The Carnival of HR

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Welcome friends, pull up a chair, make yourselves comfortable, maybe get a cup of tea, something to nibble on (just no crumbs on the keyboard ok?) and enjoy the latest round of lovingly scribed delicacies submitted for the enjoyment and pleasure of the Carnival of HR. So, if you’re sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin……

Very few bloggers can get me to go and have a conversation with a fish, but Paul Smith in his post “One great thing you need to know about being a manager” nearly made me do so. I say nearly, because I don’t want you to thank that I’m either mad or easily influenced.  I knew the post was a lesson on leadership really, assume makes an ass out of u and me, as they say.

Meanwhile, back in reality Cathy Missildine-Martin is mulling over the key aspects of corporate culture and no…not the pot of yoghurt that was left in the fridge sometime before the summer holidays.  What leads to a good culture? What makes those organisations different that develop great cultures? And what is the role of values in developing culture.

Which brings me to my first Brit alert….I’m going to add a “u” into a word….don’t panic, roll with it, you’ll be fine….. corporate humour from Andrew Tarvin next as he talks about the 5 stages of working relationships.  Come to think of it, if I’d known this a while back I wouldn’t have sent all those unrequited emails…..oh well I guess you live and learn…..never did like them anyway….

You know that moment when you read a blog post and it resonates wholeheartedly with you?  This one from Dan McCarthy did just that with his advice on spotting “That Guy” in corporate environments. I should be clear…..when I say resonates…..I mean about someone else…..not me……honest……I’m one of the cool kids…..

Benjamin McCall is short and to the point….but he has got by in life pretty well nonetheless, whether that is through platforms or an abundance of talent I’ll leave to you to decide. And this post on innovation and ideas, is likewise short and to the point…..you snooze you lose….or words to that effect….but sounding cleverer than if I’d written them.

As an HR pro of some 15 years plus, I’m pretty used to seeing the early signs of workplace stress I know when someone needs a holiday. And that neatly brings me on to this little submission from Dwane Lay. Dwayne…..I’m on your side….I’m here for you…..call me? A little portion of video genius.

When it comes to blogging, us Brits are outnumbered by our American cousins.  We’re ok with that, after all we gave the world history, culture, language and essentially civilization. Blogging? We’ll give it to you. Jon Ingham has been blogging since he first laid his hands on a ZX Spectrum (or so he tells me) so to keep the Union Jack flying here is his post….from a conference……in America…..

I once worked in a company that had a revolving door policy….but I’ll leave that one to my memoirs.  Susan Heathfield has been talking about open door policies.  The good the bad and the ugly. Strikes me that open and honest communication might be key? But I’ve always been a revolutionary….

Do you remember when we used to have a banking system? Cast your minds back….remember? Then all of a sudden we started to talking about toxic assets, the pound became equivalent to three groats and America ate itself to death.  How about toxic team members though? These ones aren’t a by-product of over indulgent bankers, they’ve been around a lot longer and Wally Bock has some advice for dealing with them right here.

“If music be the food of love, play on”. Shakespeare…another Great British invention gifted to the world….you can thank me later. However, Ian Welsh is turning his thoughts to music and the workplace in both a literal and metaphorical sense. I’ve worked in few places that had more than a nod and wink to the Dead Kennedys. Harmonious it was not.

Those of you know me a little will know that existentialism is close to my heart. That along with beer, cheese and ridiculous shirts….hell I even had my own little existential crisis going on for a couple of years.  That is what happens when you work with people…..but “back in the room” Prasad Kurian is talking a lot of sense about HR and the creation of defining myths. I also see a semi slap for Ulrich in there, so it must be worth reading.

Where Paul Smith sees guppies, Carol Morrison sees green beans, (what is it with these metaphors people? HR is like a watermelon because……) however, Carol has the same name as my mother so I won’t have a word said against her.  If you’re worried about your shelf life or the shelf life or your co-workers, take a read and work out what might be going on.

