Melina Murray

Both Saturday and Sunday, I had the pleasure of volunteering at the 2008 SHRM conference here in Chicago. Today I will be a “regular” attendee.

I have to say, the volunteer program with SHRM is fantastic. While the days were long, my co-volunteers (and SHRM staff) were incredibly friendly, thankful, open, giving, and more. It has been a very worthwhile trade.

The conference itself is generally well laid out, for a maze like McCormick Place. The signage is well placed, easy to read, and volunteer staff are everywhere to answer questions.

Yesterday afternoon’s opening session was packed with attendees. As part of my volunteering, I made sure people didn’t run into a huge fire hydrant. The facilities manager was worried about all the people who would run in when seating opened. I laughed and thought there was no way people would be running down the isles to grab a seat for Sidney Poitier. I was wrong. The first wave of people really did run down the isle! Or at least run/walked when warned. Quite a funny sight.

As the general session opened, Sue Meisinger spoke for a while, but the reason most people were there was for Sidney Poitier. I, too, was looking forward to hearing his message. As he came on stage and began speaking, I thought “he certainly has a presence”. However, as the talk went on, I realized I already knew everything he was talking about. Mr. Poitier basically gave the audience a synopsis of his book, which I had read. It was a bit disappointing.

The rest of the evening went rather well. Food and drinks were offered as the exhibition hall opened. While I didn’t walk the floor, I did watch people stream out of the hall, exhausted, clutching their giveaways from vendors. The Monster booth seems to be a carnival. So much purple.

The best thing so far about the conference are the wonderful people I have met. Between SHRM staff, volunteers and attendees, there are some fascinating people. I look forward to meeting more today!

Stanford Hospital asked their employees for ways to save money, and the employees responded. Asking for help from those on the front lines saved the hospital millions.  You never know who will have an idea to save (or make) money in your company.  Ask and listen!

Read and watch for more details: Employee Ideas Help Stanford Hospital Save Money

I spent last week in San Francisco at the annual RSA Conference, a huge conference for the Information Security industry. Having worked in with a network security company for a number of years, I am still in contact with many former colleagues and others in the industry. As an HR professional and a person continually interested in learning, I find the people in the IS community to be exceptionally talented and passionate about what they do.

Throughout the week I talked to many, many people, and the one thing that struck me more than anything was how unhappy most were with their companies. Not their jobs, but their leadership and company as a whole. Granted, there were a few, maybe 20%, who loved both their current career and company. However, the vast majority were just biding time awaiting a new opportunity.

The most common frustrations revolved around 2 issues: Human Resources and Company Communications. Below is a sampling of the complaints.

• I have no trust in our HR leader. He/She doesn’t talk to anyone other that the executive team. When I ask questions or voice concerns, I am told not to worry, there are no problems. I never get a response to my actual question.
• Our company changes direction all the time. I never know what will happen tomorrow, and I don’t even know what is happening now.
• When our company makes a big change or announcement, we hear about it with the rest of the world, in a press release.
• My manager is completely uninvolved in what I do. He/She has no idea what my actual job entails and when I ask for a growth path, I am always told to wait.
• I would never talk to our HR leader about about anything important. HR is a joke at our company.

Yikes! The main theme= Communication. From HR, from managers, and from the executive team.

Mind you, most of the people I talked to are from small/mid-sized companies (50-3000). These are not big corporations mired down in decades of processes and many layers of management. There is really no reason for this level of frustration and discontent.

I am always appalled when there is a distrust of HR. As an HR professional myself, I have always made it a point (very important one) to talk to as many employees as possible, to let them know they can talk to me anytime, to not gossip about what I am told, and to work to alleviate frustrations while keeping in mind the overall needs/goals/directions of the company.

As for overall company communication, it is simple. If you don’t trust your employees, they will not trust you. Something as important as company direction should be conveyed prior to a press release. Talk to your employees! Help them feel connected, respected and valued.

