HR Club Sydney

HR Club Sydney

Your Brain at Work

Posted on | September 2, 2010 | View Comments

A few months ago now, I was asked to come up and speak at the launch of HR Club Newcastle. As a thank you for doing that I was given a copy of “Your Brain at Work” (thanks Jenny & Olivia!) and on holidays recently I was able to get some quiet time to read it.

The introduction starts like this:

• An avalanche of emails.
• An overload of information.
• A meeting that leaves you exhausted.
• Ever more change and uncertainty.
• The occasional win just to keep you going.

At this point I was like, “Yes- that’s me. I need help!”

While I found this book to be like some of the other psychology books I’ve read (i.e. it’s not an easy read that you can get through in a few days), its jam packed with interesting info and research that can be applied to anyone in the workplace. The way in which the brain is explained is so simple; it makes me think even I could be a neurologist!

Basically the book teaches you about how the brain works so that you can work smarter, be more focused and productive, stay cool under pressure and even influence others. It also focuses on problems and decisions, collaborating with others and facilitating change. I won’t be able to go through it all but I will present a few key takeouts that you might find useful.

Recently I attended a Working Smart with Outlook Program which was fantastic and is already keeping me a lot better organised, saving me time and relieving the pressure I put on myself by allowing me to leave work with an empty inbox everyday. However I have found that recently I do feel like a bit of a slave to my inbox, and that this is something I also need to change.

For example, how many times do you check your inbox a day?
From what hours do you check your email?
Do you feel bad/depressed/overwhelmed when your inbox is out of control?

Before I did that course I was a bit out of control. I was responding to emails as fast as I could- which meant more emails in my inbox because people saw I responded quickly so they started to send me more issues to respond to. I checked my email on my iphone when I opened my eyes in the morning, I answered emails on the train, I answered them all day at work and then I checked them when I got home. What an ineffective way of working while trying to do other tasks at work and find time for a personal life in there somewhere too.

For instance ‘Your Brain at Work’ talks about ‘dual-task interference’. The scientist Harold Pashler showed that when people do two cognitive tasks at one, their cognitive capacity can drop from that of a Harvard MBA to that of an eight year old. If accuracy is important, then you shouldn’t be dividing your attention. Linda Stone, a former VP at Microsoft, coined the term ‘continuous partial attention’ in 1998. It is what happens when people’s focus is split, continuously. The effect is constant and intense mental exhaustion.

Further to this, a study done at the University of London found that constant emailing and text-messaging reduces mental capacity by an average of five points for women and fifteen points for men on an IQ test. This effect is similar to missing a night’s sleep! For men, it’s around three times more than the effect of smoking cannabis. Hence always ‘being on’ is not an effective way to work and you can focus on only one conscious task at a time. This means that the only way to do two mental tasks quickly if accuracy is important is to do them one at a time.

‘But I can multitask’ I hear you say (particularly if you are a woman- this is something we pride ourselves on), and so there is a possible solution to this- practising the activities over and over until they are embedded. With regards to how the brain works, by embedding the action it means that these actions are not being managed by your prefrontal cortex, but rather the basal ganglia. An example of this is learning the keystrokes to cut and paste data rather than going to manually cut and paste using the mouse each time.

This book is full of helpful and thought provoking ideas that are relevant to the way in which we work as individuals, leadership development, influencing others- all that meaty and interesting HR stuff. There isn’t time to go through it all but I will leave you with a few more chestnuts you might find interesting.

1) Studies show that the strongest emotion in a team can ripple out and drive everyone to resonate with the same emotion, without anyone consciously knowing this is happening. The strong emotion gets attention, and what people pay attention to will activate their mirror neurons.

In a similar way, the boss’s emotions can have a flow-on effect to others, since people pay so much attention to the boss. You see the boss smile, and your brain starts to mimic the smile; then you smile; then the boss smiles back. It’s a virtuous and upward cycle, with each person raising the depth of the other’s smile through a mirroring function. Mirror neurons explain why leaders need to be extra conscious of managing their stress levels, as their emotions really do impact others.