Any post that takes its name from a Snow Patrol song and name-checks my friend Laurie Ruettimann is good with me. I’m fickle like that.  But if it also makes a great point about the boss being just that, THE BOSS, then I’m rolling on my back waiting to have my tummy tickled (metaphorically speaking of course).

Trevor Beattie has this theory that we need to stop heading for the one big idea and focus on having lots of little ideas and I hear more than a little of this message coming from this post from my American friend Steve Browne who challenges us to have 5 new ideas every day. That’s a lot to ask of a profession where many haven’t had 5 ideas in a career….never mind new ones!

When I was out in Atlanta for HR Evolution earlier this year I learnt that Americans are big on hugging.  As a Brit, if someone comes within 5 yards of me I go into attack mode.  It has got me this far in life and the psychiatrist is on a retainer with a high discount clause so we’re all good.  But it doesn’t mean that I don’t care for people.  Leaders need to show that they care for the people in their organizations, proposes Linda Fisher Thornton here. Care, yes. Hug, no.

Very few people can blog about recruitment for any period of time without turning into clichéd zombies that make you want to poke yourself in the eye with a rusty nail whilst dancing naked, with painted buttocks, and howling at the moon.  Take Mervyn Dinnen for example Mervyn Dinnen is a stand out exception a man who outputs more than he inputs, find out why.

HR technology…..like trying to eat a dozen dry biscuits after being out in the desert for three and half days surviving on pork scratchings. Or am I wrong? Seems like there is a lot going on that I’ve missed since crawling out from under my stone and who better to put me right than Mark Stelzner with his review of HR Technology 2011. And it was held in Vegas, so that desert reference shouldn’t go to waste (the pork scratchings though might be another thing….)

Dan McCarthy (above) talked about “That Guy” you know the one that always takes credit for everything? How infuriating is that? And when it comes to interview we all know the candidate that bangs on and on about what they have achieved with little mention of the poor minions that actually did a lot of the work. A theme touched upon by John Hunter in his post.  John I’m with you, but just for the record, who wrote that post…was it you or the small army of blog dwarfs you have under your desk?

Last but by no means least is the sensational Suzanne Lucas (Evil HR Lady) on why quitting isn’t always a bad thing to do.  And you know what? She’s right, which is why I’m going to stop now and bid you farewell.

You’ve been a great audience, don’t forget to pick up a t-shirt on your way out. If you like what you’ve seen, I’m available for weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs, my rates are reasonable and I’m pretty much house trained.  But right now, I’m going for a long lie down in a dark room….I think that’s best for all of us, don’t you?

Reforming around the edges

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Yesterday saw the government propose slight changes to the Employment Tribunal service in the UK with the introduction of a £250 fee to lodge a case, refundable if you win but not if you lose.  Heralded by Chancellor George Osborne as,

“….ending the one way bet against small businesses”

There is some sense in the intention behind the proposals.   Throughout my career I’ve seen a number of employees and ex-employees lodge Tribunal claims when there was little if any merit in them.  In some cases, there was simply two “views” of the events that took place and in these cases I would find it hard to see any way in which you could eradicate the proceedings.  If an employee feels aggrieved then they feel aggrieved, a £250 fee will hardly change their behaviour and the rights and wrongs of the events need to be assessed by an independent third-party. ACAS have often played a valuable part in these proceeding in the past.

