At some point I’m going to release a book of organisational tests. But not quite yet.
To tide people over until that momentous event here is the April Fools Day Test for HR.
1. Sit down and work out the silliest email that your HR Department could send to the business that people might believe to be true
2. Spend 10 minutes working out why they might believe you would say or think something that stupid
3. Work out what you need to do differently for the business to believe that you share the same reality and are not stupid…
When people talk about HR having a credibility issue a good way to quantify the gap is to stretch reality until it becomes uncomfortable.
PS. I did this once. We issued a note on April 1st saying due to a health and safety directive we were switching off the lifts to ensure people walked more. If you wanted to take the lift regularly you needed a written business case to be presented to facilities. We had several complaints. That showed our credibility gap…pretty big.
PS I saw this recently. The sign says the office doesn’t give train info. It sort of necessarily does.