Every country, every society, every business and every organisation is bonded together by an intricate tapestry of unique values and behaviours that are formed from a history of both good and bad leaders creating good and bad organisational experiences which come together to form what we now call “culture”.
Culture and its impact on an organisation is an immeasurable, multifaceted entity which gives power, identity and purpose unequally to a workforce and its leadership. As HR professionals it is imperative that we remain on top of this “intricate tapestry” if we are to remain a viable contributing force for our organisation.
As the powerhouse of cultural influence HR must hold a true insight into its organisation’s mindset. Every human interaction a person has with an organisation is an attempt to understand that organisations culture whether it’s to join it, do business with it or even compete with it.
Consequently, HR needs to be the master of culture and not the servant. HR needs to understand and interpret every aspect of an organisations ethos if it is to truly harness and capitalize on this tool for achieving excellence.
However, if HR has ever had a failing likely to cause its downfall it is that it is last to see that culture never asks permission to change? It just changes. Across HR it has singularly failed to see and grasp the need to monitor and adapt organisational values to ensure the culture of their organisation stays positive, engaging, welcoming and encouraging.
Instead HR has attempted to constrain and stagnate culture in an attempt to milk every last drop of past success rather than creating a new set of values and behaviours modelled to support the needs of the changing working environment and employment populous.
Instead of staying alive to how change is influencing culture HR prefers to develop elongated systems predicated on outdated business models or the hairbrained rantings of so-called HR Guru’s more focused on selling books rather than selling organisational success. It takes very little research to see than many of the “good and great” of HR who led us on this Guru inspired journeys into the millennium are now either disgraced or branded failures.
How many of us as young HR professionals were “strongly advised” to purchase Tom Peters book In Search of Excellence Tom Peters was the go to management consultant of his day and his book showcased the businesses we were directed to copy, the companies we should mirror. However, within three years of this book being published almost a third of these companies were either bankrupt or in severe financial difficulties. Cultures change and we are failing to acknowledge it, react to it and/or address it.
Whilst in the last two decades the rest of the world has been changing at a speed never seen in my beloved profession which has preferred instead to evolve into the human equivalent of the sloth. Everything from communication to entertainment has undergone meteoric evolution, every aspect of understanding regarding human interaction and language has imploded as smart technology, voiceless conversations and earbuds have radically changed how humans engage.
Yet whilst this revolution is taking place HR continues to promulgate outdated unproductive concepts such as performance appraisals and incremental pay structures. Like a flashback to a time when we regularly reminded ourselves that “evening and weekend calls were cheaper” the HR fraternity continues in its attempts to persuade our managers to operate in a way destined to ensure their workforce sees them as outdated and irrelevant.
Let’s take a moment to notice that Payphones are virtually gone. So are video stores. No one enters banks anymore, very few carry cash and online shopping is now the norm and we all book flights online. A third of all six-year old’s have a phone, every UK child over 11 years of age has access to a smart phone. What do all these changes have in common? None of these changes asked for permission…they just happened.
The reason HR struggles with this is that very point. In an HR environment predicated on saying “NO” where HR staff justify their existence by creating systems that require their input and approval any environment that changes because of user expectation is abhorrent to the traditional HR officer or their more fancy title “business partner”. unless there is a procedure to manage culture, HR will continue to lag behind because it cannot comprehend or understand that culture never asks permission to change. It just changes.
The pace of cultural change in organisations has accelerated significantly for one simple reason, everyone moved online, and all delay was taken out of the working environment. Communication, decision making, and information sharing have all become spontaneous, people have developed an expectation of immediacy. Social media has accelerated the pace of change to a never imagined level affecting every aspect of life. Think of fashion and Hairstyles, trends come and go faster than you can post a selfie.
But it’s more than just preferences that are changing. Netflix killed video stores. Uber and Lyft have disrupted the taxi industry. Amazon and online shopping are making High Streets look like ghost towns. As a result, work and life cultures are changing faster than HR can assess and adapt. In simple terms HR is failing to develop relevant self-awareness wanting instead to shout stop so they can develop policy or procedure.
Don’t get me wrong many HR Directors and their teams have supported some level of cultural change and proudly proclaim themselves as up to date and current but the truth is, that in many cases HR might no longer be acting like the 1990’s, but Instead, they act like its 2000 sitting on the edge of the millennium praying for time to catch up. I can accept that there are pockets of brilliant HR working hard to be more relevant compared to what it used to be, but as millennials bounce between employers which is their preferred style they all too often encounter HR departments desperately trying to steer the ship with a broken rudder. Even those HR professionals who have made early attempts it often seems like they have decided that the change made so far was so painful for their teams that many HR leaders have decided that they don’t want to change any more.
If you want a quick test to see how current your HR department is adapting and capitalising on the evolving culture of your organisation then check the original dates of your policies and procedures and don’t be surprised that many of these have remained unreviewed since the last century and even those that have been updated they have simply adapted outdated operating models in an attempt to make them work in an age of technology. I am still seeing HR departments expecting new recruits to come into HR as soon as they join to sign pieces of paper! From my experience I have found most medium to large organisations are operating with HR practices at least a decade out of date.
I fully understand that more than a few readers of this article will by now feel their blood pressure rising and anger growing. After all, who am I to tell active HR directors they are getting it wrong. Well, the goal of HR is to support business success. Our goal is to lead people into a relationship with their employer that results in them embracing the ethos of the organisation. But if those employees live in a culture that they don’t engage with or don’t understand then how can they support effectively.
The hard truth is HR leaders who don’t understand and embrace the power of culture change will never be able to speak into it. They become like the person who refuses to have a smart phone yet doesn’t understand why they can’t communicate with anyone under 40. Leaders who lose touch with the culture won’t be able to reach it. But don’t give up hope, there is still the potential to re-engage with your workforce. There are three basic steps that have the potential to help you rediscover how to embrace culture and allow its freedom to change to become its greatest strength to your organisation.
Firstly, become a student of culture. Don’t allow the arrogance of position to make you feel you have nothing more to learn about it. Start again to read and take in this new phenomenon called culture. Develop an understanding of the values of each of the generations that follow your own and attempt to understand what drives them.
Secondly engage with today’s young managers, they bring a fresh energy, perspective and joy to work and leadership that I value so much. In addition, people under 30 are natural cultural experts. They get trends because they make trends. Having young thinkers, dreamers and leaders around you in leadership and having them a part of your life will keep your thinking fresh and in tune with what’s happening in every aspect of your workforce’s lives.
And finally accept that culture change never ends. Unfortunately, too many HR leaders still fall into the trap of believing that at some point cultural change will come to an end and the pain will be over. Many HR departments I have walked into have stopped changing at some point. Walking into them it’s as if I can smell a year. Some HR departments smell like 1977, some like 1989, others more helpfully smell like 2010, but too many smell old. They smell like the year they stopped changing. The responsibility for these falls to the HRD, HR departments freeze in particular years because their leaders stop innovating. So, it’s simple keep morphing, keep changing, stay current, and you’ll always be able to speak to the culture.
