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A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hearing actor and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus speak at the WorkHuman conference in Phoenix. She was interviewed by Michelle Gielan, a former news journalist turned positive psychology researcher. As Louis-Dreyfus settled in for the interview, her trademark wit surfaced: “Huh. Happiness researcher. I just can’t get enough of that. What does a happiness researcher do?”
And then she immediately apologized. “Sorry, that probably came off as more rude than I intended . . .” Gielan was unfazed, as was the audience. After all, this is a woman who has made a career portraying wacky characters who we find oddly endearing. Not all actors could toss off a comment in such a manner and walk away unscathed. But we give Louis-Dreyfus a pass, because we relate to her. Who among us hasn’t offered up an unedited comment, only to realize, uh-oh, that sounded better in my head than it did out loud?
It’s this relatable quality that has served Louis-Dreyfus well in a three-decade career that includes over two dozen awards for her comedic prowess. True comedians can make us laugh at ourselves, even when they point out uncomfortable truths. The skill of this is that their humor comes from kindness, not meanness. Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show, says of comedy, “If you do it in the right way, you can say anything to anybody because they know where you’re coming from. They know it’s not malicious.” And Louis-Dreyfus, while edgy, is definitely not mean.
Louis-Dreyfus staying power seems to hinge on the ability to be a mega-star who leads us to think we can still hang with her. Who among us couldn’t identify with the images of a proud mom a cheering on her son at Northwestern University’s appearance in the NCAA Big Ten tournament?
In this Rolling Stones piece, Louis-Dreyfus says, “I think likability is really overrated. I’ve played a lot of badly behaved people.” Even though her humor has an edge to it, Louis-Dreyfus clearly has a decent streak, and that came through during her talk at the WorkHuman conference. She was funny onstage. And gracious behind the scenes, as well.
As this photo attests, Julia Louis-Dreyfus insisted on shaking everyone’s hand, in a meet-and-greet line that could not have been much fun. (Well, it was loads of fun for us. Not sure how she felt about it.)
I have read that when people meet a celebrity, they are often disappointed. Sometimes the hype doesn’t live up to the fans’ expectations. Thankfully, that was not my experience. I’ve always enjoyed Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ work, and it’s nice to know that a really decent human being is the driving force behind one of our time’s most celebrated female comedians.
Want more on my coverage of Julia Louis-Dreyfus? See my HuffPost piece, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Still Relatable After All These Years.
Images: courtesy of Globoforce, Pam Ross
Last weekend my wife forwarded me an article that hit her right between the eyes. And to be honest, it did for me as well. It was a parenting piece that focused on one of the rampant problems we deal with in our house: toys. The gist of the piece is that our kids have enough toys and that buying them more just makes them more bored and more hungry for the next thing. It doesn’t satisfy them and provide lasting joy that one would expect from all the advertisement (and the whining that may occur prior to the purchase). The author’s alternative recommendation?
If you insist on giving an actual item, give them a book that you loved as a child. Write your favorite memory about the book in the front. Then read it to them after they open it. You really can’t have too many books.
Buy them experiences. My kids love the zoo and museums. They love taking community education classes and music lessons. Support them in their passions and support them exploring the world instead of acquiring more stuff. Bonus points if you take them to the activity. But if you don’t, I’ll remind them of who lovingly purchased that karate class for them, and they will appreciate your thoughtful gift.
When you think about it, none of us need more “stuff,” do we? There are people in need, of course, but my kids aren’t those people. In fact, I’m trying to teach them about how fortunate they are, and that they should be grateful for what they have, but it’s hard to do that when they’re being spoiled with toys by all their relatives.
I want to transition this to apply it to the workplace, because I think there are several angles that fit our needs.
First, in this incessant focus on creating a great environment for employees, some companies are trying to throw “things” in the mix to drive engagement. Research tells us that doesn’t work. In fact, even paying people more just causes a temporary boost in happiness only for a few weeks, then their level returns to pre-bump levels. It’s important that we’re creating great employee experience as well as a great candidate experience.
Second, this author’s comments about experiences versus things is a great reminder of what matters to people and what they remember. That keychain or coozy that has your company’s logo on it? It won’t create long-term feelings of affection. The fun trip someone won to celebrate their anniversary with their spouse? Those memories last a lifetime (hint: I know, because I won one of these and we still talk about it years later!)
