My latest riff is up at Workforce. Where else are you going to get "Ye Old Chicken Processing Plant" embedded in a upper end HR article? Check it out, and here's a taste:
"Are you like my friends? Still feeling superior about that 8 percent turnover rate you calculate and
report quarterly but refuse to annualize? Still wondering why Best Buy can’t get the turnover number down, while you go temp-to-perm for the first six months of an employee’s tenure and allow the agency to deal with the turnover issue (i.e., the turnover in the first six months isn’t included in your turnover numbers)?
Here’s my working list of hard-knock turnover situations where Dave Ulrich (or you and me) would have a hard time getting annualized turnover under 100 percent. If you think Best Buy has a turnover issue, ask for a developmental rotation into one of these shops, and you’ll come out with a new respect for the HR pros who serve there:
1. The chicken processing plant. The pay’s low, employees routinely lose fingers, and workers come out every day smelling like dead chicken. I’ve interviewed people who ran the people function of one of these facilities, and they may be the toughest HR pros in America. Did I mention everyone comes out smelling like dead chicken?"
Think you're hardcore? When you have to be worried whether you smell like dead chicken after a day in your HR shop, THEN you're hardcore. Check out the rest of my list of hardcore turnover shops here, and chime in with your comments on this post...
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