2) Having many social connections doesn’t just increase your happiness, it can also help you perform on the job, and even live longer (another reason to get involved with HR peeps in the community). Being connected to others in a positive way, feeling a sense of relatedness, is a basic need for human beings, similar to eating and drinking.

3) A study by Gallup Organization showed that companies that encourage water cooler conversations exhibit greater productivity. Increasing the quality and quantity of social connections (up to a point, of course is likely to improve productivity, as more people find themselves surrounded by fewer foes first and foremost, and then more friends as well.

4) David Rock says that there are five domains of social experience that your brain treats the same as survival issues (such as food and water- yes Maslow’s hierarchy is challenged). These domains are status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness- the SCARF model.

This model describes the interpersonal primary rewards or threats that are important to the brain, and strengthening your ability to increase several of these elements toward a reward or away in order to reduce the threat will help you to operate much more effectively.

For more info on how your brain works, there is a very cool website you may like to check out.

Category: General HR, Learning and Development
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Working with Jake-the-jerk and more lessons from Marshall Goldsmith

Posted on | August 30, 2010 | View Comments

I’ve finally gotten around to reading “What got you here won’t get you there” by Marshall Goldsmith that I picked up at the AHRI Convention. Can I say that I loved every moment of it and after seeing him speak, I was reading it and in my head I could totally hear him saying every word.

The best thing about this book is that it can apply to everyone, and that you can take things out of it for your work life and your personal life. The book talks about challenges in interpersonal behaviour and focuses on twenty bad habits that we need to stop doing rather than typical leadership traits that we need to start doing.

The twenty bad habits are:

1. Winning too much
2. Adding too much value
3. Passing judgement
4. Making destructive comments
5. Starting with “no”, “but” or “however”
6. Telling the world how smart we are
7. Speaking when angry
8. Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work”
9. Withholding information
10. Failing to give proper recognition
11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve
12. Making excuses
13. Clinging to the past
14. Playing favourites
15. Refusing to express regret
16. Not listening
17. Failing to express gratitude
18. Punishing the messenger
19. Passing the buck
20. An excessive need to be “me”

Now when I first heard Marshall speak at the convention I saw a lot of these bad habits in myself, particularly in my personal life. After doing the LSI a couple of years ago in my second job out of uni I think I have really valued feedback and knowing how I come across to other people in the workplace. However, not so much in my personal life. When I heard Marshall speak a few months back, I vowed to make some changes and I have made some ground. Reading the book again was a refresher that there’s still a way to go.

In any case, in reading this book I was reminded of a person that I used to work for and report into. Let’s call him Jake. Now Jake was a bit of a jerk, and I’d like to talk about some of the things that he used to do and hear about times when you’ve had to work with Jake the jerk yourself.

Here are a few examples from Marshall’s list.

No. 8- Negativity or “Let me explain why that won’t work”

Marshall defines these people as those that are “constitutionally incapable of saying positive or complimentary to any of your suggestions. Negativity is their default response. You could walk into their office with a cure for cancer and the first words out of their mouth would be ‘Let me explain why that won’t work’”. People in senior positions often do this to insert themselves as the senior critic.

Well this guy was a Negative Nancy, Debbie Downer, a perfectionistic and a control freak all wrapped into one. I tried to remain positive and respectfully challenge his way of thinking on a number of occasions. Crunch time came when he wanted me to implement a plan that he had written and distributed without me even seeing. I’d done my homework and had my plan written for the year ahead and put it to him for his input (being the bigger person I thought). He essentially dismissed it, saying that it wouldn’t work and it couldn’t be put to the senior staff. He then said to me “now here is a perfect example of what I was talking about the other day. You just don’t listen. You need to do what you’re told and implement this plan”. It was an a-ha moment for me.

I had thought ‘this guy probably hasn’t managed people before’, I’ll be patient with him and he’ll warm to my positive responses and he’ll at least meet me halfway soon. After that comment to me all I could think of was that he was a massive egotistical jerk that was not going to listen to anything I had to say.