Before I delved into the world of blogging, I made a guest post on Mike Murray’ blog Episteme, titled On Employee Morale. I remembered it recently and want to bring it back to the forefront as the topic is still so relevant, and, I hope, always will be.

You can click on the link above for the original post, but I want to get all the messages out again, so I am pasting my part in its entirety here.

On Employee Morale

I was just talking to someone who had a pie competition at work. A real, major pie competition. The whole company either baked a pie or went to the tasting. And they had awards for the winners - First place, 2 tickets to SF (from Oregon).

That was just one of the things that this brilliant company sponsors/puts on throughout the year. They bring in bands during lunch time some days, they encourage different groups getting together (at work, during work hours) to have a drink and get to know each other, when they otherwise would not interact. For competition events, they give away anything from trips to iPods. These are all pieces that make this company a great place to work. Yes, this is a profitable, private company. But that shouldn’t matter.

In order to have a “great place to work”, the people, the employees have to WANT to come to work. They need to see 2 things; 1. that their works matters in the big picture, and 2. that they are valued and appreciated. So many companies do neither. It is honestly pathetic.

It really isn’t about the prizes, although trips and gadgets are nice. It is about fostering an environment that says: “Sure, you’ll have to work your butt off, but let’s have fun together”.

As a leader, do you really want your employees to come to work every day, waiting for the clock to hit 12 and then 5? When asked about their job, do you want your employees to say “it’s OK, it’s a paycheck“?

Or- do you want them to say: “XYZ is a pretty cool place to work. We do these amazing projects and have a fantastic team“? Or do you really want them to say: “I love my job. Working at XYZ is more fun than I ever imagined. Sure, we work hard, but we also have tons of fun“?

Think about the fact that this is marketing. It isn’t media marketing, but grassroots. If you were thinking of going with a product or service, what would you think of a company that has miserable, apathetic employees, versus one with enthusiastic employees? It can make a difference.

The kicker- it isn’t hard to do!! You don’t have to be profitable, you just need to put in a little effort. First and foremost, this mentality has to start with the CEO/President. The leader of the company has to want to espouse the environment. After that it trickles down through the executive management team and HR. If the leader of the company is not on board, any efforts will flop and fail.

Let me get back to HR for a moment. The role of a human resources professional at a company can be difficult. You have to be an advocate for the company and the employee. This can be difficult at times and requires a level head, complete confidentiality and honesty. Just because someone’s title says “HR”, does not mean that employees will feel open to talking. Relationships have to be grown and fostered. Sitting in an office all day, or staying within the same group only seeks to distance any potential relationship between HR and the other employees. Companies are changing from what they were 20 years ago. HR is not just about payroll, worker’s comp and benefits. It is about creating and enhancing the workplace environment to make it a place people want to come to.

And managers are as responsible for their employees happiness as the CEO and HR. A manager who plays favorites, is unavailable or confrontational is doomed to have a miserable team. Managers who promote team work (collaborating), who take steps to grow their people, who put on impromptu events for their team are very likely to succeed in having a motivated and excited team.

Back to my original rant. It is easy to have fun. It doesn’t require plane tickets or iPods, or amazon gift certificates, although those are nice perks. Contests are always a great way to bring people together. Prizes can be anything from a half day, to a full day off, a really cool award/plaque, a special parking space, small gift certificates, or anything else. Potlucks can be a great way to gather everyone. Some people love to cook, and most people love free food!

It requires saying- “Hey, I know you work hard, so let’s have a lunch so I can say ‘thanks’“. It can be as easy as having the CEO/President take one lunch (just one) a quarter that she/he spends at the office, talking with any and all employees. As inexpensive as 10 boxes of pizza in the conference room. A time where anyone from the receptionist to the mail room clerk to the QA manager can come in and chat. This says “I care, I see you, and I hear you“.

Think about how much it costs in time and lost productivity to replace someone, then ask yourself how much these events really cost the company. I’ll bet the answer is “not much”.