Especially for my subscribers - wow, I really have some! - please come and join me at my new home...
http://thehrjuggler.wordpress.com/
Because I'm enjoying the whole experience of blogging so much, I wanted to move to a more professinal looking site with a few more options. Check it out and I'd love to know what you think!
This week, our Facilities team has been creating some new posters with motivational quotes on them to brighten up the office. I am not usually a fan of such things, often cynically suspecting that they will be “cheesy” or uninspiring; however the end result and how they have gone about creating it, is quite simply brilliant.
Rather than buying meaningless corporate posters and placing them randomly throughout the office, our lovely Facilities Manager has gone to the trouble of researching quotations that she feels will resonate with staff, asking employees for feedback and selecting the most popular to go with fresh and interesting images.
Some of my favourites are below -
The most fantastic thing in all of this, which has made it a motivating experience for me and many others, is also the simplest: I was asked to choose which quote I liked best and would like to have in my line of sight. Employee engagement in action!
I, of course, chose the first quote about doing the one thing that I think I cannot...which has stood me in pretty good stead over the last couple of months and which I hope will continue to inspire me to do more things outside of my comfort zone.
Which quote would you choose??!
Back in April, HR Magazine ran an article suggesting that Simon Cowell was the person most British employees would like to see as their HR Director.
http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/news/search/999812/Simon-Cowell-best-HR-director-dream-work-team/
Given that the X Factor is in full flow in the UK and that world domination can only be a matter of time once it launches in the US, I thought it would be fun to take a look at what lessons HR can learn from the X Factor and Mr Cowell.
“You’re only as good as your last performance”
Whilst the performance management process in most companies is not as brutal as eliminating the worst performing employee each week, there is an undeniable truth that senior managers perceptions of an employee’s performance can alter over time. A star performer can go from hero to zero in the space of a couple of years and often a lot more quickly than that. Complacency is dangerous and people are rarely, if ever, treated as indispensible in a work context. We all have to make sure we are on top of our game and stay there.
Feedback
Good feedback is direct, personal and focuses on the individual. More often than not X Factor is an example of how not to do it, but perhaps one of the reasons Simon Cowell ended up topping the poll for most popular HR Director is because of his no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is, direct style. I do think HR has a role in sometimes giving employees a reality check – that they are already really well paid and won't be getting a huge pay rise; that they need to behave like managers rather than shop-stewards; that they need to stop doing xyz which is detrimental to the business .
More important though is focusing on the positive and the things that an employee does really well. When I congratulated a sales exec in his probation period on making his first big sale earlier that morning, the astonishment on his face was priceless! Giving positive, specific feedback is really powerful and something we can all do more of.
Self-awareness
A quick point here about Katie Waissel, a controversial candidate who has been vilified in the press and frequently finds herself in the bottom two i.e. with the lowest public vote. If you have not heard of her and hate all things X Factor (I doubt you have read this far!) then you can count yourself lucky. The first short and sweet point to make here is that she is deluded and completely unself-aware; she said she wanted to leave a legacy in medicine for goodness sake!
The second point is that if she were a little more self-aware and intuitive she could make things so much better for herself. All she needs to say when she is asked about why the judges/public have saved her and why she keeps finding herself in the bottom two is not to bleat on about how she wants people to see and understand the ‘real’ her. She just needs to acknowledge the strength of the other performers, say sincerely how lucky she feels to still be in the competition and that she’ll carry on doing her best.
Self awareness and intuition are absolute musts for anyone in HR….and saying the right and appropriate thing in difficult circumstances is helpful too!
The last point that I will leave you with is this…genuineness and natural warmth go a long way in the X Factor, in HR and in business. Just look at Wagner…!
In the spirit of 'having a go', I have uploaded a version of the Pecha Kucha I presented to my HR colleages last week in the lunch and learn session. it was great fun to do, but a little daunting to sit here and record it. It is by no means perfect and I'm sure I'll get better presenting it as I go! I'm more than happy to share the slides though and if anyone would like a copy of them in powerpoint, just DM me and I'll send them on.
