Lessons in HR Courtesy of the IRS: People Are Not Widgets

Its April and its tax time - you know, the time of the year when procrastinators say "oh ____ (insert favorite expletive)". I know, the IRS is not your most beloved of U.S. institutions right about now but I thought I would take the opportunity to share something positive about the IRS with you (and yes, there is a connection to human resources). 

Nina Olsen is director of the little known Taxpayer Advocate Service and charged with helping taxpayers in disputes with the IRS - yes, you read that right - they actually work on your behalf and they are funded by the U.S. government - go figure!   Here's the HR connection: according to Businessweek article The People vs The IRS, Ms. Olsen is attempting a change of culture within the IRS. As Olsen states (referring to taxpayers who contact the IRS), "Don't think of these people as widgets". Lesson one. Lest anyone forget the basic foundations of human resources, Olsen's statement reminds us that we are dealing with people. People that have unique life experiences, unique work experiences, and unique strengths. I'm going to give you another quote from Olsen and we are going to play a game we have played before on The HRR: word replacing. Replace the word "taxpayers" with "employees" and replace "IRS" with your organization's name: "For the majority of taxpayers, the IRS has become faceless, nameless, with no accountability and no liability".  

If saying that sentence above made you feel a bit uneasy - good.  Lesson two: human resources is a partner in the success of the organization. Say it out loud.  Human resources is not to be considered "a necessary evil". People are our business and people can make the difference between an organization's successful rise and growth or the freefall of all that shareholders hold dear. Last quote for you from Olsen (just to bring it all home): "No business could stay in business behaving the way the IRS does towards its people".  Now go out there and make sure this last statement does not apply to your organization.

Professional, Personal, or Puerile

Have you chanced upon an employee viewing family pictures from Aunt Sadie or found them chuckling at the latest Internet video sensation while at their desk? My educated guess is that you have and likely have on more than one occasion. Do you think these employees would be shocked to know just how much time they actually spend clicking on every link sent their way? I think so and, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article there are applications that will serve to assist them. Employees, Measure Yourselves author H. James Wilson offers up a few such apps designed to do anything from measure how much time users spend on various websites to those that requests the user enter what tasks were accomplished each day.

Benefits to self-tracking and monitoring include understanding individual habits and productivity and devising the most productive task schedule. For example, some employees may find that they switch to social media, etc... when they feel a lull in their creativity and may find a boost of creativity after an off-task break. Don't believe this? Take a look at this article based on a University of Copenhagen study (the title says it all): Why Wasting Time on the Internet at Work Makes You a More Focused Employee. Others, may find that the pull of social media sites too enticing and find out they are much less productive on days where their YouTube viewing escalates. How will employees feel about being encouraged to utilize web sites that they may view as the company looking over their shoulder? Wilson offers this advice:

   "Many workers might be reluctant to track what they do if they think the company might get access to the information, or use it against them. Companies should emphasize that this type of software usually comes with lots of privacy controls. Workers can often store their data in the cloud, for instance, or locally on their machines. In some cases, they can pause tracking and delete pieces of personal data they choose. Likewise, they can also create a list of sites that they want to track by name and label all the other sites they visit as generic."

Human Resource Gardening

I have a single rose bush in my front yard. It had a twin that, due to my water 'em and forget 'em style of gardening, did not fare well. The rose bush that is left is doing wonderfully and greets me with a bounty of beautiful white roses. What did I do that enabled the remaining rose bush to grow and produce? Well, I read that rose bushes must be "dead-headed" (not my choice of term but that was the term used). This means that you should cut the area where a rose has blossomed and died - in this way the rose bush will produce even more blossoms in an effort to be a successful progenitor. Sounds harsh but it worked. What does this have to do with human resources? 

Well, to get to my point I want you to do a quick mental exercise. Think of all the members of your staff and assign a ranking to each staff member where 1 defines the lowest level of performance and 10 the best. I'm guessing you may have a small number of people below a five who you may be in the process of documenting. I believe I'd also be right in assuming you have a few star performers near or at the ten mark. Now, how many people did you assign a middle-of-the-road number to? If your organization is like many, that particular number may be more than you realized. In fact, it may even comprise the majority of your staff. 

Now, I want you to ask yourself what you do to push these middle performers up? What do you do, after you've worked through coaching and counseling, find that it just did not work with a particular person, to "weed" them out?

Check out The Dirty Little Secret of Successful Companies from Jay Goltz, a writer for the New York Times small business blog. Although the piece is written by a small company owner, Goltz, its message applies to companies of all sizes. This point, for example, provides a compelling case for working with your middle ranking staff:

"How can you spot the sixes? You know who they are. You might even like them. They can seem capable, but they can also be unreliable. They make too many mistakes, they aren’t good with people, they are sloppy, they have trouble separating their personal time from work time, they aren’t honest, they don’t accept responsibility, they waste time and they can be disrespectful of co-workers. Here’s the real test: What would your visceral response be if they quit? Relief? I think that says it all."

Bears, Porcupines and Those In-Between

Maintaining relationships takes skill whatever the circumstance. The ability to get along with others is no less important in your professional life than it is in your personal life. Considering the fact that the majority of your time is spent with your co-workers it simply makes sense that the cultivation of strong interpersonal skills be addressed.

• Be a good listener. It's hard to gain a clear understanding of the point someone else is making if you are already forming your response to what they are saying the moment they open their mouth.
• Stick to non-controversial topics. Although it may make for some interesting conversation, topics such as religion and politics are best restricted to personal forums. The workplace is not the place to get into a heated argument about which political platforms are best for the country.
• Respect individual differences and diversity. We all come into the workplace with our own set of past experiences and personality traits. Just as there are traits of others you may find difficult to work with, there may be qualities you exhibit that are equaling difficult for others. Look, instead, to the value that varying backgrounds brings to the organization. You are in it together, you have to make it work.
• Manage your reputation (e.g. r-e-s-p-e-c-t yourself). Always keep in mind that the actions you take and the words you use paint a picture of who you are. Don't let everyday annoyances escalate into a reaction that you will regret.

This video from video-sharing site Daily Motion will provide you with a few more tips, specifically on how to manage a difficult co-worker.

HR's Female Domination

In the U.S. it's at 71%, Canada 75%, and the United Kingdom 79%. What is "it"? The percentage of human resource professional roles filled by women. You could label this The Feminization of HR as Julie Cook Ramirez does in her recent article for web site Human Resource Executive Online. It wasn't always this way - the figure has roughly doubled in the last thirty years. Should this come as a surprise? Many experts say no. It seems more a natural progression of sorts. Looking back at the thirty year period past, many of the women who filled clerical and supportive roles within human resources and related areas were plodding through the ranks. These women were already in the pipeline (and knowledgeable) and so were promoted. This is the simple explanation. 

A more complex explanation dips into what qualities and skills women bring to the human resource table versus their male counterparts. The article sites these, very translatable, skills:

• emotional intelligence
• the ability to multitask effectively
• an innate capacity as a teacher
• a nurturing nature

This certainly is not to imply that males are lacking in any of the above skills - what the above list points to, though, is that females tend to have more developed skills in these areas. One could also make an argument that overuse of these same skills can make a terrible human resource manager - and you would be correct. It could also be pointed out that many female human resource professionals have gone in a completely different direction and exhibit terrible employee relations skills in a misguided attempt to be seen as "not like a woman". 

In the end sex should not be a determining factor when it comes to filling a human resource position. What should matter is what skills the individual brings and how well they fit into your organization's unique culture.