Human Resources

22nd February 2012 / Posted in: Human Resources, Reduncancy, Unemployment

Don’t judge a book by its cover

I know a guy who is incredibly, incredibly bright - a first class honours degree and PhD from Cambridge sort of bright.  He’s not like some very bright academics I’ve come across who aren’t on my planet - he’s great fun, easy to talk to, has a terrific sense of humour, is a great conversationist and someone I love to meet up with.  He’s incredibly successful in business too, has all sorts of investments, written books, an amazing house and garden, terrific wife and two lovely daughters.

Recently he was going though the redundancy process. He’d described the people he worked with as highly stressed and mad as a box of frogs.  My initial thought was that he would be glad to get out.  His employers really demonstrated their madness by making him work his 6 months notice - partly because they couldn’t find a frog mad enough to hop into their box and replace him!

Not all successful people are prudent and have a life outside work. My friend is. Many people with very senior, demanding jobs don’t have absorbing interests outside work.  He does.  As I write this I'm beginning to think that if he was single he’d be a great catch!

A month or so before he was due to leave we delivered some training together.  I was shocked at the sight of my friend. Rather than being de-mob happy or looking like the weight was soon to be lifted off his shoulders he looked crushed and depressed.   I can hear you thinking, what’s his problem? No financial worries, great home life, lots of hobbies, great prospects - where's the problem?

I was reflecting on our day working together when it hit me.  Inside he’s no different from the rest of us -  he’s just a normal, vulnerable human being. He was reacting in the way most lesser mortals do and taking his redundancy personally.  He’d have been happy to leave of his own accord to move onto pastures new but his employer decided to make cut backs,  the decision was out of his hands, and it hurt.

Just because he’s ‘well insulated’ against the financial effects of redundancy, can almost certainly find work easily, and has lots of interests and a lovely family to fill his time we’d be wrong to judge a book by its cover.

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29th September 2011 / Posted in: Brand alignment, Branding, Employer branding, Human Resources, Operational management

Employer branding - did it start BC?

Yesterday, after listening to Alistair McIntosh, Organisation Developement Manager for the British Library present at the CIPD seminar 'Employer branding when resources are tight' it came to me that the principals of employer branding have been around for an awful long time. They just weren't recognised as such.

I remembered learning a quote from the Bible at school 'If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).'

Many companies, regardless of their size, still think branding is just a marketing activity.  To their customers or clients they 'speak in the tongues of men and angels' but what the staff hear from their employer is something very different. It's not surprising that their staff don't feel loved as what they are hearing is the sound of 'a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.'  Furthermore it's not surprising that the staff struggle to speak in the tongues of men and angels.

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3rd May 2011 / Posted in: Finding employment , Human Resources, Unemployment

Hungry for Work?

Last weekend we avoided having one too many celebrating the Royal Wedding in our local pub and headed off for our own, less formal, celebration - a weekend at the Gliffaes Hotel (www.gliffaeshotel.com) in the Brecon Beacons National Park, my forthcoming birthday being an ideal excuse.  A privately-run haven in stunning countryside, on the banks of the River Usk just outside Crickhowell, it’s my idea of heaven. 

With the sun shining, a heady scent of azaleas in the air and the sounds of the River Usk and bird song around us the World of austerity and unemployment seemed some way off. Well almost. When you work for yourself you never quite switch off so my antennae started twitching as I watched the staff. The hotel is kept spotless by an army (yes - seriously!) of Nepalese housekeeping staff - the wives of Gurkha soldiers in training at the nearby Army School of Infantry in Brecon.  The majority of waiting and kitchen staff were from Poland, Spain, Lithuania and Romania. A lovely, hardworking and friendly group with excellent spoken English.

River Usk

We were only moments away from Blaenau, Gwent, the site of the highest unemployment in the UK. So why weren’t there more local staff?  My suspicion was that they didn’t want to do these lower paid jobs, but before mounting my hobby horse I chatted to Susie Suter, who owns and runs the hotel with her husband James. She confirmed what I thought. She’d love to employ more local staff, but they just don’t want to wait at table or do housekeeping jobs. In many families it goes deeper than the current economic crisis and many young people from the Blaenau area are 3rd or 4th generation unemployed. Every so often Susie makes a move to employ more local staff. If they turn up for the interview, and are suitable, she finds they rarely last more than a week as hard work doesn’t seem to suit them.

