Page 16 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

HR/OD positions and prospective companies—keeping in mind what aspects of corporate
culture must be in place to support ethical and excellent HR practices.
Part Two addresses the alphabet soup of employment laws HR professionals must under-
stand. Workplaces in the United States have a legal responsibility to prevent violations of these
employment laws, and the HR role is central in preventing such violations as well as provid-
ing multidirectional education within the company to ensure all staff are working and inter-
acting within legal and ethical compliance. Unfortunately, many companies do not accomplish
this well, or at all. To address these challenges, this section includes sample memos, templates,
and checklists designed specifically to assist and support the HR professional.
Part Three helps HR professionals and managers monitor themselves and their own pro-
fessional behavior to ensure that they are not contributing to the problems and dysfunctions
found in many workplaces. HR professionals (like business leaders and lawyers) are held to
a higher standard; self-awareness regarding workplace behavior is enormously important
and affects credibility. The more individual improvement there is among higher-level
employees, the more group and workplace improvement there will be. Very often people
think everyone else is problematic, unprofessional, difficult, or impossible, but that they
themselves are none of those things. This section will help HR professionals review their
own workplace behaviors and reactions to ensure they are not unwittingly contributing to
workplace dysfunction and to help them adjust their behavior if needed. This section will
also help readers develop into the kinds of professionals who are more likely to be success-
ful credible activists in their HR and/or management roles. In addition, this section will help
the credible activist HR professional address behavioral problems in other employees at any
level. This section includes sample memos, templates, and checklists.
Part Four helps the credible activist add value to his or her company by using OD knowl-
edge that ties directly to sound internal corporate governance and profitability. The credible
activist has more credibility when he or she is able to recommend efficiency-building
processes that both prevent unnecessary costs and improve internal systems and processes.
This section includes sample memos, templates, and checklists.
Part Five helps HR professionals and managers recommend workplace improvements to
make workplaces more pleasant in general and improve talent retention, particularly during
a recession, when employees are often asked to give more time and effort for less compensa-
tion or scaled-back benefits. This section includes sample memos, templates, and checklists.
Part Six includes resources to help HR professionals and managers find information, get
support, obtain answers to legal questions, connect with others in similar situations, improve
their marketability, improve job search strategies, and make good use of being unemployed,
should they find themselves without a job at some point. Every HR professional has had an
unpleasant if not nightmarish workplace experience he or she still recalls and occasionally
ponders. Given the increasing number of lawsuits, regulatory violations, workplace violence
incidents, and fraud scandals, there is a great deal of work to do, so let’s get out there and
do it well!

Introduction xv