Be Honest in HR Communications
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 by Frank RocheI thought today’s Dilbert was one of the funniest ones I’ve seen in a long time. (And I’m a big Dilbert fan.) It’s Dogbert saying “Describe your product in technical terms and I’ll turn it into marketing language.” The payoff is fabulous.
It’s really tempting to take technical terms in HR and turn them into HR language. Don’t do it. Don’t say “compensation” when “pay” will do. Don’t talk about “LTD” when you mean “disability insurance.” Don’t say “asset allocation” when “how you should invest your money” will do.
There are thousands of examples. I wrote down three here. I’m putting together a list of 100. It’ll be the Strunk and White for the HR crowd. Have any you’d like to add? I’ll give you attribution. I’ll link to your site. Heck, I’ll tell people you’re one of the cool kids. Wanna do something fun?
Meg
Sep 19th, 2007
STD equals, uh, short-term disability!
Frank Roche
Sep 19th, 2007
LOL…there are some “duh” ones…that is funny.
Kris
Sep 20th, 2007
Frank – I’ve been following the Dilbert Marketing BP as well. I saw the following quote early that really made me laugh – “I spraypaint the roadkill”. Never had heard that one – LOL….
How about “co-insurance”, with the real world meaning “what you pay out of pocket for the procedure after your deductible…..”
Frank Roche
Sep 20th, 2007
Kris, that series is cracking me up. Some of the best Dilbert in years. Yes, co-insurance is another great one…euphemism in HR.
Say, I’m a little slow on the draw with my Google Reader and posted about HR Exec Pay…then saw you did a very good post on that…I need to get more reading time and less work time. Is that work-life balance?
kris
Sep 20th, 2007
Frank-
I code that under work/life/blog balance…. My reader show 612 unread items right now….
I was surprised not to see your name on the list…must have been the private status of your company and the fact you chose not to report…..
KD