists. The business world has been stealing religious terminology with glee for many years now. Perhaps it’s time to learn a few deeper lessons from those in religious leadership too.

The entire editorial team of HR Case Studies team has recently been watching a series of DVDs from last year’s Leadership Summit at Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Willow Creek is one of the most attended churches in North America. Each year Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit endeavours to:

Transform Christian Leaders around the world with an injection of vision, skill development and inspiration for the sake of the local church

And the speakers are slightly better known than you might expect from a church gathering! It’s not Doris from the Mothers Union or Akela from the Brownies that accepts the invitation to speak at Willow Creek: it’s Jack Welch, Gary Hamel, Tony Blair and Bono!

That in itself is worthy of thought. How can a church attract such eminent leaders to speak at its annual leadership conference?

But Bill Hybels (founder of Willow Creek Community Church) seems to be one of those individuals whose wisdom and insight into leadership extends far beyond the pews.

Try his “What season are you in?” question for starters. Although his question is primarily intended to be answered by church leaders, his categorisation of the various phases of an enterprise into Growth, Consolidation, Transition, Malaise or Reinvention is one which can equally be applied to businesses.

Or to us as individuals.

What season are you in?

Harvard Business Review (October 1957 edition!): what today's manager needs to know

2010-10-01T13:32:00.000+01:00

October 1957 was an interesting time!

In pulling together information for a recent blog entry, I looked up the October 1957 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Here's what the leading business managers of the day were reading:

Thinking Ahead
How serious is "creeping inflation?"

Search for a Managerial Philosophy
Exploration of trends on the USA that affect business values and managerial philosophy.

Marketing Costs and Mathematical Programming
An explanation of distribution cost analysis.

How to Choose and Use a Lawyer
The selection of corporate lawyers.

Can the Businessman Apply Christianity?
How Christian doctrine relates to business in the United States

Never Overestimate the Power of a Computer
Why computers are over-rated and will never really catch on.

Listening to People
A study reveals that people only remember about half of the information they hear.

New Dimensions in Top Executive Reading
What the Big Boys are reading.

Strategies for Diversification
Discussion of a method for evaluating profit potential in alternative product-market strategies.

Annual Report on Executive Compensation.
Survey reveals pay increase for 48% of top executives, but no details given of individual salaries!

From the Thoughtful Businessman
Letters to the editor, including ones on performance appraisal and how to identify promotable executives.

Looking Around
All you need to know about new marketing concepts!

How things change and how things stay the same!

The current edition of HBR includes articles entitled How To Measure Your Life, Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers, Misfit Entrepreneurs, Fire Your Marketing Manager and Hire a Community Manager, Can You Open Source Your Strategy, Commercials Make Us Like TV More, Strategic Humour, Why Succession Shouldn't Be A Horse Race and How French Innovators are Putting the "Social" Back In Social Networking.

I'll have to admit that the article in the current edition that most caught my eye is one entitled, "What 17th-Century Pirates Can Teach Us About Job Design"

Right, Scurvy Seadogs: Back to work, or the Cap'n will have you walking the plank!

Harvard Business Review gets it completely wrong on computers!

2010-09-30T21:08:00.000+01:00

Considering it's such an esteemed journal, Harvard Business Review doesn't half come out with some rubbish at times.

Just listen to these comments in the the article Never Overestimate the Power of a Computer by Ralph F. Lewis:

It can do the calculating, but it can't do the planning.
The benefits of computers will not be as dramatic as the press would have us believe.
The main contribution of the computer is in handling long, complicated calculations.
Most business computers are ordered merely to keep up with the Joneses.
Businesses often install computer systems without knowing for sure in advance how they will be most helpful.
There has been little evidence of major gains in the process of management decision making through computers.
The major contribution of computer systems will be in the area of providing better or faster information to management.
There are very few computer systems in use today which could be judged as economic from any standpoint.
The potential number of large-scale computer installations dealing with data-processing problems is probably something under 1,000 in the USA.
Computer systems have not lived up to the expectations raised by publicity.

