OzHR #15 - Organisational Culture

This week is hosted by Michael Sleap of @michaelsleap fame! So super awesome! And he's chosen the topic of organisational culture.

Now this is frustrating because I can't find the reference for this study, but I clearly remember it from university. A factory wanted to see what effect lighting had on the productivity of the workers, so they were gathered around a table. As the light got brighter, the productivity was raised. And then the lights were dimmed, dimmed right down, and still the productivity was rising. Eventually they worked out it wasn't actually the lighting affecting the productivity, it was the workers sitting together and chatting - they created relationships & formed a bond.

Human beings are wired to our very cores to be as sensitive to our interactions as a seismometer. Trembles can equate to internal earthquakes when it comes to how we treat each other. So it's no wonder that our interactions with each other in the workplace dictate so much of how the work gets done. "How we do things around here" is very much going to affect how I feel about being here.

So let's discuss our experiences and share our theories, because organisational culture isn't only a way to add value but to 'feeel' the value.

The chat will be Thursday 12 December starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions this week are:

1. What does a great organisation culture look like and have you experienced it?

2. Is an organisation's culture critical to its success or is the concept over-hyped? Why?

3. What are the implications for organisations which have a 'poor' culture?

4. What is the key to building an effective culture and what is HR's role?

Thank you so much for hosting Michael, I hope it's a brilliant chat!

OzHR #14 - HR and Internal Communications, Friends With Benefits

Internal communications are such a vital part to an organisation's health, and yet, it's often done terribly, not valued by leaders already in the know, or not done at all.

HR is all about working with people and it's a little hard not to fold communications in to the mix. But are HR pros really the best for doing the internal communications? Does their expertise even go near crafting a message?

There's no change without an announcement, but who makes that announcement, how should it be done, and most importantly, what do you like best?

The chat will be Thursday 5 December starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1) Does HR have any role in internal communications? Please place your answer in the context of the organisation's size.

2) Can people really not be trusted with internal social media, or is that just risk avoidance?

3) SoMe has moved media from 'talking at' to 'talking with' us. Should the same happen with employer's communications?

4) Do you find organisations can often do external communications better than internal communications? What makes it better?

OzHR #13 - Internships

Another one bites the dust as Conde Nast shuts down its internship program. As a previous Conde Nast intern says "I cried myself to sleep", and as lots of twitterers say in reply "toughen up princess". It's slave labour, it's invaluable experience, it's the new job economy, it's an exploitation - can we make our minds up?!

I got into an internship with a magazine in Singapore when I was still a uni student, and then they told me I wouldn't get paid. So I said "thanks, but no thanks". I only mildly regret that decision, because here I am writing because I love writing, and to have spent time in a magazine would have been invaluable. Instead I worked and got paid as an English-speaking playmate for 2 small Mandarin-speaking children. It was an awesome job.

Anyway, now I'm a little unsure about internships. In some ways they seem like a necessity for a career, and in other ways, they seem like an exploitation of cheap (free) labour. What do you think?

The chat will be Thursday 28 November starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1) What's the best way to run a mutually beneficial internship? Is it better to just admit it's an unfeasible program?

2) The nature of work is changing - do internships help or hinder positive changes in the work world?

3) If companies don't provide internships, should they use internship experience as a way to differentiate job candidates?

4) What's more valuable - an unpaid internship in the relevant industry, or an entry level job in any industry?

The 3rd Half, the 5th Quarter, The Recap of OzHR #12

Boy oh boy do we have some smarty pants contributing to our OzHR tweetchats!

Here are their final thoughts on the topic of benefits:

@ozhrtweets #ozhr what you may perceive as "benefit" May not be for others.
— Juhi Jhunjhunwala (@hrtechgirl) November 21, 2013

@ozhrtweets (i) one size does not fit all when it comes to benefits (ii) companies need to be more creative (iii) communicate! #ozhr
— Carol Howard (@blackbirdsthree) November 21, 2013

@whippasnappahr over time what was once seen as a benefit is seen as a base standard/entitlement. Need to continually evolve benefits #ozhr
— Michael Sleap (@michaelsleap) November 21, 2013

A4 @ozhrtweets @blackbirdsthree IMO, "benefits" should be designed to benefit ALL (employees + employer) to be sustainable + effective #ozhr
— Corinne Torres (@Corinne_Torres) November 21, 2013

If you want to read the whole conversation between all those clever clogs, check out the storify.

