Editor’s Note – Today’s post is brought to you courtesy of Dustin Henderson, co-founder of MeritBuilder. Dustin went to HR Southwest conference last week to cover the show for us. You can follow him on Twitter. Thanks!
HR Southwest (the 2nd biggest HR show in the US) is over. I thought I would take a few moments and summarize my thoughts on the show. Luckily I tweeted most of the stuff that was on my mind because to be honest my memory is beginning to fail me. For the full twitter experience search twitter for #HRSW.
In hopes of making his recap a little more interesting I thought I would expand on some of my tweets. Unfortunately I could not fit it on to one post so you guys are stuck with a two-parter (see part one here).
79% of employees leave b/c poor trust and appreciation
Alice of GoToAlice.com quickly filled in for a canceled speaker. I almost turned and walked back out of the session – but she was at the door waving passers by into the room. I figured, if she was going to put that much effort into it, I should at least stay and listen to her. I am glad I did.
She was OUTSTANDING! Thanks Alice!
Until her session I was beginning to wonder if MeritBuilder would ever have an audience in HR but she affirmed what we at MB have been saying for a while. Relationships matter. Getting to know your staff matters. Trust matters. Appreciation matters.
Average employee talks to manager 2-5 times a day / m-gen text 80-200 times a day – who has more influence
This is one of those “m-gen” stats but it is an important one. I talked to several HR recruiters telling me about “helicopter parents.” Those parents who involve themselves in their 20-something child’s employment decisions. In some cases recruiters answered angry calls from parents wanting to know why their child had not gotten the job.
Bad ECONOMY or NOT, this generation is coming (BIG TIME). Are you ready? I think not, but don’t feel bad – no one is 
Are lawyers what is wrong with what HR should really be trying to do? maximize the “human” resource
I attended a number of presentations by lawyers and I was once told, “If you want to go into business, DON’T ASK A LAWYER his opinion.” The primary role of a lawyer is to minimize your exposure to risk. Yet many believe their advice constitute how you should manage people. Please note – Law is the minimal not the optimal.
Understand the risks, accept them and then live your life. It is good to know that if you recognize an employee for a job well done then it might be hard to fire them later. That doesn’t mean you should not recognize employees, it just means recognize things that matter and document the crap out of it before you fire someone.
Change: most of what you fear never happens – it is made up to justify internal feelings about change – name the fear
There is a simple method for dispelling fear in life and organizations. Just name it! For example, when I started MeritBuilder there was the possibility that we would fail. That meant I would have to find a new job. If I could not find a new job, it would impact the family in a very negative way. Therefore I should stay where I am, right?
Wrong because if I was going to name the fear of failing with MeritBuilder, then I needed to name the fear of failing with my current employer. In my case, the impact of failure for my job or my new company was the same, but the new company had far greater upside.
Once you name the fear and weigh it against the alternatives, the fear tends to subside. Name your fear and push through the change.
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