The HR Leader and Health Care

The bill has passed and signed and now it's law. And as every HR professional knows, now the real work begins. Remember when FLSA was being updated and we all thought we'd finally have true clarity around exempt and non-exempt workers? I'm betting the regulations that follow this bill will be the most complex we've experienced.

For us in HR profession, sitting at this table, we have three immediate questions:

What do we tell our leadership team?

What do we tell the HR team?

What do we tell our employees (or our clients)?

Before we can tell anyone anything, of course, we need to learn. And that includes learning about cost, coverage, and options. It means learning more about benefit plans and offerings, more about employee needs and behaviors, more about what the CEO thinks, and what the CFO and lawyers think, too. It means figuring out who we need to be listening to and who we need to be talking to.

While everyone else is talking about the politics and reviewing who are "good guys" and who are the "bad guys" and whether this is the "best" or the "worst" thing America has done in a while, we have the opportunity to be a business leader in the HR space. Bring facts, bring trends, bring options, bring good questions and solutions. Our employees (and clients) need clarity for today and our leaders need options for tomorrow.

At this table, we don't come empty handed....or empty headed. We hope you'll accept our warm invitation to have a seat, share a cup of coffee, and offer your opinion about the best way for terrific HR folks to proceed. Who should we be learning from and what questions should we be asking? We'd love to hear from you!

Beginning at the Begining

I didn't realize until the other day that the first Personnel Department was started at the National Cash Register Company in 1901, in the aftermath of a difficult strike. It makes a few of us smile to realize that even in the beginning, much of the job was "clean up"!

Today, we don't consider ourselves Personnel. We talk about being a Human Resources Specialist or Generalist, an Office Manager, a Talent Leader, a Labor & Management Director, an Organizational Developer, a Strategist, a Trusted Advisor, an Attorney and an HR Leader, a Business Person focused on HR issues, a Resource Partner,a Consultant to name a few.

At the end of the day, I think the role exists -- no matter what you want to call it -- because someone needs to integrate the needs of the individual employee with the needs of the business. Someone has to take acountability for making sure there are the right people with the right skills in the right jobs with the right levels of investment and engagement with the right leadership to make those grand strategy statements come true.

Lots gets written every week about what we in the profession are dong well and a lot more is written about what we aren't doing well. I think we carry a hard message that many in our companies don't want to hear. And I think we often don't prepare ourselves to be the best advocates for the messages we need to deliver.

It occurs to me as I write this that if our real job is to integrate the needs of different constituencies, than perhaps our challenge is we are not integrated ourselves. To what degree do we understand the conflicting business conversations that are gong on around us? To what degree do we understand what the President or CEO really (really!) expects from HR. To what degree do we know what we personally do best for employees and leaders? Being knowedgeable prepares us for what Dave Ulrich would call being "A Credible Activist".

Does that term resonate? It means being both proactive and credible. Are those terms that as an HR leader, you believe others would use to describe you? Should they be the terms used? If you serve the HR community, do you see this as an important role? And what do our business leaders think?

We'd like to hear your thoughts? Credible Activist & HR Leader - is it the place to begin?

Pull Up a Chair

Want a seat at the table? Well, let me help you pull up a chair. Let’s begin by talking.

Welcome to what I intend to be “a thought provoking conversation” designed to talk about, invest in, and generate the ideas, dialogues, processes, and models that will begin to improve our workforces and workplaces.

Now that’s a mouthful! But if you know me, and many of you do, you know that I am passionate about business, about HR, and about the people who make up the places where we work. And I’d like us to talk about it. It’s my belief that our collective conversations will expand the seats at table, as well as allow us to set the table at most of the places we gather.

At this table it’s all about conversation and hospitality. I grew up in a home where we ate fast and talked long – about everything, but with a focus on adding to our understanding so we could in turn make something better. I’ve tried to do the same thing in my home and in my office. At home, my children, now grown, insist that everyone be seated at the table. While it makes for some interesting holiday table configurations, every voice is heard. And at the office, we intentionally make a space and a time for conversation, for the purpose of understanding and encouragement.

And now, because I want to hear from you, I’m extending the table to this virtual environment. Think of this as safe place to present a point of view – no whining here, but rather a place to talk about what could be, what is, and what we can do and might do to move from “is” to “could be”. So grab a cup of coffee or a diet coke (we do hail from Atlanta, after all), pause, think, and contribute to the work in front of us.

Every employee, every manager today is impacted by “human resources” work. We’re a relatively new profession and we’re having plenty of growing pains. But the work we do matters – because people matter.

We’re all tired of the negativity we’ve garnered and we all also know, professions and people “earn respect” – it is not easily given. I’ve told a few of you that a simple goal for me is that the next time someone writes about what’s wrong with HR, the response will be – “gosh, you sure haven’t been to Atlanta!” Our HR community and conversations are becoming stronger by the day.

There are a couple “ground rule expectations” at this table.

When you respond - remember this is a conversation - contribute, don’t complain.

• In Atlanta, we respect both practitioners and resource partners – we all have something to add to the conversation.
• We want to hear a broad array of perspectives – from all the specialties as well as the generalists, junior and senior folks, professors – hiring managers and employees, too. So encourage others to join in the conversations.
• We follow all the rules of hospitality – collectively we want everyone to feel welcome here.
• We have some really good models from folks like Lawler, Ulrich and Fritz-ens (and I’m sure you will remind me of others). Do some research.

So now, go warm up your coffee or ice up your coke and let’s talk. So lets begin with the topic of Business Knowledge.

How do we leverage business acumen to create better workforces and workplaces? What does it mean (really mean) to be a business partner? What kind of partner do workplaces need?

Let’s talk. I look forward to hearing your perspective.