Author Archives: Simon Jones

Fear, Itself

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Originally posted May 2013

Being an entrepreneur involves taking risks. Setting up a business, launching a new product, or making essential changes come as second nature to many of those who lead organisations (including those which are “not for profit”, which doesn’t make them any less enterprising).

So why is it that when it comes to people issues, so many dynamic and energetic business people suddenly become very cautious and risk averse? Is it because

  • Even the most task-centred of us doesn’t like confrontation and bad feeling?
  • Or because people can answer back and challenge us?

Maybe it’s because

  • We believe what politicians and tabloid newspapers tell us about how complex and restrictive employment laws are?
  • We fall for the scare tactics used by certain companies selling their employment insurance products?

Or perhaps it’s a result of

  • Bad experiences of HR people or departments who seem process bound and too eager to say “no” (I suspect, without any evidence, that this might be the origin of the infamous Beecroft report)
  • A single bad experience (maybe a very problematic employee or a badly handled tribunal) that colours our view of all employment issues

Rather like the fear of crime far outweighing the actual likelihood of a criminal event, so people will still fear HR issues no matter how many times they are told the UK has one of the most flexible labour markets in the world. And fear – as this excellent blog points out – can be paralysing.

I don’t have an answer – I’m just interested to know why it happens. And I also wonder why we don’t treat our fears like Buffy the Vampire Slayer when we realise how insignificant they actually are

Talkin’ Bout My Generation?

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Originally posted March 2013

I’m a great fan of literature (as this blog shows) but if I could burn a book it would probably be Generation X by Douglas Coupland. Not that there’s anything wrong with the novel itself, but Coupland’s rationale for writing it, and the subsequent nonsense that surrounds it,  has taken HR people into a cul-de-sac of stereotyping and pointless debate.

Essentially, Coupland’s novel was a classic “young generation isn’t understood by the older generation” story. The Baby Boomers – those born immediately post WW2 – ran the world in way shaped by the War and just didn’t get the next generation – Generation X.  This generation – roughly speaking those born from 1960-75 – were a mixture of selfish individualism (their heroes being Reagan and Thatcher) and anxiety at the ever-present possibility of nuclear war.  The succeeding generation – which Coupland dismissively called the “shampoo generation” (because their biggest concern was deciding which brand of shampoo to buy) – are now referred to as Generation Y (or sometimes as Millennials, which makes them sound like an End Time Cult).

Now that Generation X are in their late 30s to early 50s, they are generally speaking, the dominant ones – the Baby Boomers having taken advantage of the “Peak State” and gone off on early retirement.  As the cold war has ended, Generation X-ers need something else to worry about, and being very business focussed they obsess about the fact that Generation Y people apparently aren’t. Not only do Gen Y spend all their time on this modern “social media” technology (Generation X people come from a time when digital watches were considered a pretty neat idea) but they apparently want to work for organisations that have values and ethics and want jobs where they can grow and develop, not just make money. So HR people now have to spend all their time looking for new ways to attract and engage them (mostly by attending expensive conferences where experts will give the latest thinking on how to do this).

I’m not stupid – I know that people’s attitudes can be shaped by their age, as well as their class, gender, nationality and religion (and plenty of other things besides). But this labelling of people by their age alone and the ludicrous generation boundaries is not only contrary to all good HR practice, it might even break Equal Opportunities law (substitute White/Black/Asian for Boomer/Gen X/Gen Y to see how it is the worst type of crude stereotyping).

HR should stop acting like the embarrassing parent trying to be “down wiv der kids” and focus on getting the basics right – creating workplaces where people are valued and respected and where employers can recruit the most talented as a result. That’s something that will benefit businesses and individuals, whether they are 20, 40 or 60.