A surprisingly reactionary stance from Harvard Business Review?

OK, the editorial team of HR Case Studies will come clean. The article in question appeared in HBR in the month in which the Editor-in-Chief made his entry to the world: October 1957.

Happy Birthday to me!

Employee Communication: What's The Big Idea?

2010-09-29T21:46:00.000+01:00

What communication strategy should you use? What elements should you include but also leave out of your chosen communication?

Surprisingly an article in the not-so-snappily-named Academy of Management Executive Journal, written in the dim and distant past of 2000 offers some fascinating insights into this issue.

So, as you probably won't have time to read the article (A strategy for communicating about uncertainty by Clampitt, DeKoch and Cashman) for yourself, here's their rather memorable and amusing summary of the five typical communication strategies favoured by most organisations:

Spray and Pray
What's the Big Idea? It's based on the idea that management should shower employees with all kinds of information.
What do I do? Throw as much information at employees as possible and hope they will be able to sort out the significant from the insignificant.
Advantages: It's simple.
Disadvantages: Information is not the same as communication, so you'll confuse the pants off some employees who may be overwhelmed by the amount of detail they receive.

Tell and Sell
What's the Big Idea? It's based on the belief that it's important to communicate a set of messages that address core organisational issues.
What do I do? First: tell employees about key issues; Second: sell to the employees the wisdom of your chosen path.
Advantages: At least you're communicating.
Disadvantages: It assumes that you know all the key organisational issues, so employees become sceptical and cynical of yet another program of the month decided by management.

Underscore and Explore
What's the Big Idea? This approach focuses on several fundamental issues most clearly linked to organisational success, while allowing employees the creative freedom to explore the implications of those ideas in a disciplined way.
What do I do? First: Talk. Second: Listen.
Advantages: You'll gain the engagement of those employees with whom you're communicating, by allowing them the opportunity to give feedback.
Disadvantages: You give control to your employees. Whoo! Scary!

Identify and Reply
What's the Big Idea? This one is seriously different to the first three in that it focuses on employee concerns.
What do I do? Allow the employees to identify those issues that concern them and then reply to those issues.
Advantages: It stresses the importance of listening to employees.
Disadvantages: It's essentially defensive, and assumes that employees are in the best position to know the critical issues when, in fact, they may not know enough to even ask the right questions.

Withhold and Uphold
What's the Big Idea? This devious approach is favoured by those for whom secrecy and control are the preferred strategy.
What do I do? Say nothing until absolutely necessary. Then uphold the party line.
Advantages: It allows you to concentrate on the day job rather than talk to the peasants.
Disadvantages: The rumour mill goes into overdrive; informal speculation workshops take place at the coffee machine; productivity nosedives.

Whichever approach you adopt, make sure that the description of a US Manufacturing organisation quoted by Clampitt, DeKoch and Cashman doesn't apply to you:

The prevailing opinion was that management was either evil for withholding information, stupid because it didn't know what was happening, or helpless since it never reacted until the last minute. We dubbed this phenomenon the terrible triad.

Now, over to you. Any comments?

Where have all the (British) heroes gone?

2010-09-09T12:16:00.000+01:00

Right. A quick test. Give me the names of 10 British individuals who would feature in a book on strong, inspirational and talented leaders who also serve as role models worthy of emulation.

Get beyond about seven? Me neither.

But is that because Britain is (contrary to Simon Cowell's assertion) devoid of talent, or is it because as Brits we're such a critical and cynical bunch?

The editorial team of HR Case Studies have recently been reading a book (co-authored by a Brit and an American incidentally) which focuses on developing innate personal strengths and talents rather than concentrating on eliminating weaknesses and acquiring new skills. The book is liberally laced with anecdotes from the lives of leaders and entrepreneurs from across the Atlantic - Tiger Woods, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Colin Powell, Charles Colson, Cole Porter. Although there's a tacit acceptance that all these individuals have weaknesses and failings (perhaps Tiger Woods would be unlikely to grace the pages of an update edition!) there's nevertheless a belief that despite such failings, their strengths and achievements are worthy of acclaim, and that we can learn from their example.