One of the main challenges I have found in influencing my organisation to be more social is not so much lack of collective wills, desire for absolute control or a requirement to measure to death ROI benefits; rather a simple case of knowing where to start and what can be done easily, simply and cheaply.
Through talking to colleagues it is also clear that they are open to new suggestions and ways of doing things, but sometimes just need a few pointers and ideas on where to start
I get a bit bored of talking about the whys and wherefores of social media but I love practical applications of it, especially those that challenge me to do things differently and come out of my well-worn comfort zone.
So here are some practical ideas about some small changes that either I or my colleagues have made in the last few weeks in our organisation.
1) Social conversations
No big deal this one, but like all of us, I like to talk about what I’ve seen that has worked well and may be a different and interesting way of approaching something.
So, when Flora Marriott gave an example of the first #cHRchat that her managers were using Rypple (www.rypple.com) to share feedback within the business, I dropped a note to one of my colleagues who is working on an online appraisal system to tell her about this. I knew she would find it interesting, not necessarily to replace the online system, but as a complementary mechanism to potentially sit alongside it. She found it so interesting that she immediately set up a pilot scheme for the HR & Training team to use it and test it out...great result!
Equally, I was very impressed with how the agenda-setting process had worked at the Connecting HR Unconference, by use of a large grid and people contributing ideas on the day and then sponsoring break-out sessions. The next time I was chatting to our Training and Development Director, I told her about how it had worked and how great it had been to see everyone get so engaged and enthused. She was delighted to hear about it and is now going to use that format at the next Senior Manager’s Conference.
And because I have found Twitter to be a great source of information and personal networking, I have enthused about what I see as its benefits to the other HR managers in my division, which has led to all three of them setting up new Twitter accounts and giving it a go themselves.
2) Sharing knowledge
People often genuinely don’t know what’s out there, how to use it and how it can benefit them. I’m no evangelist seeking to convert everyone, but it’s at least good to know what social media channels can offer, to enable people to make an informed decision as to whether they want to use them or not.
So, this week I ran my first lunch and learn session for my HR colleagues, focussing on Twitter, blogging and Connecting HR. Because I wanted to challenge myself and do things a little differently, I did a Pecha Kucha style presentation of 20 slides auto-forwarding after 20 seconds, pictures only. I really enjoyed experimenting with presenting information in a different way: once I get the sound sorted out I will also post the Pecha Kucha up here for everyone to see (and edit and use if they wish to!) I also showed them Andy Headworth’s great Twitter for beginners video link which received a great response.
My colleagues gave great feedback on the session and the next step for me is to prepare it in a WebEx format and present it to my US colleagues...then if more HR teams are interested, I will present it further. I like sharing knowledge and trying different ways of doing things and it has had a great energising effect on both me personally and the team.
Another really simple way I have been sharing knowledge is forwarding on links that I have come across to colleagues – blogs that discuss topics that I know interest them for example. If they are on Twitter but don’t use it very often I often tweet them a direct message with a link, encouraging them to go back in and check it out.
3) Having a go!
Being a champion is at least partly about putting yourself out there and having a go – at blogging, at coaching others and at talking about what you get out of social media in its many channels and forms. Within HR we are expert at making things much more complicated than they need to be...but I think that it’s actually really simple. It’s also part of our job as champions, enablers, energisers or whichever other term we choose, to keep it that way.
I would love to hear your ideas about what you do in your organisations, what works and how you keep things simple....as a training guru said to me this week, our biggest resource is right here in the (virtual!!) room!
I have had several conversations this week already which have resulted in employees being served notice. Like all HR professionals, this is not a new experience, but it did get me thinking about some of the values I have which influence how these conversations take place.
It's always personal
From a business perspective, it is rarely about the person themselves and never about their intrinsic value as a human being. For us as HR, it is usually to do with how they are performing in their roles, whether that role should exist any longer in the organisation and a myriad of other external factors.