(The inspiration for this post comes from Twitter user @HRGem, who coined the term “Generation Blah” in this blog – worth a read)

You’re Fired

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Originallly posted March 2013

In the world of “Reality” TV, all Lord Sugar has to say is “You’re fired” and that’s the end of his relationship with a problem employee. However, as he’s finding out currently, in real life things just aren’t that simple. If an expert like him can apparently get it wrong, is there any hope for smaller businesses and organisations? Well, yes – just read on

Sacking someone is a big step and as an employer what you need to do is ensure that you have done everything properly – by having a fair reason and following a fair procedure.

“Fair” in this situation doesn’t imply any moral judgment (something employees often forget) – in the UK there are only 5 legally “fair” reasons to dismiss someone:

  • Capability (the person’s inability to do the job you employed them to do)
  • Conduct (the person’s behaviour in work)
  • Legal Restriction (some other aspect of law prevents you continuing to employ them – for example a  driver who is banned from driving by the courts)
  • Redundancy (you are ceasing to carry out the work the person undertakes, or need fewer people to do it).
  • Some Other Substantial Reason (I love this legal phrase, so vague that it can keep armies of lawyers in a job – but essentially it means a significant breakdown in the working relationship that doesn’t fall into the other four categories)

A fair process means that you must

  • Make the person aware of why you are considering their dismissal (and allow them to see any evidence that you may be using to support this)
  • Give them the chance to put their side of the story before making your decision
  • Allow them to be accompanied at any meeting by a work colleague or union rep
  • Give them the right to appeal if you do sack them

While this won’t prevent someone making a claim at an Employment Tribunal if they feel they have a case, making sure that you’ve got a fair reason and followed a fair procedure will ensure that you have a strong defence to any claim.

 

The Silo Mentality

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Originally posted January 2013

A common assignment question given to first year medical students is “Can Suicide ever be rational?” When a young friend of mine told me that he had this assignment to do some years ago, I suggested he read up on Durkheim’s study on the reasons for suicide.

When I met up with him again a few weeks later, he told me that he’d looked at Durkheim, but hadn’t included it because “he wasn’t a medic”.

Unfortunately, this sort of silo mentality isn’t limited to medicine and academia – there’s a tendency across all sectors to dismiss thinking that ‘wasn’t invented here’.  HR textbooks make few if any references to Behavioural Economics, while behavioural economists I’ve read talk about work behaviour without any apparent knowledge of the many studies done by psychologists and management theorists, in some cases dating back over the last 80-90 years.

That’s why it was so refreshing to read this blog, where the HR author uses her anthropological background to illustrate a point about organisational culture. It’s also why I suggested in my last blog that fiction can be a source of management thinking.  Stepping outside the artificially imposed boundaries of any discipline can help us give a new perspective on many issues.

When we talk about “talent development” and “engagement”, how many of us look at the whole individual? Bill may only be an average accounts clerk, but he speaks fluent Spanish and has a good knowledge of military history, while Sally in Sales is an accomplished musician and volunteers for a local charity. How can we make use of these skills in the workplace? We may not be able to, but are you even asking the question?

Joseph Conrad – HR Guru?

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Originally posted in December 2012

I recently finished re-reading Joseph Conrad‘s Nostromo, a novel I don’t think I’d read since my mid twenties. It’s a fascinating book, regarded by some critics as one of the best novels written in the twentieth century, and deals with a revolution in a fictional South American country, and the desperate attempts by the ruling Europeans to protect their financial and social position.

What struck me on reading it now is how much of the book deals with the sort of issues people deal with in HR; the title character becomes a disengaged individual (with fatal consequences) because his employers don’t understand his motivation and assume, wrongly,  that he is aligned with their values.

Now don’t worry – I’m not suggesting that Conrad’s novels become CIPD text books (although I have sometimes felt the urge to exclaim “The horror! the horror!” when dealing with a particularly arcane TUPE issue).  Simply that we can find useful guidance for people management in the most unlikely sources.

Conrad also wrote one of the best descriptions of intrinsic motivation  (this time in Heart of Darkness) when he said “I don’t like work–no man does–but I like what is in the work–the chance to find yourself. Your own reality–for yourself not for others–what no other man can ever know.”

So what literary or other unusual inspirations have enlightened your management practice?