Miscellaneous

By Nathan Hayes, PHR

When I say, "the quiet hand of HR," I don't mean anything like the invisible hand of the market. No, I mean something entirely different, and much more personal.

You put a process in; you take a process out. You find another one and you shake it all about... And in the end you hope to make your employees happy; your business more efficient; and yourself a little happier too, maybe.

I had a hard time identifying a process to possibly eliminate. I eventually found one related to preparation I did for a report.

I tried several different methods to find something. I started by just brainstorming and thinking about my various daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. I had a very long list of processes that I would LIKE to eliminate, but nothing that was a realistic candidate.

I don’t know about you, but to me Human Resource Management sometimes feels more like dealing with processes, or regulations than it does anything resembling human. Whether it’s helping someone fill out a form or instructing managers on a documentation process, it’s sometimes easy to forget our first priority is to the humans among us. Can we focus on humans more if we eliminate a procedural impediment? Or is the procedure necessary to avoid bigger problems?

A couple of new members have expressed interest in earning a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification or a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification. We would very much like to support our members becoming certified in any way we can. We will continue to let our members know about certification preparation classes in the Southwest Virginia region. And we could possibly coordinate study groups if there is enough interest...