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HR ALIVE Ltd, Christchurch (2026)

02/03/2023

Where are we now?

As we know the landscape of today is very different from 2-3 years ago we have a digital future with flexible working and a battle ground for finding the best talent. But what about the affects? High productivity from working from home is potentially masking exhausted employees. We work harder take less holidays or breaks and the news just gives us doom and gloom on a potential looming crisis.

Job burnout is a becoming more and more prevalent, whilst Burnout isn’t a medical diagnosis it is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion which can affect how have been performing.
We have a more modern and agile way of working which is emerging with better collaboration and knowledge sharing from any location whilst some of us still crave that physical in person collaboration, businesses can get the best of both worlds.

How do we manage our wellbeing now and not just pay lip service to it? Do we really, as business owners, get to the ‘nitty gritty’ of how people are really feeling? I’d say no, I’d say some businesses are ostrich companies (head in the sand), if they can’t see it, it isn’t happening.

How do you identify stress or burnout within your workforce and then try and build resilience or foster a culture of well-being? Perhaps maintaining flexible work options and learn, yes learn, how to have conversations around mental health. It’s all well and good passing off a stressed employee to an EAP provider, but ultimately those conversations are privileged and the employer never gets to understand what they need to change in their work environment or in their behaviours, unless the employee tells them, which is unlikely to happen.

Hiring teams to implement wellbeing strategies is a band aid, perhaps take a closer look top down and be prepared to listen to understand what the solution could be and not cherry pick to tick a box.

03/10/2022

Distractions - Are you?

We often create many of our distractions. Our workplaces can be busy – a lot is going on, and many potential distractions are being created. While some people can thrive in a bustling workplace, others prefer a quiet space where they can work without interruptions.

To highlight some of those distractions…just a tip of the iceberg:
· Fatigue: Tiredness or ‘burn-out’ not only reduces your quality of work; it also affects productivity and attentiveness. Often ignored but is a reality and can be a key contributor to incidents/accidents.
Take regular breaks…don’t just say it, do it. Have a good diet, regular sleep and exercise

· Social Media and Browsing: Our phones can be our biggest enemy with the pressures to pose a picture-perfect life or keep track of friends, family or influencers. It is very easy to get distracted by checking our social media or the latest headlines.
Ban personal phones from safety critical work tasks, use a distraction free app or just say no to phones visible in meetings.

· Personal distractions: Workplace distractions are not always work-related. Some distractions are brought into the workplace from outside events or situations such as financial problems, health issues, or simply having a bad start to the day.
Employee assistance programs can provide counselling techniques to cope with life’s pressures, this should be supported by your company.

· Emails and meetings: Many emails are not important and can take time away from productive tasks. Meeting about more meetings, is just a waste of everyone’s time, the fear of repercussions of not attending can be a major distraction both from worrying about the work piling up and attending a meeting you gain nothing from.

Email etiquette is something that just is not understood or followed, the reply all function, in my view, should be disabled for some people. Meetings need to be productive and not just recapping what you already know. Think about running a meeting where someone will actually take away something useful. Feedback on meetings needs to be regular and constructive, most managers are afraid to ask if their meeting was useful or not.

03/10/2022

Definition (sourced from google search) - Visual Leaders explores how leaders can support visioning and strategy formation, planning and management, and organisation change through the application of visual meeting and visual team methodologies organization wide—literally "trans-forming" communications and people's sense of what is possible.

Is that definition true in an HR sense?

As HR practitioners we have to be diplomatic and empathetic among other things, but also, we are able to drive process compliance that doesn’t put an organisation at risk from litigation processes, we safeguard how an organisation operates with its staff. We are so much more though.

As leaders in HR, have to anticipate change and think (sometimes) out of the box to be able to create and design people strategies to support the organisations vision. This is one part of visual HR leadership.

I’m a strong believer in honest communication, so how do we in HR articulate our thoughts and ideas to contribute to the overall strategy with clarity and not using HR buzz words or latest people fads, so that our people understand what we can or need to achieve?

HR has morphed over the years from being the people who “just hire and fire” to business partners in people and culture teams, we still hire and fire but in a way that isn’t so blatant and is a far more considered approach. So how do our plans and strategies play in a organisations vision if you are at a business partner level versus the HRM’s at the Top table.
· Are you able to be innovative and be open to taking considered risks?
· Are you delegated decision making responsibilities?
· Are you empowered to work autonomously and are given a sense of accountability?

That might not be case for everyone. Our plans and ideas matter, no matter what level you are on the HR ladder and a good visual leader will (and should) recognise that.

