2012 - New Year wish list?

Welcome to the first Discuss HR of the year, the blog written for and by members of Human Resources UK.

First and foremost, Happy New Year! Secondly, Happy Birthday! That’s rather self-promotional, but Discuss HR is a year old and I would like to pass on my sincere thanks to everyone that has read and commented on the various articles.  I would also like to especially thank the group of writers who regularly contribute their time and effort for our enjoyment. 

On a separate note, I would just like to remind everyone about our forthcoming networking events.  These are all free to attend we have events in Reading, London, Manchester, Bristol and Royal Wootton Bassett. You can find more details here http://bit.ly/uXg2Og

To the point at hand, John Hepworth kicks off the year shares his wish list for the year ahead. (Ed Scrivener)

2012 – New Year wish list?

As is traditional at this time of year, I thought that it would be a neat idea to write a ‘wish list’ for 2012. They do say ‘be careful for what you wish for’, but throwing caution to that particular wind, here goes!

• Get more leaders to ‘get’ development 

What do I mean by this? Too often, leadership development is focused upon increasing knowledge and skills, e.g. how to deal with the Bribery Act, what tunes to play on the accounts or the sales forecast. For sure, being less than regimented in application of knowledge and skills can have great entrepreneurial advantages to companies and individuals alike. But too often, attitudinal development does not get the respect or time allocated to other development areas, often seen as more tangible. A client said to me recently that his biggest issue with a recent appointment was that, when they had got to know them, they did not like them. And more to the point, their non-executive directors did not like the individual either. So – were they addressing the attitudinal elements in order to balance what they had clearly seen at the interview as excellence in other traits? Well, no. So, come on leaders and MDs, ‘get’ development as a holistic and on-going activity…which leads me to…

• Appointing an employee is only the start

On a personal level rather than the political, I sincerely hope that the tinkering with unfair dismissal [increase to two years employment before being able to lodge unfair dismissal claims] fails. The statistics from when it was last at two years do not support the change – there was a marginal reduction in claims – but since that time, of course, we have had a significant increase in employment law. Cue an increase in discrimination claims from April 2012 [which have no time limit of course] and a continuation of the recent trend for more speculative wrongful dismissal claims. Let’s be clear, however. HR professionals do little in my experience to help line managers manage their new staff more effectively. Rather than support and influence, it is often left to a battle about whether the induction form has been ticked off in the right manner and that the poor new employee has been allowed to attend a day of induction ‘lectures’ that add no value to their employment. And the examples of good practice are too few and far between. When that person who you liked at interview starts work with you that is only the start. HR teams and line managers – and I believe line managers should predominate – have to do better and encourage, motivate and support their employee to perform. And then you would get fewer unfair dismissal claims – not by legislating differently.

• Be Emotionally Intelligent

Now, here’s a thing. There has been a bit of a backlash recently against EI, saying that it avoids true leadership skills [see Munro (2011) and Locke (2005), cited in the BPS’s ‘Assessment & Development Matters’]. An interesting debate for sure for 2012. But for me it misses the point. EI has developed from some of the advances in psychology in the recent decade, yet fundamentally has a core in the 1960s with Eric Berne and others. For the dear old line manager, the simple facet of ‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ can do wonders in work-based relationships. And add to that a clear business vision that balances results through people AND realism in the face of international markets, then EI has a major role to play. Who cares if it may be seen as the ‘flavour of the month’ or even fundamentally flawed? Anything that makes an MD or line manager at any level see how they can improve their results gets my vote [and at least EI is reliable and valid!].

• Try harder

A maxim that all self-employed consultants can relate to I am sure. But a mantra for all of us? Both chef Jamie Oliver and Parcel2Go entrepreneur Fil Adams-Mercer have both recently ‘had a go’ at the lack of a hard work ethic in the U.K. Adams-Mercer refers to his start in working life, managing a Saturday shift at 14 years old 6.00 a.m. until 6.00 p.m. – “That would be illegal now”. Yes, indeed it would depending upon…OK, go on, you can fill in the rest of the employment law. And the same for internships – slave labour by any other name according to some, rather than giving a valuable working insight into how money is made and iPads funded by parents.

Which again, misses the point? It is only illegal if the individual chooses to make a claim or the employer takes advantage. What we need is a greater work ethic recognising that to get something then you have to work for it. The basics of employment: an employer pays in return for an employee’s skills. What we need to get our heads around is that pay can look different and that employees need to be selfish and work longer / smarter to benefit themselves at the very least. Look no further than pensions provision for an example of all that is wrong – a prevailing attitude is that the State will provide. Ha! Fat chance of that, so go figure. All the old adages work – but money for sure does not grow on trees…

In the world of business, 2012 will be a watershed in more ways than one. For those connected to employment and employability, we need to start thinking ahead and engaging with others to get a better place for a future generation…that is if we can get that generation into work and off the iPad. Happy New Year!

About the author

John helps organisations, especially in the SME sector, achieve competitive advantage.  He has a particular interest in translating strategic HR management into practice.  Typically, this has meant focusing his efforts on recruitment and selection, performance management and training and development activities.  John sees the challenge of matching the development of internal competencies with the externally driven demands of the market place as one of the key themes in developing organisational engagement, capability and performance.
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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK.  Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 12^th January and will be written by Performance Consultant Una Doyle.

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