A name by any other rose is just as prickly

Human Resources magazine reports that Cable & Wireless has renamed its HR function “People & Brand”; to be lead by their new Director of Brand and Culture.

The news item says that the new man’s responsibilities cover HR, resourcing, talent management, culture change, corporate communications and brand management across the business. So possibly things are not quite as bad as they seem and when an employee (bet they call them colleagues) wants to discuss pay the door they go through may still say HR. If not, pity the poor graduate trainee  having to write ‘People and Brand Officer’ in the ‘what job’ box on the ‘where are they now’ section of the alumni newsletter.

OK, a new label can help to kick-start change but stick to words that work in everyday use and have face-value currency. I for one do not want to be accredited to a Chartered Institute of People.

Le mot juste – now 24/7

I am always keen to promote clear writing, condemn jargon and generally get grumpy-old-manish about the written and spoken word. Contrary to what you might expect in this Internet and web-based world ordinary people (ie, those in ordinary, every-day jobs) are expected to respond to more and more written information expressed in increasingly confusing language. There are a number of web-based sources of spelling and useage but a new one Grammartogo offers subscribers not only guidance to grammer, spelling, writing style and much more but an interactive email service to solve your writing queries (and, often as not, prove your boss wrong).

A verb by any other name

I praised Tesco a couple of posts ago for dropping the “10 item or less” sign but take it all back having heard their CFO on the radio talking about the annual results. He referred to the fact that a particular product range “anniversaried” recently. I was so annoyed I deaccessed the programme immediately.

HR by numbers – measuring workforce performance

The CIPD has announced the latest in its compendium of toolkits. This one is on Human Capital Management (HCM). Mostly I am very impressed with their toolkits. They provide a good deal of clarity and help people understand what the various topics involve (thankfully, without implying that it is so easy that they do not need professional help!). In this case I am not so sure.

It may just be that I have always reacted badly to HCM as a piece of jargon. ‘Human Resources’ as a replacement for ‘personnel’ was meant to imply a wider, less bureaucratic role but soon became just as easy a butt for jokes (and HR is easier to say than personnel) so some tried to achieve the same end by implying that Human Resource Management (HRM) was the ‘something else’ that could take HR to the centre of organisational life. That never found currency outside the HR bubble. Human Capital Management is a term mostly kept away from the workforce, which is just as well as it is meaningless in everyday life. However employee-centred your company’s approach, do you really want to be referred to as piece of ‘capital’ that has to be ‘managed’. So; putting that little rant aside there is a lot of good stuff in the toolkit. So what’s my problem?

Grumpy oldies win a small victory

Congratulations to TESCO who are changing their fast queues sign from “10 items or less” to “up to 10 items”. Apart from being linguistically correct (at last) more people” will understand the new sign than the old  “10 items or fewer”. As you go about your business just notice how often organisations and officialdom use pompous language in signage, announcements and public statements rather than the words they would use to their friends. “The next station is … where this train will terminate” rather than “…journey will end”. Much simpler, especially for those whose native tongue is not English (quite apart from the fact that ‘terminate’ is not true -  they use the trains again). A major disaster? We see fire engines going past – the spokesperson will talk of appliances. Going into hospital? Good luck and enjoy your patient journey.

And so on and so on. Now go and read your HR policies and pronouncements and apply the same test. They are all intended to leave employees with a clear understanding of what you want them to do or to know. But do they do so in simple everyday language that will stick in people’s minds?

Word Perfect – How rewarding is that?

Word Perfect – a regular post of good writing tips, sources of assistance and downright rants.

I can get very grumpy-old-manish about jargon and often refer to the need to speak in everyday language. The total reward forum event reported on below was unusually free of jargon though there was at least one “journey” and a couple of “stakeholders” but a comment by one of the speakers made me question the word ‘reward’ itself. Within the profession it has become well-understood technical jargon. So ‘reward strategy/systems/practices/etc’ are not ambiguous. But do the employees think like that? We tell our children that “if you are good I’ll give you a reward” and counter disappointments in later life with “never mind, you’ll get your just reward in heaven”. So do staff really think of their monthly pay cheque as a reward?

What word should we use to cover the package whole compendium of pay and benefits?