Take inspiration from HR teams of the past to tackle today’s problems
Social media, blogs and conferences mean the world of HR thought leadership has never been more accessible to the everyday practitioner. But the volume of new ideas can be overwhelming, and leaves us open to overlooking the wisdom and experience of the HR professionals of the past.
A family heirloom recently uncovered by my cousin provides some fascinating insights into the HR challenges of post-war Britain. In 1945 my father, Jack Patten, resumed his post as a training manager at Shell, which had merged with competitor BP during the war to form the National Petroleum Board. That year he published ‘Re-establishment in the Field’, an internal discussion paper that offered solutions to the challenge of reconfiguring the workforce after the war. Many of those returning to a corporate environment had spent several years serving on the frontline or as part of the Home Guard. All would have had little opportunity to exercise the skills required to succeed in the ultra-competitive world of oil selling.
Training staff to thrive in the workplace was at the forefront of my father’s mind – just as it is now for many L&D professionals. He was very aware that ex-military personnel were coming out of an environment where everything was structured and prescribed, into a workplace where they were expected to act on their own initiative. Training and pastoral support were as vital to managing that transition back to civilian life in 1945 as they are today.
Another issue that modern HR professionals would recognise is the burden of admin and meetings – something my father felt very keenly. “One is literally smelt out within a few minutes of reaching [the office],” he writes, lamenting the profusion of phone calls and other interruptions that get in the way of a full day’s work. His solution was to give precise advice about how much time should be devoted to paperwork. This has prompted my team to explore how quickly we respond to emails, and if we too should be marking out time to handle our electronic admin.
The paper emphasises the importance of open communication between managers and employees to building an effective team. My father references The Brains Trust, a popular BBC radio programme where readers sent in questions, on any topic, to be answered live by a panel of experts. That he used this as an analogy for the perfect team meeting – where people should feel free to ask any questions they want – is quite forward-thinking for its time, so it’s disappointing that embracing free discussions is something that line managers and HR professionals are still grappling with 70 years down the line.
Of course, there are many challenges facing HR today that weren’t issues in the 1940s – for example, the paper makes little mention of diversity, and management training wasn’t on the agenda. But with people’s behaviours at work unchanged in many ways, drawing on the experience of the HR practitioners of the past can help us deal with the challenges we’re facing today. Who knows what inspiration you might uncover next time you sort through a forgotten-about archive of papers?
Julie Cook is an experienced HR professional and managing director of Acacia Learning.