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 Hey, hi, helloooo, It’s meeee your favorite HR person. Okay, you didn’t admit that but I’m just gonna keep believing it!! Energy is HIGH this AM despite feeling like my morning workout crushed me. Maybe that’s actually why I have all this energy??? I hope you can feel the vibes coming through this email!!!! Am I annoying yet?? TBD. Before I get into the goods in this newsletter, a few things to keep on your radar this week and beyond: 🎧 This week on the pod, is there a gap between confidence VS competence when it comes to AI? Potentially… Theresa Fesinstine jobs me on the pod this week to talk about research she’s done and what she’s learned. It was fun to nerd out on this gap and what we’re learning as HR when it comes to AI. 📺 Okay I’m gracing your computer screen twice in the next few weeks and I want you there to hang out with me!! Please? First: THIS WEEK! I’m digging into all things behavior science and beyond to figure out why we all feel so MEH about work and how to actually support our employees when everything just feels like it’s on fire. THEN I grabbed a lawyer because I needed to talk to an expert about the wildness of multi-state compliance and all the things that could be coming down the pipeline to make our lives even more stressful. But rest assured, we’ll get you a super clear plan on what you need to (or not) be worried about! Join us here! Now in today’s episode of The HR Renovation Show.. culture decks & values. Sponsored by Betterment at Work Thinking about a 401(k) but stuck on how much it's gonna cost? 🤔 That's money left on the table...up to $15,000, to be exact. 🤑 Betterment built a free 401(k) Tax Credit Calculator so you can get your personalized number with ease! BUILDER MODE Culture clashes and fake(ish) values: the story of Corporate America? Okayyyy so I spent part of last week doing something maybe deeply unhinged… I Googled and read as many culture decks that I could find. Then I tried to find the first culture deck ever made (not hard to find TBH). Following that I went down a rabbit hole of Glassdoor reviews to see if the values were mentioned or held up to the self-reported experiences at certain companies. Before I knew it, I was in DEEP. I even went as far as doing research on blind, fishbowl and reddit. A time was clearly had!!! 👀 Listen, I already knew that the gap between what companies say they value and what employees actually experience is wiiiide. But after reading account after account I started to feel even more confident about what I wanted to write about this week. I’m going to be soooo for real right now!!!! Culture decks and values statements always kind of gave me the ick. And I’m not even sure there’s a place for them anymore but that’s a newsletter for another day. It could be because I’m inherently distrustful of any org that would splash values on the wall, a poster, or in a manifesto and then be cagey about things like how promotions were decided, what the comp philosophy was or why certain candidates got hired over others who seemed just as qualified. Did I just describe the typical experience in Corporate America? Values: Transparency Behaviors: but not transparency LIKE THAT and not FROM YOU Like, make it make sense??? So, on this week of the HR Renovation Show (trademark pending) I give you the room that makes me roll my eyes enough times that my mother would be embarrassed: culture decks & value statements. And the verdict is: to tear them down. But first, how did we get here because that will tell you a lot about my verdict this week. A quick history lesson: 😎 Let’s hop in our time machine and go back to the 2010s. Miley had us partying in the USA, Inception had us all obsessed with Christopher Nolan, and Instagram had just launched and our fixation with taking pictures of food began. What a time to be alive! When it comes to company culture things were hot hot hot. Ping pong tables were having a moment, unlimited PTO was spreading like wildfire and the Netflix culture deck had everyone talking. ✨ It was the era of “culture” as the focus. ✨ Culture decks + values statements began THE THING HR teams had to have because the competition for talent was fierce. It was a growth market and everyone was hiring so the need to differentiate your company from others was critical. So, therein begins the rise of the culture deck. Beautifully designed and delusionally aspirational culture decks aimed to provide candidates (and employees) with a look into what it's actually like to work there. Think of it like a promise, in slide form, of who the company WAS basically the company DNA. TBH: at the time it worked. People ateeeee up the culture decks and suddenly it was on everyone’s to-do list. And the stakes at the time were kinda low because it was a growth phase and the market was hot. Culture decks were that girl and the foundation were company values. After all, a few words could perfectly describe the behaviors that every employee embodies, right??? RIGHT??? Fast forward to now: COVID, layoffs, RTO mandates, "do more with less," AI, and a labor market that's flipped. Those values statements are under a microscope. We’re doing less vibing and more criticism (rightfully so) on if those values stand up under pressure. 