Monetizing HR: A single word changes everything, or does it?

Monetizing HR: The First in a Series

These days most people are fluent in Corporate Acronym, the shorthand language of doing business or having a job. Indeed, if you have employees of any sort then they almost surely started with the HR Department, aka Human Resources. Whether you are the owner of a business with two employees or CEO of a medical conglomerate with 15,000 people, HR is HR. Of course, that's the shorthand shortcut. HR actually stands for Human Resources, the definition of which is, according to Google:

 

hu·man re·sourc·es

noun

plural noun: human resources

1.

the personnel of a business or organization, esp. when regarded as a significant asset.

 

 Employees as significant assets? Does any Senior Executive really believe that at their core? Do they treat their employees as they would a valuable but perishable business asset? To smart C-Level Executives, the answer is yes. But that's not the point here; rather, it's the irony. Because when people refer to 'HR', they are not referring to the employees themselves but to the Human Resources Department, and very often the HR Department is viewed more as a necessary evil than as a positive companion in doing commerce. It is one of the reasons, if not the biggest reason, for companies bleeding revenue. 

So, what is the definition of 'Human Resources Department'? According to the Encyclopedia at Entrepreneur.com, it is:

 

Definition: The department or support systems responsible for personnel sourcing and hiring, applicant tracking, skills development and tracking, benefits administration and compliance with associated government regulations 

 

Adding the word 'Department' changed everything; this definition bears little resemblance to the first one. Assets are valuable because of their monetary value, but verbs such as 'sourcing', 'tracking', 'administering' and 'complying' are not usually associated with increasing revenue. Human Resource Departments do not increase revenue because they are not designed for that purpose, they bleed revenue because they are sourcing, tracking, administering and complying with the company's employee assets. Human Resource Departments are a necessary evil in the 21st Century business environment. They do not sell more product or encourage greater volunteer participation or increase efficient handling of patients, because that is not their intended function, right?

That depends on who you believe. 

Next:  Reconciling the definitions to make more money

What's your company's culture?

Do you, or someone you know, sometimes work through lunch to impress the boss? Or to keep the boss from questioning your value? Do you know anyone who comes in to work even when they are sick, because the company has no tolerance for unplanned absences? Are ideas freely shared in your work culture with no worries about who gets credit, or blame? When you take your vacation does your tablet or smart phone go with you, in case the office calls?

If the answer to one or more of those questions is 'yes,' and for most of America it is,  then you work for or know of a company that thinks the year is 1980, because such a culture no longer works. Sure, there are plenty of people out there looking for a job, but how many of those looking for work are employees the company would seek out intentionally? And, if they are people the company wants to hire, why didn't they try to find them in the first place?

In fact, company culture is directly tied to company profits, as the Top 100 Places to Work in America are well aware. The more your company culture makes it obvious how much employees are valued, the higher the company profits soar. Or, as in the case of a non-profit, the lower the revenues spent attracting and retaining the best employees when competitive salary and benefits are not always easy to fund.

The following article brilliantly addresses this 21st Century paradigm shift.

What the Top 100 Places to work know that other companies do not

Culture counts at top companies

The top performing American companies are showing every other company how it's done, but not all of them are listening. A company's culture is the Undiscovered Country for many CEOs, who are invariably trying to squeeze more productivity out of their work force but without doing anything radically different than before.

This, of course, is a short cut to disaster, since the latest Gallup results show that more than 70% of American workers are disengaged from their work. Therefore, those CEOs who try the same old thing over and over again are depending on employees who largely don't care about their job and are looking for a new place to work to increase their productivity with no additional motivation. And those disengaged employees are often ruining the workplace environment for the employees who do care.

Retention problems, anyone?


Below is a link to a brilliantly insightful piece by the CEO of a highly successful firm that has finally seen its hard work pay off; you can bet their employees are not only engaged in their work, but are glad to have their jobs and will fight to keep them.You can also bet that their bottom line reflects this.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2013/11/14/four-ingredients-for-a-winning-company-culture/#!

Budapest, anybody?

When I ask friends if they would like to travel to Budapest, Hungary, with Kathy and I, and then to Vienna, Austria, they all look at me like I have three heads. Budapest? Seriously? Well, yes, seriously. I need to go there for the book I'm writing, but more importantly I want to go there because I've heard it's an amazing place and I can stay in a 5 star hotel for less than a Micro-Tel would cost here in the states. Who doesn't want to visit one of the great capitals of Europe?

Apparently, everybody we know.

But in a list of the top 10 Most Overrated Places in the world and where you should go instead, travel writer David Landsel has this to say about Vienna and Budapest:

"#8 Berlin
An awkward teenager of a city, brimming with potential, Germany's big town has a long way to go before it's nearly as ready for its close-up as many travel writers (who often visit places like Berlin on expenses-paid junkets) would have you believe. The best reason for Americans to bother with pricey Europe these days is to roll around in the continent's colorful past. Berlin is too modern, too sterile, too expensive and too unsure of itself to merit much of your time or money.
Instead, try Head to the Hauptbahnhof and buy a train ticket to Prague. It's only 4 ½ hours away. After stopping to admire one of the most attractive cities in the world, you will probably be hungry, in which case you should leave Prague as quickly as possible in order to get to Vienna, where you can eat and drink like a civilized person. From here, it's an easy ride to Budapest, where you will consume your weight in strudel, go for a schvitz at the baths in City Park and buy tickets to a classical music concert that will ideally include everything Dvorak ever wrote."

