Synchronization Between Words and Actions

Everyone that has interviewed has probably gone through the spiel that HR gives trying to entice you to their company. Flexible work schedules, a team environment, and a diverse atmosphere that tolerates people from all backgrounds. Yet, when you go out to the field once starting work, the words of the HR representatives seem to be a distant memory. Flexibility, teamwork, and diversity are all secondary to productivity at the workplace. The result is usually a very bitter feeling left within the employees; one of betrayal. Once executive management begins to notice the reduced morale and the high turnover, they turn to the HR department to implement campaigns to boost morale, usually through rhetoric, but perhaps through some meaningful action. However, by this point, it’s too little, too late.

It is widely known that when words and actions contradict each other, people are more likely to turn to actions as the determinant of how people truly feel. Many of us, whether it be with our spouses, our children, or our co-workers, write checks with our mouths that our actions don’t cash in on. The effect of this rhetoric not backed by actions is even greater distrust than if nothing was said at all.

Does this mean that we don’t try to portray a human touch for employees in the example mentioned above to avoid a situation of betrayal? No, the correct answer is to allow this concept of treating employees as humans to permeate across and organization at all levels, not just make it a public relations or HR issue. And of course, this is just one application of this principal in our professional lives, but the same lesson should be applied across all of our relationships.

Tags: actions, human resources, HR, hypocracy, workplace, relationships

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