Where HR Beginner Sticks his Nose.

Time to share some of my most frequently used tools used in my continual professional development.
There are many more sources I have tried and keep trying and so should you.

I will indeed elaborate on all of the sources below in later posts, but firstly let's put them into nice list.


RSS feeds

Generally speaking the most frequently used tool to keep me up to date with all News, Websites and Blog posts updates as well as all job vacancies out there coming from online recruiters. If you haven't tried it yet put it on top of your list to make your development more efficient. I use Google Reader.I will share all my sources of feeds sometimes soon in the post about RSS feeds. Stay tuned and subscribe to my blog if you want to safe time researching it yourself.


The Economist,

I use audio edition, in my car while driving. Every Friday new weekly updates on current issues around the world. Excellently written by some excellent journalists.


Forums

CIPD Communities, HR Space etc. Reading it gives me a good idea what are the most current concerns and problems of HR professionals. Participating in discussions I practice my HR terminus technicus while getting some feedbacks on my critical HR thinking. An excellent way of developing the writing and thinking as a HR professional.

Networking

Blogs, Twitter, Linkedin are the must to keep me in touch with most influential people out there. When I have started to use twitter I was amazed by the amount of people willing to help and cooperate.

Academic Journals

Excellent for research. While Wikipedia is great to get a quick look on something quote it very sparingly. Academic journals hold some empirically supported materials where there is less guessing and more facts available. Try your local University library. There are some online libraries offering great selection of HR journals but the subscriptions are very expensive.

Final word

Don’t punish yourself for not being able to stick your nose in all of them at once. Make your own routine and make sure you stick your nose in each of the sources every now and then (ideally once a week). This will keep you moving and growing as a HR professional.

When "Snowed in" is the best thing could happen to you.

How many of us think about snow and wish there is more of it? How many of us wake up in the morning and think just how much they could use the benefits of calling in "sorry can’t make it today, it’s out of my hands". My concern is that more than taking snow off the roads it is about taking care of people who feel like there is “snow inside them.” It is sad coincidence that "snowballing" is also used to express non stoppable power of building up problems making everything else look small and irrelevant. Hence sooner or later you can end up calling in “it’s out of my hands” but this time it will have nothing to do with snow on the roads. In this post I wish to share some examples of “snowed in” people as well as message to HR practitioners as well as any managers who make difference how people feel at work.

Unappreciated people. 

You keep going the extra mile and all you get is a smile of your superior (if you are lucky). What is worse everybody else seems to go the extra mile too, hence you have no option but keep going and make sure you are on the lead. In addition as you go these extra mileS you have to carry loads of weight with you too. Badly executed and misunderstood concept of performance management + long hour working culture in Britain (longest in Europe) all lead to this snowball effect commonly known as Stress. Long term consequences on individuals and their lives are unquestionable; it is the nasty “everybody is replaceable” attitude of some organisations which worries me most.

Underdeveloped people.

You come to work and whatever you do the other people seems to be better in doing it. You want to improve but there is no guidance from superiors or no will from colleagues. Reasons behind underdeveloped workforce vary from one organisation to the other, but the bottom line is that none of them consider people as an asset worth developing. Days, weeks, months and years go by and you are where you were before. It is drowning and frustrating. You might not know it but you bring this frustration home with you and your day doesn’t get any better. You have a bit of “snowballing” there.

Other stressed out people. 

Generally speaking, people have different reasons for being “snowed inside”. The problem is that no one pays attention to their problem and they don’t know who to ask or what to ask at the first place. Most of the time “snowballing” takes place with various consequences when people and their lives end up badly damaged.

Last but not least there are a job hunters. 

For unemployed it doesn't matter much as long as snow doesn't affect other elements of their everyday life. Job hunters currently employed are on top of my list as there must be a genuine reason for wanting a new job and if the snow buys them an extra day off, more applications can be filled and more CV's posted. It is only obvious that your chances to find a new job increase with every application you post. And why they became a job hunters at the first place? Well in the most simplistic way they look for place to work where “snowballing” isn't  an everyday practice.

 

 

Lesson for HR.