No. 15 Refusing to express regret

Marshall says that people often think apologising means we’ve lost, its a humiliating process and means we are giving up power or control, however that refusing to apologise causes about as much ill-will in the workplace as any other interpersonal flaw. He says that “People who can’t apologise at work may as well be wearing a t-shirt that says ‘I don’t care about you’”.

After this conversation with Jake, it made me think about all our interactions together. I knew that apologising was important and I thought back to times when I’d forgotten to tell him about something that was happening that he probably should have been across. It was unintentional, but nevertheless it was something that I apologised for. He had never apologised for anything he had ever done, even when he’d majorly stuffed things up.

Once he came in and barked at me that I needed to organise an interview with person X immediately. I did as he asked. Later right before the interview, we received some feedback on this person and the senior staff did not want to proceed with the interview on that basis. He then sent me an email CC’ing in senior staff saying that this is something that I really should have looked into before I organised the interview. There were major things like that, and minor things like constantly booking me into meetings without my knowledge (or even checking my calendar) and leaving me double booked. I was surprised when I reflected that he had never apologised for anything. This led me to my next point.

No. 17 Failing to express gratitude.

He had never said anything positive or even encouraging to me.

Marshall says that “Gratitude is a skill that we can never display too often. And yet for some reason, we are cheap and chary with gratitude- as if it were rare Bordeaux wine that we can only serve on special occasions. Gratitude is not a limited resource, nor is it costly. It is abundant as air. We breathe it in, but forget to exhale”.

I’m really big on this, particularly for staff in typical support or administrative roles in a business. They are often seen as dispensable resources , when in reality they are the engine room that keeps things going. They are often the staff that are not engaged, yet other parts of the business demand discretionary effort from.

It’s not hard to say thank you when someone has done a good job and should be a skill that every leader posses. At this point in time I was thinking ‘why am I putting in so many hours and so much effort when this guy just acts like a jerk and doesn’t appreciate anything I do?’

Which brings me to the question- what would you do in the same position and how have you conquered working with your very own ‘Jake the jerk?”

Category: Diversity/Bullying and Harassment, General HR, Learning and Development
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Your shoes were meant for walking

Posted on | August 27, 2010 | View Comments

WORLDLY SOLES – Donate your shoes!

Yesterday morning I came back from holidays in Fiji (and yes the weather was amazing and I am already depressed by the cold weather here!) and amongst the eleventy trillion things in my inbox, I thought it would be good to circulate this one around as it is an easy thing we can all contribute to.

While I was away, I was speaking with my boyfriend about how quickly we forget about people around the world who are victims of disaster. A lot of this depends on how much media coverage it gets. I would be surprised if most people knew much about what those in Pakistan are currently going through, or how the people of Haiti are going. Out of sight and out of mind I guess.

There are easy ways to participate and from a HR perspective, perhaps this is something that you workplace can get involved in.

Worldly Soles is an Australian Initiative started by Student Associations in TAFE NSW in 2010.

It works under the umbrella of the NSW Government and as such guarantees delivery of shoes only to people in need in foreign countries.

According to their website they say “we realised in 2009 that a pair of shoes could mean the world to a person in a poor country, we felt a responsibility to take action. A pair of shoes can help someone to find work and give them confidence to take a new “step” in life. 300 million children around the world have never owned a pair of shoes and many suffer foot injuries daily as a result (ie. Children searching for goods in garbage tips to make a living).”

Whether they are runners, sandals, heels or flats, your spare shoes can change someone’s world. World Soles needs your help to collect 50,000 pairs of shoes. A huge target!

All shoes will be donated to children and adults in need in Third World countries, including Haiti, Africa and The Himalayas.

You can drop off your unwanted new or pre-loved shoes to all Libraries and Neighbourhood Service Centres in the City of Sydney council area until January 2011.

Donating one pair of shoes is worth about 3 months of savings to someone in need. It also helps the environment by preventing shoes from ending up in landfill.

