The Hindu Business Line : Slow HR

The ‘slow’ movement has been in existence for a while in Europe. It first began when a protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Rome sparked the creation of the Slow Food organisation. Slow Food is against the spirit of fast food and the lifestyle it stands for.

The ‘slow’ movement questions the sense of ‘hurry’ and ‘craziness’ generated by globalisation and fuelled by the desire of ‘having in quantity’ versus ‘having with quality’. It doesn’t represent doing less. It means doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. In essence, the ‘slow’ movement aims to address the issue of ‘time poverty’.

From food, the ‘slow’ movement is growing into a subculture touching various other areas like Slow Travel, Slow Shopping, Slow Design, Slow Press and Slow Music just to name a few.

In the past decade or so, like individuals and societies, human resources (HR) has also been fast everything. Fast hiring, fast assimilation, fast training, fast promotions, fast development, fast change, fast separation and so on. As a result of this perennial ‘time poverty’ and relentless pursuit of speed, quality in every aspect of HR has suffered immensely. Anyone, with little or no training, was placed in a HR role and called a HR professional. Many HR programmes and initiatives that required serious thought and careful management were hastily designed and hurriedly implemented because fast was considered best.

HR leaders boasted of having in place an array of initiatives and programmes, but users and sponsors of these programmes were unhappy about poor implementation and lack of value. They alleged that it was merely a tick in the box. All this has done serious damage to the reputation and credibility of the profession. As the entire globe and our own nation are entering a recessionary phase, the operative word seems to be ‘slow’ and ‘slowdown’. While many are unhappy at things slowing down, I see a silver lining. Here are a few simple strategies for HR leaders to make the best of these slow times:

Hire better

If hiring was war, the current situation must be described as peace time. Organisations have been traumatised by candidates who asked for the moon or promised to join but never turned up on the appointed date. They have had to deal with falsification, lack of speed or lack of quality.

Now is a golden period to get all this right. If there are fewer positions to hire, slow should work. It should be possible to make hiring a humane experience all over again. It should be possible to interview better. It should also be possible to sell your vision and dreams and engage with prospective employees before they enter your door .

I also think this is a good time to give your recruiters a much deserved break. Maybe, they should be moved into other roles in HR so they use the labour market lull to gain new skills and fresh perspectives.

Now might also be the right time to engage with campuses in a real sense. Now is when they need you the most. Now is the time to talk to students — even if you have not honoured the offers you made to them. Now is when relations are likely to be less marketplace-like and more real.

Reconnect with employees

Some of our organisations have grown so fast that it did not give the HR folks the time to meet employees face to face even once. In fast times, many employees lamented that they had not seen the face of their HR managers. Now is the time to set the record straight. Now is the time to go around, shake hands, get acquainted, speak, listen and engage in a real sense.

Let us talk to employees about recession, its implications, about business, about career anxieties, about their housing loans, about their fears. Let us show that we care by doing it slow.

Focus on development

When tenure was low and attrition high, investment in development was always viewed with suspicion. More than any other time now is when we must invest in our employees. Since the labour market will no longer mitigate our hiring risks, we must invest in developing our employees so they remain competent and employable. This seems to be the best time for HR leaders to give this all the attention and time.

Now that we can do it slow, we should get our leaders to champion these development initiatives. We can get them to lead from the front by giving feedback and mentoring the process of change.

Develop the HR folks

Few realise that in most organisations the HR team is the least trained and invested in! Now is the time to correct this sin. Let us go out and get our teams skilled. Let us teach them what they are supposed to know and also give them something more. Let us sharpen their saws. Slow is a great friend of learning and fast is its enemy.

Build external networks

HR folks were traditionally a well networked lot. That was till they had to do things fast. Now is the time for HR folks to go out and rebuild their networks and generally increase their social capital. Now is the time to know what is happening across the street and across business boundaries. Now is the time to share some slow practices!

The bright side of the slowdown is that it temporarily helps alleviate the ‘time poverty’ that HR professionals were supposed to be suffering from. They would profit from making good use of it while it lasts. In another few quarters, we will anyway be back to driving on the fast track!

(The writer is the founder and CEO of totus consulting, a strategic HR consulting firm. He is also the co-founder of the Executive and Business Coaching Foundation India Ltd. He can be reached at ganesh@totusconsulting.com)

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