Who would feature if the book was restricted to British leaders and entrepreneurs who are also considered to be good role models?

Forget any football players (they're all overpaid philanderers), cricket players (they drunkenly pilot plundered pedalos), politicians (expense-grabbing warmongers), rock musicians (all on drugs, living in the Bahamas), scientists (elite swots), business leaders (earn too much), military leaders (political stooges), HR professionals (spend too much time pondering the reason for their existence…) And on and on we go.

But are we really so lacking in role models that we couldn't scrape together enough to fill the pages of a "Brits Only" book similar to the one above? Or is it more the case that we're such a cynical bunch that the slightest sign of weakness, failure or an error of judgement in a character and they are immediately and eternally cast onto the heap marked "Villains".

Think we need to reconsider some of the guys in the Villains heap and see if we can't move them into the rather small heap for Heroes.

Any suggestions who should be there?

Earning £50,000 per annum is essential for happiness. Really?

2010-09-07T13:03:00.000+01:00

As anyone familiar with Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen will know, "Money doesn't buy you happiness"

But it seems that communal living in a shoebox in the middle of the road while drinking cold tea from a rolled up newspaper is no longer the accepted path to contentment.

According to research undertaken by Princeton University, personal happiness rises steadily until you're earning a mere £48,960.98. (OK, the study says $75,000, but I prefer the pseudo-precision of the English Pound!)

Guardian: The price of happiness? £50,000 per annum

The survey asked people to rate how happy they felt each day, based on their experiences of emotions such as joy, worry, sadness and fascination. They were then asked to rate their overall satisfaction with life, on a scale where zero was the worst they could imagine life to be and 10 being the best.

The researchers found that life satisfaction rose steadily the more people were paid. Happiness rose with income too, but plateaued when people reached an annual salary of $75,000. For those on more, happiness appeared to depend on other factors. Unfortunately the "other factors" aren't particularly well defined, but are broadly characterised as "spending time with people you like, avoiding pain and disease, and enjoying leisure."

There's actually an argument that, far from merely plateauing (a good word if you've a handful of vowels at Scrabble!) at a certain level, too much filthy lucre has a negative effect. How about these quotations from the über-rich and famous:

The care of $200 million is enough to kill anyone. There is no pleasure in it. (W. H. Vanderbilt)
I am the most miserable man on earth. (John Jacob Astor)
I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness. (John D. Rockefeller)
Millionaires seldom smile. (Andrew Carnegie)
I was happier when doing a mechanic's job. (Henry Ford)

Perhaps that explains why us Brits are such a miserable bunch. According to the Office of National Statistics, half of people in full time jobs in 2009 earned less than £25,816. Some 90% earned less than £46,278 a year. Just think: increase the average British salary by a mere £2682.98 per year (that a tiddly little £51.56 per week!) and 90% of us will be delirious.

I wonder what the 200,000 people in Niger made homeless by the extreme flooding which has only worsened the country’s crippling food crisis would make of all this though? The average total annual family income in Niger is just over £100.

Puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

Mind the Gap (for the next 57 years)

2010-08-20T09:17:00.001+01:00

Oh, the heady days of 1970!

Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Emerson Lake and Palmer at the Isle of White Festival
Simon and Garfunkel release Bridge over Troubled Water
Concord makes its first supersonic flight
Paul McCartney announces that the Beatles have disbanded
Onboard Apollo 13, Jim Swigert announces "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here"

How things have moved on.

Or have they? One of the other (apparently) life changing events of 1970 was the passing of the UK Equal Pay Act, which was intended to bring the pay of men and women into line. But it seems that working women who thought they might live to see Britain's pay gap finally close will have to hold out for another 57 years.

According to research published this week by the Chartered Management Institute, at the current rate of progress it will take until 2067 before the gap between men and women managers is eliminated.

