Archive for September, 2008
« Previous EntriesHR Chronicles Chapter Three
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008Continuing story about HR in the dark ages of the late 1960’s… After I left the drafting department, I went back to my office and attacked the paperwork on my desk. Yes, there were actual papers - remember this was the time before computers. I read the mail and the internal memos. I scribbled reply [...]
HR Chronicles Chapter Two
Monday, September 29th, 2008Continuing story about the days before Wrongful Discharge, Sexual Harassment, etc….
Jimmy told me that the cocktail waitress had delivered a package to their table and said it was for Jerry who immediatley checked it out and said it was ticking. Inspite of his fears, he opened it and found an alarm clock inside with a [...]
HR Chronicles Chapter One
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Imagine a time before sexual harassment, affirmative action, diversity training and wrongful discharge. Chances are this is a hard task for most of you, but not for me. I was there. The story I am going to tell you is 90% true (minus 10% for faulty memory). The names have been changed to protect the [...]
The Many Faces of Human Resources
Saturday, September 27th, 2008In my mind, I have this generalized view of the typical HR Department, but I know it is only based on my experiences. The HR world comes in all sizes and shapes. I imagine that the different faces of HR include:
A small administrative function providing a minimum of services
A huge conglomerate of services which includes Safety, Security, Payroll and [...]
Deja Vu All Over Again
Friday, September 26th, 2008The Roaring 20’s: Fun times when credit was king; everyone was buying stock on the installment plan - 10% down and monthly payments. Consumers with little savings couldn’t keep up with the payments and the house of cards came tumbling down.
Recently: Fun times when credit was king; everyone buying homes on the installment plan - nothing down [...]
10 Reasons Why We Went Into HR in the First Place
Thursday, September 25th, 2008If I made-up a David Letterman type list for why we went into HR in the first place, it might look like this:
10. Nobody else wanted to, so we thought we better.
9. We got failing grades in our science and math classes.
8. We used to love working with people.
7. We got talked into transferring from another [...]
3 Ways to Break Down the Silos
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008I recently read that it was a good thing when we flattened out the organizational structures of the past (the classical pyramid). I was in Silicon Valley when it happened. My cousin at Memorex got laid-off due to this new movement. He happened to be in the Finance Department as a middle manager and his whole level in the organization [...]
HR Mistake No. 10
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008HR Mistake No. 10 is staying in our Silo. My goodness, how we love talking to ourselves. We may not always be a success out there in the organization, but we are successful in our own silo. We do our salary surveys, revise our salary structures, and life goes on in our HR Silo. We [...]
HR Mistake No. 9
Monday, September 22nd, 2008So many times, we fly by the seat of our pants, which brings me to: HR Mistake No. 9 - not having a strategic plan for the Human Resources Department which is supportive of the overall organization and directly linked to the Company’s Business Plan.
In the past, I have actually called the plan for HR: The Human [...]
HR Mistake No. 8
Sunday, September 21st, 2008HR Mistake No. 8 is… Training for training sake. We don’t start out with that premise; it just seems to happen that way.
We folks in Human Resources have great intentions. One of them is: “They” (the managers) just don’t know. If we just teach them, “they” will be better managers, better supervisors, better leaders, better coaches and [...]