I'm currently working on Task 3 of the HR module right now. The first part is all about performance reviews. As I've mentioned previously, I have several year's worth of work in human resources. In my most recent position, my primary responsibility was compiling all of the performance reviews for the company, so I have some real experience in this part of HR.
I'm currently reading Chapter 7 of the etext, "Managing Human Resources" and I'm getting a wee bit frustrated. It keeps talking in absolutes, "If X then you should Y." HR is such an inexact science(?) and those of us who've worked in it know to never, ever speak in absolutes because we never know when something we said might be used against us. Human Resources should be called the CYA (cover your ass) Department because that's essentially what they are paid to do; try and save the company from being sued by an employee. I used to use so many, "well it seems like"s, and "it appears as if"s, and "if that were true..." that I could barely make a definitive statement about anything.
My hope is that the other readings will be less about making general statements, and more about "things that we could do" because in HR, there are rules, #1) Never, ever put bad news in writing unless you are 100% certain th, #2) be consistent; whatever you're doing, wrong or right, do it for everyone (that way an employee can't claim that you discriminated against him/her) and #3) never, ever speak in absolutes!
Ok, enough procrastination. Forward!
I'm currently reading Chapter 7 of the etext, "Managing Human Resources" and I'm getting a wee bit frustrated. It keeps talking in absolutes, "If X then you should Y." HR is such an inexact science(?) and those of us who've worked in it know to never, ever speak in absolutes because we never know when something we said might be used against us. Human Resources should be called the CYA (cover your ass) Department because that's essentially what they are paid to do; try and save the company from being sued by an employee. I used to use so many, "well it seems like"s, and "it appears as if"s, and "if that were true..." that I could barely make a definitive statement about anything.
My hope is that the other readings will be less about making general statements, and more about "things that we could do" because in HR, there are rules, #1) Never, ever put bad news in writing unless you are 100% certain th, #2) be consistent; whatever you're doing, wrong or right, do it for everyone (that way an employee can't claim that you discriminated against him/her) and #3) never, ever speak in absolutes!
Ok, enough procrastination. Forward!