Guardian: Equal pay for women not likely till 2067, says research

Women, it seems, have also been harder hit by the recession, with more female workers than men being made redundant in the past 12 months.

On a slightly more positive note, women's salaries increased by 2.8% over the past 12 months, compared with 2.3% for men. But with the average UK salary for a male manager currently £10,031 more than that of a female manager, women face a 57-year wait before their take-home pay is equal to that of their male colleagues. At senior level male pay still outstrips female pay by as much as a staggering 24% . Even at junior level the gap is significant, with male junior executives receiving £1,065 more than their female counterparts.

The CMI is calling for the government to "take greater steps to enforce pay equality by monitoring organisations more closely and naming and shaming those who fail to pay male and female staff fairly" But with only four women in the Cameron/Clegg coalition Cabinet, it's likely that the call will fall on deaf ears.

Incidentally, with women making up only 14% of the total in the coalition Cabinet, this means that Britain lags behind other European countries for the number of women in top political jobs. Spain has 53% women in its Cabinet, while Germany has 37% and France 33%.

So it looks as if the Chartered Management Institute's "Ambitious Women's Toolkit" might be needed in order to fix some of the issues that didn't disapppear when flares went out of fashion!

We don't need no education ...

2010-08-18T14:01:00.000+01:00

. . . Partly because it doesn't seem to do much for social mobility in the UK!

According to a report from the TUC published today, in Britain 50 per cent of a child's future earning potential is determined at birth, compared to less than 20 per cent in Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and Finland. This therefore means that the UK has the worst record on this front of any of the countries for which the the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has data, and means that the UK lags behind the US, Italy, France and Germany.

TUC: The social mobility challenge for Milburn's in-tray

Although there is a strong case for education playing an important part in transferring advantage and disadvantage from one generation to the next, the evidence shows that real improvements in social mobility will not be possible without making Britain a more equal society. The report specifically indicates that if you grow up in a better educated family, the chances are you will end up in a well-paid job, but if you're unfortunate enough to grow up in a a less-educated family, your wage levels are very likely to be significantly below average.

According to TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber

A real programme to reduce inequality and enable social mobility would need higher taxes and fewer tax loopholes for the super-rich and a more highly skilled workforce, stronger unions and higher benefits.

So it looks as if the issue of excessively high pay for the UK's top earners is here to stay!

(Don't) keep off the grass!

2010-08-17T13:05:00.000+01:00

Who comes up with some of these ideas?

Seems that in a moment of total inspiration, Hotel Chain Crowne Plaza has decided that the best way to foster creativity is to lay turf in some of its conference rooms!

Management Today: Time to turf out boring meetings?

Allegedly (and one does have to question where such apparently precise figures come from) 98% of our creativity has gone by age 25, so we all need a little help to reignite the flames of innovation. "Why grass?" I hear you ask. It seems that grass was chosen "because it reminds guests of their childhood and therefore frees them of societal barriers that restrict creativity" The experts at Crowne Plaza seem to know a thing or two about ensuring that meeting attendees are kept engaged too: they claim that 40% of meeting attendees start to lose their concentration after 20 minutes. Presumably the promise of being able to frolic in the verdant pastures at coffee break will keep delegates minds in gear.

The editorial team at HR Case Studies are wondering if Crowne Plaza will need to recruit someone to mow the grass, or whether they will subcontract this activity to a flock of sheep or herd of cows? That would be one way of ensuring fresh meat in the restaurant!

There's more than one way of measuring national growth!

2010-08-16T13:04:00.000+01:00

Clearly the news that good times appear to be returning to the Eurozone economy which increased by 1% in the three months to the end of June is welcome.

In particular, the fact that the German economy (boosted by strong exports) grew by 2.2% in the three months to the end of June ( its fastest quarterly growth in more than 20 years) is possibly even an excuse to uncork a bottle of Black Tower or warm Liebfraumilch.

BBC: German economy sees 'record' growth of 2.2%

But before we all go into raptures about good times just around the corner, it's worth considering what is taken into consideration when measuring national growth, and GDP in particular.