See you at the next chat!

OzHR #12 - The Cold Hard Reality of Benefits

Benefits - it's all a bit murky, a bit 'buzz-word'y, and a little bit hard to navigate as an employee. We are now in a world of work with incredible possibilities (hello Google workplaces) and dire realities (hello GFC, job uncertainty, and an employer's market). In this context, benefits can often seem essential and yet totally fanciful. On the other end of the spectrum, as an employee, benefits often feel like a lottery scheme. It's all about getting the right profile (parent/single/male/female/executive/customer facing role) and being there at the right time and place. Yes, you may work at Google as a contract cleaner, but no, there will be no ping-pong table for you!

And at the root of it all is missing out. Who's got what, how can I get it, and why am I missing out on it?! It's all linked into our base emotions - the most dangerous of all places for the workplace to tinker in.

So let's discuss benefits, your personal experience with them, and your professional thoughts on them.

The chat will be Thursday 21 November starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1.  How do you define what's essential to an employment agreement & what's a benefit? Has it changed with your personal circumstances?

2. When have you felt most empowered to ask for work/life benefits at work? Was the empowerment from family/work culture/age etc?

3. What should be the real motivation to offer benefits to employees? Is it fake & dispensable, or a modern-day career necessity?

4. As business confidence goes down, what do see as the future of employee benefits? Please share your personal vision for benefits.

The 3rd Half, the 5th Quarter, The Recap of OzHR #11

Here's the storify for the chat - but for the highlights, stick with me.

1. How can an attendee maximise their experience during a conference and in the afterglow of it? Your top tips/tricks?

@ozhrtweets I think you really have to put some time aside and think about what you heard and how you might apply it or not #ozhr
— Richard Westney (@HRManNZ) November 14, 2013

@HRManNZ agree and it can be hard to make the time as most people go back to busy jobs and catch up mode - but key is to MAKE time #ozhr
— Michael Sleap (@michaelsleap) November 14, 2013

2. What's your strategy and method for managing the contacts you made at a professional event, and keeping it sincere?

Email is still a powerful tool to follow up. Next day after I meet someone I'll email to say thanks & then google stores their details #ozhr
— Damon Klotz (@DamonKlotz) November 14, 2013

@ozhrtweets indirect promotion of individuals by sharing with others #ozhr
— Fiona Harland (@fiharland) November 14, 2013

#ozhr I liked how @StacyZapar talked about Linkedin not being a rolodex - makes me want to reconsider how I keep track of contacts.
— Sarah Miller (@whippasnappahr) November 14, 2013

3. Can someone become a credible expert and/or advocate to colleagues for a matter they just learnt about at a conference?

#OzHR Q3. interesting question. The person sure can become a facilitator in sharing & growing new thinking... not sure about expert though!
— Jonathon Woolfrey (@JonWoolfrey) November 14, 2013

#ozhr I always fear that I drank the kool aid at the conference, & then I come back to the workplace & hurt my credibility by being way OTT!
— Sarah Miller (@whippasnappahr) November 14, 2013

@ozhrtweets #ozhr sure did. Sharing conference knowledge and experience helped team members be more collaborative.
— Juhi Jhunjhunwala (@hrtechgirl) November 14, 2013

4. If an organisation doesn't work to capture their employees' conference experiences, is it a waste of everyone's time?

The best conferences I’ve been to this year had case-study ‘post-mortems’, product demos & more discussion than presentation #ozhr
— Paul Jacobs (@pauljacobs4real) November 14, 2013

@ozhrtweets #ozhr considering how expensive it is to attend unless there is cost benefit relationship it is a waste.
— Juhi Jhunjhunwala (@hrtechgirl) November 14, 2013

@ozhrtweets we made the effort this year & it was the injection rejuvenation that we needed for our business #ozhr
— Fiona Harland (@fiharland) November 14, 2013

@michaelsleap the magic goes where the conversation flows. I like a mix of conf styles but prefer shorter presos & more un-conference. #ozhr
— Paul Jacobs (@pauljacobs4real) November 14, 2013

OzHR #11 - Bringing Home the Conference Bacon

You've just been to a great conference (perhaps it was the killer Sourcing Summit Sydney 2013 but it could be anything) and you are pumped. The inspiration is flowing, the passion is renewed and the possibilities seem endless.

Then you return to your workplace.

