As
many of my colleagues may suspect, I have no formal training in the subject of
Human Resources. My degrees are in
Economics (Socialist and Healthcare…who knew?), my heart was in Journalism. I stumbled into HR when it was primarily old
men who were either not good at the “real” jobs in their companies or they were
injured on the job and couldn’t do anything productive, so they were assigned
to “Personnel”; and then blamed for everything wrong in the company. Strangely enough, I honestly believe a lot
of people still think most HR departments are staffed that way and have no
understanding of “business”. Over the
years they’ve come to believe that HR departments are only good for hiring,
firing, creating policies and then telling people what they can’t do because
there’s a “policy”. When all else fails,
people can always blame HR. I get
headaches, and heartaches, from such things.
Originally,
it was just a job for me, an income and a means to an end. I came in with the idea of getting out of it
when I finished college and law school.
I did one but not the other, and by then it was too late. I was having fun doing this thing called
“human resources” and someone told me I was good at it. I’ve always been a sucker for a compliment.
Anyway,
I got into HR by opportunity, not by conscious selection. I learned it by doing it. I started before computers, or blackberries,
and when “management by walking around” was what we did to communicate and keep
in touch, and not a slogan or part of a job description. I was lucky enough to have someone as a
mentor who thought I’d be “exceptional” at it and give me a chance. I might say he was right, since I’ve been
called “exceptional”… and a lot of other adjectives that can’t get printed
here.
The
years have a lot of fond and fun memories.
One of them is my first Wisconsin Hospital Association HR meeting some
20 years ago. I was fresh from five
years working overseas for a large international healthcare system and was
still getting acclimated to the “Midwest”.
I walked into the meeting at a resort in the Dells and there was a
conference room full of older men in bad sports coats, perma-press slacks and
short sleeve shirts. I felt like Arlo
Guthrie on the train to New Orleans (listen to the song, you’ll figure it out.)
Now,
the field of HR is changing; and drawing a much younger and more progressive
individual into its ranks. The old men
have been replaced by men and women who live to “tee it up” in their
“networking sessions” and “add value” with their “out-of-the-box” thinking, as
they “deep dive” into various “awesome” subjects and try to “get a seat at the
table”. I still don’t go to the
meetings, I’m not PC enough and I get lost in the buzzwords.
I
do have to say one thing about those “old guys” though, they actually knew a
lot about the companies they worked for.
It now troubles me, that very few
of the new HR managers I’ve seen have ever actually “worked” in the fields
where they practice Human Resources.
Sad by-point to that statement is the number of managers in any field who
have actually “worked” in the businesses they manage is declining rapidly. How can management people understand the
“work” and the people and the cultures, if they never get out of their offices
after they got out of their classrooms?
So,
you may be asking, what does he think “Human Resource Management” is
anyway? Well, it’s kind of like that
famous definition of pornography: “I
can’t really define it, but I know it when I see it.”
I
can tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t
writing policies and procedures. Policies
don’t make the organization work right; PEOPLE do … and working with the
people, to get their job’s done the best they can… that’s “Human Resource
Management”.
Likewise,
Human Resource Management isn’t doing compensation surveys, satisfaction surveys,
turnover surveys, or any surveys.
Compensation surveys are always my favorites. I’ve done a lot of them and paid consultants
to do more. Do you know the number one
thing that ALL compensation surveys have in common? I’ll bet you do. When you give the survey to the people who asked
you to do it, they respond with the comment, “this is good, but … WE’RE
DIFFERENT HERE.” I just smile and bite
my tongue.
And
Satisfaction surveys? I understand the need to do them, and good
ways to use them, but if an organization really needs to do surveys to tell
them what their staff is thinking or feeling, then I’d start looking for better
managers. As that great HR guru, Bob
Dylan, once wrote, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind’s
blowing.” If you need a survey to tell
you how your staff feels, then you’re already in trouble. If you’re a manager, get out of your office,
cancel a few meetings, and go see which way the wind is blowing. That’s Human Resource Management.
The
job of management is to work with their staff, listen to them, and gain their
input, ideas and feelings. Then carry
those messages back to their bosses, who carry them to action and a response to
the staff. THAT’S Human Resource
management.
Likewise,
good HR management isn’t just winning the “Employer of Choice” award, the
Baldrige Award, the “Best Place to Work” or any other such recognition that
seems to attract some people like flies to flame. I mean, seriously, how many places give out
awards? It seems that they’re everywhere. Eventually every company will get one from
somebody and we will all have achieved high-level mediocrity.
The
Baldrige Award is my poster child for missing the point. Malcolm Baldrige, by the way, was a
real-life cowboy. He was also Secretary
of Commerce under Ronald Reagan, from 1981 until his tragic death in a rodeo
accident in 1987. I’m not going to give
you a biography of him but if you’re interested just Google him. You might also look up Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Improvement Act of 1987 - Public Law 100-107, and read why it
was created. Then peruse the winners of
the awards… and what happened to some of them after they won. But, the point is that Malcolm’s intention
was not for businesses to pay bazillions of dollars just to try and win his
award. He wanted to improve the quality
of the world. He would probably be the
first to admit that most American’s don’t even know what his award even
is. Do you? Why don’t you ask your friends and neighbors
if they ever heard of it and what it is?
Thank you. You just proved my
point about “awards”.
But,
don’t get me wrong. Winning awards is great
recognition for the organization.
However, real Human Resource Management is building the organization
into one that can carry on that exceptional level of performance beyond the
award ceremony. An organization that
performs well year after year, and where the majority of staff actually WANTS
to come to work there – that organization practices good Human Resource Management.
Alas,
I am now an elder in the family of HR managers.
I’ve had the senior accreditation for the practice of Human Resources
since 1981, which is before most of the HR people of today were born. I’ve forgotten more than most know… but that doesn’t
make me special, it makes me experienced…and forgetful…and, well…old.
I
still don’t attend too many meetings and rarely, if ever, attend any HR
professional association meetings. They
scare me. I keep up with new trends, new
regulations, any legal issues, and other relevant things by using my computer
or reading any number of journals that cross my desk. I don’t attend meetings just hear about
policies, compensation programs, or “best practices” or “network” with a lot of
“awesome contacts”. I really do get
queasy around people of any age who talk like that. Seriously, I get visual impressions of
people with an inch deep understanding of their real work.
So,
you might ask, why have I stayed in this profession for so long? Simple answer: I love it, I really do. On most days, it’s still fun; and thrills
come in architecting and building the systems of real human resource
management. I enjoy taking our “HR”
people and giving them the opportunity to become good business people who know
how to keep the “human” in human resource management. Ask anyone in my department what is expected
of them. The answer won’t be remotely
connected to traditional HR functions.
Outside
of my department, I get a whole lot of reassuring pleasure out of working for
any employee, physician, manager, or anyone to get something accomplished and
watching them succeed. It’s hard to
describe how good it feels to find ways to help someone with a problem and have
it work out okay… personally or professionally.
So,
I guess if you want to call me an “HR Guy” – go ahead. I hope that the mental model of “the HR guy”
is better than it was years ago, and it is getting better all the time. I hope.
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