Working in HR

Laughter Therapy

When we were running a two-day Stress Management course in Shell South Africa, laughter therapy was one of the modules. It is incredible what a few minutes of laughter can do to your mood and energy levels. Have a laugh this weekend!



There would be only one negative aspect of laughter though... when the politicians are laughing at their people.

Bush and Berlusconi sharing a toast back in 2008

Passion Trumps Intellect

Gary Hamel is going to revolutionize talent sourcing as we know it. Initially, all companies were looking either for conscientiousness and discipline when looking for blue-collar labor or smarts when recruiting for top brass. Back in the 80s the big multinationals realized that the soft skills would also come handy when dealing with the rapidly diversifying business across the globe. So all kinds of "helicopter view" assessments sprang up. At Shell, for instance, the graduate selection criteria are about Capacity (thinking), Achievement (doing) and Relationships (people) - the CAR, as we used to refer to it.

So this Hamel guy comes up with the idea that Intellect accounts only for 15% of what an employer should look for in a potential candidate. Together with Obedience and Diligence, these three account only for 20% or one-fifth of a desired employee profile - they have become commodities, available at will anywhere in the world. What comes on the top of the list? You will find out from the following short video:

Generation Illiterate?

Scene at the cafeteria today:

I am paying for my lunch. The cashier, a young lady of 20-something, is punching in the pre-programmed selections and the total comes up to 230 rubles. I hand her in the 500-ruble note and then the unexpected happens. For some reason, the system did not give her an option to calculate the change, so she got up, walked to the next cash register, picked up a calculator and computed that 500-230 was indeed 270.

All pensive, I picked up the tray, sat down and ate my lunch deep in thoughts... 

Some call them Generation Einstein, and they have all the reasons to do so. They know the answer to any question, they can make complicated calculations and spell better than Shakespeare and Oxford professors, but --- they can only do all of that if they are aided by the modern technology. I recall my not so distant school years when we were forbidden to use calculators in the Maths class. We were not allowed to use dictionaries writing essays and other in-class assignments. We had to commit difficult formulas and long poems to memory. We were the you-are-what-you-know generation. Now we are having the you-are-the-speed-of-your-processor generation.

Is it progress or degradation?

Russia, Business and Two-Headed Eagles

If you feel like an Asian in the West and like a European in Asia, then you must be a Russian.

Today at work I had a discussion with a colleague of mine on the subject of sustainability of using the natural resources to keep the Russian economy afloat. My argument was that fossil fuels is not the answer, while he maintained that Russia can afford for good many years not invest into its science and technology, because we can buy whatever we want with the money flowing from the ground. Oil, gas, diamonds, gold - we are hostages of our own wealth.

Surely, I stuck to my guns maintaining that the only competitive advantage a country might have is its flexibility and ability to learn. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. For the sake of an argument let's assume that very soon a new source of energy will be discovered that could be available anywhere and cost less than water.  The cost of oil & gas will plummet and all the OPEC nations together with Russia will go around the world with a beggar's cup jingling it periodically to squeeze morsels of pity from the richer neighbors for old days' sake. State hospitals are in ruinous conditions, children at school have problems reciting classical 18th century poems (the Golden Age of Russian poetry!!!) and all brains have been drained back in the 90s. The government are doing everything to ensure that the remainder of those who can make a difference leave the country as well... I don't know why Russian science is stifled - maybe to ensure that nothing is invented that might distort the natural (stagnant) way of modern Russian history. Even though I do not believe in the conspiracy theory, it is difficult to explain why the Michelin No Air Tires are not still in production, unless the major tire and automotive producers block any innovation as they need to recover their sunk costs invested in current production facilities.  At the same time, what is the probability of the improbable? I hope you have read the Black Swan to know the answer... In short, should the proverbial mass hit the fan, what will Russia do to compete with other countries?

To explain how things are, I'll give just two examples that were shared with me by a friend who recently started his new job with a large energy company, 100% Russian-owned and controlled.

Example 1: The first story is about initiative and silos. My friend discovered very soon that such a tool as Outlook Calendar is not used in the company at all. Naturally, he inquired with his colleagues why they did not use it - it is so convenient. The colleagues looked at him with bewilderment,
"Why would we need it?"
"Well", reasoned my friend, "what if you would like to book some time to discuss an issue with your boss?"
The colleagues got seriously concerned with my friend's mental health,
"If our boss wants to talk to us, he will ORDER us to come, it does not work the other way around."
My friend was insistent. After all, he is hopelessly spoiled by the Western management practices,
"And in case you want to arrange a meeting with your co-workers from other teams".
The colleagues recoiled in shock,
"If our bosses want us to meet, then my boss will talk to your boss, and they will arrange for us to meet."