A few tips for managers. Going back to the author’s specific recommendations, give someone a book with a handwritten note about why it mattered to you or how it affected your life. Double whammy: handwritten note and a tool that may help to improve their life/career. You know my philosophy on books mirrors that of Charlie Jones:
The difference in who you are today and who you are five years from now depends on the people you meet and the books you read.
The experiences are incredibly valuable, and you don’t have to break the bank. It could be internal activities like competitions or even just fun while celebrating the monthly birthdays. We used to have a tradition where our CEO would tell funny stories from his time in the military while the rest of us gathered for cake and ice cream. Or we’d pop open the conference room computer and let people pick their favorite YouTube videos to share with the group, which often led to laughs and more inside jokes. :-)
Whether you’re in parenting mode or just working to create a work environment that people actually want to participate in, these ideas are going to help you to make it happen. What are your thoughts, whether on the parenting front or in the office? Do you agree?
Talent management technology has come a long way in recent years. I can still remember seeing a demo for a technology solution back in 2014 and the salesperson was so proud of the fact that I could copy and paste data into the system. By the way:
There was no way to actually USE the data in there, but I could put it in if I wanted. Sigh.
Anyway, today I am sharing a really fun podcast interview with you, featuring a recent conversation with Carsten Busch, CEO of the Talent Management Business Unit, and Laura Fuller, Country Sales Manager US for Lumesse. In the conversation we not only talked about how technology has become incredibly user friendly and more employee-focused, but about some of the age-old talent questions that companies face every day, such as why managers are willing to hire an external candidate even when there are perfectly qualified internal candidates available to take the job. Carsten’s answer to the question was phenomenal and I was taking notes because it will be my new default answer to that common issue.
Additionally, Carsten and Laura talk about the shift in technology from the static, administrative-focused versions mentioned above to the talent-focused systems that Lumesse and other companies are developing today.
Also, at the tail end I mention how you can get one of my upcoming pieces of research entirely for free by signing up here for a webinar I’m doing with the team at Lumesse. Here’s the gist of what the webinar will be about:
The June edition of HR Magazine has a feature that focused on how some companies like Gap and Siemens are trying to create development opportunities that connect candidates and employees to the firms for a long period of time. The double benefit of this kind of development is that if businesses can drive retention, then they get the value of a more productive workforce for a longer period of time. This is the incredible value of talent mobility, and that’s the focus of the webinar and this upcoming piece of research.
I hope you’ll join us for that session, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the podcast as well. It was a really fun conversation.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama has a tried-and-tried formula for coping with change: don’t make a big deal out of it. That’s the workplace take-away that most impressed me when I heard Mrs. Obama speak at WorkHuman 2017 conference. It’s advice borrowed from parenting her two girls. Mrs. Obama said that she and President Obama’s parenting philosophy has always been, “don’t make a big deal” out of big changes — and to reassure her daughters that they can handle whatever life throws their way.
Want to read more of my observations about Michelle Obama’s conversation at WorkHuman? Go on over to HuffPost and check out, Michelle Obama On Coping With ‘What’s Next?’
This weekend I was doing some spring cleaning. Well, summer cleaning, since I missed the spring season. Anyway, one of the things I found was a box of items I used to keep on my whiteboard next to my desk as reminders of important aspects of HR. These shaped the way I practiced HR and ran my department on a daily basis. I thought it would be fun to share the notes here to help give you an idea of what kind of HR I practiced.
Your values statement should be the most tattered piece of paper in your organization.
Most companies pick out a few values as part of a management exercise or checklist and then forget about them. Want to hire great people that align with your mission? Use your values statement every day to keep measuring your candidates and employees to make sure they are on target.
The void created by the failure to communicate is soon filled with poison, dribble, and misrepresentation.
I once had a great group of employees that worked at a remote site. Whenever we/I failed to communicate with them, rumors and other junk started getting stirred up. This quote was my reminder to always, always, always be communicating to keep those lines open and to keep the culture from devolving into chaos.
