Category Archives: HR Thoughts

Comments or posts about contemporary HR discussion topics – probably of more interest to HR professionals

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)

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?

Is HR Barking Up The Wrong Tree?

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Originally posted November 2012

A lot of my voluntary sector clients are currently grappling with the concept of “personalisation” (horrid word) – a model where  individuals receiving social care have control over how and when that care is received – in other words, rather than the provider having one “model” of how care is delivered, it is tailored to individual needs and requirements. To be successful of course, it requires the individuals to have full access to information and be able to make informed decisions as a consequence.

In a sense, this is no different to the idea that you make an informed choice about the car you want and tailor it to your own personal needs: from the fundamental – the style and size – to the less significant – colour and extras. Businesses that offer cars in the way Henry Ford did (one standard model in the same colour) will not succeed in the modern age.

So why do HR people spend so much time agonising about “employee engagement” and ways in which it can be increased? The idea that we can do “management things” and thereby create smiling happy workers who are committed to the company and immersed in its success exists only in the Chigley Biscuit factory.

If we really want committed and productive staff perhaps what we need to do is “personalise” our approach – understand that every individual is different and that what motivates one person won’t work with another doing an identical job. If someone is capable of making informed decisions about their life care or a major purchase, they are equally capable of doing so in work.  Maybe it’s time to change the model from an assumption that we know best to recognising that our employees do, and building our businesses around that.

How Poor Recruitment Can Wreck Your Business

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Originally published April 2012

Poor, shoddy customer service is something which most people aren’t prepared to accept these days.  We’re more likely to complain than in the past if we don’t receive prompt responses, if a company fails to deliver what it promised or if they try to fob us off. And in these days of social media, a moan about a particular company (such as Waitrose or H&M) doesn’t just go to a few friends but can be around the country or globe in minutes. Years of careful marketing and “brand management” can go out of the window in hours or days with a tweet from an irate customer.

Yet when it comes to recruitment, how many HR people consider the organisation’s image when planning the process? But how many times have you come away from a job interview thinking “what an awful organisation – I wouldn’t work there for double the salary”?

There’s really no excuse for not giving candidates a positive impression of your organisation, and you should always be striving to ensure that your recruitment processes match the public image your organisation has. As US recruitment guru Crystal Miller points out, candidates only expect two things:

  • Acknowledgement- simply that you’ve applied and we acknowledge that. Thank you.
  • Closure- simply that you are or are not qualified for the position, that you are or are not getting the job, there are or are not other opportunities with us, and we acknowledge all these things in a consistent and timely manner. Thank you.

But a good recruitment process offers them more: an insight into working for you, your organisation’s culture and values. Just as much as you deciding who you want to recruit, the candidates will be deciding whether they want to work with you – you are  forming a relationship.

And finally – don’t forget the rejected candidates. Depending on their skills, they may well end up working for a client, supplier or major customer. A bad impression of your company based on their recruitment experience may well cost you in the future.