Is Human Resources cool now?

Has it been cool for a while? Or still not at all?

Either way, I have noticed the growing awareness of HR as a legitimate career and function more and more so over the past little while. Being in HR, I could be biased. You know what I mean? Ever notice how before you buy a new car, you never see that brand of car on the road. But, after you buy that new Mazda 6 or whatever, it feels like half the world is driving Mazda 6′s? Maybe HR is just like that for me – the more I invest myself in it, the more legitimized it becomes.

Nah – I think there is actually some substance to my conspiracy theory about the growing prevalence of HR. You need not look further than the attention characters like Toby got in the US version of the television series “The Office”. Sure, he does not get the same airtime as Michael the Manager, or Jim/Dwight in sales, but he was right up there – at least as much face time as those finance/accounting guys. Interesting though, he resigned at the end of the last season – so, we’ll have to see if they replace him, and if so, with who? (os is it with whom?)

Another example? Look at the current season of Big Brother. The character Libra (sidenote – yes, I call them characters, come on, these are some of the most pretentious and animated “people” I have seen in my entire life) is an HR professional. OK, a stretch maybe… she’s in HR. When, in the past, would any reality show allow HR people to star, and if so, I’m sure they’ve come up with some other tag or title to overshadow what was once a purely administrative and value sucking profession.

Today though, with several generations and varying cross sections of cultural norms showing up in our corporations, offices and cube farms – the role of HR has taken the same sort of limelight now reflected in mainstream media and entertainment. From employee engagement to recruitment, and competitive compensation to professional development – the need for GOOD Human Resources professionals is greater than ever. And to be effective at all the aforementioned, great HR leadership and strategic HR is more important than ever as well. Let’s also not forget about the growing global economy. Cross-border HR and an understanding by Human Resources Pprofessionals of not only how businesses run internally is important, but how international business operates and the legal ramifications of managing people in corporate operations across the globe.

So, for all you Finance people out there who have thumbed your noses at your HR counterparts over the past few years… look out. We’re no longer lurking in the sidelines. HR is here to stay and handle all those difficult workplace situations or build the workplaces of the future. Your calculators, digits and fancy spreadsheets just cannot and will not cut it. Oh, and our CHRP certification has more letters than your CA, CGA or CMA – but knowing you finance types, you’ll just try to add your letters together and convince us that your “eight” letters combined total more than our four. Go ahead, I dare you!

My last post shared some thoughts and concepts as they relate to a corporate performance management program. I thought I would integrate a recent conversation with someone into those concepts.

Just recently, prior to the start of a meeting, I got into a conversation with a client about good business books – specifically what each of us had been reading recently. Well, as far as my readings go – I post most of them here, so I won’t reiterate those. However, this client was telling me that he had just finished re-reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey).

Now, if you have read that book (if not, you SHOULD) and if you notice my title at the top, you will see where this post is heading. In the book, Covey introduces the concept of a Personal Mission Statement. Even taking it one step further to a Family Mission Statement – but for my purposes here, I want to focus on the personal statement for a moment.

Home life aside, how many of us trot into the office every day, or whatever facility or vestibule our job/career may be in, do a bunch of stuff and go home several hours later. Some of us may even be lucky enough to set some performance objectives that help drive us to some department goals, business unit goals – and if you are really lucky – align those to corporate strategy. But, do ANY of those objectives align with your personal values? Your career ambitions? Your life ambitions?

I think Covey hits the nail on the head, and this client and I had a great discussion – about bringing the personal mission statement into the workplace. We talked about the concept of writing a statement that you could keep personal, turn into a screen wallpaper, or post on your little piece of cubical real estate to set out that road to success and happiness for yourself. A statement that could remind you eveyday of what you are working towards achieving – something to refer back to each and every time you pursue a new goal, objective or start a new task. Perhaps it can be something that incorporates personal life and family, or maybe this one is work specific. Point is… a statement like those could go a long way to giving your work more meaning and fulfillment.

Perhaps you already have meaning and feel fulfilled – great! Maybe there is an opportunity for more clarity?

Now, as you read this, please don’t get the idea that a personal mission statement will supersede what an employer may ask of you – but where a conflict arises between corporate philosophy or strategy and your personal mission, it may instill some thinking or reflecting that you otherwise would not have done. Maybe that’s not the right role for you, or maybe you need to incorporate the new philosophies into your mission because you fully support them and they make sense for you. Either way, knowing what you want and how to get there is better than just travelling down the road everyday wondering what you might be missing out on, or if what you have is good enough. If you have defined good enough, or better yet, defined success – then you’ll have that yardstick all ready to go any time you might doubt yourself.

Just some food for thought. Personal mission statements in the workplace. Am I that insane?

So, it’s performance management process time of the year here – coinciding with the end of our fiscal year and start of the new one. I’ve had the opportunity at this small company this year to fully revamp performance management – in a much needed way. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a good foundation to build on, but at the same time, lots of room for improvement – based on manager and employee feedback.

Why is this important to write about?

Well, among some of the drastic changes I am looking at are reduction of an 18 page (yes, 18 pages!) performance document down to 4 pages (and, that includes the cover!). I am introducing a formalized employee development structure and tying it to performance management through objectives. I have trimmed competencies, those behaviour/value thingys, down from 12 abstract ones to 6 that are tied to the business vision and strategy. We are putting feedback loops and skip level feedback mechanisms into place. Finally, I have adopted a rating system from past experience that eliminates math and complex rating calculations in favour of a simple word based scale. Oh yeah, and since we have a lot of new managers and people who do not have a whole bunch of experience with performance management – I am implementing consistency checks into the process to make sure that all employees are assessed fairly and evenly based on the same criteria.

Going out on a limb, one more thing I have consulted with our managers on that we are piloting for this cycle is the elimination of ratings on employee self-appraisals that are completed at the start of the process. Why, you ask? Well – two reasons. First, we really want the employees to focus on the meat of their accomplishments and describe their successes and failures. We feel that they are more likely to rely on describing performance if that number is not there to rely on. Second, history has shown that employees either fall into the category of being very humble and under-rating themselves or are living in a dream state and apply the highest rating across the board. This often sets expectations that are not met when the manager applies fair and consistent assessment criteria. As I said, a pilot for this cycle, and we’ll see how it goes.

All of this not to be done without adequate foundation building, change management exercises and training for employees and managers, supported by leadership.

It’s a tall bill that this particular company is ready for. I’ve applied some tried, tested and true performance management principles, but also some new and innovative HR ideas that is just practical and exciting as well to be able to incubate here.

I’ll write back later once the dust settles and I’ve got some feedback to share on the changes and impacts to the business.