While I have been safely ensconced in #SHRM18, I haven’t been able to read the news as much as I’d like. When I finally looked at my twitter feed devoted to news, I became angry, sad, frustrated, and a whole other host of emotions. So as midnight approaches, here are some things I hope all of my HR friends take from this fantabulous conference to put into their worlds:
Compassion. Oscar Munoz explained why caring comes immediately after safety at United. Caring means holding a door open for a family who just landed a half a terminal away and who are running to catch the plane to see a sick grandma. While a policy may say one thing, caring about the people we serve (and for those of us in HR, that includes our employees and candidates) sometimes says something different. If our employees are empowered with compassion, they will do the right thing for our customers, clients, and the greater world.
Compassion. While he may not have said it in quite this way, Tim Sackett talked about how CEOs want to be able to personalize our HR plans because our people are individuals who want personalization. Personalization means we have to know, acknowledge, and understand the needs of candidates and employees. We can’t personalize unless we are compassionate with the people we help every day.
Compassion. In discussing inclusion, Joe Gerstandt asked us to imagine a world where employees have space to be themselves, we ask and they speak about the personal parts of their life so they don’t feel they have to hide parts of themselves. “How are you really?” “How is your mom? Is she feeling better?” Adding circle tables to a break room so people can interact. Integrating our values into conversations about our objectives, especially when we are struggling with an issue. We want our employees to be innovative problem-solvers, and we can do that by being compassionate with them.
Compassion. I was unable to attend Adam Grant’s presentation. But from what I saw on the twitters, it was amazing. One thing he challenged me on is ending exit interviews. The argument (via him and some super HR pros) is that we should have known about the problems before the employee leaves. This is absolutely true. We should have known. When an employee is so afraid to talk to us while still working for us, we have lost. Lost big time. We need employees to want to talk with us, to want to share the good stuff and the bad stuff. This takes trust. We can foster trust by being compassionate with our folks. Knowing their names, their struggles, their successes. When they see that we are interested and invested in their well-being, they will come to us with their concerns.
So, what do we owe each other? Do we owe each person around us respect? Hells to the yeah. Do we owe each other attention when a problem crops up or a success is achieved? Yes. Do we owe someone time when he is asking for help in dealing with FMLA paperwork because his wife is ill? Yes. All of this takes compassion. When we see people suffering, do we owe them help? Yes. It breaks my heart to see people suffering. I hope that is true for everyone in HR. We owe ourselves, our employees, and the people around us compassion.
I’m going to try to remain hopeful and do better myself.
