Eye on HR: Beware the fun police...

In a previous job, one of my team was always railing at the idea of 'forced fun'; of leadership team-mandated nights out, or worse still, *team building days*. At the time, I'd roll my eyes and wonder what his problem was with getting to know the people he spends around a quarter of his life with a little better.

Perhaps I should have been a bit more tolerant of his perspective on work - but then perhaps he could have been a bit more tolerant too. But, as the New Yorker pithily observed recently, 'Plenty of people these days don’t even want to come into the office to work, much less to play'.

Nevertheless, the 'right to not be fun' is making headlines of late based on the landmark case of a French man who sued for wrongful termination after claiming he was fired over not being ''fun enough' by refusing to attend work days and nights out.

Okay, beyond the usual sensational headlines, I think we can all agree that being fired for not being fun is an awful thing. And we can and should also recognize that every workforce is made up of all manners of different personality types.Okay, beyond the usual sensational headlines, I think we can all agree that being fired for not being fun is an awful thing. And we can and should also recognize that every workforce is made up of all manners of different personality types.

Why should people be forced to go out? Think about people who are sober; think about introverts; people for whom cultural differences make it difficult, or people with disabilities. All I suggest is that the work social calendar is made up of enough bonding events across the year that everyone feels included and valued at some point.

But, as the old adage goes, a lot of the most important deals do get done in bars and pubs. I swear, for example, in that same previous job that because I didn't smoke like a lot of the leadership team, I got passed over for promotion because I didn't quite make those same bonds with the right people - not that I could ever prove that. Maybe I need to lawyer up...

Actions from WEF

And so with that, Davos comes to a close. Think pieces have been thunk, keynotes have been nodded to in unison. Now comes the hard part. ACTION. Just like your average training intervention, the big question is the same. What will you do differently as a result of this experience? How will you change your behavior?

There are plenty of ways in which HR can directly influence the salient issues of this WEF gathering, as outlined in in our Davos coverage in the last few days. But please let's remind ourselves, it's not just a bit of fun seeing Idris Elba talk about social inequality. Change is required and that means action: Plan for now, plan for 12 months time, plan for five years' time.

You don't want to fall prey to yet another adjective-verb combo such as that of 'Green Hushing', where you play down your organization's climate targets when it becomes very clear that you aren't going to hit them.

So step up, plan for action. Be transparent and turn those plenaries into pledges.

Leaders change but the streams roll on

Farewell Reed Hastings, we barely knew ye. Netflix, one of the longest running streaming platforms, saw its founder step aside leaving the company in decent shape, passing the reins to former chief content officer, Ted Sarandos.

The company's growth could be plateauing, and the nicest thing you could say about that is it's because Netflix did such a good job of creating the streaming market that it got flooded with competitors (I think the depth of its catalogue will see it through through tough times, but anyway, back to Reed).

Netflix has been hugely influential in business philosophy over the years; so much so that keynote speaker Erin Meyer dedicated much of her talk to 'the Netflix way' of doing business at Unleash World 2022.

It's become a byword for consumer choice, for on-demand, tailored personalized experience. The Netflix of talent management, the Netflix of employee benefits - and so forth.

This semantic familiarity comes from the top, so kudos to Reed, but I'm sure at age 62, seeing as he's been doing the same job since his thirties, it's time to move out of the day to day.

Predictions for 2023 #9123

And finally, David Green, MC at the very same show as Erin Meyer, not long ago released his HR predictions for 2023. A quick rundown:

• People first in recession
• Productivity in hybrid work
• The skills-based organization
• Value through analytics
• Employee voice
• Humanizing work
• D,E&I next steps
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Purpose and ESG
• Upskilling HR
• ??
• ??

It's comprehensive and spot on as always, but I'm interested by the last two spaces - presumably to personalize the list to apply more closely to your organization and its pain points. Dare we say ChatGPT? Dare we say a bulletproof talent retention strategy in a downturn? Every organization will have specific challenges but a significant amount of overlap too, so kudos to David Green for incorporating both here.

Until next time, take action out there...

The agenda is live! Check out our schedule of sessions for UNLEASH America here.