At one point our organization doubled in size overnight, but those additional employees had issues and challenges since they came from a previous employer and weren’t hired by us directly. I made it my mission to find out their challenges to try and make them right, so after talking with all forty of them I came away with these key issues that I put on my board and read at least once a day:
One of my earliest jobs was working at a nonprofit organization that hired more than a hundred people every year. At one point I banded together with one of the other HR team members and we approached our leadership about putting in an applicant tracking system to allow us to be more efficient and compliant since the paper applications were often lost or not filled out properly. The response from one of the other members of the team?
We can’t do something like that, it’s too much work. We’re not Target, you know.
Sigh. The point is that we could have put this in place, because the ATS we found was completely free. Don’t let someone else’s idea of what is acceptable performance limit your own pursuit of greatness. Just because they’re okay with mediocrity doesn’t mean it’s the threshold for success.
On a scale from 1-5, how welcome did you feel on your first day? If not a 5, what could have made it a 5?
This was my reminder that in every practice, whether it was onboarding and orientation, recruiting, or something else, we always need to be seeking feedback and attempting to improve the service we’re delivering.
Don’t expect the team to exceed customer expectations if the manager doesn’t exceed the team’s expectations.
As a company keenly focused on customer service (aren’t we all?) I was always reminding managers of the role they played in the relationship between their workforce and the customers we served every day. It was also my reminder that this trickles down, so it put some level of pressure on me and the rest of the executive team to deliver as well.
I kept a note from the greatest boss I ever had, Christine, as a reminder that whether it was my own employee or someone else in the organization, I had a responsibility to recognize them for their efforts as often as I could. When was the last time you gave someone a note, even a post-it with a short, specific thank you?
Every employee that gets into performance issues wants to try to talk their way out of it. It’s common, and it’s useless. My response?
You can’t talk yourself out of what you behaved yourself into.
This is accountability. This is ownership. Your own behaviors can take you up or down, and then you have to live with it. I can coach you, but I can’t make you choose to do the right thing. And talk? It’s not going to solve the problem.
Getting started in HR, one of my “mentors” or influences was Chris Ferdinandi of Renegade HR. He had a list of key areas where HR needed to improve, and it wasn’t focused on compliance or administration. Here is the short list that continuously guided me on a daily basis:
If we just stuck with these six as ways to manage our day to day activities, most of us would turn out okay!
I hope these nine items give you an idea of what mattered most to me. Whether it was keeping communication top of mind or making sure that I gave credit where it was due, there were some great reminders to keep me on track. What’s on your board or desk? What keeps you on track? I’d love to see you share it here.
I attended the WorkHuman conference a few weeks ago in Arizona and connected with many friends and colleagues that I hadn’t seen in a while, and each of them asked how my work was going. This week marks my one year anniversary of running Lighthouse Research & Advisory, and it has been such a joy. Here is the link to my announcement last year, in case you’re a new reader.
I’m able to do the work that I love, whether it be writing, speaking/teaching, or research. I also have the flexibility to support clients in a way that other, larger analyst firms just can’t, and I keep hearing over and over how unique that is.
For those of you that are curious, my day to day is spent creating or uncovering research on a variety of topics. In the last month alone I’ve explored informal learning practices, global payroll and compliance for growth companies, and the impact of employee engagement on business performance. I then use that research to host webinars, write white papers, or create other research assets for my clients. At the end of the day, I’m creating things for you, the practitioners, that offer value and help you to get your work done more effectively. It’s just that the vendor community pays to have those resources developed for you.
Obviously I also run the We’re Only Human podcast, which kind of straddles both the work I do here at upstartHR as well as my work at Lighthouse. It has surprised me in the ten months that I’ve been running the podcast, but I get so much interaction and feedback from that medium and am constantly surprised by the positive reception. I’d be curious to know what you think about it and/or what you’d like to see me cover on the show.
At the same time, part of my research always has been (and will continue to be) in large part due to connectivity to the practitioner community. Each of you has a unique, valuable story to tell about your own business and HR practice. I am always interested in hearing those stories and learning from them. I’ve found that pretty much all practitioners think their stories are not that interesting or important, yet in every case I can find something unique or noteworthy about the situation in just a few short moments! Bottom line: your story IS important and interesting, and don’t ever think otherwise.