A visual leader is present and not hiding behind Zoom or Teams meetings, they should motivate and inspire people on their road to success in HR. They instill commitment and engagement and want their teams to achieve and not just pay lip service to it.

So to answer the above, yes, that definition works for HR.

“Culture is no longer just an HR thing. It’s a business thing and an everybody thing”. Ondra Berry

31/03/2022

Positive and Negative

Workplaces have seen success when negativity is removed almost entirely from the office. When a good worker/performer is surrounded by negative attitudes, they're highly more likely to leave their position than they are to be dragged down with the people around them. Which for a company that wants to retain its talent, can be a critical loss.

Common forms of negative behaviours that make toxic co-workers unpleasant to work with, include:
• ongoing backstabbing/gossiping
• extreme defensiveness
• narcissism – they believe they know better than anyone
• demean/undermine others
• bias

The word toxic is used because these people are genuinely behaving like a poison to your workplace and its culture and to you and your wellbeing. This makes it quite a challenge for you to maintain your own well-being, professionalism, and collaborative spirit when you’re exposed to them.
How do we deal with them? Some of us get sucked into their rhetoric or gossip and I think the hardest thing to do is to walk away and not engage, especially if they are seen as senior to you or in a position of influence.

The best way to handle these people is to try and avoid the person where possible. For example, don’t engage at team lunches, or other work-related events/meetings. But if you do have to engage with them, try and keep your interactions brief so you don’t risk encouraging them.

But if you have to work with them on a regular basis, don’t give in. In the same way that negativity is contagious, so, too, is positivity. Counteract the negative with a healthy dose of the positive and watch the toxicity wither away. This can of course take a few goes and eventually the toxic person will know you are not going to support their views or actions.

Ongoing backstabbing/gossiping
Gossip can wreck your reputation if you don’t address the issue, yet every office and working area has a gossip of some sort. These types thrive on speculating about romances between co-workers, spreading rumours, and talking negatively about other people when they’re not around. They tend to backstab a manager or the organsiation and try to get you onboard with their views.

Extreme defensiveness
These people can appear to avoid, deflect, deny of any form of responsibility and knowledge of critical information, and can try to minimize any harm caused to others. This type of behaviour can inhibit change and bring trust and confidence into question. These people can also blame others for their shortcomings and ensure many co-workers know “it wasn’t their fault”, when most of the time they are at the core of the issue.

Narcissism – they believe they know better than anyone
These people believe their workplaces can’t operate without them and see the rules, processes and procedures don’t apply to them. This person’s behaviour can make you feel you haven’t done a good job or its wrong and how they would have done it better, but actually you’ve done all the hard work and achieved great results, but the credit goes to this person.

Demean/undermine others
These toxic coworkers might agree to help you with a project but then come up short or miss a deadline and feign ignorance or undertake deliberate actions to ensure you fail. That kind of behaviour can make you look bad in front of your manager, which could damage how your perform in your role or make you look inadequate in front of your co-workers.

Bias
Stereotyping and biases, these people may often attribute certain qualities or characteristics to all members of a particular group with little knowledge to support their views. A person may even express explicit disapproval of a certain attitude or belief publicly in a group setting while still harboring similar biases on a more unconscious level. These people can deliberately undermine or unsettle a meeting but likely to have had some conversations with others to gain support prior.

While people might like to believe that they are not susceptible to these biases and stereotypes, the reality is that everyone engages in them whether they like it or not. It’s just to what level is it openly communicated.

How do we turn a negative person/culture to a positive?
There is no shortage of information about how to create a positive organisational culture or affect cultural change within an organisation. But what if you’re not the CEO or General Manager and you don’t feel like you have the power to create that change?
What if you’re a manager of a team that is part of an organisation with a negative culture? You may feel powerless to overcome the influence of the wider organisational culture. Your efforts, regardless of how good a leader you are, may do little to negate the influence of the organisation’s culture.
As a manager you have many challenges, not least of which is creating and maintaining a positive culture in your team. You may be an exceptional leader, you may have completed professional development in leadership excellence, and you may be doing all you can to be an effective leader. But many managers report problems with their team being negatively influenced by the culture of the organisation. In such an organisation, negative impacts on your team’s culture can come from above (the actions and decisions of senior management) and from all around from any member of the organisation.

Ask yourselves:
• Are we socially supportive? Meaning are you inclusive and interactive with your teams or are decisions already made at the top table before the team can engage?
• How do you manage unethical behaviours? What is the consequence of bad behaviour versus good behaviour?
• How do we promote collaboration? Is it senior manager led, or front line led?
• How transparent are you? How much distrust is there in your team? Do you trust your team to get the job done?

