A few years ago (2019 to be precise – pre-pandemic!) I wrote about the battle of “Conference HR” vs. “Real World HR” (still one of my top 5 read blog posts) in which I pointed out that the hot-takes offered by speakers, pundits and the vendor account executive at the bar are often so far removed from day-to-day reality as to be somewhat laughable.
Now I wholeheartedly believe that HR professionals in SMBs can learn from enterprise organizations and effectively scale-down some of the macro-lessons. And vice-versa: enterprise HR teams have much they can learn from small HR shops.
Case in point: last week, at UNLEASH America (truly one of my favorite events), I attended a session with HR and TA leaders from UPS as they discussed their use of Fountain to scale and streamline the hiring of frontline workers – their candidates are interviewed within 7 minutes of apply and extended an offer 22 minutes post-interview.
Are most of us hiring 400,000 people during “busy season?” No. Nevertheless, it was an amazing and captivating story of their (ongoing) journey – particularly as they discussed how they are now at the phase of finding the “touchpoints” wherein they can insert (re-insert?) the “human touch.”
Do HR teams want to use HR technology to improve efficiency? Absolutely – although it’s often a need for automation, system integrations, or mobile-friendly applications vs. a burning desire for virtual reality or AI. A large part of my fascination with reviewing and exploring HR technology is how it can remind us of the need to balance operational efficiency with the “human” side of what we do.
However, as I was reminded across the Expo floor and during conversations at dinners and Happy Hours, there is a continuing disconnect between pontification and practice.
Attendees at a conference are intrigued and drawn-in by provocative statements – often presented as “the truth.” Session speakers, akin to peddlers of tabloid magazines or editors of reality TV shows, take a position, promote it as the ultimate factoid, and expect us to collectively and obediently fall in line.
There are always popular and of-the-moment sentiments to which HR professionals subscribe; aligning on the topic du jour via Fast Company or WSJ articles or through survey data gathered by an vendor interested party. The resume is dead. Get on TikTok to recruit Gen Z. Mocktails are all the rage.
And sure enough, just as always, a few of these of-the-moment topics rose to the top last week.
Should we discuss them? Absolutely!
The problem is when these sorts of things are tossed out as something we simply MUST-DO (lest we fall behind and become the next Kodak) and we don’t explore the subtleties and nuances inherent in the real world…well…we do ourselves no favors.
To wit…
Remote Work
Pontification: “If you don’t prioritize remote work, you will never be able to compete for today’s top talent.”
Reality: Obviously there are jobs (and industries) where working remotely (or even “hybrid”) is not an option. The line workers needed to restore power after a storm must be in the field. Healthcare workers are not coming to our houses to draw blood, run a CAT Scan, or perform surgery. The team members at the auto dealership must be ON THE LOT to show us the vehicles or IN THE SERVICE SHOP to change our oil. (Of course, the waiting room at the auto dealership is teeming with those who are privileged enough to be able to open their laptops (while kvetching about poor WiFi) and host Zoom calls while waiting for their 18-point inspection.
Do I like being able to work from home? Of course I do; and there’s no denying it’s preferred by lots of folks. But it’s NOT a realistic option for many. Can it be a differentiator when it comes to attracting candidates and hiring? Certainly. But it’s not the default.
Lots of folks, in lots of jobs, will never be able to work remotely – and we need to stop SHAMING the business owners or leaders who will not or cannot fully embrace WFH,
The 4-Day Workweek
Pontification: “We need to move to a 4-day workweek to meet the desires of the emerging workforce.”
Reality: This is not, obviously, as simple as announcing to one’s staff and customers that “we will now be working Monday thru Thursday!” and calling it a day. Here in the good old US of A, we have a little thing called the Fair Labor Standards Act which, among other things, codifies that non-exempt (hourly) employees must be paid an overtime rate of time-and-one-half for any hours worked over 40 per workweek. (The 32 Hour Workweek Act introduced by Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) in 2021 proposes to amend the FLSA. A recent bill introduced in the Senate by Bernie Sanders (I-VT) does the same).
In addition to the payroll impact for employers, this would require an overhaul of many sacrosanct employer-provided benefits – many of which have plans designed for FT (40 hours) versus PT employees. If 32-hours per week becomes “full time,” employers must amend their plan offerings with potential impact accessibility for part-time categorized workers to benefits such as short or long-term disability, PTO, and other benefits. Employers cannot absorb these costs just because new legislation require they do so; responses would undoubtedly include layoffs, elimination of some benefits, and potentially loss of business due to staffing inability.
Would I like a four-day work week? You betcha. But I’m operating from the vantage point of a career and roles where I haven’t been OT eligible for decades. Susie the Call Center Employee who relies on a 40 hours per week paycheck to house and feed her family, will not magically be able to subsist on a paycheck of 32 hours per week (because I can guarantee you she will be cut to 32 hours per week – not 32 hours regular rate and 8 hours of time-and-one-half rate).
So again, just as with the exhortation to prioritize remote work, this topic smacks of elitism and classism. Something good for the ruling class (or consultant class)… so why worry about the majority of other workers?
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I love – really I do – big ideas. Toss them out there and let’s discuss. Let’s dig in and figure out if we CAN make something work instead of nay-saying why it won’t. I’m all for that.
I just am achingly tired of “thinkers” (not doers) gallivanting around the conference circuit presenting concepts and ideas when these same “thinkers” (not doers) haven’t been down in the trenches of real-world HR for decades.
Or, even worse, those who have never (ever) visited.
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“Pontification expresses opinions or judgments. It’s less of a process and more of a static delivery mechanism for information the messenger has deemed valuable. It is often dogmatic (even when it’s friendly) and it favors what matters to the speaker over what matters to the audience. Pontification centers the speaker.” TedX
