Carnival of Human Resources

Welcome to the 4th Carnival of HR! We're traveling far and wide this time around, with all sorts of exotic,HR advice and insight.

First up, Ishita Bardhan talks about emotions in the workplace.

Then my manager told me to be professional in whatever you do. "Don’t bring emotions into the workplace”. I asked .. How? He told me: “When you are angry and want to respond to the nasty emails, write back a note with all the feelings you want but don’t send it. Save it in your draft and go have a cup of coffee. Come back, reopen the draft item, re read the mail and then send it”

Rowan Manahan identifies insanity in the workplace:

“And you keep doing this?”
“Yes.”
“Even though it’s, let's see, what's the word? ... Moronic? Cretinous? ... and ultimately may hamper your future success and security?”
(very small voice) “Yes”
“I’m sorry - I couldn’t hear you there …”
“YES!”
“Well then you’re crazy, aren’t you?”

Deb Owen disagrees and argues:

people aren't stupid.

let's stop assuming they are and begin with the assumption that they can see more clearly than we think they can. that's one of the first mistakes i see management make. it's much better to admit problems and start attacking them, than to try to tell people something is blue when they can see very well that it is red.

Fortunately, Abhilasha Krishnan can help resolve this conflict (which doesn't really exist, I just made it up):

HR can be seen as playing much the same role as a psychologist/ counselor in a society. As society evolves and becomes more complex, the human issues involved also become more convoluted and individuals find it harder to deal with these complexities on their own.

And if counseling doesn't work, Wally Bock is here to identify another problem.

This kind of "sell the idiot on our company" approach is doomed to frustrating and expensive failure. A third of the candidates polled said they were looking for a new job within six months of landing the last one. That could be because they were "sold" on joining the company.

If your "selling" generates that kind of turnover, it's going to cost you big time. Various estimates put the cost of replacing a person at two to three times annual salary.

And to keep your costs down, and keep your best people Kris Dunn writes about a novel paying for performance approach:

If you are in a Fortune 500 company or simply have standardized your comp plan, you likely have a Merit Matrix to reinforce this type of reward system. If so, does your plan include taking money away from those who don't meet the performance goals you have outlined? I didn't think so - but Publix (yes, the service-oriented supermarket) has.

And just what type of employee do you want to put into this pay for performance scene? Anna Farmery tells us about the ideal employee:

One brain that is beautifully balanced between logic, futuristic, empathy and rational. Even more it chooses automatically the right part of the brain to use.

A small mouth and 27 ears to listen to customers without butting in.

One soul that lives and breaths the values in everything it does.

Telescopic eyes that sees right into the future

Ummm, she's got high expections. And speaking of high, let's go to Tibet, with Mabel and Harry's 10 Lessons from Tibetan Monks:

1. When you lose, don't lose the lesson
2. Follow the 3 R's: Respect for self, respect for others, responsibility for all your actions.
3. Spend some time alone each day.

Gautam Ghosh reminds us that even as we're trying to help others manage, we need to manage HR--especially our own career ladders.

A career ladder for HR professionals that zig and zag through the various functions would also go a long way in sensiting them that there are no "more important" and "less important" functions within HR. In fact there should be two or three mandatory stints for HR professionals out of HR too, in functions that are client facing (like marketing and sales), vendor facing (like procurement and supply chain) and operations.

And finally, to round out the carnival, a bit of satire from well, me:

[Mexican Restaurant] admits that they do not monitor the gender of everyone who walks in their door. This is unacceptable. How do we know if we are not discriminating if we don't count and categorize everyone who walks in?

I hope everyone has a blast at this week's carnival. Next one is in 2 weeks, April 18. Send your submissions to EvilHRLady at hotmail dot com! Any HR, business, training or similar submission is welcome! Remember, we're a family friendly carnival (lots of kids rides, after all), so no bad words!