Welcome to HR Rehab

This spring I had the rare opportunity to hire a new person on to our HR team for the rest of the year. I’m pretty excited about this opportunity and so far I’ve spoken with and met some very talented HR Pros who are doing great work with their companies and who I would love to have as part of my team. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there’s still a bunch of people running around out there calling themselves “HR Pros” – and they’re giving the rest of us a bad name. Doesn’t mean they’re bad people, they just need a bit of help. So as a side business I’ve decided to start my own reality show called HR Rehab.

Eligibility Requirements

If you do more than one of the following things then you are most likely in need of some HR Rehab:

• Under the major accomplishments section of your resume it says “implemented HR policies and procedures.” And it wasn’t a typo. You really meant it.
• You’re a furniture fanatic. You especially love talking a lot about “seats and tables.”
• Even though the rest of your company sits in cubes, you still think you need an office for ‘confidential’ conversations for “HR confessionals.”
• You can’t describe in 2 minutes or less what your company does and its goals for the year.
• You send out company-wide emails with subject lines like “Restroom Etiquette.”
• You have pictures of your cats on your desk. Yes, plural, as in multiple cats.
• You actually believe that these HR Timewasters are adding value.

Show Format

The format of the show would be simple. It’s a head-to-head competition every week where each contestant is given a tough business case to solve.

Each week the contestants are presented with a real business challenge and are given a week to solve it. At the end of the week you’ll present your solution to a group of business leaders who will determine if your solution is a good one or if it’s a shitty one. The winner moves on to the next week while the loser is sent home with a knitted sweater with a cat on the front. The contestant who makes it all the way through gets to call themselves an HR Pro. For real this time.

Now, it wouldn’t be fair to just throw these HR misfits into a challenge without any coaching. So we hired the perfect guy for the job. You know, someone who is supportive, has tact, and only has your best interests in mind: Tim Sackett.

Of course that leaves us with our panel of judges (American Idol meets Drew Pinsksy). Again, we searched high and low and our esteemed panel had to meet a few important criteria such as knowing the HR business but also not afraid to call b.s. when they see it. Naturally, there were 3 people that came to mind: KD, Tincup, and Meredith (in the role of Paula Abdul – dancing cat sidekick optional).

All joking aside, I’ve done some of the things on the list myself which at the time seemed like they were the right things to do.  But the point of the post is this:  if our profession is going to be taken seriously we’ve got to stop worrying about and doing the things that don’t really have an impact in our companies.  We have to change the measurement bar from how much “stuff” have you done to what “impact” have you had.  And if you need some help, I’ve got just the program to help you!