HR: Mind Your Language!

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

Mervyn Dinnen returns today and follows up his last post to look at the apparent obsession with Gen Y. (Ed Scrivener)

HR: Mind Your Language!

During a recent US HR conference, whilst the usual Gen Y myths were being trotted out, Matt Charney tweeted out:

‘Replace the phrase “Gen Y” with any other protected class and you realize how ridiculous this is as a "best practice" for HR’

The US HR blogger Laurie Ruettimann tried it out:

• Puerto Ricans demand flexibility in the workforce.
• When you think black people, think social and mobile.
• Asians: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.
• Muslims do not use Twitter in large numbers, but college-aged girls with disabilities show the greatest enthusiasm for the application.
• Native Americans want to work in a loose, collaborative environment without a ton of structure.

Clearly this sounds ridiculous but at the same that this was happening I was at the CIPD HRD conference, at which a lot of the same generalisations were being aired in the name of insight to help HR practitioners better ‘understand’ the younger workforce. I thought at the time that 30 years ago the same would probably have been said about women, or ethnic minorities, but that thankfully we have moved on…although our need to pigeonhole the groups of workers that we find difficult to assimilate in to our business structures seems to remain.

The fact that HR not only countenances this advice - after all, someone must be engaging the ever growing band of workforce consultants and employer brand specialists who peddle this wisdom – but appears to embrace it and potentially use it in workforce and talent acquisition planning, is a major cause for concern.

The values, aspirations, ambitions and preferences of younger people are broadly shaped by social, economic, cultural, peer and parental influences during adolescence, hence will shift every 5 -7 years or so, but within that they will be varied. One of the leading US commentators in the ‘Gen Y’ space refers to her teenage daughter as her ‘case study’ – even though this girl’s influence will be very different to those of someone 10-12 years older (still, supposedly, the same generation). For example, an adolescence spent in a global recession is not wholly comparable to one spent during an economic boom.

My concerns with HR over-embracing this are:

• We fail to value the real potential in individuals and have a unrealistic view of their ability to fit in to our companies
• We needlessly create an ‘inter-generational’ conflict by inferring that different ages of workers require different treatment
• We give them a poor early experience of the workplace, and the recruitment process, which will leave them with a lasting negative impression

The language of hiring has changed, with the term ‘recruitment’ largely replaced by ‘talent acquisition’. This may just be words, but their inferences are different. Talent implies something special, gifted, unique, and superior, and its universal usage would imply that for every position we need the best, the most special and gifted.

I often think of the top US basketball player Michael Jordan who once remarked…

“Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence win championships”

…and wonder if our language around ‘talent’ somehow ignores what it takes to be successful in the long run. Do we call the ‘teamwork’ and ‘intelligence’ talent too?

A recent study by UKCES found that the UK ranks highly (and therefore poorly) for under-utilising the skills of its 25-29 year old graduates, with 32.7% of them (one of the highest in the OECD) working in jobs below their skill levels. This is the same generation who we often routinely write off as spoiled, having a sense of entitlement, lacking proactivity and being dreamers and unrealistic in their expectations.

Maybe if we minded our language, and looked more for what they can offer and spent less time on the cod psychology, we may find a way to better leverage their intelligence, teamwork and abilities in the day to day work environment.

Let me know what you think…

Read about Mervyn and our other authors here

*****

Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

*****

If you would like to be a guest writer for Discuss HR, you can find more information here.  Our next guest writer week is the week commencing 26^th August.

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Whose Workforce is it Anyway?

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

We welcome back seasoned blogger Mervyn Dinnen, who follows up his previous post with a look at a growing trend within the workforce. (Ed Scrivener)

Whose Workforce is it Anyway?

Many people were surprised by the recent Financial Times report on working conditions at the Amazon warehouse in Rugeley. Most of the employees comprising the ‘human automation’ workforce were not employed by Amazon though, but by Randstad who manage them as part of their ‘onsite-flexible workforce solutions’ service.

As a result of this Amazon are able to ‘release’ workers who are not performing efficiently with little notice, whilst dangling the carrot that it is possible to gain permanent employment with them.

There seemed no shortage of people willing to talk about their experiences. Whose reputation is damaged by what they have to say – Amazon or Randstad?

Similarly many people have been surprised that the cleaners at John Lewis’ flagship store are contemplating strike action. After all, this is an iconic employer of choice, whose business model is held up as a blueprint to others, a paragon of ethical business. The workforce all share in the company’s success, leading to high levels of engagement.

But not the cleaners. They were outsourced through a facilities management company to a cleaning provider and are working for minimum wage with some picking up £72 a week for 6 days’ shifts.

Clearly not everyone who helps to provide the ‘customer experience’ that is so crucial to the company’s success is part of the envied co-operative partnership agreement.

