Don't Recognize HR - We Don't Need It!

In the 12 years of my career in Training, Talent and Organization Development, I have attended many HR and Industry Forums, Congresses, Expos, and Exhibitions. In my experience, the 80:20 rule seems to apply here as well since only 20% of my colleagues from HR ever attend these events to learn, network and share best practice. This leads to the 20% getting 80% of the recognition in the Industry. 

With this in mind, I was recently at an HR Congress which included an Awards & Recognition Ceremony. The chairperson opened with "Who doesn't like a little recognition?" and this seemed to resonate with the 2000+ HR Professionals who traveled to attend from all over the World. 

After attending this event, many of my 4000+ LinkedIn Connections posted and continue to share posts about the Award or Recognition they received at the ceremony. Amongst this praise and positivity, I saw a message on my LinkedIn timeline that was cynical about HR Awards. This post with many likes and comments was about HR Awards being a marketing gimmick and thriving on people's need for external recognition. 

While this was a trigger for my own reflection about HR Awards, this article is not about criticizing anyone or their views. It is rather my own view about two key areas relating to HR Awards and any corporate Awards in general. 

Awards are a Marketing Gimmick - So are our Careers!

Hundreds of books on executive presence and personal branding talk about the importance of consciously building a brand and marketing it. A few bodies like CIPD, SHRM, ATD that were founded and work purely for the betterment of the HR Function provide such opportunities for branding. They need funding for events and this comes from paid delegates and sponsors. Does this funding make these events and awards associated with them a marketing gimmick? 

People thrive on external recognition - So do the Cynics!

Various theories on human motivation including Maslow, Herzberg to name a few, state that there is no one size fits all when it comes to motivation. Intrinsic motivators are powerful, yet a sizeable population is extrinsically motivated. So a few questions came to mind:

• Should we not recognize people because they should be intrinsically motivated? 
• Are people publicly cynical to be recognized as Cynics or are they intrinsically motivated? 

To look for an answer to these questions I did a search on LinkedIn with the Keyword "Top 100" in the content section which brought up "100's" of posts. In most of these posts, I could see the pride and joy of Organizations, Employees, Businessman and, HR Professionals. A few among these 100's were the cynics and I thank the cynics for leading the rest me into a reflection "Are Awards a Marketing Gimmick?" “Do people attend only to fuel their need for external recognition?”

Finally, as a training professional I had to practice what I preach and so I created a personal action plan based on the below 3 questions - 

1. How many internal HR Recognitions have I set up in my organization?

2. How much support do I offer to my team to attend external events and nominate themselves for awards?

3. What have I done to share feedback (directly) with the awarding bodies on their awarding methods?

I would encourage every senior HR Professional reading this article to reflect on this subject and ask themselves similar questions. This would ensure we have a united front when it comes to Awards, Recognition and their impact on our careers.