Comments on: Culture, VHRG, and a funny

By: Derek Irvine, Globoforce

Derek Irvine, Globoforce — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:01:33 +0000

You nailed it. Company culture is what makes or breaks the work day for the employee (at ANY level). We advocate building cultures of appreciation. Who wouldn’t want to work at a company where people notice how hard you work and thank you for it? Wally Bock had a couple of great posts on this, highlighting the culture breakdown at Home Depot and Delta Airlines, summarized here: http://globoforce.blogspot.com/2009/07/are-you-watering-your-culture-tree_08.html

By: Bradlex

Bradlex — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:31:04 +0000

The way you were talking real quietly reminded me of Toby from The Office.

Rock the HR bro.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:21:49 +0000

@Ken Bloodied, but not beaten. Well said!

@April Great comment! It truly is amazing to see the difference in a great leader and a shoddy one. I’m glad you’ve had that experience, because it teaches you so much more than existing under the same type (whether good or bad) for years without changing.

By: adowling

adowling — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:16:40 +0000

What makes HR a strategic partner at my workplace? We have a highly respected executive on the senior team. She doesnt back down when she’s right, she knows the business and what HR needs to do further the plan and she’s proven that if things are done in partnership with HR it flows smoother. I wouldn’t trade working for this HR team for any other.

That said, we had two leaders in my local office that were less than stellar. We lost many good employees because they just couldn’t handle the poor communication and poor leadership. They almost lost me. But, like a shining light of change in came our Center Director. That man could lead a cat out of a wet paper sack. In the past month we’ve had a complete turn around in culture and morale.(blog hijack! go see my post on the formula for success for details) I think the employees were desperate for a change and seeing someone make sweeping changes and back up what he said made all the difference. As things stand today, with an excellent leader in my office and an HR team to rival all others, they’ll have to pry my cold dead body out of here to get rid of me.

All that to say this, a good culture if vital to continued success. Support and buy-in from your leadership team is vital to the success of HR. If you don’t have it and you’ve pulled your hair out trying to make change yourself, brush up that resume.

By: Ken Nessing

Ken Nessing — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:59:02 +0000

The current politically correct environment has successfully dampened the emergence of ersatz leadership; only those willing to take the heat for decisions (shall we call them “leaders?”) will remain standing, somewhat bloodied, but profoundly unbowed.