For more information about the charity project please go to www.worldlysoles.org

Category: Events
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Who is your dream employer?

Posted on | August 11, 2010 | View Comments

The good folk at Red Balloon have contacted me online about participating  in a survey for them. I’m always keen to hear the results of interesting surveys so of course I participated- and I thought it was worthy of sharing with you all if you’re interested.

So Red Balloon have partnered with Insync Surveys to release the Dream Employers Survey, an online survey http://www.dreamemployers.com.au/ that will identify which organisations are the most desired employers for Australians and New Zealanders.

The aim is to find out what people’s aspirations are, in an ideal world who would they love to work for and why? Do they work for their Dream Employer already?  Who is the Dream Employer in their industry? Who would they would least like to work for and why?

I must admit I was a bit stumped by this question. I mean, I know what I like in a workplace and it’s not unlike most research on the topic suggests. A good manager is important to me, as well as flexibility to do what I do best.

Have I ever thought about working for a specific employer though? I’ve really appreciated working in a variety of industries as it has allowed me to be versatile and learn about some very different cultures, but specific employers?

When I was 15 I worked at McDonald’s for three years. It was my very first job and the place where I realised that HR was what I wanted to do. I love the training opportunities, the strong culture where most of the people in Head Office had “flipped burgers” in a past life- hell I even loved those goofy training videos. I got heaps of training experience and learned about what management styles I liked and what sort of leader I wanted to be. I still look back fondly on that experience and have often thought about seeking employment there.

Anyway I digress. Fill out the survey! I’d be keen to hear what the people think makes a Dream Employer.

* Survey closes 15th August

Category: Employee Engagement

Some interesting takeouts on the Women, Management and Work Conference #wmwc

Posted on | August 9, 2010 | View Comments

Recently I was fortunate enough to be able to briefly drop into the Women, Management and Work Conference which was held at the Sofitel (you may have seen some of my tweets throughout the day).

The quality and balance of the discussions taking place was fantastic. As you might have noticed from my Crustgate article, I’m not an extreme feminist however I would like to think I am certainly about equality. I’ll admit I was a little bit cautious about attending the conference thinking that it might be a little bit like being in the audience of an Oprah Winfrey taping. To be honest, I didn’t want to play the victim and stamp my feet that men won’t let me play. It’s just not my style. Luckily, it wasn’t and like I said above, the balance of discussions was fantastic.

The first session I sat in on was a round table discussion on Leadership for Women. It was an opportunity to swap new ideas and practical tips on the most effective ways to develop women for leadership roles. In true musical chairs style, the scribe was to stay at the table while the other team members moved every 10-15 minutes. The two questions the table had to answer were “what works” and “what doesn’t work?” with regards to leadership development for women.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some key take outs that I found interesting:

What doesn’t work?

  • Being placed in acting roles but not really being seen to be truly in the role- one lady said that their CEO calls them the “B Team”
  • Similarly some believed that they didn’t think that mandatory appointments or quotas worked- do you want to be awarded a promotion because you earned it or because you are a woman?
  • Being forced to progress when that’s not necessarily what you want- now this was an interesting one. There is so much focus on women not getting the leadership roles- it never occurred to me that there were women who felt rushed or pressured to take on roles that they did not want. It was then a concern for these women that if they did not take the opportunity when offered it, that it may not exist in the future.
  • Courses without follow up support or opportunity – Employers are often happy to send women on training courses but then they often find they can’t use what they’ve learned because they aren’t given the right opportunities
  • Social systems which don’t support the needs of women- i.e. those which are non flexible, exclusive or may create negative perceptions if you participate in them
  • Boys clubs and “blokeism”- may include after hours functions and the type of activities that are presented to the leadership team for participation by default may exclude women
  • Lack of female role model/mentors available within the business
  • No policy or inconsistent policies around how we can best include women in leadership positions
  • Being our own worst enemy sometimes doesn’t work- Is it gender inequity or is it just my perception?
  • Lack of recognition
  • Being forced to take on the style of male leaders (i.e. emotions aren’t appropriate at work etc) rather than being accepted for your own style of management