If you’d like to help, I occasionally send out research requests to gather information for new studies. Having responses from people like you is incredibly important to me. Additionally, don’t ever hesitate to ask questions about what I can cover here or to suggest topics that might be beneficial. I’m always open to ideas, and the truth is if you are thinking about it, there’s a good chance that a hundred others are that need the information as well!
So, with eight years of upstartHR and one year of Lighthouse Research behind me, I’m still going strong and feeling just as creative as the day I first started (if not more so). I can’t wait to bring you more insights, ideas, and information in the coming months. And you? Yeah, keep up the good work. :-) Thanks as always for being a part of this great community!
Dear Alison,I’m currently in my final year of high school and strongly considering pursuing an HR designation in post-secondary. Reading through your blog, I am very often reminded that HR exists primarily for the company (preventing lawsuits, attracting and retaining talent, etc.) and issues that employees have are resolved with the company’s best interests in mind. As such, I can understand why HR can sometimes gain a reputation for being useless (even if I do find it somewhat discouraging).That being said, I would like to ask you for your input on what an effective HR manager should be like in terms of going above and beyond to support employees when the job description may not ask for it.I’m thinking especially on how you would advise someone on the HR side to handle a situation where, for example, a department manager is out of control (but not doing anything illegal) and because of nepotism, is safe from consequences or intervention? If HR’s hands are tied, how could HR still go on to assist the employee even though the root cause isn’t solved?How can HR still be supportive to employees in situations where the company calls for neutrality (or even to side with the company when it is ethically at fault)? And vice-versa?I think overall I am just experiencing a sense of helplessness when I read stories with negative experiences with HR. On one hand, I can understand that there may be certain legal and logical restrictions to what an HR rep can do that sometimes the employee can’t see. On the other hand, I don’t want to be someone who just throws her hands up and says, “There is nothing I can do for you.” and adheres to the bare minimum requirements.Is this something that will get better once I have more experience? Am I just being too emotional or naive about my job expectations? If so, any input on helping me recalibrate?-J
Thank you for being very clear about your questions and concerns, J.
HR does exist to protect the company, and this is still prevalent thinking in many organizations. However, it’s also true that many forward-thinking firms are offloading these compliance-related functions to legal and are focusing more on how to improve employee performance, create better working environments, drive worker engagement, etc.
5 characteristics of a great HR manager
As for the nepotism/bad manager question, even if you can’t get rid of the manager, you can make it clear what kinds of behaviors are valuable and which are not in the organization. Reward the behaviors that are aligned with the culture and do not reward those that are exhibiting behaviors counter to this. The stronger the culture, the easier it is to do this, but even that’s not a silver bullet. At the end of the day you can’t keep or fire that manager, so it’s out of your hands, but you can still do your best to influence the chain of command, point to the business impact of keeping those kinds of morale-killers, and try at every opportunity to protect the employees. I know, I’ve been there.
The best way to be supportive of employees in tough situations is by having that foundation of rapport and trust. I took the time to build connections with many of the influential workers in one of our business units that was particularly troublesome, and when we had an impending layoff that would have affected all of the workers (due to customer changes, not anything we did or didn’t do), those that I had built connections with were more likely to accept my comments as truthful than those that didn’t have those connections.
HR has a stigma of being stodgy and compliance-heavy, but the good news is that most people have never seen GOOD HR in action, so you have a great opportunity to break that mold.
Above all else, you have to work at a company whose leaders value HR for what it can be, not what it has been historically. This entire discussion is moot if you’re at a firm where the CEO and leadership team do not see HR as a contributor to performance. The best companies are those whose CEOs and other executives understand that talent is the biggest budget item, but it’s also the biggest contributor to success. This isn’t just anecdotal—lots of research backs this up as well.
I’ve had friends that quit when jobs demanded that they side with the “company line.” Thankfully I never had to make that call personally, but it’s one I always tried to prepare myself for mentally. One friend worked at a casual restaurant chain. One night a bartender overserved some customers and they left and had a terrible car accident. The person’s manager told them to fire the bartender, store manager, and regional manager, even though the regional manager was hundreds of miles away and completely unrelated to the issue at hand. That’s an instance of a time where someone was put in a tough spot.
