Are your human capital assets or chattel?

Like most HR professionals my inbox is bombarded with data almost all day. But one caught my eye the other day, which led me to begin to think about the question I posed in the title to this post.

One of the posts I get is from the Networked Lawyer Blog (http://www.networkedlawyer.com) in which they discussed the case of USA vs. Nosal in which a recruiter for Korn Ferry was charged with the theft of Korn Ferry proprietary and confidential information in the form of candidate information.  When I talked to some of my recruiting friends the response I got was that the candidates belong to the recruiting agency not the recruiter.

I worked for several recruiting agencies in the past and the same situation prevailed there as well. What bothered me the most in this situation was that in this social media connected world, can a recruiting firm or a corporation truly claim that the background of those employees or candidates is a trade secret. For edification I looked up the definition of trade secret and found that the definition states that a trade secret is a secret process, technique, method, etc., used to advantage in a trade, business, profession, etc.  Nowhere in the definition does it say human capital assets.

In 1973, just as I was starting as a recruiter a blockbuster book was released by Allan Cox (http://www.allancox.com) titled “Confessions of a Corporate Headhunter” in which Allan Cox laid out the whole recruiting process to the general public. So I reached out to him and asked him about his thoughts and he responded “ what good is a recruiter to the world if s/he doesn’t remember, especially talented people he comes across, presumably many of them, for their gifts and accomplishments.”

Here is my take on the question. There was a time and place when we paid our human capital based on what they made or produced. In this new interconnected world we now pay them based on what they dream. There is no reasonable way that we can control the ideas that are in their head. We also can’t control the flow of ideas in this interconnected world.

If we claim that our human capital are assets to the organization , then we need to realize that they are assets and not a piece of property. HR’s role in our organizations is to be the gatekeeper to talent acquisition and we can’t expect that means we have to confront this issue headfirst.  Allan Cox went on to state that “ all executes we meet in searches, though not appropriate candidates for an existing search can be suitable sources for referrals for those they know or know of who might make an ideal prospect for the current search we are conducting.”

Thus as an organization we are confronted with a decision. If we believe that they are assets to the organization then we have to treat them as such. We need to recognize that the human capital assets are non-owned leased talent who can go anywhere. If that is your true feelings then we need to recognize they are not property of the organization. On the other hand if you are living in an outdated world where you think of employees as property then recognize in the long run your talent searches are going to be limited. Understand that you will drive away talent not attract them in this innovative world we find ourselves in.

Are your human capital assets or chattel? Lets start a discussion on how the human capital fit into our cultures. Email me at dan@dbaiconsulting.com with your thoughts.

Yesterday is history tomorrow is mystery today is present

You read that real quick didn’t you? But go back and really consider the implications of the words themselves to the human resource professional in the daily exercise of their responsibilities.
Yesterday is history
There is no organization that is free from having made really bad human resource decisions. We have all fed into the corporate mantra, even though we may believe differently. We have been fed the Kool-Aide that the corporate organization is always right. We all are guilty of telling an employee, asking us a question –“That is not my job” resulting in the alienation of the very talent we need to maintain the organization. We have all enforced decisions which in the basis of our moral beliefs we felt were wrong. We failed to send a candidate on for further consideration because the hiring manager said he/she would not hire someone like that. The EEOC press releases are filled with very stupid actions on the part of management. We can’t go back and change them. These actions are now part of organizational history forever enshrined in the persona of our organizations. The good news is that these actions are in the past.
Tomorrow is a mystery
Flip the coin over. We are not psychics that enable us to predict the future. As human resource professionals we have an uncertain view of the road ahead of us. We are certain that the nature of our jobs will change. Demands on our time will increase whether from regulatory requirements or the implication of change within the organization. Some are suggesting that we return to the time when we were called Personnel. I would suggest that we covered that in yesterday is history, we can’t reasonably return to the past and expected to be productive in the new environment called the global workplace. The role we increasingly play as the gatekeeper of talent management is not very well served by going back to the future. Our organization’s future will not be well served by returning to an era when we were just paper pushers. We moved to that era following the change away from the Quaker business model to the human capital as numbers mentality. It did not work when we changed to a knowledge economy.As result it is critical that we prepare the organizations for that uncertain future. The way we do that is to delve into the present to resolve issues that in the past have been a detriment to the organization.
Today is present
Taiichi Ohno of the Toyota Motor Corporation is reported to have said “the past is the past and what is important is the current condition and what we will do next to go beyond where we are today.” As the human resource professional within the organization, it is critical that we become the change leader for the organization. We can’t afford to rely on the strategic response that this not how we do things here. We can’t rely on the strategic response that we have done that and it did not work. Not only HR but the entire organization must begin to look at how we can do thing better, faster and cheaper. We need to look at our long term objectives from the rose colored glasses which tell us that we need to do things better (less errors), faster (now instead of procrastinating) and cheaper (less cost outlay). We need to look at our current situations and seek to bring about change to improve the organization in the future. We need to begin to see the problems and feel how they impact on the organization. Once we have reached this plateau we must lead the change within the organization to correct these problems. The human resource professional is the only one with all the keys to meet these challenges.
Consider a recent action by the EEOC in which a financial institution agreed to pay $95,000 and provide injunctive relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC had charged that the bank failed to provide a reasonable accommodation for a former employee’s disability and discharged her because of her age. Yesterday is past. The bank made the mistakes.The future is a mystery due to the unclear picture whether management understood that change was needed. The present is here because the organization must pay the fine and provide relief to the employee. It is also inherent that the organization learn from the past and take corrective action so the problem does not reoccur.

What is your 8" diamater plate?

The NBC News reported on Sunday that the Washington State Department of Transportation reported that a construction project to construct a tunnel in Seattle had been halted because the world’s largest boring machine had been stopped by an 8 inch diameter steel pipe. When I stopped for a moment to consider this I asked myself in our HR functions what is our 8” diameter steel pipe?

The majority of HR professionals will tell you that they meet that 8” pipe every day. We are told by a manager that a position needs to be filled ASAP and then they drag their feet on their end of the process. We try and introduce a new policy or procedure which will align HR with the strategic initiatives of the organization and are told several reasons why it won’t work. Do these responses seem familiar?

o   We tried that before and it didn’t work

o   That is just not how we do things here

o   It is too complicated our employees will never go for it

As we begin the New Year it is time that we step back and look for that 8” diameter steel plates. They are the obstacles which cause us to never reach our goals. Some are hidden within our corporate culture. Others are an aspect of the fear of doing something different. They are based in the old attitude that if it is not, broken don’t touch it. However in reality everything we do in our organizations is broken in some fashion. Everything we do can be improved with some minor corrections in path.

So as a New Year’s Resolution ask yourself what is my organizational 8” diameter steel pipe and what do I have to do to get through it? E-Mail me at dan@dbaiconsulting.com and let me know what your 8” plate is and how you plan to get through it if your world class borer can’t.