What works

  • Increased levels of responsibility and breadth in roles as well as opportunities to do things outside of the ‘business as usual’ tasks
  • Making contacts with mentor and networks outside your industry
  • Access to leadership role models
  • Coaching on Interview techniques- we don’t sell ourselves as well as the guys do
  • Increasing social support systems for child care
  • Early identification of goals and needs and then support to help achieve objectives
  • Learning from countries that are doing it well
  • Including men in discussions about how we can help women achieve
  • Acknowledging that clear boundaries exist for part time employees
  • Positive reinforcement- hearing that it is possible
  • Sharing inspirational stories and also warnings
  • Getting support from the top

Finally, some of the key themes that a few attendees wanted to share with the audience:

  • As an individual, it’s important to know our boundaries
  • Work/life balance doesn’t exist or work. We need to be focussed on imbalance and recognise the different segments that make up our lives. If we have balance all the time we are actually stagnant. Focus on the imbalance and your personal strengths.
  • Your own attitude towards development. If we believe it’s not possible then it won’t be possible. We’ve actually got to go in believing it- if we believe there is a glass ceiling it will exist. It’s up to us to make that opportunity happen.
  • One of the ways to make this opportunity occur is to potentially use technology to breakdown international boundaries to find a mentor or a coach. Look outside of our own experiences.
  • Importance of roles models. It’s up to us to help others up the ladder, rather than being the queen bee. It’s not about me, it’s about them approach.
  • A lot of discussion around work environment and culture- what can we do to make it more female friendly and more likely to support women and help them achieve their potential. For example, diversity policies need to be visible and measurable.
  • The extent to which women really support each other (or not). Women can be quite catty and can be difficult to work for when in groups. That isn’t helpful to anyone. One lady said ‘Once that glass ceiling has been cracked, man you paper it over” and don’t let anyone else come up behind you.
  • We need to move away from training for leadership development for women. It needs to be more focussed on mentoring and coaching.
  • In considering issues for women in the workplace, we also need to move past only looking after women with children. Not that it isn’t important, but we can’t ignore women who do not or choose not to have children.
  • Celebrate the wins. Embrace difference. Stop trying to be perfect. Find your voice. Take risks in your career.

Some very interesting and provocative thoughts in there from a diverse group of people. What struck you as an unsual comment or something that you hadn’t heard before?

Category: Diversity/Bullying and Harassment, Events, Learning and Development, Worklife Balance

2010′s Most Influential Person Online

Posted on | July 28, 2010 | View Comments

Fast Company is looking for 2010′s most influential person online and I was wondering if you might be interested in supporting me. Of course I’m not the most influential person online (probably not even in my own house!) but I thought it might be an interesting project to participate in.

There have been a lot of lists going around the HR Community about online influence in various areas and while it’s all a bit of fun and games, it is pretty intriguing to think about how we interact with people online and then what happens when those connections are asked to take action.

According to Mark Borden from Fast Company, “What the Influence Project aims to do is remove some of the mystery behind the inherent passivity of social network numbers. This experiment will show what happens when an individual takes an audience at rest and applies an unbalanced force–through suggestion, advice or direction–that converts it into an army of action. That’s power that can be quantified and lead to an understanding that can be applied to both the largest and smallest of networks.”

Sounds pretty wicked.

If you would like to help me out, all you need to do is click on the my link http://fcinf.com/v/afd8 – that’s all!

I would also like to throw a very special shout out to the very glamourous Sarah White who is Chief Strategy Officer at HRMDirect and Talent Management Software Blogger at ImSoCorporate.com all the way from the U.S.