On the other hand, however, a number of complaints that I have seen in the past that can only be described as vexatious. It brings to mind the conversation that was had with a “legal advisor” to an employee who during a disciplinary investigation had gone onto long-term sick leave.  The advisor approached us in a very aggressive manner and said that they had a case for unfair dismissal and that we would need to settle RIGHT NOW.  This of course led us to point out (calmly) that,

  1. There hadn’t been a dismissal
  2. As we hadn’t concluded the investigation, we couldn’t know whether it would lead to dismissal, and
  3. Even if it did, unless he was Mystic Meg it would be hard to tell whether that dismissal was unfair (given points 1 and 2 above)

But we’re experienced HR professionals and new a line when we saw one.  But, for me, this highlights a bigger area that needs to be tackled if we are going to get a sensible even-handed approach to employment relations: shoddy legal practice and shady employment lawyers.  The individual in this case was working for a charitable organisation that received Lottery funding in order to operate, the website at the time boasted about how much money he had made for various clients (some of which I’m sure were deserved).

As a company, in such circumstances you’re left with a choice.  If the individual proceeds then you need to engage lawyers or spend a lot of time working on the case yourself.  This incurs either direct cost or indirect through time, cost and time that many organisations just don’t need to incur.  So the natural inclination in many cases is to get the cheque book out and settle. Job done.  Everyone is a winner…..almost.

If the Government really wants to tackle the problem of vexatious claims then it needs to tackle the legal advisors that pursue them.  They are the people who can change and challenge the compensation culture, but of course it is a really hard thing to tackle.  People have the right to legal support and whilst there are many reputable legal advisors out there, how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? The bullying, threatening, inappropriate behaviour of a few, who know that the chance of winning is slim, but know that if they push employers enough, it becomes financially impractical to defend.

The whole thing is a bit of a mess, there are far too many Tribunal cases taking place and far too many claims being made that never reach Tribunal because the cases have been settled beforehand.  Nothing, sadly, is going to change soon and these proposals won’t make much of a difference. What is really needed is a review of the whole tribunal system and the way in which employees are represented.  Until that time, just expect £250 to be added to the demands for settlement.

Business will bear the cost. Again.

How little are you worth? Pay, the economy and a living wage

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It is very rare that I hear something on the radio in the morning that makes my blood boil. Mainly because it is normally so early that I’m still half asleep and more interested on getting to the train on time than getting aggrieved at an inanimate object.  I made an exception this morning to the views being expressed by Mark Littlewood from the Institute of Economic Affairs on the National Minimum Wage.

The argument goes, and I should add that it isn’t only Mr. Littlewood that makes this argument; the minimum wage is stifling job creation. Put simply if it was lowered then people would hire more, there are bosses out there who have work that needs doing but don’t think it is worth £6.08 per hour to get it done.  It is, in his mind and many others, a simple economic argument: business will pay the least for labour that it can.  He even went on in the interview to connect the level of the minimum wage with the youth unemployment figures.

The argument is infuriating in its simplicity and appeal. It is also completely facile and ill-conceived.

So what is the problem with this?

Before we deal with the moral arguments (which are a matter of opinion) let us have a look at the more practical business arguments.  First the argument assumes a homogeneity of skills and ability, that labour is universally transferable therefore the only market determinant is price. And of course this just isn’t true.  There isn’t one labour market, there are several interlinking labour markets and massive differentials in skills and abilities.  Companies compete with one another for labour and that is why there are wage differentials.  John Lewis will pay vastly different wage rates to the likes of Argos for example, but they are both employing retail workers.  If businesses only employed at the lowest possible level, then this simply wouldn’t happen, they would all pay at the £6.08 level.

Next let us look at the youth unemployment argument.  Unless I am massively mistaken and there has been emergency legislation over night, the 16-17 year old rate and the 18-20 year old rate of the National Minimum wage are lower (at £3.68 and £4.98). So IF businesses have all of these jobs that need doing but don’t think that they are worth £6.08 an hour and IF the labour market is purely financially driven, then surely we should be seeing unemployment in these age groups dropping? Of course a flick through the recent unemployment statistics shows that not to be the case.  Tuition fees, education and skills gaps? No. The reason these guys are unemployed is the adult  national minimum wage rate being set too high.