Prague is awesome, I agree, but three days is plenty to see what should be seen.  It's the emphasized part that caught my attention.

Vienna is amazing and my one visit there was all too brief. After luxuriating in Budapest for 4 or 5 days I'd head on to Vienna to enjoy the good life. It would be so much fun, but it seems I'm the only one who thinks so.

Finding the negative is easy

I do not usually bring God into these blog posts because of the diversity of beliefs represented by the people that I know. However, for the religious among us, our God has certain characteristics that are shared among all of the major religions, and the first among those is that God will never, ever try to crush your dreams. It is up to us to ask for guidance on how to live our lives and what dreams He has for us, but once we realize the path He has chosen for us we should pursue it will all possible vigor. God is uplifting and hopeful, He will never try to keep you from succeeding; He may test your faith, but He will not lie to you about your dreams. His opponent will, however. The enemy of God will whisper in your ear and use Dreamstealers to divert you from the path you are supposed to walk, and that is how you shall know them, by their negativity and discouraging words.

Finding the negative is easy; it's all around us, invading our world whether want it to or not. Two incidents lately have made this very clear, and stand as a warning to us all that if you let the Dreamstealers into your life, they will snatch away every dream and ambition you have and leave you an empty shell. If you learn to spot them, however, you can focus on what is positive and good.

Last month I met someone who was looking for positivity and light in their life, and we quickly agreed that God had lead us to each other. Within two weeks, however, the Dreamstealers had snatched their dreams away, dreams that we had both agreed were God's will. I witnessed this negativity first hand but am no closer to understanding it than I was before, perhaps because at its root there is no understanding to be found. I only know that God would not step on someone's dreams to help others.

The second incident deals with, of all things, a negative blog post. Since you are currently reading a blog, mine, let's be clear about something: there is no fact check that my writings have to pass before they are published. Everything I write here is my opinion. As a responsible adult you can count on the fact that I will not intentionally lie to you, but if I wanted to, I could. With few exceptions, I can say anything I want.

And so can anybody else, including Dreamstealers.

When you read something on the internet, be it a comment after a story or column, or especially a blog, understand that behind the words there is a motive. It may be a good and positive motive, or it might be a negative one. Does it shock you that unscrupulous writers often say bad things about whatever writer they see as their biggest competition? It happens on Amazon.com all the time. So when someone showed me a negative blog about something I hold dear they were upset, wondering if it were true. A short investigation made it clear that the post was written by a new competitor who used a blog because in a blog you can say almost anything you want, and they were trying to steal customers from the giant of the industry. Their negativity had become infectious as they tried to steal the dreams of others.

Does that sound like work of a good and positive nature? Not to me it doesn't. Dreamstealers, begone!

Momentum begins when belief sets in.

Someone asked me where I read this, or to whom I should attribute this quote. Honestly, I don't remember reading it anywhere, although I could be wrong about that. Sometimes the sub-conscious retains a memory even if you are not aware that it is a memory, so if this saying has been used before, I stand corrected.

However, whether I remembered this or thought it up isn't the question, or even important; what matters is the message. It is the rare person who can recommend something to someone else if they do not first believe in what it is they are recommending...in other words, lie to someone. At least, it is the rare person who can lie and be convincing about it. And that's the point of the message.

Momentum begins when belief sets in. See, if you believe in something, then that belief comes across when you tell someone else about it, whatever 'it' happens to be. My friends know that I am extremely skeptical, sometimes to the point of cynicism; it's one of the character traits that I am working to change. But for me to recommend something to someone, I must be convinced that it is 100% true. If someone does not act on my recommendation, that's okay.The last thing I want to do is talk someone into doing something (or eating somewhere, or seeing a movie, or whatever) that they do not want to do.

One definition of Momentum is" "the impetus gained by a moving object." This fits the phrase perfectly. When you believe something strong enough, you can almost will it into action. We're seeing that in Memphis right now, it's amazing to behold, when something begins to move (or grow) of its own accord. Of course, it's because belief has set in.

The only thing left now is to enjoy the ride.

Lesson learned

As a wellness consultant you'd think I'd know better. I have all of the studies, all of the statistics, that prove human beings must rest and refresh themselves to avoid the dire consequences not doing so puts on your body. It's bad stuff, and it's my business to know that it's bad stuff. Stress is the Black Plague of the 21st Century.

And it's not like I hate what I'm doing; I love it, it's a blast, I feel as though I am doing what I was born to do...but, even so, rest and replenishment are essential.

This past week was incredible. If you were there, you know what I mean; if you weren't, you should have been. You learn best by association, that is, by watching and listening to others who possess certain attributes and skills you wish that you had. This week was a smorgasbord for absorbing such lessons.

But despite the opportunity you still have to give yourself a chance to let the adrenaline drain away and to regain your mental and physical equilibrium.

Lesson learned.