The unread emails, uninspired team members, stack of business cards, and pressure to show a return on the investment in the conference - it is one major anti-climax. Is the only response to be a human tsunami wave of enthusiasm back into the workplace, and to lead your own mini-conference for your team members? Or is there a better way?

Well let's talk about it, and share strategies for bringing home the conference bacon of knowledge, shortcuts, contacts, friends, and freebies.

The chat will be Thursday 14 November starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1. How can an attendee maximise their experience during a conference and in the afterglow of it? Your top tips/tricks?

2. What's your strategy and method for managing the contacts you made at a professional event, and keeping it sincere? 

3. Can someone become a credible expert and/or advocate to colleagues for a matter they just learnt about at a conference?

4. If an organisation doesn't work to capture their employees' conference experiences, is it a waste of everyone's time?

OzHR #10 - The Great Disconnect

I've written an article for NZLEAD which you can read here, and it is titled "A Different Flavour For HR". The whole point of the article really is this:

The Australian HR media, conferences, associations, and image, do not reflect the real state of HR in Australia.

Lets look at some statistics:

• approximately 1 in 4 Australians weren't born in Australia;
• approximately 1 in 6 Australians speak a language other than English at home;
• approximately 1 in 3 Australians do not live in a major city; and
• the three biggest industry employers are Manufacturing, Retail Trade, and Healthcare and Social Assistance.

What a hugely different picture to what we see in HR media! Where is our discussion on ethnic and linguistic diversity, geographical separation, and major employers? How are we ensuring that HR as a whole is being improved, promoted and appreciated in Australia? Not just the people management aspects, but the recruitment, learning and development, administration and organisational development - all of it. How are we promoting excellence in all of Australian HR for a real Australia?

Well, there's no time like the present, so let's discuss it now. 

The chat will be Thursday 7 November starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1. Do you see a disconnect between HR media, conferences, associations and image, and what you actually need/use in your daily HR work? 

2. If "a rising tide floats all boats", what's best for a HR community? Inclusiveness to all levels, or high level representation only?

3. Why do you think HR sharing is often superficial? Does confidentiality mute HR? How can HR start to have bolder discussions?

4. If there was one aspect of HR representation that you could change right now, what would it be and why?

The 3rd Half, The 5th Quarter, The Recap of OzHR #8

The 3rd Half, The 5th Quarter - we all know whatever the game is, the best part is the drinks after.

On Thursday 24 October, we had the #sosuau special OzHR tweetchat. The Sourcing Summit in Australia is all about sourcing, so you guessed it, we talked about sourcing! Here's the original questions for the evening, and the storify of the tweetchat.

So, let's get the post-match shenanigans underway.

A newcomers clap for:
@MarkM_recruiter
@rebeccaclarkenz
@PhillipTusing
@MattHewitson
@InterviewIQ
@HRMConsult
@Corinne_Torres
@daoudedris
@andreamitchell
@kfhew
@pauljacobs4real
@markreilly_au
@OD_optimist

And onto the 3,2,1s - the top 3 moments/players of the chat:

3 goes to @PhillipTusing for taking the time out to help us newbies to sourcing catch up:

Q1. Wikepedia is a good start for a definition of sourcing http://t.co/aJ4eHWVay7 #ozhr #sosuau
— Phillip Tusing (@PhillipTusing) October 24, 2013

For newbies good sources on sourcing - http://t.co/2EpvBxVwGl & http://t.co/NBJjzaXOXI #ozhr #sosuau
— Phillip Tusing (@PhillipTusing) October 24, 2013

2 goes to @InterviewIQ for starting up one of the most interesting chat lines of the hour:

#ozhr I think sourcing online is seen as a mystery art by the average recruiter/ HR. I don't see a lot on Twitter and social media.
— Karalyn Brown (@InterviewIQ) October 24, 2013

1 goes to @michaelsleap for embodying the whole point of OzHR: knowing a lot about one thing, knowing not much about something else, but participating and making it a learning experience for the whole community.

@ozhrtweets my perception - it is about proactively building a pool of best possible candidates for critical roles for now or later #ozhr
— Michael Sleap (@michaelsleap) October 24, 2013

@ozhrtweets absolutely - before I was a HR type I was a line manager and mainly recruited reactively through old school channels #ozhr
— Michael Sleap (@michaelsleap) October 24, 2013

@andreamitchell brilliant point - your internal brand will play a large role in success/failure in your current role or organisation #ozhr
— Michael Sleap (@michaelsleap) October 24, 2013

@ozhrtweets have to weight up what is right for your career & put aside feeling flattered by the approach - may/may not be right move #ozhr
— Michael Sleap (@michaelsleap) October 24, 2013

And the really cool thing about this week's tweetchat was that there was a ticket for #sosuau for the night's top contributor. So congratulations to Michael for scoring himself a Sourcing Summit ticket!

