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Christmas Hits

I’m out and about today having some useful fun. I thought I’d take the opportunity to replay some of my Youtube highlights from 2012, a kind of Christmas Top 5 if you will. Although there are no Christmas songs in the compilation as I haven’t done one this year. Whatever – here we go:

A Laptop From Currys

In at number five is my rant about Currys inability to unsubscribe me from their mailing lists. This video got picked up by the very lovely Mark Webb at Dixons who helped relieve the email pain, for which many Yuletide thanks.

Strategic Planning

At number four is a proper headbanger of a tune written for my lovely friend and adventurer Flora Marriott. At the time, Flora was in the midst of a strategic planning fest and I hoped to distract her, just a little.

US Tour 2012

Crashing in at number three is this 30 second Flipagram slideshow from my 2012 US tour. So many friends and memories, what a mighty fine experience.

Livable Lives

At number two is the version of Livable Lives I performed at Workplace Trends in London, October 2012. Neil Usher wrote the lyrics and because I fancied an extra challenge I rearranged this version on the fly, making some small lyrical and musical changes as I went along. Nerve racking stuff!

National Pie Week

Topping the chart is my National Pie Week anthem. This took literally seconds to write and it is my Youtube ukulele debut. A rocking tune that I hope will go on to become the bastion of pie week anthems for the future.

So there you have it, my personal Christmas top five, with not a Christmas song in sight 🙂

Discretionary Effort is Theft

The holy grail of employee engagement. Get better at it and what do you get? More discretionary effort from your staff. Get better and better at employee engagement and you get more and more discretionary effort.

Work Life Balance

Except…the last time I looked we only have 24 hours in any one day, and we can only function productively and meaningfully for so long. So for employees to give more of that discretionary effort to their employer, well that means they have less to give to themselves, their family and their friends. and that doesn’t sound much like a balance to me.

Unpaid Overtime

How much is enough? Workers in the UK already work among the longest hours in Europe. And according to the TUC, around five million UK workers contribute over seven hours extra a week without pay. They estimate that to be worth upwards of £4,500 ($7,200) a year in extra pay.

If employers are really serious about engaging, then more consideration should be applied to binning bonuses and distributing some of that pot and the savings that come from no longer having to frig the figures, sorry I mean administer the bonus scheme, as an increase in pay. And perhaps overlay an across the company flat rate profit share scheme to distribute part of the extra benefit gained from better work?

Acceptable Discretionary Effort

So if there are only 24 hours in a day, and we’re already working long hours and making unpaid contributions already, is there a case for acceptable discretionary effort? Perhaps there is. Let’s say your team has a major project to deliver within a certain time, and things are tight. If you work for an employer who already treats you right then perhaps being asked for a burst of extra effort to get something specific done is fine, so long as a) we can be clear on how much extra we think is needed and b) for how long. If discretionary effort becomes any more of an expectation that that, then it’s not discretionary effort, it’s theft.

photo credit

Home is where the HeaRt is

London

This blog post is part of a collection created by various Human Resources professionals. This “Carnival” of HR posts centres around the theme of HR and Home. To read the rest of the collection click here. You’ll be glad you did!

Home is where the HeaRt is

I live with my wife Carole (married for 20 years) and daughter Keira (aged nine at the time of writing) on the far flung outskirts of London, about 10 miles due South from St Paul’s Cathedral. I’m confident about that distance because in a previous life as an employee for a global telco I would regularly cycle into London to work. A great fun, exhilarating and slightly dangerous way to start the day. Fun, exhilarating and slightly dangerous. I think I would use those words to describe many great cities I’ve visited and worked in along the way.

I love London because it’s a fantastic mashup. Conflicts (as I write this a dozen or more seagulls fly past the window hounding a much larger heron bird off their patch) and contrasts fascinate me , and London is full of them. History sits alongside brand new, smart alongside scruffy, rich and poor, grey and colourful.

My work has many shades, many contrasts. From one week to the next I may be speaking in conference, facilitating, consulting, blogging, writing music, painting a picture. My work is experimental with a little professional troublemaking on the side. I’m close enough to the centre of London to feel the buzz, and far enough away to feel on the edge. As a consultant and facilitator, I think it’s vital to be close to the edge, where the real exchanges get done. My physical location, near to and yet not in the centre of London, serves as a useful reminder of the importance of edge to me.

Being so close to a big city I’m fortunate to interact with many smart people face to face. Alison Chisnell and Neil Morrison stand out for me as being two bright people always happy to offer constructive, critical friendship. And though I’ve come to know them both well in real life, it was in the online space that we first met. Like so many other great HR people I have come to know, there is a pioneering wave of bright energy and friendship to contribute to and learn from. Recently it was my privilege to Skype with Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt. I met Jason and Joe in Ohio earlier this year and I’m excited to be catching up with them again. Online, in real life, twittering, facebooking, talking. I’m a tiny part of a fantastic conversational community.

I love that I live just two minutes from a semi-rural track that takes me quickly out to the country side and trails on my mountain bike. Big city to the left, big country to the right. And I love that we are a short walk from Keira’s school and a short train ride to more history and excitement than you can shake a stick at. I love London, and I think it quite likes me.

To close this post here is a lyrical quote from the song Camera Eye, by Canadian rock legends, Rush.

Wide angle watcher

On life’s ancient tales
Steeped in the history of London

Green and grey washes
In a wispy white veil
Mist in the streets of Westminster
Wistful and weathered
The pride still prevails
Alive in the streets of the city

The song (which also references New York City) has played its way through my heart and head for almost thirty years. These words paint a vivid picture for me and I was delighted when Rush played this song on their last tour. I think it’s an epic piece and I encourage you to grab a cuppa, and enjoy this awesome, engaging performance.