When you believe in destroying the traditional model of Human Resources — much like I do — you run into major obstacles. The biggest obstacle in my life is also the biggest elephant in the room: it’s The Society for Human Resources Management.
SHRM is the most influential Human Resouces association in America. It’s staffed with wonderful, genuine people want to see Human Resources continue to grow. They want HR to be a credible & important function in an organization. Many of SHRM’s employees and volunteers are my friends. It’s also a very powerful organization with lots of cash.
Unfortunately, Human Resoures can’t grow and focus on important areas of opportunity — like identifying & retaining talent — without shedding some of the old functions that make up SHRM’s core membership.
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My manifesto is simple. I want to shift and outsource 90% of the work away from Human Resources and focus on recruiting and retaining employees. That means two things:
- Eliminating the roles of HR Generalists, Benefits Specialists, Comp Analysts, etc.,
- and using technology to automate as many HR functions as possible.
Furthermore, I would demand that other functions (legal, finance, compliance) become accountable for managing core & critical issues within an organization.
Do you want a schlump like me to help you avoid employee litigation, or do you want to hire the best employment lawyers out there to train your managers and respond to employee-related issues?
Don’t pick the schlump. You’ll lose every time.
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So here’s where I stand as a Human Resources professional with my SPHR:
- I am through with supporting Human Resources departments that coordinate employee performance reviews.
- I will never collect and distribute compensation data like it’s a Top Secret presidential daily briefing.
- Don’t even think about asking me to monitor & approve merit increase budgets based on the pseudo-science of a bell-curve — combined with sketchy market data that may or may not be accurate.
- I am done mediating disagreements between two adults who should know better.
- I am through entering job descriptions and requisitions into an internet job board.
Dudes, I’m done with traditional HR — which means I’m done with SHRM, to some extent.
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When you dump the concept of HR Generalists and faux specialists in the Comp & Benefits space, you get a function that looks something like this:
- Research/Sourcing/Recruiting
- Technology
- Social Media/Communications/Marketing
- Training/Development
HR should be selling the company’s mission, vision & values with every employee encounter. Give your leaders a budget and empower them to build your employment brand by making your company a great place to work. Hire Human Resources pros to acquire and develop your talent. I would then recommend that you find the best firms to provide strategic advice on employee benefits, compensation, risk management issues, compliance issues, etc.
Your HR Generalist can’t do any of this — and she certainly can’t recruit and fill your position when she is busy scheduling team building events. She always fails because she is a jack-of-all-trades but an expert at nothing.
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Where am I going with all this? I had a very brief conversation about my HR Manifesto with an unnamed thinker/leader/guru at The Kennedy Expo. He listened to my rant against traditional HR organizations and strongly recommended that I volunteer on a SHRM advisory board in 2009 and change the system from within.
His message was clear. ‘Don’t rage against the machine. Make it better.’
I disagreed with this approach. The system is broken and I’m disinterested in fixing it. SHRM may have tons of cash, but the money won’t last forever if HR continues to prove itself irrelevant.
I look at SHRM the way that many people look at General Motors. Although fixing SHRM from the inside is probably the gentlest thing to do, I’m not sure that I want to fix it. I prefer to kick it hard & fast into the 21st century.
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Where do I go from here, fellow punk rockers? How do I blow up the traditional HR space and help Corporate America (and SHRM) change their thinking about acquiring and retaining talent?
When I have the answers, you’ll be the first to know.
The Kennedy Recruiting Expo was great. Well coordinated, great speakers, and classy attendees. I’m happy with the experience — and I’m glad to have met so many like-minded recruiting bloggers and HR pros.
What did I learn about recruiting? Hmmmm…
This just in: I have decided that the trick to a good vlog is to keep it under 90 seconds.
Text is so easy to read, and I’m a big fan of scanning a website or blog to pick out keywords and themes. Video is much more challenging to consume – and I’m not a fan of vlogs (for the most part) because I have no control of the way I receive content & data.
Dudes, here’s everything you needed to know about being a Human Resources blogger.
Or whatever.
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Dudes, I’m in Florida at a recruiting conference. There is nothing funny about recruiting during a recession. In fact, I need you to bring the funny so I can stay engaged over the next 36 hours.
Can you do it? Can you bring it to me? Make me smile so I don’t walk around this recruiting conference like Debbie Downer. Give it to me in the comments and I’ll post a round-up of your best efforts.
Well, dudes, I did not hustle after falling asleep close to 3AM ET. I slept until 9, had some Starbucks, and then this…
It’s amazing how I make it through life.
I sat in a chair that was reserved for a speaker to sign copies of his book. Turns out I have no manners and I just assume that an empty seat is mine to take.
The speaker was gracious and introduced himself as Peter Weddle. When I introduced myself, he said, “I’ve heard of your blog.”
Oh snap, really?
A woman then approached Mr. Weddle and said, “Your message is the right message for right now.”
What? No one ever says those things to me. I don’t know anything about Peter Weddle and his message, but his book is Recognizing Richard Rabbit. I now own a copy.
Apparently, Richard Rabbit and Peter Weddle are kind of a big deal. Unfortunately, as I type this blog post, I want to call him Richard Webble and refer to his book as Recognizing Peter Rabbit. I better get that straight before I see him, again.
I’m hanging out in the cyber lounge with Maren Hogan and Sarah White.
Sarah just gave an interesting perspective on work ethics in America. I won’t paraphrase her very passionate argument, but I wonder:
- Do some Americans lack a worth ethic?