It’s really easy to find negative stories about HR, but I’d encourage you to take some time to read other sources of positive outcomes that HR contributed to, whether in hiring, development, engagement, or other areas. Some ideas for sources: SHRM, Workforce, or HR Grapevine.
Your note about not being able to help some employees is definitely a concern. I’d say in those instances when I felt like I had done everything I could, I at least could breathe easily knowing there was nothing more I could offer. For instance, I had to terminate an employee once because of behavioral issues, even though he was on medication to control the problem. I had worked with him, given him help, and went above and beyond to make it work, but he still couldn’t handle it, so he ultimately had to leave. I hated to be the one driving the decision, but I also realized it was detrimental to the rest of the workforce to allow him to stay. At the end of the day I’d given him every opportunity and had exhausted every resource to keep him and nothing worked, so I felt at peace about the decision. If I had done it halfway or just “phoned it in” on that one, it would still probably bother me to this day.
I do have to warn you that this feeling will NOT get better with experience unless you are intentional about being more than the “average” HR professional.
I have HR friends at great companies and HR friends at terrible companies. They are all trying to take care of the people and create a good work environment, but some are more successful than others. I remember when I was starting out years ago, someone told me, “You are so passionate about human resources! That’s neat. Just wait a few years and that will change.” That day I promised myself that if I ever felt like HR wasn’t exciting or valuable, I’d get out. Just like any profession, we have people that “phone it in” or do the familiar quit-and-stay where they just try to fly under the radar.
I’ve never been one of those kinds of people, and from your insightful questions, I’d be willing to bet you are not either. I encourage you to revisit the list above and stay tuned for any comments that other readers make below. There are some great pieces of advice there. In addition, find one or two HR professionals that “get it” and stay in touch with them regularly. Build strong connections. That not only helps you to ultimately get a job, because networking seems to be incredibly valuable in this profession, but it also helps to keep you grounded and give you a network of smart people who can tell you that you’re not crazy, even if you are going against the grain on a decision or feeling some heat from a leader that wants you to do something that isn’t kosher.
I hope this helps. I wish you success in your future and would love for you to keep us updated on your progress as you blossom into your career!
WorkHuman 2017 is now a memory. I’ve traveled home from Phoenix and had a few days to digest the benefits of this conference. I’m happy to report all of the observations from my first WorkHuman still apply. Now in its third year, the WorkHuman conference continues to help HR and business leaders can bring humanity back to the workplace.
Want a two-minute tour of the conference? Check out this wrap video:
The second time around, the event was less of a blur for me, and my recap thoughts flowed pretty easily. Here goes:
The number of Humans in attendance grows. It’s an annual tradition that the Derek Irvine, emcee of WorkHuman, opens with “Good morning, Humans!” And we in the audience respond, “Good morning, Humans!” Conference organizer Globoforce has seen its conference take flight. In 2015, there were 300 attendees; in 2016 there were 700. This year, the numbers swelled to 1,700. So far, the growing size of the group hasn’t impacted the ability to interact on a more “human” level. It will be interesting to see how continued growth in attendance affects the overall experience.
Nice variety of job functions represented. The event continues to attract both the HR community and business leaders. This year, I was impressed with the number of business leaders (with non-HR titles) that chose to attend. For example, I met a college admissions advisor, a film production operations manager and a tech company supervisor. Many of the business leaders I chatted with mentioned that WorkHuman allows them the opportunity to think about work in a unique way—and to do so outside the constraints of their functional area of expertise.
Celebrities as Humans. When I first read about the inaugural WorkHuman in 2015, my initial reaction to the “celebrity” guest Rob Lowe was that it was a shameless ploy to attract the conference’s target demographic of middle-aged females. Now, after attending two WorkHumans, I see it differently. Yes, there is a certain draw when a celebrity’s name is announced. However, Globoforce’s choice of celebrity reflects a careful vetting process; so far, their celebrities have been incredibly down-to-earth folks. Another benefit of hearing from actors, activists, and former first ladies: they stretch your thinking about the meaning of “work” in ways that one might not experience at a typical business conference.