Thanks to everyone for making it a fantastic chat - and now onto the most traditional part of any 3rd Half, 5th Quarter, Post-Match Drinks - talking absolute crap over a few drinks. See you on twitter ;-)

OzHR #9 - Change is a dirty word - isn’t it? Or is it?

This week’s Tweet Chat has been shaped around the ideas of Daniel Newman, a US based C-level executive and entrepreneur. The article from which creative license has been taken, Talent and Transformation: a Delicate Balance, was published recently at www.talentculture.com. 

On Thursday 30 October, guest facilitator Vanessa Wiltshire, Founder & Director of the HR Talent Community will look at the nature of change and the way it is conceptualised and executed in your workplace. To add a little curve ball, Vanessa will also encourage you to contemplate the changes that have occurred around the nature, scale and speed of change in the last 5-10 years. Sound confusing? It’s really not!

Daniel Newman a Talent Culture contributor recently commented: “Change. It’s not what it used to be.” Change is happening faster than ever before. “It wasn’t so long ago that businesses ran with modest, almost unnoticeable change, year after year”.

Greg Satell has elaborated on this concept, indicating that “in the industrial age, a company’s business model didn’t change much. The way a firm would create, deliver and capture value could stay fairly constant for generations. The practice of management was mostly focused on execution." Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Today, if you’re not in a state of continuous innovation, you may as well be dead. International thought leader Clayton Christensen has a similar viewpoint, and a big warning for big business: “with the onset of the digital / information economy even the best run company can now be disrupted.” www.claytonchristensen.com.

According to Heidi Grant and countless others (ask around), people have never and don’t like change. A study conducted by the University of Arkansas in 2010 revealed that not only do people fear change, they genuinely believe (usually unconsciously) that when they’ve been doing something a particular way for some time, it must be good. Even if it’s not good for them. And the longer they’ve been doing things in a particular way the better it is. So, change isn't simply about embracing the unknown -- it's about giving up something old (and therefore good) for something new (and therefore not good).

The chat will be Thursday 30 October starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1. Has the nature, scale and speed of change, changed in the past 2 years? The past five? Ten?

2. What kinds of changes will there be in change + transformation programs over next 3-5 years? Next 10? What will the impact be?

3. Are we trending toward workplaces that are constantly fluid or are we already there? Will some industries be more prone - or is it all?

4. Does change always mean “losing” an old state before a “new” state is gained? What does “resistance” mean to you? Will attitudes change?

OzHR #8 - Sourcing, a #SOSUAU special

**Really Super Exciting Update! There is one free ticket to the Sourcing Summit in Sydney, for tonight's best contributor. No special requirements to enter, just participate in the October 24 tweet chat. Yay! **

On 13 November 2013, Sourcing Summit #SOSUAU is coming to Sydney. With rave reviews from members attending the similar conferences of #RHUBNZ and #SOSUEU, it looks like it's going to be a fantastic event. The cherry on top will be the keynote speakers, Will Staney is going to demonstrate Google Glass and Stacy Zapar is the most connected woman on Linkedin. Google glass guys!

Check out the event at www.sosu.com.au and be sure to look at the twitter hashtag #sosuau. And finally, if you are attending, please consider buying through the OzHR link to the right - proceeds from your ticket will go towards launching a slick new OzHR website!

So, whether you're going to the conference or not, let's talk about sourcing. Ever heard of it before? Wikipedia helped me out:

Sourcing is a talent management discipline which is focused on the identification, assessment and engagement of skilled worker candidates through proactive recruiting techniques. Professionals specializing in sourcing are known primarily as Sourcers; but also Internet Recruiters, Recruiting Researchers or Talent Scouts.

Perhaps you're already a sourcing guru? Or maybe you work in the recruitment industry? Or possibly you have no idea about this at all? Well whatever your level, this chat will be interesting for everyone. I'm hoping for some great knowledge sharing between ourselves, and some broadening of horizons as we mine deeper into the rich and diverse world of people management.

The chat will be Thursday 24 October, starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1. What does 'talent network', 'sourcing' and 'active recruitment' mean to you? What's your familiarity with it?