She actually got me onto this via LinkedIn- so if you would like to support her as well- it only takes one click- http://fcinf.com/v/ahjx

Category: Uncategorized
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The only definition of a leader, is someone who has followers

Posted on | July 26, 2010 | View Comments

In creating HR Club Sydney, I’ve been very fortunate to be able to meet a number of very amazing and passionate individuals. I also regularly get invited to events that are happening in Sydney, and am free to write my thoughts on these topics. After all, I don’t make any money from HR Club Sydney, I’m not reliant on boosting traffic to my site and I don’t get paid to say certain things. It’s great because I feel that gives me the ok to say when I think something or someone has done or is doing something cool.

With that said, the week before last I was invited to the Proteus Leadership Networking Breakfast where HR Club Sydney was fortunate enough to be given a table.

I got the opportunity to sit with some of my favourite HR Club Sydney people and it was fantastic to see so many cards being swapped and potential career opportunities being discussed.

I also wanted to write about the presentation because well I thought it was fantastic, and apologies it’s a wee bit later than I would have liked but I wanted to do it justice.

I attended this seminar at a time where I was thinking very much about leadership and what it means to be one. Within HR we know the difference between leadership and management, but it’s important to remember our friends in the business don’t always see it our way. This presentation hit the nail right on the head and I’m hoping many of us can use some of these ideas to create change in our organisations.

These are some of my key take outs (and you’ll probably be nodding your head or shouting hallelujah with me lol!).

Richard started off by talking about how people normally fall into management roles, rather than being selected for their people management skills. Familiar story particularly in areas of technical skills or ability. What happens then is that people with bad managers either leave or try to wait for them to leave. We all know about how employee engagement impacts upon people and the business- so why is it still happening?

I love the Peter Drucker quote that was used, “The only definition of a leader, is someone who has followers”.

It’s so true. Being Gen Y, I have often got the attitude from Managers that I should do exactly what they say because they are the Manager/Senior Executive/Partner/Director/Been here a really long time etc. And that’s not to say that being young means you can walk around doing what you like or thinking you know everything- but it begs the question: without people actually wholeheartedly following what you are doing, how effective are you as a leader anyway?

Richard also mentioned the work of Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones who are Europe’s leading experts on organisational culture, leadership and change.

They are past winners of the prestigious McKinsey Award for the best article in the Harvard Business Review, entitled, “Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?” The huge interest the article generated led to a five-year journey exploring authentic leadership and their book is the culmination of that research.

Just because you have the title or “authority” it doesn’t mean you will have people onboard. It’s not an entitlement- it’s a privilege to be a manager or a leader but some people these days just don’t get it. Some even believe that that is the way people should be treated because “they were treated that way” or “that’s how it is in X industry”.

4 words.

Doesn’t make it right.

Source

Richard talked about how autocratic leadership may have worked in the past, but that Gen Y just simply won’t put up with it. Will they complain? Probably not. They’ll just vote with their feet.

In looking at a definition of an autocratic leader, the wikipedia machine says that:

Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with dictator leaders.
They do not entertain any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates. The autocratic management has been successful as it provides strong motivation to the manager. It permits quick decision-making, as only one person decides for the whole group and keeps each decision to himself until he feels it is needed to be shared with the rest of the group.

In the great words of Dr Phil “How’s that workin for ya?”

So now that we are all nodding our heads in unison, the real challenge is to get this message across to the decision makers of the business. Would love to get some discussion happening in this, and let’s keep it on topic. It’s not Gen Y versus Baby Boomers/Gen X etc.

It’s about leadership and what’s going to be effective.

Also- Richard was a fantastic speaker so check out his presentation here :)
Breakfast Followrship NSW

Category: Events, Learning and Development, Talent Management
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Are we being too PC these days?

Posted on | July 15, 2010 | View Comments

As you might already know, my partner works in the media industry and I like to hear about what he does when he comes home just as he listens to me and my HR adventures for that particular day. He’s accompanied me to HR events and I like to go along to some of his events. I like to do this because I am interested in social media (not that that is all he does by the way!) and also because it reminds me to step out of that HR mindset at work i.e. I remember not everyone thinks like us.

