Take a look at this great post on the dangers of government unions from a really wonderful HR Blog - Your Human Resources . It’s a cautionary tale of process run amok.
One additional thought - I support the rant against the union issue, but on the other side, some labor relations type agreed to this. Maybe under duress from a government official, but agreed, nonetheless.
In honor of Father’s Day, HumanMarkets is making its list of “The Top Ten Movies For Fathers to Watch With Sons”. How do you think we did? What did we miss - which would they replace on your list?
Master And Commander: The Far Side of the World
There is a prevailing mood that does not define a time, but does influence, communication. The “Roaring 20’s”, the “Depression Era”, the “Me Generation”, are times that have a sensibility. My sense is that for effective employee communication, we need to soak in the the broader messages that culture, society, government and commerce are gravitating to. I think that in our time, this is roughly, the “Obama Effect”.
Simply put, rational is better than emotional; inspirational is better than threatening, transparent is better than “we-know-better-than-you-do.” Most important - simple authenticity is the defining context for group communication in our day.
The economic conditions today might suggest “austerity”, but the President, and others with well developed antenna for the public mood, know better. Austerity is born of fear, of despair, and of loss. That is not our situation. We know that we are still a great society and a wealthy society. Austerity is not authentic. “Simple” means not extravagant; means reasonable, means sustainable and efficient. Simple authenticity might just say it all.
One example - the President and the First Lady have been noted for their “date nights”. (Put aside the Air Force One issue - that is unique to their station.) Date night, tie-less dinner, is simple and authentic. Austerity would have them “cooking mac and cheese in the residence”, or calling in for pizza. It would provide the same media attention, but might also feel just a bit too contrived. Relative to a NYC restaurant, pizza might seem simple, but recall, this is a couple that if they want to, can orchestra a state dinner for just about anybody on the planet that they want.
For other examples, look at the Eygpt speech, look at the D-Day Speech and look at how health care reform are all beign communicated by the President.
There is a market for employee attention. You are competing with other professional communicators to take up the mind share of your organization. Getting the mood right helps you compete better.
One of the things that happens in a work place is the sudden loss of employees. Are you prepared to react?
I had lunch yesterday with a great guy who was introduced to me through a mutual friend. The lunch partner is a music editor for a big web site. We were talking about how to be effective within organizations - how to gain consensous. This guy is about 20 years younger than me and expecting his first child. I was there as the grizzled corporate veteran who knows the ropes of big organizations.
People who knew him walked through the place during our lunch and would stop and say hello to him. One interaction between him and a few friends of his made me laugh so hard and so long I almost spit my food out.
“Hey dude! Are you going to the Nine Inch Nails concert tomorrow? Huh?
“No, I’ve got Lamaze class.”
There is a market for people’s time; some market players get left behind when the peoples’ needs change.
On May 16th, HumanMarkets put up the post below on what it means to be middle class. It came shortly after the Wall Street Journal [May 14, 2009 Microtrends], featured a piece by Mark Penn. The essay spoke about the negative connotation of the term “middle class”. If you found the original post at all interesting, Penn’s piece is worth a read. It’s, “Don’t Call Me Middle Class“.
The question is, how we understand the self-perception of people in our work force and how we want to choose words and symbols to describe their work. It’s the market for worker affiliation.
We are going to be hearing a lot about building the “middle class” in the country very soon. It is Vice President’s Biden’s assignment from the President. It is a social and economic policy rationale for EFCA, health care and other other governmental actions that will impacts markets and human resources.
Makes you wonder just want being “middle class” means.
I define middle class with a bit of help from listening to the brillent people at The Reinvestment Fund talk about it over the years. Middle class is the socio-economic point at which a household has choices about where to get the essential goods and services of an American lifestyle. They can choose where to live, what kind of food to eat, where to educate their children, where to get health care.
By choice here, I don’t mean, “I think that I will live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; or I think I will live in the Four Seasons hotel on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. I do mean, I don’t have to live, educate, get health care or eat, the way the government or some other charity tells me. I can choose among choices of my own creation based upon my economic resources. Poor people don’t get choices.
The definition will matter because the interplay of government regulation and HR practice will focus us all on whether particular policies will enhance or diminish middle class living.
Two questions: Do you have a good definition of “middle class”? Do you ever think about this a filter for your HR strategies or policies? Please let us know what you think.
I am thinking a lot about unemployment. How will it impact our business? How will it impact wages and benefit expense.
It is easy for me, and I have from time to time, fall into the trap of thinking exclusively about national unemployment numbers. My organization has locations around the country. The “national labor market” is a mistaken focus for me. I need to reorient my head to multiple local markets.
This graphical display on NYTimes.com is a great start to thinking the right way about the issue and making sure that I am a sharp competitor where my hourly workforce labor market matters - locally.
The next time someone in the office thinks that it’s better to keep something quiet - because no one will find out and it will be easier to deal with in secret, play this video for them.
From the Wall Street Journal April 28, 2009
By SUZANNE SATALINE, JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF and CHRISTOPHER CONKEY
As secret missions go, this one was a flop.
On Monday morning, one of the 747s used to ferry around the U.S. president was dispatched to the Statue of Liberty, escorted by a fighter jet. Assignment: Get some fresh glamour shots of the plane.
The Air Force said the flight needed to remain confidential. So while New York police knew about it, as did at least one person in the mayor’s office, regular New Yorkers remained in the dark.
As a result, to onlookers Monday all across downtown Manhattan — where the World Trade Center once stood — the photo shoot looked like a terrorist attack. People watched in horror as a massive aircraft, trailed closely by an F-16 fighter jet, banked and roared low near the city, in a frightening echo of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Swine Flu is here. Resist the temptation to over react. At this point, sadly, over 100 people have died in Mexico. Although 20 people have been diagnosed with Swine Flu in the United States, none have died. This is an opportunity for HR to be helpful by acting, but acting with restraint.
A good suggestion is to simply pass on to your employees the common sense that most of us learned in kindergarten. If you look at www.cdc.gov you can get a list of symptoms (the CDC themselve summarize them as simply “flu-like symptoms”). You can also get a succinct, responsible list of good hygenie procedures. Key among all of them is of course good ol’ fashioned hand washing. For now, isn’t that about it?
Especially if you were not around last time, it is a good idea to recall the lessons of Avian Flu from 2006. A great deal of time, attention, money and HR credibility was spent for not so much return. The pandemic never came - which is good. But, the Chicken Flu jokes lived on. HR in many organizations was seen as the “Chicken Little” people. There was a crisis and HR jumped in early in order to help their companies avoid disaster. The problem was that the preparations in many organizations were not proportional to the threat. It was an “all or nothing” reaction. It felt like a bueuracrat’s response, not a business persons response. (Easy to say in 2008 when in fact the pandemic never materialized.) As an old mentor used to say, “perception is reality.”
So today, take action to communicate. If you are in a public contact business communicate a bit more. Make sure that there is soap in the rest room; put tissues in the break room and on the sales floor. Don’t distribute bio-hazard suits; don’t even order them.
The HumanMarkets thought is this - if you project panic, or worse, opportunism with a response to Swine Flu that is disproportionately high, you convey that you are competing in the market for “people who want to be in charge of telling other people what to do.” There is a market for that. You want to win in the market for, “people who identify, measure and mitigate risk - proportionately.” If you win in the former, you almost certainly are not even a competitor in the second one.
Gesundheit.