I’ve got a few questions for you.  As far as I know the term “Human Resources” is becoming extinct.  Now the titles are much more open.  So – suffice to say, just the title of this Ted Talk caught my eye.  As I listened, I noticed that this speaker is an excellent speaker for ESL students – well paced, great intonation, and her talk is rich in basic, useful vocabulary.

I think in Spain we’ve come a long way in a short time in the Human Resource departments.  Not so long ago, it was quite common that companies with less than 150 employees didn’t even count on such a department.  Now, it’s quite common to have divisions within.  Everything she says, obviously makes absolute sense, I agree with her 100%, it just feels like she is preaching to the choir.  I’m not sure who Mary Schaefer was thinking of when she prepared this speech, but somehow, I don’t picture any of my clients in her crowd.  What do you think? 

Suggested homework:

Take the transcript (direct from the source) and add the punctuation.  TRY and do so as she is speaking.  It’s a bit of a challenge, but if you stop the video once in a while, it’s possible and I’m sure that you are up to the challenge.

Putting the human back into human resources | Mary Schaefer | TEDxWilmington

00:03

who here has heard the term human

00:08

resources

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who here has used the term human

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resources who here thinks they know what

00:22

the term human resources means yeah many

00:29

times

00:30

when we talk about human resources we’re

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talking about that function in an

00:35

organization that handles the people’s

00:37

stuff right and what I’m here to talk to

00:40

you about today in putting the human

00:43

back into human resources I’m here to

00:46

talk to you about infusing more humanity

00:49

back into the workplace for those human

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beings who happen to be employees you’re

00:57

going to hear me today use the word

00:58

humanely a lot and when I have

01:01

conversations with people about this

01:03

subject that word often gets fed back to

01:05

me as humanely and so let me be really

01:09

clear on what I mean by humanely versus

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humanely to me when employers are

01:16

treating employees humanely they’re

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providing them bathroom breaks and water

01:22

fountains to me for employers to treat

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employees humanely it’s to address the

01:31

very human needs such as the need to be

01:34

appreciated the need to belong and the

01:39

need to feel like you’re making a

01:40

meaningful contribution now what what

01:43

does that look like twenty years ago I

01:47

worked at a chemical plant in West

01:48

Virginia and I was a project team leader

01:52

implementing a module of SA P software

01:56

some of you may have heard of it it was

01:58

the raw materials module and many of the

02:00

people on my team were shop floor

02:02

employees that means they were the

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people on the shop floor handling the

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chemicals and one of them came to me and

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asked me if I would help him develop so

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he could advance he wanted to get

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promoted and I was thrilled to hear this

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now this is interesting because at the

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same time at this point in time shop

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floor employees were not viewed as

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people who had hopes and dreams and who

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wanted to learn and grow and so I was

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more than glad to help him I talked with

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his supervisor he didn’t report directly

02:41

to me and I got his supervisors

02:43

permission and at the same time I made

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the same offer to anyone else on my team

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who was interested in developing and

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growing in order to advance and three

02:56

more people took me up on that now let’s

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fast forward a few years three out of

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those four people got promoted into

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exempt positions one started traveling

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the world as an SI P consultant another

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became a supervisor and a third became a

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highly valued SI P resource within his

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division that third one is particularly

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close to my heart because when I started

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at that chemical plant

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he was sweeping the floors in my

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building now you might be wondering Mary

03:34

what did you do you know I didn’t really

03:37

do anything fancy that you couldn’t find

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in any management book I think what I

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might have done a little differently was

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I believed in these people and when

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human beings are treated in a way that

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they are capable of more they rise to

03:55

the occasion

04:01

so that was a nice story right and is

04:04

there really there’s a problem here Mary

04:06

that needs a remedy yes there is the

04:09

Gallup Organization among other things

04:12

the Gallup Organization studies

04:14

corporations employment and employee

04:17

engagement and in their 2013 report on

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the state of the American workforce they

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tell us that 70% of the American

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workforce is disengaged with 20%

04:33

described as actively disengaged

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that’s a whole lot of human beings who

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are not getting their needs met such as

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the need to be appreciated

04:48

the need to belong and the need to be

04:51

making a meaningful contribution I’ve

04:56

been in business for years now and when

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it comes to putting meeting human needs

05:02

as I’m describing them to you as a

05:04

priority

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it just it tends to take a back seat and

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I find that curious because when any of

05:13

us are stewards of an asset like a car

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we wouldn’t think of not giving a car

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what it needs denying a car what it

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needs in order to work at peak

05:24

performance why would we treat our human

05:27

resources any other way again this isn’t

05:32

just a nice story that I’m telling you

05:34

and a nice idea treating more people

05:36

humanely it has bottom-line business

05:40

impact researchers have shown that when

05:45

human needs are met for employees at

05:49

work the more they are met the higher

05:51

the engagement engagement meaning that

05:56

people want to be there and they are

05:58

they were willing to go the extra mile

06:01

even when nobody is looking higher

06:03

engagement has been positively

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correlated to increased profitability

06:09

what’s that worth to us well here’s one

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thing I know again that Gallup that

06:15

Gallup study I was describing they also

06:18

tell us that through unskilled and

06:23

unqualified managers at work they’re

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impacting their organizations by 450

06:32

billion to five hundred and fifty

06:34

billion dollars worth of productivity

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annually by undermining employee

06:42

engagement

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yes that was billion with a B but I’m

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not here to spout statistics to you

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today I want

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talk to you about what any of you hear

06:53

in here listening to me today can do

06:57

about this and I understand if you may

07:00

be having a reaction something like this

07:02

Mary if you think that I’m going to

07:04

impact some big organization that is way

07:08

over my head that’s got to come from the

07:10

top down or you might simply be thinking

07:14

Mary you can’t make people who don’t

07:16

already value people suddenly value

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people and you know what I get that what

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I want to ask you today is to let your

07:25

own experience guide you and I want you

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to take a moment to think about a time

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at work when you were made to feel good

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or you made someone else feel good I

07:39

have a friend who told me he had a

07:42

manager who used to check in with him

07:44

every day and he really meant it this

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man remembers this from 20 years ago you

07:52

can have that kind of impact on people I

07:54

have a friend who has a colleague who

07:56

brings her coffee to her desk

07:58

occasionally he tells her is because she

08:01

looks like she needs it she says it

08:04

makes her feel someone noticed me I

08:08

belong I’m seen and you can do this even

08:13

if you’re not in the workforce I stood

08:16

in a grocery line one time and as a

08:18

disgruntled customer in front of me

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moved away I told the cashier she had

08:24

handled him really well and by the

08:27

expression on her face I saw that she

08:30

felt seen and appreciated and that’s all

08:34

we really want as human beings is to be

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seen we are feeling beings we want to

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feel appreciated like we belong and like

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we can make a difference you don’t have

08:49

to be a project manager like I was in

08:52

order to believe in someone so what I

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want to ask you today is to make a

09:00

commitment with me to take a take the

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responsibility to

09:04

honor someone’s worth at work and I know

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this is not just a commitment that I’m

09:11

suggesting this doesn’t happen suddenly

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but it’s also a journey and through your

09:16

journey I hope you come to see this

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vision in action and see is bring its

09:21

power to reality thank you