What do you company values mean…just a bit of paper posted on a wall in the office where some people may interpret this as management caring about organisational culture, whereas others may interpret it as the organisation having a poor culture that needs to be changed. Where does your team sit?

If you have little control over the influence of the wider organisation, then this is particularly a problem if your team culture conflicts with the wider organisational culture. Your team will be constantly exposed to, and influenced by, the wider organisational culture. This will create uncertainty by undermining the shared understandings that exist between your team members.

30/06/2020

The new normal

Working from home, social isolation, face masks, contact tracing and so on…. the so called ‘new normal’ should not be a term we use to accept the position we are in or have been in. What is the ‘new normal’? 'Normal' is not working for a majority of society around the world so in the HR space how do we support each other and our businesses?

Redundancies are inevitable for some; we rely so much on the influx of others and when this is taken away it can have a drastic affect. We can poke fingers at our governments and we can watch what other countries do, but in reality we have to rely on those governments to make decisions in an unprecedented time, this is not something ‘we’ are experienced at, some do it well, some don’t.

Where does HR fit in? HR is called upon for employment decisions and wellbeing, we become the bearer of bad news, we become a shoulder to cry on, we provide the support to both the business and employee, but who looks after us? The pressure for businesses to manage costs and look for areas for quick wins, inevitably means cutting your operating costs, AKA jobs. No-one wants to do this, but it becomes a need in order to survive. Sounds drastic but for some businesses it is. It’s never easy to do and HR can become the meat in the sandwich.

The wellbeing of your staff should be a primary factor in these decisions, not just to those affected but to those that deliver the message and support the process. Do you offer employee assistance programmes? Do you check in with your HR person(s) and ask how are they doing? What can you offer as a wellbeing package? Utilize your HR function to assist you in your transition to the "new norm".

These are things all businesses need to think about no matter what size your business is. HR is a crucial service for your business and can prevent costly mistakes. Key business leaders will need to explore into complex process of recovery, what is very clear, we cannot afford to go back to the old way of doing things.

Unfortunately, you will get “those” businesses that use crisis situations to be aggressive and get rid of people they should have performance managed. Redundancy is and can be devastating for people no matter what your personal opinion of them is or if, for example, they are not performing, so careful consideration must be given to the process. Don’t skip a step as this could cost you more than you expect.

14/10/2019

How does change transform your business?

Well there are three types of change projects and each requires different change strategies, plans and degrees of employee engagement. A very common reason for failure in change is leaders inadvertently using approaches that do not fit the type of change they are leading.

The three types of change occurring in todays world are:
(1) developmental – for improving what you do currently
(2) transitional – replaces current with something new, out with the old and in with the new
(3) transformational – the change process emerges as you go, so effectively operating in the unknown and can’t be managed by time-bound project plans.

Traditional approach to change management can be a project management approach and can effectively support developmental and transitional change, but is an insufficient approach for transformational change.
Transformational change - a transformation is referred to as organizational reorientation (Jick & Peiperl)

Transformation, however, is far more challenging as the future state is unknown and emerges as new information is gathered. Because transformation impacts people so personally, you must get them involved to encourage and gain their support, earlier the better. Get staff engaged in building your case for change and determining the vision for what will be the new state.

Consider putting a wider representation of people on your change leadership team, create working groups by using High Performance High /Engagement techniques to identify who and what you need to transform. Ask those groups to input into changes that impacts them, and allow those front-line employees to design changes to improve the work they do.

Then before implementation, get them involved in doing an impact analysis of their designs to ensure that it works and fits what you want in your organisation.

Future state is generally very different than the current state that the people and culture must change to implement it successfully. New mindsets and behaviors are required. Without these shifts of mindset and culture, the implementation of new structures, systems, processes or technology do not end up producing the intended returns and can fail or worse end up as “I told you so” from the been there, done that employees.

12/09/2019

Building Personal Resillience

The world of work is now fast-paced, digitised and interdependent. Regardless of your job or industry, chances you are trying to do more with less, please more demanding customers, solve complex issues and stay relevant in a shifting marketplace.

Whatever is happening in your job, it’s likely that you are balancing these demands with a home life full of the usual ‘busyness’ and curved balls.

How do you meet these life challenges? How do you adapt and perform while still staying physically and mentally well? One of the responses frequently offered is ‘build your resilience’.

What does this mean? ‘Bouncing back’, ‘coping with stress or change’, ‘being tough or mentally strong’ or ‘adapting positively’?

