Empower your HR team to seize new opportunities

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who here has heard the term Human Resources who here has used the term Human Resources who here thinks they know what the term Human Resources means yeah many times when we talk about human resources we're talking about that function in an organization that handles the people stuff right and what I'm here to talk to you about today in putting the human back into Human Resources I'm here to talk to you about infusing more Humanity back into the workplace for those human beings who happen to be employees you're going to hear me today use the word humanly aot lot and when I have conversations with people about this subject that word often gets fed back to me as humanely and so let me be really clear on what I mean by humanly versus humanely to me when employers are treating employees humanely they're providing them bathroom breaks and water fountains to me for employers to treat employees humanly it's to address the very human needs such as the need to be appreciated the need to belong and the need to feel like you're making a meaningful contribution now what what does that look like 20 years ago I worked at a chemical plant in West Virginia and I was a project team leader implementing a module of sap software some of you may have heard of it and it was the raw materials module and many of the people on my team were shop floor employees that means they were the people on the shop floor handling the chemicals and one of them came to me and asked me if I would help him develop so he could Advance he wanted to get promoted and I was thrilled to hear this now this is interesting because at the same time at this point in time shop floor employees were not viewed as people who had hope hes and dreams and who wanted to learn and grow and so I was more than glad to help him I talked with his supervisor he didn't report directly to me and I got his supervisor's permission and at the same time I made the same offer to anyone else on my team who was interested in developing and growing in order to advance and three more people took me up on that now let's fast forward a few years three out of those four people got promoted into exempt positions one started traveling the world as an sap consultant another became a supervisor and a third became a highly valued sap resource within his division that third one is particularly close to my heart because when I started at that chemical plant he was sweeping the floors in my building now you might be wondering Mary what did you do you know I didn't really do anything fancy that you couldn't find in any management book I think what I might have done a little differently was I believed in these people and when human beings are treated in a way that they are capable of more they rise to the occasion so that was a nice story right and is there a really there's a problem here Mary that needs a remedy yes there is the Gallup organization among other things the Gallup organization studies corporations employment and employee engagement and in their 2013 report on the state of the American Workforce they tell us that 70% of the American Workforce is disengaged with 20% described as actively disengaged that's a whole lot of human beings who are not getting their needs met such as the need to be appreciated the need to belong and the need to be making a meaningful contribution I've been in business for years now and when when it comes to to putting meeting human needs as I'm describing them to you as a priority it just it tends to take a back seat and I find that curious because when any of us are stewards of an asset like a car we wouldn't think of not giving a car what it needs denying a car what it needs in order to work at Peak Performance why would we treat our human resources any other way again this isn't just a nice story that I'm telling you and a nice idea treating more people humanly it has bottomline business impact researchers have shown that when human needs are met for employees at work the more they are met the higher the engagement engagement meaning that people want to be there and they are they willing to go the extra mile even when nobody is looking higher engagement has been positively correlated to increased profitability what's that Worth to us well here's one thing I know again that gallop that gallop study I I was describing they also tell us that through unskilled and unqualified managers at work they're impacting their their organizations by 450 billion to $550 billion worth of productivity annually by undermining Employee Engagement yes that was billion with a B but I'm not here to spout statistics to you today I want to talk to you about what any of you here in here listening to me today can do about this and I understand if you may be having a reaction something like this Mary if you think that I'm going to impact some big organization that is way over my head that's got to come from the top down or you might simply be thinking Mary you can't make people who don't already value people suddenly value people and you know what I get that what I want to ask you today is to let your own experience guide you and I want you to to take a moment to think about a time at work when you were made to feel good or you made someone else feel good I have a friend who told me he had a manager who used to check in with him every day and he really meant it this man remembers this from 20 years ago you can have that kind of impact on people I have a friend who has a colleague who brings her coffee to her desk occasion occasionally he tells her it's because she looks like she needs it she says it makes her feel someone noticed me I I belong I'm I'm seen and you can do this even if you're not in the workforce I stood in a grocery line one time and as a disgruntled customer in front of me moved away I told the cashier she had handled him really well and by the expression on her face I saw that she felt seen and appreciated and that's all we really want as human beings is to be seen we are feeling beings we want to feel appreciated like we belong and like we can make a difference you don't have to be a project manager like I was in order to believe in someone so what I want to ask you today is to make a commitment with me to take a take the responsibility to honor someone's worth at work and I know this is not just a commitment that I'm suggesting this doesn't happen suddenly but it's also a journey and through your journey I hope you come to see this Vision in action and see it bring its power to reality thank you [Applause]