Sometimes in the HR profession we run across people that others just can’t deal with. Whether it’s the guy with the body odor problem, the gossiping employee, or the disengaged segments of the workforce, we are the ones people turn to when things get sticky. Compared to the rest of the employees, they almost seem like monsters!
Halloween costumes I made for Bella and Bree
Human resources professionals run into monsters at work more often than others. We see the dark side of people, and it’s easy to make comparisons to these famous monsters based on those observations…
And while he’s not exactly a monster, people still dress up as Batman for Halloween! I did a fun post a while back on what it would be like if Batman ran your HR department. Funny stuff!
Working for women or working for men? Seriously? Do people in this day and age really have a preference?
Apparently so. In the October 2011 issue of OfficePro magazine (hat tip to Lesa, our superstar admin at Pinnacle, for sharing with me!) there’s a short blurb about peoples’ preferences in working for a woman or man. The 2011 statistics are compared side-by-side with those of a similar 1953 survey. The results:
Interesting change over time. I’m intrigued that nearly half of the respondents really don’t care! Is it wrong to say you do have a preference?
I’ve worked for three female managers in my past three jobs. All were very, very different. The first one took a chance on me as a college student and was former military, but we got along very well (my first “real” job). The second one had a lot of industry experience, but I never really got much in the way of coaching or challenges, so I didn’t enjoy it very much. The third one was the youngest and taught me more in a week than the others did in several years. I’ve had male managers in some other positions, but I don’t know if I have ever had one that I really liked that much.
As a fun test, I checked Google’s keyword research tool to find out how many times people searched for “working for a woman” and “working for a man” in a one month span.
The results surprised me.Â
Let’s discuss!
This bring up two big questions I’d love to discuss. And no, this isn’t a science forum, it’s for your opinions, so bring it. :-)
Free snacks at work? Yes, that was my thought as well. When I started at Pinnacle, I was amazed. We had free snacks at work–food and drinks for our employees to enjoy anytime they wished. At previous companies it was unheard of, and at first I was hesitant to use any of it. Then my thirst got the better of me and I\’ve been best friends with the refrigerator ever since.
Recently I was talking to someone about the costs of our office goodies. Not only do we have the snacks and drinks, but we also have Free Breakfast Thursdays, where our superstar admin brings in breakfast for everyone. Sometimes it\’s Donut Palace (a local treat!), sometimes it\’s Atlanta Bread, and other times it\’s Chick-Fil-A; however, it\’s always welcome!
Over the course of a year (or longer), that cost can add up. In larger companies, someone would probably come along, see what we were spending, and put a stop to it in the interest of cutting expenses. But that\’s where things get hairy.
A genius once told me, “If you are going to provide a benefit to your employees, plan to do it forever.†She was right as far as I can tell. If you ever decided to cut off something that was a crowd favorite, you risk upsetting your workforce. Sure, it seems like a small factor, but we can be irrational creatures when it comes to benefits and perks we feel entitled to.
I think it\’s a great idea if the question ever does come up about whether we should cut those special benefits for us to poll our affected employees. I’d love to ask them this question:
Would you rather have $500 more per year in salary or would you rather have free snacks and drinks at work?
I\’m willing to bet that the majority of our people would choose free snacks and drinks, just because it frees us up to work a little later without having to leave for food. We can push through lunch on some fruit or crackers without having to stop working on that urgent proposal to go grab something to eat. And I\’d like to personally vouch for how much I can get done when I\’m pumped up on the caffeine provided by our superstar admin. :-)
Have you ever worked at a place that offered snacks at work? What do you think about the costs of offering or taking away these kinds of perks?
I\’ve been working with my local SHRM chapter to set a student program for job shadowing. Questions and ideas are bouncing around in my head, and it\’s going to be a great experience for both the students and the people who volunteer to help. I can still remember what it was like when I was trying to get my first job in HR (link), and I\’d have killed for a chance to follow around a local HR pro for a day to see what it was like. I\’m looking forward to helping them get their job shadowing questions answered!
I\’m going to take some time first thing to share some of my own tips and ideas for someone getting started in the field. That will set the stage for the rest of the day as a learning experience.
