In HR, Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It

Posted on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 by Frank Roche

[via Failblog]

Here’s my HR hint of the day: Don’t say it unless you mean it and can back it up.

  • Don’t say pay-for-performance if you really use the Peanutbutter Process.
  • Don’t say teamwork and then allow gossip and backstabbing.
  • Don’t say transparency and then only communicate to selected managers.
  • Don’t say learning environment and confuse it with a few crappy training classes.
  • Don’t say employee engagement when you really want compliance.

Which is all a long way around to saying that being mealy-mouthed in HR is about as bad as it can get. Check out that sign for “Success Center.” If you’re gonna say it, back it up.

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User Comments

  1. Ron Ulrici

    Aug 5th, 2008

    This is good.
    I’m sure there is enough real material out there so that we could have a neverending list:
    -Don’t say “empower” when you really mean delegate with strings attached.
    -Don’t say we have an “open door policy” when there are ramifications for the employees who dare enter the big boss’s office.
    -Don’t say “we have values here” when employees who ignore them are promoted anyway.

    Wow. This is too easy. There must be a lot of talking and not a lot of walking going on in the corporate world.

    We in HR should set the standard for doing, not just saying.

  2. HR Wench / Jenn Barnes

    Aug 5th, 2008

    #1 communication SNAFU that drives me up the wall is “we have an open door policy” when they DON’T.

  3. Ankur

    Aug 6th, 2008

    Hi all,

    I agree to the statements above and would also appreciate organisations across globe should understand and implement this.

    Also they should implement the same and follow the principle of ” We do what we say, we say what we do.”

    Thanks

    Ankur

    http://managehrnetwork.blogspot.com/

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  1. [...] post yesterday called Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It got some really great comments that I wanted to move to the front page. Here they are. Ron Ulrici [...]

  2. [...] This one hits really close to home: KnowHR says that in HR you shouldn’t say something unless you mean it. As in, if you say something is guaranteed, you can’t decide to qualify it later. See, guaranteed has a definition and all . . . Read it here. [...]

  3. [...] In HR, Don’t Say It Unless You Mean It by Frank Roche – “Don’t say transparency and then only communicate to selected managers… Don’t say employee engagement when you really want compliance.” [...]