A Genuine Focus on Making Workplaces Better. It probably comes as no surprise that WorkHuman is a no-asshole zone. After all, who is going to pay money to attend a conference devoted to concepts such as, “Your Whole Self,” and “The Human Visionaries” if they don’t want to make a positive difference in their workplace? Having said that, I have found that the conference vibe stops just short of a hokey love-fest. Yes, Globoforce CEO Eric Mosley likes to joke that “WorkHuman is Woodstock for HR folks.” But someone pointed out to me that Woodstock was about much more than smoking weed and free love—it was about coming together with a common purpose to make the world a better place. And there is a sense that the majority of attendees share in that aspiration.
So that’s my recap of the Globoforce’s third go with the WorkHuman conference. If you want to learn more (including how you can attend regional WorkHuman events), opt-in to their site here (scroll to the “become an insider” section), or join the WorkHuman LinkedIn community.
The bottom line: Hands down, WorkHuman is still on my “A” list of conferences.
See you at WorkHuman 2018 in Austin?
Disclosure: I attended the WorkHuman conference as an industry analyst/blogger. Globoforce, the sponsor of the event, provided me with a free pass to attend the conference.
Copyright: All images courtesy of People Equation, LLC, unless otherwise noted.
Day 3 at the WorkHuman conference.
Today social media will be flooded with the hashtag #WorkHuman and #MichelleObama because the former first lady closed the conference with a one-hour interview with Walgreen’s Chief Diversity Officer Steve Pemberton. I’ll add my two cents’ worth about my reaction to seeing the former first lady in a separate post.
In a nutshell: her message of hope was inspiring.
The third day of this conference was more than just the opportunity to hear from Michelle Obama; this post shines the light on all the other “human” things happening here in Phoenix as the conference wraps up, in particular the wonderful things Globoforce, the creator of the WorkHuman conference has put into place for both their own organization, their clients and the world at large.
Globoforce team members helped conference participants use a version of Globoforce’s social recognition software to express gratitude to fellow attendees.
Throughout the conference, attendees were encouraged to express their gratitude for other participants via the Gratitude Bar. Doing so notified the receiver of the gratitude and populated the “Giving Trees” in WorkHuman Central with leaves. Globoforce selected 3 local Phoenix charities and made a contribution of $5,000 per charity, as a way to “pay forward” our gratitude to the conference’s host city. The amount of “leaves” on each tree is meant to represent the number of gratitude statements logged at the Gratitude Bar. At last count, over 3,000 statements of gratitude were given by conference attendees.
Each of these Phoenix charities received donations:
Next year, WorkHuman arrives in Austin, Texas. And, the first keynote speaker has been announced: Dr. Brene´ Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston. She has studied and written extensively about courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy and is the author of three #1 New York Times bestsellers – The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong. Brené’s TED talk – The Power of Vulnerability – is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 30 million views.
Eric Mosley, Globoforce’s CEO, took the stage to offer his thoughts on ways that companies can build positive employee experiences. Here are my favorite take-aways:
83% of employees who receive recognition of their performance report a positive employee experience, versus 38% that do not, according to research from the WorkHuman Institute and the IBM Smarter Workforce Institute
Don’t separate work from home and home from work. Said Mosley, “There really shouldn’t be a different you between work and home. If there is, then you are playing at part at one of those locations. You should be able to be who you are at BOTH places.” To that end, Globoforce has added a “Life Event” element to their recognition software.
Check out this video that uses actual Globoforce employees to share the good news of colleague Eric’s “life event.”
There were several of us passing tissues around after that video!
Globoforce is rolling out an enhancement to their social recognition platform called, “Conversations.” Designed to help peers, colleagues, and/or leaders have brief, simple “check point” conversations about the progress of an individual’s work (or development), the technology has a surprising capability: it can help the user who provides the feedback determine the type of feedback to employ. Called “sentiment analysis” – the system analyzes the words of the feedback giver to discern if the text is “feedback” or “reward” – and helps the feedback giver discern the type of feedback. For example, praise is a type of “feedback” that’s celebratory. Feedback such as, “Keep on doing, ‘X’, you’re on track,” is more operational in nature. This distinction is important because it helps all employees (including leadership) understand the scale of their feedback from negative to positive.