But for the individual it will almost always be a personal body blow; one that has the capacity to wound deeply and throw their lives into disarray. Whilst the business decision around terminating an employment contract may be sound, we forget the personal impact of these actions at our peril.
Accept the unexpected
The one thing that cannot be prepared for, scripted or controlled is the employee's reaction to the bad news. From tears to anger to stony silence, the only certainty is that everyone is different and that no two people respond in the same way. And, that given the circumstances of the tough conversation and the personal impact on the individual, they are entitled to react any way they choose and be treated with respect and empathy.
Do as you would be done by
The golden rule of all human behaviour, no less relevant here. For me this is the key to any tough conversation, particularly one that ends somebody's employment. Explain clearly and consistently, get to the point quickly, listen compassionately and treat them humanely. Because let's face it, we never know whether one day we will be on the receiving end of one of those tough conversations and what goes around comes around.
Being in HR can be challenging at times and having tough conversations is something that no-one enjoys. I do appreciate the fact though that I can at least influence how the message is delivered and do it with professionalism and integrity.
Bringing your values to work...that's got to be a good thing!
AilsaSuttie is the Group HR Director at The Panther Group, which specialises in marketing services, particularly charity fundraising. She is also a bookworm, movie fiend and a new Auntie....and this is her first ever blog! Please show her lots of love and support!
I have warily taken up Alison’s challenge for HR non bloggers to galvanise themselves into action and to piggy back as a guest on her blog. Having done so I have scratched my head, reflected on the great people I met last week and the ideas I came away with, here is what I came up with.
As a result of the un-conference during the course of this week I have taken some action which has created change and energy across my organisation. It’s only a small change just now but it will grow and develop and people are excited by it, what’s more it was free! The catalyst for it was #CHRU and I am so glad I went.
Of the sessions I took part in one, for me, that resonated particularly in terms of some of the issues and feedback I have on a regular basis, was the one that centred on the position of HR within the organisation. An outcome of that session was that we all identified that we must sit within our organisations and that communication in all its varied forms is critical to our success and evolution as a function.
In terms of the position of HR in my organisation I feel that we are well integrated and that we engage and listen to our people effectively. The main area I feel I have not been able to address, despite many attempts and various means, is to satisfy the desire for better communication. A project to set up an interactive communication portal was thwarted due to a slash in budget and recently my focus has been elsewhere. This week I had a little headspace and joined the #ConnectingHR Yammer community. Light bulb moment!
So, I spent a half day working out how I could best use Yammer for our needs and setting up groups and communities for each of our four businesses. Out of my usual comfort zone this geeky stuff but I really enjoyed it! I let my test groups know what I’d done and showed them how to use it, the feedback has been great and when I dipped into the communities that I set up I can see that they are all using it effectively and it’s building relationships among people who work on 5 different sites. As I said before, baby steps for us just now but I can see it’s having a positive effect and it reinforces my new found belief in social media! This will evolve for us and I will be proud to watch as it does and bask in a quiet sense of achievement, but I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t been a part of #CHRU.
If you are still with me at this point (!) I would also like to say that I am energised to know that I am now a part of a community that I have wished and hoped for and never really thought I would find. (Mervyn do you remember those chats we had years ago?) It’s hard to believe that this only happened a week ago, I am looking forward to building and growing the relationships started last week and to meeting others as they join. I have had a lot of support this week from various people and thanks goes to them, I hope I can be of help when anyone needs me.
My last point is that I have been so evangelical about all of this that I have my Head of L&D begging to join us so I will be tweeting an intro for her later on so say hello!
I’ve had a first-hand lesson this week in the power of social community…and it’s been an incredible experience. I wrote my first blog post on the back of the Connecting HR Unconference last Friday and it was surprisingly easy and straightforward. What I was completely unprepared for though, was the pretty much instant reaction from all of you lovely HR folk out there, some of whom I know, but many of whom I don’t, wishing me well, cheering me on, encouraging and engaging with me, commenting and retweeting. What a fantastic advert for social media!