- How many people do you know who try to buck the system and take advantage of federal benefit programs, welfare, and unemployment?
- How many people blame institutional prejudices instead of taking ownership of their own lives and their careers?
What are your thoughts, yo?
Here’s another vlog on the first take — with kitties and no make-up. I was tempted to put on a little lipstick and re-record, but Lucy and Emma are so cute.
These kitties are getting in my business!
See you at the Kennedy Recruiting Expo, yo.
Let’s pretend you are Lindsay Lohan. What does that look like? Your full-time job is shopping, being a diva, and jetting around foreign countries with your girlfriend.
I have all kinds of questions.
- Where does your income come from?
- Who manages your money?
Dudes, the new Passive Aggressive Notes book is out — and at last check, I am in there.
- If you didn’t know, I submitted a note that I found in the bathroom of my pformer employer.
The book makes an excellent holiday gift for bosses & supervisors. I’m totes proud to have made a contribution to this wonderful piece of hostility.
I support the auto industry bailout. I just moved from Michigan to North Carolina, but my home in Kalamazoo is still on the market. If the automakers fail, THREE MILLION jobs will be at risk — and my mothereffin house will never sell.
If the government doesn’t get this right, I am going to lose it all: my equity, my savings, my shirt, my marbles, and my sanity.
I joined a new fitness center in Raleigh — despite my aversion to wellness programs — and the corporate pressures of up-selling are foisted upon me from the very moment I walk through the door.
If someone isn’t trying to sell a protein bar when I swipe my card at the membership desk, they are trying to sell a metabolic exam to test my oxygenation levels. If there isn’t someone handing out coupons for discounted massage sessions, there’s another salesperson trying to sell a Pilates package.
I was forwarded a chain email message and asked, “What do you think, Laurie?”
Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test.
Today is Veterans Day.
Quick story: I recently returned from Las Vegas and I’m done with that town.
I was appalled by the number of homeless men — many of whom identified themselves as veterans — living right on the strip. Some of the men were old enough to have served in Vietnam; however, I saw several self-identified veterans who were sleeping on the streets & seemed to be my age.
I was listening to POTUS 08, today, and I heard John Zogby talk about his polling company.
What does a polling company do when there’s no big election? Well it turns out that only 9% of their business is related to political campaigns. Much of the work in the polling industry is related to Corporate America (e.g., Gallup coordinates employee engagement surveys at many big companies), and pollsters have plenty of work to keep them busy.
Mr. Zogby also said, “In our field, there are innovators and there are auditors.”
That’s so brilliant — and it true for most industries and careers, including Human Resources.
So I ask:
- Are you an innovator?
- Are you an auditor?
- Do you know the difference?
Maybe there’s a more honest question, which is, “Can you be an innovator in Human Resources?”
I’m not sure you can.
In my never-ending quest to find a job for my little brother, I give you today’s humor selection.
If they’re hiring cats, I’m sure they will hire Eddie.
This isn’t your grandmother’s government. I present to you the Change website:
Throughout the Presidential Transition Project, this website will be your source for the latest news, events, and announcements so that you can follow the setting up of the Obama Administration. And just as this historic campaign was, from the beginning, about you — the transition process will offer you opportunities to participate in redefining our government.
This is the less polished version of the two versions I recorded…
but I like it because two kitties make an appearance!
Brazen Dan is on Twitter, and his company can be found here.
You know it’s true. Most succession plans are short-term programs that are poorly conceived and improperly executed. A couple of key candidates are selected as heirs to the throne for the Company’s top management spots.
Thrones, much like succession plans, are overrated.
Most companies plan for the departure of the CEO, president, or even some vice-president. Unfortunately, average companies are so disconnected from daily operations that they overlook critical roles in other departments.
- What about the brand manager who’s been around forever and knows your products inside out?
- What about the customer service representative with a special relationship with your key clients?
- What about the HR manager who knows all the employment laws, has excellent rapport with all your managers and helps them navigate sticky problems?
As far as I’m concerned, most companies miss an opportunity to build a talent pipeline and focus on succession planning in a more holistic manner. If you look at the bigger picture, and consider your succession planning efforts as part of your larger talent management programs, then you should really be looking at developing and grooming employees in all areas of the business to take on a larger or more responsible role.
Even the overpaid analysts and HR consulting firms agree with me. CedarCrestone just released a report 2008-2009 HR Systems Survey. In short, succession planning, when it focuses on executives only, really sucks and costs the organization (& its shareholders) too much money:
The most interesting finding in 2008 is the lower sales growth (statistically significant) of organizations with succession planning. Digging deeper into what might be happening we see that the scope of succession planning matters. When succession planning scope is limited to top management, those organizations in our pool experienced the lowest sales growth, but those with a scope that includes middle managers and even all employees had significantly higher sales growth.
Heather McCulligh is a blogger on the Halogen Software site. She wrote that succession planning should focus on developing people rather than merely naming them as replacements. She points out that succession planning can be a relatively painless process when integrated with talent management.
Obviously, Heather is onto something basic and simple. One of the best ways to identify candidates is to use data that comes from your talent management process, which should be integrated with your employee performance appraisals. People with high potential should be identified early. If you target these employees for further development and groom them to advance in your company, you’ll be investing your shareholder’s dollars in a more thoughtful and fiscally responsible manner.
Succession planning, as a stand-alone endeavor, always fails. When integrated into your culture and merged into your daily operations, succession planning has a chance to build the talent infrastructure of your company.
This is not rocket science, yo.
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