Deep Dive, anyone?
Drawing on many years working as an in-house HR professional as well as sitting on Employment Tribunals, it is clear that ‘HR speak’ (the various acronyms, jargon etc. that we HR professionals seem to love) is on the rise.
It seems to me that this type of speak often alienates HR from the rest of the business despite their need to align with the business objectives. Other departments can feel bamboozled by HR buzzwords and can even find them pretentious(!)
Personal bugbears: “onboarding” and acronyms that nobody understands like “PDR” (Personal/Performance Development Review if you were wondering).
Then there are the words to describe our actions; “deep dive”?!!
And when did a simple case or project start to become referred to as a “piece” (rolls eyes). A piece of what?!!
Lucy Adams, former HR Director at the BBC and who now runs “Disruptive HR” wrote a tongue in cheek guide on this very subject a while back in her blog:
https://disruptivehr.com/nobullshithr/
Whilst every profession inevitably develops a language of sorts, it is not something I’ve ever been too comfortable with, although full disclosure; I’m sure I’m guilty of having used certain phrases in my time. Some of them clearly have a shelf life, “probation” and “career paths” seem so dated when you see them in black and white!
I agree with Lucy that the jargon is unnecessary and can mean us HR folk making ourselves our own worst enemy. As she says, it can mean we are viewed not as important but self-important. What happened to good old-fashioned plain speaking, cutting to the chase?
Mustard HR is not interested in the latest fad or buzzword and therefore strives to offer clear, simple and honest Employee Relations advice and guidance to clients with similar values. If that’s you, please do get in touch, it would be lovely to speak to you (jargon-free of course!)