Yesterday on Mumbrella, there was an article posted on Crust, (Gourmet Pizza Bar) because they tweeted this comment “Need a laugh? Hilarious compilation of female driver madness” and provided this link to a video showing bad female drivers.

There was a bit of a reaction on twitter about it being offensive and a few hours later they tweeted “Sorry guys, we apologise for the video and meant no offense to drivers, female or otherwise. Lesson learned and thanks for the feedback.”

People then started commenting on Mumbrella with both sides of the argument being represented. I posted the following comment:

Click to enlarge image

Basically what I was saying is, that even in the workplace there are times when this sort of thing happens and its no scandal or major issue because we are all human and diverse individuals. In a working environment there is bound to be times when someone makes a comment like this which in hindsight they might later regret. My point though was that this was clearly a one-off that they have already apologised for and not something that needs to be made into a huge deal. It was a “silly” comment, and even when bullying and harassment complaints are considered in the courts, they take into account how affected the individual was, what a reasonable person would consider to be offensive etc. I just thought people should lighten up a bit, as there are many more serious incidents which need to be represented.

Someone anonymously replied to my comment with this:

Click to enlarge image

While I find this person’s language towards me offensive (lol), I would like to reply and invite your comments as well- as the Sydney Human Resources Community.

Let’s treat this as a real workplace scenario. Someone in the workplace makes a comment about females being bad drivers in a clear attempt to be humorous and make others laugh.

Workplace bullying or harassment involves the persistent ill treatment of a person (get NSW info here). In other words:

It is repeated or persistent over a period of time
It is offensive, intimidating, humiliating, or degrading and ridicules or insults the person at work.

The tweet concerned was not repeated or a persistent message over a period of time so you would be hard pressed getting this one across the line as bullying and harassment. Not to say it should be ignored, it should be addressed if the individual wishes to, but it’s important to note that it isn’t bullying or harassment generally until it is repeated (serious breaches would be handled differently). Now I acknowledge that some may have found it offensive or even degrading towards women- so let’s run with that line i.e. you have someone that comes to you at work saying that they feel that way.

As a HR professional, the steps that I would normally recommend to someone who is being bullying would be listed as following:

Keep detailed records about the incidents- this could be jotting down something in an email or on paper
Talk about it with someone who can provide assistance such as your manager, HR staff or an Equity and Diversity Officer.
If you feel comfortable let the bully know that their behaviour makes you feel uncomfortable
Do not retaliate- and walk away from the situation if it becomes out of control
Seek resolution – informal or formal process

So in the workplace, the person who was offended would have come to me and as per the above, I would recommend that they speak with Crust Pizza and let them know that it makes them uncomfortable (which the twitter community did). What was the outcome?

Crust Pizza apologised and reiterated that it “meant no offense to drivers, female or otherwise”. They then articulated that they had learned their lesson and then thanked the community for the feedback.

You couldn’t ask for this to have gone any better in the workplace.

My personal opinion was that it wasn’t a big deal and I personally wasn’t offended by it. I am able to have a laugh at myself and acknowledge that I will make mistakes. Coming from a sport background it’s important to remember that Babe Ruth is remembered as the home run king even though he still holds the record for the greatest number of strikeouts!

So keen to hear your thoughts. Did I deserve the bashing from @HR Infraction for voicing my personal opinion?

Category: Social Media/Technology, Uncategorized
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Is 50 hours per week too much?

Posted on | July 15, 2010 | View Comments

Although I’ve recently started in a new role about three months ago, I was feeling the other day like I probably needed short break because I realised it was going to be pedal to the metal at least until Christmas when lots of staff take leave in late December and January. I haven’t taken leave since my trip to Thailand in November last year so I’m thinking about going to Fiji in August (any hotel recommendations are welcome!).

The conversation about taking leave between myself and my partner actually started by talking about how many hours we were working in our jobs. My partner works in media and I work in the legal industry- both industries where there’s a huge expectation to just get things done and do whatever it takes. This norm is largely irrelevant of what salary you are on- the same expectation is placed upon juniors/coordinators who are on low salaries up to those earning over 100K.

