The submissions for our Blank Slate Challenge are in and this week we’ll be featuring some of your submissions from around the world of HR. You may recall that we challenged HRExaminer.com readers to create an HR led strategy that could produce results in your organization like the iPhone and iPad have for Apple. How would you change the way you recruit, hire, develop and retain your employees so they could reach their full potential while keeping them engaged? After we post these select submissions our Editorial Advisory Board will be voting on the top three entries with the grand prize winner taking home an Apple iPad. – John Sumser
This submission is from Diane Blakey a HR Manager at BP Alaska.
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I’m going to state this the way I believe H.R. should start talking: with candor and clarity, with authenticity, without buzzwords.
Let’s stop trying to be so “strategic” that we forget what it really means to be a business partner. Let’s remember what truly differentiates us in the business and reconnect with our ability to connect: with people.
How many people do you know who are searching for validation, meaning, confirmation that they make a difference? Let’s start teaching people how to be the cause, not the effect of their life. Let’s start looking at everyone with the view that they have everything within them to achieve success, and we’re here to help them find success with us. Let’s start teaching our managers to stop looking at what’s wrong all the time. Let’s start asking more questions with curiousity, and let’s start really listening to the answers. Let’s quit talking about doing this and start doing it.
Instead of trying to reduce headcount and centralize everything into a 1-800-who-cares number, let’s realize that the salary of one extra H.R. person who gets out into the field and talks to employees and provides people real answers to their real problems will save the company countless dollars.
Sometimes continuous improvement gets us back to the basics, and sometimes back to the basics helps us get back to what really matters.
