Its seems that “HR is common sense” has become the battle cry for those folks that are in HR but are not equipped the handle the job – its justification for not being formerly educated. I’m convinced that good HR pros are so good because they make it seem easy. Common sense and easy are not the pillars of HR. Real HR is hard, with difficult decisions around every corner. You have to know how to make decisions based on laws as well as what’s right for the company. Sometimes those 2 things are correlated and sometimes they aren’t.

When it comes to SOME employee relations issues – yes, its common sense. Should you fire someone who is abusive at work? Should you fire a manager and subordinate who engage in an inappropriate sexual relationship? But what about an employee with a substance abuse problem? You may think, fire them right? Well you would be wrong. You may have to offer treatment options first. What about an employee that has lost a spouse or child and they are having a hard time adjusting to the loss? Do you fire them? Or let’s say an employee gets injured at home in an accident which was unrelated to work, but now the ability to perform the job is in question? Do you fire them too?

Common Problems  Aren’t Always Common Sense

Look you are in HR or you want to be in HR – that’s cool. It’s a great profession. But if you think it’s easy then look around because the news is covered with difficult work related issues or ask a senior HR pro – you know, a mentor. Employees are our greatest asset and also our greatest liability. You never know what a person is dealing with and how that pressure could manifest itself in the workplace. There are all kinds of crazy going on at work – from violence to manipulation. You have to be smart and know your laws as well as a measure of common sense. So if you just think you can rely on your gut to get you by in HR…You need to stop – just stop, you don’t know what you’re doing.

On day one I met Bryan Wempen one of the host of Drive Thru HR, he and I have spoken before but this was the first meeting. Just as cool in person. I also met the wonderful Jessica Miller Merrell, she’s pretty cool too, to take time to hang with me – it’s not like she does not have a million things to do with her Blogging4Jobs brand. I met Nisha Raghavan, she is the newest co-host of Drive Thru HR, and she’s on her way to great things. And, I also met the opening keynote speaker Mr. Jim Knight, super cool guy, awesome hair and he knows how to captivate an audience.

I heard Jim speak and if you have never had the pleasure, I won’t spoil it but I will say he gets the crowd ready. I spoke to a couple of attendees and they were very excited to hear him speak and even wanted video copies of his presentation. That’s getting it done folks.

Jim is so good that he’s a really tough act to follow. Of course you want all your speakers to be themselves, but when scheduling sessions after a guy like that, you’d better make sure you keep the energy up. That’s easier said than done, I heard many attendees say that Jim set the bar so high it was hard for the other speakers to match him.

Another thing I loved about the OKHR Conference is that is officially kicked off at 1pm. This gave attendees time to arrive, register, get breakfast, tour the facility and connect. I liked that, I really did, it really provided the attendees a chance to get familiar with the Conference Center, map out their strategies and relax a bit.

Also, I have to admit Oklahoma people are nice…I lost my Ipad and someone turned it in to the registration desk. Classy.

Check out the hashtag #OKHR

As many of you may know already, I have been assisting job seekers and many others through my resume writing services. I’ve talked about resume writing a few times on this website but my vision for CostofWork is to focus on HR related content. I love HR fundamentals and basics principles and will continue to share my insight on anything I find interesting in the world of human resources.  And although resumes has its place among HR topics I felt strongly that this resume writing campaign deserves it own outlet and voice.

So ladies and gentlemen, friends and followers, colleagues and clients – I present to you “THE RESUME CRUSADE” website. Please it out at resumecrusade.com.

This is going to be epic - I look forward to helping even more people and defining my voice in the resume writing space. And again CostofWork is not going anywhere, as we proceed to give you what you need.

Thank you and go check out ResumeCrusade.com!

It’s a shame really, how fast you can get outdated. Everyone talks about 40 being the new 30, and 30 being the new 20. Everyone wants to be young and live life screaming “YOLO” – You Only Live Once. I guess YOLO equals wild and careless behavior but you have to take care of business too.

Age discrimination is real and it’s just as ugly as any other form of discrimination. Just because someone has silver hair doesn’t mean that they can’t contribute. Working with that client got me to thinking, how many employers are missing out on good people because of age discrimination? The older generation could be a robust workforce for the right company. Many are simply trying to work and contribute without all the games and office politics. It’s a fact older workers are more loyal than younger workers.

I love James Bond movies – In 2012’s “Skyfall” there’s a great scene where Bond meets his new Quartermaster or “Q” who is younger. They have an exchange that conceptualizes Reverse Mentoring very well, Bond makes a quip about Q’s age, to which Q says, “Age is no guarantee of efficiency” and Bond retorts “And youth is no guarantee of innovation.” BRILLIANT. Both are right, and both agree to learn from one another.

Maybe  recruiters and hiring authorities should stop discriminating based on age (and other non-essential qualities) and make sure the candidate meets all the qualifications needed to perform the essential job duties. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, Nepotism and Favoritism is destroying the workforce. Passing out jobs based on friendships and relationships – without being genuinely qualified is far more costly than hiring someone a little older.

Age doesn’t matter – some of the youngest clients I have had are some of the most entitled – they feel that they are owed an opportunity. And some of the older clients just want a chance to show that they still got it. They want to come to work on time, they have had their children and raised their families,  gone on big vacations, and sown their wild oats, now they just want to work quietly and take care of themselves – they don’t play games they understand YOLO and they just want to finish up with respect.

It’s also a great opportunity to explore reverse mentoring, where the younger folks can teach and educate the older folks on something and the older workers can show the younger generation a thing or two. It can work if there’s no judgment involved.

Uhm, so if you missed the point of this article – older workers are better than the younger workers that you covet.

The recent events in Boston and Texas has me thinking about the costs associated with tragedy. In Boston, 2 young men allegedly set off bombs during the 100^th running of the Boston Marathon. Subsequently in the days following the bombing, there was a shootout with the suspects; one died, and one got away, the city was placed on lockdown and eventually the 2^nd suspect was apprehended. But for 4 days Boston was rocked – public transit was stopped – schools and colleges were closed – offices were empty – sports events were cancelled. Over 1 million people were told to stay at home.

That’s a lot of lost productivity and when the finale numbers are totaled it could reach the billions of dollars. Don’t believe me? Check out this article by Althea Chang on Yahoo!

Here’s something else that you may not have considered, the healthcare cost; 4 dead, 170 injured! The healthcare estimates are at $9 million. Check out John Rieti’s piece on CBC News here.

Let’s not forget the costs for law enforcement, emergency personnel and the future legal fees.

Employers will need to consider that their workers will not be the same for a while – some things you just can’t unsee. There’s going to be a lot of time off work needed to deal with this – grief counselors are a good idea.

Texas

While the Boston situation was being played out over all media, there was an explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas, killing 14 and injuring 200; destroying over 50 homes. This incident is not terror related, just seems to be a plant accident. Never the less, there will be millions and millions of dollars in damages and healthcare costs.

It’s times like these that employers can be heroes. Time to show compassion and caring. Time to pay less attention to the budget sheets and more attention to the people and the communities. The recovery from both these horrific events will take a lot of time and money.

There is no cute story here – just a reminder that real life events take precedence sometimes and maybe now’s the time; no matter where you are, to show your workers a little appreciation for sacrifices they make every day to come to work for you. Appreciation is a small cost to pay – donuts – coffee – or a simple thank you.