🛠️ So in that regard, I put culture decks + values statements squarely in the tear down category. Because most value statements aren’t the org’s actual values… They’re usually an aspirational vision of the org!!! And if there’s anything we crave more than anything it’s authenticity. I’d rather a company tell me they’re a work in progress than pretend to have everything together only to disappoint me. Not to add fuel to the fire but…I read a stat a while back that only about half of employees can even name their company's stated values without looking them up. HALF!!!! And FYI that stat was from 2016… so we were in peak values time. I imagine in the 10 years since then that number has only gone up. Can you name your values without looking them up? What percentage of your employees do you think could? How do you know if the culture decks + values statements are just theater or actually what’s real at your org? Let’s explore? What’s theatre? Culture decks fall apart when things don’t actually feel real. I don’t know about you, but I hate the game of corporate theatre!! No, I’m not interested in playacting an unbothered corporate girl boss. I want things to feel real. I want the things we say we value actually BE the things we value. 🎥 So, here’s are 3 signs your culture deck + values statements might be all theatre: 1. Nobody can explain what it means in practice. "Ownership" "Transparency." "We put people first." Cool, cool, cool, what does that actually mean when it comes to how a manager handles a missed deliverable, or how leadership handles a bad quarter? If the values are JUST words and no explanation well then how can anyone know how to “embody” it?? THEY CAN’T! 2. There was little, to no, input from employees. Values decks often get built top-down, by leadership, sometimes with zero input from the people actually living inside the culture every day!!! That's why they read like a generic statement and not like anything real employees have actually said about their workplace. You know what I mean! 3. Nothing bad ever happens when someone violates it. This is the REALEST tell. A value only means something if there's an impact to ignoring it. If your top performer treats people terribly and still gets promoted, the "we value collaboration" slide is theatre!!! Or pure BS she whispers. Employees clock this immediately and will call it out. In my online research this was an underlying theme of negative reviews. The say one thing and then do an entirely different thing. Say/do gap in full force! If you read those and thought hmm well that’s my reality. I’ve been there and trust me there are changes that you can make that might seem small but can have a massive impact to your values going from aspirational → reality. What’s real? If you’re tired of corporate theatre and want to make sure your culture decks + values statements actually mean something here are two things to go try: ✍🏽 Make your values behavioral, not aspirational. Instead of "we value transparency," try something like explaining WHAT that actually means. Here’s a rewrite: We value transparency. That means we share the reasons behind the decisions we make, not just the decisions. It needs to be something you can actually point to and say did we do that or not? That’s how you make things a reality by being able to say we did that time and time again. At Workweek our values are documented alongside operating principles so people understand what it means to actually embody the values. Homework: take your values and write out what it actually looks like to live that value. What do your state values mean in your specific environment? It looks different depending on the org! ➡️ Your values should be embedded into your systems. If your values show up no where and are only acknowledged when someone is a new hire then you have a major opportunity on your hands. Your values should be engrained in all your systems from hiring to performance/ promotions to recognition. How else will employees actually live the values if they aren’t incorporated into your most important processes? Here’s how you can incorporate them in each:
Homework: identify one place to embed your values more deeply. What would that look like? Would it require any sort of change management? Start with these questions and see where you end up! The bottom line: I get why the culture deck + values system era existed. There’s something that’s easy peasy about writing values on a splashy slide. But… the real work is actually building the systems to make those values true for every employee. That’s much harder. Truthfully, it's why I made the verdict this week a tear down. Because some people might think having something is better than nothing. But I actually think having a culture deck + values statement that is outdated or not reflective of reality does more harm than good. ➡️ So, tear it down if it’s not real. Improve it if you can embed it in your systems. Sponsored by Rippling Year-end comp and headcount planning always seem to collide, and most HR teams treat them like two separate fire drills until Finance forces them together! (HUMAN) RESOURCES
*This one is brought to you by one of my amazing brand partners WORK-LIFE BALANCE
SONG OF THE WEEK 🎧 Heartbreaker, Mariah Carey feat. Jay-Z This is simply one of the best music videos out there!!!! Mimi was NOT PLAYING when she dropped this song + video. Fun fact: it is one of the most expensive music videos ever made. #12 to be exact. Double fun fact: I can rap the entire Jay-Z part. Obviiiii I hope you enjoyed this, please let me know what you think and what other topics you'd love for me to cover. I'm allll ears. Reminder: Take care of yourself and know that I support you. | ||||||||
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