Too much “Resources”, not enough “Human”

There’s many great blogs and articles out there at the moment about change and real people. I thought I’d add my two pennies worth.

Why all the talk about change? Because it’s become so prolific that as a concept it’s hardly separable from life in general. And there’s been growing recognition that people are “real” and treating them as such actually gets the best out of them. Now if we could only marry these two concepts together it would be magical.

Playing a Character and the Make Up Free Selfie

It’s the latest trend. As if a selfie wasn’t bad enough – hampered by poor lighting and camera angles limited by the length of your arm. Now women have to be stripped bare of the face they wear every day, accompanied by their dignity.

It works like this. Remove all traces of make-up. Take said selfie. Post on Facebook. Nominate others to do the same. And I almost forgot the most important part (the point) – donate to cancer charity and ask others to do the same.

Sugarcoating – a modern phenomenon

When I was a little girl I loved traditional fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson, Brothers Grimm and the like. Many of my books had the original storylines, before Disney or the like watered them down. There’s some of those stories I don’t think I’ll ever be able to read to my kids. Not because they’re too dark and scary, but because what they have been force fed about those same stories is so sugarcoated, the truth will probably devastate them.

I feel a similar watering down has been happening in workplaces. Years ago, the traditional command and control hierarchy gave bosses the power to be tough and tell it like it is. Employees just had to put up and shut up if they wanted to keep their job. Such management types still exist but their behaviour is no longer greeted by the respect it earned in the past. Thankfully the balance of power has now shifted. Clearly I don’t lament this happening, but bad news still needs to be delivered.

Please don’t come to work naked

Picture credit: @simonheath http://workmusing.wordpress.com/about/

This last weekend we witnessed the hottest day of the year so far in the UK, by which we mean the temperature crept up above 10 degrees and we’re hopeful there might not be snow until next winter.

As usual this turn of events was welcomed with varying degrees of optimism. For me, a girl who never goes anywhere without a coat, even in the height of summer (just in case) I might have considered wearing short sleeves or removing my scarf. Only indoors though.

Looking for talent in the wrong places

The economy’s picking up. Apparently. One indicator of this is the jobs market. More employers are thinking about taking people on, more employees are thinking of changing jobs. This has led to an increased focus on ‘talent’. Employers want to recruit it, managers don’t want to lose it. We might like to think we have it (or at least try and demonstrate it through our application form). But what is talent?

Talent as a word has been misused in the corporate world. The dictionary talks about “natural ability”, which is akin to calling someone “gifted”. This focus on talent as something precious and rare means employers are looking for all the wrong things in all the wrong places.

Is success dependent on where we live?

Isn’t London great? All the capital is in the capital. Boris is polishing his crown, claiming it’s becoming “the capital of the World”. Evan Davis of Dragon’s Den fame travels around the country giving everywhere else an inferiority complex.

It’s not often I watch something quasi-intellectual on tv, but then it’s not often I have control of the tv remote. Last night’s “Mind the Gap” was a tale of London vs. the North. Apart from Evan didn’t come past Hull, and thinks the North is in Manchester.

How would HR be remembered?

The last few months have seen the re-emergence of rumblings sounding the death knell for HR. These naysayers and doom-mongers, fed by the economic downturn, view the HR function as an expensive and unnecessary luxury. For the purposes of this article let us imagine that these apocalyptic style predictions have some truth in them (which of course they don’t). Who would deliver HR’s retirement speech and more importantly, what could be said about the HR profession’s achievements?

6 reasons for letting go

I’m sorry, I’m going to have to let you go. Words everyone dreads to hear from a HR professional. But it’s not what you think.

In a few weeks it’ll be spring so I’m having a clear out. There’s some things in here that have been laid around for years. They’re holding me back, weighing me down, tying me to the past and stopping me from moving on.

5 more things my kids taught me about work (and life)

Just over two months ago I decided to step into the world of HR blogging. I had only been back at work for around six weeks following maternity leave for my third child. Two months on and it feels like I’ve never been away, both with regards to work and the blog.

For someone who’s career minded and doesn’t want to miss out on raising their children, working part time was a difficult decision to take. It’s like dipping a toe into each but never fully diving in. But I’m striving to make it work.

Flavour of the month

Favourites. It’s a dangerous game to play and one in which there aren’t many willing participants.

Bias is something we all participate in and act upon. We might prefer people who we perceive as being like ourselves, or those who are what we aspire to be like. We might gravitate towards people if we enjoy their sense of humour, or respect their intelligence. It’s only natural. But letting that bias creep into management decisions is a whole different ball game.