18 Years - What's new?

I don't usually have a problem when it comes to writing, good or bad it usually flows out and I feel like I've achieved something. This morning however, I've written some quite low and depressing pieces (one kept in draft possibly for a rainy day), then thought as it's the week before Christmas it needed to be something cheery and festive, but I couldn't muster that, but as I was making a cuppa and thinking about my sons, a lot has changed over the last 18 years, but has enough changed for our people?

My sons are 18 tomorrow and I'm extremely proud of them and all they have and are achieving. My biggest wish is now for them to follow their own path, own their own mistakes (and learn from them), and find happiness and meaning in whatever they choose to do. As I look at them, they are without a doubt the biggest (and tallest at 6ft 3") thing in my life that I am most proud of.

So as I think back 18 years ago to the day they were born, a lot has changed in their lives and mine. They've gone from scrunched up babies to fully grown men. They are driving, socialising, partying, working, studying and they've also mastered walking, talking, eating, reading, writing and lifting a lot of heavy weights.

18 years ago I was in the early days of my 'Staff and Training Days'. Recruiting, ER, Training, Talent, I'd even two years earlier been exposed to my first elearning experience (something I am so proud that Chrysalis have improved dramatically).

Social Media wasn't prevalent in our lives and certainly not in our work, email was limited to certain roles and not everyone had a mobile phone. Internal mail was still heavily relied upon and there was a lot of paperwork to sign. Most deliveries to branch (as I was still in retail) were on delivery notes that were checked and signed and HR would walk the floor and then vanish back to the ivory tower where appointments had to be made if you needed to speak to anyone.

Performance appraisals were annual, as were bonuses, sick leave was used, by some, as an extension of leave. Many part time employees wouldn't ever work overtime as this would impact their benefits and trainees expected regular salary reviews (increases). A lot of managers were bullies and the world was hierarchical, if you weren't at their level or above, you were looked down upon. Senior managers had their own dining room and there was a smoking room (inside) where the smokers would take their breaks. And the thickness of someone's personnel file was either proof how long they had been employed and how many letters about bonuses and pay rises hey had received or showed how many times they had been in 'formal' meetings.

Retail trading was five or six days a week, John Lewis hadn't yet started to open on Sundays, or Mondays and the internet wasn't trusted for any purchases - only price checking so you could then to the store and buy it, from a person.

What's New?

Whilst HR don't hide quite so frequently in our Ivory Tower, we still don't walk the floor enough. PDR's are sadly still annual and we still associate it with bonuses and pay.

Despite the massive increase in the way the rest of the world uses tech, we've still not caught up. Some are doing really well and HR tech is a growing industry, but sadly there's still a group of HR that think tech will solve their problems (it won't).

The way consumers purchase, the way we talk to each other, the way we shop and work and interact has changed, and in many ways at a considerable pace - yet many HR teams are still doing what they did they way they did it. The most visible shift in a lot of ways has been from Personnel to HR to People and Culture/Change. And I get so excited when I speak to people in the sector who are ripping our hierarchies, and burning (literally) staff handbooks, and scrapping annual reviews and increasing pay because it's right not because it's policy, and personalising training, and all of the other great stuff that's happening in the industry - but is it fast enough?

It can be a really exciting time for HR, and so it should be, I'm excited and many of our clients are too. But for those who aren't keeping up to speed, you're in danger of becoming extinct and so to are your organisations.

So let's make 2019 the start of a new era - let's make the next 18 years the years that HR upped its game and wowed our organisations with our ability, our value add and our enthusiasm.

It's time to close the book on the last 18 years and create a new story of our own.

Kelly

P.S Happy Birthday to my gorgeous men, I wish you all the happiness in the world - it's yours to find - Mum xx

Not one for thinking outside the box – mainly because she believes there isn’t one, Kelly founded Chrysalis in 2014 after being appointed as the UK’s Youngest HR Director (something she was told she couldn’t achieve with two young sons), after feeling that consultancy needed to more people and less process-driven because – well that’s what gives consultants a bad reputation.

Through her consulting, coaching, talks, presentations, workshops and books, she rips up the rule book and helps people create what’s best for them, their teams and their organisations – not what’s best for their competitors.