How do we do we build or become resilient? While accountability for personal resilience rests with us, so you can support this by:
•Energy Investing in your physical health
•Self-care Developing routines and outlets to sustain you
•Adaptability Maintaining perspective and positivity
•Purpose Believing in what you do
•Networks Creating a ‘team us’
•Authenticity Finding work that matches personal strengths and beliefs

Ref: WWR

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12/09/2019

How should we be inclusive?
Its not that hard....Value differences and create an environment where people can feel comfortable bringing their “full selves” to work, sounds easy but is it that simple? Employers should (and could) think about providing their employees with a safe space to voice their concerns because in all of this, gender and race have become the defining and, in some cases, divisive factors for diversity.

Diversity is what you have. Inclusion is what you do.
• Try connecting with employees by bouncing an idea off someone different in your office
•Place importance on inclusion – create work groups or teams with those that can drive inclusion both upwards and downwards
•Change up your environment and hold better meetings that are rotated around your employees, like those that work in different locations
•Let your employees be creative in their thinking and ideas.
•Invest in your managers through training and understanding of what is D&A so they want to be accountable
•Reward employees for reporting preventative safety behaviours this includes those behaviours that do not promote D&I (which usually fall under bullying and harassment)

Start with the basics—what inclusion is and why it is important? Small groups of your front line staff can discuss strategies to engage in for your company. Employees need to see that inclusive behaviour is a core competency.

Remember that daily interactions are the most telling sign of whether or not your company has an inclusive culture.

Positive behaviours in our workplace enable us to make a positive difference. A great place to work is one where there is a high degree of trust, people respect the integrity of their leaders and colleagues and work together harmoniously to achieve the best results. A great workplace enables people to perform at their personal best.

The best leaders never point out the window to blame external conditions; they look in the Mirror. Jim Collins

09/08/2018

BEHAVING BADLY

Nearly every religion tells us that our beliefs determine our behaviour It can be simply stated that the causes of bad behaviour can be attributed to a number of internal and external factors. As such, we develop various behaviours both positive and negative. People that go through difficult situations in life have their thought process impacted. In turn, this impacts the person’s behaviour.

It is important to understand that ignoring the entire person is not the answer.

Clearly, any definition of "bad" behaviour depends on the context. We can't just say "swearing can never be tolerated" or "moaning about the boss at smoko is always fine". Instead, we need a reliable method of assessing whether a particular behaviour is or is not acceptable, which we can apply to any situation.

Our definition of "bad behaviour" comes not from what an individual person does or doesn't do, but from the overall impact that their behaviour has on the team's mission and on its effectiveness.

We can conclude that behaviour at work is "bad" if it does any one or more of the following things:
• Harms the team's ability to deliver to its client.
• Damages the cohesion of the team.
• Has an unnecessary adverse impact on one or more individuals within the team.

At a personal level, you can suffer negative effects from someone else's bad behaviour, even if you're not the direct target.

Health and safety MUST come into this arena, as employers, you have a duty of care to assess risk that could have an adverse effect on your employees. If that person has done something terrible outside of work or is behaving in a way that could affect others then you must assess the risk as a worst case scenario and make a call.

Precedents can be set if you are not constant in your approach. At an organisational level, bad behaviour can have a tangible impact on profitability. Missed objectives and declining productivity mean diminished profitability. You may find that you face increased sick days, as team members try to escape the bad behaviour, or are sucked into it even outside of work. Another possible consequence may be higher staff turnover, with all of the cost and time involved in hiring and training new people.

Why do we tolerate or ignore bad behaviours? It is still happening in and outside of workplaces with no consequence.

05/06/2018

Jostling for Position

Ambitious young men and women start to climb the ladder of success long before their first job. During their time of growing up, they will have undergone trials and undertaken different pathways to increase their skills. But there are always those that when an individual is still crawling, those assertive children are more interested in grabbing someone else’s toys than in getting onto the fast track to success.

It’s not about jostling for position status and saying the right buzz word”, proof is in the pudding there is only so much toy grabbing you can do before it gets noticed and realized.

Climbing the ladder of leadership success is not always easy and I believe you should ask yourself one very important question…. have I got my ladder leaning up against the right wall? This amounts to do you have the right leadership skills, qualities and experiences to be able to succeed? AND do you have the right people around you to help you get things done? Having people around you who provide constructive feedback and credible guidance is essential but you still need to take responsibility for your own development and success and not at the expense of others.

Don’t compare your leadership career with others who seem to be climbing higher and faster than you. Maybe they are talented or maybe they are just lucky, but if they don’t have their ladder leaning up against the right wall, a fall might be just around the corner. Focus on strengthening the wall your ladder is leaning on.

HR ALIVE Ltd

02/03/2023

03/10/2022

03/10/2022

31/03/2022

30/06/2020

14/10/2019

12/09/2019

12/09/2019

09/08/2018

05/06/2018

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