The following quotation from Robert F. Kenedy offers some very challenging food for thought:

Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

Any thoughts, dear readers?

UK managers are deluded!

2010-08-08T07:50:00.000+01:00

Most managers are deluded!

Or so it seems according to a survey (yes, it’s one of them again!) commissioned by the Chartered Management Institute and reported in the current issue of Management Today.

Management Today: Deluded managers misjudge their strengths

The survey found that managers have a drastically different perception of their abilities compared to those of their subordinates, with over half of managers apparently giving themselves praise where it isn’t exactly due.

The CMI started by questioning just over 2,000 managers, and here are the scores on the (office) doors:

Managers’ strengths according to managers:

Managing people: 44%
Busting Targets (!): 21%
Managing themselves: 19%
Being a strong leader: 14%

Managers’ strengths according to subordinates:

Getting results: 41%
Being a strong leader: 37%
Managing people: 14%

There’s clearly a big discrepancy between the “”managing people” rating of managers themselves and their subordinates.

Rather than recommend psychiatric help to counter the delusional tendencies, the CMI puts the blame at the door of inadequate training. (The fact that the CMI is a major provider of management training is purely coincidental of course ……) Apparently, 68% of managers say they never planned to end up in a managerial role, while 63% had no training in management before they took up their post. 'There's an urgent need to refocus the attention of UK businesses on the way individuals learn to manage. Good managers aren’t born, they are made,’ said the CMI boss last year.

So the problem lies not with the managers themselves, but with their managers. (I’m sure that the more astute of the readers of HR Case Studies will have spotted the flaw in the logic here!)

Dodgy logic notwithstanding, as Management Today cheekily asks, is the current state of UK management one of the reasons why the likes of Royal Mail, Marks and Spencer and BP have all recently chosen to appoint CEOs who have significant management experience acquired outside the UK?

The HR Case Studies office is closed . . .

2010-07-15T09:45:00.000+01:00

. . . while the entire editorial team takes a well earned break.

In our absence, feel free to rummage around.

If you find anything of interest, please just leave a small donation in the jar on the counter.

Note to burglars: the safe is empty and all electrical items have been removed from the premises.

There's nothing of resale value that's worth pinching in here.

Except for ideas. And they're priceless.

Back soon.

The internet, mobile phones and Tesco: all essential for life in the UK

2010-07-09T11:14:00.000+01:00

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has recently published the results of research which indicates that a salary of £14,400 (about £277 per week) is the minimum a single person needs for an acceptable standard of living.

BBC Online: Could you live decently on £14,400 a year?

The report is largely an update on research undertaken in 2008, and is also based on what members of the public consider is needed for an acceptable minimum standard of living.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation: A minimum income standard for the UK in 2010

The following are regarded as essential for survival in the UK:

A computer and internet access for all non-pensioner households.
Landlines and mobiles paid for through contracts and bundled packages, linked to the internet. (If you’re a pensioner, it seems you can cope with pay as you go).
A budget to pay for public transport (including taxis) You don’t need a car.
An allowance for “social and cultural participation” e.g. engaging in exercise and entertainment outside the home.
A minimum of one week’s holiday per year (spent in the UK).
An allowance to mark Christmas or an equivalent festival by exchanging gifts and cards.
The ability to shop at Tesco rather than at Aldi, Lidl or Netto.

Fussy bunch, aren’t we?

The North/South divide is alive and well

2010-07-08T14:12:00.000+01:00

Descended from The Industrial Society, The Work Foundation campaigns to "improve the quality of working life, emphasising practical training interventions that organisations could adopt to do that."

Their recent report "No City Left Behind? The geography of the recovery – and the implications for the coalition" is uncomfortable reading for anyone who belives that the UK North/South divide is a relic of the past.

The Work Foundation: No City Left Behind?

As the report indicates, the recession has widened the gap between successful UK cities and those with weak economies. Those cities which were resilient to the recession were those which had been doing the best in the period beforehand. And those cities where unemployment has increased by the most were those which were doing badly before.

