Thought Leadership

I’m Not Alone

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My favorite HR practioner from India, Ankita Poddar, hit another home run earlier this week. In my post, HR Professionals Create Something, earlier this week I was urging my fellow HR professionals to come up with something new or different. Well I’m not alone. In her post Where Are the HR Innovation Conferences Ankita laments that HR professionals aren’t innovative.

I understand HR is not one of the arts where you use the right side of the brain. Regardless of which side of the brain you use innovation is needed in every field. On a large scale HR has to move beyond the mundane and into the future. In no way am I suggesting that HR is beyond the times, absolutely not. However, unlike other fields that people purposefully entered HR is a field that many people stumbled into.

I want to give you a brief history lesson of HR. Historically HR has been a female dominated field and it still is. In the business arena HR is a support function. In the workforce women have historically held support roles. In the mid twentieth century when women were entering the workforce in large numbers the only positions they were allowed to have were support roles. So by default many HR professionals stumbled into the field.

There’s nothing wrong with stumbling into a field. However, there’s a difference between doing something you love and having a job. Once again unlike other fields HR has been a field that you didn’t have to have a degree get into. Just having a job won’t give you a passion for what you do. Not being mentally challenged before entering the workforce also won’t give you a passion for what you do. A lack of passion is one of the things HR is missing. If you have a passion for your job then you have a dog in the fight. Without a passion for HR our field will always be lacking on the innovation front.

If you have questions about this blog post or anything else please contact me at corjoejen@yahoo.com and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cornell-jenkins/11/476/897/

Employee Disengagement

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Employee engagement has been a hot topic in HR world-wide for the past few years. Employers across the globe are trying to figure out how to get and keep their employees engaged.  For the most part engaged employees are happy employees.  Engaged employees stay at their jobs longer than disengaged employees and engaged employees provide an emotionally stable work environment.

While upper management and HR are trying to figure out how to get and keep their employees engaged, employees continue to focus on obtaining a work-life balance. Many HR professionals believe providing a work-life balance for employees will facilitate engagement (I’m one of them).  In the past few years I have read only a few articles and participated in a limited number of conversations that focused on making sure employees did have a work-life balance.

If upper management and HR truly want what’s best for their employees they would recommend employees go home on time. Gemma Dale is an HR professional that resides in London, in her blog post Go Home On Time she provides a good case why employees should “go home on time”.  Upper management and HR professionals should seriously consider Gemma’s suggestion.  As an employee of any organization you’ll agree that Gemma’s assessment is accurate.

If you have questions about this blog post or anything else please contact me at corjoejen@yahoo.com and www.linkedin.com/pub/cornell-jenkins/11/476/897/

HR Professionals Create Something!

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I’m passionate about my profession! I want us to be the best we can be at all times. I’m tired of hearing negative stories because we provide poor customer service, our processes are antiquated or we’re incompetent. I want HR professionals to create something. Group-think is overrated and obsolete. Thinking like everyone else in your HR department will garner you a boring life every day you go to work.

Whether you’ve been in the same position for eons or you’re new to HR think of something new to do. Or think of a way to improve your organizations current HR practices and procedures. HR is vital to every organization so doing the same thing the same way for decades doesn’t cut the mustard.

You (your organization) will be as effective as your last invention. If 2010 was the last time your HR department implemented something new, shame on you (your organization). With all of the HR organizations, conferences, magazines etc. that exists there is no reason 2010 should be the last time your organization implemented something new. Technology, analytics, and software are constantly so no HR department can afford to be seven years behind the curve.

In her blog post All About ‘Experiments’ HR professional Ankita Poddar provides the definition of the word experiment and gives a step-by-step how to so you can conduct your own experiment. HR professionals need to conduct experiments on their current practices and processes. Looking at the same thing from a different perspective can provide insight that will improve what you’re already doing. My fellow HR professionals create something!

If you have questions about this and more please contact me at corjoejen@yahoo.com and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cornell-jenkins/11/476/897/

Self-Care Part 2

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In this second post on self-care I’m going to keep my word and address the emotional and physical health of the employee.

Society as a whole rarely engages in conversations about emotional health. You may not know but anxiety, shyness, and stress are related to our emotional health. This is what the American Psychological Association says about emotional health:

Emotional health can lead to success in work, relationships and health. In the past, researchers believed that success made people happy. Newer research reveals that it’s the other way around. Happy people are more likely to work toward goals, find the resources they need and attract others with their energy and optimism — key building blocks of success.

We see that emotional health can lead to personal and professional success.

I can’t stress enough the affect that life-changing events have on our emotional health. Life-changing events such as: the birth of a child, the loss of a loved one, being recently married or divorced, starting or returning to school as an adult student, going back to work after a long absence, etc. Any of these events can cause someone to go into a downward spiral because of the stress they place on an individual. As a society we need to pay more attention to our emotional health.

You can’t go anywhere and not be reminded about your physical health. You could be watching television and a commercial comes on advertising a weight loss program or gym membership. When you go to the grocery store there are sections dedicated to healthy foods. If you go to a sandwich shop many of them offer baked or kettle chips instead of fried chips. As a society we are very conscious about our physical health.

As a human being I want you to be very conscious about your mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health. Remember, your productivity or lack thereof is dependent upon your health.

If you have questions about this and more please contact me at corjoejen@yahoo.com and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cornell-jenkins/11/476/897/

Jessup, MD 301-466-6411 corjoejen@yahoo.com By appointment only.
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