2. Is personal branding a truly important career investment in terms of visibility to recruiters, or just another buzzword bust? 

3. If you weren't looking, how could a recruiter convince you to change jobs? Any personal experience in this?

4. Do you see sourcing potentially becoming part of a generalist HR skill set, or is it genuinely a recruiter's niche?

OzHR #7 - Coaching for the Process for the Outcome

"Fall in love with the process and the results will follow. You’ve got to want to act more than you want to be an actor. You’ve got to want to do whatever you want to do more than you want to be whatever you want to be, want to write more than you want to be a writer, want to heal more than you want to be a doctor, want to teach more than you want to be a teacher, want to serve more than you want to be a politician. Life is too challenging for external rewards to sustain us. The joy is in the journey." Attributed to Bradley Whitford, but it's the internet... who knows...

Ask anyone who is an expert at something and they'll surely tell you that they just love doing what they're doing, the 'expert' status is just a bonus. How often though do we coach people for an outcome, rather than helping them to fall in love with HR processes? Is it even possible for non-HR folk to be in love with a HR process? Well I say - Yes! If the process is there for a good reason, it should be a rewarding one to use. If the process is rewarding, then there should be a possibility of the users 'loving' or at least valuing it.

 Let's have a play at coaching for process, rather than the final outcome.

The chat will be Thursday 17 October, starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions are:

1A Quickfire: In 120 characters, pitch to a supervisor the process of holding quarterly performance review meetings with their staff.

1B: How would you go about getting supervisors to fall in love with holding performance reviews with staff?

2A Quickfire: In 120 characters, pitch to a manager the use of a fully reported equal opportunity processs for recruitment.

2B: How would you go about getting managers to fall in love with reported equal opportunity recruitment?

3A Quickfire: In 120 characters, pitch to an employee the process of staying up to date with internal communications.

3B: How would you go about getting employees to fall in love with reading internal communications?

4A Quickfire: In 120 characters, pitch to an HR Officer the process of seeking feedback from internal customers.

4B: How would you go about getting a HR Officer to fall in love with seeking feedback from internal customers?

See you then,
Sarah

OzHR #6 - The Ageing Workforce

On the first ever Global Ageing Index, Australia has been ranked as 14 out of 91 - not too bad in the scheme of things. But in the break down of Australia's ranking, the economic security comes to 57th.

Taken from the website, this graphic explains their rating of Australia's Economic Security for the Aged:

And yet, Australia is ranked as 4th for its Employment and Education of the Aged:

That's great news in  a way - although suffering from economic insecurity, employment isn't impossible. But by 2050, 28.9% of the Australian population will be over 60 years old. That's almost a 10% increase from Australia's current percentage of 60 year olds and over. With all of these factors, it makes me wonder will Australia have greater welfare for the ageing population, or will people's economic security come to rely further on employment? My bets are on employment.

So as a bunch of people interested in managing people, let's talk about managing the ageing workforce of Australia.

The chat will be Thursday 10 October, starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)

6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)

6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)

4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

This week's questions are:

1.  Are there different motivators for the aged workforce? How would you meet them?

2. How can you see the 'digital divide' affecting the current and future aged workforce?

3. If you knew that 35% of the workforce was going to be in poverty after turning 60, would you do anything differently for your staff today? What would it be?

4. How would you manage the impression of an aged worker employed by your organisation to perform a menial job? (Think of what you tend to see in developing countries... i.e. this 75 year old man working in a coffee shop in Singapore.)

See you then,

Sarah

OzHR #5 - Accountability for HR

Managers get fired if:

• patients don't get treated;
• the factory doesn't meet production targets;
• the sales targets aren't met for the period;
• invoices don't get sent to customers;
• enough product isn't bought to sell etc.

Managers of hospitals, factories, marketing departments, or finance, it doesn't really matter what the specifics of their task are. The expectation is they will meet their targets and get the job done every single time.

But what about HR? Where is their accountability in all of this? If HR professionals demand equal access to the executive suite and remuneration, it seems only fair that they also accept a 'perform or be fired' risk. And although HR may work under similar pressure, can we honestly say that HR is measured as easily and accurately as sales figures? This is the stuff that credibility is made of. 

The chat will be Thursday 3 October, starting at 7pm AEST, 6:30pm ACST and 5pm AWST. Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

This week's questions are:

1. How can HR performance be measured so that it can be given a value? Get creative, realistic & specific - share some trench tools.