In the media industry you are working to extremely tight deadlines and are frequently asked to do the impossible by working late, over weekends and even during the christmas/new year break. For lawyers, they must meet certain billable hours per day (ranging from around 5.5-to 7) depending on the firm and seniority. On top of this they are also expected to complete non-billable work such as marketing, personal development and spending time with clients. It may take an efficient lawyer 9-10 hours in the office to make 7 billable hours per day.

The AHRI people@work/2020 white paper states the following:

“there is little doubt work is becoming more demanding with approximately 20% of workers who report working in excess of 50 hours per week”

Is working 50 plus hours per week becoming the excepted norm? Will those who refuse to continually work the extra hours be left disadvantaged when promotions and salary reviews are conducted?

Considering that we are essentially paid for up to 38 hours per week- is 12 hours of unpaid overtime too much every week?
That’s 624 hours per year, which is of incredible benefit to the employer.

Where do you draw the line and should the employer be monitoring this for the health and safety of it’s employees?

I think from a HR standpoint we know the obvious answer here about running staff into the ground and the risk of burnout- but with businesses ultimately concerned with productivity and profitability in the wake of the GFC- will businesses push people too far?

Category: HR Jobs
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How many hats do you wear and how do you decide which one’s the most important?

Posted on | July 13, 2010 | View Comments

If you follow me on twitter you might have noticed that I’ve been doing Dry July. This means that I have had much more time in the day over the weekend so I thought I might spend some time catching up on some reading and one I have been meaning to spend some time on is the AHRI people@work 2020 White Paper.

It come’s as no surprise that the report articulates that “the issue of talent attraction, development and retention remains the number one priority in Australia, and projections of skills shortages through to 2020 by Skills Australia (2010) confirms this is still likely to be the top issue for HR professionals in business and government over the next decade”.

Later it then states that “Skills Australia reports that by 2025, 45% of the workforce will change employer every three years”.

In a HR generalist role there is often the competing pressures around what you should focus your time on, because lord knows there certainly is not enough time in the day for the average HR Generalist/Business Partner/Manager etc.

Do you do all the small, urgent requests or requests made by senior management/partners in the business? Or do you put these behind the more strategic things, knowing that things like talent attraction, development and retention will continue to be a high priority for the better part of the next decade?

Do you commit to long term planning because you think it will pay off for the business overall, or do you jump in and get the quick wins under your belt knowing that you’ll probably only stay 2-3 years and move onto a better opportunity if it comes your way?

It’s a delicate balancing act, and a debate in which many in the profession would probably argue differently.

Something to consider in terms of where to focus your efforts to be as effective as you can be, is the CLC research which talks about the four roles of the HR business partner:

The Strategic Partner collaborates with the line leader to create HR solutions for business unit needs. In this role, you might need to help your business leader surface talent gaps or identify important HR metrics.

The Operations Manager focuses mostly on basic measurement and communication of HR policies to employees.

The Emergency Responder fixes acute problems when they arise and, finally, the Employee Mediator helps to manage through conflicts and politics that arise in the organization.

They all seem important right? Which ones do you normally place as your first responsibility though?

The interesting thing about the research is that although most of us probably find ourselves in the Emergency Responder and Employee Mediator a great deal of the time and while we may be able to get quick wins or impress senior management in the short term, it’s actually not the place that we can be the most beneficial.

The CLC research proves that the Strategic Role provides the greatest impact to HR-Line support effectiveness. In fact, strategic partner activities, such as developing the next generation of leaders, understanding your business unit’s talent needs, and identifying HR metrics, have an average impact of 33%. This is three times higher than the next largest category, the Operations Manager.

Click to enlarge image

What this means is that while you can’t completely ignore any one of these four parts of your role, it does put things into perspective when you think about where most of your time and effort should go in order to maximize your effectiveness.

Which roles do you mostly work in and does the fact that you might be moving on in 2-3 years impact your thinking around this?

Category: General HR, Talent Management
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