by CHRC | Apr 29, 2020 | Competencies, Human Capital, Productivity, Skilled Labor
The Covid-19 pandemic has had many learning curves, and no doubt there are many still to come. Those amongst us who never much liked science or statistics have now become quite comfortable with the concepts of R0 and R1, exponential curve rates and trajectories of respiratory droplets.
Hidden behind the vast statistics of those who have died are the lives lived by each of this virus’ victims. Americans have gained a new-found appreciation of the vital role that “essential workers” play in our everyday life. Not just the essential workers that are first responders and medical workers, but those in so many businesses that do the invisible work. In the case of Cesar Quirumbay, truly invisible work.
One of those lives prompted Matthew Miller to write to the New York Times to laud the talents and mourn the man from the back room who could sew invisible stitches and smooth wrinkles away. He instructs us that “every obituary is both a remembrance of a life ended and an instruction to those of us still living.” In HR terms, the author and the late Mr. Quirumbay’s boss describe competencies that any employer dreams of: modesty, diligence, collaboration, teamwork, attention to detail, and sophisticated communication skills. For a labor economist, Mr. Quirumbay’s death highlights another cost of this pandemic—the cost of losing human capital while still on the upwards arc of the productivity curve. As for valuing that work, that invisible work, it is skilled labor that took over 20 years to develop and hone. It cannot be replaced easily. Read More Here
by CHRC | Apr 1, 2020 | Economy, Human Capital
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…. a galaxy that did not know Excel, but used a language called Lotus 1-2-3, I was a credit analyst. There I learned financial modeling and was taught a concept called Maximum Reasonable Adversity. In our modeling class, we were assigned a case study about a company that catered meals to airlines. Our credit officers were trying to impart the wisdom that a swing in interest rates or inflation were not the greatest threats to repayment. The greatest risk was an exogenous shock, which while possible might not be probable, at least not highly probable. After much debate, my case partner and I settled on an airline strike: How many weeks of an airline strike could this company withstand and still stay afloat and cover their interest payments?
Enter COVID-19 which seems to have taken the world by surprise. Experts who study pandemics, however, have been modeling the adversity scenarios preparing for the next pandemic.
A recent Economist article highlights another sort of expert who is always looking around the corner anticipating some exogenous shock that could put a company on its back foot and necessitate an immediate and intelligent human response. For those of us who have been in the HR field for decades, this article is a long overdue exposé on what we really do. For those who complain that HR is always planning for worst case scenarios, constantly assessing risk, and planning for succession, perhaps now you will start to understand the lens through which strategic HR views business: how to stock and cultivate human capital inventory not just for the good times, but to weather maximum reasonable adversity. Read More Here
by CHRC | Feb 19, 2020 | Human Capital
Today, everyone is convinced that STEM is the only path forward, and certainly the only path into the sciences. But what if you heard the tale of a young man who found his (milky) way to becoming an astrophysicist while studying Ancient Greek?
Not just any astronomer, but one whose research helped a NASA lunar vehicle navigate.
This past October, I tripped over this Krista Tippett interview with Dr. George Coyne, S.J. and a fellow Jesuit astronomer, who also studied Ancient Greek. I found it fascinating, and upon hearing of Fr. Coyne’s death on February 11, I had to revisit it.
Coyne’s “stumbling” into astronomy caught my attention because of another unusual journey I heard firsthand. On a flight a few years ago, my seatmate was a world class physicist who had started college as an English major. The university, however, made her take an intro to science course, in which she had NO interest. Yet there, she found poetry in physics, and the world gained someone who could unlock the great mysteries of math, as well as words. Yet in both her case and that of George Coyne, they were able to translate complex math and science into terms that the rest of us could understand—because they both had well rounded backgrounds.
If we continue to push today’s young people to study only what is practical, and deemed useful for this decade, or even millennium, from what universes might they be kept? Read More Here
by CHRC | Feb 3, 2020 | Human Capital, Leadership
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a football fan. But this article about a football player caught my eye.
When my son was growing up, we often argued about specializing too early in just one sport. Isn’t it nice to know that sometimes, just sometimes, the parent might be right? I would often cite examples from my childhood, like my first and all-time favorite sports hero, Ernie Banks; he came to baseball fairly late. But this article about a 24-year-old sports phenom shows a similar pattern. He too, played many sports, and in doing so eventually became a better all-around athlete, star quarterback, and now 2020’s Super Bowl MVP!
Conveniently, Patrick Mahomes’ ascendency coincides with the re-recognition in management: the value of being a generalist. It seems that in both business and sports it can be of great value to not specialize too early. Perhaps we could all take a page from Mahomes’ playbook. Read More Here
by CHRC | Jan 29, 2020 | Competencies, Human Capital, Skilled Labor
Some of the most fun we have as compensation consultants is when a client says: “this is such an unusual job; you will never be able to price this job.”
What makes our job so interesting? Sleuthing to find such a unique set of skills to fulfill even the rarest roles. The minute I read this headline, I was intrigued not just because I love the costumes on this TV show, but because I immediately thought, “Where would you even find that person?” “What sort of background would they need?” “What knowledge, skills, and ability does a job like that require?” Once those questions are answered, then we can start finding matched roles and salaries.
The beauty of this article? The interviewer did his job; he obviously asked all the right questions, because the article answers all the specifics required to dress Midge Maisel.
Perhaps we should see if this interviewer would like to become a compensation consultant? Read More Here
by CHRC | Aug 29, 2018 | Human Capital
Should colleges only offer majors with “clear career pathways?” It’s a valid question. I will confess. My major was interdisciplinary – studying the interconnectedness of economics, politics, regions, and history. At its heart was a liberal arts foundation with the requirement of two courses in each of these disciplines: theology, philosophy, and English literature.
I had scanned the article below at the beginning of the summer when it was first published. But a conversation I had last week forced me to re-read it.
I was lucky enough to have lunch with a rising college junior who was filling me in on her summer internship. As this article highlights, too many universities seem willing to throw out the liberal arts in order to embrace STEM, in fact in order to eliminate vast swaths of the liberal arts to make more rooms for but STEM. Yet at lunch this young woman regaled me with what her main task had been all summer: translating all of the work that the programmers were doing (you know, those kids who can’t seem to move beyond STEM) so that the rest of the world could understand what they were doing, and whether they were accomplishing anything that anyone else was interested in.
I’m going to make wild for prediction here: Too few people are going to possess the skill set that a liberal arts education gives: the ability to read, synthesize, detect critical issues, write a topic sentence, and be understood by a wide audience. In the long run, the world will be clamoring for those who have honed their logic skills thanks to Plato’s Dialogues, cultivated their empathy via Shakespeare’s characters, and nurtured ethical decision making because of the theological and moral frameworks they learned.
So I for one, will not be giving up on the liberal arts just yet. Read More Here