Talk to your people regularly. You do make a difference in their life already by employing them and letting them spend almost half of their day in your business. So make sure you make a positive not negative contribution in their lives. Performance appraisals with mix of positive and negative feedbacks are the best way of showing people that you watch them and care for them. Develop them towards achieving their personal goals, not only company training needs. In that way they will see that working for you they grow as persons as well as professionals.

Culture of involvement and participation. Give your employees voice. Let them talk about everything, listen to them and make everything clear and understandable. Let them design their own procedures and you will see the difference in how people respond to the rules made by themselves. The most common misconception of empowering people is that managers think they will loose the power to decide. No you will not. In constructive discussion with employees you are the one who is responsible for all processes to fit in with business strategy. They will understand, as long as you make it clear to them. Participation lies in sharing knowledge and views before decision takes place. Build up knowledge sharing culture. Sharing is caring. Learn from most successful and influential online companies. Facebook, Google, Twitter etc. None of them charge for their services (with exception of premium and business tools) and all information they have share with people for free. Yes knowledge is a power and has to be used wisely but if you make your people to see bigger picture and positive effect of “everyone knowing” results will lead to the tremendous competitive advantage and happy workforce. Reward your people. There are many ways of rewarding your workers and it doesn’t have to cost fortune. Check some of the principles of “Total Reward” and find some inspiration for your reward strategy. Looking at Talent management can help you with retention of some most valuable staff that is probably looking for new job while you read this article.

Finally remember that it is all about business and therefore make sure that any HR intervention links tightly with business strategy. In addition in the process of doing any changes use quick fixes along with slowly implemented long term solutions. That way you maintain steady progress with even better future in the mind.

I have highlighted some important elements of the best practice in HR and indeed none of them can be explained in single blog post. I will continue to spread the right word about any of the concepts eventually, but should anyone have questions feel free to ask. I will be also delighted with any response on this post and discuss any thoughts in depth.

Loaded Theoretical Bomb. Personal Statement of HR Beginner

5 years I have been studying various subjects related to HRM. It was rather intensive full time journey with ups and downs on the way. Nevertheless I made it and I am proud of it. Today I have both BSc (2.1) and MSc degree in HRM and am proud Assoc CIPD member gathering documentation towards Charted MCIPD upgrade.

My professional development as a HR professional was always supported by my enthusiasm for this field. Active membership on various HR forums, tweeting about all current developments in HR and sharing my life of a “HR-beginner” on HRM today social network and on my blog can be an example of my “HR life”. Reading of professional journals and RSS feeds to keep in touch with all important development in HR world is at the moment my main source of keeping fit in HR sector. 

Last few years I had a great opportunity to implement my HR knowledge into everyday life of the organisations I have been working for. I have developed number of “Best Practice” procedures and conducted numeral HR studies involving hotel workforce. My eagerness to use my HR expertise together with my good inter-personal skills helped me to build consultancy relationship with General Manager and HR Manager of the hotel and my role has transformed into strongly focused on people development.

I do realise how volatile business and social environment became in last few years. Unstable economy and concerns of a society about future of almost everything from the way people are recognised, rewarded and developed all the way to the concept of corporate social responsibility. Current climate makes me strongly convinced about the importance of my role as a HR Thinking Performer. My ambitions are to become a forward looking professional who contributes on both organisational but also national level via regular publications of HR related articles. Should everything go smooth I see myself in couple of years studying for PhD and so improve my academic insight.
Nevertheless it is my personal goal to keep in touch with what is reality of a HR contribution to society and believe that HR professionals need to spend more time on the floor no matter how skilled their line managers are. While I am a great believer that "it is all about business" I also believe that influence of HR professionals lie way beyond business case scenarios and that even today function of HR is well underrated and very often misunderstood. I am willing to put all my effort into restructuring how this profession is perceived by all managers, staff, and whole society.

Currently I consider myself as a loaded bomb with theoretical knowledge and while I am well aware of a gap between HR Theory and Practice, working with and for people for over 15 years made me realise how important it is to be humble in presenting my ideas.

In regards to my professional development, there is nothing I wish more than opportunity to work for someone who can supervise my enthusiasm and let me grow towards becoming a HR Champion.