HR Underpants Special Comment #8

And the continuing Saga - HR Underpants Part VIII :-)  What evil lurks in the hearts of Corporate HR?  Only the Shadow knows :-)

Please check outjaundicejames.com  for the Question of the Day:  

Answer #8

You hit it the nail on the head. These “changes” don’t happen in a vacuum - or more precisely for our subject today - Monkey See, Monkey Do.  (Or, if you’re KO, It’s “Minkey See, Minkey Do)  There are associations in every sector that chat about such things.  I think we have a “mutual friend” in ALEC, who I suspect also incites these “employees be damned” policies.

The Society for Human Resource Management releases newsletters.  I have written more than one missive to them and am no longer a member of “SHRM” because of some of their “positions.” They were absolutely off the chain freaked out about “card check” and the hand-wringing over “Obamacare” is laughable.  Local HR professional societies get together - with or without the “Chamber of Horrors and Commerce.”  

Further, HR consulting firms are a dime a dozen, some specializing in “streamlining”.  I think these hatchet men and women in “business casual clothing” should re-brand their organizations, hire Mike Huckabee as a spokes model, and call it what it is - “Scream-lining?!  The “best practices” can be bastardized by anyone with an “agenda.”

Sadly, many of these policies are developed without proper thought and testing – never mind using any data other than the financial data.  These cobbled together “ideas” result in miserable employees most often and many times they are removed or amended after the damage is done.  If I had a dollar for every time “A Decider” shrugged and replied, “Well, it looked good on paper” I’d be living in Key West now.  Employees who would be affected by these changes are rarely included in the discussions.  

In places like hospitals, cost-cutting and data-skewing methods can be down right dangerous.  As an example, floor nurse staffing levels are heavily influenced in some facilities by the accountants.  These bean counters try to use only the “number” of patients on a floor - rather than using a matrix to take into account acuity (how sick a person really is, how much care a patient needs), experience of staff, support of managers, integration with other departments, etc.  When nurses unionize, this is one of their top talking points. They are right.  The data proves that just counting “Bodies in Beds” is dangerous and shock of shock - actually increases healthcare costs - not to mention mortality rates.

An interesting dynamic in this “throw cost-cutting shit on a barn and see what sticks” Corporate Policy and Procedure mentality is the role of unions. Many companies with both union and non-union employees have had to up the ante and adjust wages, work rules, benefits, and exempt/non-exempt positions, or have learned (nearly too late) that the changes they wish to implement will create two “classes” of workers.  It is a PR nightmare for companies whose union employees “have it better” than their non-union counterparts. 

It’s sad when workers resent unions instead of realizing the unions are integral in the “checks and balances” in Corporate America.