Human Resource Development

Do You Really Need a Policy for That?

My husband calls them “blond moments” when he shows me a cartoon and I don’t get it.  I’m also a bit gullible when I read spoofs and satires. No thank you – I don’t need oceanfront property in Arizona.

Today he sent an article from The Onion which I got right away.  Yes, I know The Onion is a satirical publication; I learned that when I took him a story I thought was true, and he chuckled for about an hour.

stick_figure_despair_pc_400_clr_2994I actually did a double take on the one he sent today – “HR Director Reminds Employees That Any Crying Done At Office Must Be Work-Related.” Oh my, I hope not. Oh, I get it – it’s a spoof! LOL.

That got me thinking about HR teams who take on silly policy rules because someone in authority thinks they need one.  Think dress code. (more…)

Talent Management Gone Wrong: The Rest of the Story

tombstone_message_11293In May, I posted a story of a young man who had been identified by a Fortune 100 firm as a high potential and placed into a leadership development program to prepare for the possibility of promotion into the executive ranks.

The story was unfinished, as a month after his Director left the organization and the young man had been appointed as interim Director, the VP told him that they were considering outsourcing the position. The young man was disappointed, but he was determined to show the organization that he could handle the position as interim, on the chance that they decided to keep it in-house.

I described this process as “talent management gone wrong.” (more…)

HR’s Best Kept Secret – Get out of HR

get out of hr_2Here we go again. July-August 2014 Harvard Business Review author Ram Charan says “It’s Time to Split HR.” He proposes two totally different units – one that handles “administration” which he says would be primarily compensation & benefits. It would consist of “HR practitioners” and would report to the CFO.

The other would handle leadership and organization, report to the CEO and be staffed by rotating high potential operational leaders.
Sound familiar?

We boomers probably remember the days when this was a matter of routine. Not the split and different reporting relationships, but the integration of operational leaders into HR. In some instances, this rotation was through a management training program designed to expose future leaders to the whole organization. In other cases it was a staffing philosophy. (more…)