Whilst the flexible/outsourced workforce is a growing phenomenon it’s not a new one.  Nearly 12 years ago a research paper on the challenges for HR in managing the outsourced workforce was published with this remit:

• For most of the twentieth century, the number of tasks and levels in large organizations grew incrementally, adding new job and career opportunities to full-time employees. In recent years this pattern has fundamentally changed.
• Global developments, both technological and economic, have led to many organizations cutting back their operations, closing facilities or outsourcing non-core activities to specialist providers.
• As we move further into the twenty-first century, we can realistically expect that the need for cost reduction, speed and flexibility will become even greater, leading organizations to reduce the number of full-time employees.
• As labour markets are becoming tighter and supply-driven, finding qualified staff will become more difficult and companies will increasingly have to depend on temporary staff and other types of non-permanent employees to meet their staffing requirements

I’m not sure whether we have really grasped this enough. We have performance arrangements in place to deal with outsourced arrangements, to ensure that SLAs are met and inefficient working is penalised.

But what about those much discussed holy grails such as culture, engagement and employer brand?

Both the examples that I gave earlier – Amazon and John Lewis – are from businesses who are employers of choice, strong brands with an assumed high level of engagement. We are used to reading reports of how permanent employees of some of the aspirational digital companies are willing to accept low pay and prospects as a trade-off for the chance to be part of the brand. And in a depressed economy, with meaningful jobs hard to come by, there may be no shortage of takers for low pay, low skilled jobs, either permanent or temporary, particularly within iconic businesses.

But what about less high profile organisations? How engaged are the flexible workforce when they are there for a pay cheque and not to be part of an employee experience? And what effect may this have on the all-important customer?

Many customer facing roles in the service sector – usually also the first point of contact for the customer with the business – are increasingly filled by people on a plethora of zero hour/permanent part year/fixed term temporary/managed outsourced contracts, all with varying levels of engagement and commitment.

I’m sure many readers with 10+ years in the workplace will recall working for businesses in which perks, benefits, parties and away days were for permanent staff only and not the temps. But this was a time when temporary and flexible workers were rare. Nowadays they are becoming an increasingly necessary feature of the workforce, and labour market commentators are expecting this growth to continue. I’m not sure than anyone knows the full longer term impact of a two tier workforce on performance, profitability and culture.

So what should HR be doing to embed these people in the company, especially when they are hired, fired and paid by a third party provider?

Let me know what you think…

Read about Mervyn and our other authors here

*****

Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

*****

If you would like to be a guest writer for Discuss HR, you can find more information here.  Our next guest writer week is the week commencing 29^th April.

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HR as Curators of Skills

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

We welcome our latest new writer to the blog; although Mervyn Dinnen couldn’t be described as a new writer as I am sure many of you will already know and read Mervyn’s numerous blog posts.  Today he looks at the workforce of the future. (Ed Scrivener)

HR as Curators of Skills

“The world is moving forward exponentially. We are preparing students for a world that we don't know, for jobs that haven't been created yet, and many that don't yet exist, using technology that has yet to be invented”

My son is in his A Level year and I’ve recently been accompanying him on university visits. Given the current levels of unemployment amongst the under 25s it’s not surprising that employability plays a big part in the open day presentations. There is usually an impressive list of jobs that alumni have obtained over the last 4 years and a wide variety of career paths that people with a particular degree have followed.

The quote above was taken from one of them. It was from a slide -as a regular conference blogger/tweeter I invariably have a tablet ready to take notes, even in a presentation such as this!

For me it also sums up an interesting conundrum for HR when it comes to attracting tomorrow’s workforce. Several of our businesses don’t yet know what jobs they will be recruiting for in 5 years’ time, or what skills they will need to find.

One thing we do pretty much know is that our workforces will become more flexible, so the need to be able to find, engage and keep in touch with a range of skills will become vital.

Last year I was at a two day conference and saw Heidrick & Struggles present their global talent report, which included a look ahead to 2015 and beyond. One of their key predictions was that today’s entrants in to the job market will have had at least 14 jobs by the time they are 38 – which is probably correct given the fragmented, part time, project nature of many of today’s roles.

It did lead me to wonder where the leaders of tomorrow will come from. How someone who shifts between so many roles/projects will acquire the capabilities to lead a business or function. I had the opportunity to facilitate an unconference session the following day and threw this out to a dozen senior HR people.

The conversation was interesting. Starting with today’s graduate recruitment and current staff projections and gaps, we then thought ahead. A lot of today’s pre-occupations – culture, engagement, talent development and staff retention – would be very different in a flexible workforce where people would be working on a project basis, remotely and possibly internationally. Being engaged for their proven skills rather than a track record of positions, and possibly using contracts that bind them to an outcome not an employer.

The conclusion we drew was:

‘Maybe in the future HR will be curators of skills, not developers of skills’

There is little doubt in my mind that HR will need take on an increasing workload of workforce planning, becoming the people who know how to put together project teams for a whole range of tasks. They will also be the link between the business and the outsourced workforce.

I can’t believe that businesses will continue indefinitely to pay third party recruiters for temporary or flexible staff, particularly on hourly or daily mark-up/margin basis. It will be within the HR function that relationships with individuals are maintained, necessary skills are identified and validated and outcomes are monitored.

And I’m pretty sure that the necessary organisational transformation from a predominantly employed workforce to a largely flexible one will keep most HR professionals occupied.

So those are some of my thoughts on HR and the future workforce…let me know what you think

Read about Mervyn and our other authors here

*****

Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

*****

If you would like to be a guest writer for Discuss HR, you can find more information here.  Our next guest writer week is the week commencing 29^th April.

Any source