It has felt like a huge step forward in my own personal development and the sense of achievement I gained from doing it was, and is, enormous. Not through the content of my blog (it is not and is never likely to be rocket science, let’s set expectations now!) and certainly not through the process of posting, which was ridiculously easy. Rather, that writing and putting yourself ‘out there’ is powerful and empowering, as well as being exciting and mildly terrifying. In considering what topics to write about, I reflect more on what knowledge I’ve got, what would be useful to share, where the value-add is…what on earth I’ve been doing!...plus it brings a sense of confidence and sharpened focus to things at work, which can only be good.
It has also brought home the realisation that through Twitter and the Connecting HR initiative I am part of a really strong and supportive external HR network, which just feels fantastic. Perhaps it’s really only when you start to express yourself and share your own views (and therefore part of yourself) through social media that you feel truly part of this.
I’d like to extend an invitation to any HR non-bloggers out there who have ever felt mildly tempted, to give it a go, write a guest post on this site and find out for yourself how powerful it can be. Any topic, your choice, just get in touch and I’d be delighted to post for you…I’d love to get more beginners on board!
What an amazing day it was! I must admit for the first 10 minutes or so I wondered whether it was the maddest thing I had ever done, having only really joined Twitter about 3 weeks ago. It was a real revelation though to see how an Unconference can work, how engaged and passionate the participants all were, how willing everybody was to take accountability for leading discussion topics, sharing knowledge and getting to know each other. I really had a fantastic time and learnt a lot, as well as meeting some great people.
Before the euphoria fades, I want to really consider and share what I am going to do differently as a result of the Unconference and make sure I capture the sense of empowerment that it brought me and others.
So, here goes!
1) Find my voice and start to blog.
This was quite a revelation for me. I had previously thought that in order to blog you had to be immensely funny, popular, original etc. And to be fair, I'm sure all those things help! But what the Unconference helped me to realise is that we all have things to say and that we should be proactive about sharing knowledge and finding our voice. Sharon Clew (@redspringsmedia) gave a great example of how one of her most popular blogs was on top tips to have difficult conversations with employees...really straightforward, pragmatic stuff that can be incredibly useful to people. And for anyone else who didn't know how or where to start, I was given some great advice to go to posterous.com which so far has been really easy to work with. If you're reading this now, then it has defintiely worked!
2) Rethink my recruitment strategy and what part social media plays in it.
I took part in a great session where we were sharing ideas about recruitment and what works and doesn't work with social media. I realised that I have been quite naive in assuming that just posting a job on LinkedIn will get a fabulous response from all the professionals we are seeking to attract, and that actually what I should be doing is going back to basics in understanding what we are wanting to achieve with our recruitment, to what degree social media will play a part in that, either now or in the future, and how much resource we are willing to dedicate to it. It was also clear from our discusions that it is key to fix and improve some of the basic things we do, such as our corporate jobsite, otherwise any social media ventures pointing potiential applicants towards it will almost certainly be in vain. Much food for thought on this topic especially!
3) Coach others in my organisation on social media
I am going to be proactive in sharing the knowledge I gained from the Unconference and run some beginner clinics for any of the HR people in my organisation who are keen to find out more, but perhaps don't know where to start. I know from my own experience how much it helped me when Kay @PRforHR helped get me started and introduced me to a totally different way of using Twitter and connecting with other HR people. I am also sure that once they get the hang of it, they will be able to teach me plenty of things, so that we can form an active learning set and become ever more fabulous together.
So, those are going to be the 3 main things I take away and action, to make sure I really implement the learning from yesterday. I'd love to hear anyone's comments, either on the above or ideas for what others are going to do differently as a result of the Unconference. Above all it was great to meet such a lot of fantastic, inspiring HR professionals and I look forward to staying in touch and continuing to share ideas...and of course to the next Unconference or Tweet-up!
Alison
