10 Ways for HR to Think Different
Posted on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 by Frank RocheA thought for today from 10 years ago: Think different. Apple’s advertising influenced me then, and in our company we use the tagline, “Interrupt the pattern,” which is a variation on that theme. We challenge each other when the easy looks too expedient. Ingrained ideas can sometimes get a life of their own and can benefit from a critical challenge from time to time. Here’s 10 Ways for HR to Think Different:
- Who benefits from annual performance reviews?
- Do you really believe that “people don’t work for money”?
- If you don’t hear back, did you really “communicate” with your employees?
- How much more effective are your high performers than your average performers?
- Is there a difference between a 3% merit increase and 3.5%?
- Do you believe that you can teach employees to be “engaged?”
- Could you be just as effective with half the meetings you attend?
- Do you think employees don’t notice that you let slackers hang on way too long?
- When’s the last time you really listened to employees? Is conducting a survey really listening?
- Do you employ adults? If so, do you treat them like grownups?
I’m sure there are many more that could be added to the list. What’s your best Think Different advice for HR?
John Windsor
Apr 10th, 2007
Great job, Frank. #6 in particular resonated with me, having been through similar sessions in jobs gone by. Do you have any stats on what % of corporate HR “initiatives” fail? Probably too high a number . . .
And thanks for including that clip. What a great message!
Regards,
John
Frank Roche
Apr 10th, 2007
John, you now have me activated to look that up. I used to laugh about pay plans that “needed” to be changed each year. How could that be? I’m going to do a little research…mayeb you and I could co-publish something.
Megan
Apr 11th, 2007
Here’s a couple more for your list…..
When employees say “trust me to do my job”, do you ask them to prove it first?
When performance issues get out of hand is it because the individual is a poor performer, or because the manager is a poor performer?
Frank Roche
Apr 12th, 2007
Megan, those are great. Trust me: Prove it. Wow. Yes, that wouldn’t even work with children, would it? And yes, poor performance always seems to be the employee’s “fault.” Interesting perspective.