So how do young Poles, Spaniards, Lithuanians and Romanians find jobs in Crickhowell? Susie has developed a relationship with a college in London whose hospitality students need to work in hospitality as part of their course.  It’s a win win arrangement for the college, the students, and the hotel.

Years ago hunger drove people to find work. Today hunger is satiated by benefits.  More jobs have been created, but our unemployed workforce isn't hungry or hungry to work, so what next?

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23rd February 2011 / Posted in: General, Human Resources, Management, Operational management, Productivity, Time management

Let’s follow the US and take a lunch break!

I’ve always been a firm believer that it’s good to take a break as doing something completely different is invigorating and I work far more effectively as a result. It’s why I like going abroad for the weekend as the different language and culture gives you the feeling you’ve been away for ages.

At work it isn’t realistic to do something as different at lunch time but some fresh air (or different air) and a change of scene is something we all need. However when I’m really busy and it’s pouring with rain, I too am guilty of taking lunch at my keyboard then at the end of the day I’m drained and not always pleased with my achievements. The reality is I know I’s have found time if I’d had to cope with unplanned interruptions.

In December I came across a blog, on the Harvard Business Review website, by Tony Schwarz entitled “Six ways to refuel your energy every day” and it really struck a chord. Although I’m not a big reader of business books I immediately ordered a copy of his book “The way we’re working isn’t working” and started followed him on Twitter. I’m a real advocate of what he says and regularly dip into the book to remind myself of how to work really effectively.

Last week he tweeted about “Take back your lunch” – a movement across America which encourages workers to take a collective lunch break every Wednesday. It’s a great idea which I think is worth sharing so I hope that today, and at least every Wednesday, you take a proper break at lunch time.

Links

• Tony Schwartz blog
• Take back your lunch

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26th October 2010 / Posted in: Blogging, Communication strategy, Human Resources, Policies & Procedures, Social networking, Social networking policy, Tweeting

Why are HR professionals afraid of social media?

I was stimulated to write this by the excellent Connecting HR Unconference last Thursday (http://connectinghr.org) and some conversations I’d read on LinkedIn about networking. It seems the majority of HR practitioners are not social. I don’t mean that they don’t go out socially and have a good time – but social in terms of collaboration and building business relationships outside their day to day roles. As they aren’t social they don’t network – either face to face or via social media.

In broadest terms HR professionals fall into two camps – those that network face to face, have adopted social media and use it to build relationships, collaborate, share information and have fun. And the rest – those who are not yet considering social media, and whom last Thursday were referred to as Muggles or the “unconverted”. No surprises that they weren’t there to defend themselves. I say “yet” because social media is not a fad, it’s here to stay. Our next generation of employees already prefer to communicate via Facebook, they aren’t going to revert to post and e-mail, so to communicate effectively businesses need to change.

Most organisations are resistant to change and fear of change – something which is often based on fear of the unknown. If businesses ignore the changes going on around them (not just in communications) they will get left behind. Adapting to the change means making sure the needs of the business come first.

Social media isn’t something to be scared of – it’s simply a communication channel. It’s not something to adopt because everyone around you is engaging through social media, although it’s worth remembering that if it’s only your competitors writing about your area of business area you are in trouble.

What may be scary to HR is the fact that your staff can set up accounts on various social media platforms and blog or chat away, at any time of the day or night, saying anything they like. Rather than focusing on the negatives – think what this could bring to the business. Your staff are using social media to collaborate, communicate and build relationships. Communication isn’t about control – it’s about influence. Think how powerful a tool social media can be if aligned with the business strategy and harnessed to maximise this influence. Don’t assume the key influencers are at the top – the ability to influence isn’t driven by seniority it’s driven by the ability to connect with, and influence, the maximum number of people of in a community. Still scared, well remember, the contract of employment already addresses your worst worries about what staff may say.

Another aspect of social media which scares HR is where responsibility lies. HR are often more associated with control rather than creativity, and at the mention of social media they start thinking of a complicated policy telling staff what they can’t do. Conversely marketing personnel tend to like social media because it’s more creative and its about letting go rather than control. To be effective, the responsibility for developing the social medial strategy needs to be a combined effort between marketing, HR and communications. Why?

• because everyone in the organisation should understand, and be representatives of, the brand
• because brand values need to be consistent for all stakeholders – internal and external
• because HR need to have a more commercial approach to the business
• because to get the most out of social media staff may need some training and will need some guidelines
• because as social networking can happen any time of the day or night, HR need to keep an eye on the welfare of their staff.
• and finally, because collaboration is the way forward and what better place to start than marketing. communications and HR showing the way.

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