The report has identifed a set of cities which have high potential for future growth as we (hopefully) exit the recession. The cities which are likely to experience considerable growth in the future are those with highly educated populations, high levels of employment in the potential growth sectors and relatively low levels of employment in the public sector.

Top of the Pops for such growth are:

Reading & Bracknell
Cambridge
London
Aberdeen
Oxford
Milton Keynes & Aylesbury
Luton & Watford
Crawley
Swindon
Edinburgh

The low growth cities tend to have very low levels of employment in growth sectors, a high reliance on public sector employment and relatively low skilled populations.

Down in the Bargain Basement we have (getting worse as you move down the list):

Mansfield
Wakefield & Castleford
Hastings
Hull
Blackpool
Swansea
Liverpool
Grimsby
Barnsley
Doncaster

The report comes up with a number of suggestion for alleviating the situation, one of which appears to resonate with the debate that is starting to circulate in HR circles:

Recognise that sustainable growth is about building up and not circulating talent.

Something for us all to think about there.

Recruitment Consultancy: the profession that embarrasses everyone

2010-07-07T09:31:00.000+01:00

Over the past couple of years, I’ve had a wide range of reasons to speak with recruitment consultants of all shapes and sizes.

The one uniting feature of them all appears to be that they are all embarrassed to admit to being one.

This embarrassment takes its most common form when they utter the immortal words:

We’re not like other recruitment consultants. In fact we’re not really recruitment consultants at all.

Somehow this statement is meant to make me feel much more confident in their abilities, and trust my candidate or job search to them.

But it doesn’t. In fact it does the opposite.

If you’re a recruitment consultant, here’s a little game to play to demonstrate the effect that your “we’re not like other recruitment consultants” statement has on people.

Simply replace the words “recruitment consultant” with that of any other profession and observe the results.

Here are a few examples I prepared earlier to make it easier for you.

You want to sell your house, so you walk into the appropriate office in the town centre, and, after giving your details to the girl behind the desk she says: “We’re not like other estate agents. In fact we’re not really estate agents at all.” Does that make you feel more comfortable? No, me neither.

After suffering with painful toothache all weekend you pay a visit to your friendly local orthodontist. The white-coated guy who smiles down as you recline on the chair is new, and introduces himself by saying: “Hi there. I’m not like other dentists. In fact I’m not really a dentist at all.” Slightly nervous? Me too.

The Boeing 747 has just reached the end of the runway, and is second in line for take-off. The captain comes over the intercom and tells you that there will be a slight delay while the inbound flight from Los Angeles clears the runway, then adds, “While we’re waiting, I’ll just inform you that once we’ve reached cruising altitude, we’ll be flying at 35,000 feet. And, by the way, you may be interested to know that neither my co-pilot nor I are like other pilots. In fact we’re not really pilots at all.” Seat-backs to the upright position? No chance! Where’s the exit?

There are in fact only two types of recruitment consultants

Good ones and bad ones.

Which are you?

Football: It's a team sort of thing.

2010-07-05T08:21:00.000+01:00

Joachim Löw. Germany's hapless manager. At £1.3m per year, makes Capello look like a bargain.

After Germany’s abject 4-0 demolition of Argentina on Saturday evening, questions will inevitably be asked by football pundits everywhere as to why the German team fared so badly.

