Do you "Stand Out"? 34

[bridgebuster]

My employer (very large AE firm) has found a new way to waste money, an HR program called "Stand Out". You answer a bunch of questions and it tells you your personality type. Then every week you get an email to "Check In" to describe what you loved and loathed about the week, how much value you brought to the company, did you have the opportunity to use your skills, did your boss interact with you (he says good morning before barricading himself in his office in order to remain oblivious to what we do, what more can I ask?). I was wondering if anyone else is subjected to this madness?

They have a link to unsubscribe but it really doesn't work.

 

[GregLocock]

That sounds horrific. Mind you, we still do "Forced Ranking", you'd have thought that after 15 years of eliminating the bottom 5% we'd now be uniformly superb. Perhaps we are and I didn't notice.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[msquared48]

Seems like stand out would not promote a team effort or comrodery. Sounds more like a psycho-ologist trying to make a name for himself the expense of others.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[berkshire]

Bridgebuster.
Just before I retired, the company I was working for got sold a " Work improvement program." by a consultant who gave question-ares along much the same lines as you describe, to all of the employees with feedback sessions at group meetings.
After a couple of days of watching this guy work ,I realized that he had nothing but a re vamped TQM program.
I took all of my old Dr Deming lectures , and work sheets in to the vice president , showed him the paperwork, and told him "I did this course 16 years ago I can teach this for wages, or you can pay your consultant." They decided to pay the consultant. After 2 months they fired him, by then I had retired.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[DerbyLoco]

1.You think you have a problem
2.You hire consultants
3.They ask lots of questions
4.They come up with a 'solution' based on the answers to the questions which is the same one as your staff could have given you for free if you had ever listened to them
5.You ignore the consultants solution
6.They recruit your best and brightest young talent
7.They go away
8.You now have a problem

 

[bridgebuster]

For me, retirement can't get here soon enough. I miss the days when doing a good job actually mattered. Now it's all about earnings and image. I remember when a "Stand Out" was the guy who got chewed out by the chief engineer or squad leader for doing a lousy job.

 

[metengr]

HR program called "Stand Out", what a load of bullsh*t.

 

[MFJewell]

What a load of bullsh*t.

This.

 

[epoisses_]

Many of these bullsh1t programs stem from an idea that was valid initially, but just got blown out of proportion by overzealous project staff.
Go see the HR manager and ask him/her who explores the info and what exactly they expect from the tool. Tell him you fill this in during working hours and you don't want to waste company time.
Then satisfy their needs in the most efficient manner possible. You will hopefully be remembered for being efficient and cooperative.

That or get cynical and counterproductive.

 

[DerbyLoco]

Hi Bridgebuster - Same with me - only got to stick it until 7th Sept. Things seem to have fallen of a cliff lately and it's all box ticking and trying to meet impossible targets with no staff. Pity really because we have stacks of work and billions of £'s of orders but actually getting the job out right first time does not seem to matter to anyone anymore. Just do it and fix it latter.

 

[bridgebuster]

I would but, no one knows who it is; and if you need IT help there isn't anyone here either.

 

[IRstuff]

"Mind you, we still do "Forced Ranking", you'd have thought that after 15 years of eliminating the bottom 5% we'd now be uniformly superb. Perhaps we are and I didn't notice."

That's the beauty of real numbers, no matter how close together two numbers are, there's an infinity of numbers between them.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[HamburgerHelper]

DerbyLoco,

I think number 1 should be.

1. Someone thinks there is a problem but doesn't want to make a judgement call so a consultant is brought in to make a black and white decision for a gray problem. No solution is black or white but the consultant provides insulation from criticism and legal implications. This becomes the go to solution for any problem that no one wants to get in front of that doesn't have a cut and dry solution and there is only criticism when there are issues.

 

[Ron]

Nothing good comes from HR involvement. Have hope BB.....these BS programs usually don't last long, particularly when they realize it cuts into productivity.

 

[CWB1]

JME but those HR initiatives are mostly boxes to be checked by management. Much like the various ranking and review systems, managers still mostly hire and fire based upon short term needs and largely illogical personal opinions.

 

[zdas04]

I had a co-worker put HR into perspective for me. She said "when HR was headed by women, it was called "personnel" and the head of personnel made secretary wages. Then some men saw it as an opportunity and became HR managers, build a staff to justify their VP-level wages, and finally implement programs to justify their existence and things got out of control. The net benefit to the company is markedly less than the old personnel departments". HR is all about justifying some big salaries for HR.

I was talking to "my HR rep" on a plane one day and he stopped me in mid-complaint and said "you seem to have the impression that I am supposed to represent you to management, that couldn't be further from the truth, I'm here to represent management to you", in other words complain all I want, but it will never do any good.

These slime have caused me to take the Myers-Briggs test 5 times (always with the same answer), and a half dozen "more accurate" versions and I never had a manager that treated an ENTJ any different from an ISFP, and mostly just poured money to consultants and managed the group they way they were going to manage anyway. These flavor of the week programs and no value and, like Ron said, never last very long.

[bold]David Simpson, PE[/bold]
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[IRstuff]

I think you're all giving HR too much credit. These are ALL management issues that stem from a true lack of desire to anything different. Just consider all the failed DFM, TQM, SQC, etc. programs that have gone by the wayside.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[bridgebuster]

Here's the irony about "Stand Out": No one is permitted to "Stand Out". Here's why: A few years ago when the company abandoned "SMART" goals part of the evaluation process, a coworker in a different office called me - he's a department manager - to explain our new evaluation system. He said the HR people don't want any anyone to have a very good or very poor evaluation. Everyone should be "average" although some can be a little more or a little less average. As long as the department average is average. I've decided to take it in stride: I'll continue to post nonsense.

At least I reached my 100 "Wellness" points today so I get a health insurance discount (yeah right). Another pathetic program.

1794 days and counting!

 

[aap2]

I think many are miserable because they have to make highly questionable judgements about people. You would think constantly rejecting people would weigh you down.

God made the integers, all else is the work of man. - Leopold Kroenecker

 

[IRstuff]

I don't think it's necessarily judgements that weigh you down, just the sheer fact of a mass of humanity set to floating aimlessly is a bit sad. I've participated in job fairs where one of the EVIL empires had a mass layoff, and there would be this army of in-shock, downtrodden, gray people walking around with their lifes' history one a single piece of paper, hoping to find a safe harbor. There but for the grace of ...

At least, since I do feel empathy and sadness for them, I'm not a full-blown psychopath.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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