2. Since accountability fosters credibility, what can HR do to create accountability for itself in an organisation or as a profession?

3. Could HR ever be presented within the profit/loss statement or is it too far removed from numbers? Does this affect HR's reputation?

4. If tomorrow, HR had to meet targets like a marketing department, what would you predict the result to be? Why?

See you then,

Sarah

OzHR #4 - Employees vs Management

This week our host is Adam Axon who is active on twitter as @adamaxon. If you don't follow him yet, then please do, because he's a wonderful person to have a chat to. Thanks Adam, this is going to be a fabulous week! - Sarah

Employees vs. Management, the great organisational divide. As Human Resources professionals we often find ourselves in the unique position of being exposed to both sides of this divide, but what responsibility does this place on our shoulders? Is it our job to try and bridge the divide and bring both sides closer together or do our loyalties lie with only one side?

This week we're going to take a closer look at the divide. We'll look into what causes it, talk about the impacts it can have on organisations & the people within, and then finally we'll discuss how to reduce the divide, and who's responsibility it is to do so. Hope you can join in!

The chat will be Thursday 26 September, starting at 7pm AEST, 6:30pm ACST and 5pm AWST. Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

This week's questions are:

1. What are the major contributors behind the divide between employees & management?

2. What impacts can this divide have on our organisations? Is it important that we try and minimise it?

3. Whose responsibility should it be to do this? What role does HR have to play?

4. What are some of the key actions that HR/Management/Employees can take in order to try and minimise the divide?

See you then,

Adam

OzHR #3 - The Verdict on Interviews

Job interviews are a process every single one of us has either experienced on one or two sides of the table. Perhaps we even have insight on how recruitment processes can affect a whole organisation, like branding, diversity, efficiency and team building. Whatever your experience, or insight, one thing is for sure: we all have an opinion about it.

So this week we're looking into job interviews, and especially looking into an interview's efficiency and effectiveness. How should it be run, by who, to find what and what can be done better? It's the most intimate process the public, employees, employers and HR will get with each other - so let's talk about it!

The chat will be Thursday 19 September, starting at 7pm AEST, 6:30pm ACST and 5pm AWST. Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it!

This week's questions are:

1. What does a successful job interview look like for the employer & the candidate? Why isn't it achieved?

2. Should HR be training itself out of job interviews ? If so, who does it go to?

3. Are interviews actually effective beyond 5 minutes, or just reinforcing the first 5 minutes?

4. What is your vision for the future of interviewing, especially in Australian culture?

Politics and People Managers

Thank the heavens, the Australian election is this Saturday 7 September - this has been the longest run up to the election ever, and after eight months I'm sure we're all very, very over it! So let's have one last political hurrah and discuss state politics and people management.

Looking outside of organisational politics, this discussion will focus on state politics (not the state region but government administration). Politics is all about citizens, and can affect everything about how an organisation works. It can impact budgets, start and stop projects, import talent and protect talent - there is so much power in it. And yet, we hardly ever acknowledge HR & people managers as important political participators. I think this is a taboo we need to explore.

The chat will be Thursday 12 September, starting at 7pm AEST, 6:30pm ACST and 5pm AWST. Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it!

This week's questions are:

1. How much do you consciously bring state politics into your workplace? Why/why not?

2. What civil political issues do you think affect people management? Does this influence your political involvement?

3. Can someone be a good people manager if they're not politically conscious? Why/why not?

4. Does political participation, or could it, make people management more effective in organisations?


See you then,

Sarah

#OzHR Start Your Engines! The first ever tweet chat.

Why have #OzHR? Because a meeting point for the Australian HR community is an easy way to make our time on social media more effective. There are vibrant communities happening in many countries, but for some reason, Australia doesn't have that meeting point yet. So let's get it started, and let's meet each other from all walks of the HR life. It can not be emphasised more that this community is for anyone who is interested in people & organisations - there's no specialisation here!

Our first ever chat will be Thursday 5 September, starting at 7pm AEST, 6:30pm ACST and 5pm AWST. Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it!


This week's questions are:

1. What does a vibrant HR social media community look like to you? What would you like the #OzHR community to do for you?

2. To what extent do you link your social media presence to your professional life? What have the benefits and deterrents been?

3. Do you think 'tall poppy syndrome' affects Australians' use of social media, especially the self-promotion element?

4. Do you use social media as part of your work in HR? Does it, or how could it, make HR more effective?


See you then,

Sarah