Questions such as:

Paid almost £6m, which German national football manager has been heavily criticised for not justifying his salary?
Which German football player was recently stripped of his captaincy of the national side following revelations concerning his affair with another team player’s ex-girlfriend?
Following the team’s defeat against Serbia in the group stage, which German player complained that the fans were disloyal for booing, but subsequently felt obliged to issue an apology?
Other than Michael Ballack (who is not playing anyway!) which German team members compete in the English Premier League (universally recognised as the best league in the world)?
Which German football player participated in an impromptu press conference hinting that all was not well in the camp, and was later criticised for mutiny?
Which German player was almost dropped by his national team after allegations of under-age sex with an under-age French prostitute?
Which German player was sent home from the World Cup after verbally insulting the national coach during the group phase?
What failure in the German national coaching framework has led to Miroslav Klose already scoring more goals in the 2010 World Cup than he has all season with Bayern Munich?
Which well-respected England football manager said this weekend, “That was incredible! We really stepped on the gas in the second half and played a liberated style of attacking football. I’ve been proud of my team for a long time, not only today. We played some really great football in the second-half and the team has shown the will of champions. This result and the amount of goals we scored was almost unimaginable before the game." ?

Ladies and Gentlemen! Put your hands together for the UK HR Blogging Community! 1..2.. 1,2 3,4!

2010-07-04T19:56:00.000+01:00

The casual visitor to the world of HR blogging could be excused for thinking that it was solely the domain of the guys and gals from the USA, so to celebrate Independence Day in a topsy-turvy fashion, today’s HR Case Studies item consists of a series of links to blog entries written by the cultural and geographical offspring of Bill Shakespeare.

The only entrance requirement to today's list is that you're living in the UK, and have something (preferably quirky) to say about the wild and wacky world of HR.

The idea behind this is hopefully start some form of wave. We don’t do things big in the UK, so it probably won’t be much of a Mexican Wave. More of a Macclesfield Wave. Or possibly a Melton Mowbray wave, accompanied by joyful flinging of pork pies. But if you’re in the UK and you’re a member of the HR blogging community, make yourself known and let’s make this a regular event. Hopefully something that happens more regularly than we win the World Cup.

Let’s introduce the members of the band and start to rock the joint (quietly of course – we don’t want to upset the neighbours, do we)

On lead vocals we have Charlie Duff (Editor of HR Zone) singing Your future office is Starbucks a tuneful little ditty exploring the innovative power of the UK workforce in the face of adversity and severed power cables. Think Hayley Williams. Think Paramore. But louder.

Put your hands together for Jon Ingham on lead guitar, adding some searing fret-melting pyrotechnics between the verses of Chasing Stars and Socialism (a song inspired by the abject failure of England to perform in the World Cup) When not dressed in torso-hugging red spandex jeans, Jon is the driving force behind Strategic Dynamics Consultancy Services Ltd.

Providing rock-solid support on Fender Precision Bass is Gareth Jones. His reliable-as-heartbeat playing on Stiff upper lip HR… adds the perfect accompaniment to his self-penned (and probably autobiographical) anthem concerning an HR professional, consultant, recruiter, marketer, techy and wannabe futurologist.

Submerged behind his array of keyboards, and dressed in a glittery cape that would be the envy of Rick Wakeman is Michael Carty. His concept album Delivering "HR with attitude" in 2010: UK HR's finest hour? has already been described by Rolling Stone Magazine as "the sort of musical epic that only someone who was XpertHR’s benchmarking editor could have written"

It's a little know fact, but wild-man Bez from the Happy Mondays actually learned all of his maraca-playing skills at the feet of the master himself: Andy Spence. Just listen to the persistent psychedelic groove on Why England Lose - Talent Management Insights from Football and you'll see why Andy is not only Glass Bead Consulting’s founder and Managing Director, but a much sought after performer at festivals and raves.

And who's this windmilling to the front of the stage with a lightning bolt tattoo zig-zagging across his face? It's none other than Courtenay HR's Gibson Les Paul wielding Mervyn Dinnen. His power chords at the beginning of Generation Bowie – the original flexible workforce? seem likely to be the soundtrack to the summer of 2010.

If any members of the audience need further information on the new musical direction currently being taken by the UK HR blogging community, the musical directors of HR Case Study have produced a helpful guide entitled: 1,000 Places To Visit Before You Die. Number 1,001: HR Shire

Now: Dim the lights. Cue smoke. Cue Lasers. Amps up to Eleven.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Put your hands together for the ultimate Rock Band: The UK HR Blogging Community.