Next I\’ll make sure I have a variety of tasks planned so they get a look at the facets of HR that I deal with-benefits, recruiting, employee relations, communication, etc. Some of those things are pretty routine for me, but for someone who is job shadowing, it would be pretty interesting. A few routine activities I might go with:
One thing I will definitely not do is plan a party, talk about being a “people person,â€Â or do anything else that HR gets stuck with that isn\’t really our responsibility. We aren\’t party planners, darn it.
Finally I\’ll wrap up the day with another short discussion on what they originally perceived and how it ended up being different. Interesting side note on this—I have someone in my office who is interested in getting into the HR field eventually. I could actually take that person through these exercises as well as a practice run and to give them the insights into the profession that they might not otherwise get. Fun stuff!
I\’ve also kicked around the idea of creating a short document to give them that allows the job shadowing student the opportunity to give feedback and take notes. I\’d personally like to see what they found interesting, because I plan to do it more than once and want to make it better for each person that visits.
Anyone else ever do a similar activity and have ideas to share? Does anyone have any job shadowing questions they\’d like answered?Â
Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit the Birmingham, AL OFCCP office. It was an eye-opening experience, and I wanted to share some of the (scary!) “big picture” takeaways I learned.
During the short seminar, one of the compliance officers with the OFCCP mentioned that they were changing their focus from previous years where they only performed audits at a business if they felt issues were systemic and repetitive, allowing them to move through a higher quantity of audits in a shorter period of time. He said that they are now looking at doing more in-depth audits, turning the focus now to quality of audits.
The part he didn’t explain thoroughly is that since the Obama administration took office, the OFCCP has been hiring more auditors as if they just can’t get enough. Having twice as many auditors means they have the manpower to look at quantity and quality.
Ever heard the phrase “innocent until proven guilty?” Not the way of life with the OFCCP, apparently. During the seminar, the speaker reminded us that having interview notes and other data available could help in the event of an investigation. However, in the next second he casually mentioned, “If you don’t have the data to back up your claims as to why person X was paid differently from person Y and one of them is a minority, we will assume the worst intentions.”
I’ve been around the business world long enough to know that if you’re looking for trouble, you’ll find it. If you assume the worst, you’ll find something to substantiate your claim, no matter how minuscule.
A few weeks ago I participated in a teleconference with other companies in conjunction with the OFCCP. They are looking at unveiling a new compensation data collection tool, forcing employers under their purview to provide them with data that they can scrutinize for “unfair pay practices.” As you can imagine, looking at a spreadsheet is very misleading, and some of the callers brought up roadblocks such as: performance history, seniority, unions, Service Contract Act (SCA) and other government-regulated minimum wage requirements, benefits, perks, commissions, bonuses, etc.
All I can say is good luck to my fellow federal contractors out there, because they aren’t going to stop, no matter how costly or difficult the tool is to implement.
This topic isn’t my cup of tea, but if you want to know more about regulations and other things on the horizon, Mike Haberman is the guy to follow for info on that and other legislation that will have an impact on the people side of business. Here’s a recent post he wrote about GINA and how the ubiquitous breast cancer ribbons can cause issues at some companies.
We are a small company, but we have employees scattered around the US. Last Friday, Mike (our CEO) and I headed down to Fort Walton Beach for our quarterly All Hands Briefing. We only have three employees there, but when we showed up, it was so much fun to see how excited they were to have us visiting. Actually, believe it or not, this was the first time either of us had ever met the employees since we took over their contract one year ago today.
Can you imagine going a year without meeting some of the key people in your organization? Me, either.Â
We were there for a whirlwind tour and the short All Hands Briefing with our entire company, and it was fun to tell everyone about the great team we have down in Florida. The customer on site actually said, “They are a small team, but they’re a good team.” Tough to get better feedback than that, and it was shared face to face with the customer and the CEO, to boot!
The moral of the story? Get out of your cave and meet your people. Find out what they do. Look for ways to make life easier on them. We took the time to find out their issues and frustrations, and we’re working to solve those already (less than 2 working days since the trip). They know that we care, and they are going to remain strong supporters of us in the future.
My friend Dave has a great post on how he sometimes travels with the sales team to find out how to help them do their jobs better. Brilliant. Read through it and see if you see a parallel that you can draw to your own business/industry.
I can send emails, call people on the phone, and talk all I want. But nothing replaces face to face interaction with your people. I think that’s one big reason HRevolution is such a success–people crave interaction and we just give them a forum to meet and converse with one another.