So that’s the quick-hit for Day 3 of WorkHuman. Watch for much more content and Big Ideas after I’ve had a chance to digest three day’s worth of content.
Also — a huge thanks to the team members of Globoforce — for all of your hard work and dedication in helping bring this conference alive. And to helping spread the message of creating work that’s more human. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the chance to help get the word out.
Cheers,
WorkHuman Day 2 just wrapped. Here’s how the day went down.
HR Executive Panel
Derek Irvine of Globoforce leads a panel discussion with HR Executives on how to make work more human.
Derek Irvine, Globoforce’s VP, Client Strategy & Consulting, moderated a three-person panel of senior leaders in the HR role. The topics were wide-ranging, covering many aspects of the employee experience: recognition, performance management and the role of employee citizenship and charitable works on employee engagement scores.
Panelists were:
My take-aways from the session:
Then it was time to check out some of the “extras” offered at the event . . .such as the bookstore featuring books by the speakers and other titles that help employees bring their best selves to work.
. . . and the Humanifesto wall, in which you can use different-colored string to illustrate your commitment to working human – for yourself, your family, your company or the world.
While roaming WorkHuman Central (the main thoroughfare of the conference space) after lunch, I ran into Adam Grant*, the morning keynote speaker. He obliged me with a selfie.
A taste of how funny and engaging Grant is as a speaker—he closed his session with this video, which is meant to demonstrate how important it is for leaders to receive feedback, even when it’s “mean.” Grant says it’s the best way to encourage people to speak up. The video, which features his fellow Wharton professors reading “mean” feedback is a sly take on this stance.
In the afternoon, I was treated to six thought leaders’ ideas on The Organization of the Future. A quick snapshot follows.
Employee Experience in the Cognitive Era
Sheri Feinzig & Jenna Shapiro walked us through the latest research from a joint venture with the WorkHuman Research Institute and IBM’s Smarter Workforce Institute on what it means to be an employee in the “cognitive era” – which is a workplace in which cognitive systems understand language, imagery and other unstructured data like humans do.
Key take-away: the data supports that employee recognition improves employee engagement. The task now is deciding the frequency of rewards and the monetary value of the rewards.
How to Reboot Your Culture with Human-Centered Performance Management
Tamra Chandler led us through a comprehensive road map for companies who want to “reboot” their performance management processes. It’s clear that Chandler has deep technical expertise in performance management systems, and her book How Performance Management Is Killing Performance—and What to Do About It provides all the “how-to’s” for companies seeking to overhaul their performance management practices.
Key take-away: check out http://ift.tt/2spfsse to receive a free template for how to redesign your performance management system.
The Employee Experience Is The Future Of Work: How HR Leaders Can Prepare For The New World Of Work
Jeanne Meister, whose organization Future Workplace, investigates emerging trends in HR and the workplace, shared insights into the ever-changing world of work. Jeanne casts her net wide to look at unexpected societal, economic and technological trends that will affect the HR role, such as artificial intelligence, real estate planning, and the gig economy.
Key take-away: in an interesting twist, Jeanne believes that we can use technology to make work even more human.
Leading Across the Optimism & Resilience Gap
Dean Becker walked us through the human side of change management, helping us understand why people resist change. He recapped work that’s an outgrowth of Martin Seligman’s “Explanatory Style” of habitual thinking.
Key take-away: Check out the WorkHuman slides and references that Becker provided on his company website, including a free resilience inventory.
Rewriting the Rules: Engaging People in the Digital Age
Josh Bersin is a long-time Human Capital Management analyst who now runs Bersin by Deloitte. He shared with us reams of information from Deloitte’s huge white paper Engaging People in the Digital age. He had a tough gig – going on as the last speaker of the day. It’s a testament to his deep knowledge and engaging style that people actually stayed after the allotted time to do a Q&A session.
Key take-away: it’s time to stop talking about “employee engagement.” It was an important concept in its day, but now the conversation has shifted to “employee experience.”
Whew! It was a long day. Thanks for hanging in there and reading about WorkHuman.
More tomorrow . . . for the third (and final day) of the conference.
*Later this week, I’ll devote one entire blog post to the keynoters. They were amazing.
