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Imagine attending an all-hands meeting to hear from your organization’s new CEO. Inspirational t-shirts are handed out, leadership paints an intriguing picture of the future, and you enjoy lunch with your colleagues from all across the nation.
Then, later that same day, you’re called into a conference room to learn that you and a few dozen of your colleagues have been terminated. You’re escorted off the premises as IT wipes the company’s email account from your phone….all while still wearing your celebratory t-shirt.
You have been left behind.
This story is paraphrased from a recent Business Insider article describing the arrival of the Society for Human Resources Management’s (SHRM’s) new CEO, Johnny C. Taylor. Consuming the piece is an emotional journey for HR professionals, ranging from praise of Taylor’s work in increasing SHRM’s revenue and profitability, to a damning account of a culture based in fear and intimidation. The article also points to Taylor’s forthcoming book, tentatively entitled, Fire Half Your Staff, a name SHRM representatives deny while the publisher HarperCollins maintains a webpage with this very moniker.
Fire half your staff. Leave them behind.
It’s easy to condemn the actions outlined (which I do), but what’s more challenging to rationalize is how the HR profession will become increasingly dynamic and fluid when its largest association advocates, through its own actions, draconian measures and command-and-control practices. Add to this the fact that SHRM has ignored and downplayed the concerns of nearly 8,000 supporters (including yours truly) of a petition for SHRM to support Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ+ movement. Our profession must make a concerted and intentional effort to shape the future of our industry, and do so in an image representative of the employees we claim to be our most important asset.
There has to be a better way, and HR is ripe for reimagining the way we work. Our profession needs the equivalent of NASA’s Moon to Mars mission – a big idea that requires approaches and tools yet to be invented. We need a catalyst for change so significant that we’ll look back on this moment and wonder why it took so long to embrace a different mindset and operating model. Imagine a world in which organizations and their HR teams work together to find new ways of boosting revenue and profitability without having to fire half their people. Our future is not tethered to tired missives and past missteps, and I for one refuse to be grounded by bad actors with questionable intentions.
On this journey, no one should be left behind.
With warm regards,
—Mark
Founder/managing principal/HR astronaut, IA
A Change of Plans
All year we have been teasing the appearance of Mark Stelzner and Mary Faulkner at the HR Tech Conference in Las Vegas. Then COVID happened, and the conference made the safety-conscious decision to switch to a free virtual event. Unfortunately, this means that the agenda was pared back significantly, and Winning the War for Skills will not be presented at the conference.
But fear not – the content will be shared! Stay tuned for details on an upcoming webinar presented by IA.
Voice of HR
There is a fine line between a terrific idea and a terrible one. Sometimes you just have to admit when you’re wrong to move forward. Mark shares a story about a time he realized that being wrong was the right thing to do.
Where You Can Find Us
IA is excited to be featured as speakers/presenters in some of the industry’s most thought-provoking VIRTUAL events, including:
- August 27, 2020: Mary Faulkner participates in InnovateWork’s Rocky Mountain Region virtual event.
- September 20, 2020: Mark Stelzner lends his voice to Hacking HR’s HR 2021 Global Online Conference: HR Innovation and Future of Work.
- October 20-21, 2020: Mary Faulkner participates in a discussion around the role recruiting plays in changing culture at ERE.net’s fall conference.
On Our Radar
Once again, the voracious readers at IA have found some content that made them think. Here are some articles you might appreciate:
- There has been a lot of chatter about how Millennials have faced multiple recessions and disasters since coming of age, but in this article from MarketWatch, the focus is solely on the Boomers. When the job cuts come, Baby Boomers are the group most likely to be hit the hardest.
- Virtual onboarding continues to be a hot topic, and one that could potentially become a lasting practice. Fast Company shares some tips on how to onboard someone to a brand new role from the perspective of a Chief People Officer who joined a company days before the pandemic.
- And in this month’s “strange but true” category – a cautionary tale from a marketing stunt in South Korea. As all good HR professionals know, never assume you know what people are going to vote for…and don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to!
About IA
IA is a boutique consulting firm focused on HR transformation.
Our seasoned team of professionals brings deep domain experience and Fortune 1000-ready tools to help you capture the functional, operational, financial, technical, legal, regulatory, and strategic impacts of your transformational HR initiative.
Because we’ve worked with all kinds of organizations (large and small, public and private, domestic and international), we have a cross-functional, strategic perspective. And we’re not scared away by big, messy problems.
Learn more at iatransforms.com.
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