soft through hard

Some (but definitely not all) so-called soft-skills can be assessed through hard-skills. Coding, as a hard-skill for instance, can be relatively straightforward to assess. You present the talent with a coding problem. Depending on their ability to rectify the mistake and the time (to a lesser extent) they take, the assessor can gauge the talent’s coding skills. Hard-skills, check.

Depending on how a talent solves the problem, the assessor can derive some insights regarding soft-skills. Does the talent take much initiative? Do they use a creative approach? What’s their problem-solving mindset? How far are they willing to go to solve the problem?

In some cases, soft-skills can be assessed through hard-skills.

clue in the game

My brother-in-law helps manufacture rubber in the port of Antwerp. His HR department literally sits in an ivory, sorry, glass tower. Alongside an R&D department, some managers and executives. The workers, on the other hand, are in the plant, which is a different building altogether. HR doesn’t have the slightest clue of what’s happening down there.

The good thing is, they’re very well aware. That’s why HR uses proverbial antennas and satellites. Just to create an understanding of what’s going on. Also, for hiring purposes, they must consult with team leaders from manufacturing because they wouldn’t know how to begin to express what the job entails precisely to future candidates.

Situations like these are, by no means, an exception. Every day, HR is involved in hiring and interviewing candidates for a job that they know nothing about. When HR isn’t involved with a particular job, how can they provide legitimate advice?

Create a thorough understanding of the actual job-content and team roles for a specific job. In other words, feel what it’s really like to work that job on a daily basis.

no compassion

Empathy is not the same as compassion. This is what so many (HR) managers are getting wrong. Empathy is the ability to see it from the other person’s perspective. That’s it.

Compassion isn’t a bad thing, and it could even be what the person is looking for, but it should be contingent upon empathy.

Empathy isn’t imagining how you would feel in their place. Empathy is imagining how they feel.

When somebody (finally) musters up the courage to share what they’re going through with their manager, try to really see it from their perspective.

I propose a reverse Sinek.

What are they actually feeling? How did they end up feeling this way? Why do they feel this way?

Try this approach next time empathy is required.

Bonus tip: empathy is always required.

half a century

HR is lagging behind marketing and advertising with at least half a century.

Over a century ago, John Wanamaker famously said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Today, due to insights and analytics, advertisers can work in a data-driven way, providing proof for the results they’re achieving for their customers.

HR departments in many companies struggle with providing even the most fundamental insights and analytics.

If we want to work more efficiently, both financially and from an employee engagement point of view, this has to change, now.

how do you say

Entire TV formats are based on a simple principle. Episode after episode, seasons on end, the concept of misunderstandings seems inexhaustible on the one end and insatiable on the other end of the viewers.

The mechanics behind a misunderstanding are straightforward. What somebody thought they understood isn’t what was supposed to be conveyed — perhaps based on a double-entendre or other misunderstanding-boosters.

At one point, a misunderstanding is funny. Until it isn’t. You, as a viewer, grow frustrated because, well… It’s all just a big misunderstanding.

Reality transcends fiction, always. That’s what my history teacher once told me.

Every day, large misunderstandings are conceived. Larger than the misunderstandings exploited in comedies.

We all fall victim to misunderstandings, and HR is no different.

When companies, and their respective HR departments, reduce the potential for misunderstandings, they can effectively avert much human drama. That drama, by the way, is never as funny as on a screen.

A good start is finding a common language, terminology, and a framework to support discussions, much like other industries with their proper jargon.

the great stay

Some parts of the world currently have so-called great HR problems. The great resignation. The great reset. The great reshuffle. Just to name a few great issues or opportunities, depending on how you look at them.

Even though we live in a globalized world, extrapolating trends from one continent to another isn’t always as straightforward as it may seem. Minor, nuanced differences make for an entirely different job culture altogether.

In Belgium, only 8,1% of people changed jobs in 2021, according to Securex.

If there is a problem, let alone a great one, it would be “the great stay.”

With so few people changing jobs, there are a couple of things we can do.

Incentivize them to switch jobs more (often). 

On the other hand, we could make the great stay, an actual great stay. By maximizing employees’ potential, engagement, and productivity.

Companies should choose the latter, in any case.

levels of love

Bernard de Clairvaux, the twelfth-century French monk, described “four levels of love.”

The first level is loving yourself for your own benefit.

The second is loving others for your benefit.

The third level is loving someone else for their benefit.

The fourth is loving yourself for the benefit of others.

From an HR point of view, the fourth level is where you want to be with your company. Suppose a company makes a deliberate choice to actively contribute to the well-being of its employees. When that company provides them with perspective, recognizes their value, and aligns its jobs with their expectations (or vice versa), that’s when individual employees thrive.

If I shine, you shine. When individual employees are at their best, their positive vibe(s) rubs off throughout the company, boosting engagement and productivity.

professor jerk

Years ago, when I was diagnosed with a benign tumor in the face, the professor was an absolute jerk about it. The way he relayed the diagnosis was terrible. Sadly, I’ve seen cats communicate better.

What that man lacks in social skills, he makes up for in medical and surgical skills — a brilliant professor, without a doubt.

If that’s the communication style this doctor applies with his patients, how does he communicate with his colleagues? What’s worse, this professor, in particular, is no exception.

We can’t all be communication gurus, but there is room for improvement in many cases.

Bad interpersonal communication styles in healthcare can literally have fatal consequences.

Mapping professional expectations and soft-skills in healthcare can be leveraged to provide learning & development trajectories and build better teams.

In the end, engaged healthcare teams save more lives.

storm brewing

Thinking ahead for a couple of decades is tough for humans. If it weren’t, our climate would face fewer challenges today.

When a storm is coming, measures to limit damage are taken (relatively) fast. After the storm has blown by, few measures are taken to anticipate the next storm better.

HR has been weathering many storms lately. Solving employee engagement issues as they occur, on the one hand. Unfortunately, by then, it’s usually already too late. Fixing retention issues by hiring, on the other hand. The list of storm-combatting directives goes on…

The initiatives above are legitimate, short-term ways of combatting an HR storm today. However, the (hr) climate crisis will not fix itself without a strategic plan, spanning multiple years even.

Employee engagement is a proactive game.

attitude uncertain

“We don’t want to overload our candidates with tests or assessments.” That sounds like a sensible approach. How many tests are too many? The answer is usually unclear.

The rationale behind this sensible thought is often fear. Companies don’t want to introduce extra hurdles. Struggling to find talent, why make it even harder?

Statements I’ve heard many times throughout the last couple of weeks; whoever wants to work with us, we’ll hire them. We hire based on attitude, and we’ll train them on the job. Not a bad approach per se, but something is lacking.

Without assessing attitude, there is no certainty if the candidate will thrive.