HR Models Don’t Work

Posted on Friday, June 20, 2008 by Frank Roche

Let me guess. You have the 7 Pillars of HR. Or the 5 Tenets of HR. Or the 3-Legged Stool of HR Principles. And they’re printed on a laminated card.

Throw them away.

Does anyone actually believe that writing the word “Engagement” on some model makes people more engaged? Does saying pay-for-performance substitute for having a system to actually pay for performance? Does saying people are our most important assets hold water when your only true business strategy is RIFs every October? Hardly.

Action talks. (You know the rest of the saying.)

HR models are created by HR people to impress other HR people. If each and every element on the model isn’t backed up by a system and an unwavering willingness to follow through, they’re not worth the paper they’re laminated on.

Quick communication hint: If your big idea for an HR model has to be printed on a card, it already doesn’t work. Big ideas are memorable. Dumb ideas involve geometric shapes with HR words printed on them.

User Comments

rick

Jun 20th, 2008

I agree. It is the action or inaction that shouts out a company’s culture to employees. Platitudes never work. I have learned to hate the word engagement–unless it refers to an intention to be wed– as much as all the other useless phrases that preceeded it.

Focus on the action words, otherwise known as verbs. Do things to engage people rather think about engagement. Pay your best people much better and help the others so they can become one of the best. Develop a strategy but don’t promote it. Execute it.

I have a great fondness for verbs.
Bill Strahan

Jun 20th, 2008

As the creator of some of those four-color geometric shaped picures myself, I cringed a bit reading the post today.

Can’t disagree though. It’s always about doing.

Thanks for a great post Frank.
John Hoderny

Jun 20th, 2008

In Bill’s defense, his four-color geometric shaped picture ultimatley inspired HumanMarkets.

If you can communicate a great idea on one page using pictures (geometric or otherwise) I’m thinking that’s not such a bad thing. But somebody that’s impacted actually has to value your great idea to produce any real value. That requires doing.
Laurie Ruettimann

Jun 20th, 2008

I really enjoy working in the scattered, jacks-hit-the-marble-floor HR model. No harmonization but lots of buzz words. That’s my fave.
Frank Roche

Jun 22nd, 2008

No offense meant to present company. We’ve all created Hr geometry. We’ve even laminated. But in my old and crotchety days, I’m thinking that models don’t work — unless they’re on Project Runway.

Laurie, your jacks on the floor comment cracked me up.

Here’s my take: Have a big idea and create a system to support it. All the rest is silliness.
Mo

Jun 22nd, 2008

Rick pretty much summed up what I was going to write. Kudos.
Chad Bordeaux

Jul 1st, 2008

I agree. Ones true beliefs and desires are revealed by their actions – not their words. People “say” things all the time because it is what they are supposed to “say”. It doesn’t make it true.

Larry Winget (author of several personal finance books) writes (not his exact words as I do not have a book handy) that if you want to see what a person truly cares about – look where they spend their money. Many people say they care about saving for retirement or for their children’s education, but they are just “saying” that. If you want to see what they truly care about, look at where they spend their money. It does not lie.

I see this as being much the same with HR Policies. Actions speak WAY louder than words.
Frank Roche

Jul 1st, 2008

Chad, excellent way to look at it…actions are what matter.
Eva Proctor-Laguerre

Jul 1st, 2008

I am a HUGE fan of killing trees…. lets write these 500 page plans an put them in nice binders and leave them in the drawer.

Help me!!
Chad Bordeaux

Jul 1st, 2008

Yes, Eva! Better yet, let’s print out copies for each and every employee in the company for them to keep in their drawers. Plus – lets make sure we print out and distribute a copy of the 500 page manual to each and every new hire.
Frank Roche

Jul 1st, 2008

Eva and Chad, you two are cracking me up.