Example 2: The second story is about unsubstantiated arrogance and close-mindedness. Since this Russian company is desperate for money, it has to set up JVs and deal with foreign companies. Cash is still king, whether you are a Russian energy company or a Chinese lemonade stand. The Finance Director of a foreign JV sent an email to the Chief Accountant of our Russian company. After waiting for the answer for a month, he forwarded the message to his counterpart asking to chase up. This message eventually landed in the hands of my friend, who went to the Chief Accountant lady to set things straight. She blankly negated the very fact of receiving such email. When my friend showed the email to her (where she was copied), she exclaimed:
"But of course! It's in English! Since I don't speak it, I deleted the message".

Is the message clear yet? Come tomorrow and that tomorrow is not about fossil fuels, what does Russia has to offer? Its imperial ambitions? Its 98% literacy rate? Its nuclear arsenal. I'm afraid all that is already in the past, and the future is too smeared to see clearly through the political mud. We see Russia all beautiful and powerful, but aren't we looking in the rear view mirror?

On Strategy and Mice

The mice grew fed up with their powerlessness and the fact that they always fell prey to those who are stronger. They decided to go to the Old Wise Owl for advice. The Owl contemplated them for an instance and pronounced his decision:

- Hedgehogs have needles to protect them from predators. You must become hedgehogs.

The mice were ecstatic with joy and went home happy that soon their misery would be over. Passing the rye field they stopped all of a sudden having realized that they had absolutely no idea how to become hedgehogs. So they turned on their heels (or whatever it is that the mice typically would turn on) and went back to the Old Wise Owl. The Owl was not happy to be bothered again as it disturbed him from an extremely critical task of sitting high perched up in a tree and looking terribly important. The mice squeaked in perfect unison:

- Dear Owl. You are omnisapient and awfully clever, please, do tell us how we should become hedgehogs.

The Owl looked down at them in disbelief:

- How should I know? It's pure tactics, and I am all about strategy.

Generation Y: Russia is Not Ready

Today I was a guest speaker at Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, trying to convey the Executive MBA students the importance of Change Management and why it should or should not belong to the area of responsibility of HR. One thing struck me as hard to believe: those heads of large departments and directors of companies have never heard about the Generations Theory, do not know anything about the Millennials, Boomers or that they belong to Generation X, and they give no cognisance to the fact that the nature of their workforce is changing.

I shared just a couple of slides to rest my case on changing demographics and Russia's total unpreparedness for that shift. Let's begin with some numbers. These are the projections of the State Committee of Statistics for the demographic picture of Russia 10 years from now - in 2012. The chasm (words fail me to come up with a better definition for what's looming in a very near future) cannot be negated: in 10 years the number of 20-24 year olds who form the core of the future potential of a company or of the entire nation will be half of what it is now. Given that we are already struggling to resource the business and the war for talent is rampant, I fear to imagine what it is going to become in the years coming. Should there be no strategy for talent import in place pretty soon, the business will be facing a collapse situation. A basket case of a country...

But that gap will become everyone's headache in a couple of years. Right now everyone seems to be relaxed and laid back, watching listlessly the revenues from the natural resources Russia is so lucky (or unlucky) to possess. We are so content with the situation that no heed is taken that the workforce is changing and that Generation Y is voluminous enough to make its statement in the world of business. The European businesses have recognized the needs of the new generations and have taken the necessary steps to make sure that they are able to attract and retain the top performers by providing the so-much-valued flexibility and the opportunities for self-actualization that characterize Generation Y. Below is a slide from Top Employers research done last year across Europe:

What do we see in Russia? The business (nor the Government) could care less what type of people will be shaping the nation's economy or are shaping already. Why? Let's take a simple example of working from home. Across the world, it's a reality. In Russia,

• if you don't come to the office, according to the Labor Legislation it is an absence;
• there are provisions for home work, but if you decide to go that way, the employer will have to attest the working conditions and certify that your apartment is fit for working - can you imagine conducting an exercise like that?
• if you work from home and an accident occurs, is that an industrial injury and the company is liable?
• etc, etc, etc.

The legal hurdles to such a seemingly simple issue are tremendous, and everyone is keeping silent: the unions (which is a joke in Russia right now, really), the business, the government, the civil society (which is maybe even a bigger joke than the unions).

Thus, what I left the students with were questions and problems. Hopefully, they left the classroom with more questions than they had come with because that definitely was my intention. Skolkovo is supposed to nurture crème de la crème of the Russian busines elite, so if they don't start asking the right questions at the highest levels, who will?