I worked in the business services sector before the National Minimum Wage.  We employed a lot of people in very labour intensive low skilled roles for a variety of clients from big private sector names to government departments.  I can tell you that the hourly rates that were paid by some of these businesses were shocking (less than a pound an hour in some cases).  And this is where we come to the root of Littlewood’s argument, because in this labour market there is a homogeneity of skills and transferability of labour and very often there is greater supply than demand.  This is where wage rates can be pushed down.

But this is also exactly why the National Minimum Wage was introduced back in 1999, to protect the most vulnerable and to afford everyone the right to a living wage.  We’re talking about £6 per hour here – for a forty hour week that would equate to less than £12,500 before tax and National Insurance. Does that sound too much to pay someone to clean your floors, to pick your fruit, to bring you your Caramel Macchiato?

We are living in difficult times, every time we switch on the television, turn on the radio, open a newspaper or flip the cover on our iPad, there are forecasts of doom and gloom. And in these times there are people who will push ideological messages under the cover of economic messages. Littlewood has his views and I have mine, that is the wonderful thing about a democracy. But when you hear people talking about the removal of this right or that right, the reform of this or that and basing it on an economic imperative, take a moment to look under the surface of the argument and examine whether it really is as simple as it seems, or whether there is something else lurking within.

UPDATE: In the UK, you can now listen to the original interview here (the interview starts at 28m 15s in).

Introvert HR

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I’m not a huge fan of personality assessments.  Whether that harps back to my early days as a psychology student and lecturer, or an understandable fatigue through my career in HR, I don’t know.  It isn’t that I think that they’re entirely worthless, just that I think for those that are self-aware they add little new and for those that aren’t, there are multiple reasons to disregard any potential insight.

But I digress.  Earlier this week I received some feedback after completing the Dimensions Personality Assessment from Talent Q.  I won’t dwell on the actual tool, because for this post it is neither here nor there.  The fact is that in the large part it was information that I was pretty well aware of.  There was one aspect, however, that made me think more about myself and my career…and whilst it wasn’t new to me, it was highlighted in technicolour (which reluctantly I accept must show some value to the tool and the process!).

You see, I’m an introvert.  Not in the Myers Briggs sense – drawing my energy from within. But as the Dimensions profile terms it, “Socially Confident” or more precisely….socially “unconfident”.  Now it isn’t as bad as it seems….I don’t cry in the corner….in fact I have a strong sense of self belief, but my work based exhibitionist tendencies aren’t at the fore (does that make it sound more intellectual?).

And, what’s more,  I don’t think I’m alone in the profession.

So much of the work of HR is done in the shadows.  I’m sure that there are people out there reading this thinking, “How can a ‘people person’ not be……a people person” but it isn’t as simple as that.  People like me build relationships based on one to one individual contact, not on standing on stage.  We build trust because people know that we will keep our counsel and through that we develop influence.  We are quite happy to work with others and for them to take the credit, if we get the right result for the organisation.  We don’t need to be the centre of attention and we don’t think we should be the centre of attention.

Personally I’d rather been the oil in the cogs than the badge on the front of the motor.

The downside of course is sometimes that we can struggle to get our voices heard.  In a world where the loudest can be seen as the brightest and most relevant, the introverts amongst us need to develop the skills and the confidence throughout our careers to hold our own and demonstrate our capabilities.  As always there is the ying and the yang, the light and the dark, the good and the…..well ok maybe the analogy stops there…..nonetheless, hopefully you get the point?

And that point is that we shouldn’t be afraid to make our views heard (read my post on Unconscious Immunity) but at the same time we shouldn’t be afraid to make our voices heard in OUR way.  Diverse organisations are the best organisations.  We need the extroverts and the introverts, the talkers and the reflectors, the speakers and the listeners.

So if you’re like me and your preference isn’t to be the centre of attention, then be the wise counsel, be the trusted advisor, be the critical friend.  But don’t be afraid to be you and don’t be afraid to speak up. Your organisation needs you to do so.