I have to say that one of my most well-read posts, ever, and one that I continue to take the most crap about, is What Would it Take to Get You to Work 80 Hours Per Week?
People actually take this post as a personal attack on their work ethic. So, I’m here to say – I still don’t believe you!
And now, I have research to back up how you don’t really work 80 hours in a week. This is from Fast Company and titled The Truth About How Much Workaholics Actually Work: Read more…
Simplicity is hard.
Well, it may not solve everything, but stop and think about how complexity gets in the way of so much of what we do. Organizations are confusing, strategies are misunderstood and the customer experience is disjointed.
It turns out that simplicity is hard. It’s easier to bolt on the new technology to the old version, add four more slides to the 72 page slide deck and narrow down to the top 25 critical initiatives for 2013. Finding the simple truth is difficult and so we punt.
Simplicity takes clarity, honesty, unbelievable discipline and intelligence. Any one of these alone can stop us dead in our tracks – much less all together. It often takes more than one person to achieve simplicity. And, oh by the way, we have a deadline. Read more…
There’s a disturbing trend I’m seeing in the HR profession.
Call me dramatic, but I think HR has a self-hate problem.
What do I mean? Well, think about this question — “Why aren’t more HR people getting degrees in finance?”
Or, consider these statements —
Hmmm… Read more…
Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of engaging in meaningful work for employees. But what, exactly, does “meaningful work” mean?
As I was catching up on my (admittedly large) backlog of news and blogs in my reader, I found this nugget from the Switch & Shift blog (which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite daily reads):
Managers cannot make work meaningful for employees. Managers, however, can shape the workplace environment to let meaningful work become possible for employees. With a context set to let meaning be experienced, employees can leverage the environment to derive meaning from their work. Read more…
Second of two parts
Editor’s Note: For Part 1, see 3 Key Predictions for the Human Resources Department of 2020.
In-house HR professionals will need to embrace analytics and “big data” to become strategic leaders in their companies. Gyutae Park, head of Human Resources at Money Crashers Personal Finance, predicts that:
In the coming decade, the career trajectory of HR professionals will be determined more so than ever by the analysis of data and metrics. Although HR already uses some metrics such as turnover ratios and employee engagement levels, you can expect to see new metrics tracked and used in HR, such as the average timeframe for staff to be ready for promotion, or percentage of top candidates to be hired within the organization.” Read more…
Your CEO doesn’t want you to be a human resources leader — they want you to be a business leader with human resources expertise.
While that may just seem like a clever turn of phrase, there’s a growing body of research that supports this concept and HR leaders would be well-served to heed the advice.
Consulting firm Schuster-Zingheim provides research and guidance for HR through direct interviews with CEOs, COOs, and CFOs on how the C-Suite expect HR professionals to align employees with their organization’s future. Read more…
I’ve never thought of it this way before, but is your workforce happy because they’re performing well and at a high level, or, are they happy because HR is doing a lot of silly things that masquerade for being happy?
I know; the concept of managing for a happy workforce isn’t exactly in anyone’s MBA studies, but The New York Times’ You’re the Boss blog brings it up in a post titled Where the Happy Talk About Corporate Culture Is Wrong. It’s an interesting discussion because it gets to the issues of performance and workplace happiness (or more correctly, satisfaction) in a way I haven’t seen before.
Here’s the key issue, from the blog post: Read more…
First of two parts
The human resources department is doomed.
There is no viable future for the HR function, and HR professionals will inevitably be replaced by software. At least that’s what some are saying.
They’re wrong.
Without a doubt, software is changing how HR functions. But rather than spell the end of human resources, the nine experts I interviewed predict these changes will provide growth opportunities for HR professionals. Read more…
“If you have always done it that way, it’s probably wrong.” — Charles Kettering, American inventor.
“The only completely consistent people are dead.” — Aldous Huxley, British writer.
As surely as hair grows and flowers bloom, change will come rolling through your organization today, tomorrow, and always.
Trying to resist it would be like trying to hold back the ocean. That didn’t work for King Canute, and it won’t work for you. Instead, take advantage of change: catch the wave, hang 10, and use its energy to your advantage. Read more…
I have a startling confession to make: I like Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I know. You’re shocked.
While I was a big fan of the Star Trek movies, I wasn’t a big fan of the original series. But The Next Generation? Yeah, that got me going.
So they have the entire series up on Netflix and I’ve been going through it a few episodes at a time. All of the campy goodness is just great. I watched an episode last night that made it clear that HR obviously exists well into the 24th century. Read more…
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