I’ve gotta hand it to Manpower, the contract recruiting agency, for fully embracing social media: They’ve got a YouTube channel and a whole series of blogs.

One video that I stumbled across the other day is a Simon and Garfunkel spoof, highlighting their “Up Close and Personnel” Tour Kickoff.

The video is funny – I don’t want you to think I have a stick up my ass. But the video also reinforces some crappy HR stereotypes: that we’re all about policy enforcement, compliance, and baby-sitting grown-ups.

In another video (The Tour Comes to Iowa), they sing about excuses employees give for not coming in to work.

Hello boss, I won’t be in. I’ve got a goiter and the gout again!

Again, funny stuff… at least, if you’re an HR nerd, anyways. But is that what our profession is really about? Policing grown-ups about when the come to work, what they wear, and so on, instead of worrying about driving their performance and blowing our business goals completely out of the water with rock star like awesomeness?

So what do you think, am I just too uptight?

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This article is part of the Renegade Manifesto Series.

People are your organization’s number one asset. The building, the systems, the products – they’ll all become obsolete and they will all be replaced. Your people are your business.

The best companies understand this and use it to their advantage. The average companies – the ones that tucker along and never do anything remarkable – don’t. Or they do, but don’t have any type of cohesive people strategy.

Keep reading…

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One of the most important principles of Renegade HR is: “Work is something you do, not somewhere you go.”

I can’t take credit for that – it’s actually something I read in an interview with Jody and Cali, the original HR renegades who created and launched ROWE at Best Buy.

I’ll be talking about this principle in much more detail in a few weeks, but I just received an email from them that I felt I had to share with you:

Keep reading…

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Last week I stumbled across an awesome presentation by Jessica Lee of Fistful of Talent fame. The topic was onboarding strategies for Gen Y.

Now I’ll admit, I’m pretty damn sick of hearing about Gen Y (and I’m not the only one). I’ve written before that most of the articles on managing Millennial don’t teach managers how to effectively manage young people. They teach managers how to more effectively manage everyone. Who doesn’t want to be involved in meaningful work, be challenged but not overloaded, be provided with support on day one, and so on?

Anyways, it’s a pretty good presentation (and relatively short, too). Just remember that the strategies it offers aren’t for Gen Y. They’re for everyone.

(email subscribers may need to click through to view the presentation)

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Sharlyn Lauby (aka the HR Bartender) is so Renegade and she doesn’t even know it.

A couple of weeks ago, Sharlyn penned an incredible article titled, If Your Marketing Director Ran the HR Department. Among her insights:

1. First and foremost, they would know how the organization makes money and where they spend it.
2. They would always be looking for talent.
3. They know what their customers want and are constantly developing products to fit their needs.
4. HR wouldn’t be about policies and procedures; it would be about doing things to benefit the organization.

Sharyln explains perfectly the Renegade Manifesto principle: “Don’t ask for a seat at the table. Take one.” HR is all about helping people do things that support the business. You can check out the full article here.

Welcome to the revolution, Sharlyn! (I’ll take a glass of pinot noir, please)

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Is HR a science? Last week, Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR posted an article in which she wrote,

I’m asking my fellow HR colleagues out there to quit pretending that our profession is rooted in science. It isn’t.

HR can actually be more of art – I’ll give her that. When you’re dealing with people, things are rarely black and white. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act like a scientist.

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If you followed me on Manager’s Sandbox, you probably know that I hate the typical boring job descriptions that HR pros are great at cranking out. If you really want to pull in great people and get them excited about working for you, you need to think of job descriptions as a marketing tool.

Cool People Care is an awesome startup by Sam Davidson who’s mission is to “save the world, five minutes at a time.” Sam gets the power of job descriptions. Not too long ago, he wrote an article on his blog about how he recruited a handful of interns for his company.

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